When Friday rolled around, Cole did as he was instructed.  He didn’t speak to his partner at all, just like he’d been told not to.  He placed Robert on the doorstep, rang the bell and climbed back into his car.  He didn’t even stick around to see if anyone picked up the baby or not.  It wasn’t his responsibility anymore.  What his responsibility was now was to cheer up.  He couldn’t walk around feeling this way for much longer.  It hurt knowing he’d caused Noah so much pain.  Just like old times, though, right?

He opened his front door lazily, swinging it behind him after he’d walked through.  He didn’t bother locking it, either.  His mother poked her head into the foyer and questioned him with the usual, “How was school, sweetheart?”  He mumbled a response and headed up to his bedroom.  Cole collapsed on the mattress and rolled onto his back, kicking his shoes off and stretching his toes once they’d been freed.  This was what he’d wanted all day.

His daily quota of annoying peers and bitchy teachers had been filled before he’d taken his seat in his first period class.  The most painful part of the day was sitting next to Noah as if he didn’t exist.  Noah didn’t even look at him when he talked to him.  That was the sharpest pain.  It cut him deep knowing that they weren’t even on looking terms anymore.  They were just strangers trying to get through their project with as little eye contact as possible.

The cellphone in Cole’s pocket sounded with a shrill tone and he dug it out.  “Hello?”

“You sound high,” Paul noted.

“I wish I was.  I wish I was anything other than what I am right now?”

“Which is…?”

“Feeling sorry for myself.  Feeling stupid and guilty and just… bad.”  Cole rolled over onto his side and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Look, I know it’s none of my business, but you can’t keep beating yourself up about whatever it is that went down between you two.  I know you two have a ton of history – or at least that’s what Naomi said – but whatever you did couldn’t have been that bad,” Paul assured him.  Cole laughed sardonically.

“You’d be surprised.”

“You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

“No, but –,”

“Then you’re fine!” he butted in, finishing Cole’s sentence for him.

“I hurt him bad.  I hurt a lot of people.”

“And so have I.  I’ve punched my cousin in the face.  I told my mom that she would never find a man like my dad again.  We’ve all done stupid, hurtful shit to the people that we care about, okay?”  Cole sighed, unwilling to admit that his friend did have a point.  It was a stretch to relate their situations, but it made some sense.

“I guess.  I just don’t know how to forgive myself.  And I want to.  I want him to forgive me.  I… I want forgiveness, I guess.”  There was a heavy silence after that.  “Dammit, dude, stop going all Oprah on me,” Cole laughed, easing the tension immensely.

“Hey, if I had her money, I’d go all Oprah on everyone I could,” Paul chuckled.

“I appreciate it, man.”

“That’s what I’m here for.  You can pay me back by helping me pick out a tux for prom.”  Cole rolled his eyes dramatically.  Of course Paul would ask him for help.  He was the most stylish of his friends anyways.

---

Dinner was much better than Cole had expected.  Normally his mother made one of the many flavors of Hamburger Helper that she found at the supermarket, but tonight she’d decided to try out something much different.  She’d grilled chicken and baked it into the best casserole Cole had ever had the pleasure of tasting.

“No baby tonight?” his dad asked when they were all settled down and their glasses were filled with water.  He shrugged.

“Not anymore, actually.  My partner gets the baby this week.”

“Thank the Lord,” his mother smiled, spearing her chicken chunk.  “I love you, Coley, but that baby was sent from the deepest depths of Hell.”

“And you’re the only spawn of Satan we enjoy having around,” his father added.  Cole stopped chewing mid-bite and threw a dinner roll across the table at his dad.

“Horrible.  You’re the worst dad ever,” Cole laughed.

“I wanna hear you say that again when you’re asking for money for the movies or prom or something.”  Cole smiled bashfully.

“Nah, I’m an independent young man.  I can fend for myself.  Heck, I was a single father.  I got this.”  His mother nodded as if he had a point, munching silently on her food until,

“Now, you were saying you were the only one partnered up with another boy, right?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly, picking at his plate.  He’d rather be made into his mother’s next batch of casserole than talk about that right now.  It turned his stomach and he hated that feeling.  “We got in an argument though, so, let’s not talk about that right now, please,” he said, looking up at his mother.  She stopped eating for a moment before nodding with an understanding expression.

“Oh, of course, honey.  No more N-word talk.”  The three of them paused at her roundabout way of saying Noah.

“Wrong N-word, but sure,” his dad chuckled.

