Work Text:
Max needs to be straight, he’s never had a job, he’s tried but finding some place that’ll take a 15 year old is hard, but finally he found a family owned theater desperate enough for one.
“Look,” Max says leaning on the cashier counter talking to the owner, “no one 16 or above is applying or just isn’t good enough for you take them,” the owner groans “listen okay, I can be a media manager or something, what you want I can be,”
“We already have one,”
“Well clearly he’s not doing a great job since I looked up ‘desperate places hiring near me,’” the manager sighs loudly.
“Fine, I can give you the ticket booth and have you help only, help the media guy, do you have a workers permit?”
Max goes quiet and looks a bit funny.
“I do-,”
“Amazing!”
“But it’s expired,”
“God damn it kid, it’s always something, look I can make you work under the table, don’t tell anyone til you renew it understand?”
“Sir yes sir,” Max salutes,
The manager hands him a name pin.
“We had a girl here named Max a while back, take hers, here’s a uniform the media boy and cashier, Oliver, will show you go find him, get out, now.”
Max grabs the stuff and walks out, fuck he thinks who the hell is Oliver. Max walks around asking everyone in uniform he sees if they’re Oliver, where is this boy.
“Excuse me, are you Oliver,” he says, annoyed tapping on a boy’s back, he turns around with a face of confusion.
“Yeah,” wow, kinda hot can’t lie to myself.
“I’m sorry, I just got hired and I don’t know where the locker room is,” Oliver points to a room.
“Sorry it’s not labeled,” he smiles, “it’s just in there,”
“Oh shit, I walked past there like 100 times, that’s actually so embarrassing, I’m sorry, thank you bye,”
Max hurries off to the locker room embarrassed, he dresses down and puts on his name tag, he’s excited to get his first pay check, as he walks out he thinks about what he’s gonna spend it on, The Long Walk merch? Maybe Wednesday, no… definitely both, while day dreaming he runs into Oliver again.
“Hey!” Max says to him, “You're the media boy right?”
He nods, “uh, yeah,” he’s kinda awkward, but Max doesn’t mind, he’s talked to awkward people plenty of times. Oliver isn’t much taller than Max, maybe 2 or 3 inches, he’s dirty blonde and dresses quite basic, he’s a pretty normal looking boy.
“Cool! I’m helping since I think you need help,”
“Oh?”
“I’m sorry, that sounded mean, but one of my jobs is to help you, and I do ticket booth,”
“I have been a bit busy, I can’t say I’ve been working on it too much, I also do the register?”
“I see, well people would kill for an older theater, and that’s exactly what this is, it was made in the 70s so we’ll play movies from the 70s-90s and on rare occasions we’ll have the 70-90s prices,”
“We should still play modern movies,”
“Oh yeah I totally agree! No doubt,”
It gets quiet, now what?
“Do you know how to work the ticket booth,” honestly Max has an idea how to, but he wants to talk with him more.
“No, I don’t think so,”
Oliver nods, “I can show you,”
“Yes, please,” they walk to the ticket booth that’s located next to the entrance, Oliver stands in the small booth while Max stands too close to him outside of it, Max has anyway had a personal space issue.
“Here,” Oliver hands him a ticket and a special hole puncher, the hole is shaped as a mini movie ticket, “you little just punch the ticket, we use that hole puncher because things happen to people’s ticket, so if a ticket comes it dirty or damaged it doesn’t matter, and I think it’s pretty cute,”
“I think it’s cute,” he says punching the ticket, “I might steal it,” he laughs looking back up at Oliver, he gives Max a weird look, “I’m joking, it’s a joke,” he says annoyed.
“Oh,”
“Are you guys open right now?”
“Yeah,”
“Wow, could’ve fooled me,” Max sighs, Max back up hinting Oliver wants to walk out the booth, and he does, “hey when do you wanna work on the marketing, I was think you or me can draw something, print it, then post it,”
“We can draw something together? Maybe throw ideas out there to each other,”
“Yeah! Let’s do it now,” Max walks to the cash register and sits down on the stool, he pulls out his phone and a digital pen, he takes that pen everywhere in case he gets bored, Oliver follows behind, he sees Max sitting in his stool but doesn’t bother telling him to move, he hands Oliver the pen.
“Draw something I’ll be at the booth,”
“Are you sure you wanna leave your phone with me? You draw, I'll look at it later.”
“Nope, I don’t mind,”
“I really don’t want to, here,” he attempts to hand Max his phone but he doesn’t accept.
“I’ll draw on paper and show you, I-,”
“Just draw, I’m only a few feet away, if something happens just walk to me,” Oliver sighs, not loudly but he definitely sighs and has a semi uncomfortable face, Max, like he says, goes to the booth, shockingly a group of four friends walk up.
