A Night To Remember - Lando Norris

sixteen

The sound of the crash became louder, she ran towards it. His car she knew it was his car, she knew. She pulled herself closer not wanting to believe it was him, grabbing the door she could feel the strain in her muscles as they tried to lift him. She looked at him, their eyes connected. He knew he could go he felt at peace. Jas couldn't let him go but he knew it was too much pain to stay in this world. His grip loosened in her hand as she yelled to call the ambulance. His eyes were glazed- he was gone. Her screams bellowed throughout the lonely streets; she could hardly breathe. Tears were streaming-

"Jas, Jas, Jas. Hello, are you ok?" Lando had woken her up scared. "Jas look at me." She could hardly breathe, trying to focus on his voice. Gasping for air, he held onto her arm. Once Jas could control her breathing, she looked up at him, his eyes fixed with hers. Tears began streaming down her face as he held her, and she buried her face in his shoulder. "You're safe, everything's ok." He tried to reassure her, having no idea what she had just experienced.

"It's not, I'm sorry" Jas found it hard to speak with all the events replaying in her mind but for the first time she felt safe in his arms.

"I'm here" Lando's reassurance was all she needed. Once Jas calmed down slightly, she sat up to find her bearings.

"I'm sorry, I've woken you up."

"Jas please don't apologise, what's going on?" Lando was genuinely worried something about her reaction gave him the impression this wasn't a one-time occurrence. "You can talk to me if you want" He didn't want to force Jas, but he could tell she was bottling everything up.

"Well, I- I have these dreams every so often" She was stuttering over her words, she had never spoken aloud about this. "Memories you could say, from when my brother, you know".

"When Nate passed?" Lando questioned, he only knew he had an accident nothing more.

"Yeah well, that night it had all blown up at home. I brought up to my parents how they discarded me at home, how- how they showered Nate followed him everywhere, let him pursue his dream. Just everything all came out. They called me ungrateful amongst other things. Nate just stood there helpless. He didn't know that I felt this way." Jas needed to take a moment.

"It's ok, take your time," Lando said grasping her hand.

"Well, I got up and left. Said I wasn't going to ever come back. They definitely didn't believe me, but I had been gone for over 8 hours. It was the morning practically. Nate was worried, he was calling me, and I didn't know- I didn't know! He was driving trying to find me in town, I was walking home, he didn't know- I should've told him. These reckless drunk drivers drove past, I just had a feeling. I heard a crash. I ran back towards them only to see his car. I opened his door and there he sat, holding on for his life." Jas looked away she couldn't bear to see Lando's face. "He looked at me as if to say, I'm ready to go now that you're here, it sounds stupid- "

"It's not stupid," Lando said, lost for words.

"He looked at me one last time before he took his last breath out and his eyes glazed over. From that point on, it's a blur. I just know it was my fault, if I had never said anything, he never would've and then I- "Jas felt lost.

"Jas, you can't hold yourself accountable. You did nothing wrong" Lando couldn't quite find the words he wanted.

"But he went to look for me".

"Jas, he loved you, and I'm sure he would never want you to feel like it was your fault. It's not. You need to set yourself free, you've locked yourself up in chains of guilt" Lando said, "He would want you to be free". Lando knew nothing he could say would make this any easier for her, yet she felt as if she had somewhat lifted the burden. Talking to Lando had helped her, she finally didn't feel so alone and didn't feel as though she was drowning in guilt. She hugged him tightly not wanting to let go, he held her for a while.