Chapter Text
"Oscar, don’t make me come in there, man. When was the last time you had some fun?”
The thing about Oscar was that he had, in Liam’s unbiased opinion, absolutely no idea how to let loose and have some fun. This has nothing to do with Oscar’s personality. No, it’s a skill issue. A fixable issue. So easily fixable that Liam had taken it upon himself, as Oscar's best friend, to fix it.
“I’m actually having a lot of fun right now” Oscar said, his eyes fixated on his laptop. “This is my ‘I’m having fun’ face.”
Liam looked at his fun face. It was the same face Oscar had been making for the past 2 hours- jaw set, and furrowed brows- the expression of a man battling complex devils in the form of equations and numbers.
“Oscar Jack Piastri.” “Liam Jared Lawson.”
“It’s Friday.” “Well, aren’t you a smart cookie? Congrats on knowing the days of the week.”
“Hush with the sass. There's a party tonight.” “There’s always parties.”
“Arvid’s going.”
“Arvid goes to any and every party. It could be in the middle of nowhere and you’d find him there.”
Okay, that was true. Time to change tactics.
“You haven’t left your room in what? Four? Yeah, four days. And no, the library does not count.”
“It absolutely counts. There were other humans there. I nodded at one of them and even brought snorkel a little treat. Do you want to see the cutest video I have off him saying a “thank you” bark”
“Stop deflecting, Oscar and talking to the library dog doesn’t count, even if she’s the cutest on the planet.”
Liam took a seat at the edge of Oscar’s bed, imitating the face that he’d seen his mum make just before saying something that she had already decided couldn’t be changed. “You are coming out with us tonight. End of discussion.”
“I’m not.” “You are.”
“Liam-” “ARVID” Liam called looking at Arvid’s door.
A moment later Arvid appeared at Oscar’s door. He was fully dressed, hair styled and he smelled like the Hugo perfume factory.
“Is it time?” Arvid asked Liam.
“It’s time.” Liam said.
Oscar looked at them for a second. “You guys planned this.”
“We’re worried about you mate.” Arvid said while skimming through Oscar’s physics? Textbook. He wasn’t all that sure. “Come with us. There’ll be plenty of drinks and OH guess what Lando is DJing!”
“Lando? Who’s Lando?”
Arvid stared at Oscar in utter disbelief. Then looked at Liam. Back at Oscar. “Who’s- WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHO’S LANDO? Liam, he just asked who Lando is.”
“I heard.”
“Has he been living under a rock? He’s been in our uni for two years and does not know Lando.”
“Well to be fair all he does is attend classes, goes to the library and is back to these four walls.
Arvid took a deep breath and “Lando Norris is arguably the best DJ in this city. No, scratch that. He’s the best DJ in the entire county. He makes every party worth going to, knows exactly what to play to get you moving, and looks unfairly good while doing it too. He’s also doing a business degree and is Liam’s senior.”
“That’s a lot of information about a DJ.” Oscar said, pulling a confused face.
“Did I mention he’s my roommate? And one of my closest friends- duh.”
“Arvid has approximately 3041 friends.” Liam told Oscar.
“What can I say? I am a sociable person. Everyone loves me.” Arvid confirmed.
Oscar looked at his laptop screen, at his unfinished problem and then looked at Liam and Arvid, who were both giving him the look they’d specifically developed for this purpose. He knew he had lost the battle.
“One hour.” Oscar said.
“Four hours.” Liam said.
“Two. Take it or leave it.”
“Done.” Arvid said standing up and heading towards the main door. “And Oscar, I’m begging you, please wear something that’s not black and/or uni hoodie. Please. See you in 5.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Lando, It’s time for your set again, they’re waiting for you.”
The thing about Lando Norris was that he was, genuinely, incredibly good at his job. It wasn’t a case of opinion; it was a fact, proved, affirmed, and gladly confirmed by around four hundred people who always turned out for his performance. He knew when to hold a beat and when to drop it so that the crowd could dance and have the best time ever. He knew which song would make strangers grab each other's hands. He had never, in two years of playing at every student night worth attending, let a set fall apart.
He was thinking about this, with some satisfaction, all the while at exactly 9:24pm on a Friday, when the door to the club opened and three people walked in. Two of them he recognised. Arvid a biomed student, seven parties this term, and his roommate, and Liam, who Arvid had started bringing along recently and who had the very specific energy of someone pretending he didn't want to be here while clearly having the time of his life. Oh Liam was also his junior in the same course. They crossed paths quite often. Lando was pretty sure there was something oing on between those two but never voiced anything.
