“Are you done yet?” Noah asked, an impatient growl to his tone.  Laura smile and dipped another fry into the puddle of ketchup on her hamburger wrapper.  In the time it had taken her to eat her burger, Noah had already finished his shake and his chicken nuggets.  For all he knew, Mara would be back at school before Laura had eaten her meal.

“Why are you in such a hurry?  We’ll be fine, okay?”

“I just want to get these clothes to her and get back to school.  We’ve got an extra day, but that doesn’t mean we can just waste time now.”

“Jesus, you’ve got an entire tree stuck up your ass, don’t you?”  Laura sighed and quickly ate a few more fries before taking their bags of food and dumping them in the small trash bin a few feet away.  She wiped her mouth with a napkin and applied another coat of lip gloss while Noah watched on.  “There, happy?”

“Very,” he grumbled.  He pushed his chair in and waved her towards Mara’s direction.  Laura paused, put on a fake smile, and headed over to the girl.  He watched silently, straining to hear what they were talking about.  Mara brushed her dark hair out of her face and looked up when Laura called her name.

“I don’t mean to interrupt you and your friends, but I just wanted to say hey!  How are you?”

“You’re not interrupting us!  We were just about to go, actually.  And I’m doing great.  You?”

Noah looked around the food court, stepping further away from Mara so that she wouldn’t notice him.  In doing so, he bumped into a group of guys.  He apologized and glanced at the boy wearing the same band tee that Naomi had turned into an outfit for Amber-Lynn.  Some people had the worst taste in music.  When he turned back around, Laura was staring at him and nodding her head to Mara and her group.  It took him a moment to realize they were going outside and that he needed to follow.

He grabbed his cup from the table and tailed them, staying a few yards back so that he didn’t look like he was stalking them.  He overheard them talking about where they’d parked.  “I’m actually right here,” Laura said, slipping her keys out of her pocket and unlocking her car.  Mara and the other three with her stopped.  Noah quickly ducked behind a black SUV and watched through the tinted windows.

“That reminds me!  My mom was cleaning out the closet and she found these old baby clothes.”  Laura produced Naomi’s chest and placed it on the trunk of her car.  “I heard that if you donate baby clothes to Ms. Baxter, she’ll give you extra credit.  You’re the only one that I know from that class, so I figured you’d want them.”

“Oh my gosh, Laura!”  Mara pulled the other girl into a hug and opened the top of the chest, looking inside at all of the clothes.  She examined a few of the shirts and socks.  “We don’t have much more time with Amber-Lynn, but I think she’d look adorable in these.  Thank you so much!”  Laura laughed and hugged the girl back once more.

“No big deal,” she said.  “I’m glad you like them.”

“Oh, I love these.  I’m gonna repay you, I promise.”  Mara scooped up the surprisingly light chest and tucked it under her arm.  “I’ll see you at school.  And thank you again!”

“You’re welcome!”  Laura watched the four teenagers head to their car.  When the coast was clear, Noah walked to the passenger’s side and looked at the girl.

“Good work.”

“It’s the least I could do,” she said sincerely.  Noah nodded and let a smile come to light.  He climbed into the car and waited for her to do the same.  He let out a breath of relief.  That was one more point they could mark off their list.  They’d have to watch where she took the box that night, but soon they’d have Robert back.  All of this anxiety would be over.  Senior year wasn’t supposed to be this stressful – especially not for a class like this – but even though it was typically a blow-off class, having a poor grade would still mess up his transcript in the long run.  What kind of moron got anything less than a C in a parenting class?

If things went over well tonight and tomorrow, it would be Anthony.

Cole had all but begged his mother that night to let his friends stay over.  He promised they’d be quiet.  He’d sworn up and down they’d clean up any mess they made.  The deciding factor was when he offered to do the dishes for the next week.  Sighing dramatically, his mom had agreed to let Cole’s friends come over.

