'I thought I recognized when love was true, but I'm confused. Am I ready for love or maybe just a best friend, should there be a difference, do you have instructions?'
In which Lexi explores the world through photography and gets the shock of a life...
♪ Home Free - Everything Will Be Okay: 'All I want to feel is that we've got something real. And all I want to say is everything will be okay. It'll be okay..'
Because Friday was her day off and Lexi hadn't seen Olivia in a long time, she decided to give her best friend a call and spend the day together. They would be going to the mall for necessities and some snooping around and later they would head back to Liv's house to record a YouTube video together. Lexi had been in multiple videos with Liv before and loved how passionate she was about her channel. She went to her closet to pick out an outfit, when the thoughts about last night's FaceTime call with Lando popped in her head. He had called her pretty and asked her out on a date and Lexi was over the moon. She had been bold and texted him right before she fell asleep and his reply had been dancing around in her head all night.
Lexi searched her closet for her little black dress, Dr Martens boots and black purse and went to get ready in the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and noticed her eyes. Lando had told her that her eyes had been on his mind the entire week and for the first time in her life she loved the brown colour. Normally, she thought that brown eyes were the most boring of them all but he had given her a confidence boost. She got dressed, brushed her hair and teeth and applied a thin layer of makeup on her face. Her parents had already left for work so she had some breakfast by herself and texted Liv she would be leaving in 5 minutes. She remembered Lando would be starting practice in a short while so she sent him a text also to wish him good luck and stay safe.
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When she arrived at Liv's house, she scrolled through Instagram a bit waiting for her best friend to enter her car. "Hey babe, you look good!" Olivia said when she opened the door. "Oh thanks, you too!" Liv looked stunning as always with her dark brown hair curled around her face, wearing a simple white top and mom jeans. They headed to the mall and Lexi was waiting for the moment her best friend would start asking questions about Lando. She had told her some things, but she hadn't heard the latest update yet. It didn't seem to take her long because before Lexi could finish that thought, Liv said: "So how is your racer doing?". Lexi chuckled. "He's alright, I think. Starting practice in Imola as we speak. But he is not MY racer". She looked over at Liv with a warning look and Olivia had a smirk on her face. "Not yet.."
By the time they arrived at the mall, Lexi had told Liv everything about the conversation they had last night. Liv thought the things he said were really sweet and she was excited for her friend to finally go on a date with a guy. They started their tour of shops at Urban Outfitters and worked their way around the mall. By lunchtime, they both were carrying lots of bags and needed a little break. Liv suggested having some lunch at a small cafe further up the mall and Lexi nodded enthusiastically. She looked at her phone and saw it was around 1.30 PM already. She also noticed a text from Lando:
Lando 🕺: Practice went okay, not really happy with our pace yet. Found myself thinking about you a lot in the car 😳 How is your day going? x
Lexi 🧡: Ah, that's really sweet. I have been shopping with Liv all morning, just sat down to have lunch. Picked out a nice outfit for our date next week! I hope your second practice goes well too. Good luck later 😘 x
Olivia noticed the blushes creeping up on Lexi's face and knew she was texting Lando. "Say hi to him for me!" she called out and Lexi turned even a deeper shade of red. They ordered their lunch and talked about lots of different things for a while. Lexi asked her best friend about her clothing line Peachy Apparel, how her boyfriend was doing and what she had planned for the YouTube video later that day. "I think it would be fun to film a haul and show off what we bought today". Lexi nodded and they got up to head to the last few shops in the mall. A little while later, exhausted and with even more bags added to their hands, they made their way to Lexi's car. Liv turned up the radio and they sang loudly until they reached Liv's house.
Filming went great and before they knew it, the entire room was covered in clothing and other items they bought. Lexi loved helping her friend film videos and knew all the right angles and camera tricks because of her photography skills. They cleared up the mess, watched back the footage they shot and Olivia clapped her hands excitedly when she saw Lexi showing off her date outfit on camera. "He will love it, you look stunning!". her best friend said. "I hope so, I really like him Liv.." It was the first time Lexi said that out loud and even though she had a crush on him before, this felt different. They were much older, he was actually talking to her this time and Lexi was ready for this step in her life.
The rest of the evening went by quick. They had dinner, watched a few girly movies on Netflix and gossiped about old friends. Lexi had texted back and forth with Lando about the second practice and when 10 PM rolled around, she headed back home. It had been an amazing day and when her head hit the pillow that night, she fell right asleep.
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Saturday usually consisted of lots of studying, but because Lexi was caught up on her reading material, she decided it wouldn't be too bad to watch qualifying with her dad and brother today. It had been a long time since she had done that and she looked forward to it even more, because Lando was part of F1 now. Lexi went downstairs, grabbed a drink in the kitchen and fell down on the sofa next to her brother. "What are you doing here? No studying today?" he asked her with big eyes. "Nope, I'm all caught up and thought I would spend some quality time with my favourite boys today". Little did he know, Lexi meant her dad, brother and Lando. She let out a chuckle and threw a pillow at Joey. She missed having fun with him.
When qualifying started and they showed Lando on tv, Lexi's heart made a little jump. She hadn't seen him in a while and he looked straight in the camera through his helmet as if he was looking right at her. "Lando was in your class when you were younger, right?" Her dad spoke up and Lexi had to shake off her thoughts. "Yes he was, he left when we were around 14 years old. It's cool to see he achieved his dreams". She felt really proud of him and couldn't believe she would be there next race to take photos of it all.
Q1 and 2 went well for Lando, he was really quick and set the fastest time in the first sector back to back. They all started bouncing in their seats when Lando's times showed up purple. "Lando is going so fast!" Joey called out. He crossed the line and went up to P2 on the leaderboard and Lexi let out a big breath she didn't know she was holding. 'Oh my god, that's amazing!' she thought.But as happy as they were, the bigger the shock was when his time got deleted for exceeding the track limits. Lexi heard Lando's disappointed voice over the team radio and she wished she could be there to give him a hug.
"Hi..." she heard him say softly when she decided to FaceTime him later that evening. He looked tired and didn't seem to want to look at her through the phone. "Are you okay?" Lexi asked with a sympathetic voice. She had felt bad for him all day and just wanted him to know she was there for him. "I don't know, just really disappointed in myself. I was doing so well and then I messed it all up..". He sounded so sad, it made Lexi's heart hurt a little. "You did amazing, Lando! You can't blame yourself for such a little mistake. Just remember how fast you were and try to focus on the race tomorrow!" She tried her best to cheer him up. He finally looked at her. "You were watching?" His eyes went wide and for a moment all they did was look at each other.
"I finished my schoolwork early and wanted to see you drive. I'm really proud of you and even my dad & brother said you were so good!" He finally started smiling. "Thank you, that means a lot to me". Lexi took a deep breath and decided to give him some more motivation for the race tomorrow. "I really like you, Lando.." she said while trying to keep her eyes straight on him. "I have been thinking of you constantly". She could see his cheeks turn a deep shade of red and his hand went through his curls. "I like you too. I can't wait to go on our date on Monday.." It was hard not to look away, but she wanted to reassure him about tomorrow so she had to stick through it. "You have to get some sleep now. Remember what I said, you did amazing and you need to stop blaming yourself. Make it your motivation to do even better tomorrow. I will be watching and cheering you on". They ended the conversation with the wave they always did and Lexi fell asleep thinking about their words to each other.
