Jayden fumbled awkwardly with how to stand while his mother spoke to him. Thankfully, she was mostly on her phone, not really looking at him. Normally he detested how easily distracted she could be, but this time he was grateful.
"Did you pick anything out?" she asked, scrolling through her social media feed.
"Oh, uh, yeah. Just some new shorts, they're comfy," Jayden said quietly.
"Good, your old ones were getting kind of worn. Come on, we've got to get groceries still."
"M-mom, uh, could I stay in the car for that?" Jayden practically spat the question out.
"Hmm. Well, alright. The list isn't particularly long this week." Susan had begun walking out the door towards the car, her three-legged son in tow.
Jayden breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he could get through this after all. Just as he took a breath of relief, his ears were accosted by the wailing of a small child. It seems someone else wanted to leave as badly as he did.
A tired looking young woman dragged her screaming son, who couldn't have been older than six, out of the mall. Her distant, resigned look betrayed this behavior was a common occurrence, and she'd simply lost the energy to deal with it. Jayden felt for her.
As they passed him and Susan, the boy started to quiet down. A sudden calm replaced the shrill noise of a moment ago.
"Thank goodness," Jayden thought to himself.
What neither Jayden nor the young boy's mother had noticed yet, was that an uncharacteristically large bulge had begun forming in the now quiet boy's pants, which had his attention.