That Saturday, the day after the game, Zeke has to go to a party that the football players are throwing. He tells Max that they are celebrating their first game, and the fact that they won it. Being the captain, Zeke is obligated to go.

Amelia's going with him, because of the fact that Max can't (he has a broken ankle for fucks sake, school and the football games are pushing it) Zeke improvised.

After Zeke leaves with Amelia (they probably won't be back till like three in the morning, football parties are insane) Max takes it upon himself to be a productive little prodigy and do his homework for the first time in like one hundred years.

He only has two things. English and art. His two worst subjects. Colors and reading.

Fuck.

He already promised himself he'd do it, so he is going to. He is going to do this.

Max decides to get English out of the way first.

He sits down on the couch, his foot propped up on a pillow on the coffee table and The Little Mermaid playing on the TV. He has his bag beside him and his homework on a binder in his lap.

For English he has to do a thing where he has to read a passage and answer questions based on it. Reading comprehension. He can do this.

And he does.

Though the passage was boring. The making of carpets. Who the hell is intrested in carpets? The fuck?

But he did it, it is probably completely wrong and it may have taken him forty seven minutes despite the passage being fucking short as fuck.

Good. Self five.

However, it is the next thing he has to do that is the problem.

He has to literally identify all of the colors. What kind of cruel joke is this?

Miss Reeves had given them a paper and they have to draw a color wheel and color it in. Max's worst nightmare.

He has to fucking sort colors.

And blend them.

What the fuck?

He can't even remember what the color wheel looks like!

That's it. He's jumping out the window. Fuck his life.

Max groans, falling back into the couch and rubbing his face with his hands.

Miss Reeves had made sure they all have their own watercolor palette to keep at home, whether they bought it or she supplied it, for their homework. He gets it out and moves his leg to the floor, putting the paper on the the coffee table.

He opens up the palette, sets the brush next to it, and stares.

Max stares at the colors, trying to figure out which is which and what goes where, but he comes up empty. Sixteen years of living and he has no understanding of the color spectrum.

He hates himself for it, but in that moment all he can think is;

I wish Barnes was here.

Max literally picks up the pillow beside him and beats himself in the face with it.

He continues doing that until he doubles over and rests the pillow on his lap, before laying his head on top of it and closing his eyes. He needs a break, and maybe a few moments of self pity.

Why is he like this? Why can't he have normal eyesight? Literally all of his disabilities have something to do with his vision - except ADHD, but that isn't intense enough for him to worry about it, he doesn't even need medication.

Oh well.

Max opens his eyes, and decides that he is done feeling sorry for himself for right now.

He sits up, and sets the pillow back beside him, out of his way. Max grabs the brush, and is about to dip it in water to start painting, but then he realizes that he doesn't have any water.

Oh.

Max grabs his crutches from beside him, and pushes himself up. He makes his way into his kitchen. Leaning on one crutch, he reaches on top of the cabinet. He is barely able to get a plastic cup, but he does, and he sets it on the counter.

Then he spots it.

His phone.

For some reason, the only thing that pops into his mind is pizza.

Fuck, he didn't even realize how hungry he is.

Before he can really even think about it, he's reaching for the phone and dialing his favorite pizza place.

"Marco's, what can I get you?" A voice from the other end asks.

"Uh hey... Can I get two medium pepperoni pizzas, please?" Max asks. He tells her his address, and the lady gives a quick 'alright' and a 'your pizza will be there shortly' and they hang up.

Max really wants his pizza, he seriously didn't even know how hungry he was until now.

After filling his cup up with water, Max makes his way back to the couch and flops down, throwing his crutches to the side and putting the cup onto the table.

He is about to paint again, but realises he doesn't even have the wheel drawn out.

Max mentally face palms.

He spends the next ten minutes drawing a lopsided circle - which is covered in eraser marks, and grabs the water color palette to use the side to help him draw straight lines for the wheel.

He doesn't know how many he needs, so he just decides that he will do them until it looks good.

Max eventually gets the lines in, and he feels he may have drawn too many but he doesn't give enough shits to change it. Now it is time for the painting. And the colors. And the overwhelming frustration he will surely feel.

Okay, so red goes at the bottom... somewhere at the bottom. Maybe. No, purple goes straight at the very bottom and red goes to the left of it. Wait, is that even red? No, that isn't purple either. That's yellow! Yes! No wait, doesn't blue go next to yellow...?

What?

Max groans—really loud—in frustration, before grabbing the brush, and he is about to throw it across the room but he hears a knock at the door.

Shit, he hopes whoever it is didn't hear him groaning. It sounded pretty sexual when he thinks about it.

Heh. Whoops.

"Coming!" Max shouts at the door, struggling to grab hold of his crutches. He eventually gets them, and pushes himself up. He almost falls down, but gains his balance and hobbles his way to the entrance. He undoes the chain, and opens the door. However, the person that he sees on the other side makes his eyes widen and the brush that he forgot he was holding fall out of his hand. He wants to close the door again, but he's frozen in place.

Oh shit.

He forgot who works at Marco's.

Is that why he craved pizza?

Max stumbles against the doorway, and starts opening and closing his mouth like a fish, meanwhile Barnes is holding two pizza boxes with a bored expression on his face.

