On Sunday, Max gets his cast off.

The rest of the week is filled with Max ignoring Barnes and avoiding him whenever possible and Barnes pretty much doing the same thing.

But on Sunday, Max gets his cast removed after getting a bunch of X-rays and shit. They wash the skin and put an ankle splint on him but he can wear normal shoes again and he doesn't need any fucking crutches.

So he is in a pretty good damn mood, until he gets a call.

Or, well, Gina gets a call and Max is secretly listening in.

Miss Thompson.

The lady who controls his schedule and assigned him Barnes.

"Hello?" Gina pauses her show and answers her phone.

"Hello! Is this Miss Hill?"

Gina nods, "yes."

"Good!" The woman's muffled voice says from the other end and Max has to strain his ear to hear her, as he had stationed himself in the kitchen.

"I just called to notify you that Lewis Barnes won't be assisting your child in school, anymore."

Gina looks like she just wants the call to end so that she can go back to her show. "Uh... okay."

"Alright! Nice chat, I'll be going."

"Yeah okay bye."

And they hang up.

And Max is left in the kitchen wishing that he was happy about Barnes not having to accompany him anymore. Max has to act like he doesn't already miss that stupid asshole.

Well, it looks like Max's assumption was right.

Barnes was experimenting and he was dissatisfied with what he got. And now they are going to pretend like it didn't actually happen. Barnes is going to become super successful and Max is just going to end up being another persons' regret.

Barnes will eventually marry Lauren - the stuck up bitch - as expected. And they will have four children. Two of which will be twins. Fraternal twin boys and Barnes will momentarily think of Max and Zeke. However, Barnes will immediately dismiss the thought and move on.

They will have two boys and two girls. Perfect, an even number. Barnes' life will be perfect and Max will end up on the streets. He will beg for money daily only so that he can buy more drugs and alcohol. Max will die at the mere age of thirty six and no one will show up to the funeral but Zeke and maybe Gina. Zeke had given up on him a while ago, though.

Zeke had become a pro football player as expected so he could only spend a few minutes at Max's funeral before he had to leave.

Barnes will live until he is old and wrinkly, along with Lauren who is his life long partner. He will make millions and eventually get cancer and die a nice, painless death in his sleep.

Max didn't realize that he was shaking until Gina turned her show back on.

Damn, Max is a fucking wreck. What the hell? Since when did he become so goddamn sensitive? Is a fucking prophet now or what?

So Max decides to handle this like he—of course—handles practically every emotion that he doesn't like.

Max gets off the floor and makes his way to his bedroom, digging through their closet until he eventually finds a bottle of rum.

Max is going to get fucking wasted. And he's going to forget.

He doesn't care that it's Sunday and he has school tomorrow.

School without Barnes. Barnes, to teach him about words and tease him about the color green and allow him to be a total dick to Lauren every once in a while.

Max picks up the fresh bottle and takes off the cap, taking a huge gulp.

He coughs and swallows and closes his eyes.

Max needs to get Barnes out of his head. He'd gone like six years barely associating with the bastard and now he doesn't want Barnes out of his life. How fucked up is that? Had Max felt this way all these years?

Is this a crush? Was this ever even a rivalry?

Max takes another swig.

Instead of glaring and sending a few insults—to which Barnes would usually just roll his eyes—all these years... was Max actually admiring? Flirting?

Instead of picking apart everything wrong with Barnes' appearance, was Max checking him out?

Another swig.

And another.

Until Max eventually forgets. He can't remember Barnes' name, let alone all the emotions. He can't remember Lauren or the kiss or even Lawrence, who is fast asleep on his bed a few feet away.

He can't remember.

And he's completely okay with it, though that may just be the alcohol talking.

-

Max wakes up the next morning and of course has to puke his fucking guts out. Then he does his usual routine of brushing the hell out of his teeth and checking the time, surprised that it is actually like ten minutes away from when he and Zeke wake up.

Lawrence is still sleeping on his bed and Max decides to just put her in her box for the time being, and take a shower and finally wash his goddamn leg.

So Max gets ready, doing the usual. Dropping Lawrence off at Miss Kennedy's and getting dressed and looking like a fucking homeless person and he and Zeke and Harvey eventually leave and are off to school.

Max is hungover as hell. His head is pounding a mile a minute and he almost walks to the office, to meet up with Barnes, but he stops himself.

Damn, there is something seriously fucking wrong with Max.

Max says bye to Zeke and walks to his classroom alone. He arrives and half expects Barnes to be in his spot on the short side of the table and waiting for Max to show up.

Max goes to the table and sits in his chair and zones out the entire fucking period. He doesn't move, he doesn't speak and he acts like that all the way up until he arrives to lunch and someone actually talks to him.

"Dude, did someone die?" Max looks up after he sits down and sees Harvey giving him a weird look.

Max decides to blame it on alcohol. Really, he blames most things on intoxication. "I'm hungover as fuck."

Amelia joins in. "You got your cast off, shouldn't you be, like, stoked?"

Max rolls his eyes. "I feel like shit." He states, before laying his head on the table and closing his eyes, trying to block out the world.

