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Max looks away as he flushes the toilet. This is the second time he’s thrown up in a span of about 20 minutes, so there’s no way he’s going to school today. He goes to his room to grab his blanket and wraps it around his shoulders, trying to dispel the shivers.
He shuffles down the stairs, quietly calling for his dad. “Dad I threw up again, I can’t…” he trails off as he sees a familiar head of gelled, red hair.
Max almost runs back up the stairs, but it’s too late; Johnny has seen him.
“Puckett? You live in a store?”
Max groans quietly and makes his way down the remaining stairs and to the counter. “No, I live upstairs.” He looks up at his dad and says, “Why couldn’t you get a normal house. Why did you have to buy a convenience store.”
“Well son… because it’s convenient!” Max leans forward until his head hits the counter.
“You doin’ okay Max? ‘Cuz ya don’t sound so great,” Johnny asks.
“No, I’m sick. I’ve thrown up twice already and I haven’t even been awake for an hour. I’ve probably got the plague.” He lifts his head slightly to look at Johnny and continues, “So you should stay away. Far away. Preferably forever.”
“Hey! If you’re sick, ya gotta go back to bed!” Johnny vaults over the counter and grabs Max by the shoulders, steering him back upstairs. He pauses at the top, clearly unsure of where to go now. “Er… which one’s your room, buddy boy?”
Rather than talking, Max stumbles forward, leading Johnny down the hall to his room. He opens the door and navigates around the boxes that are still only half unpacked, even after being in Mayview for more than a month, abandoning Johnny for the comfort of his bed.
Johnny approaches warily, looking unsure of himself, and it’s such a strange expression on his face that Max starts laughing, which is a mistake, as the laugh quickly becomes a violent cough.
Johnny starts forward, hands out, looking worried, but Max waves a hand at him.
“’M fine dude. If you wanna help, get me another blanket or something, it’s freezing.”
“Oh, well if yer cold, I can take care a that, no problem.” He starts walking towards Max, arms glowing a little, and gets as far as the edge of the bed before Max realizes what he’s doing.
“Johnny! I’ve probably got the flu or something, you’re gonna get sick! Anyway, don’t you have to go to school?”
Johnny blinks at Max as if he had forgotten. “Right. I’ll be back when it’s done though, believe you me, and when I do, I’m gonna take care a you so hard.” Rather than using the door, Johnny opens the window and jumps out, and Max has never felt more threatened by someone promising to take care of him.
True to his word, Johnny returns, bearing a bowl of chicken noodle soup that he forces Max to eat under threat of getting beaten up once he’s feeling better (which Max thinks is ridiculous because he was gonna eat it anyway, but he doesn’t say anything).
Max grabs the bowl and frowns. “Dude, this soup is cold.”
“Oh. My bad.” Johnny grabs the bowl from him and superheats his hands to warm it, handing it back to Max when he’s done.
When he’s about halfway through with the soup, Max’s stomach starts gurgling and he shoves the bowl towards Johnny so he can rush to the door.
“Hey! Where’re ya going!”
“Bathroom,” Max mutters, leaving his room. He just barely makes it in time before the soup comes rushing back up and ends up in the toilet. He makes a silent tally mark under ‘Times Puked Today’ which is now at three.
He plods back to his room and crawls into bed, curling in on himself and ignoring Johnny.
Which is going pretty well until Johnny decides to put a hand on Max’s back. Max feels his face grow hotter than it already is and his heart stutters and he turns his head to find Johnny’s face hovering over him with that weird concerned expression.
“You need a doctor.”
Johnny, for whatever reason, insists on coming back every day for the next week to take care of Max, bringing a different type of soup each day and a bottle of Gatorade (“Gotta have those electro-thingies” he explains).
“Where do you keep getting all of this soup?” Max asks, the fourth day Johnny comes over (and it’s strange, but Max was almost excited to see him).
“Oh, I buy it from yer dad.”
