Max completely expects Barnes to shove him away and demand he get out of his car. To then go to the office and quit this whole volunteering thing.

To never talk to Max again and marry Lauren and become successful and have four children and die happy.

In fact, Max would have betted on it. A good amount of money (which he probably wouldn't have), too. He really wouldn't have been surprised if all of this blew up in his face and he cried himself to sleep.

But that's not what happened.

That's the opposite of what happened.

Max almost jumps away out of shock by what happens a few seconds after their lips meet.

Barnes kisses him back.

After their lips met, Barnes didn't do anything. Barnes froze. In fact, Max was about to pull away and leave the car in complete and utter awkwardness.

...but then Barnes kissed him back.

Max's mind turns to mush, and he is completely lost. If Barnes didn't want this, then he shouldn't have kissed back. Max has seriously stopped caring.

Max's heart almost leaps out of his chest when Barnes reaches up to tangle his hand into Max's hair, fingers tangling in the dark, unruly strands. Max tries not to make any sounds when Barnes pulls. He probably fails.

Max seriously had no clue how much he had wanted to have lip to lip contact with Lewis Barnes of all people, but here he is, wanting to go even fucking further and Max is just overall confused with himself. Nobody can blame him, either, since Max doesn't know many people that are more attractive than the man in front of him. Absolutely model worthy.

Valerie and Amelia were so wrong. Max may not have 'landed' Lewis Barnes, but they're making out in a car and that counts for something.

Max is even more shocked and confused when Barnes actually licks his bottom lip. Really, Max doesn't even think about it, he just opens his mouth and everything escalates and it gets way hotter in that fucking car.

Max moves his hand to the side of Barnes' face, and Barnes pulls Max's hair and Max makes a strange sound that he doesn't really care about because Barnes is making sounds too and it's just overall so fucking great that Max doesn't want it to end.

However, everything ends and so does the kiss—no, fucking make out session that has just taken place in Barnes' car.

They each pull away and it doesn't take but seconds for everything to come crashing down.

Maxwell Tucker, the school delinquent, just made out with Lewis Barnes, the school prodigy.

Fuck. The cows have come home, pigs can now fly. Anything impossible is now possible because there is no way that this just happened.

Holy shit.

And Max begins to panic.

"Oh shit!" Max shouts, jumping away to press his back against the passenger door, Barnes' hands falling out of his hair. Oh man, this is not good! It felt fucking fantastic but there are so many reasons why that shouldn't have happened that Max starts to feel dizzy.

Max begins hyperventilating and he feels like he's going to pass out.

There is no way this is going to end well.

"Max..." Max looks up to see Barnes with an unreadable expression.

Barnes just called him by his first name.

This is serious.

"I... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" Max sighs, looking down at the the center console. "I didn't mean to..."

Max looks up to see that Barnes still isn't moving, but his face is slowly changing into an expression of realization. Max doesn't wait for him to say anything else, though. He's scared of what Barnes would say.

"You know what? I'll just leave. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just gonna go..."

Barnes is blinking rapidly and Max gets Lawrence from the back seat, tucks her in his jacket and grabs his crutches.

He gets the fuck out of there, extremely thankful that they had arrived at Max's apartment complex before he decided to be a dumbass and kiss Lewis-Fucking-Barnes.

Max is so fucked.

-

As soon as Max arrives to their apartment, he goes to bed. It is only like seven o'clock but he doesn't care. He ignores Zeke, sitting on the couch. He doesn't even think Gina is home. He just puts Lawrence in her box and goes to bed.

He doesn't even feel like getting drunk or high or whatever else, he just wants to sleep.

The next day, he doesn't want to go to school. He knows that he'll have to see Barnes there and associate with him. Worst of all - he'll have to see Barnes and Lauren together. Being romantic and kissing and shit and Max will have to be present during all of this and he just doesn't want to go to school.

However, Zeke wakes him up. (His lips are still pursed and he's as awkward as ever.) And Max knows that he has to go to school anyway because if he skips a whole day and Zeke goes then people are going to get freaked out.

So Max forces himself to get out of bed after not really even going to sleep. He got maybe forty minutes at the most, he really is not doing okay.

When he looks in the mirror, he sees his hair messier than normal and the bruises under his eyes darker than ever.

He barely gets his t-shirt on, and he's pretty sure it's inside out. Max doesn't even change out of his pajama pants, and he ends up putting two different shoes on.

Max is a wreck - or even more of a wreck than usual - and it's all because of his stupid fucking gay urges that he has finally given in to.

As soon as they arrive at the school, Max wordlessly leaves the car and Zeke has to follow him to carry his books. They don't speak to each other and when they reach the office Max is surprised to see Barnes already waiting there.

With Lauren attached to his arm.

Max scowls and Zeke hands over his books to Barnes, who takes them and as he reaches out Max gets a good look at him.

Max is shocked when he sees the slightest of shadows under Barnes' eyes, and his clothes look as though they had been put on kind of carelessly.

To most people it would be unnoticeable, and Max may be imagining things. However, Barnes hadn't put as much effort into himself that he usually does. Unlike Max, Barnes makes himself look presentable in a very subtle way, while Max just doesn't give a shit and their appearances reflect that.

Barnes hadn't put in as much effort, and Max has an idea as to why. Of course, Max looks worse than him but Max always looks worse than him so whatever.

Zeke leaves, and Max is stuck glaring at the reception desk. He doesn't want to meet Barnes' eyes.

"So, are we gonna go, or...?" Max hears Lauren ask, and it takes everything within Max to not walk out of there and go straight to art. He really should, though.

