What It Seems | Wattys 2023

Chapter 61

On this day, I met Baylor's friends that he left behind a few months ago. Lane (like our friend back home but two different people), Christian, and Ansley. They had tattoos and piercings. And I mean a lot. They were actually pretty cool people. I could tell Baylor had gotten along well with them.

"How long have you guys been together?" Christian exaggerated.

"Seven months," Baylor answered.

"That's a broken record for our boy, Parker," Ansley stated. I don't know why it surprises people when they're told that Baylor is in a relationship.

I was currently in the kitchen helping Mrs. Victoria cook dinner. Baylor was off somewhere around the house with his friends.

"Do you like his friends?" Mrs. Victoria asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "They're cool. But seeing Baylor now, I wouldn't see him hanging out with that kind of crowd. But I guess if having friends like that and it makes him happy, then I'm happy for him."

Mrs. Victoria poured some tomato sauce onto the noodles.

"Honestly, seeing a difference in him makes me not worry about him. Adalynne, he's changed so much in just a short amount of time."

I arched an eyebrow. "How was he like back then?"

"If I tell you, would it change your feelings for him?"

I shook my head while stirring the meat. "Absolutely not."

She sighed. "After Coluer left, he just drifted into this state of mind where he didn't want to harm anyone but himself. He was so pitiful and it hurt so bad to see my son like that. I didn't care about Coluer hitting me and calling me a bitch and such. What really hurt me the most was Coluer calling Baylor mean, nasty words that were not true at all."

She cut the noodles into squares.

"He began to drift away, into a different person. It hurt so bad to see him blend in with the wrong crowd. I'd get calls from school, saying that he wasn't there. And if he was, he had gotten into a fight. He had gotten so angry before, to where when he'd come home, he'd slam things around. I could never sleep, I was so worried about him. I'd catch dime bags in his jean pockets. There were bags in his dresser drawers of cocaine and he'd come home drunk. I couldn't control him. He had turned into someone else, and I thought I had lost him. The Baylor that I loved so much. And I loved him then. He was my son. The only one I really loved. The one who meant the world to me. And with him committing self-harm - that really ate me up inside."

She was sniffling like she was crying, but I glanced at her and her concentration was on the creation of lasagna.

"And one day I had enough of it."

I cut the simmering meat off and stood to watch her.

"One day he came home drunk, so drunk that he was out of his mind. I followed him upstairs with a glass of water. He had knocked it out of my hand, making the glass shatter everywhere. He told me that he didn't need my help anymore, that he could take care of himself. So I let him. I didn't do his laundry, I canceled his credit card to where he couldn't buy beer from someone who had it. I took out the money that was in his wallet. One day, he came home sober, which was a first. He looked so weak. I had left him alone to tend to his own business. And after about an hour or so, I heard this clash upstairs. I ran as fast as I could to see if he was alright. His bathroom door was creaked open, and when I entered, he was lying on his back, like he had fainted. There was a big flow of blood right from his wrist. I had to call 9-1-1. I was so afraid that I had lost him, I had lost my world. When he was in the hospital, the doctors suggested a psychiatrist. Baylor argued with me, saying that he didn't need a damn psychiatrist because he didn't have any problems; that he was only being a teenager. So I made a deal with him. I told him that he would take the classes, and he said that if he did, if he could move back to Shady Grove. So I said that he could when he turned eighteen."