Four hours later, Naomi, Noah, Kacey, and Paul had arrived with bags of snacks and movies in tote.  Paul almost looked green but he was still a trooper about it.  He’d shown up with a bag of pretzels and carbonated water, which Cole suspected were for him alone.  Pretzels weren’t Cole’s favorite snack anyways.  They all got comfortable in his bedroom, Naomi and Kacey occupying his bed while he, Noah, and Paul sat on the carpet.  Breaking the silence, Kacey said,

“Hey, Cole?  What did your mom mean by the N-word?”

“Oh, just that we don’t talk about No…”  He glanced at Noah and cleared his throat.  “New Awlins.  You know, New Orleans?  Yeah, Mom hates that place.  So we don’t talk about it?  Um.”  Kacey seemed unsatisfied by the answer but nodded anyways.  She dug her hand into her box of Cheez-Its and happily ate her food in silence.

“Super awkward,” Naomi laughed, grabbing the remote from the nightstand next to Cole’s bed and turning on the television.  Paul sighed and turned to watch it as well, opening up his laptop absently.  Cole watched him for a moment before asking,

“Is that what we’re gonna be tracking them on?”

“Yeah, I had August help set it up for us.  I saw Mara give Anthony the chest in the parking lot, so right now it’s at his place.  I don’t think that’s where he’s keeping Robert, though.  He knows that you two want the baby back, and keeping it somewhere easily accessible like that would be too stupid, even for him.”  Cole nodded in agreement.  As dumb as he was, Anthony at least deserved the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe he was smarter than he let on.

“We’ll just have to keep a watch on it.  See if the dot moves.  Probably won’t happen tonight since it’s like, eight,” Cole said.

“Probably writing in his diary,” Noah smirked.  Kacey snorted and covered her mouth so she wouldn’t accidentally laugh and spit out any orange globs of food.

“Speaking of diaries,” Naomi began.  “Did you take any of the pages out?  I read most of it before we handed it over to him, and when I got home and printed out another copy, there were more entries in there.”

Cole – clearing his throat before he spoke – tried to come up with something as quickly as possible.  “Oh, yeah.  I spilled soda on a few entries so I had to toss them.  They’d look tacky when we handed them over to Anthony,” he laughed.

“Oh, okay!  I would’ve loved to see the look on his face when I mentioned his future, and college, and all that,” she said.  The tone of her voice proved it would have made the moment that much greater if she’d had that information to use against the boy.

“His future?” Noah asked, looking at Cole.  He didn’t try to hide his suspicious curiosity.

“Uh… yeah.  There wasn’t a lot, thankfully.  I would have felt worse if I’d spilled it on the good secrets.”  He shot Noah a look back that told him to drop the subject.  Thankfully Naomi wasn’t watching them.  Instead, she, Kacey, and Paul were all glued to the television.  Naomi began laughing hysterically.

“There is no way!  Oh my god, I need to call August.  His mom’s on the news with a couple of her friends, protesting some more.  She needs to give it a rest already.”  She hopped up and ran out of the room, her phone already in her hands.  Paul chuckled before he changed the channel.  Sharing another look with Noah, Cole cleared his throat and stood up.

“So, sleeping arrangements are to be made before it gets too late.  Paul, my mom said that since you and Naomi are a thing, you’ve gotta sleep downstairs on the couch.  She knows you aren’t feeling well, either, so we’ve got a bucket for you.”

“You guys spoil me,” he said sarcastically.

“It’s the least we could do, buddy.  My mom also said that the girls get to sleep in my room, since they’re guests.  And that Noah and I can use the guest bedroom.”

“Again,” Noah added.

“Yeah, again.  This time without a baby to wake us up.”

“That’s not fair,” Paul complained.  “Naomi and I haven’t even gotten to second base yet.  You two went all the way and I’m the one who has to sleep on the couch.  What kinda racist…”  Paul shook his head and tried to hide his smile.

“You salty?” Cole asked.

“Damn straight.”

“You are, and it’s such a shame!  C’mon, Noah, I need you to help me get the air mattress out of the garage.”

