After school, Harvey and  Valerie decide that they all needed to go to the mall. Of course, Max is definitely not happy about it considering he is on crutches. Not to mention Gina told him to go straight home after school so that he could rest.

However, Gina doesn't get home until seven and Valerie decided that Max's injury wasn't enough to keep he and Zeke from going with them. After all, Max and Zeke are twins (fraternal twins to be more specific, but nevertheless they've still been together since the beginning.) and they stick together whenever they can, as strange as it sounds. So if Max didn't go, then sure as shit Zeke wouldn't either.

Max is not looking forward to it. There are always people in the mall and Max doesn't like people. Valerie is probably the only one who actually enjoys the mall. Harvey is too whipped to tell her no, and Harvey is Max and Zeke's closest friend outside of each other.

So they go, and all is good. When they arrive, Max of course uses one crutch while leaning on Zeke with his other arm. This time Harvey is carrying Max's other crutch, his other hand holding Valerie's.

Max almost pukes. Couples are gross. He is good with always chilling with Zeke, he doesn't need anyone else to worry about. It's the worst when they are in the lovey-dovey phase, too. Which Valerie and Harvey are still in, having only gotten together a month ago.

Ew.

Max hopes that he is never like that with whoever his future girlfriend is going to be.

If he even decides to date anyone, that is. He and Zeke should just stay single the rest of their lives and ignore the world. Max is completely down with that. Zeke probably wouldn't be though. He's such a sap, he probably would have a girlfriend now if he wasn't so hung up on Angela - a girl he was with for like two years until they broke up around six months ago. It was a nasty one, too.

Max seriously hopes he never has to deal with that.

Valerie goes into a clothing store - it's filled with lots of pink. Max can't tell if that's legit pink though. Maybe it's just a ton of orange or yellow or purple or some bullshit. He doesn't care enough to figure it out.

It just looks really girly, though Valerie always kind of dresses in glitter and frills and shit so he should expect as much from her.

"Hey, you got a light?" Max whispers to Zeke, who's sprawled out beside him on the bench outside of the store. He really takes up most of it, considering he's a serious wall of muscle. Max knows this first hand from waiting for him outside the gym multiple times a week.

Seriously, they hate to be without each other.

It's weird, Max knows.

Zeke rolls his eyes, "We are not ditching them to go smoke or some shit."

Max huffs, before he remembers.

"Okay, you wanna get wasted then?" He pulls a flask out of the knee length sock, through his ripped jeans. He bought it from one of Andy's older coworkers, who basically supplied every illegal thing for the underage students. That is, until Andy quit.

It's got some writing engraved on the side, but it's in Russian or something so Max doesn't know what it says. Currently, it is filled with apple vodka.

Zeke's eyes widen, "Dude! Put that away before someone sees!" He begins looking around frantically, shoving Max's hand toward his sock.

Max grumbles under his breath about Zeke 'being no fun' before complying and putting his flask back in his sock.

Zeke goes back to being sprawled out on the bench, and Max decides to take the jacket that Zeke had thrown over the side of it. He's pretty sure it's Harvey's, but oh well. He's cold. And he's comfortable enough with his masculinity to wear another man's jacket, despite him feeling a little girly with it being relatively large on him.

Fuck it, that means more warmth.

It is warm, too. It's plain and dark green with weird fuzzy shit on the inside of it—but it is soft, and he decides that he's stealing it. Fuck Harvey, he's comfortable. He pulls his knees to his chest, wrapping the jacket around them too.

He rests his head on his knees, and is on the verge of falling asleep when he is rudely interrupted.

"Are you wearing my jacket?" He hears Harvey's voice a few feet away from him

Max lifts his head up and spots Harvey a few feet away, his eyebrows raised and Valerie holding his hand. For some reason she's giggling but Max decides to ignore her.

"Fuck you, I'm cold."

Zeke snorts, muttering "freak" under his breath while Harvey just rolls his eyes and shrugs. He and Valerie begin to walk away, and Max and Zeke take it as their cue to follow them.

For some reason Harvey's always been really dismissive, and Max is thankful for it. Because if he wasn't, then Max would have gotten his ass kicked a while ago.

Max is infuriating like that.

He's so not sorry.

Max and Zeke follow their lead to the food court. It's only a store down, they were practically right by it. It's a relatively small mall, too. So really Max is only slightly tired, and that is probably from the immense effort he has to put into simply walking.

Valerie and Harvey go off to go get some food, and Max and Zeke decide to go to a little pizza place. Zeke gets like four slices of pizza (he's seriously a fucking mammoth) and Max gets a huge thing of fries and a bottle of applejuice.

They all meet up at a random table in the food court, and Max immediately goes on auto pilot, zoning out and letting his mind wander all the while continuing to eat fries.

He is a serious pro at this.

What even is the point of Barnes following him around, though? He's broken shit before and he's never needed a fucking human to follow him around. Do they do this for everyone?

Now that he thinks about it, Max realizes that he actually can remember a few people getting in accidents or some shit and someone following them around and helping them and all that.

Oh well. Barnes is an asshole. Max doesn't need him. He can carry his shit around and whatever else himself. Barnes can go fuck himself.

"If you get food on my jacket then I'll kill you" Max hears Harvey say. It takes him a moment to realize it was directed at him.

"It's not your jacket anymore." Max shrugs, as if he can't do anything about it.

"Dude. That shit costed like fifteen bucks and I'm too broke to buy a new one."

Max continues eating fries. "Oh well," he smiles, his mouth still practically full.

Harvey rolls his eyes, "One of these days I'm gonna kick your ass, Max. Fuck knows you deserve it."

Max's smile grows bigger as he swallows the rest of his fries, "Looking forward to it."

