Chapter 7
He walks down stairs and into the living room with caution and sees his father and Doctors Gray and Carter, all dressed in business suits and Mrs. Carter in a paisley dress and flats, sitting on the couch.
"Hey there, Trent." Mrs. Carter sees him from the entrance of the living room. "How have you've been?"
"I've been okay." He folds his arms as he joined them on the couch with his head down.
Mrs. Carter looks at Anton and said,
"Anton, did you really not let him out of the house for the past week?"
"Yeah."
Dr. Carter stepped in and asked him,
"Why?"
"I'll tell you why and I bet you'll find this story quite entertaining, Stella. He left the house without my permission and lied to me as he told me that he was going to take a nap because he didn't feel good, when really, he locked his room, stole one of the copied house keys from my office, snuck out his window and ran down to the park for almost two hours."
"It's not that big of a deal." Trent muttered under his breath.
Anton overheard what he said. "Excuse me, Trent?"
"I said it wasn't that big of a deal, dad."
"Maybe for you, but not to me."
Mrs. Carter puts her hand on her face and told Anton to stop as she had a bad feeling about it.
"No. Something could have happened to you or worse."
"Oh, come on, Anton! Will you stop?" Dr. Gray said with Dr. Carter agreed by nodding his head.
"Yeah, I agree. Stop before you say something you might rue."
"No! Maybe if he didn't sneak out, maybe read a book or something, none of this would have ever happen."
Trent got up from his seat and defended himself. He didn't care anymore if he was about to get on his father's bad side.
"So, now this is my fault? You're the one who wouldn't let me go outside and kept me inside like some kind of prisoner."
Anton gets up from his seat as he points his finger at Trent, making him feel frightened and intimated as he sat right back down on the couch and bites down on his lip.
"Don't you ever, and I mean and repeat, ever, use that tone of voice with me, young man! I'm your father! I make the rules in this house and you are to abide by my rules!"
Mrs. Carter puts her hand out around Trent. "Anton! Stop!"
"No! And for giving me a smart-mouth attitude, he's grounded for two weeks, which means no television, no video games, no computer, no nothing!"
Everyone in the room snapped their head and looked at Anton after saying that he grounded Trent for twos week and next week would be his birthday. Now, he was going excessively far.
"What?" Trent exclaimed in shock. "You can't do that to me!"
"Yes, I can! I'm the father and I said so!"
"But that's not fair!" He gets up from the couch again. "Why are you still treating me like I'm still a baby?" Trent felt the sting in his eyes coming down.
"Because you're acting like one!" "But, dad…!"
"No, Trent! Not…another…word." He points his finger to the stairs, telling him to go to his room. Trent, with tears slowly coming from his eyes, calmly walks away from the couch.
But he stops walking, clutched his feet and teeth and out of anger; he kicks a side table, knocking down a lamp, grabs a pillow, and throws it.
"Man!" He exclaimed in anger. "You don't let me do anything!" He kicks a side table, knocking down two small vases and runs out of the room and to his room in tears.
Everyone could hear his foot stomps upstairs to his room and could hear his bedroom door being slammed, which made them jump a bit.
SLAM!
Doctors Gray, Carter and Mrs. Carter all looked at Anton, who remained calm.
"Think one could talk to him for me?"
"No, Anton," Mrs. Carter said. "You have to talk to him."
"I don't have to explain myself to a child like him, Stella."
Mrs. Carter gets up from her seat. "That's the thing, Anton: he's not a child anymore; and sooner or later, he'll practically be a teenager, even if you like it or not."
"Ohh!" Dr. Gray exclaimed. "Good luck raising them, now; especially when you have two, with one of them being a moody emotional drama queen and the other one being a wanna-be mack-daddy." Mrs. Carter playfully rolled her eyes as he continued.
"Anyway, Anton, Trent has no one his age to play, hang out or to be with. You have been keeping him trapped in this house lately; I mean, the kid just lost his parents this past summer and probably feels alone because of it. You keeping him in his room is just going to make him more alone and probably miserable."
"I went through it and I turned out fine."
Dr. Carter, Stella, and Dr. Gray all game Anton these weird looks that Trent's been giving him lately as he didn't seem to back down by what they were saying to him. Dr. Carter steps in and tries to talk some sense into Anton.
"Look, Anton. We know you two have been on an emotional roller coaster this summer; we get that. I mean, you love and care about him so much like your own son tremendously that it's only naturally that you want to protect him, but do you think taking this grounding and over-protectiveness too far? Do you really want Trent to sit in his room 24/7, all the time, like some kind of prisoner, feeling miserable?"
Mrs. Carter continued to talk for Dr. Carter.
"Anyway, the point is…do you really want to keep Trent locked away from the world forever? Like what your parents tried to do to you when you were his age?"
"It's not that... I don't want him outside; I do want him to go outside, but..."
"Then what's the problem, Anton? What's the real main reason it? Is it what you guys went though this past summer?"
"Not really?"
"Then what is?" Stella finally realized it. "Is it because...?" Anton just shook his head.
"Oh, my..." Kevin and Gary realized it, too.
Anton has his head down when she said that and began quiet. That one really hit home for him. As he sat down on the couch, he looks at a picture with a gold frame of a young vivacious woman with her arms wrapped around a little boy. They tried to sympathies him.
"I mean, do you want the kid to sit in his room and the house all day?"
"No."
"Then why are you doing it to him?"
"Because I'm stubborn and have a thick skull."
"Of course you do." Stella said as she sat down.
Dr. Gray passes his hand on Anton's shoulder as he lets out a deep sigh.
"Just hear him out."
"I…uh…better go talk to him." Anton turned to leave, but Dr. Gray stopped him.
"But not right now. At least give him some time to cool off."
They all could hear destructive noise coming from upstairs, most likely Trent's room.
"Maybe wait an hour or two. Maybe three."
