Max hears a feminine voice call from somewhere behind Barnes. Barnes doesn't even look up.

Max does though, and he realizes that she is a middle aged lady dressed in the same uniform as Barnes. She has mocha skin, dark eyes, and really white teeth. It seriously contrasts her skin.

Woah, she has nice teeth.

"Uh... hello?" Max raises an eyebrow at her and looks between her and Barnes. She's too far away for him to read her name tag, not that he'd be able to read it without practically tearing apart his eyes anyway.

She crosses her arms, examining Max up and down.

Barnes looks away from Lawrence briefly to point to the lady, "Tucker, Dana." He motions to Max, "Dana, Tucker." And then he goes back to putting Lawrence down on the counter and playing with her with a straw.

Max clears his throat, "Hello, Dana..."

He looks around awkwardly, because he is not good with meeting new people.

"Tucker." She looks at him for a few seconds.

Max glares at Barnes. "Actually, It's Max. But Barnes is an asshole."

Barnes looks up at him with a smirk, shrugging as he puts Lawrence on his other hand.

"Says the guy that just called me Barnes."

"That's your name!"

"My last name."

"Yeah!"

"Tucker is your last name."

Max realizes that he must sound like a total dumbass.

He glares at the counter. "Whatever. Fuck you, you're still an asshole."

Max crosses his arms but then realizes that he needs to anchor himself so he immediately grips the counter, after almost falling down.

"Uh..." Max looks up to meet Barnes' eyes. He realizes that Barnes is giving him a knowing look. Max sighs, "Can you go get my crutch?"

Because Max can't do it, he can't put weight on his leg and there is absolutely no way he won't fall down. He doesn't even know how he made it here the first time.

Barnes smirks, "I think you should use your manners."

Max glares.

"Can you go get my crutch... please?" He grits out.

Barnes nods, giving him a smug smile and putting Lawrence down in the counter. He then leaves the little room to go through a door that leads to the main lobby that Max is in.

"Is that a kitten?" Max jumps, as he had forgotten that Dana is still there. He looks up and sees that she is leaning against the wall and looking at him in amusement.

"Uh yeah. You want to pet her?"

"I'm not a cat person."

Max slowly nods, looking down at Lawrence, who is now chewing on the straw that Barnes had been playing with her with.

"But it looks pretty cute." Dana smiles, walking over to where Barnes had been standing.

Max looks up at her and sees that she is slowly reaching her finger out. Lawrence stops attacking the straw for a moment in order to sniff her finger, before going back to her destruction.

"What's its name?" She asks, looking up at Max.

"Lawrence."

She gives Max a funny look. "Strange name for a cat."

Barnes appears beside Max, setting his crutch against the counter beside the other one. "Yeah, and guess what?" He asks.

Dana looks up, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a girl."

Dana looks at Barnes in disbelief, like he's telling a joke. Max turns to glare at him. "It's a nice name! And Lawrence likes it too. Don't you, Lawrence?"

Max looks down to Lawrence, who knows her name already, and she walks up to sit in front of Max on the counter. She mews.

Max gives a smug look to both of them. "Uh, okay, it was nice to meet you... Max." Dana looks like she thinks that Max is mentally challenged and then walks into the back room.

"Well great, you made her think I'm insane." Max turns to glare at Barnes, who is leaning against the counter and giving him the stupid smug look he always has on.

"Everyone already thinks you're insane."

Max growls at him. "You better watch yourself, Barnes. I'll kill you."

Barnes rolls his eyes. "Yeah okay, good luck. Not helping your point."

Max stares at him, before grabbing one of the plastic forks in the bin next to him and holding it up threateningly to Barnes. "Don't test me." He glares menacingly.

Barnes gives him a deadpanned expression. "I'd be nice, if I were you. I'm your ride home."

And Max realizes that, yes, Barnes is in fact his ride home. He's not about to take Lawrence back into the cold.

"Uh... oh yeah..."

