Imperfection

t w e n t y e i g h t

"I have a thing about feminine rage"

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milan: I'm here

I grabbed my stuff and made my way down the stairs. Magda was sat at the kitchen table on her macbook, looking up when I entered the room. I was living at home over the summer break.

"Milan is here, wish me luck." I chuckled nervously. Milan was here to pick me up and guide me through my first ever interview. And I was nervous to say the least. I knew that Sky Sports would be nothing too special and that most football players that I had met by now, have already done interviews with them, but after all it was my first interview and being almost 20 meant it has been some time in which I didn't gain experience in that kind of stuff. I don't know, my heart was simply going crazy about it. And Magda seemed to notice that.

"You won't even need it. You'll do great, Aurie." I smiled at her, taking a last deep breath.

"Thank you, see you later!"

"Bye bye!"

Moments later I closed the front door behind me, smiling softly as I spotted a familiar face in a black sports car. I wondered how much money managers made.

"Hey Champ!", Milan called out, quickly removing a few papers from his passenger seat so I could sit down.

"Hola.", I grinned, slipping into the seat and putting the seatbelt on, before double checking it. "Not really used to driving someone around, are you?"

But Milan simply chuckled. "In fact, I am. Got my man at home.", he grinned proudly as he turned out of his parking spot. "But this is the first time driving a customer around, yes."

I laughed at him. "Well, I'm obviously not just any customer, so I'm sure you don't mind."

He scoffed. "Excuse me?" He opened his mouth in offense. "Don't get too sassy, little miss! I can easily let you walk all the way." Now I was the one scoffing.

"You wouldn't dare." I rolled my eyes.

,,Sorry princess, but I have enough other customers. I most definitely would dare."

"Is that so, huh?"

"It is."

"Like who?"

"You wouldn't know them."

"Too unpopular?"

"No, you're simply too young."

I scoffed once again. "Oh come on. How old are you? 25?"

"Thank you! Bought that new anti aging serum. It's awesome, isn't it?"

"It actually is." He grinned proudly and we fell silent for a second, before erupting in laughter. I liked Milan, I really did.

Just like 30 minutes later we arrived at Sky Sports' studio and parked Milan's car in the parking lot. "I'm nervous!", I winced honestly, picking at my baggy jeans when I saw the huge studio through the window.

"Don't be, darling. They will love you, because they already do. You're like their superstar, their hero. There's almost nothing that you could say to change that", the Italian smiled at me gently, making me nod. So I hesitantly stepped outside the car and inside the building, while still trying to look as confident as possible. I was very aware of how powerful the media could be, years of actively posting on Instagram and TikTok taught  me my lessons in being careful of what to post. I'd say I've learned how to handle it by now, but this was different. Big brands constantly holding cameras into your face and documenting every move and word. Reporters already having opinions on you and letting those opinions keep them from writing an objective article. All those big people that could destroy your life if they wanted to, because who would be crazy enough to press charges against people with that much power and money? All this was part of the capitalistic society that we were living in, in which the rich would always overcome the poor. But let's not get too political now.

"Hello Miss Radley, it's so nice to have you here!", an old white man in an expensive looking suit greeted me and I forced a smile onto my lips. Ironically, he seemed to represent capitalism so painfully well. ,,And Mr. Soares, so good to see you again." We all shook hands and my eyes met Milan's, we both were able to see how fake all this was. This man worked here to interview male athletes whose skin colour was just as pale as his own. Milan's tanned skin and his personality, just like the fact that I was a woman made all this so unimportant to him that he even forgot to tell me his name. "Follow me." We did as he said and were guided through the neatly organised building, white walls, dark blue carpet and doors, the only colourful part being the red details in Sky Sports' logo which could be found in every hallway at least once. Finally we stopped in front of a big door. "I knew this would be your first ever interview, Ms. Radley." Because Milan had told you, I may add. "So, to make you feel as comfortable as possible, I even let our only female reporter do this interview." I felt disgusted by the proud look on his face and had to strictly hold myself back to not just spit onto his freshly fucking polished leather shoes.

"How thoughtful of you. I'm really grateful." 'Mr. ..., oh wait, you've never mentioned your name.' But he seemed utterly pleased with my response, now opening the door for me only to let it go so Milan had to catch it and press it open himself. This was ridiculous and I was simply hoping for him to leave so my annoyance wouldn't be seen in the interview. We found ourselves in a studio; I could see a set with a red couch in the centre, thousands of lights and cameras around it. A woman in her mid-thirties came over to us, nodding hello with a sympathetic smile plastered onto her face. Old man introduced us to her, before he finally left the studio.

"I'm so sorry, he's a little...unpleasant.", she smiled and I hummed in agreement.

"I'll just not comment on it.", I smiled awkwardly, eyeing Milan as I was unsure of how far I could go, but he simply nodded at me encouragingly.

,,Come on, let's get you a little makeup.", she smiled.

The following hours were spent doing my makeup and filming the interview and despite the very serious environment, the team managed to make this an enjoyable experience. Milan didn't leave my side just once, which I was extremely thankful for. He stopped the makeup artists at some point with an overly dramatic "Don't you think she's already pretty enough?", to which they all responded with irritated 'no's'. I had to stop myself from laughing. During the interview he was constantly positioned between the cameras and expressed his feelings about the reporter's questions with exuberant gestures, so that probably everyone would notice me looking at him in the finished interview. But at the end of the day we were both seated in the car with gentle smiles on our faces and I fell asleep feeling not so numb after all.

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Hey guys, I'll try to update a little more now as I said in the last chapter. Therefore the chapters might get a little shorter than in the beginning, but at least it's something:)  I hope yall have a great weekend!

bye babes, slay the day

lena:*

(I wrote this chapter weeks ago, forgot to post it🥲)