Cole slowly opened his eyes and instantly regretted not closing the blinds the night before. It was too early for all that sunlight in his face. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and glanced around the room. Noah and the baby were both gone. After a small stretch in bed, Cole headed towards the bathroom to relieve himself. With freshly washed hands he made his way down the hall. Naomi and Paul weren't in his room either. Strange. The boy carried on down the stairs, searching for the other three teenagers. It didn't seem like them to just disappear at this early. As he stepped down the last few stairs the smell of bacon wafted towards him. He inhaled deeply and jogged into the kitchen to see what was going on. Maybe his mom had decided to cook him breakfast on her off day.

Instead of his mom standing at the stove, Noah carefully flipped sizzling bacon. Naomi and Paul sat at the dark wooden table, talking about the movie last night. When Cole caught Naomi's eyes, she smiled. "Morning, sleepyhead!"

"Sleepyhead? It's only seven," Cole replied. Noah looked over his shoulder at the boy.

"Early bird gets the worm. If you know what I mean," he grinned.

"You can totally put that at the end of any sentence and make it almost dirty," Paul laughed. He did have a point. Cole took a seat next to his friends at the table.

"I'm ready to eat. If you know what I mean," Cole smirked. Naomi shook her head and took a sip from her glass of orange juice. "So, what made you guys decide to go Martha Stewart this morning?"

"Well, you invited us to stay the night and then slept the longest. It was either Google how to make breakfast or eat each other," Noah replied, glancing over his shoulder at the three at the table. Paul snickered and his friends eyed him curiously.

"...If you know what I mean!" he blurted out. Naomi punched him in the arm despite the smile plastered across her face. Cole gave his friend a secret high five so that she wouldn't see it and hit them both. He stood up from his chair and headed towards the fridge.

"So, where is little Robert?" Cole asked, extracting a bottle of raspberry lemonade. He slid around Noah and pulled down a cup from the overhead cabinet.

"He's in the living room eating."

"Eating?" Cole stopped pouring the lemonade. "How is he eating when you're supposed to hold the bottle and rock him while he eats?" Noah grinned without looking at the other boy.

"Go look."

Cole took a quick swig of his drink before heading into the living room to see what exactly his friends had done. It wasn't until he was standing in the middle that he heard the distinct sound of his treadmill. That thing hadn't been turned on in years. He turned to face the machine and shook his head. "Jeez."

The carrier that Robert De Niro sat in had been tied to an old skateboard that Cole hadn't used since he was in middle school. The handle of the carrier had been tied to the bar used for holding onto that ran across the treadmill. To keep the bottle from falling, someone had created a feedbag-like creation on Robert's head. A winter beanie with tassels had been placed on Robert's head, the tassels tied together against the back of the bottle. Elastic hair bands that had surely come from Naomi kept the bottle from falling as well, stretching from the bottom of the bottle to the back of the baby's head. Cole stood in awe of their contraption. With this, they didn't have to hold anything, and instead of rocking the baby while it ate so it wouldn't cry, the slow movement of the skateboard and the treadmill did all the work. He turned on his heels and returned to the aroma-filled kitchen without saying a word.

"It's amazing, right?" Naomi asked, picking at a plate of eggs Noah must have served while he was in the other room. Cole nodded, trying to surpress his smile. It really did take a community to raise a baby. Well, a community, a treadmill, and an old skateboard, but still. He brushed hair from his face and headed to the stove.

"I can make your plate," Noah said when the boy neared.

"That's okay. I'm an independent black woman, I can do this on my own." Noah raised his hands in defeat, passing the spatula over to Cole. He took a seat at the table with Paul and Naomi. "Thank you guys," he finally said. Instead of responding, they smiled and continued eating their breakfast. Cole busied himself by flipping over bacon, humming a song he'd heard on the radio a few days ago. He hated the yuppy pop songs everyone obsessed over, but he couldn't help but love this one in particular. His stomach growled at the scent of cooking meat. Finally his breakfast was finished. All it took was a quick once-over at the table to see that Paul and Naomi were the only ones eating. He figured he'd be nice and make a plate for Noah. After all, he'd been surprisingly kind for no reason other than being kind. The hostility that was usually between them had disappeared last night.