Noah raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest.  “You had an air mattress?  And you let me sleep on the floor?”  Cole laughed uncomfortably.

“Well, that was when I didn’t like you.  Would it make you feel better if I slept on the mattress and you got the bed?”

“It would, actually.”

“Then I will,” Cole said, walking to the door.  “Just help me find it.  It’s somewhere under all the crap that we have piled up in the garage.”  The other boy hopped up and followed him out of the room, sliding past Naomi as she returned from her call.  They headed downstairs, waving at Cole’s parents before opening the garage door and beginning their search for the hidden mattress.

After ten minutes of grunting and complaining about potential dust mites, Noah found the torn up box with the blue plastic mattress inside.  They returned to the guest room and slipped it out, grimacing at the state.  Cole flipped the box upside down, waiting for the air pump to fall out.  The folded up plastic was the only thing inside.  Sighing dramatically, he hopped up from his seat on the ground and called down to his parents over the balcony.

“Guys, do we have an air pump anywhere?”

“No, that’s why we never use the air mattress,” his dad replied back.

“Ugggggh,” he groaned, ready to fling himself over the railings.  He leaned against the doorway, watching as Noah read over the box.  He chuckled about something he read.  Cole smiled and took his seat.  “So, we don’t have an air pump.  Looks like we’re doing this au naturel.”

“Just how I like it,” Noah said.  “Here, you can blow it first.  I like watching you blow.”  That evil, toothy grin had returned.  Cole wanted to shove away his five o’clock shadowed face but resisted the urge.

“Alright, I’ll go first.  Make sure you’re watching closely.  I’ll teach you the proper way to blow it so it’s nice and firm.”  Cole grabbed the flattened mattress and wrapped his lips around the hole where the pump was supposed to go.  Without breaking eye contact, he began blowing air.  If they had to do this by hand – or mouth – they’d be there for a while.  Noah watched, a giddy laugh just in the back of his throat.  Cole shot him with his best pair of sexy eyes.  When he felt like it was time to stop, he handed it over to Noah.

“Your turn to blow.”  Noah nodded once and took over, huffing into the flat mattress.  Once he was done, he handed it over to Cole, who in turn repeated the same process.  After nearly ten minutes of silent blowing, the mattress was done.

“Nice and stiff,” Noah said.

“Same here.”  Cole joked.  He stood up and spun around on his heels.  “I’ll go get the blankets.”  He headed out of the room and down the hallway, adjusting the painfully obvious lump in his jeans.  Out of earshot from the other boy, he took a deep breath and opened the closet.  “Dead babies.  Cold showers.  Naked Grandma.  Dirty diapers.  Vagina.  Textbooks.  Cesspool,” he whispered to himself, trying to cool off as quickly as possible.  Maybe it was the fact that they were getting rid of their air and becoming lightheaded or maybe it was just being in the same room alone with Noah, but for whatever reason, he’d gotten more into that than he should have.

He returned to the bedroom with the sheets and fluffy comforter.  Noah was lounging on the air mattress, his hands beneath his head.  Cole caught a glance of the hair leading down from his navel to his pants and quickly averted his eyes.

“On second thought, I want to sleep on this.  It’s kind of comfy.”

“But I already got my hopes up for using these sheets.  They’re so soft!”

“Who’s the guest in the house?”  Cole’s expression proved he knew he wasn’t going to win this argument.

“Whatever.  Here, you put the sheets on, then.”  Noah chuckled and rolled onto the ground, eager to get his bed set up.

“I’m gonna sleep great tonight,” he said enthusiastically.

At seven in the morning, Noah was woken up by Paul.  He groaned and batted away the hands that shook him from his peaceful sleep.  It was the weekend, for heaven’s sake.  He should at least get to sleep in on a three day weekend!  Paul was persistent though, shaking him even harder.  Noah huffed and sat up.  “What?”

“I need you to come with me and Kacey.”

“Why?  What’s wrong?”