“Hi! Four tickets for the movie IT, I can’t believe you guys are still playing it in theaters,”
“Yeah, me too,” he whispers, Oliver didn’t tell him where to get the tickets but he sees small draws labeled by movie, he opens IT and pulls out four tickets, he punches them and hands them to him, “by the way you can buy the tickets online, they’ll be delivered to you,”
“Really?” A girl with short brown hair says.
“Yeah,” he smiles, “enjoy the movie,” once they enter he hears them chit chat with Oliver, probably for buying snacks, a few minutes later two more girls come.
“Maxxxx,”
“Arianna!” Max says excitedly, “Kyrie!”
“Look who finally got a job,” Arianna says mockingly, walking in without buying a ticket, Max gets out the booth and follows both of the girls, they walk to the register and looks at the wall full of snacks.
“Max, you really need to read the Marauders fanfics we send you,” he sees Oliver’s head pop up from his phone.
“Look I’ll get to them,”
“You guys like Marauders?” Oliver asks.
“Yeah,” Arianna says, “I’ve read so many, Kyrie and Max need to lock in, do you like it?”
“Yeah I do,”
“Oh that’s awesome,” blah blah blah they talk about it but idk shit soooo 10 minutes of talking about this gay ahh shit
Arianna and Kyrie buy a few snacks.
“Are those your friends?” Oliver asks, “they seem cool,”
“Yeah, they honestly are, Arianna made me get a job, I kept leaching off her,” he gigglings, “you wanna talk to them more?”
“Oh I don’t know, they seem pretty cool though,”
“Yeah, they are!” Max walks behind the counter and grabs a Snickers then hands Oliver a 5 dollar bill, “keep the change loser, I’m feeling generous,” he says in a very obvious joking tone, he peaks at what Oliver has made, “oh yeah that’s good!”
“Thank you,” he smiles, “is there anything I should add?”
“Nope, I don’t really care, whatever you think will give the place more attention,”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah! Have creative freedom, maybe add small references to older movies or movies based on older books,”
“Oh yeah, that’s smart,” Max smiles at him and walks back to the booth, he yawns and wants to nap, he always wants to nap, he tries to force his eyes open, he works for awhile until his eyelids grow heavy.
“Max?” He jumps up.
“Yeah? Sorry, what’s up,”
“I finished,” he laughs lightly, he grabs his phone, it’s good, really good.
“Hey this is awesome,” he says blankly, “sorry I sound rude, or dry, I’m sleepy,” he chuckles tiredly, “it’s honestly really good, you have great talent Oliver,” Max takes his phone with him to the managers office, “ohhh mrrrrr, I got something print,”
The manager points to the printer, Max Bluetooths his phone to it and prints it.
“Ohhh a printer with color, expensive Mr,” he prints 100 copies, not cheap to do, he hands Oliver 50 and he gets 50, “let’s go, shall we,”
“Now? What if people come,”
“Mr we’re going to go out and post some posters around town, can you run the booth?”
He finally looks up at Max.
“Yes, I tell Marco to run the register Oliver,” he nods, they both walk out, Max walks out the entrance and Oliver goes elsewhere, he waits a few minutes then Oliver comes out.
“Thank you for waiting,” he says.
“No problem!”
They begin to walk, they go into separate stores and ask them to put the advertisement up, some ask for money, and they say no, most agree.
“Honestly people are greedy, asking for money, I mean I understand it, but god,”
“Yeah,” Oliver says.
“You’re so awkwardddd, talk to me, what do you like,”
“I like StarWars,”
“Same!”
“Really?”
“Yeah!!! So do my friends, um… I don’t know if this is a safe place, I don’t know you much but I like Heated Rivalry,”
“Same,” he says.
“Wow, that’s honestly beautiful, I love Shane, I’ll never get over the ‘we didn’t even kiss,’ it was gut wrenching,”
“I was actually losing it,”
“Ughhh me too, Ilya lock the fuck in,”
Oliver gives a light laugh.
“Have you watched Project Hail Mary,”
“No but I definitely would, have you?”
“Yeah,”
“Oh sick, did you like it?”
“Yeah,”
“I’ll watch it today then,”
Oliver smiles, “what’s your favorite Star Wars movie,”
“I really like the first one tbh, the Phantom Menace, but A New Hope is great, I just love Luke honestly, and Chewy, so probably A New Hope,”
“I love Luke too! He’s actually my son,”
“I love Luke, he’s actually so hot,”
“Oh…not exactly,”
Max laughs, hard, too hard, it's generally not that funny but he will laugh at anything.
