CHAPTER THREE: pick up

❣︎𝓜𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓽𝓸𝓮❣︎

MAXWELL KENNER HADN'T THOUGHT THIS THROUGH. Of course, Jack had gone overboard in drinking, Max had been focused on organizing the hurts that he had gotten Jack, into the bag. Even though Jack already knew what he had gotten him.   Max only realized that Jack hadn't returned from the bathroom.

"Jack?" Max knocked on the door, waiting for a reply. He would hate for Jack to pass out in the bathroom. Again. Max knocked on the door, again. "Jack?"

Max dragged a hand down his face, hand in the doorknob. "I'm coming in." He twisted the door, the thought hitting him that he hadn't picked the lock, only to find out the door was already unlocked. He pushed open the door, sighing when seeing that Jack had managed to climb into the bathtub, and fell asleep.

Max walked over to Jack, shaking his arm at first. "Jack. Jack."

Jack wasn't waking up, snoring now. Max removed the bottle from his hand first, placing it onto the sink counter. He walked around the tub, gong to the head of it before pulling up Jack, his arms under Jack's. He heaved him up before pulling him out of the tub. Surprisingly, when Jack's feet hit the ground, he hasn't woken up.

Max dragged him throughout the place, before dragging him to the bedroom, and dropping him onto the bed. He removed Jack's shoes, causing for the other man to shift. Max then found Jack's phone in his pocket, putting it to charge.

He moved to put the covers over Jack. Jack's hand reached out, grasping his. "Jack," he began, thinking that the other believed it to be an attack.

"Max," Jack pulled him over.

"Shit," Max grunted.
❣︎𝓜𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓽𝓸𝓮❣︎

A annoying ringing sound, buzzing on top of a wooden table, awoke Max, who huffed in annoyance. He reached out, blindly, not even opening his eyes as he slide open the phone. "Hello?"

No one answered. Instead silence was met. Max cleared his throat. "Hello." He greeted again, thinking maybe the person hasn't heard him.

"Max," the female voice greeted, sounding surprised.

"Olivia," Max sighs. "Why are you calling me this early?"

"First off, it's not early. Second off, I didn't all you. I called Jack."

"What?" Max asked as he pulled the phone back away from his ear. He flipped the phone, seeing he back if it to see, that it indeed was Jack's.  He sighed, then pressing the phone back to his ear. "Sorry. Just give me a second to wake him up."

"Uh, so you finally made a move?" Olivia asked, her voice taking in a teasing tone.

Max's face heated up, turning red from embarrassment. "Shut up. How can a nurse be so mean?"

Max shifted, moving to prop himself up against the headboard.  Jack's arm fell from around his waist. Max picked up his arm, dropping it back into Jack's chest. Before he picked up the pillow, hitting Jack with it. Immediately, Jack shot up, ripping the pillow from Max's hands, his own hands going up and wrapping around Max's arms, legs he flipped the two. A hand moving over to his bedside table.

"Max?" Jack asked, which caused the other man to grin up at him.

"Would you look at that? Sleeping beauty's awake!"  Max sarcastically called, then lifting the phone up. "Olivia wants to talk to you."

Jack sighed. "Can't it wait until later?"

"She's literally on the phone now. She probably heard you."

Jack moved over, to sit next to Max before he took the phone from him.  Max stood up. "I'm gonna go make something quickly."

"Now, that you're done talking to your not-my boyfriend, boyfriend," Olivia immediately says. Jack looked up to see that Max was already in the kitchen. "I need you to do me a favor and go pick up Dylan."

"I'm right in the middle of something important, this isn't a good time for me," Jack says.

"Yeah, me neither. I have two mothers-to-be with weakening contractions and labor that's not progressing, and Craig's out of town."

"Liv," Jack sighed, tiredly.

"Dylan got in trouble at school. I just need you to go pick him up and drop him off at my place."

"Liv."

"Jack. I'm stuck at work, and Craig's away. So just do me a favor and go pick up your kid."

"I made grilled cheese," Max says. "Which, we really need to go grocery shopping. There was literally just four slices of cheese in your fridge. Food wise. You had plenty of drinks." Or, well, plenty of beer.

"I have to go pick up Dylan," Jack sighed. "You coming with?"

"Well, I would have made a third grilled cheese had I known prior."
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"Why are you sitting in the back?" Jack asked Max.

"So, Dylan can sit in the front. And you two actually have a conversation. You know, with words. Not, like you guys are seeing who can do a better Batman impression with being silent." Max replied, a grin tugging on his lips.

When Jack pulled up to the school, the tires squeaked, the brakes grinded and squealed when he pressed down on them. Dylan was already waiting outside, one of the teachers by his side. Dylan walked up to the car, momentarily pausing when seeing that Max was seated in the backseat.