Max knows Harvey won't. He loves him too much.

Hopefully.

Max begins chugging the rest of his apple juice, but he stops when he hears Zeke ask beside him, "Hey, ain't that your babysitter?" He nods to a place across the food court and when Max followed his gaze, he almost chokes.

There, standing in line at a Great Wraps, is Barnes. He's holding hands with a girl beside him, and Max immediately feels angry.

He is so fucking close to pulling out his flask and just chugging it in front of everyone, fuck the applejuice.

This time he's angry because of Barnes and his girlfriend. All anti-abortion and world peace and bullshit. He fucking hates her.

He doesn't really keep tabs on Barnes. All these years he'd usually just hate on him from afar, and he's pretty sure Barnes does the same.

On second thought, nah, Barnes is way too sophisticated for that.

Back to the point, he doesn't really keep tabs on Barnes, but legit everyone and their grandmother knows Lauren. Her and Barnes have been top of their class since like sixth grade (but only started dating in, like, eighth) though technically she's second. Barnes is always at the top. He would never allow himself to be second.

Asshole.

Really, they are practically the perfect couple. Max can't stand either of them.

Stupid smart perfect-eyesighted people with something actually going for them.

He is snapped out of his stare down with Barnes' back when he realizes he is no longer looking at Barnes' back.

Fuck. Barnes turned around.

...and he is looking straight back at Max.

Oh shit! Code red, code red, CODE RED! We have been caught staring! I repeat, we have BEEN CAUGHT STARING!

Max begins having a serious mental breakdown when he sees Valerie motioning for them to come over.

"Valerie! What in the actual fuck are you doing?!" Max whisper shouts, giving her a look like she has gone insane - not that she isn't already.

She raises an eyebrow, before replying; "What? Me and Lauren used to study together like all of freshman year."

What the hell? They are the fucking stoners of the school! They don't hang out with smart people! Well, actually, now that he thinks about it Valerie is acquainted with people from like all of the cliques.

Max begins literally banging his head against the table.

He can practically see the three of them exchanging looks.

Okay, maybe he's the one that's gone insane. Well, more like the world is going to DRIVE him insane if it keeps forcing him to associate with Lewis-Fucking-Barnes.

Seriously. He is this close to throwing himself off a building.

"Hey, Val!" This is the first time he has heard Lauren Lynn's voice up close. Usually she's talking to the school about drugs and safe sex and peer pressure because she's a fucking poster child.

His head is still down, mostly because he does not, under any circumstance, want to look up.

Max hears a chair sliding against the floor, and he imagines Valerie getting up to do that weird hug thing that girls always do. Max has like no social skills, so he greets his friends usually by either flipping them off or punching them in the shoulder. Not hard, of course. Max can't throw a punch to save his life.

Eventually he does look up, and as expected he spots Valerie standing by Lauren with Assbag on her other side.

Then, for some reason, Valerie decides that it is a great idea to introduce everyone.

She looks at Lauren, "I tink it's time for introductions!" She seems real giddy all of a sudden. Max is slightly worried.

She smiles and motions at Harvey, "You already know Harvey."

Her smile stays the same as she motions to Zeke. "You probably already know Zeke, he's cool," she nods as if to reassure Lauren.

Then she turns to glare at Max. "And this asshole is Max, you probably know him too, don't talk to him, he's a dick."

Max's face contorts into one of annoyance. "Hey! Fuck you! I'm only a dick some of the time."

She gets a devious smile on her face, "You are what you eat."

Zeke snorts, almost choking on his pizza while Harvey bites his fist, doing his best not to laugh his ass off. Lauren's mouth opens wide in shock, and Max doesn't even want to know what Barnes' reaction was.

Why do they even find this so funny?

Max's face drops.

Oh no she did not.

That's fuck it. Maybe he's just looking for a reason to drink, but oh-fucking-well.

He falls back into his chair, reaching into his sock to pull out his flask.

"Whatever. I'm too sober for this." He slides his applejuice across the table. Zeke barely catches it from falling off the edge, and Max unscrews the cap.

He tilts his head back, taking a few gulps of the drink, before twisting the cap back on and setting it on the table.

He zips Harvey's jacket up, puts on the hood, wraps his arms around the flask and lays his head on his arms beside it.

Max is done with their shit, and he is taking a fucking nap.

Harvey is finally unable to hold in his laughter any longer. He bursts out laughing, Zeke pats Max's shoulder reassuringly a few times, and Max buries his face even more into his arms.

"Oh-my God, his face!" Harvey says in between fits of laughter. Max makes sure to unwrap one of his arms from around himself to flip Harvey off, then puts it back.

He can hear Zeke snickering too, and he lifts his head up off his arms, though he still rests his chin on them, before stating; "You guys are assholes."

Zeke gives him a few more pats, "We love ya, bud."

It is then that Max risks a glance at Barnes, and what he sees is kind of surprising. Not only is Barnes staring at him, but he quickly looks away when Max meets his eyes, then he changes his face back into a blank expression. Max can't tell what it was before, or what he was thinking, and that bothers him more than he is willing to admit.

Then he realizes that he isn't denying Valerie's accusations on his sexuality.

Oh shit, Barnes thinks he's gay.

And then for some reason, he doesn't feel like denying it right now. If Barnes asks, he'll tell him the truth. However right now for some weird, fucked up reason, he doesn't mind it.

Max blames the vodka.

Lauren clears her throat, "Well uh... I think our food is probably done..." she nods to herself.

"Oh! Okay." Her and Valerie exchanged hugs and Barnes and Lauren are on their way back to Great Wraps.

"I really fucking hate you guys" Max mutters, but he makes sure it is loud enough for all of them to hear.

Harvey and Zeke start laughing their asses off all over again.