Wednesday.  Wednesday meant Cole only had two days left.  There were only two days before the deadline and they still hadn’t figured out where Robert was.  The approaching deadline gave him the worst kind of stomach ache.  He could digest all the antacids he wanted and he’d still feel completely sick to his stomach.  Managing the school day was stressful, but being in the same classroom as Anthony was a true test of will.  As much as he wanted to cross the room and take the guy by the collar of his shirt, Noah convinced him otherwise.

“Cole?” he asked, pulling his attention away from Anthony.  Cole looked at him and cocked an eyebrow with irritation.  “Forget about him.  We’re gonna find Robert before Friday, I promise.”

“You can’t promise that,” Cole muttered, flipping through their parenting book.  He whipped the pages from right to left, piquing the interest of a girl sitting at the next table.  Noah shrugged at her and she returned to her work.

“Look at me, man,” Noah said, placing his hand on Cole’s side.  The whipping stopped almost as fast as it started.  Cole’s gaze fell on the other’s hand.  Noah moved it away and shook the moment off.  “You of all people should know how mean I can be.”

“You’re not mean,” Cole said.

“No?”

“No.  You’re annoying as hell.”

“Whatever, man,” Noah grinned.  “Either way, you know how I get.  And I want to get that way with Anthony.  I want us all to curb stomp him.  But you can’t just rush him.  He’s got some intimidating friends.”

“Noah Whitaker?  Intimidated?  Wow,” Cole said, feigning horror.

“I’m gonna smack the sarcasm out of your pretty little face if you don’t stop,” Noah threatened, his smile pacifying any possible fear Cole might’ve felt.

“Sorry, sorry.  You were saying?”

“He’s got friends – somehow – and they’re loyal as hell.  Think, Naomi, but with stubble and a hundred pounds of muscle.”

“They sound disgusting,” Cole said as he drummed his fingers on the desk. He glanced back at Anthony at the sound of his laugh.  Even that was obnoxious at this point.

“They’re pretty disgusting.”

“Remind me again why you hung with them?”

“Sometimes,” Noah sighed, looking down at his textbook.  “Sometimes you just involved with the wrong people.”  Cole noticed that he didn’t look at him as he said this.  He too looked down at their textbook.

“Yeah, I guess,” he murmured softly.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to kill the conversation.  I –,”

“We’ll just ignore that,” Cole offered.

“That sounds great.”  He forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.  “Um… did you bring your money?”  Cole nodded and reached into the back pocket of his jeans.  He flipped open his leather wallet and slid the bill over to Noah.  “Thanks.”

“No problem.  You mind if I go with you guys?”

“Not at all.  The more, the merrier.  By the way, did Naomi finish those clothes?”

“Yeah, she showed me the pictures when I gave her back Anthony’s journal entries,” Cole said.

“Nice.  We’ll look for something to put the tracker in, too.  We don’t want him finding it and throwing us off.”  Cole scoffed in agreement.

“Sounds exactly like something he’d do.”

“Oh, he would.  Well, just meet me and Paul in the parking lot after school and we’ll go.”

“Will do,” Cole said.  The rest of the class period went along quite smoothly.  Together, the two of them finished the packet with ten minutes of class to spare.  Once the bell rang, they said their goodbyes and parted ways.  As he maneuvered through the irritatingly rambunctious hallway, Naomi appeared at his side, an evil grin on her face.  She carried the stack of papers from Anthony’s journal in the crook of her arm, a can of soda in her other hand.

“You look like you’re up to no good,” he said cautiously.

“I solemnly swear,” she replied.  She handed him her soda and began flipping through the papers, pulling one out and putting it on the top of the pile.  She thanked him as she took back her drink and said, “This one’s from last year when we were dating.  Read what he wrote about our first kiss.”

Cole leaned closer to the paper and skimmed over the entry.  He pretended to vomit after reading it.  “He’s horrible.”

“Right?  Like, why are you skipping straight to oral when I barely gave you permission to kiss me?”

“I wonder if Paul writes about you like that,” Cole teased.  She shot him a dirty look.

“Please, Paul’s not the type.  He’d just write me some song about loving my heart and how he wants to love my body, too.”

“Sorry, I thought we were talking about Paul, not Usher.”

“I hate you so fu…” she groaned, resisting the urge to laugh at Cole’s joke.  “Hey, by the way, you should come over and help me clean out my closet.”

“I thought that’s what we did last night?”  Cole began spinning the lock on his silver locker.  Naomi crossed her arms and leaned against the other ones nearby.

“The thing is, when I was looking for things to cut up, I realized I had a bunch of things that weren’t even cute enough to make into baby clothes.  You remember my slut phase?”

“When you teased your hair and your skirts were basically bikini bottoms?”

“Yeah, that phase.  I’ve got a ton of slutty things in my closet that I don’t need, so I’m gonna donate them.  Maybe a little streetwalker-in-training will find some good use for all my golden sequined skirts.”

“Fine.  But it’s gotta be after I help Paul and Noah.”

