single mama

((Human!AU. Anyone’s fine, although Britain, France, or 2p!America would be wonderful. Nyo!CanadaxAnyone.))

High school was a place where a bunch of decisions (as well as mistakes) were made and multiple milestones were hit. One’s first job, their first relationship, the decision of what college they would attend, what major, the task of starting to save money--most of that happened when one was in high school. But not everything was positive. People received poor grades, spread nasty rumors, got drunk, it was only natural for mistakes to happen, especially when they were under the pressure of transitioning from child to adult.

Autumn had been good for most of her high school years, but at a school party shortly before graduation was where she made her first mistake. She drank some spiked punch and ended up renting a cheap motel room with her boyfriend for the night. The following day, they ignored their pounding heads as they rushed to get dressed and go home, both thinking that nothing would come of it and they could go on with their relationship as if it hadn’t happened.

She thought the nausea and missed menstrual cycles had come as a result of stress due to moving out on her own and beginning her adult life. But when the morning vomit refused to go away, she went to the local health clinic to figure out what was wrong. A simple word, a common condition: she was pregnant. The news had left her shocked, and she went home, ignoring her parents’ words of concern as she locked herself in her room and sat on her bed, staring down at her bed. Two months pregnant--it was hard to process. Autumn knew her three options: to give up the child for adoption, to have an abortion, or to keep the child.

Each option had its positives and negatives, but in the end she chose to keep the child and raise him/her on her own. Fertility problems ran in the women in her family, what if she wasn’t able to have another child? But the main reason that she made up her mind was how often she daydreamed of caring for the infant, of helping them get ready for their first day of school. Of course, like the other decisions, there were negatives.

The college that she had been hoping of going to, that had accepted her, would no longer be an option. Between a job and caring for the child, she got into an online college, majoring in English. When her darling little boy came into the world, she had been so happy, naming the precious angel ‘Matthew.’ Things went well at first, but slowly the boyfriend who had been so sweet and kind had become more and more rude, shouting and snapping at her and the infant. So one night while he was at work, she packed her things up and left with the child.

Three years had passed since then, the blonde living in a one-bedroom apartment. Her job as a waitress wasn’t the best paying and the hours weren’t the best, but she scraped through. When she was at work, Matthew was left in the care of an elderly neighbor who really didn’t mind (plus he was so sweet when the old woman was baking or reflecting over her late husband).

Autumn had been at the grocery store with Matthew to pick up groceries for that day’s dinner as well as a few other items they had needed. As she had been loading items into the cart, however, he had wandered off to look at something that caught his eye. The blonde had panicked when she looked up and saw her son wasn’t standing by her, dread filling the female. Thankfully, the employee had offered to watch the cart while she rushed off in search for her son.

Ten minutes later, she had been in tears when she couldn’t find him and was debating calling the police when she heard her son’s voice. “There! That’s mama!”

Autumn had spun around, rushing forward and kneeling on the ground, tears rolling down her cheeks as she hugged the boy tight and pressed her lips to his forehead. “Matthew, Matthew, baby, you scared me so much. Please don’t wander off like that ever again,” she said, pulling back to wipe the tears from her eyes before ruffling Matthew’s hair. “Don’t run off like that, sweetheart. If you want to look at something just let me know and I’ll take you, okay?”

After another embrace and another flurry of kisses pressed to the boy’s face, she held the toddler and stood, looking over at the hero who had led her child back to her. “Thank you. I’m Autumn,” she greeted, smiling weakly before shifting Matthew so he was on her hip.