The rest of Barnes and Max's week consists of them attempting to ignore each others existence, except for the times that Max asks Barnes to read something or help him with his colors.

Max usually has no social life, seeing as he completely despises other people. Along with that, comes hatred for any place that multiple people are at. He tries to avoid those places as much as he can.

However, for Zeke he always makes exceptions.

That exception being the Friday night football games.

Yes, stoner-delinquent-straight C student, and twin brother and best friend of the ultimate fuck up, Maxwell Tucker, is the Davidson High's football team captain.

Yes, Zeke. Zeke is the Captain.

Talk about defying stereotypes.

And for Max, along with that comes the pressure to be the teams equipment manager and water boy and pretty much the coach's assistant in everything that has to do with the team.

Of course, Max loves Zeke more than anything in the world and he knows how much football means to him, so he of course took that position.

However, with his ankle all fucked up and this being the first game of the season, he is really pissed off that he has to lay off on the sidelines, on the grass by coach's little chair and his leg propped up on Harvey's stolen hoodie.

He wants to participate and for once in his life, he wants to not feel completely useless.

The only times he doesn't want to be useless are during the football games.

"You see Max, that right there," Donny, one of the players, points at the edge of the field from his station flopped beside Max. "That, my friend, was some straight up bullshit," he murmurs, as the other team just scored.

Donny had sprained his wrist, so he's Max's company for the game.

Also, Max may or may not have shared some of his painkillers with him before the game.

Then let him wash it down with whiskey.

So they may or may not be high (and partially drunk) as fuck right now.

Oh well. Coach loves his football players, and he has a special place in his heart for Max and Zeke, so Max could so get away with it if Coach found out he got one of his players stoned on painkillers.

Hm.

It's all good.

The only bad thing about the games—other than all the people—is, of course, Barnes.

Barnes is always the problem.

Being head of student council, and class president, he's practically obligated to go to all of the football games.

Max hates it.

The only good thing is that he never sees Lauren at the games, though he guesses that she could be up in the stands with Barnes. He can't see very well up there, with his bullshit eyesight. The only way he knows Barnes is there is because he's seen him in the stands before, and it's practically common knowledge that class president goes to the games. Football is taken pretty fucking seriously there.

Though he can't see Barnes without putting in a serious amount of effort, he knows Barnes can look at him easily whenever he wants.

The thought freaks him out and pisses him off at the same time.

Stupid Barnes.

"Aye! Over here, buddy..."

It is then that Max zones back in and sees Donny waving his hand half-assedly in Max's face.

"What do you want..." Max mutters, raising his eyebrows.

Donny seems to be half asleep, and Max figures he had given him a little too many pain pills.

Whoops.

It's actually kind of funny. There are literally hundreds of people in the stands, there is a full blown football game going on, the announcers and refs are examining everything, something serious is probably going on right now...

And Max and Donny are stoned out of their fucking minds, sprawled out on the grass.

Max starts laughing his ass off, and even though Donny has no clue what he's laughing at, he decides to join in too.

Okay, scratch that, Max and Donny are sprawled out on the sideline, stoned out of their minds, and laughing like fucking hyenas.

Yup. Life is pretty good right now, but that's probably the analgesic talking.

Heh.

He's snapped out of his laughing fit when coach falls into the chair next to him, exasperated.

"He-hey coach... yyyyou good?" Donny slurs from the ground.

Coach rolls his eyes and glares at Max, "You know, sometimes I wonder why I let you near my players"

Max gives him a cheeky smile.

"W-wait what? Why are you angggrrryyyy...." Donny starts giggling.

Coach glares at Max again, before closing his eyes.

"We're down by twelve, and it's our first game..." He sighs.

Max hears the half time sound come out of the scoreboard, and it's loud enough to make Donny shoot up to a sitting position and Max to jump and clutch his crutches to his chest.

Coach closes his eyes and buries his face in his hands.

Then Donny gets an idea.

"I've... I have got-ten it!" Donny holds up his finger and his eyes light up. Max knows this wont be good but Coach is obviously desperate for anything.

