Chapter Text
London
August 20th
4:00 pm
Max & Lando
Lando:
max
max
max
Max:
My God
What Lando
Lando:
yk how you said u want a job
b4 2nd yr
Max:
Yea
Lando:
well liek
the radio station needs sum help rn
we r SO short staffed we need mre ppl
Max:
Wait.
I know jack shit about music mate
I never listen to it
Lando:
ITS FINE
js ask for rqsts or sumthing
idk my boss is desperate pls bro
Max:
Begging? Hahaha mate your actually desperate
I'll do it, you don't know how bad I need a job smh
Lando:
Wow max actsusly admitting smthing 4 once
Max:
Fuck off
London
August 24th
3:30 pm
Max feels so fucking embarrassed that he has to be on RADIO for fucks sake, but somehow in London there are no open positions that aren't food service. Max would rather die than have to deal with like 700 different people every day, especially face to face. Also, even the idea of Karens? Hell no. So this is at least an improvement, still too social for him though. (But when is it not...) Lando thankfully agrees to go on air with Max when he has to do his first show, the latter thinks he would just die without him. Not that he would ever admit that to Lando ever. Max genuinely doesn't know when the last time he listened to music just to listen to music. He goes to Lando's DJ gigs all the time, and there are always uni parties with loud ass music, but he's never really paying much attention to it and is more focused on the alcohol he consumes.
This reminds him of the last time he went to one of Lando's gigs... he was absolutely wasted on gin and tonics, but he met this guy. Max only remembers his beautiful, striking green eyes and the fact that he had some sort of accent. Max genuinely had one of the best times of his life that night; they didn't even DO anything either. They just talked the whole night, but since he was all loose and drunk, Max had no issue with nervousness or having the feeling of running home and never stepping out into the light of day again. But after that night, the man just, like fucking disappeared- Max has no clue who this guy was or why he was so impacted by him. But he wants to know him for some stupid reason and why he keeps appearing in his thoughts. Ugh.
The memory of this guy leaves him annoyed again, which isn’t surprising. It always does. What person meets someone and then spends literal weeks thinking about him? Nobody sane, at least. Max just needs to suck it up and get ready for his job, he tells himself. He shoves a Red Bull hoodie on and his keys in his pockets and starts heading out, completely distracted that he forgot to say bye to Jimmy and Sassy. He heads over where Lando told him to meet.
"Max!" Lando calls out, spotting him.
"Hi Lando," Max says, trying to remove the annoyance from his earlier thoughts from his head.
"Cmon mate, time for me to show you the ropes or whatevah." Lando said, practically dragging Max into the Radio Station.
The station was small but cozy. First, there was the setup. 3 monitors, a couple of microphones, and a fuck ton of buttons that all did 25 different things. One monitor showed the current music queue; Max knew zero of the songs. Jesus, this job is going to be so hard unless he actually starts listening to music. Which he probably won't do because he's a stubborn ass and would rather spend his free time playing FIFA. The walls in the station were sage green, and in front of the setup there were two brown plush chairs with cream colored pillows. Behind the monitors there were fake vines and some fairy lights, something that looked straight out of Max's ex's Instagram page. There was also a small coffee machine and a dark oak bookcase on the left side of the room. The bookcase looked like it had seen better days, filled with random notebooks and books about music. There were some mismatched coffee cups on an emptier shelf as well. One was one of those cringy mugs that said something like "don't talk to me until I finish my coffee" or something. The other ones were just grandpa-eqsue with birds on them or just plain, probably all from thrift shops. There weren't many people in the office, Lando's- or well, their boss- was there to make sure Lando was actually helping Max learn how to run this place. There was also some high school intern named Arvid in the corner, making sure all the tech worked.
Lando told him that the station was just playing random music right now since it was nobody's hour yet, though Max was informed that he would be on air in 30 minutes. Just enough time to be shown around the office and what all the buttons do. Max's shift would be 5 pm-6 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. It really wasn't a bad gig at all. The song playing right now was some song called 'Earrings' by Malcom Todd for Indie Hour. Max hasn’t ever heard this song before, but he can't deny that it's not half bad. Lando started showing him what random buttons do and how to turn the microphone on and off. A little red button that lights up when the mic is on and goes out when the mic is shut off.
"Okay, so this button is for the ads, and this button is for adding a song to the queue, and this is-" Lando started rambling, pointing to and explaining different buttons as fast as possible.
"Woah, woah, mate, slow down. I can't keep up when you're talking this fast." Max said.
"Sorry, sorry, I guess I'm just excited, you know?" Lando said. Music is something that he's super passionate about, which Max gets, but god does he need to slow down. Max doesn't have the processing power of a mega computer or anything.
"You're fine, mate, just chill a bit." Max replies. He can't believe he's saying this, even though it's his first day on the job. But then again, as he always says, if you stress more, then you'll die faster, and he will obviously live to 200. Before Lando can start explaining slower, the boss, that Max still doesn't know the name of, comes over from where he was observing them.
"Hey, so you'll be on in 15 minutes, okay?" He says before walking away and observing again. Max knew he was just doing his job, but he couldn't help but think it was just a bittt creepy. Lando keeps rambling about the buttons and what they all do; Max is only half listening and half tuning him out, which he will probably regret later, but it's fine. 15 minutes. One five. He knows that he will just be asking for people to call/text in songs, but besides that, he has basically zero presenting skills. Hence why he is an engineering major and not a lawyer or something.