“Oh, of course.  Don’t wanna interrupt boy time,” she said.  Cole smiled and closed his locker.

“I’ll be at your place right after we finish, I promise.”  Naomi glanced up at the clock on the wall and began walking backwards, blowing him kisses.

“I’ve got a lunch date with Laura.  We’ll be planning on how to blackmail Anthony.  Love you, love you, love you,” she said.  Cole chuckled and turned on his heels, heading to lunch.

Lily Blackmar’s eyes perked up when three teenage boys walked through the doors of Best Buy.  Her shift had just started and she was already getting cute boys?  Upon further inspection, she lost her enthusiasm.  It was just Cole and his weird friends.  “Welcome, don’t ask me for help,” she said over her shoulder as she walked off to help another customer.  Noah smirked and bumped shoulders with Cole.

“You think I have a chance with that one?” he whispered.

“Oh, definitely,” Cole laughed, burying his hands in his pockets.

“Follow me,” Noah said.

“Well, it looks like we’re on our own this time,” Paul sighed, glancing around the store.  “Where would tracking devices be?” he asked, looking back at where the others were supposed to be standing.  Rather than seeing them, he realized he was alone.  Sighing once more, he began wandering through the aisles, searching for them.

It didn’t take long to find Cole and Noah playing on one of the Playstations.  The soccer game was apparently heated because neither of them spoke.  Their eyes remained glued to the television.  One of the boys watching from behind was just as into it as they were.  Not having the heart to break up their game, Paul left them to it as he perused the store looking for a decently priced tracking device.

Noah cheered in victory ten minutes later.  Cole rolled his eyes and returned the controller to its spot on the stand.  “I totally let you win, you know that right?”

“Aw, that’s cute that you’re telling yourself that,” Noah said sweetly.

“That’s easy to say when you’re a cheater.”

“Which is it, man?  Did I cheat or did you let me win?”

“Both,” Cole said, shoving him into one of the bins of video games.  He stumbled and laughed.  The two caught up to Paul after their game.  He tapped his chin as he passed by the multiple styles of tracking devices.  Cole’s eyes lit up and he rushed towards one, lifting it from the shelf and showing it off to the others.

“Look at this one,” he said, displaying the dog collar device.  “It’s perfect for a bitch like Anthony.”  Noah snickered.

“Look at you being sassy,” he smiled.  Paul couldn’t help but chuckle as well.  Being around these two wasn’t going to make this situation boring, he could tell already.  Cole placed the collar down after glancing at the price.  They didn’t have three hundred dollars.  He then moved over to where Noah and Paul stood.  The area they looked at was much more reasonably priced.

“Check out this one,” Paul said.  He grabbed the small package from the other products.  “It’s only seventy and some change.”  He then handed it to Noah so he could inspect it.

“Doesn’t feel too heavy. What do you think?”  He tossed the package to Cole.

“Nope, I like how it feels.  And it’s got GPS, too.  We can track that, right?”

“If not us, then Naomi’s friend can,” Paul said.  “So should we get that one?”  Cole shrugged and handed it over.

“I like it.”

“Me too,” Noah agreed.

“Then boom.  Let’s go,” Paul smiled, spinning around and heading to a cashier.  His stomach groaned and he ignored it.  It had been acting up all day, ever since lunch.  As he walked, he examined the packaging once more, reading over all the details.  It wasn’t too expensive and it looked like it did the job well.  He placed it on the counter and flipped open his wallet, thumbing through the bills.

“Your friends look like a handful,” the man working the register said as he rung Paul up.  When he spotted the boy’s confused face, he nodded towards Noah and Cole.  Rather than being behind him like they were just moments ago, they’d ditched him for the music section.  Cole pointed at a CD and must have said something because a moment later they were laughing.

“Yeah, they… they’re interesting.  Keep the change,” he said before handing the cashier his money.  The man dropped the receipt and device in the bag and handed it to him.

“Have a nice day,” the man said.

“You too, Jason,” Paul replied after looking at his nametag.  He called out for the other two and they begrudgingly left the stand.  Cole quickly dropped the CD on Jason’s counter and slid him a twenty.  Paul waited patiently before the three of them headed out to the car.  When they were all situated in the car, Cole tore the plastic from the CD and smiled.

“Put it in,” Noah said, excitement in his voice.

“If you know what I mean,” Cole retorted deviously.

“What CD is that?” Paul asked as he pulled out of the parking space.

“Believe,” Cole said, sliding it into the proper slot.  He skipped to the second song, excitedly glancing over his shoulder at Noah.  The song began and Paul made a face.

“Bieber?  Boyfriend?  Jesus…” Paul complained.

“This was Noah’s song and he’s going straight to Hell if he denies it!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Noah mumbled, bobbing his head to the song.  “I know every lyric, beat, and sound that went into this one.”

“Take the stage then,” Cole said.

“Gladly.”  Noah began singing off-key and shamelessly, much to the pleasure of Paul and Cole.

