The worst part about meeting the friend of a friend was actually meeting the friend of a friend.  Cole smiled at August, his hands clasped behind his back uncomfortably.  He had no idea what to say to the boy, leaving Naomi hanging.  She looked between them and rolled her eyes dramatically.  “Just follow me up to my room.”  As the three made their way upstairs, Cole peeked into the living room to find her mom splayed out on the ground, drenched in sweat as the cardio DVD played on their television.  He smiled to himself and headed upstairs after the others.  Naomi’s house wasn’t that big so it only took a few steps from the staircase to her bedroom.  It was much cozier than Cole’s place that was for sure.

Her room was as vibrant as her hair color.  The wall her bed was against was painted a combination of dark blues and purples.  August stared at the mural on her wall and Cole doubted he was thinking about anything other than the outer space vibe it gave off.  Over her bookshelf, fake flowers were suspended in the air by wire so thin it was nearly invisible.  Naomi flung open her closet doors and clapped her hands together.  “Let’s do it!  August, you start hacking.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, unzipping his backpack and taking a seat on her plush bed.  Cole kicked off his shoes and walked towards her.

“I don’t see why we can’t just buy a bunch of baby clothes from the store,” Cole mumbled, peeking around in her closet.

“Have you been to the store lately?  That shit’s expensive and if you haven’t noticed, none of us have jobs.  Well, except Kacey, but even then, she makes minimum wage.  So, if we want these clothes, we’re gonna have to make them ourselves.  Now quit complaining and hand me that hideous band shirt over there,” she said.  Cole reached for the silver top and tossed it at her.  She paused and cocked an eyebrow at it.  “Can’t believe I liked these guys in middle school.  Probably because they were local.  It was real, Break 5,” she muttered.

Cole helped Naomi collect a few more tops and bottoms before closing the doors to the closet and taking a seat on the armchair next to her sewing machine.  “How do you know how to make stuff that small?”

“Pinterest, duh,” Naomi replied.

“Fair enough,” Cole smiled, pulling his feet under his body.  He reached into his pocket and opened the text he’d gotten while they were looking for material to recycle.  “Uh…”

“What?”  Cole looked up at Naomi with a confused expression on his face.

“Paul wants to know if we can all pitch in ten bucks.”

“For what?” she asked over the noise of the sewing machine.

“No idea.  I’m gonna call him, I’ll be back.”  Cole left the room a second later.  It was way too loud in there for him to talk on the phone.  It took Paul three rings before he picked up the phone. 

“So?” he asked.

“I guess we can, but what for?”

“We’re gonna buy a cheap ass tracking device.”  Cole laughed before realizing that it wasn’t a joke.  He cleared his throat awkwardly.

“You’re serious?  A tracking device, man?”  As much as he loved watching action movies or spy flicks, this was a bit too much for even Cole.  It wasn’t like they were looking for stolen millions and Anthony was the prime suspect.

“Do you have any other ideas on how we can find your son?  It’s all we could come up with.  Laura said that if we lied and told Anthony that he could get extra credit for donating clothes for other babies, he’d probably take them without it raising any red flags.  So, we’re gonna find some way to track the basket of clothing.  He’ll probably put some on Amber Rose or whatever her name was.”

“Amber-Lynn,” Cole laughed.

“Yeah, her.  If we can get Anthony’s partner Mara to give him the basket, we won’t even have anything to do with it.  He’ll never know we were behind it.  Then, we can find where they’re keeping Robert and we can –,”  Before Paul finished his sentence, there was a shuffle and someone complaining in the background.

“Cole, just get us the money as soon as possible, okay?  We don’t have much time before Friday,” Noah said firmly.

“Alright, whatever.”  Cole hung up the phone and returned to the two sitting in Naomi’s room.  “Any luck hacking?”

“I’m almost done with it, actually,” August said without looking up from his computer.  His fingers moved over the keys with tact and precision.  For a moment, Cole watched him work at an impressive speed.

“How do you know how to do this?”  Naomi laughed loudly.

“He was a bit of a creep before he got a boyfriend,” she informed him.

“Hush.  My dad worked with computers when I was little and I learned from him,” August replied with a grin.  “If my hands weren’t busy, I’d flip my hair at you.”  Cole smiled and sat down in the chair once more.

“How many things are you gonna make?” he asked Naomi.

“I don’t know.  Maybe a few shirts, onesies, and some half-assed bibs?  What did Paul want the money for?”