He can practically feel them exchanging looks, but he doesn't give enough fucks to acknowledge any of them.

Max's entire week goes by like that.

Him acting like a chick on her fucking period and Zeke constantly asking him why the hell he is acting like a chick on her fucking period and Max really just wants to crawl under his bed and live there with Lawrence and never leave.

He decides to blame it on getting used to his leg that is now out of the cast, and the fact that he wants to itch it constantly but instead is going to listen to the doctor and not scratch it because he doesn't know their whole treatment thing but he really doesn't want to end up in another cast.

Unless it gets Barnes back in his life again...

No! He doesn't want to be in a fucking cast again so he's not going to scratch his goddamn leg. And that's final.

The only thing that really lifts his spirits is when Friday comes. He's finally able to feel useful after six games of laying around and sleeping and coloring and shit on the sidelines.

Coach seems to be way more stoked about Max's cast removal than Max. Max didn't realize how much Coach had to do for the team while he was gone until Coach began explaining everything that he needed Max to do and assist him with and all that.

"Alright, so I need you to refill the team's water, get the extra footballs from the back room, and find the other clipboard with the team's plays because ADAM LOST IT." Coach raises his voice at the last part and glares at a kid - probably Adam - on the bench, who perks up at his name.

"It was an accident!" Adam defends.

"Shut up." Coach continues glaring for a few more seconds before finally directing his attention back to Max, who is still trying to actually memorize everything that Coach had told him to do. Max really has a sucky memory.

"You got it?" Coach asks, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah. I think."

Coach rolls his eyes, before nodding and walking off. It is after half time and they are currently on the sidelines. And Max is trying to focus, but he had spotted Barnes in the crowd earlier and it is really pretty fucking difficult.

Without his permission, Max's eyes glance up into the stands and catch sight of Barnes. With Lauren.

Fucking Lauren.

Max sets out to take one of the water coolers out to the side of the school, where there's a hose, and refill it before going back to the field and doing the same to the other one.

He takes each pack of the water bottles, one after another, and refills them too.

Then Max goes to look for Coach's clip board. He goes back to the locker room, and into the hallway into Coach's office, where he eventually finds it, and then goes back to the field.

He sets it onto Coach's chair, right as he walks up. Coach quickly picks it up, sending a thank you over his shoulder and glaring at Adam again, before returning back to the game.

Max turns around and again glances at Barnes.

This time Lauren isn't there to make Max angry, but he doesn't give a shit. He's still pissed off.

Damn, Max really hates how much he's been noticing Barnes recently. At lunch, he catches himself staring, when he sees him in the halls, and almost every time someone brings up food, Max thinks of Marco's.

Which leads to him thinking about Barnes.

Which then leads to him face palming and everyone staring at him like he's lost his mind.

Max realizes that Barnes is sitting with a few clean cut smart people and laughing, though to Max it seems kind of fake. Max has seen Barnes' real laugh and that is currently not what he is doing, Max can't really rely on his eyesight though.

"Tucker, get on with it!" Max hears Coach shout from behind him and Max immediately guesses that it's directed at him. He sees Barnes begin to turn his head, presumably to look down at the shouting.

Max looks away from Barnes before he can figure anything out.

Max then remembers his job, and realizes that he needs to get the footballs from the back room.

Stupid footballs, ruining his Barnes stalking.

Stupid Barnes.

Max slowly turns and begins making his way to the locker room. He really likes being the assistant. It lets him be around Zeke, because they never like to be apart. And it also lets Max feel kind of important. Like he's worth something, as sad as it sounds.

Max can't explain it sometimes. Most people really wouldn't like running around and doing errands for the coach but Max is good with it, because Coach can't really operate this team without Max very well, and Max takes a sort of pride in it.

So Max goes through the locker room and pulls out Coach's key. He eventually makes it to the back of the locker room, where he takes a right and comes face to face with the back room door.

That is unlocked.

Max is immediately alarmed, because as he approaches closer he realises that the door is actually cracked. It's not even closed.

Max is freaked out, but he has always chosen fight over flight (he usually ends up getting his ass kicked, but that's beside the point) and so Max figures that he's gonna be like those dipfuck blonde chicks from horror films, and do the stupid thing that will probably end badly.

Or not, it's entirely possible that Coach just left it open...

But Max remembers closing it right before the game.

Fuck.

Then Max almost jumps out of his own fucking skin when he hears a sound. He comes closer and realises that shit is actually being moved around in there, and he can't shake the primal urge to flee from the possible danger.

Ugh.

Max sighs, before putting his hand on the door knob.

And then he hears it.

A fucking moan. He knows sexual noises anywhere, he's watched enough porn to hear it a mile away. And that was a moan.

He knows the voice too.

Max is scared to death to open this door, but he needs to get the fucking footballs and who knows, he could probably just be imagining things. Maybe he got high again and somehow doesn't remember it. Yeah, that makes sense. That's probably it.

Hopefully.

Max shoves the door open and closes his eyes, scared of someone shooting him or some shit, but everything goes silent and he decides to open them.

And what he finds makes him wish that he'd just gotten the fucking footballs before the game.