False Confidence - Lando Norris

Chapter Eight

TW: sexism, car crash

" Lando, wait. " I stepped away from the table where Dan was sitting, to catch up to him before I would lose sight of him again. " Have you... seen my text? " I asked him, catching up and stopping right in front of him so he wouldn't just leave me hanging as he did yesterday and the day before.

" The one you sent while enjoying a night out with a friend, while you just dropped me from going there a day or two prior? " He asked me, pocketing both of his hands and only looking down at me when he was sure I wouldn't let him step away. " Yes. I did. " He gave the answer to my question although it was rather confusing than explaining.

" You know why that happened. It wasn't just my decision. " I shook my head immediately, not really understanding what he was so wound up about. " I still wanted to apologize for how I acted since the start. It wasn't fair as you did nothing to deserve it. It just wasn't as easy as I hoped it would be. " I added with a sigh, still looking up at him, although his gaze did not soften one bit.

" It's not only you, who has to go through this season. " He rolled his eyes, already turning away from me. " Maybe you would realise if you spent time with others too. " Lando added before turning his back to me and leaving the room through another door. I needed a few seconds to get back to reality and just walk back to my seat.

His reaction wasn't exactly what I imagined, even though he never really answered my text or never came up to me for a chat. Knowing I did everything to try and correct my mistakes I didn't let my brain linger on it too much, forcing myself back to the conversation all the team members were having around me. For the rest of the night I mostly stayed at our table, not catching any glimpses of Lando or his immediate crew who I could talk to, which was probably better this way. By the time we called it a night and went back to our rooms I was thankful about how tired my body was. For once it finally didn't fight me over falling asleep, and instead of letting my mind run on two times speed I finally could get the sufficient amount of sleep for a race day.

Setting my alarm a bit later was the only positive about the first half of the day. My mood was quite average, right until Dan and I had to wait in Lando's close proximity to breakfast, the awkward atmosphere around us feeling like an irritating itch under my skin, and also seeing several of the reporters who made my life hell once already, listed on the sheet of paper for our pre-race press conference. Usually I could get away with just a few stupid questions, but seeing the amount of names that made me shiver I knew it will be a fierce session. A week ago I would have swallowed the sour pill that represented their prying questions, but since the talk I had with Susie I promised myself they wouldn't get to play me again.

" Why are we actually doing these? I just wanna go and drive. " I puffed out angrily, standing next to Daniel who tried to hold me in one place so my toxic energy wouldn't spread to everyone. Even though I had every right to feel like this. I could feel my blood boil at the thought of getting asked a bunch of stupid questions in a row. It wouldn't be the first, nor the last time it happens but I just knew that if today is just a repeat of last time I won't have enough patience to deal with them.

" Well, it's part of our job. You have to give something back to the fans. " Daniel answered, pulling me back by my arm when I tried to leave, again. " Winola... just stay, please? " He turned towards me with his full body and I sighed, giving up. I didn't care about fighting with Cyril anymore, but Daniel was someone I didn't want to hurt. He didn't deserve it.

I decided to stay silent, and keep my fuming to myself for the remainder of our wait, letting Dan finally relax a little. I have been an asshole to anyone since we met up in the morning, as I knew this event was coming up on our schedule for today. By every race the press conferences always got harsher and harsher towards me. They didn't care if I was showing potential in the previous races or maybe had a bad day and didn't score points, it was always just plain old bad. It always started off sweet with actually intelligent questions, then something clicked and they all turned into brainless cows, making me dread every question they sent towards me. Watching back the videos of them made me cringe even harder as I could see that everyone around me knew how sexist all the questions were, but they couldn't do anything. Or more like they didn't want to do anything. Who would get beef going with the media for someone like me? It wasn't worth it.