“I’m sorry,” he says through laughs, “it’s just how you said it, it was actually so fucking funny,” he finally stops laughing, “we should go back,”
“We didn’t put all the posters up,”
“Some of the posters will get damaged so let’s save these,”
“Ohhh okay,”
They walk back to the theater, they talk about StarWars and Max almost killed hom when Oliver says he doesn’t like Jar Jar Binks.
“Oliver what the fuck,” he groans, “that’s my fucking son you’re talking shit about,”
“I’m sorry I just… I don’t like him,” he laughs.
“Don’t laugh! It is not funny, that’s my sonnnn, you’re evil,”
“He’s evil, Sithlord th-,”
“Oh my god!” he shoats, “Oliver! He’s not a Sithlord, he's just fucking stupid!” Oliver laughs at Max nervously as he screams about Jar Jar Binks in public.
They finally make it back to the theater, Max opens the entrance and lets Oliver in first.
“Thanks,”
“No prob!”
The manager leaves the booth and Max goes back in, Marco leaves the register and Oliver goes back, it’s almost 7:00 PM which is when they both get off, only a few minutes til then, Max puts on a movie on his phone ‘The Long Walk’, time goes by fast with that movie. Max leaves the booth, and goes to the locker room, he changes and walks out with his eyes still glued to his movie.
“Shit sorry,” Max says, finally looking up, he bumps into Oliver.
“It’s alright, what movie is that,”
“The Long Walk, it's my favorite,”
“Oh cool,” Oliver walks out before him, then Max, he gets into his friends car, and Oliver walks.
“Does he need a ride?” Arianna asks, “I’ll give him one,”
“I don’t know,” Max gets out of the car, “hey!” He walks closer, Oliver stops and looks back a bit confused, “do you need a ride?”
“Oh no it’s alright,”
“Are you sure? My friend wants to give you one, plus it’s the girls that like Marauders, we insist, really, you guys can all talk about it,”
“Are you sure? I can really walk,”
“It’s only if you want,”
“Uh, okay sure,” Max walks with him to the car, he gets in and puts on his seatbelt.
“He doesn’t like Jar Jar Binks,” Max jokingly cries.
“And thank fucking god,” Ariana says, “I’m sorry I don’t remember your name but my god Max loves him and I’m sick of it,”
“It’s Oliver, you like StarWars too?” Max sees the light in his eyes while we talks about his interest.
“Yes I do, we all do actually and Max loves the most unless characters, Oliver I don’t think you understand if I had a gun I’d SHOOT Jar Jar fucking Binks,”
Max gasp dramatically, “my fucking son by the way!”
“Max shut up, Oliver can you put your address in my maps,” she hands Oliver her phone and he hands her back quickly.
“I love Jar Jar,” Max mutters, “my son,”
“Oh shut up! He’s literally useless,”
“He’s my son,” Max dabs at his eyes, Oliver laughs at their constant bickering.
“I think Jar Jar is alright,” Kyrie says in the front seat, “sure he’s kinda annoying but he’s just a baby,”
“He’s like 50 or something,”
“Thank you Oliver! Thank you! He’s fucking old! That ain’t no damn baby!”
“Oliver, watch out tomorrow at work,”
“Max, don't threaten Oliver he's right!”
“That is not the baby,” Oliver says.
“No exactly he’s not the fucking baby,”
Arianna stops the car.
“Bye Oliver!” Max says with a wave.
“Yes bye,” says Kyrie.
“Bye Oliver nice meeting you, maybe you can show Max how annoying he is,”
“Bye guys, thank you for the ride,”
“Arianna I’m gonna kill y-,” Max gets cut off for Oliver by him closing the door.
“Oliver seems cool,” Arianna says.
“Yeah, honestly what a sweet boy,” Kyrie agrees.
“Yeah…he’s really cute too,” Max says.
“Oh, do you like, like him,” Arianna asks.
“No, I wouldn’t say that, I just think he’s really hot,”
“Oh well, I love that for you,”
The dive to Kyrie’s house is Max talking about work and Arianna and him saying now Kyrie needs one.
“Bye Arianna,” Max says, “thanks for the ride,”
“Yeah of course, bye,”
Max pulls out his key and walks into his house, he goes straight to his room a flops on his bed, he plays on his phone for a bit, just scrolling, then he stumbles on Oliver’s account, he doesn’t follow it, but save the username in his notes, he groans at the pain in his back, nothing new to be blunt, he cuddles his pillow and goes to bed watching something on his phone, he wakes up at 4:54 AM he sighs and tries going back to bed, he can’t, he doesn’t have to be at work till 8:00, he takes his pills, brushes his teeth, showers, does his hair, and it’s still only 5:30, he decides to go into work early, he’ll clock in at 8:00 though, he walks to the bus stop with his change and it arrives at exactly when he gets there, 5:40, he pays his way and shits in the front, he puts in his headphones and doesn’t talk to anyone, he makes it to work at 6:40, by his surprise it’s open.
