Cool Kids [p. parker] || SLOW UPDATES

THIRTY-THREE

Dan let out a low sigh. "Nick-."

Nick's phone ringing interrupted the man, which gave a good excuse for Nick to leave and rush to his room other than being upset. He muttered a bye to his dad, knowing that he would be leaving in a minute, and told him to have a good day as he ran to his room. Once shutting his door, he answered the call and put it on speaking almost instantly. He set the phone on his bed as he started trying to find clean clothes.

"Pregnant women are weird."

Nick stopped and stared at his phone. "Um. Well, hi to you, too, James," he said. He then looked back down to the floor and kicked a too dirty pair of shorts to one corner of the room where the rest of his dirty clothes were, the pile of clean clothes by his closet doors dwindling fast. "What makes you say pregnant women are weird?"

James sighed dramatically at his end of the call. "Gosh, I shouldn't be telling you this yet, but we're friends and Mom and Tony said it'd be fine if it slipped out to you, but anyway. You know those pregnancy rumors going around about my mom, right? I mean, they've been around for years, but around the fight between Tony and Cap they started up again- and well, they're true this time."

"What?!" Nick screeched and tripped over a shoe as he turned around from digging in his closet for a clean shirt. He groaned softly and mentally flipped James off. He pushed himself up into a sitting position with a large grin. "That's great! You're gonna be a big brother!"

"Uh-huh."

"You don't sound too excited, though."

"I am, trust me, I am so excited. Mitch is, too, we all are," James paused. "But the media's gonna be attacking my mom. They already are! I went on Twitter when I woke up – big mistake, Saint Nick. Some accounts dedicated to Tony are shitting on her, name calling her and slut shaming her... I mean, they're already giving her crap for not joining in on the fight between Tony and Steve – her boyfriend and cousin – but now with these rumors, it's getting worse. And they're tagging me, Mitch and Tony as if we're gonna agree with 'em."

Nick frowned as he got dressed. "Twitter's toxic as fuck," he said. "What, with their unhealthy mob mentality when someone disagrees with them, and attacking people for having different opinions..." The sophomore made an annoyed sound at the back of his throat as he searched for socks. "So, of course, they're shitting on someone they know nothing about. I'm sorry that their victim of the week is your mom."

James scoffed, and Nick knew he was rolling his eyes. "Yeah, so am I. Don't be surprised if there's an article by the end of the day on Buzzfeed featuring me going off on Twitter."

"Do it, I'll retweet everything!"

"I just might. Hey, you okay? You don't sound as happy."

The curly haired boy was quiet for a second, surprised that James picked up on that. He thought he was doing a good job of masking his mood through his tone, but apparently he wasn't. There was no point in lying to James, though, because he would just find some way to get the truth out of him eventually, so Nick said, "My mom's picking me up to take me to school."

"Well, fuck."

"My thoughts exactly," Nick mumbled as he slipped on some shoes. He then glanced as his phone as it lit up with a message from his mom, telling him that she was outside. "Speaking of, she's here. I gotta go. Pray that I don't have a mental breakdown."