Lies We Tell To Stay Alive

13

After finishing their food, David and Max went grocery shopping. Max sat cross-legged in the cart and David pushed them around the shop.

"What kind of food do you like, Max?" David asked.

"Whatever's fine."

"Max, you need to choose something. Or at least tell me what you don't like."

Max glanced around at the shelves surrounding them, trying to find something he liked, but wouldn't be too inconvenient for David.

"Can we get rice then?"

David grabbed a large bag of rice and set it in the cart just next to Max.

"What meat do you like, Max? Or do you not like meat?"

"Uhhh chicken's good. And pork. But I'll eat anything."

45 minutes later, David and Max were leaving the grocery, loaded down with food as they returned to David's house. Max did his best to help put away all the groceries, but struggled a bit trying to figure out where everything belonged in the still unfamiliar house.

***

Three days later, Max called Neil for the first time. When Neil picked up the phone and heard Max's voice, the first thing he said was, "Finally. You have my phone number but I don't have David's so I couldn't call you."

"You would've called me first?" Max asked in shock.

"Of course!" Neil yelled back. "We're friends, aren't we?" Not waiting for a response, Neil continued speaking. "How's it living with David, anyways?"

"He has the sweetest cat, named Nana, and I have my own bedroom. His house is really small but I like it - it makes it cozier."

"That's good. How 'bout... How are you doing memtally?" He asked.

"Better than at my house, and better than when David found out about that stuff..."

"You sound like you're leaving something out."

"I had one relapse," Max blurted out. "David was really nice about it though. He woke up in the middle of the night and I told him, so we ended up just sitting watching cartoons together."

"I'm glad he's been so nice."

"Neil, do you think maybe... we could hangout sometime before school starts for you?"

"Of course we can, Max."

***

"Hey David," Max hesitantly asked, "Could Neil come over and hang out before school starts?"

"Of course he can. Maybe this weekend?" David responded.

Max hopped up, throwing his arms around David and hugging him and thanking him. David froze for a second, shocked that Max would willingly hug him, but just a second later he hugged Max back, grateful that Max was okay with hugging him.

***

Three days later, Neil was dropped off at Max's house just before lunch. David excitedly greeted Neil, and Max took Neil around the house giving him a quick small tour. Afterwards, they went and ate lunch that David had made for them, which happened to be pan-seared chicken with vegetables and rice.

Max had never exactly gotten good food at his previous home - he was essentially stuck with leftovers or whatever he was able to make himself - and camp had obviously not had good food, so when he learned David was such a fantastic cook, Max was ecstatic.

Neil too had been very pleased with the food they were given. His father wasn't like Max's parents, but the food at his home was nowhere near adequate. His dad tried his best, but he was still a divorced bachelor who definitely lived like one, and had no knowledge of how to cook. If Neil sent his father to the grocery alone, his father would come back with a jar of pickles and a bag of pistachios and think that was an adequate amount of groceries.

After eating, Max and Neil went to Max's new bedroom. For hours they sat and talked. The room was still blank with white walls, and no decoration of any sort. The only things in the room were a bed with a plain gray blanket, an empty desk with a few sheets of paper and pens, a trunk filled with the clothes David had recently gotten for Max, and Mr. Honeynuts sitting on his bed.

"Is there anything you want to do?" Max asked.

"How 'bout we see if David has any craft stuff and we could make some decorations to make it feel homier in here?"

Max nodded, standing up and holding a hand out to help Neil up.

"Hey David, Neil and I were wondering if you had any stuff like paint or markers?" Max asked as they walked into the front room.

"I just have some watercolors but not much else. I'll grab them for you," David said.

After David grabbed the paint, Max and Neil thanked him and went back to Max's room, painting sheets of paper to hang on Max's walls. The first painting Neil did was of some coral and orange fish swimming around it. The next was of a hand (that quite impressed Max) and a bird perched on its finger. Max's paintings on the other hand were more cartoon-y. He had one painting of a buggalo, and another of Leela, as he had been quite obsessed with Futurama recently.

Max looked over at Neil as he pinned the art onto Max's wall above the desk. He stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth a tiny bit as he focused on making sure the paintings were level. He looks kinda cute. Max shoved the thought to the side. He wouldn't mind liking Neil if he was being honest - and it wasn't like it would send him into a sexuality crisis or anything since he'd already gone through hopefully his maximum number of those. He just didn't want to have to deal with what that meant about his relationship and dynamic with Neil.

Just before dinner, Neil's father came back to pick him up, so Neil and Max had to say goodbye, knowing it would be a little while before they got to see each other again because of school.

***

Just before school was to start for max, David sat him down to explain how his schooling was going to work.

"So, it will be partially digital, for science, history, and your foreign language, but for English and math I'll be teaching you. Once a week, a tutor will come here to help you with anything you need. And, for electives, I was thinking we could put you in a class or two in the city, which also gives you a chance to hang out with people your age a bit. Any questions?"

"What kind of classes are there?"

"Well, there is an arts association that I believe offers teen courses we can look into."

Three weeks later, Max had begun school. David was doing his best at teaching her the English and math courses. Max hadn't expected it, but David's teaching was better and more helpful than any other teacher had before. The tutor she had seemed to be pretty helpful. Her name was Chrissy, and she was currently attending college, majoring in Chemistry, which Max couldn't for the life of herself understand why anyone would do that. David had also gotten Max enrolled in two classes at the Art Association of his choice.

The first day at Max's first class - a gouache painting class - was quite fun. There were six other students there, all near Max's age, and they were all quite friendly. Max was shocked when all of them were so good at using Max's proper pronouns.

The second class Max enrolled in was a creative writing course. He was the first student to arrive and sat five seats down from the teacher. The second person to arrive was at least 25 years old - or older. Wasn't this supposed to be a teen class? The next person to arrive was in her 30's at least. The third and last person to arrive looked to be in their early 20's. Once he realized that he was in fact in the right class - and the only teen in the class - Max was a bit uncomfortable, being thrown into this unexpected situation. Close to halfway through the class, Max was much more comfortable, realizing he may actually prefer being in the class with adults rather than teens. He felt much more comfortable sharing his writing out loud around the adults than he would have around teens. The adults were much less judgy than teens would have been, and now, since everyone was nearly a decade older than him, no one expected his writing to be fantastic or even as good as everyone else's.

***

Ty for reading

Idk what i did with this fic but it was something ig

the creative writing was just thrown in there cause I signed up to a teen course, the teacher turned out to be an old family friend I haven't seen for five years, and I'm the youngest there by at least a decade and it has been quite the experience lmao