Dylan pulled at the door handle, only to discover it had yet to be unlocked. Then pulled again, and again.

"I got it. I got it."  Jack says as he leaned over to u pick the car door. "I got it. I got it."

"Hey buddy," Jack says.

"Hey, Dyl," Max smiled.

Dylan shoved his guitar in the back, carful to not hit Max.

"Hey, you got any aspirin?" Jack questioned his son.

"What? No," Dylan closed the door.
❣︎𝓜𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓽𝓸𝓮❣︎

"I got to get something in by stomach," Jack says. "You want a churro?"

"No," Dylan answered.

"Max?" Jack asked as he swerved, cutting off to cars as he drove over the lines. The cars honked at them. "Shut up!"

Jack stopped at a churro stand. He quickly rolled the window down, leaning over to speak to the man. "Hey, man, can I get three?"

"I don't want a churro," Dylan speaks.

"I heard you. Two are for me, one for Max. He can never eat more then one," Jack says, waving a hand momentarily to gesture to the man in the back seat, mocking him.

"So, what are they saying you did?" Jack asked his son.

"Tampered with the school's attendance records, which I did."

"Allegedly," Jack adds. "Never admit that."

The man handed the churros over, which Jack handed him the cash at the same time. "Thank you."

Jack took a shelve, handing it back to Max. Before he drove off.

"The music teacher leaves his computer open during fifth period. I started to ditch science so I could go and practice guitar, then I'd change it on the computer." Dylan admits.

"Makes sense," Jack says over a mouthful of churro.

"No. It really doesn't," Max speaks.

"There's this girl in jazz band, Piper."

"Of course there is," Max sighs, bitting into the churro. "There is always a girl."

"She started to ditch with me, then Kevin-"

"Who's Kevin?" Jack asked.

"Judging by the tone of his voice, a son of a bitch,"  Max laughs.

"He's my best friend. At least he was."

"What'd Kevin do?"

"Kevin found out and wanted to ditch, too.  But he's not even on jazz band. He just wanted to hang out with Piper."

"Where as for you, hanging out with Piper was just an added bonus?" Max smiled knowingly.

Dylan's face flushed, red, but decided to ignore the man's teasing. "I was the one hanging out with Piper. So, I'm supposed to go in and change his absent to present so he can hang out with Piper?"

"Bullshit." Jack says.

"Or, don't ditch, hang out with Piper after school," Max took another bite of the churro.

"So, instead, I gave him three more absences."

"Good." Jack nods. "Sent a message."

"He got busted and told the vice principal."

"Kevin." Jack says in an annoyed tone, shaking his head.

"So, I slashed the tires on his bike." Dylan added after a second of silence.

"What?" Max exclaimed.

Jack glanced at him. He continued to chew, momentarily looking out his window.

"I know, you're disappointed." Dylan sighed.

"I am disappointed. Look, if you're gonna hack a mainframe, you do it quietly. You go in through a back door, no fingerprints. But more importantly, the second this kid Kevin knew what you were doing, you got a loose end. Never trust anybody. Anybody. Never let someone get the upper hand. Because they'll use it."

Max sighed. "Look, what your father meant," max says pointedly. "Don't go breaking the rules."

"Don't get caught," Jack adds.

Max sighed, as Jack pulled up to the address.  Dylan opened the door, gathering his guitar, he turned back to his dad. "All right. I got to go practice.  I have this dumb winter pageant thing tonight for jazz band."

"A pageant? Oof," Jack commented.

"I know. I said it was dumb," Dylan looks sad, and as he exited the car, closing the door.

Max slapped the back of Jack's head.

"Ow! W-what was that for?" Jack asked, rubbing the back of is head.

"Being an idiot,"  Max then opened the door, climbing out and pulling open the passenger door. He closed the door, Olivia walked up.  Max rolled down the window.

"Thought the labor wasn't progressing," Jack tells Olivia.

"Yeah, then it did. Thanks for picking him up, though. I don't know what's going on with him these days. He's acting out."

Max faked an over-dramatic gasped, a hand over his heart. "No! A teenager? Acting out?"

Jack laughed. "Yeah, well, you know, growing up is tough."

"Is that why you're avoiding it?" Olivia asked.

"I walked right into that."

"Yeah. He'd really love to see you more often, Jack."

"I just picked him up," Jack tells her.

"I've bene telling him he should spend more time with the kid," Max says.

"It was really nice. We had a good talk. He told me about school."

"He would love that to happen more often, is all I'm saying."

"I got to go to work," Jack says.

Olivia sighed. "Okay.  Merry Christmas, Jack." She walked off.

"You know, we should go to his winter pageant thing," Max speaks.

"He doesn't want me there. He just said it's dumb."

"Yeah. Something is indeed dumb." Max huffed. He had to think of something else to get Jack to go to the pageant.

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