Barnes looks at Max in amusement.

"B-but whatever! I can still shank you with a fork when we get there!"

"That fork would snap before it could get anywhere close to breaking skin."

Max frowns because for the fifteen hundredth time, Barnes is right. Asshole.

Barnes is able to leave early because they have literally no customers, and before Max knows it he's sitting in Barnes' Toyota with Lawrence playing around in the backseat with the same straw from the restaurant.

Max glares at the dashboard until he hears Barnes' voice.

"Why exactly were you walking around?"

Max turns his glare to Barnes, who looks back at Max with concern.

Max sighs, "I didn't want to be home when Zeke got home."

"And why is that?"

Max hardens his gaze. "Why do you care?"

Barnes shrugs. "It's just strange to see you so glum. You're usually just angry."

"You're making me angry right now!"

Barnes gives Max a sideways glance."okay, you don't have to answer."

About thirty seconds pass before Max gives in. "Me and Zeke got in an argument Saturday."

"About college?"

Max nods.

"You know, he just cares about you."

Max turns in his seat to glare at Barnes. "I don't give a shit! It's his future! We can be separated, I'm not even going to college!"

Barnes furrows his eyebrows at the road. "Why aren't you going to college?"

Max gives him a deadpanned expression. "What college would accept me?"

Barnes shrugs, "I don't know. But it's junior year, you can make some improvements."

Max rolls his eyes, "what kinds of improvements?"

"Your grades. Your language. Your overall attitude on things. Your drug habits."

Max crosses his arms. "That's too much, and what's my language got to do with anything?"

"You have literally no filter."

Max growls. "Fuck you mean I have no filter?"

Barnes turns in his seat and Max realizes that they have arrived at Max's complex.

"You say everything that comes to mind."

Max unbuckles his seatbelt and turns so he's fully facing Barnes. "Name one instance!"

"Most of the times that we are around Lauren."

"Because she's a bitch!"

"Almost every time that we talk."

"Because I hate you!"

"Any time I get close to you."

"Wha- um..."

Max realizes that Barnes is leaning over the center console slightly, and he is studying Max.

"When you were drunk that one time..."

"Barnes. Shut up."

"And you said I was..."

"I'll fucking deck you, right here, right now."

"Sexy as fuck."

Max's breath halts and he realizes that their faces are only a few inches apart, the car lit up by a nearby lamp post.

Max's eyes flicker down to Barnes' lips and he gulps. He can't help himself from getting out, "Say that again..." because he's fucking weak as hell. He closes his eyes, involuntarily leaning toward Barnes. He stopped thinking correctly as soon as Barnes broke the two foot rule and said fuck.

"You said I was sexy when I swear."

Max shakes his head. Barnes saying sexy is better than nothing, but Max is pretty sure that Barnes is doing this on purpose.

"N-no, the- the other word."

Max opens his eyes and sees that their faces aren't even two inches apart. "What other word?" Barnes raises an eyebrow innocently and Max is blinking.

Max is getting impatient.

"S- say fuck! Or some other swear. Please." goddammit why does Max do this to himself?

Max is shocked when he sees Barnes' eyes flicker down to his lips as well.

Holy shit.

"Fuck." Barnes mutters, almost breathlessly and as Max realizes how close they are, how dark his eyes look, and the overall complete and utter sexiness that is Lewis Barnes... because yes, he has come to terms with that.

Max loses it.

He stops giving a shit that Barnes has a girlfriend and is straight as a fucking pole. He doesn't care that Barnes has been his enemy since childhood and they are literally in the middle of a parking lot, in a car. He's sick of them dancing around each other with all of the sexual tension that may be one sided but Max just doesn't care.

He can faintly hear Lawrence in the back seat still attacking the straw when he actually loses his cool.

Max grabs the back of Barnes' neck, and against all better judgement within him, he does the one thing that he didn't even realize he had wanted to do so badly for so long until now.

Max smashes their lips together with absolutely no fucks given.