"What?" Coach takes his head out of his hands and looks at Donny. Max knows he has to definitely be pretty desperate to ask for game advice from a high-ass seventeen year old.

"I th..think that WE-" Donny motions in between Max and himself, "should give them a pep talk."

Damn, he is really out of it.

At least Max actually has a form of common sense, Donny is delusional enough to think that giving the team a fucking talk will make them magically win.

Coach sighs and to Max's complete and utter disbelief, he nods.

He nods.

"We could try it."

Max is so shocked that he barely notices all the players running by him into the locker room.

Donny stands up and starts dancing-

Yes, dancing.

Max can hear a few people in the stands laughing, but before he can hide under Coach's chair in embarrassment, Donny is holding out a hand for Max so he can pull him up. Max takes it—though reluctantly—and Donny pulls him up with strength that he probably should have expected from a football player, but it still shocks him enough to fall into Donny, and Donny to start gushing about how Max 'loves him so much' before literally hugging him.

Max can hear Coach laughing.

Max sighs, before giving Donny a quick pat on the back—even though he really didn't want to—and pushing him away, though still kind of holding onto his sleeve to keep his balance.

Max grabs his crutches and together he and Donny headed to the locker room to give the players a pep talk that will probably fucking suck.

-

When they make it to the locker room all of the players are lounging around, drinking water, wiping their faces with towels or looking through their lockers.

Zeke is sitting on a bench, running his hands through his hair.

They all look up when the door opens, and seeing Max and Donny hobble towards the front of the room really gains their attention.

Donny goes to stand on the bench, and Max flops down on top of it, putting his crutches on the floor, half his torso hanging off the side. It isn't comfortable at all, but he doesn't feel like moving.

"Alright, team!" Donny shouts, putting on a serious face and straightening himself. Max is slightly confused as to how he's able to gain his posture like that.

"We-WE need to get our head in the game, okay?!" He's shouting now, and pointing at everything, while Max is half asleep but still laughing like a maniac.

Donny's pupils are huge, and Max is pretty sure the team has caught on by now to the fact that they are obviously intoxicated.

"Yes!" Max shoots up, but ends of falling on his ass onto the locker room floor.

The entire team bursts out laughing.

Max starts laughing with them and Donny falls into a sitting position on the bench in laughter.

"We- We need to kick their asses!" Donny shouts, standing up again and pounding his fist in the air. Max tries to stand up too, and succeeds, before falling into the lockers next to him.

Max picks up one of his crutches, still leaned against the locker, and pounds it into the air, "Yeah! WE..." he motions to the team, where they are either laughing or watching on in amusement, "WE're gonna- BEAT TH-the fucking fuck out of THEM, THAT's what!" Max accidentally hits Donny in the leg, who falls off the bench and into the lockers next to him, collapsing by Max's feet and laughing his ass off.

Max looks at Zeke, who's smiling and rolling his eyes.

Zeke stands up, and goes to stand on the bench, "You don't want to lose our first game, do you?!" He shouts, his booming voice echoing through the locker room.

Everyone shakes their heads.

"Then let's get out there and FUCK THEM UP!" Zeke shouts, and all of them start shouting and high-fiving.

Zeke gives Max a pat on the back.

A few minutes later and they are running out of the locker room yelling and chest bumping and pounding their fists and Max and Donny decide they did a good job.

They're trailing behind the team, and Max is leaning on Donny and using one of his crutches while Donny has his other one, like he does with Zeke.

As they appear on the field, Max is shouting words of encouragement (with multiple curse words, he's surprised he doesn't get yelled at) and Donny is pounding his other crutch up in the air, much like Max did while they were in the locker room.

Then, as they arrive to their station by Coach's chair (which he is currently occupying) it randomly occurs to Max that Barnes could be watching them right now.

Where did that come from?

Max shivers, and Donny looks at him weird.

Donny flops on the grass as Coach gets up to go to the team or watch the game or whatever, he has Max's jobs for a while, though Max still tried to be of use before the game, Coach made him go sit in time out (he didn't say that, but that's pretty much what it is)

The thought that Barnes could be watching continues burning in Max's mind, until finally he begins searching the stands.