"Wha... what are you doing here?" It was a stupid question, Max knows, but he can't fucking believe that the universe hates him enough to literally send his arch nemesis knocking at the door.

Wait, is this a bad thing though?

"You ordered a pizza." Barnes states. For a moment Max is confused as to why Barnes isn't as shocked as him, but he realizes that Barnes knows where he lives. Everyone does. Zeke is the football captain. He throws parties. You'd have to be new in town or have no social life to not know where they live.

"B-but you aren't even wearing a uniform or..." Max is so confused he doesn't know what to do.

Barnes raises an eyebrow, "I'm technically off work, we're short-staffed. They wanted me to deliver this quick and keep the money."

Max nods, but then remembers the money.

"Oh shit! Money!" Max accidentally throws the door open in his haste to grab his crutches and hobble into the kitchen to grab his wallet. Fuck, he hopes he has enough money. He sits on the ground, leaning against the counter, and begins going through his wallet.

Aha! Fourteen bucks!

Max goes back to the door, where Barnes has his arms crossed and is tapping his foot impatiently. Max realises this is probably the last place he wants to be.

Max leans against the doorway and pulls the money out of his wallet again, shoving it towards Barnes. Barnes takes it and looks like he's about to hand Max the pizza.

However, Barnes stops.

"You probably need me to carry this in, don't you?"

Oh. Max didn't even think of that.

"Uh yeah, probably..."

Barnes gives him a swift nod, and Max backs away from the doorway to let him in.

He walks in, and Max grabs his crutches and follows him. "You can just set it over there, on the couch," Max calls after him, making his way into the room.

Barnes puts the pizzas beside Max's little set up, but takes a look at what Max is doing.

"Were you doing homework?" Barnes asks Max, looking at him with an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

Max crosses his arms and says, "Yeah." With a little more attitude than necessary.

"You were trying to color a color wheel... alone?" Barnes looks like he really can't beleive it.

"Fuck you, I do homework sometimes!" Max's eyebrows furrow in anger and he accidentally clenches his hands into fists, which makes one of his crutches fall out of his hands and crash onto the floor.

Shit.

Max puts all of his weight onto the other one, and he knows it is going to slip any second, and he'll go down with it.

However, when it does slip, Max doesn't go down with it.

Instead, hands grab his arms and keep him from falling.

Max all but wraps his arms around Barnes in fear, because really, crashing onto hardwood flooring is not on his agenda. After many wipe outs, falling down is practically his biggest fear.

Seriously though, he wraps his arms around Barnes, clutching the back of his shirt with both hands.

Max looks up at Barnes, his eyes still wide as saucers. For some reason his mind goes fuzzy when he realises their close proximity, and he can feel his eyes go a little dazed. Zoning in and out on Barnes' face, taking in every inch of it...

Wait, what?

Max begins rapidly blinking and suddenly it dawns on him that he needs to get away from Barnes because he's feeling shit that he can't identify and he really does not like it when he can't identify his feelings.

"Woah..." Barnes' eyes are pretty. "Your eyes... are like..." Max seriously has no idea what he's saying. His mind is not working properly. "They're pretty..." what color are they? "that's a... that's a nice shade of uh..."

Max blinks rapidly again, "pink or... or orange..."

Barnes is staring on in amusement. "My eyes are green." He states, though he is obviously enjoying Max's weirdness.

"Yeah. Yeah, green. That's a... that's a good green."

Max shakes his head a few times, before jumping away from Barnes like he has the plague.

Fuck, he really needed to get away from that whole situation.

Max is leaning against the side of the couch, and he can't meet Barnes' eyes, he can't believe he just complimented the enemy. What the fuck is wrong with him?

Max clears his throat, before slowly lowering himself onto the ground so he can get to his crutches. He scoots himself over to where they are laying, and picks them up, sitting them on his lap. He then scoots back and pretty much climbs the couch to get to a standing position.

Then he finally looks Barnes in the eye.

And as expected, Barnes as smirking, like he knows something that Max doesn't.

Max suddenly feels angry.

He furrows his eyebrows, "Shut the fuck up! Your eyes aren't... your eyes suck! They aren't pretty at all... uh..."

Barnes' facial expression doesn't change.

Now Max is pissed. "Fuck you! I should have just carried the pizzas in, asshole!" He averts his eyes from Barnes' because he could feel himself beginning to blush and he hates it.

"Well..." Barnes puts his face back into its normal position, "Do you really think you can figure this color wheel out?"

Max glares at him, "Yes! I'm gonna color that wheel and it's gonna be spot-on!" Max crosses his arms over his chest and purses his lips.

Barnes looks like he doesn't believe Max, and so Max sighs, leaning against the couch. "Do you think you could help me...?" He really hates asking Barnes for help, but he knows that there is no way he can do this on his own. Gina is working late and Zeke is at a party, he wouldn't have help for hours. There's no way he can do it later, either. It was hard enough forcing himself to try it tonight.

Barnes nods, before making his way to the door.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Max calls after him.

"Getting your paint brush." Max hears his response.

As he waits, Max realizes this is going to be a long night, and he is kind of scared of what he might unexplainably say next.

Barnes staying is probably a very bad idea.