“Anthony’s moving that box from his house.  Naomi and Cole were up until four in the morning watching movies downstairs and I’m gonna let them sleep, but I think you should come with me to see if you know where he’s headed.”

“But…” he began, sighing reluctantly.  He knew he’d have to go with them, especially since Robert was his baby and he had yet to spend any real time alone with him.  Noah wiped away any night slobber he might’ve had on his face and rubbed his eyes for a moment.  While he got up, Paul slipped on his shoes and grabbed his laptop bag.  Once both of them were dressed, they headed out to the car where Kacey sat happily, singing along to the radio.

They buckled up after deciding that Paul would drive and Noah would keep tabs on where the tracking device was headed.  He typed in the password and opened up the map, instantly spotting the green dot moving around at a slow pace.  “Alright, he’s headed north on 32nd.  I think if you cut through the neighborhood and take the back way to the high school, we can park and wait for him to pass by.  We’ll tail him after that.”

“Alright, hold onto something then,” Paul said just before swinging into an empty driveway and shifting into reverse.  He backed the car out fluidly, and while he began driving once more, Kacey reached between the two of them and turned the station.

“This isn’t car chase music.  I know the perfect station!”  She searched through the radio stations for a moment until settling on the big band one.

“God, what are we, in the Mob?” Paul asked.

“Well, we’ll sure as hell give him a Columbian necktie if he does anything to Robert,” said Noah.  Kacey crinkled her face.

“A what?”

“It’s when you slash their throat and pull their tongue thr –,”

“Noah, he stopped moving,” Paul quickly cut in.  Noah turned his attention to the laptop.

“That’s weird…  He’s not by any houses…”  A second later, it hit him.  “Oh!  He stopped at the gas station.”  Paul leaned in closer to take a look for himself.

“Oh.  Nothing to get excited about then, I guess.”

They exited Cole’s neighborhood and turned onto the street, only three hundred yards away from Anthony.  Kacey’s car – which they were driving in since it would be the least recognizable if Anthony caught wind of them tailing him – was a black sedan.  It was surprisingly simple for someone with her personality.  Noah had originally thought she might drive a lime green VW or something like that.  As they rolled up to the light a few feet away from the gas station, they watched Anthony climb back into his Jeep and head to the exit.  When the light was green, Paul stepped on the gas and tried to catch up to him.

“Not so close,” Noah warned him lightly.  Paul nodded, his eyes full of determination as he eased up on the acceleration.  When they were about twenty feet behind him, Anthony turned into another neighborhood and maneuvered through the confusing layout until he found his destination.

“Is this where he’s keeping them?” Kacey asked, her face pressed near the window.

“It looks like it,” Noah replied.  Paul once again pulled into another empty driveway and turned his body around so that he could look out of the back window.  Anthony hopped down from his Jeep and opened the back door, pulling out the chest full of clothing and a few bags from the gas station.  He then walked up to the front door and knocked a few times.  A moment later the door opened and Mara let him inside.  Noah scoffed.

“Of course she’d have Robert.”

“What do you mean?”  Paul pulled his eyes away from the window to look at Noah.

“I mean, she seemed really nice to her friends and to Laura, but she has Robert in there.  I thought she was just pulled into this like Laura was, but what kind of person keeps someone else’s project like that other than Anthony?  She’s just as bad as he is.”  Kacey dug around through her purse and pulled out a pink slip of paper she couldn’t remember ever getting.  She flipped it over to the blank side.

“Here, write her address down on this.  We’ll come back tomorrow and get those babies.  Then, we’ll like, I dunno, throw theirs in trash or something.”  Noah smiled slightly at her enthusiasm.  Paul grabbed a pen from the glove compartment and scribbled down her address.  He then folded the paper up and put it in his pocket, popping his last antacid to keep his stomach calm.

“There we go.  We’ll be back tomorrow for this baby.  We’ll shut ‘em down, don’t worry,” he assured Noah.  Paul pulled out of the driveway and headed home.  Now all that was left was figuring out how to get inside Mara’s house without being detected.