Cole plated the eggs, bacon, and toast, poured a cup of coffee, and grabbed a fork from the drawers near the stove. He carried the mug and plate to the table and set it in front of Noah. Naomi didn't try to hide her surprise. With her mouth open and full of food, she gaped. Paul gently lifted her chin until her mouth was closed. Cole ignored her and turned his back, smothering his smile. "You know," Noah said suddenly, breaking the silence. Cole took a seat and waited for him to continue. "You probably should have let me make the food. I mean, I appreciate the effort, Cole, but these eggs are runny, my bacon is almost black, my coffee is bitter, and my toast is singed."

Cole stared at him. "What?" he asked, his hand clenching around his fork. Noah placed his hand on Cole's.

"I'm kidding," he grinned, his once judgmental face now one of mischeivous pleasure. Cole sighed in relief.

"I was gonna say. Eat a damn Poptart if you don't like my cooking," Cole said, covering his mouth while he talked. Spitting food at someone wasn't that cute.

"We were prepared for World War III over here," Paul said.

"I promise. Just kidding," he grinned.

After breakfast, Cole drove his friends home to change outfits before heading out to the park for a day of Pretend Family. Paul carried Robert on his shoulder while Noah held onto the car seat. Together, the group crossed the large field and headed towards the jungle gym and slides. They passed by the swingset, suspiciously eyeing a boy with long, dark hair. Naomi leaned close to Cole and whispered in his ear.

"Creepy, right?" she said. Cole tried to laugh quietly, though it didn't matter. The boy appeared to be waiting for someone and was completely absorbed in that task. The four made it to the jungle gym and Noah took the baby off Paul's hand. Although they knew they were all going to get the dirtiest of looks for what they were about to do, Paul, Naomi, and Cole ran towards the merry-go-round. Paul volunteered to push them first for a while. Cole climbed on first and helped Naomi get situated. "So," she said, gripping the bar as Paul began to spin them.

"So."

"Noah seems nice," she said, watching him as best she could. From afar, he appeared to be a nice guy swaddling a fake baby while he sat on the bench. Cole looked across the park at him as well, smiling.

"Yeah. He can be, when he's not being a complete dick."

"You still never told me how you lost the V card to him," she muttered. Cole sighed. He hated the idea of telling this story, but he knew that Naomi wasn't going to give up until she knew the juicy details.

"Alright, fine. I met him at this party. He had it at his place. A bunch of people brought booze, we both ended up drunk, and then we went up to his bedroom. Thankfully, I didn't puke all over him."

"Well, then why aren't you still with him?" Naomi flicked her head to get the hair out of her face. Trying to tell this story and spinning around in a circle made Cole feel sick, so he closed his eyes.

"His older brother had this really hot best friend. At first we were just friends. We'd go down to the beach. I'd watch them surf. We'd play volleyball. Total valley girl stuff, right? So then, when we were celebrating Ian - Noah's brother - 's birthday party, everyone thought it would be funny to lock me and Brent in the closet. We could hear them making jokes about us being in the closet, and since nobody knew that I actually was, it was horrible for me. I almost ended up crying. And then the strangest thing happened. Brent reached out and he hugged me. Out of the fucking blue, right?

"So then I hugged him back. We just hugged for a long time. He told me that it was okay and that I didn't have to feel bad. He said he understood how it felt to be someone he wasn't. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the fact that I'd just been in the arms of a ripped frat guy, but I kissed him. He pulled away and I felt like shit all over again. But instead of being disgusted, he assured me he was just unprepared for that. He was seeing someone and I shouldn't have done that, but it wasn't my fault because I didn't know."

"Sounds like a good boyfriend." Cole simply laughed. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just... there's a lot more than meets the eye. The story doesn't end happy for anyone." Before Naomi could ask why, Paul stopped spinning them and hopped on. Cole slid down from the merry-go-round and gripped one of the bars, readying himself to spin his two friends. Cole and Naomi shared a look of sadness. He took the bar and ran, throwing himself forward and channeling the sadness that he just couldn't shake to help his friends have fun.