He feels like such a loser.

Eventually, Max spots Barnes a few rows up, but still relatively (surprisingly) close to him.

He is not surprised that Barnes is actually talking and laughing and being social with people. Lauren's attached to his arm, and Max begins to examine the people he's talking to. They are all relatively smart and popular, though Max could be counted as popular by association because of Zeke.

Come on, the football captain is always popular, whether he wants to be or not.

And Zeke does not.

Max was too busy examining Barnes' friends and staring at Lauren (stupid pretty hair and hippie clothing) to realize that Barnes had caught him staring, and is now looking at Max with raised eyebrows.

However, when Max looks back to Barnes and realizes that Barnes is looking back at him, his face pales, eyes widen, and he jumps.

"Duuuuude, are you okaaay..."

He barely registers Donny's question as he is now in an eye lock with Barnes.

Not even Donny shaking him snaps him out of it.

What does though, is when Donny bites his face.

His fucking face.

Max jumps, and when he looks back he realizes Donny is literally not even three inches away from his face. They are practically nose to nose. He is also leaning over with his hands on either side of Max.

Max's eyes widen at the proximity, and the goofy grin on Donny's face.

Yeah. Max gave him too many pills.

"Uh. Hey." Max raises his eyebrows.

Donny starts giggling, but he isn't moving.

"Hey, Maxey-Poo" he lifts a hand up and begins playing with Max's hair.

This is getting weird.

Max reaches up and grabs Donny's hand, before slowly pulling it away from his hair.

Donny is still leaning over him.

Max reaches beside him and picks up his crutch with both hands, while Donny is still smiling.

And he hits him with the crutch. Hard. Right in Donny's side.

"Ow!" Donny flops off of Max and rolls onto the grass, holding his side. Max starts laughing his ass off, tossing the crutch to the side. Through his laughter he looks up at Barnes and sees that he is still looking at them, but when Barnes meets Max's eyes, they both look away.

Before he knows it, Donny starts laughing with him and Max decides to ignore Barnes and the weird eye contact they just had. Instead he opts for simply laughing like a lunatic with Donny.

The game ends, 31-24 and guess who won? Davidson.

Max and Donny barely register it, but the Davidson Falcons pulled through and kicked ass.

It was mostly field goals, but nevertheless they won and they all run off the field. Zeke goes straight to his brother and hugs him.

Max is so surprised he doesn't even have time to reciprocate.

"You won us the game, dude!" Zeke pulls away, but holds Max at arms length. Max is dizzy, "what... what did I do?" He mutters. He is way too disoriented for this, he wants to go to bed.

"That dumb-ass pep talk! It pumped us up!" Zeke seems real happy that they won the game, and Max has to blink a few times to really snap back to reality.

"Oh... uh, okay. That's good." Max nods, and he is really hoping that Barnes isn't watching them because Max likes Barnes to think he is really badass and doesn't have feelings but when Zeke hugs him, then that ruins the whole image.

And the world is for once on his side because when he looks over at the stands he sees that Barnes is not looking at him

Max is holding onto Zeke's arm with one hand while he picks up Max's crutches. Max still looking at Barnes when Lauren pulls him down and whispers something in his ear, to which they start laughing, and Barnes starts talking to some guy that definitely looks like he would be friends with Barnes. Good looking. Nice clothes. He looks like he put effort into his appearance. Definitely friends with Barnes.

Hm.

Zeke snaps his fingers in front of Max's face. "You in there, bro?"

Max blinks a few times and looks away from Barnes. "Yeah. Yeah I'm here" Max laughs.

Zeke rolls his eyes, "Weirdo"

And then they head back to the locker room, where Zeke gets dressed and ready to go and Max is stuck wondering why every time he sees Barnes with Lauren, he gets a strange urge to just... destroy them. And everything they love. Or maybe just Lauren. Yeah, that sounds good.

Okay. It's official. Max needs to get some serious sleep and maybe not take painkillers for the hell of it ever again.