Max almost spits out the tomato soup, but manages to swallow it before saying, “Johnny, I can just go downstairs and get some for free. You didn’t have to spend your money on this.”
Johnny scratched his neck and avoided Max’s gaze. “Guess I didn’t think about that. And it’s not like it’s my money, per say.”
Max pauses, spoon hovering between his mouth and the bowl. “Do you mean to tell me,” he starts slowly, “that I’m eating soup that was paid for with money that you stole from other kids? Soup I could have gotten myself, by the way, at no cost to anyone!”
“What? No!” Johnny pauses in his awkward neck scratching to look at Max. “My ma gave me the money.” His voice got quiet and he looked away again and Max could swear his cheeks were red, but that could have just been the light reflecting off of his hair. “I know ya said that you didn’t like the bullying so much, and I didn’t wanna taint yer soup with it or whatever.”
“Oh,” Max croaked out after a few seconds. “That’s… nice of you.”
Johnny smiled slightly and his cheeks were definitely red now. “Heh. Thanks.”
They sit in silence for another minute or two and Johnny, of course, is the one to break it. “What’s with all this talking! Eat yer soup, punk.” He holds up a fist, but for once, Max doesn’t feel threatened by it. He just smiles into his soup and says nothing.
Max’s dad walks in about thirty minutes later, interrupting Johnny’s explanation of the day’s events.
“Oh, you’re still here… kid.” Max facepalms; his dad was worse with faces than Max himself was.
“His name is Johnny dad, I’ve told you this three times already!”
His dad smiles sheepishly and shrugs. “Anywho kiddo, some friends of yours are here.”
Max raises an eyebrow, silently wondering who it was. “Okay. Send them up I guess?”
Johnny stands, hands in his pockets, as the door closes. “I should get goin’ then. Seeya.”
“Wait.” Max is holding out a hand then quickly draws it back. “You can stay. I… My dad won’t mind.”
Johnny smiles and sits back down next to Max. “Alright.”
Seconds later, the door bursts open to reveal Isabel, Ed, and Isaac, each wearing face masks, probably to protect themselves from Max’s germs.
“Hey Max, we brought your homework- oh.” Isabel stops partway into the room. “I didn’t know you had a guest.”
Max looks between the Activity Club and Johnny and says, “Uh… yeah. Johnny’s been… taking care of me?” He phrases it as a question, looking at Johnny as he does.
“Yeah. Been bringin’ him soup n’ junk. Didn’t think about homework though,” Johnny mumbles, looking at the floor.
Max can’t be quite sure, but he swears that Isabel has an impish smile on underneath her mask. “That’s okay.” She strides the rest of the way into the room and sits herself down on the edge of Max’s bed, dropping the homework on the floor. Ed and Isaac follow, Isaac placing himself at Max’s desk and Ed perching on the bedframe like some sort of demented gargoyle.
After Johnny leaves (through the window, as always) Ed turns to Max, grinning, and says, “I didn’t know you and Johnny were so close Max.”
Max glares at them and aims a kick at their shins, successfully knocking them from their perch.
Max is finally back at school the next Tuesday, and even though he stills feels pretty grody, his fever has broken and he hasn’t thrown up in three days, so he guesses it’s okay. But just in case, he follows the AC's lead and wears a mask.
As he walks into the gates, Suzy bombards him with questions.
“Max! Max! Is it true that you've been fighting almost certain death this past week? Were you or were you not in the hospital? Did you really come back from the dead?”
“What? No. What are you talking about?”
Suzy looks disappointed and Max rolls his eyes, spotting the Jang lurking by the front entrance as he does. Looking closer, he notices that someone is missing from their ranks: Johnny.
“Hey, Suzy, where’s Johnny at?”
She looks up from her notepad. “Huh? Oh, he’s home sick. Got the flu or something, it must be going around…”
Max stops listening and sighs, smiling fondly. “That idiot.”
(He gets Johnny’s address from Ollie and brings him some chicken noodle soup after school.)