“I’m here,” he says walking to the manager's office.
“Why are you here early, how are you here? Who let you in?”
I woke up early, couldn’t sleep, bored, I won’t clock in til 8:00, and it was just open,”
“God damn it, alright,”
Max walks to the locker room to change into his uniform, when he leaves he sees Oliver walk in.
“Oh hey,” Max says.
“Hey,” Oliver replies joyfully.
“Good morning, bye,”
“Oh, good morning Max, bye,”
He makes his way to the booth
6:45
He pulls out a book, ‘The Long Walk,’ he reads for a long while with earbuds in before someone taps his shoulder, he takes one out.
“Hey… do you maybe wanna help me open?”
Max checks the time
7:45
“Yeah of course,” Max closes his book and puts his earbuds away.
“What book was that,” Oliver asks, even though he saw the book cover when he closed it.
“The Long Walk,” Max says joyfully.
“Weren’t you watching the movie yesterday?”
“Yeahhh… I kinda have an unhealthy obsession,”
Oliver smiles
“Good book?” He asks.
“Yeah,” Max lifts open the booth's window shutter, he flips the closed sign to open, he wonders what else he should do.
“Can you restock some snacks?” Oliver ask him,
Max nods making his way behind the counter, he grabs a box behind the counter and opens it, Snickers, Hershey’s, Red Vines, ect, he puts the on wall holder and counter.
“Hey Max, there’s people outside,”
Max turns around to see people standing outside through the booth window, he walks over and sits down, the line isn’t super long, less than 20 people, but it’s more than yesterday.
“Hi,” a guy says, “2 tickets for Ghostbusters” Max grabs two tickets, punches them, then hands them back to him, he passes one to a boy next to him then they walk in, he does the same thing over and over again for different movies, The Outsiders, Glory, Jaws, and Annie Hall, some of these he knows, others he doesn’t, he lets in maybe 8 people, while 5 try to sneak in.
“Look,” he says annoyed, blocking the door, “next Wednesday the tickets are $2.68, food and drinks stay the same prices, you can’t be that broke, can you?”
“Come on, you’re a teen, we’re teens, just let us in,”
“Next Wednesday, $2.68,” they sigh and walk out. “Broke asses,” Max mutters, he walks back to the booth and sits down. There’s not much business till 5:00 and later.
“Do you guys have any special days?” A lady asks, buying four tickets, one for herself and what Max assumes are her three kids.
“Yeah, Next Wednesday the tickets are $2.68,”
“Holy shit, oh! God excuse me, that’s really good,”
“Yeah, spread the word,” Max smiles sweetly, “enjoy the movie you guys,”
The lady nods with a big smile.
7:00 PM
Max goes to the locker room he takes off his red and gold uniform and stupid hate they make him wear and charges to his normal clothes, his blue pants, white shirt, and a thin flannel, not the way he normally dresses but it’s summer, too hot for his normal attire, while he changes Oliver walks in too, their lockers are close but not next to. Max leaves and waits outside the main entrance of the building.
“Oliver,” Max says as he walks out, “it’s hot… wanna get ice cream?”
Oliver debates with himself, what’s the harm.
“Yeah,” he agrees happily.
There’s an old school ice cream shop not too far away from the theater.
“God I’m sweating so bad… it’s fucking disgusting, I hope that place fixed their AC now,”
Oliver groans, “yeah same, if not I know a food place we go to with AC,”
“Wait that’s beautiful,”
The walk is Max telling Oliver about The Long Walk and Oliver talking about StarWars and many other things.
“Well I don’t know…Luke is so fine, I want your ‘son’ to crack m-,”
“Ew! Stop it!”
Max laughs his way into the shop, hot Max thinks it’s too hot, he approaches the ice cream counter.
“Can I get cotton candy and birthday cake, in a cup please,” Max asks.
“Yeah of course,” she begins to make Max’s as she asks Oliver, “and for you?”
“Pistachio and cookies and creams, in a waffle cone please,”
“Okay,” the lady puts Max's cup on the counter then hands Oliver has, “that’ll be 9.56,” Max hands her fifteen dollars.