"Yeah, lets go." Barnes.

Stupid Barnes and his stupid voice and his stupid lips and...

Stupid. Fucking. Barnes.

They leave and Max of course stares at their hands while following them—he is just really angry.

The walk to Lauren's class seems to go on and on forever while Max just glares at their hands, his eye twitching as he feels like taking his crutches and beating the living shit out of someone, he doesn't care who. He's just pissed.

They arrive at her class and Max still doesn't meet either of their eyes. He leans on a locker a few feet away from the door.

He can hear their muffled voices and whatnot from where he's standing and it goes on forever until he begins banging the back of his head against the locker repeatedly.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

He closes his eyes and clenches his fists tighter, having dropped his crutches to the floor a while ago.

Bang. Bang. Ban-

"Are you okay?"

Max jumps and his eyes shoot open, he almost falls down but roots himself with his hands against the lockers.

He snaps his head up to meet his eyes with the stupid green ones that are both his least favorite and favorite color.

Barnes.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Max narrows his eyes and sets his jaw, doing his best not to fucking clock Barnes right then and there.

Barnes gives him a lopsided grin, "then are you ready to go to art?"

And then Max gets really, really, upset.

"No, Barnes." Max's nostrils flare and his hands are shaking in rage, "I'm not ready to go to art, would you like to know why?"

Barnes raises his eyebrows, but Max can tell that Barnes knows exactly what he is talking about.

And then it hits Max.

Barnes is acting like nothing happened.

Now, Max is even more pissed—no, he's livid. Vexed beyond comprehension.

And when Max gets livid, people pay.

Max grabs Barnes by his jacket and stands on his tip-toes, making sure that he is as tall as he can possibly be. He ignores the severe pain in his ankle because, really, he's pissed off.

Barnes still has a couple inches on him, but fuck it. Max has given up on caring about really everything.

"I don't want to go to art because I'm already pissed. Yeah. That's why."

"Why are you already pissed?"

Max's eye twitches, and his breathing becomes shaky and he is just overall ready to kick Barnes' ass. This guy should be a damn interrogator.

"Because you're acting like nothing happened!" Max shouts, holding onto Barnes' jacket with one hand and making a fist with the other because he's ready to just beat Barnes up. He's that pissed off.

And Max realizes that Barnes is kind of right, he does replace most of his emotions with anger. Maybe it's a sort of coping mechanism?

Barnes actually looks kind of fazed, and Max realizes that he hasn't been this pissed at Barnes since the old days when they'd beat the shit out of each other for a reason long forgotten.

"Well what exactly happened?"

Max's face falls and his nostrils flare and he furrows his eyebrows, "you're really going to act like nothing happened. Like we didn't fucking make out in your car." It isn't even a question, more of a statement. A finalization.

Barnes closes is eyes and sighs, staring at Max with a now unreadable expression. "I think it'd be better for the both of us if I do."

Max's hands finally drop and he stares at a spot beside Barnes' head. Barnes is really going to act like nothing happened, like they didn't kiss in Barnes' car and that Barnes didn't participate just as much as Max.

He's really doing this.

Correction, they're really doing this.

"Alright." Max's voice cracks as he lets go of Barnes' jacket and uses his crutches to put a bit of distance between them—ignoring the part of him that really doesn't want to. The part of him that wants to object, and be close to Barnes once again. Fuck.

"Then it didn't happen."

-

"I think that we need to talk."

Max looks up from Lawrence, who he was playing with with the straw from Marco's.

Marco's.

The car ride.

Max shakes his head at his stupid thoughts and looks up to find Zeke in the doorway to the kitchen. Max clears his throat, "yeah, I think so too."

It's Thursday, and Max and Zeke have gone about a week without talking to each other. It's suffocating, really. They seriously don't know what to do without each other. It's not that they haven't gotten into fights before, it's just that usually they don't last as long as this one.

And they weren't about incredibly serious matters...

Like this one.

Zeke walks over to the couch that Max practically lives on. Max picks up Lawrence and holds her against his chest to make room for Zeke.

Zeke crosses his legs to face Max, and it's a little awkward for a few moments.

Max really can't take it, things are never awkward between them. Zeke's the one to break the silence, though.

"Um... I have a proposition."

Max leans back and raises his eyebrows, petting Lawrence. He probably looks like a villain. "Okay." He nods to himself.

"I'm going to help you study, and we're going to go to a good college together." Zeke seems kind of nervous, like he feels Max will blow up any moment.

It takes a moment for everything to sink in, but when it does Max feels like Zeke's common sense may have gotten fucked up on the football field.

"Do you realize how unlikely it is for us to get into a good college and be together?" Max is looking at Zeke in straight up disbelief.

Really, though. Max has mostly D's and maybe an F in there somewhere.

No respectable college would ever, in a million years, accept him.

"I know, but I think we can do this! You have to believe, Max! Have faith in this whole college situation we'll all be good, and maybe you could... uh... stop being mad at me? And we could stop fighting and everything?" When Zeke first started talking Max was looking at him like he's fucking stupid, but now Max is smiling.

"Alright Zeke. You can tutor me." Max rolls his eyes, and looks down at Lawrence. She is just sitting on Max's leg and watching the whole exchange.

"And you'll stop being mad at me and everything can go back to normal and it won't be all awkward and you won't avoid me and-"

"Yes, Zeke!" Max concedes, laughing now, and Zeke cracks a smile and for some reason, Max feels like everything is okay.

Well, at least in terms of Zeke. And possibly college. Well really probably not college. But that's okay, he can deal. Whatever helps Zeke sleep at night.

That's about it, though.