The Radio Station

Chapter Seven - Say What's on Your Mind

19th of February, 2019

A lot of people hated Mondays. That first day of the week where you had to forfeit the rest of your weekend good mood and go back into your nine to five. However, at the radio station, Tuesdays felt the worst. Mondays gave you something to do, you had emails to answer and stuff to sort out from the weekend, you got to catch up with your colleagues about what they'd done for the last two days. But Tuesdays? They dragged. You've already sorted out the work that had piled up, everyone is still resentful that the weekend has ended, and now you know you have to rest of the week staring you down. A lot of these thoughts were crossing her mind as she struggled to keep her eyes open during song breaks. Morning shift had taken some getting used to, and as much as it had been years now, waking up at four in the morning was never truly ideal, despite it being for a good cause. Absentmindedly she heard the glass door open behind her, but didn't really register it until a takeaway coffee cup was placed in front of her.

"You're cute when you're half asleep." Matty grinned down at her. She just smiled back, a familiar warm feeling settling in her chest at seeing her friend. "Are you blushing?" He teased instantly.

"No." She lied, taking a sip from the cup.

"Your hair looks weird straight." She noted as he took a seat across from her. Had he not already sent her a photo of his hair when he'd first done it, it probably would've come as a shock. She had been expecting it, but that didn't make it any less strange to not be faced with his usual mop of curls.

"Easier to manage." He shrugged as he took a swig from his own drink. "You doing well?"

She nodded softly. "Sorted out that issue with my record player I was telling you about the other day." As promised, they had indeed stayed in touch this time. Besides the odd meme or text to check in, they'd both been making more of an effort to make time to catch up with one another when Matty was in town.

"Great. I'll have to bring a few 'round then." He replied eagerly.

"You?"

"Brilliant." He beamed. "Had a great show last night and excited for the BRITs tomorrow. Happier to be here, though." He added with a smooth wink.

"Yeah, yeah." She said with a roll of her eyes. "You always say that."

They had a few minutes to chat, and thankfully for her, to drink and process some of the coffee he had kindly brought before they had to start the interview.

"So, you guys played a show last night at The Garage for BRITs Week. I believe there were only six hundred tickets that were raffled off to raise money for War Child?" She asked once they'd done the usual pleasantries.

"Yeah, it was a real small affair." He answered with a smile.

"Was there any particular reason you guys wanted to do that?"

"Well, we were already at home for the BRIT awards. Why wouldn't we do a show for War Child?" He chuckled. "To know that money that we've raised gets to go to tangible causes, it's just really important to us."

"It's amazing that you guys got offered such an opportunity." She agreed. "Six hundred would've also been a change from the arena shows you've been doing lately."

"It was a wicked change of pace. The idea of the individual is way more apparent in a small room. You can see people. It's just exciting. It's a good vibe." He rattled off excitedly, clearly still high on the memory of a good show.