Guess what's here? Chapter 4! Happy reading, and thanks for all the support guys.

It had been a little while since the incident between Justin and Max. Justin had no idea how to remedy what he had done. For now he was avoiding his little brother, the one he couldn't seem to keep his hands off of, like the plague. Max didn't seem very keen on speaking to him anyways, so it was easy to avoid him.

"Justin, help your brother downstairs." Mr. Russo called from under the kitchen counter. He was trying to fix something himself again. "Dad, I-I'm studying." Justin said. Oh god, he didn't want to go. "What else is new?" his dad chuckled. "Take a break, the shop is busy today." His head popped up from behind the counter. "More customers means a bigger vacation this summer." He grinned his silly dad grin, which made Justin smile despite himself.

"Fine dad." He stood up and headed downstairs. He didn't really have to interact with Max anyways. He washed up in the kitchen and got his smock on. Max burst into the kitchen, clearly overwhelmed. He had an array of orders in one hand, a stack of plates in the other, and a very surprised look on his face.

Justin took the order stack wordlessly and began filling them out. Max looked at him awkwardly for a little, before heading to the other side of the room to wash up the plates. They worked in silence for a while.

Both of them jumped a few minutes later when their dad burst in. "How're my boys doing?" he asked, clapping an arm on each of his sons shoulders. "Good? Working hard? Hardly working?" he chuckled to himself, and Justin remembered which side of the family Max got his corny jokes from.

"We're fine dad." He said, when Max said nothing. He chanced a glance at his brother, who was furiously cleaning dishes, biting his lips. He clearly wasn't hiding their issues as well as Justin was. "You guys ok?" Mr. Russo asked, glancing between them.

"Yeah, dad." Justin said quickly. "Max is just mad I beat him at Mario Kart." He smiled. Max shot him a look. There was no way Justin could beat him at Mario Kart. But still, he said nothing.

Justin turned back to his work, a sinking feeling in his stomach. Had he really ruined everything between them?

Permanently?

School was being distracting, which was very, very rare for Justin. He loved school. But everywhere he went he felt himself subconsciously looking out for Max. He longed to talk to him, to fix this thing he'd caused. And all the time he thought about it, what he'd done.

Each time it got him so damn horny.

He was really sick, he didn't deserve forgiveness. Max probably didn't even want to look him in the eyes any more, speak to him anymore.

'You dry humped your brother.' His mind told him, more than 10 times a day.

'I know.'

'You slid your cock between hi-'

'I KNOW.' Justin really hated his mind.

He looked down at his notes. He was totally lost. He raised his hand.

"Mr. Goldstein?"

The teacher paused, rolling his eyes, knowing Justin probably had some sort of correction for him. "Yes, Justin?"

"Can you repeat that?"

Mr. Goldstein's eyebrows shot up in absolute shock.

Justin wasn't the only one's having problems in school, but Max was a little more affected. He'd just failed another math test. He'd barely been scraping by before, and then after the incident with Justin well…there was no hope for him now. He needed a tutor.

After finishing the form required to apply for a tutor, he handed it in at the school reception desk to be revised and sat to wait to be assigned one. He wasn't stupid, he really wasn't. 'Then why do you do so badly in school?'

He shook his head and waited in the line-up of chairs reserved for dumb kids.

The receptionist beckoned him to pick up his form to see who his tutor would be. For a second he hesitated, before looking at the form. He didn't know the name, something hard to pronounce, Cousins. He had kind of imagined it would be Justin; Justin tutored and he had signed up for a senior. But that sort of thing only happened in romantic comedies.

"Thanks. Do I go now?" he asked. The receptionist nodded and he headed towards the library, to meet Something Cousins. The library was empty, as was to be expected, save for one guy sitting smack in the middle of the room.

Max walked towards him. "Hi." He said, relatively taken aback. Ok, so, Something Cousins was definitely a nerd, he had thick-rimmed glasses and ridiculous clothes, but he was also really cute.

"Hi." The guy stood. He was tall too, and he had a nice voice with a faint Russian accent. Max shook his hands. "Uhm, sorry, I can't pronounce your name." he said apologetically. "Vladislav." Cute nerd smiled faintly.