“We’re pulling a James Bond.  He wants the money so we can all pool it together and buy a tracking device.  He said we’d hide it in the clothing or something so that we could follow them until they take it back to wherever Robert is.”

“Ah.  Well, that’s exciting.  And here I was thinking my senior year would be boring,” she said as she flipped the shirt inside out and examined the stitching.  Satisfied, she tossed it to the boy next to her.  He grinned and inspected the rest of it.

“Looks professional,” he said.

“I am professional,” she teased.

By eight o’clock that night, Naomi had created seven shirts and two plaid onesies.  This feat was enough to make Cole consider taking up sewing.  He had plenty of old clothing that he could reuse in some way or another.  She kicked him in the side to wake him up from his nap then sprinkled the tiny clothing over his face.  Cole sat up and rubbed his eyes.  “You finished them?”

“Not yet, but my hands hurt.  I’ll finish up tomorrow.  But that’s not what’s important,” she said eagerly.  Cole looked around for the source of her excitement and spotted the printer spitting out sheet after sheet of paper.

“What’s going on?”

“August got in!  He had to leave, but he copied all of Anthony’s personal documents before he went.  I was looking through them – which means I had to sift through so much porn – and right when I thought he had nothing worthy of blackmail, I found it.”  Naomi waved him over to the printer.  Cole stood up and stretched before he walked to her.  “Look at this,” she grinned.

He took the piece of paper from her hands and slowly smiled.  “You found his journal?”

“We found his journal,” she said triumphantly.  “There’s so much shit in there.  He talks about everything.  Movies, people, me, you name it.  Did you know he had a weird sexual dream about him, me, and Paul?”

“Gross,” Cole muttered, reaching for more of the entries.  He thumbed through them, shaking his head in disbelief.  This was definitely something Anthony wouldn’t want coming out for everyone to see.  “Ew, he likes Nickelback?”

“Now you see why we split up?”

“God, yes,” he said.

“You don’t understand how happy I am.  I didn’t think we’d find anything and we’d be screwed.  He wouldn’t be distracted.  But now that we have this…”  Naomi sighed dreamily and collected the last batch of papers.  She handed them to Cole.  “Mom says you’ve gotta since it’s Mother-Daughter Movie Night, but read these tonight.  You can give them back when you’re done with them tomorrow or whatever,” she said.  Cole nodded and reached for his backpack.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder.  While he walked to the staircase, he thumbed through all the entries.  There had to be at least one hundred of them.  There were plenty of secrets within the pages, and for the first time in a while, Cole felt like he was going to win.

The drive back to his house wasn’t very long, and on the way he’d glanced at a few entries.  From the short car ride, he’d learned that Anthony couldn’t ride a bike, he’d never been to Disney Land, and his mother had a drinking problem.  As much as he wanted to destroy Anthony’s life, talking about that crossed the line in his eyes.  He too had dark stuff in his past, and the idea of everyone in town knowing about it turned his stomach.

His mom and dad were in their bedroom when he got home.  He poked his head in to say hello then went to his room, ready to spend the rest of the night flipping through the pages and learning more about his enemy than he ever thought possible.

One particular entry stuck out to him.  Anthony talked about his future and what he wanted to do with his life.  The only way to get out of his environment was to get into a good college but he lacked the money to do so.  His grades weren’t even up to par.  Without hesitation, Cole reached for the entry and set it aside.  He flipped through the stack again, collecting all of the entries that weren’t okay to talk about.

Topics such as alcohol abuse, physical abuse, and his future were off-limits.  Naomi probably hadn’t read through all of them so she wouldn’t even know they were missing.  After he’d double-checked the papers, he carried the smaller stack over to the trashcan.  Standing over it, he ripped each page to shreds.  By the time he was finished Cole had a small pile of secrets only he and Anthony knew about.

He carried the can out to his garage and opened the small trashcans they had near the door.  Moving back and forth, he sprinkled a small amount into each, mixing them up with the rest of the garbage.  Better safe than sorry, he thought.  The door behind him creaked and he spun around quickly.

“What’re you doing?” his mother asked.

“Oh, I was just cleaning out my room.  I didn’t want the cans to overflow so I spread it all out,” he laughed nervously.  “W-what are you doing?”  His mother raised the bag of garbage in her hands without a word.  “Oh.  Well then,” he said.  Cole stepped out of her way and pecked her on the cheek as she passed.

“You going to bed?”

“Not yet, but soon.  I’ve got some homework left over that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible.”

“Alright, I love you.”

“Love you too, Mom,” he grinned, heading back up to his room to finish reading.