Chapter 48: Your Heart is Like an Ocean, Mysterious and Dark

Aislin paid Trent a surprise visit. He greeted her nervously, without affection, as though he was not pleased  to see her.

Not one to be put off, Aislin tried to kiss him, but he backed away forcefully.

"Don't!' he hissed through his teeth.

"What is wrong with you?" Aislin asked, exasperated.

Trent glanced over at his father, "He's right there," he said, his voice so quiet she almost couldn't make it out.

Aislin doesn't get what the problem is, Roman seemed pretty absorbed in his painting and not interested in anything going on on this side of the room.  "Well, you obviously aren't interested is hanging with me," she says, her anger rising, "So maybe I'd better just leave."

"Yeah, actually, I think you should," Trent says. Aislin storms out, furious.

Riordan grows up. H gets a job at the science facility and moves into his own place.

A burglar attempts to break into the house; Thessaly meets him at the door.

"Have you heard of Sheridan Enmity?" Thessaly asks the would be thief.

"Sheridan Enmity? He's a legend!" the burglar says, surprised.

"I'm his daughter," Thessaly says, "And I'm married to the son of Demond Riley."

"Oh, shit," the burglar says, "I'll just be going..."

"Not so fast," Thessaly says, and gives him a beating her father would b proud of.

"You better have a good explanation," Aislin says as Trent sits beside her on the schoolbus the next morning, "And maybe some groveling while you're at it."

"I am sorry, Ash," Trent says, "But you can't just show up like that. Roman is crazy."

"Oh, please," Aislin says, "Like all parents aren't a little crazy. My mother took down a burglar last night in her underwear."

"No, Ash, Roman isn't a 'little crazy''. He's been off his meds since my mom died. Anything could set him off. And I don't want him going off on you."

"Oh," Aislin says, mollified and a little embarrassed at her own anger at him, "How bad is it? Can't you have him, I don't know, committed or something?"

"If they put Roman away, I end up in the foster system," Trent says, "I can handle this, Ash. Don't worry. But, just don't make surprise visits."

Kennedy becomes a young adult. She enlists in the military right away, and moves out into her own place.

Prom night arrves, and Riley makes a point of getting to know his daughter's date a little before they ride off in the limo.

"Please don't embarrass me, please don't embarrass me," Aislin makes a silent prayer to whatever deity watches over sensitive teens.

When they're gone, Riley and Thessaly reminisce about their own prom in the hot tub.

Trent escorts Aislin home from the prom. Since her parents are asleep, she decides it would be okay to invite him up to her room for a little while.

Things get a little hot and heavy, more than Aislin had intended.

"Hey," she says, pulling away from him, "That's enough, now. I think you should go."

"You sure?" Trent asks, "We're graduating in a couple of days.."

"I know. But, I'm not ready. I'm sorry if I lead you on..."

"Don't be sorry, Ash," Trent says, gently stroking her cheek, "You know I love you, right? Always, no matter what happens."

There's something off in his tone, Aislin had noticed it most of the evening. "Is everything okay, Trent?" she asks.

"Everything's fine," he says, "I love you." He turns to get his shirt on and leave.

"See you on the bus tomorrow," she calls out quietly as he goes out the door. He doesn't reply.

Trent leaves her house, but he doesn't go home. He doesn't have a home anymore.

Trent wasn't on the bus the next day, nor did he show up for classes. Aislin tried to call him, but his cell had been disconnected. She was about to panic when she found his note, stuffed in her backpack. All it said was 'Old Apothecary'. So as soon as she finished her afterschool drama club activities, Aislin biked over to the old apothecary house out beyond the fields. The old house been abandoned ages ago, and had been restore as a tourist site, but no tourists ever come to Riverblossom Hills.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" Aislin asks as soon as she sees Trent. "Why weren't you in school today? And why are you here, of all places?"

"Roman flipped out," Trent says, "He was screaming about how 'they' were coming for him, and he had to escape. So he packed everything up  and took off."

"He left you?"

"Well, not exactly. I told him I didn't want to leave. We argued. And in the end, his paranoia got the best of him and he left when I refused to go with him. I'm here because, well, no one comes here. Not even social services. So I'll be safe hiding out here until I'm a legal adult."

"You can't stay out here by yourself. And you can't blow off school like that. Come home with me, my parents will let you stay with us."

"No, your parents will be responsible and call social services. I'm much better off on my own, believe me."

"You're underestimating my parents," Aislin says, but Trent won't be persuaded.

Aislin stops trying to convince him, and instead goes up to the old house's deck with him to hang out.

"Thanks for sticking with me," Trent says as he wraps an arm around her.

