Cause for Concern ✓

twenty six

SATURDAY. 30. OCTOBER. 21.

"WHERE did you and Tommy get off to anyway?" Carter asked, falling back against the pillow and pulling Max's bed covers over himself.

"Didn't think you'd notice we left," Max yawned, shuffling under the covers as the fuzzy light from the near muted TV on the wall flashed across them.

"I didn't at first," he said, echoing the yawn. "Freya came to ask me where you and Tommy had gone, and I was totally lost. I barely even knew where I was."

"Sounds about right."

Max and Carter had gotten a taxi back to Max's together around half an hour ago, spontaneously deciding that it would be a good idea for Carter to stay over. Fortunately, Tommy had forced Carter to eat while he was drinking, and Max and Freya had been endlessly supplying with him with glasses of water in a desperate attempt to sober him up.

It had sort of helped. There was no doubt that he was still drunk because he'd been drinking way too much to truly sober up in the hour they'd been giving him water, but he was doing much better and he was so settled now that it barely made a difference anyway. He was the tired kind of drunk and it almost made the glassy glints in his bright eyes look like stars.

When they'd arrived at Max's, they'd crept into the house and up the stairs, sneaking discreetly into his bedroom and changing out of their costumes. While Carter changed into a pair of Max's sweatpants and t-shirt, Max disappeared silently into the bathroom to wash off all of the fake blood on his face and neck, praying the whole time that his mom wouldn't wake up.

She was very aware that he'd been out to a party and she wouldn't care about anyone staying over, but he knew that, now she actually came out of her bedroom to see what he got up to, she wouldn't appreciate being woken up and wouldn't hesitate to let him know about it.

So he quietly washed off the blood and splashed his face with cold water, dreaming of how refreshing his morning (or probably afternoon) shower was going to be while he brushed his teeth and pulled out a spare toothbrush for Carter.

While Carter had used the bathroom, he'd returned to his room and pulled back the bedsheets, arranged the pillows and turned on the TV, throwing on a show he was in the middle of watching for some background noise.

As soon as Carter had trudged back into the room, rubbing his eyes and stretching his arms out, he'd immediately clambered into the bed, next to where Max was already lying, and began the humorous yet foggy recap of the party.

After Max's massively relieving plate rampage with Tommy,  the two of them had gotten a taxi to Nick's and slipped back into the party around two. Tommy had immediately began the search for Carter to make sure he wouldn't need his stomach pumping by the end of the night and Max had reunited with Danny, Ava and Freya.

It had been a good time, even if he barely had anything to drink and wasn't directly involved in any of the chaos that been unravelling around them. Most of his night was spent on one of the sofas in Nick's living room, leg-to-leg and shoulder-to-shoulder with Freya who had proved to be pretty valuable company. Her more reserved attitude made it much easier for him to relax for once, instead of getting himself into trouble or wandering into some kind of unnecessary conflict.

"So where were you guys?" Carter repeated, lying flat on his back but turning his head to face Max after he dragged his eyes away from the TV screen.