"Why do you hate me?"

The teenage girl almost choked on the air. She wasn't expecting him to talk to her on their way to the hospitality and even if she did. She definitely didn't expect him to ask her that question. Literally nothing in her entire body could have prepared for that question.

"W-What?" Norah had frozen on her spot, turning around to face the boy. Her eyes had widened in surprise. She was genuinely confused. He hated her to, right? So why did he act like it was just her that was mean and distant. Lando just repeated his question with raised eyebrows, unsatisfied with the fact he didn't get an answer.

"I-I...uhm" The girl was dumbfounded, she didn't know what to say. What do you say when you get such a question? I just do? or do you keep denying you do because confirming his suspicion is rude?

The thing was. She didn't actually hate him. Dislike? Maybe, but it was definitely not hate she felt for the boy.

The girl just looked him dead in the eye losing her composure for a couple of seconds. It didn't took long before she had gotten herself together though. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, staring at him and keeping her mouth shut, just looking at him.

This got the older boy nervous, did he cross the line? It was a normal question, right? It didn't took a genius to figure out she didn't like the boy and he only wanted to know the reasonings behind that.

Norah always had the opportunity to turn something around on you. Like you were the one at fault, but he was positive that her coldness wasn't something he had done and he just wanted to help her for some odd reason.

"What makes you say that?" She raised her eyebrows as she looked at the boy. He was fiddling with the hem of his shirt, eyes firmly glued on the pavement under his feet.

She made him nervous.

He wasn't going to let her win, not this time. So Lando took a deep breath before looking back up at the girl. Regaining his confidence before replying.

"You can't even act like a decent human being around me. I just want to know why."

Something flashed before the young girls eyes, which didn't go unnoticed by the boy, but as soon as it appeared it was gone. He couldn't identify what it was exactly, but the girl was definitely not amused by his comment. She just turned around and started walking again. Making sure to keep the contact to the bear minimum. Not replying to anything he would say on the short walk that was left.

Once they were at the meeting Norah ignored any contact the boy attempted to make with her, keeping her eyes straight down on her paper. She was doodling on the left corner of it, just half listening to the conversation. Until her name was dropped.

"So Lando, Norah what is going on between the two of you?" Her eyes flew up from her paper to meet her boss'. Was it really that obvious?

"W-what?"

"We aren't stupid, you know? There is obviously something going on and we like to know what it is. It isn't something to be concerned about, is it?"

Norah tried her best to quickly come up with an excuse so she didn't have to tell them she didn't like the boy. Lando however had beaten her to it.

The boy just said "She hates me." Like it was the most normal thing, like it was obvious.

Norah looked to Lando for the first time since they were in the meeting. If looks could kill Lando wouldn't have sat there looking pretty anymore, but the boy was desperate.

He wanted her to like him. He wanted to have a decent bond with his teammate even if it was his younger self worst enemy. He just wanted to know why, why didn't she like him? He figured this was the only way to get it out of her, but Norah definitely wasn't planning on telling her boss of all people why.

She was pissed. He totally outed her and if anything it made her dislike him even more. Zak was looking at her, his eyes almost demanding an answer.

"I-I, I mean, we have our differences." Now it was lando's time to stare at the girl. He was lost, if she wouldn't tell him when she was put on the spot she would never do it. So if she didn't hate him then what was it? Why was the girl nice to everyone else, but him?

What was the reason the girl couldn't make eye contact with him for longer than a couple seconds?

"Lando?" Zak Brown raised his eyebrows, eager to hear his other driver's opinion. He just looked down at his feet and nodded.

"yeah, I mean I guess I can't know how she feels about me, so maybe we just need to adjust. We'll be fine"

Zak wasn't fully convinced, but decided not to press it any further. If it would get really bad, they would go to him anyway. Besides that he had a ton of important things to go over in the meeting and this didn't seem as the most important one.

After the meeting Norah crossed her arms across her chest. Stomping towards the car park. She was pissed at the boy, but mostly at herself.

She couldn't even remember why she hated Lando in the first place. She couldn't remember when they decided to stop talking to each other and more importantly, why. She couldn't remember if it was something she had done or something he had said. She couldn't even remember how to be nice to him.

What she could remember is how they avoided each other at every race. How they didn't talk about each other in interviews anymore afraid to accidentally say something rude about the other and how they didn't hold back to say those exact things to each other's face.

She could also remember how she had sat in her car balling her eyes out  because of something mean he had said to her after she had insulted him too. Normally she could ignore it, but this insult wasn't just an insult. It was the truth.

He had told her how she would never get friends, because she was unable to be nice to people and how her dad must be really disappointed in her. She knew it was the truth. She knew because of the many times her dad had told her that.

What she didn't know was that it was a heat of the moment thing. Lando didn't actually feel like that, but he knew that it would hurt her and at the moment that was everything he wanted.  He had felt guilty immediately after, but it was weak to take it back, so he didn't.

"you are a disappointment Norah, a waste of time.'' she could still hear her father say it.

a waste of time...but not only time. A waste of space too, a waste of air. She was a disappointment to her family. The only people of who she needed validation. The only people that didn't run away from her once getting to know her better.

"Wow, wow, wow... Are you okay?" Two strong hands grabbed her shoulders to keep her from walking away. "I'm fine" ready to walk away again she shrugged herself loose from the persons grip.

"you obviously aren't..." another voice said. This made Norah look up out of curiosity.

Apparently she had started crying. She wasn't sure if they were tears of frustration or sadness. She wasn't even sure why she was crying. The only thing she was sure of was the fact that she looked stupid with her tear streaked cheeks. She probably looked like a little child, but Norah forget she was just that, a child. One that had been through way too much for her age.

Her glassy eyes met with the ones of the two red bull boys and their team boss. Great, just great. There were three of them.

Norah quickly wiped away her tears, smiling to them. Suddenly very aware of their piercing eyes. Shrinking under their stares.

"I'm fine really. I got to go, thanks though." Pierre's grip had loosened while they were talking, so Norah pushed past them and continued her journey to the car park, which suddenly felt a very long way now that everyone was looking at the girl.
-
"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" she was thumping on her steering wheel at every scream, accidentally hitting her horn once, but the young girl couldn't care less.

Tears were freely falling from the corner of her eyes. This time she was positive they were from frustration.

"God, you're so pathetic." she let her head fall down on her steering wheel, slowly stabilising her breaths.

"If he could see you right now he would have lost all what was left of his hope for you."

A knock could be heard on her car window, but it didn't quite register. Only when it became louder did she look up, rolling down her window.

"You alright there?" Even if she had her eyes shut she would've known who it was. His distinctive accent standing out from everyone else she knew.

"Daniel..." She hadn't encountered him much in her life and was surprised to see him crouching down to look at her. Daniel had flashed one of his million dollar smiles when replying 'The one and only' but soon enough his smile was replaced by a concerned frown.

"Are you okay, do you need anything."

"Could you drive me to the airport or get Bryan for me?"

Before the girl knew it the words left her mouth and bot much later she sat in his car

-

My cat kept continuously walking across my keyboard, so if there's a random hdsh I missed here's why. Yes, I could push her away, but I love her too much for that lmao

I'm thinking about double updating every week now, what do you think? It would mean the end will be finished a lot sooner, but I actually started a epilogue already (even though I still have a few chapters to write between were I am now and thend lmao)

I also started writing a Charles Leclerc book a couple days ago and will start posting chapters after I finish this one. So maybe finishing earlier isn't a bad thing ;p

Let me know! Xx

Yes I'm updating on a Monday again lmao, I'm cheating on Tuesday :'(

Word count: 1799
Publish date: 13/05/2019