The third one he did not recognise.
The third one was -
We were both so young when I first-
“WAIT WHAT!?! Why’s this blasting on the speaker“
Lando had started playing Love Story by Taylor Swift.
Not on purpose.
The confused murmur from the crowd snapped him back. He grabbed the fader, killed it, crashed into the next track on the queue - which was also wrong, too slow, and completely killed the momentum he'd spent forty minutes building - his heart doing something very weird in his chest. It felt like something had flipped in his chest. Huh, who knew hearts could do a flip..
The guy- the one he did not recognise- had stopped just inside the door. He was looking around with the expression of someone running a structural survey of a building they suspected had subsidence. Brown hair swooping messily across his forehead, jaw sharp, wearing a Mclaren hoodie as if he was dragged out of bed.He looked like he'd been mildly dragged here and was reserving all judgement.
He looked at Lando, the blank judgement turning into an almost frown.
His expression said: really?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“I’ve heard better sets at my cousin’s 15th birthday party.” Oscar said, leaning towards Liam's ear so he could be heard over the music, which had stabilised but only just.
"He's usually incredible," said Arvid, basically shouting from his other side. "Genuinely. I've seen him clear the floor in the best way possible."
"He's currently clearing it in the worst way possible." which was not entirely true considering the floor was still going, because people at student nights were remarkably committed to having fun regardless of circumstances - but it did look like the DJ was fighting his own equipment. He kept glancing up. Oscar followed his eyeline, found nothing of particular interest, and looked back at the DJ.
The DJ looked away very quickly.
"Is he alright?" Oscar asked.
"He's fine, maybe something or someone is causing him to have an off day," Arvid said.
Liam had already stopped listening. Liam was looking at the dance floor the way other people looked at finishing lines, which was his tell, and Arvid clocked it immediately, which was his tell, and Oscar was already heading towards the bar which meant -
"Come on then," Arvid said, and Liam turned and did something with his face that he would absolutely deny later, something that was trying very hard to be casual about and landing somewhere in the vicinity of caught.
"You don't have to –"
"I know I don't have to." Arvid was already moving towards the floor. "You coming or not?"
And Liam would be lying if he ever had a second thought about following Arvid anywhere.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The DJ – whose name was Lando – had recovered something of his footing by the time Oscar returned from the bar with three drinks.
Eventually, he found his friends in a sea of bodies, wishing slightly he hadn’t.
Liam and Arvid were dancing. Which was normal. People danced at clubs, that was the point of clubs. It was just that they were doing it in a way that made Oscar feel like he'd walked in on something, so he navigated through the crowd, held out two of the drinks, and said "oi" at a volume that was perhaps slightly unnecessary.
They separated with the unhurried ease of two people who had absolutely nothing to feel awkward about and were doing an excellent impression of it.
"Cheers," Liam said, taking his drink, looking everywhere except at Oscar.
Oscar looked between them. Let it go. Turned back towards the booth.
The DJ was looking at him. Again.
He caught Oscar's eye and immediately did something pointless with a dial.
"Why does he keep doing that," Oscar said.
"Doing what?" said Arvid, who had appeared beside him with suspicious promptness.
"Looking at me."
"Maybe he's looking at the crowd."
"The crowd isn't me specifically."
Arvid took a very long sip of his drink and said nothing, which was somehow worse.
2 hours turned into 4 and before they knew it, it was 2 a.m. The party was dwindling down and Oscar was in that sweet spot between tipsy and almost sober, it had been a fun night despite the incessant staring the DJ had done.
He wouldn’t admit it to their faces but he’s grateful for Arvid and Liam to pull him out of his kermit state.
“He really recovered in the second half.” Oscar said, as they were walking back
“Told you” Arvid said.
"Still a terrible start."
“But you can’t not admit his last few mixes weren’t to die for, you should just start coming out with us more, mate.”
"No more parties, mate, at least for the next few days”
“Alright, alright, I had to shoot my shot.”
“Also question, does he do that a lot? Stare down someone for almost the whole evening?"
Arvid considered this, hands in his pockets, breath clouding in the cold air. Behind them, Liam was on his phone, probably texting someone. Probably not Arvid. Definitely not the point.
"No," Arvid said eventually. "That was new."
Oscar nodded, like this was an answer, and left it there.
It wasn't, quite, an answer. Not that he expected one but he left it there anyway.