Max hasn't let more than a few sips of beer pass his lips, wheaty and stale. His regime is tight and his schedule doesn't allow for any underage drinking, so he hasn't exactly thought about it. He knows that boys his age have already begun to clink back shots of vodka, tequila, anything they can get their hands on, but Max isn't like other boys, Max doesn't have the time to do these things.
He splits his time from track to track as his father drives him around. It's lots of the same thing, and he tells himself that none of it makes him miss his sister or his mother, he tells himself that he isn't jealous of those boys, tells himself that he doesn't want these things. It adds to a layer of deep cold that permeates his bones. He’ll keep ignoring that though.
It isn't until he meets Daniel that he ever really drinks.
AKA
The prequel to Orange Juice, a Max centric retelling of the 2025 season and a 5th World Championship.
This isn’t an award show speech but this is a very important project to me and something that I’ve been working on for a while so I do want to give thanks.
First of all, thank you to my artist Cove who without I would not have actually finished this project! Hir art was actually a driving piece behind my push to finish even when I wanted to scrap everything and had maybe…12 hours left to get it all done! The care and love ze gave Max and Daniel made me so happy and made me want to write something worthy of the art. I’m not sure I managed but I tried! @nobrakesdown
I would also like to thank Juno for her valuable insight and help when I was freaking out over this project. She helped me feel comfortable and confident in my writing and is one of my greatest writing influences and muses LOL, the amount of help she has put into every single one of my ideas is immeasurable. She also is the one who got me into f1! @yujaeist
Also a huge thank you to @f1bb mods for running this whole thing, because you all are stronger soldiers than me! This is a lot to do and I could not do it.
And, to my best friend, @mercury-bb who was there when I first conceived this idea on their couch, thank you for always believing in me and also encouraging me to finish LMFAO I was really stressing about it.
Thank you to Eastern Washington for being a shit hole that I love and hate. This place is my home, and it always will be. It’s beautiful, it’s awful, it’s boring, it’s the best place I’ve ever seen. It’s home. And in this universe it’s home to Max and Daniel, for better or for worse. Everyone I know always returns, because that’s what this place is. It’s awful and it’s the only place I’ll probably settle down to. If you don’t know what the Hanford project is, look it up. That’s what this place is, that’s where I grew up. It’s a disaster, but it’s what I know.
Finally, thank you to anyone who has ever read my works, seen my silly tumblr posts, dropped a like, dropped a kudos, commented, sent an ask. Every note I get on my writing just makes me want to write more and again, without you, I wouldn’t have finished it.
I am so sorry that this is so long but finishing this fic has made me reflect and it’s my most personal published project to date, so I just wanted to show my gratitude.
Thank you for your help, your patience, your comments, your likes, etc etc. I hope to make even more works!
