(Wed)Locked On Target

(My best friend and I have gone together to a theme park in June. It’s a few weeks before schools are due to break up. We are both 25, but my friend is very petite and is frequently mistaken for a 12 year old. When out together, I’ve been mistaken for her mother more than once. Whilst we’re eating a woman walks past and glares at me.)

Woman: *to me* “You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Woman: “Taking your daughter out of school to take her to a theme park! You can be fined for that, you know, or even jailed!”

Me: “Ma’am, I think you—”

Woman: “And you must have had her when you were a TEENAGER! Teenage pregnancies outside of wedlock! What a disgrace! This country is going to the dogs.”

(She continues on in a similar vein, drawing stares from others around us. I’m opening my mouth to protest again when my friend cuts in.)

Friend: “Oh, for f***’s sake, lady! I’m 25, and so is my friend. I’m not a tween, or a truant, or any of that other crap, and she isn’t a teenage mother! So, how about you go away and let us eat our food in peace!”

(The woman turned very red. She mumbled an apology, and then walked away.)