"Vl-"

"Just call me V." he offered.

"V. Hey." Max said. "I'm-"

"Max, I know you." V said. "I interviewed you in September for the newspaper. The piece on up-and-coming track stars." Max sat. "Oh right." He mused. V had really fantastic hair, it was really, really blonde. Max assumed it wasn't fake because this guy didn't seem the type to obsess over appearance. Actual blond hair fascinated Max, being Italian; it was a rarity to see. He also had really nice bright grey eyes good bone structure.

Max cocked his head. And nice teeth. And skin. And butt.

"What areas of math would you say you're weakest in?" V asked.

And that accent really was cute. His eyebrows were kind of thick, but that kind of made him look really manly and endearing. Max smiled a little.

"Max?"

"Uhm. Everything." Max offered, blinking a couple times. "I haven't understood anything since the start of the semester so I guess it just sort of got compounded."

V smiled. "It is ok." He said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Why did you not talk to your teacher about what you struggled with?"

"I thought I'd just catch up on my own." Max shrugged. "And I was busy with track and soccer."

V shook his head, glancing down at his binder, and Max felt a little judged. He crossed his arms. People in sweater vests had no rights to get judgy. But when V looked back up he had that endearing smile again and Max melted.

"It is ok." V mumbled, rifling through a stack of papers.

"Uhm, did you recently come to America?" Max (attempted) to be tactful.

V shook his head, still rifling. "Sorry, uhm, my parents never speak English so I am always rusty." He said. "I have lived here since I was three, but, no English, so…"

"Well, like, you've got your friends here to talk to." Max said. V looked up, his smile was now a little bemused. Max looked away. 'Oops.'

"My best friend is math, and he only speaks one language, which I understand." V chuckled.

Max did too, despite himself. This guy was really cute.

It wasn't until nearly a week later that Justin heard about Max's new tutor. From Alex, who really did seem to know everything that went on at their school. He had no idea how to feel. Well, he had no idea how he was logically supposed to feel. He felt furious, jealous, and very very angry.

"What the hell, Max." he snapped when his brother walked through the door at around 5. Max looked at him, bewildered. They hadn't breathed a word to each other in 2 weeks and it was really surprising to be spoken to. Especially like this.

"What?" he said curtly.

"You've got a math tutor?" Justin forgot everything about their little riff, avoidance thing they had going on. "Why would you do that? I'm a math tutor."

Max furrowed his brow. He had a lot he could say right now. Like, why the hell Justin was talking to him now of all time, or, how he could have a tutor that blew his mind then left him more confused than he'd ever been in his life. Or…or…or…

He went for a low blow.

"Well, he's first in Senior year math."

Justin looked like he was going to shit himself. "F-" he spluttered, every word ever invented trying to get out of his mouth at the same time. He was seeing red. "HE is first NOW, because I'm FUCKING busy being first in EVERY OTHER COURSE." He slammed his fist unto his palm with each word to get his point across. "And I'll get back to math by the end of the semester!"

"Well, he's first now."

"I have a 99% average!" Justin snapped. "I just missed a test and Mr. Laritate's letting me make it up due to the dire circumstances that caused me to miss it!"

"Oh, right." Max said, walking past him into the kitchen. "That cold?"

"OH MY GOD, IT WAS THE FLU!" Justin hollered. "And a BAD one!"

Max was having way too much fun with this. He sat and listened to Justin rant about his 103 degree flu temperature and how Cousins was a one-trick smug bastard of a pony and how HE had won the State Science fair, spelling bee AND Mathletes championships last year and if Cousins could beat that.

"ALSO." Justin brandished. "At LEAST I have some semblance of a social life!"

"You mean Zeke?"

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE FIRST IN MATH TO KNOW ONE FRIEND EQUATES TO MORE THAN NO FRIENDS, MAX." Justin yelled in that really angry, high-pitched Justin voice he did. "I HAVE ONE FRIEND AND HE HAS ZERO. I WIN. WHO WINS? I WIN."

Max nearly keeled over laughing and Justin blinked at him. Max's laugh was so cute; he'd missed hearing it. He started laughing too, in spite of himself.

They were going to be ok.

Review's much appreciated.