“How was boy time?” Naomi asked after a few moments of silence.  Cole had plopped down on the bed and was staring up at the ceiling.  He sighed and rolled over onto his side.  Tracing the designs of her fluffy comforter with his finger, he said,

“It was nice.  Surprisingly so.”

“Yeah?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him.  “Why was it surprising?”

“Well, we didn’t get into a fight or anything.  It’s been a long time since that’s happened.”  It seemed like every time Cole and Noah were alone it always resulted in arguments and snide comments said under breaths.  They fought like cats and dogs almost one hundred percent of the time.  “He’s been pretty nice lately.”

“Maybe he wants the D back.”

“Don’t be gross,” Cole muttered, his finger moving over the blanket even slower.  Did Noah want to get back with him?  No, that wasn’t possible.  He was probably interested in Kacey, now.  He couldn’t blame her.  While she might not have been the brightest of their bunch, she was still a nice girl and was trying her best to help.  Her motivation behind that was a bit questionable but they weren’t in any position to turn away assistance.

“I’m not being gross.  I think he’s trying to forgive you for whatever you did, Cole.  Whatever you did with this Brent guy.”

“I don’t know,” Cole said, sitting up from the bed.  He really didn’t want to get into this right now.  All he wanted to focus his attention on was getting Robert back from Anthony.  He couldn’t allow himself to be distracted by the possible prospect of Noah getting back with him.  Cole hopped off the bed and opened the closet door.

“Let’s get to this.  I’ve got homework to do that doesn’t include crop tops.”  Naomi swiveled in her chair and walked to him.  She slipped past the boy and turned on the light, heading straight for one set of clothing now that she could see.

“We’ll start here.  Why my mother let me get a shirt that said, ‘cute hoe’ on it is beyond me,” she said.  Naomi dropped them to the ground in a pile.  “If it looks like something a scene girl would wear, toss it here.”

“Yesh ma’am,” Cole said, throwing up a peace sign.  “Rawr, squiggly.”  He then drew an air tilde.

“Don’t make me puke everywhere,” she said.  Cole giggled and began sifting through her large wardrobe, the hangers squeaking as he pushed them aside.  A sparkling dinosaur inside a heart caught his eye and he didn’t hesitate to toss it to the ground.  He also dropped a pink shirt covered in rainbows to the ground.  Naomi glanced down and with surprise said,

“Oh my god, no, that one’s my favorite.”  Cole squatted down and picked it up, holding it out to her.

“My bad,” he apologized.

“It’s okay.  I’ve just got good memories with this one.  We’ll keep it.”  Naomi placed it on a hanger and hung it next to the other t-shirts. Cole began to rise when a box in the back of the closet caught his eye.  He maneuvered around Naomi and pulled it out.  A swipe of his hand cleared away all of the dust from the lid.  It was about three feet wide and two feet tall.  It smelled of old wooden and faint perfume and an intricate design was carved into the top.

“What’s this?” he asked curiously.  She glanced down at him as she tossed a set of jeans into the pile on the floor.

“That’s where I used to put my CDs before I got a shelf.  Got it from my granddad in Florida right before he passed away last summer.”

“Ah, I remember that.  Wish I could have come with you that week.”

“Yeah, well it wasn’t very exciting.  Miss the old bastard though.”  Cole nodded solemnly then opened the lid.  The inside was empty, but as he ran his fingers over the bottom, he felt a small chain.  He pulled it and rather than just the metal piece, the entire bottom came up with it.  Taken aback, he made a noise of surprise.

“I think I just broke it,” he said fearfully.

“What?  Oh, no, it just has a false bottom.  I kept my dirtier CDs down there so my mom wouldn’t find them.”  Cole breathed a sigh of relief.  He couldn’t live with himself knowing he’d broken something her grandfather gave her before he died.  He placed it back carefully.

“You could hide drugs in there,” he laughed.  She playfully rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, scanning over their pile.

“We could take this out to my car.  I’ve got some plastic bags in the back that we can put them in.”

“Lead the way,” Cole said.  Naomi dropped down to scoop up half the pile and headed outside.  Cole followed behind, and before he put down what he was carrying to open the door, Naomi’s mother sashayed into the room and did it for them.  “Thank you,” he grinned.  Naomi used the button on her keys to pop the truck open, and together they filled the bags in the back with the clothing.

“Sayonara, Scene Naomi,” she said happily.

“May she and her Panic! at the Disco CDs bring others happiness on her journey onward,” Cole added.  Naomi nodded and closed the trunk.  “Hey, I was thinking about that box.  You think we could glue that false bottom down?”

“Maybe.  Why?”

“We could put the tracking device in the bottom then glue the false one down.  That way he can’t open it and find it.”  Naomi considered this before admitting that it was a good idea.

“We could also tear off that chain so he’ll think it’s the real bottom.”

“You sure you wouldn’t mind us tearing up your grandpa’s box?”  Naomi scoffed suddenly.

“I said he was an old bastard, didn’t I?”  Cole cracked a smile.

“Rest in peace, old man.”