5
“Pretty ass.”
Trent smiled when he saw Clover get out of the car and go into the nursery.
His smile was quickly replaced with a scowl when he saw Dash get out and go in behind her.
Admittedly, Dash had never done anything to him, but Trent viewed him as competition.
Clover was a real one and she always told the truth, even if it hurt.
Dash was her first everything and they always found their way back to each other.
Trent tried his best to show her that he could make her just as happy as her ex did but his efforts obviously weren’t enough.
The bar was set high but he was up for the challenge.
Months after their divorce was finalized, her and Dash picked up right where they left off.
He took comfort in knowing that they didn’t get remarried so he felt like he still had a chance.
Clover fucked him like a porn star when they dated and she had him wrapped around her finger without even knowing it.
He wanted to wait to see if he could see Clover but, when Dash pulled off, he decided to follow him instead.
He had been trying for months to see where he and Clover lived but he hadn’t had any luck yet.
He’d followed Clover more times than he could count, but she always made a million stops and he wasn’t patient enough to wait.
He was hoping for a different outcome but, when he saw Dash turn on a familiar street, he knew that he was wasting his time once again.
Clover wasn’t very forthcoming with info about her personal life, so he didn’t know who owned the bar that she always frequented.
He snuck into his mother’s client files in her home office to get some info, including her home address, but she had a P.O. Box listed in her paperwork.
Clover never discussed her family life either, but he learned through the files that both her parents were deceased.
He wanted to pay the bar a visit one day but he didn’t want to do it alone.
“Fuck it,” Trent huffed as he passed the bar up and headed in the direction of his house. When he pulled up, he frowned when he saw his father’s car in the driveway.
Although he still lived at home with his parents, Trent lived in the apartment that they had built behind the house for him.
He knew that they only did it to keep a close eye on him but he was happy just to have his own space.
He loved his mother to death but his father could drop dead in his face and he wouldn’t shed a tear.
He was a therapist and thought he knew everything.
He helped his patients work through their issues but was always negative towards his only son.
Trent’s two older sisters were the apples of his eye but he was treated like the worm inside.
“Hey, baby. Are you hungry? I didn’t cook anything but I’m about to make me and your dad a salad and a sandwich before I get on this zoom call.” Trudy smiled when her youngest and only son entered their home through the kitchen door.
“Nah, I’m good.”
Trent sat at the bar stool and stared off into space.
Clover was heavy on his mind and not seeing her without Dash being around was starting to annoy him.
He would have gone into her nursery like he’d done once before but he didn’t want to piss her off again and risk not talking to her for a while.
Clover took her business seriously and she didn’t play about the kids that she was responsible for.
He was smiling at just the thought until his mother spoke up once again.
“What are you so happy about?” Trudy smiled, loving to see her son happy.
“Just thinking about my girl. That always makes me smile.”
“What girl?”
The smile faded from her face just as soon as it appeared. Trenton and relationships wasn’t something that she was prepared for. He’d had girlfriends before, but they barely stayed around for a month. Most times, they only lasted longer in his head and he didn’t take rejection too well.
“Clover,” he replied, making her a little nervous.
Clover was one of her clients that he fell head over heels in love with.
Unfortunately for him, the feelings weren’t reciprocated.
She was out of his league and way more experienced.
They dated for a month or two, and she got back with her ex-husband soon after.
She thought that Trent had moved on from whatever they had but she should have known better.
Trudy was praying that they didn’t have a repeat of the drama that her son had caused before.
She hated to feel like she was keeping tabs on him but she was scared of what could possibly happen.
“Where have you been?”
“Out.” Trent’s thoughts of getting Dash out of the picture permanently were disrupted by the line of questioning that he knew was coming.
“Out where, Trenton?” Trudy knew that she babied her son at times but she was a mother before anything else. He had a bad track record with being in places that he had no business being.
“Does it matter, Ma? I’m a grown ass twenty-eight year old man. I don’t have to check in with my mama every time I leave the house.”
“I know you don’t, baby, but I worry about you.”
“Well, don’t, I’m good.”
“Are you?” his father, Melvin, asked when he walked into the room holding up a small bottle of pills. “Why is this bottle still full?”
