A Cry(ing baby) for Help (Silverwing94&PrincessKaty)

[PrincessKaty]

A girl with an abusive family, a boy supporting his mother, and a baby. What could go wrong?

@Silverwing94

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Caroline felt like her entire body was stiff and like she was going throw up from the nerves. She was leaning against a green stall wall in the bathroom of a Walgreen's. Her heart was pounding in her chest and as the minutes ticked on, she could feel her hands get a little shaky and the anxiety begin to pulse through her veins. About two weeks ago, Caroline had started to get really sick. Like vomiting nearly every day, sore, fatigued. A bunch of stuff that she wouldn't have usually felt. She knew that it was out of the normal. It wasn't just the flu. It was lasting too long. And yeah, she got sore from her family situation but this was a different soreness than that. But now it all made sense..


On the white and purple stick she was holding in her hand, two clear lines appeared in the little window, with the corresponding word pregnant right beside it. Her breath caught in her throat and she could feel her eyes welling up with tears. No. No this couldn't be happening. Her breathing became more labor and she suddenly felt like the little stall was making her claustrophobic. She whirled around, flung the door open, threw the test in the trash, and made a break out of the bathroom. She probably looked like she was up to no good, looking frantic with tears dripping down her face as she double-timed it out to her car. Once she'd pulled open the door to her silver car and sunk in, she broke into a full on sob. This wasn't suppose to happen. This couldn't happen. Not in her situation. What the hell was she suppose to do?

 

[Silverwing94]

@PrincessKaty


“Over here Mom?” Witt questioned as he held a giant plastic turkey over the door. He had no idea why she wanted the family here for Thanksgiving. In their tiny little apartment more company was hardly needed and unbidden in Witt’s book, but seeing how happy it made her, decorating and fretting over small details like which brand of stuffing they needed and which placemats should have been on their table, it made it really hard to say no. And it was only 5 guests anyway, they’d survive the day and he could easily evade the questioning of his two aunts as to why he hadn’t been taking an active effort into looking to start a family of his own. He was only twenty two, but in their old age they were still stuck on the idea that it was easy to start a family so young.


He was still in college after all, community college had been all he could afford, and most classes he took online due to work, but he made it work for him somehow. It left him too tired to do anything most of the time, but he still made a conscious effort to spend time with what little friends he had.


“No Witt a little more to the right! The last thing I need is your Aunt Molly telling me that my eyesight is going.” His mother, Patricia answered back, and Witt moved it until it was in the right spot.


“Alright.” Witt said as he secured the turkey and hopped down off the chair to where she stood at its side. “But Ma’ that’s not going to hide the fact your eyesight is going anyway.” Patricia laughed, and he winced although he wore a smirk as she punched his arm.


“Don’t you get fresh with me boy, I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it….even if I need a chair to do it I will come up there!” Witt rolled his eyes playfully before taking a moment to look down at his phone. She hadn’t texted him yet. After what happened things hadn’t been…weird, per say, but regardless he always worried when she hadn’t texted. And he excused himself for a moment, retreating to his room before sending her a text.


‘Care? Are you doing alright?’


Texts were something he always sent with caution, but if she were in any kind of trouble she knew all she had to do was give him some sort of signal, tell him where to go and he’d be there, it was as simple as that.

 

[PrincessKaty]

@Silverwing94


Caroline's eyes shot over to her black purse, hearing it go off.


"Please don't be dad..." She mumbled to herself through her tears as she shifted through it until she pulled her iPhone out of it. She swallowed hard, knowing that if it was her parents, she was absolutely screwed. Her father was an alcoholic, a terrible one in fact. She couldn't remember the last time he'd ever been sober. And her mother was too drugged on anti-depressants and pain medication to intercept the lashings that she got. She didn't know what she'd done. Actually, she did know--nothing. Her father blamed her for making her mother depressed when in reality it was his own doing that had done that. After her mother was a bad car accident, and she bedridden, her father had to start working more hours. He was stressed out so he started drinking more. Things only dwindled downhill from there.


