A/N This is my first bit of writing I've done in months so don't be too harsh. It's kind of a follow up to Lizzy's "Unexpected" story. Think fast forwarding a year or two into the future.
She could hear the whispers. They were no longer trying to be discreet about the fact that they were staring at her and if it weren't for the recent events that had caused the whispering she might have been able to take the time to care. It wasn't as if she considered herself above gossip, she just needed to sort out a few things first. Like the fact that her life was kind of falling apart around her in a big way.
The events of the summer seemed miles away. As if she had taken off running at the end of it and was only now starting to slow down. The signs had begun to show too. Her blue eyes were sad and her shoulders slouched as if she had started to give up, which in a way she almost had.
"It's her," she heard a girl whisper behind her. A smirk slipped onto her face as she continued walking, her hands in the pockets of her winter coat.
"You sure? I thought she'd look different you know ever since she came back," another girls voice replied in a similar hushed whisper. She walked a few feet away, out of earshot of the girls and leaned against the bare, leafless tree in view of the parking lot. The wind whipped through her blonde hair and made her thin frame shiver from the cold as she kept her eyes on the road, waiting.
It had never been this awkward. But then again, in the last few months everything had been magnified to almost twice it's normal size both emotionally and physically. She had stopped to catch her breath and felt his hand resting gently on her lower back. He was concerned and she could tell just by his touch. Her hand drifted to her stomach as she leaned into him. Her breath was coming slightly faster and a unfamiliar pain shot through her.
"When do you think we can get there," she asked, a new sense of urgency evident in her voice.
"Five, ten minutes tops. Do you think you'll make it," he replied grabbing the car keys off the table and heading for the door his large hand enveloping hers the way it had so many times before.
After approximatively ten minutes the sound of tires crunching on the fresh snow and the honk of a car horn awoke her from her day dream. The old Ford Taurus pulled up a few feet away from her and she avoided his eyes as he greeted her from the driver's seat. The car door creaked with age as she opened it, the cold metal biting her bare hands.
"Hi Emma," she greeted the sleeping girl in the back seat.
"Sorry I was late," he apologized, trying to catch her eye.
"It's okay," she told him, looking straight ahead as they past the old supermarket.
"I had to pick up Emma on my way here but my shift ended late," he explained.
"It's fine," her voice was almost strained now as they pulled into their parking spot, the grey stone apartment buildings looming over them as if to remind them of their new life. It was a harsh reminder that always made her eyes sting at what they'd lost. But the coming tears were gone in an instant when she looked into the back seat at her sleeping daughter.
"Emma wake up, we're home," she whispered as she unstrapped Emma from her car seat the ring on her finger snagging on the blanket that had been wrapped around the sleeping child.
As she walked towards the building that she now called home she finally let the last threads of her old life go. This was her reality.
A/N Review and tell my just how badly I suck.