Baby Daddies

Chapter Thirty-One: New Pool Decor

"So, you're trapped in the closet? Like, R. Kelly status?" Cole rolled his eyes and thought about hanging up the phone. Naomi was still making jokes and they were in a serious situation right now. Instead of doing that, he handed the phone over to Noah. Maybe he could have a serious conversation with her. He brought the phone to his ear.

"We just really need some help getting out of here. Some assistance would be awesome. This closet is cramped and I don't think my feet will stay awake the entire time."

"Fine," she sighed, and Noah could practically see the smile fading from her face. "We'll see what we can do. Don't call us, though. Someone could come back upstairs and hear you on the phone. We'll text you when we figure something out. In the mean time, don't pull out your Beretta."

"I don't get it," Noah said.

"Never mind. Talk to you soon." Naomi ended the call a moment later. Noah returned Cole's phone and let his head fall back against one of the dresses hanging in Mara's closet. This had been fun twenty minutes ago, but now it was old. He wanted to grab the babies and get out of there, not sit around and wait for someone to come to their rescue. Plus, the entire closet smelled of Britney Spears' perfume and he was considering going to the mall and destroy every bottle they had. He glanced at the other boy who was shaking his head and smiling.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing. It's just... this is the second time I've been stuck in a closet with a guy in the past year." He met Noah's eyes and let his smile fall.

"Who was the first guy?" Cole kept quiet, averting his gaze. It didn't take a detective to figure out who the first person was. "Brent," Noah said, a hint of spitefulness in his tone. Cole nodded, picking at his fingernails so that he wouldn't have to look back at Noah again. In the dim light, the boy's eyes seemed even harder and Cole wasn't up for the scrutinies that lie beneath them. He'd rather stare at the ground than talk about Brent with Noah.

"How did that end?" Noah asked.

"The closet? Well, it was a little while on after I met you, so... it ended with us calling it off."

"With you calling it off. But I meant how did you and Brent end?"

"He didn't tell you?"

"He stopped coming around to see Ian, so I didn't get to see him all that much. I guess he didn't want to risk getting into a fight. I only saw some stuff on Facebook about you being psychotic."

"Yeah, well, I guess I was..."

"Then how did it end? Why?" Noah insisted. Cole sighed and gave up prodding his hangnail. He shifted in the closet so that he could face the other comfortably. If it would make him drop the subject, Cole would tell him whatever he wanted to hear.

"You want to know why? After all these months?"

"I want to know why he was so much better than me. Why, even after you came over to my house, bloody and sobbing because he'd cheated on you, you still wanted to be with him." Noah needed to know this. For almost nine months, he'd wondered what Cole saw in Brent. He was attractive, but what was beneath the surface? Whatever it was, Noah couldn't see it.

"It's a long story."

"We've got nothing but time, Cole."

"Okay. Um... okay, I'll start at the beginning, I guess. You were my first, obviously. You introduced me to Ian, and when I was at his party, I met up with Brent. You weren't there because you were hanging out with some other friends that night. We got stuck playing that Seven Minutes in Heaven game. We ended up kissing, but he told me that he was seeing someone and that we shouldn't. I was fine with that. I didn't want to tread on someone else's territory and be that kind of person. Which is funny, because...