Baby Daddies

Chapter Twenty: Plastic Eye

Noah was pissed off.  What else was new?  He sat on the curb outside of the school, his hands folded in his lap.  Naomi was in no mood to mess with him, and that was saying something.  She exchanged a look of worry with Paul.  He glanced at the seething boy next to him and sighed.  “Sorry, man,” he said.  And he meant it.  If he had been paying attention…

“It’s fine.  We’ll get them when we skip last period.  That is, if they’re not already leaving for the day.  You know, the concurrent enrollment thing.”

“I got rejected, so I don’t know how it works,” Paul said, taking a seat.

“Yeah, me too.  But fuck it.  We’ll get the guy soon enough.”

“Hey, Noah?”  He turned to look up at Naomi.  “Sorry for being a bitch earlier.  No, it’s not PMS or anything.  I’m just a bitch regularly, so I apologize.”  He waved it off and checked his cellphone.  Still no text back from Cole.

“It’s whatever.  I wasn’t nice either.  I’m never nice, actually,” he said, cracking a slight smile.  She too grinned and sat down next to the boys, drumming her fingers over her jeans.

“You don’t seem like it.  You attract more bees with honey than vinegar, my grandmother always says.”

“Tell your grandmother to stuff it,” Noah said sarcastically.

“Well, she’s stuffed in a coffin, so.”

“Shit, I’m sorry –,”

“I’m kidding,” Naomi laughed.  Noah sighed and shook his head, laughing at himself as well.  Today had already been stressful enough and it wasn’t even the second half of the day.  He really needed to let loose and laugh a little, even in his current situation.

“You’re a horrible person.  Do you guys want any chips?” he asked, digging around through his backpack.  A moment later, he removed five bags of various chips from the school vending machine.  He tossed a pack to each of them and opened his own.

“Five?” Paul asked with his mouth full.

“Cole.  He always got two bags of Cheetos whenever we ate at Subway, so I figured he might like them.”  Noah shrugged and turned his attention back to his phone.  The look Paul and Naomi shared proved they were thinking the same thing.  They didn’t bring it up though.  They’d learned that talking about Cole with Noah was something they shouldn’t do.  It might start off nice, but it seemed that he always ended up in a grumpy mood.

Quick as lightning, Naomi slapped Noah’s shoulder and he looked up.  “What?”

“There it is,” she said excitedly.  Pulling through the parking lot entrance was the silver Prius they’d lost twenty minutes ago.  This time, they were determined to snag the person before they escaped once more.  Noah slung his backpack over his shoulder and took off towards the car.  The other two trailed behind him, scrambling to catch up.  By the time the vehicle had parked, Noah was standing on the driver’s side, knocking on the window.

“What do you want?” the blonde asked, opening the door and stepping out.  Noah glanced at Cole before looking back at her.  Realizing who it was, he did a double take.

“Cole?”

“Hey, we need to talk,” he said, walking around to the other side of the car.  Laura looked between the two of them.

“What were you doing with her?” Noah asked, looking her up and down suspiciously.  She was the only student who drove a Prius other than the sophomore kid from earlier that morning.  “She’s the one that took our baby.”