“Sounds good with me,” Cole grinned.  He continued to devour his plate, eagerly shoveling in more and more.  If his parents weren’t around he’d have gone back for seconds, but he wanted to give it time to settle in before he went back for more.  It wasn’t like he had a dress to fit into soon, so he could afford to pig out.  As he washed off the dishes and returned them to the cabinets, his ringtone played from the dining room.  Cole rushed back to grab it.

“Shit,” he breathed.

“Language,” he heard his dad call from the living room.

“Sorry,” Cole said absently, answering the call.  “Hello?”

“Come over right now,” Noah said simply.  No hello or anything.  Had this been under other circumstances, Cole would have rushed over, but this was different.

“What’s going on?”

“Cole, get over here.  Right.  The fuck.  Now.”

“Alright, alright.  Jesus,” he muttered, ending the call.  He sprinted to the front door and grabbed his keys.

“Where are you going?” his mom asked as he opened the door.

“My partner needs me right now.  I’ll call you when I get there, I promise.  I just have to go.  Like, right now.”

“Drive safely, Cole,” she warned him, closing the door once he’d left.  Cole clambered into his car and pulled out of the driveway.  He’d never driven so fast and carefully at the same time before.  In fact, this was probably the best driving he’d done in his two years of experience.  Noah’s lights were on and he was outside on the porch.  Cole parked and climbed out, jogging around to see what was up.

“What’s wrong?” he started.  Noah jumped up, startling Cole.

“Where is he?”

“What?  Where is who?”

“Robert?” he cried, running his hands through his hair.  “I know you only kept him to talk to me, but I don’t want to talk to you anymore, okay, man?  I just want to finish this project.”

“I did what you said!  I left him on the front porch like you told me to.”

“Bullshit!  Bullshit.  Where is he then?” Noah crossed his arms and looked around the front yard.  “I don’t think he stood up and suddenly walked away, Cole.  So where is he?”

“Why – why are you getting mad at me?  I don’t have the damn baby, okay?  I drove over here, placed him on the porch, rung the doorbell and disappeared like some damn LifeTime movie.”

“Dammit, Cole, this isn’t some joke.  Where is Robert?”

“I don’t fucking know!” Cole yelled back, stepping closer to Noah.  Noah glared at him and shook his head.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Please don’t make this about me.  You said you would get home as soon as possible.”

“And I did!” Noah shot back.

“Then you would have seen Robert sitting in his little green basketball shirt, his jeans, and his yellow socks, waiting for you.”

“I didn’t see a goddamn thing when I got back.”

“Then… then someone stole him.”  Noah stared at him blankly.  Cole looked around and shrugged.

“You think…” Noah said, processing this in his head, “you think that someone came over to my house and kidnapped our fake baby?  Do you realize how fucking stupid you sound right now?”

“What did you want me to say?  He’s not here, is he?  You don’t have him, I don’t have him.  Someone has him, but it’s clearly not us.”

“And how do I know you’re not just keeping him at your house?”

“Dude!  I don’t have the goddamn baby, okay?  You told me not to talk to you and I kept away.  I’m not like that.”  Noah scoffed and turned to leave.  “What?”

“Nothing.  You just coulda fooled me.”  Cole smiled with disbelief.

“Don’t.  I’m not in the mood right now.”

“You’re not in the mood, Cole?  Oh, I’m sorry!  Maybe if you had given me the baby like I asked –,”

“I don’t have the fucking baby, Noah!” he shouted, shoving Noah backward.  Noah stumbled and fell to one knee, looking up at Cole in shock.  Cole realized what he’d done and stepped back before rushing forward, bending down to help the other boy up.  “I’m so sorry, Noah, I –,”

“Leave.”

“I… alright.”  Cole began standing.  Something in the bushes caught his attention and he froze.  “Noah, turn around.”

“What?” he asked suspiciously.

“Look, right there.”  He pointed at the blue and green striped sock in the leaves.  “You know who’s that is, yeah?”

“That’s Robert’s,” he said once he’d rolled over, picking the small article of clothing up from the shrubbery.  “This is his sock.”

“I told you.  I was here today.  Only, he wasn’t wearing that one.  I mean, they were up front with him in the carrier, but he didn’t have them on.”  The sound of crickets filled their silence.  Noah examined the sock carefully.

“If you put him on the porch like you said you did, then how’d it get down here?”

“Exactly,” Cole replied, looking around slowly.  It felt like someone was watching him and he couldn’t see them in the dark.

“So, you were right.  This isn’t some kind of stupid plan to get me talking to you again.  Someone… someone really did just steal our baby.  Our baby that’s the biggest project of the year.”  Noah blinked a few times.  He couldn’t logically deal with this.  Cole, on the other hand, could.

“Well, shit.”