"Max. Are you even listening?" Lando asks.
"Oh yeah, definitely," Max replies, knowing full well that he was in fact not listening and thinking about having to talk for fucks sake.
"Is Maxie worrieddd?" Lando teased.
"No."
"Oh my god, you so are! I can tell, bro. I can't believe THE Max Verstappen is worried about his new jobbbb."
"Fuck off, mate." Max flips him off, frowning, though not actually mad. Then he leaned back into the chair, getting comfortable, these brown chairs were actually really nice. Not too soft, not too firm. Then Lando leans up on the desk in front of them, in front of the control board.
"Okay, seriously though, it's not that hard. It's not like you're taking whatever engineering final that you did last semester that had you studying for hours at a time. You just have to talk a bit, play some songs, you know, easy stuff. Also, no swearing, or at least keep it to a minimum." He says, trying to pep him up.
"That's the hard part. What the fuck do I talk about, mate? You're overselling how easy this is. I'm not you, Lando, I'm not some yappy guy who wants to talk about my personal life to a bunch of random people." Max says, opening up a bit. He doesn't want to fuck this up. Even though this isn't the best job and it's not exactly what he wants to do, it's a way to make money, and that's all he needs. He desperately needs to be independent from Jos, to stop the breathing down his neck all of the time. Max making his own money will let him not have to rely on Jos all the time or have to stream a fuck ton just to get some groceries. Lando's eyes softened a bit when he heard Max's words, already knowing all about the situation he's in with his stupid ass dad.
"Mate, you're just overthinking it. You'll be fine, just talk about uni and how engineering sucks. Or talk about that guy you met at my gig the other night.. what if he's listening in? You'll never know!" Lando says.
"Oh shut up, that guy had the most affulent accent, like he could own a Ferrari or something. Why would he be listening to the English public radio?" Max said.
"I dunnooo, but he makes you talk." Lando teases, doing that thing with his eyebrows where he raises them and lowers them. Max just looks down and picks at the armrest, and things get quiet between them again. Then, what feels like a second later, he hears Lando say,
"Maxie, it's time."
"Shit. Also, stop calling me that."
Monte Carlo, Monaco
August 24th
4:55 pm
Charles is packing up his belongings in his Monaco flat. After spending almost his whole summer in London and LOVING it, he made a last-minute decision to switch universities and attend one in London for his sophomore year. He's going to move into a nice flat with some Dutch engineering major who's probably all work and no fun at all. Charles knows nothing about the guy besides the fact that he's close friends with Lando, one of Charles' best mates. Charles can't believe he spent a whole school year without the Twitch Quartet. George and Alex are busy being lovey-dovey with each other in some prestigious university, probably Oxford or something. Not gonna lie, he's been a shit friend to them lately and hasn't been keeping up with them, but they're literally so disgustingly in love he can't take it when he yearns for someone so much.
Charles has had a crush on his academic rival from his international high school since he was FIFTEEN. They always fought over everything. Max would get the higher marks on a test, and Charles would make sure he got even higher marks on the next one. They were always one-upping each other, always at each other's necks. But Charles knew he could never have him as anything more than a rival.Max was so definitely straight. He wore skinny jeans every day without fail, it was almost remarkable. He also saw Max kiss girls at parties, and yeah, he could be bi, but Charles just doesn't believe it. Charles just can't help it. He heard his laugh one time when he was with an upperclassman, Daniel or something, and has been horribly fucking downbad since. It's such an issue. He loves that Dutch man with his skinny jeans and Red Bull addiction.
He knows that hypothetically Max could in fact be his flatmate, but there is noo way. Max does go to that school, and there probably aren't that many Dutch people there, but still. It can't be him. Right? Anyways, Charles is bored with packing stuff in boxes in silence, and he's tired of all his playlists, so he randomly decides to turn the radio on. There's probably some music he hasn't heard before on there, right? He opens his phone and swipes to the app that plays different international radios, picking an English one that's located in London because it was fitting for the occasion. When he hits play, he immediately hears Lando. Shit, he didn't even know Lando worked at a radio station. Charles knows about his DJ gigs and parties, as he went to a couple over the summer but.. He didn’t know Lando was super serious about this. He's been so out of touch with everyone, holy shit.
"Welcome back to London Hits 107.9, with your boy Lando! You may think, hey mate, this isn't Lando's hour! Which is correct; I'm here with my mate Max Verstappen here who's taking over this hour now. Now to pass the mic over to him," Lando introduces to kick off the show. You can hear a tiny bit of shuffling before Max gets on the mic. Wait. Max? As in Max Verstappen? His academic rival.. Is on the RADIO? Charles gasped like it was the most horrific thing that's ever happened. How’d Lando ever convince him to do this? Charles sadly knows for a fact that Max would rather die than have to speak to a bunch of people, even if it weren't face to face. Did Max lose a bet or something? To save his heart from hearing Max's voice for the first time in over a year Charles thinks he should probably shut off the Radio. Well at least he thinks it's been at least a year, Charles got horrifically drunk a couple times over the summer in London. But Charles can’t get himself to turn it off. Then Max speaks,
"Hello everyone! Yep, this is my hour now. This will be the request portion of the station for now. Please call or text in to the number +44 2069 202176 to request a song. Feel free to share your name and where you're from, and we'll give you a shoutout!"
(Please do not actually call or text this phone number; it is randomly generated from online!)