“Oh thank you, you didn’t have to pay,”
“I invited you out, of course I did,” he says as they walk out, “can we pleaseeee go to that food place now, I’m hot and hungry,”
“Okay,” Oliver laughs lightly, it was actually really close to the ice cream shop, the place is a diner, oh does Max love diner, no hostess, no stupid chairs unless you sit at the counter, and they’re colorful. They go shit down at a booth and talk for awhile, the diner gets mostly its business in February, it’s a nice local place for a date.
“Hi there!” The server says, her name tags read April.
“Hi,”
“Hello,”
“Here’s menus, I’ll be back in a new minutes for drinks and your orders if you have them,”
“Okay thank you,” Max says.
“Yes, thank you,” she walks away and Max looks at the menu, so does Oliver, he groans, god I should’ve brought lunch Max thinks, I totally forgot, I can’t wait to eat.
“I could eat 40 burgers right now I’m not even joking Oliver,”
“Grief, I guess I know what you’re getting,”
“Yeah, that and 15 milkshakes, they have a cheesecake milkshake,”
“Right,” he laughs.
April walks back, holding
“Can I get your orders?”
“Yesss, can I get a burger and fries, no pickle or tomato, and a cheesecake shake, please,”
“Yeah of course, and for you?”
“I’ll get the same thing, but with pickles, and a doctor pepper,”
“Gross,” Max says.
“What?”
“Pickles are disgusting, they’re just chucks on salt,”
“Yeah whatever,” Oliver scoffs
They start eating and Oliver is cracking jokes, Max laughs while trying to keep his food down, putting his hand in front of his mouth to not spit it out, it’s gross and Oliver just keeps going, honestly Max’s laugh is funnier than the actual joke, Oliver laughs at Max while trying to tell funny stories and jokes.
“Stop,” Max laughs, he hesitates for a while before taking a drink of his milkshake, he takes a big sip when he calms down, he laughs again spitting some out of the table and getting a bit on Oliver.
“Max!” He shouts.
“Shhh,” he hushes, “don’t yell,” he says through gigglings. Oliver gets up and speed walks to the bathroom, he follows slowly behind still laughing at Oliver’s stop face and the way he yelled his name.
“You’re disgusting,” he says, getting a paper towel wet to clean his shirt.
“I’m sorry,” he giggles, he grabs dry paper towels and hands them to Oliver.
“Thanks…I guess,” he scoffs, they go back to the table and Max cleans his mess.
“Having a good time boys?” April asks.
Max laughs, “yes, well I am Ms, him, not so much,”
“He spit on me,” he groans, “he’s gross,”
“It was an accident! I promise,”
“Oh I saw, thank you for cleaning your mess, you boys are adorable, have a good date,” she walks away once again with a huge grin on her face.
Date? Max thinks, well dates can be platonic, a friend date, yeah, they’re on a friend date. Neither of them bring up her calling it a date, but Oliver is now cautious.
“No more jokes?” Max says, taking a bite of his burger.
“Yeah I’ll pass, next you might vomit on me,”
Max snorts, “stop,” Oliver says, “I’m like actually in fear,”
“You’re not helping, I feel like I’m gonna choke,”
Oliver sighs, “grief,”
He takes a bite of his food, Max takes a deep breath, all the eating and laughing and asthma was killing him, literally, he groans as he pulls out his inhaler to take a big puff, then puts it back in his pocket,
“Can I try your shake?” Oliver asks.
“Yeah, if I can have some soda,” Oliver grab his shake and Max grabs his soda, they don’t drink of each others straws just tilt the cup,
“Oh wow, that’s good,” Oliver says.
“You can finish it,”
“Really? It’s alright, you can-,”
“Nah it’s fine, too much sweet shit makes we wanna throw up anyway,” Max finishes his food and Oliver finishes the rest of his drink, he finishes his stuff as well, then pays, though Max insist because once again he invited him out, but Oliver recommended the place, Max leaves the tip, a generous one, April waves them goodbye.
“I hope to see you two again! You guys are just too cute,”
Max smiles at her, Oliver opens the door, a bell above it rings, he holds the door open as Max walks out.
“Thanks!” He says while they’re outside.
“No thank you, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been out,”
“Really? You don’t have like, friends,” Max begins walking, where? He doesn’t know, just walks and Oliver follows.
“Well I do, just not much,”
“Oh wow…you just seem hella cool, you’re a cool guy!”
“Thanks,” Oliver slimes, “I think you’re cool too,”
“Why thank you,” they walk until they make it back to the theater.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Oliver says.
“Yeah, I’ll see you,” Max checks his phone.
8:45 PM
He quickly walks to the bus stop, his bus comes at 9:00 PM, he sighs at the thought of having to wait at the bus stop for two hours in the summer some days.