"I love you, Trent. I'll stick by you through anything," she replies, "But you shouldn't have kept this from me. I could tell something was wrong last night."

"I didn't want to ruin your prom," he says.

The hour grows late, and they go back inside to the small bedroom.

"You better go," Trent says, "It's almost curfew. You'll get in trouble."

"What about you?"

"As far as anyone knows, I left town with Roman. No one will be looking for me."

"I'm not leaving you alone here," Aislin says.

"You can't stay here. I'll be fine, I promise."

Aislin draws him in for a long kiss, stalling for time.

As she expected, the police came looking for her, a teen out after curfew.

Since Trent has no parent or guardian in town, the police left him in the care of the Enmity family. Just as Aislin intended.

Seeing his daughter and her boyfriend brought in by the police, he immediately blames Trent.

"Dad, wait," Aislin cries out in Trent's defense, "He tried to get me to go home. I stayed out after curfew on purpose so the cops would bring us both here." Trent's eyes burn daggers at her to hear she got them picked up intentionally. "If I didn't, he was going to stay in that old house alone. His father left him."

"I'm supposed to believe his father just packed up and left town without his son?" Riley asks.

"That's what happened," Trent says behind him, "But I was fine, Ash. You shouldn't have waited for the cops like that."

"It's not fine, Trent," she says.

"She's right," Riley says, "You're staying here with us until we get this sorted out."

Aislin escorts Trent up to Riordan's old room. "You'll have to go back to school, you know," she says.

"Your father's going to call social services on me."

Aislin shakes her head, "You don't know him. The last thing he would ever do is release someone into the system like that. You're staying here."

Trent sleeps in Riordan's old bed, and dreams about Aislin.

Trent comes downstairs the next morning to see Aislin's mother having a casual conversation with a ghost. That is still better than living with his insane father.

"Trent, I've tried everything. You father has just about disappeared. The police promise they'll contact us if he shows up," Riley tells him. "You can stay here with us. I don't want you off on your own."

"You aren't going to call social services?"

Riley looks like he's been slapped. "I would never do that," he says.

Trent quickly finds he's not going to be treated like just a guest; Aislin's parents take an immediate interest in his school work, and are shocked to discover how low his grades had fallen since Roman had gone off his meds. Thessaly takes his education in hand to help him get his grades up to her standards.

And Riley, who has himself ben branching out into other instruments, gives Trent a guitar and mentors him.

Then there's the long driving lessons, which come with deep man to man conversations about what was going on in the Roman household, and how things ended up the way they did. Having been used to coming and going as he pleased and simply avoiding his father whenever possible, the sudden attention is a bit overwhelming. Sometimes Trent wishes Aislin had just let him get through this on his own, but those thoughts become rarer as the days pass.


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Challenge Notes:
First before I forget again, I did complete the Property Mogul goal. I keep forgetting to mention that. Because at this point in my legacy, it was a trivial accomplishment, and I didn't have any place in the story to mention it. We bought partnerships in the bookstore, theater and spa.

I was kind of busy dealing with Aislin and Trent, so poor Riordan and Kennedy got crap birthdays, lol. I moved them out as soon as they aged up, because I didn't want them to have graduations the next day, with forced days off for the teens. I had to move Trent in to do certain scenes with him, and his grades were abysmal, so I needed those days for him to get his grades up. Because no teen fails under my watch. I'm a grades Nazi. So, Riordan and Kennedy got one age up pic and that's it.
I bought them each a house. Riordan marred Hannah right away (SP). Kennedy actually went to prom, and got a romantic interest foisted on her. Since I didn't get a any pictures of her around the prom, and she aged up right after, I just left her out of that scene. I'm leaving it up to SP to see if she gets married, etc.
Quinn and Tina adopted a little girl named Emilie.

I always thought Riordan looked familiar. When he aged up, I realized, he's like a clone of Darryl Enmity, except for the hair and eye color.

And, yes, I moved Trent in, before the point where the story acknowledges him as moved in. Because I needed control of him to do some things I wanted to do for the story.
Also, I have totally annihilated Roman Roman. That actually was the starting point for the whole plot. I was fretting over the fact that I'm only going to get one child from Trent and Aislin, and I was going to pissed if that child picked up any of Roman Roman's genes. Because he's a big head monster with beady eyes, lol. So, I decided he would be annihilated before the breeding. And since he does have the insane trait (also, Evil, but that is less relevant), it all led me to creating this plot of how Roman leaves town, dumping Trent on my family.
Trent's traits are Virtuoso, Childish, Hates the Outdoors and Vehicle Enthusiast.

Riley and Thessaly have both completed their LTWs.

Chapter title is a lyric by Bob Dylan.