“The fuck!” Trent jumped up from his seat.
“You better watch your damn mouth in my house.” His father didn’t pacify him like his mother did.
“Why you going through my shit though?” Trent was furious and so was his father. Melvin advanced towards his son, making Trudy jump in his path to avoid a potentially violent situation. Her husband had no problem knocking their son on his ass and he’d done it many times before.
“Go to your apartment and relax, baby. Your father and I need to talk.” Trudy smiled at her son, hoping to calm him down. Trent stared his father down as he backed away and exited the same door that he’d previously entered.
“That’s the problem now, Trudy. We’re supposed to be on the same page but we can’t even come to a mutual agreement.”
“We are on the same page, Melvin, but we also agreed to give him his personal space.”
“Are you even listening to yourself right now? Trenton needs help, not personal space. Being alone is actually the last thing that he needs.”
“Trent is fine; he’s just spoiled, and I take the blame for that.”
“This is way more than just him being spoiled. Look at this pill bottle. I counted them and they’re all still here. There’s no telling how long ago he stopped taking them. It’s only a matter of time before it starts to show.”
“Nothing is going to show. Trent just does things to get our attention.”
“Damn it, Trudy! This is not a game. I walked on eggshells for years in my mama’s house; I refuse to do it in my own.”
“Fine, I’ll make sure that he takes the pills every day. Will you relax then?”
“Baby, please, just listen to me. Yes, taking his medicine is important, but that’s only a small part of his treatment plan. I spent years watching my mother deny what was right in front of her until it was too late. I’m not gonna let that happen to you.”
“I’m trying, Melvin, but this is hard. That’s my baby.” Trudy held on to the counter as she dropped her head and cried.
Melvin pulled his wife into a comforting hug.
He understood her pain but he had to be honest with her.
As much as she tried to deny it, their son was different.
He’d seen the signs all his life, so he knew how to spot them a mile away.
Just like his father and older brother, his last born and only son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Trudy brushed it off the moment it was revealed to her, but Melvin was heartbroken.
He vowed to dedicate his life to helping his son but his wife was making it almost impossible.
Since he didn’t have the condition himself, Trudy never believed that their son had it either.
Their daughters were normal and so were their grandkids.
The gene obviously skipped everyone except for Trent.
Guilt consumed him more than anything. He was a therapist who was able to help everyone else besides his son.
“He’s my baby too, and I only want the best for him.”
“Sending him to the crazy house is not what’s best for him.”
“It’s not the crazy house. It’s a reputable private facility with some of the best doctors in the world. It’s not like he’s gonna be there forever. They’re just gonna teach him how to manage and cope with his diagnosis.”
“Yeah, right. Y’all said the same thing about your father and you see how that tuned out.”
After being in denial for so long, Melvin’s mother, Hattie, finally agreed to admit his father into a facility, but it was horrible.
It was a state run facility who gave less than a damn about their patients.
His father was supposed to be on around the clock watch, but the young nurse who was responsible for him on the night shift fell asleep and woke up to him hanging by a sheet that he should have never had.
He was always claiming that the voices in his head were telling him to do certain things and he finally listened.
His mother sued the facility and won since he wasn’t given the standard suicide resistant bedding that he was supposed to have.
His oldest brother did well for a while and took his medicine faithfully.
He had a lot of people fooled with the way he learned to cope with the illness.
He had a wife and four beautiful kids wo loved him unconditionally.
A few times, he would convince himself that he no longer needed to be medicated and the end result was never good.
He would start hallucinating and having paranoid delusions.
His wife tried to help him as much as she could until she finally couldn’t take anymore.
She packed up their kids and left him in the home that they were supposed to grow old in.
Things hit rock bottom after that and his distrust was at an all-time high.
He swore that he was being followed and became suspicious of his own family.
It got really bad one year when he showed up to their mother’s house for Sunday dinner.
He seemed fine for a while until they all sat around the dinner table.
His brother swore that his family was plotting to kill him.
He told them that he wasn’t giving them the chance so, right after they said grace over the meal, he pulled out a gun and killed himself instead.