A Night To Remember - Lando Norris

twenty-one

It came to Thursday evening Jas was finishing uploading an assignment before she was heading off to Lando's, she was slightly apprehensive of this evening and this was very evident to Jack who had seen her all day being restless.

"Jas is everything ok- you've been a maniac all day," Jack questioned.

"Well, yes but no. I've got dinner with his parents. HIS PARENTS." Jas said getting increasingly more worried.

"Right Jas, listen. It will be ok- they will love you." He assured her. "I've got a tip, just count to ten, and if you're still finding your thoughts wondering start again". Jas began to relax, feeling slightly better- in her head, she was reciting one, two, three... She soon left giving herself plenty of time. It was a Thursday evening, so the traffic was light, and she had got there reasonably quickly. She knocked on his door expecting him to be pretty much ready, to her surprise she was welcomed with him standing in Joggers and a t-shirt.

"Land- Is this what you're wearing?" Jas said beginning to chuckle.

"Well, I'm not ready quite yet. I should probably" Lando said as his voice trailed away, and he let Jas in. "You look incredible by the way," He said while kissing her on the cheek. He ran upstairs feeling awful he wasn't ready yet. Jas found herself getting increasingly more worried, somehow, he had managed to take unbelievably long to the extent they were going to be late. Lando came running downstairs.

"My hairs frizzy," He said looking annoyed in the mirror. She smirked at him.

"Your hair looks lovely" Jas said while styling it. "Are you ready? We might be ten minutes late".

"It's ok- my parents are used to it" Lando joked. They soon left but to Jas's delight suddenly traffic had appeared making them even later, she found herself counting to ten inside her head. They walked in and Lando managed to find his parents, who looked as if they had already had a few drinks. Lando embraced his parents and apologised.

"Sorry, well you know me I am incapable of being on time. This is Jas, by the way- my girlfriend."

"Lovely to meet you, he's told us so much about you!" His mum said warmly.

"Hello, it's so nice to meet you," Jas said nervously.

They all sat down and ordered their food; the most exciting topic was the upcoming home race.

"So how are you feeling about the race," His mum (Cicsa) asked almost immediately.

"You know just like any other race, we'll push for good results," Lando said almost sounding robotic in his voice. "Anyway, Jas has a concert tomorrow night. Don't you?" Quickly changing the subject.

"Well- yes I do," Jas said slightly shocked. "Pianoforte, it's to do with the university".

"That's wonderful, do you study music at oxford- I think Lando said?" She asked politely.

"Well- no. I actually study law but have played all my life." Jas said. His parents looked surprised by this as Lando was never that academic. He had missed a lot of school when he was karting younger and this really affected his grades but clearly, it was worth it to all of them.

Jas ended up getting on so well with his parents, she managed to engage incredibly well to the point she had invited them to her concert. They had made the effort to come all the way up to Silverstone and since the concert hall was reasonably close.

"Oh, Jas we'd love to! We didn't have much planned in the evening anyway," His mum said.

"Yes I'd love to see you all there- although be warned I haven't performed in a year, if not longer," Jas said.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be perfect,"

The evening drew to a close, they could've talked for hours. Jas especially loved his dad getting his phone out and showing some younger photos of him.

"Dad could you maybe not show those photos of me," Lando said, almost starting to strop.

"No please carry on they're so cute, you're school uniform is adorable," Jas joked.

"I think it's our cue to head off home- don't want to be too late," Lando said feeling desperate to leave.

"It was lovely to see you Jas, text me the concert address!" His mum said.

"You too, I hope you can make it tomorrow," She said kindly, Lando had a smile on his face. They made their way back to his car and then drove home.

"You were great," Lando said grinning. "I mean they love you"

"Stop, it wasn't too bad. I didn't manage to make an absolute fool out of myself." Jas said as she got out of the car and began walking into his house. They soon both got ready for bed Lando had a long weekend ahead of him and an early night was probably what he needed.

Jas found herself longing to ask why he had been so eager to change the conversation as soon as the topic of this weekend's race came up. They were sat in bed watching some tv when he turned it off and began to set his alarm.

"Hey- Lando. Is everything ok this weekend? I just noticed you were so quick to change the conversation" Jas said not knowing how to bring this up.

"Yeah, you just know how it is home race and all," He said brushing it off.

"Are you sure that's all of it?" She could see he was reserved.

"Well- I" He began to stumble over what he was saying. "I feel anxious to be honest, it's my home race there so much extra pressure on me. It's just a lot all anyone ever asks me this weekend and my parents as well. It's just a lot I find myself struggling to breathe, hard to focus with everything to think about. Sorry, I'm rambling" Lando blurted wanting to finally tell someone. "It's just hard to tell anyone especially being so competitive- makes me look weaker."

"It doesn't make you weak, in my eyes, you look stronger," Jas said meeting his eye. "I've been told... well...what I do is when I feel like it's all getting too much, I count to ten over and over it helps to focus my mind. It sounds stupid but yeah."

"I'll try it, thank you Jas I feel like I've been carrying this all week." He said letting out a sigh of relief.

"You can always talk to me if it gets too much, plus I know that you're going to kill it this weekend," Jas said with a growing smile. The night fell away, and it was just them together- no one else in the world.