Learning to Love

Chapter 25

Once Abbie grabbed my shoes and put them on for me, we headed back downstairs. "Alright you ready Gabby?" Abbie asked as we approached the bottom of the stairs, I noticed Gabby was standing right at the bottom of the stairs talking to Josh. "Of course, I'm so excited for a girl's day out!" Josh laughed, "You girls have a good day, remember the main reason to go out today is to get a booster seat for the table ladies. And don't overwhelm poor Cali, I know how you all get while you're shopping." "Oh Josh, you worry too much, come on Gabby lets go before he starts lecturing us like a dad again." Abbie stuck her tongue out and then went rushing towards the door. I looked at her with a shocked face then looked back at Josh who was laughing and shaking his head. Maybe they were different than where I was before, no one was getting beat and Josh was laughing instead of looking like he was going to kill Abbie.

When I was placed in my car seat I immediately tensed up and shook my head, no, not the car seat. Abbie sighed "It's okay Cali, look you sit in the seat, and I'll give you my phone so you can watch the ponies again, how's that?" I did like the ponies when I saw them before, I immediately relaxed and let Abbie put me in my seat, then did up the buckles. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her phone, she must have been finding whatever it was that she was looking for on it, because she tapped the screen a few times and handed it to me. Abbie slid into the seat next to me then Gabby climbed into the car as well sitting in the seat across from me. "What's she watching there?" "I turned on my little pony, we still aren't too sure about the car seat, and I had to bribe her." "Awww, don't let Josh find out, he won't like that." "Shush Gabby, let's discuss where we are going." I tuned them out so I could focus on the ponies.

Before I knew it, the phone was being taken from my hands by Abbie, I whimpered and reached back for the phone. "Oh, I know sweetheart, but we are here, we are going to have a great shopping day." Abbie unstrapped me from my seat and went to grab me, I turned quickly reaching for teddy who was sitting next to the car seat. Once I had teddy in my arms I turned back around as Abbie was quick to grab me and swing me up into her arms, settling me on her hip. "We don't have a stroller for her?" "No, we didn't really think of it to be honest with you, we didn't go to many places with her when we were staying in the hotel. We do need to make a run into a grocery store for some pediasure and some formula though, we are trying to cure her Osteopenia, we don't want it to turn into the next stage." What's the next stage?" I heard Gabby ask as she shut the car door and we all started walking into the store. ", or brittle bone disease. Then Cali wouldn't be able to do anything fun, and we want to make sure she has the childhood that she should have had from the beginning, like if Josh and I had known about her when she was born, she would have never known pain, she would have been the most cherished baby in the world." "I know Abbie, but we will make she is cherished now."

I looked in awe of where we were, there were so many little shops in here, I didn't even know where to look first. "What do you think of the mall Cali?" I looked up at Abbie with wide eyes, and brought teddy up to my chest, I buried my face into Abbies chest. She started rubbing her hand up and down my back, "I know it's a lot, isn't it? But don't worry we will go into one of the stores, then it won't be so loud." I felt Abbie start walking while she was still rubbing my back, all of a sudden it got quieter, and I lifted my head up from her chest. I looked around and noticed we were in a store that had a lot of child things. "Alright first things first, let's get this booster seat so we can tell Josh it was the first thing we bought today." Gabby laughed, "Good idea Abbie, alright I think boosters are in the back of the store." Gabby grabbed a cart and started walking towards the back of the store, while Abbie went down an aisle that had diapers and pull-ups in them, I managed to catch sight of some packaged panties from the corner of my eye and I looked at them, then tugged on Abbie's shirt and pointed to them, "Oh you want some panties baby?" I nodded and looked up at her with what I hoped were pleading eyes.

"Alright guess we can grab some, which ones do you want baby?" I saw some that looked like the ponies I had been watching in the car and I pointed to them. "The ponies, okay baby, and then we will grab some Winnie the Pooh ones too, just because they are too cute to pass up." She grabbed two packages and then went further down the aisle, "Okay we need some more pull-ups and diapers, you are almost out." I shook my head no, I didn't want to wear more of those, I wanted the panties. Abbie must have sensed that I was having a moment because she showed me the panties, "Here baby why don't you hold onto your big girl underwear." I nodded and grabbed them as Gabby came around the corner. "Oh, are we getting big girl panties?" "Yeah, she pointed to them on the shelf when I came down here, but we do need more diapers and pull-ups, and we had better buy some wipes and cream while we are here." Gabby grabbed a few boxes and threw them into cart, then started grabbing different items and put them in there as well. Abbie put the package of underwear that I wasn't holding into the cart and then started walking out of the aisle. "Onward to the booster seats."

When we had finally gotten to the booster seats, Abbie set me down and turned me to face the seats, "Which one do you like baby?" I looked at all the boxes in front of me, then turned to look at Abbie, she wanted me to pick? Abbie nodded at me, "Which color do you like? There's a pretty pink one, or there's green, or blue or a polka-dot one." I looked back at the boxes, there was a pink and white one that looked like it may be okay to sit in. I pointed to that one and Abbie reached up to grab the box. "Good choice Cali." She stuck the box into the cart and then saw something that caught her eye I guess because she gasped loudly. "Oh, Gabby look it's a traveling booster seat, we should get that, so we don't have to worry about finding her a highchair or booster at a restaurant when we go." "Oh, that's so cute Abbie, yes grab a pink one to match her chair at home." I looked around while they were talking, I saw a really cute stuffie, and clutching teddy closely I wandered over to look at the display.

I was staring at the display, and I saw a pink teddy that looked like it matched teddy in my arms, teddy needed someone to keep him company when I couldn't hold him, like when I was eating or going potty. I went to reach up for the teddy not realizing that I was too short to reach it, I stomped my foot then looked around, I didn't see anything that would be able to help me reach the teddy, but then I got a good idea, I could climb and get it. I managed to climb up and grab teddy but I didn't take into the fact that I would need to get down once I had grabbed it. I whimpered when I felt my grip loosen, I was holding the new teddy and my old teddy in one arm, but I was holding myself up with my other hand and my feet slipped from underneath me. My hand started slipping and I was scared I was going to get a big ouchie, as soon as my hand slipped all the way I felt myself start to fall backwards. Suddenly I was grabbed forcefully from behind, I was quickly set on my feet. "What were you doing? Where are your parents? You could have killed yourself!" I whimpered and could feel myself starting to cry, the stranger in front of me looked like they could hurt me badly.  

Another update everyone!!!!! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :) 

How's everyone liking the story?