With that being said, she was more than happy to see Witt's name pop up above his text message, asking if she was okay. It was like he knew. She swallowed hard and sniffled, trying to pull herself together enough to type a coherent response. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard. What was she suppose to say? Did she even tell him?... She didn't want to scare him away. He was really all that she had now. That last thing that she needed was him skipping out on her. Not that she could imagine Witt doing that... It was just... This was a serious situation. She bit down on her lip and instead of typing, she began to call him. She figured it would be better just to talk instead of waiting in anticipation of a text back.


Now really wasn't the time for this, was it? She knew he was suppose to be having a ton of family over for the holidays which was something she never had to deal with. Holidays were practically nonexistent in her world.


She cleared her throat when she heard Witt's voice come across the other side of the line, quickly realizing that maybe this wasn't a good idea. She sniffled and looked down towards her lap. "Hey, Witt," She finally said. Her voice was sad and it was obvious that she'd been crying but that wasn't usual for her considering her dad beat the hell out of her,"Do you think that... Do you think that we could talk somewhere?..."

 

[Silverwing94]

Witt lingered within his room for a little bit and his phone going off was enough to startle him out of his thoughts of what could have been wrong. Her name flashed on his screen so he was quick to answer it, clearing his throat just before he spoke. “Hello? Caroline?” He asked, pressing the phone to his ear as if trying to drown out his mother’s corny love songs in the living room which she had just flipped on. “Hey, what’s up?” He asked, trying to make the conversation as casual as he possibly could though the lingering sounds of raspy cries lingered within her voice.


Something was wrong and he needed to find out what it was. When she asked him if they could talk somewhere he was silent for a few moments, before calling into the living room. “Mom? You need anything from the store?” He questioned, and for a moment the music behind him paused. “Pringles would be nice! Anything but Sour Cream though, you know I don’t like those!”


With her answer he turned his attention back to the call. “Caroline I can meet you in the 7/11 parking lot in about ten minutes okay? Just hang tight and we can talk when I get there.” With her answer, he shut the phone and headed for the door, turning to whistle to the Golden Retriever who was sprawled out on his blanket on the floor. “Alphie, come on.” The dog got up, bounding to the door and didn’t need to be told what to do as Witt opened it, the dog bee-lined for his blue pick up truck, waiting for him to pop the back open before he climbed into it.


And it didn’t take him very long to get to the 7/11 either, and he had just enough time with Caroline not being there yet to buy the pringles his mother requested and a cold slushie for himself, one at his side for Caroline if she wanted it. But the fact she wasn’t here yet made him nervous, evident by the way he was kicking his feet as he sat on the bed of his pick up truck, Alphie sprawled out at his side.


@PrincessKaty

 

[PrincessKaty]

Caroline bit down on her lip to try and stop herself from absolutely breaking down into an ugly sob like she knew she would if she let herself. She could barely even tell him 'alright' before she hung up and spent the next five minutes having a mental breakdown in her car in the Walgreen's parking lot. How the hell was she suppose to tell him? They hadn't even meant to sleep together. They'd gotten drunk at a party and it just... Happened. She was sure that she could read into it, about the whole "drunk words sober thoughts" thing but she knew now wasn't the time for that. The two of them had done a good job at brushing it off as a drunk mistake and never talking about it again. And now she was going to have to bring that up and the fact that she was going to have his kid. Great! Things were just going dandy for her.


Way more time had passed than she'd even realized and she quickly wiped her cheeks and threw the car into gear to get on her way to the 7/11 she knew he was talking about. She could feel her nerves start to kick in as she drove and played every possible scenario in her mind. The initial shock seemed to be wearing off and now it was a real situation of what the hell she was going to do.


She finally pulled into the 7/11 parking lot almost five minutes late which was already a bad sign if you knew the usually punctual Caroline. She climbed out of her car and with her arms crossed, she walked slowly to the bed of Witt's truck, keeping her eyes down. She looked like crap from all the crying; her mascara had began to run under her eyes and to the tops of her cheekbones and when she'd wiped her tears, you could start to see a fresh bruise peak out from the foundation she'd used to hide it.


"Hi," She said quietly to Witt although her eyes stayed glued down. She leaned slightly on the bed of the truck and began to instead give Alphie her attention who seemed excited to see her but totally aware of her unstable state.