[one shot] [requested by Addie201. thank you so much for this request and thank you for being patient with me!] Lando and Y/n have been friends ever since middle school and used to be inseparable, until Y/n had to move to Germany. After two years, the Brit gets a rather awful phone call
trigger warning! death, funerals, grief, car crash
author's note:this one is hitting close to home as i quite recently lost someone i knew. if you are experiencing the loss of someone right now, don't forget to reach out to someone if you are having a hard time accepting and processing your loss. i love you, always
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
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✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
It had been a couple of weeks already since he had heard from you, until Lando got a phone call from your mother. Two years ago you had to move to Germany for your dad's work, as he would be getting a much better salary than he'd get in the company he was working for back then. It crushed both of you to say goodbye after so many years of being friends. Lando and you had met way back in middle school and dropped out together to start karting professionally. It was safe to say that the two of you were inseparable.
That was until you moved, of course. You promised to stay in touch with each other and call each other on the daily. In the beginning you did. You called every day you could outside of your busy racing schedules, and your school schedule, as you had gone back to school. But daily calls turned into every other day, to every week and something even once a month.
But now your mom called the British boy she hadn't spoken in so long, but she was in tears. She tried to come to her senses before she spoke up, excusing her for her behaviour. The boy was so confused as to what this call was leading to.
"Mary, what is going on? Are you okay? Is Y/n okay?"
"She died, Lando." she was able to push these three words over her lips and the sobs became frantic again.
"W-what?" Lando stuttered, not sure if he heard her correctly. But he had to have heard her clearly, there couldn't be a lot of other words sounding similar to 'died'. He felt his head become lighter and he stumbled backwards which made him fall into the chair that had been there, luckily. His father had noticed what happened and hurried over to his son. He grabbed the phone to see that it was Mary, Y/n's mom, calling.
"Mary, what happened? Lando looks like he is about to pass out..."
"Oh, Adam." she cried out. "Y/n passed away. There was a big car crash. A crossroad, drunk driver, red light. They tried to help, but dead on arrival."
There weren't a lot of words coming out of the woman's mouth, but they were enough to let Adam connect the pieces of the puzzle and figure out what happened. There had been a drunk driver who drove through the red light. Y/n must have had a green light and started to drive off, and then they ended up in a fatal collision. The medics had tried to help and see what there was to save, but the girl had been dead when they arrived.
"Oh no, that is terrible. I am so sorry for your loss." Adam was at loss of words, as had his son been, who was now surrounded by his trainer and PR, trying to calm him down. He heard the heavy and quick breaths on the other side of the line though, alarming him that he should help as much as he could. "Take deep breaths, Mary, you need to try to calm down. Breathe in..." "... And out."
They talked for a little longer until Mary had calmed down.
While Mary had finally calmed down, Lando was still panicking. If his panic attack wouldn't be over really soon, he was sure he would pass out, and that was not what he needed right now.
He thought back about all the moments you shared and he started crying. Soft sobs at first, but they escalated into loud and painful cries. It had drawn the attention of multiple people in the paddock, but the team kept them outside the McLaren garage, with only Carlos and George allowed inside despite them being in another team. Together they managed to calm him down after a good half hour.
Lando's eyes stopped producing tears about fifteen minutes before. He was out of tears, but he didn't stop crying. Inaudible mumbling was coming out of his mouth between the choked sobs, and the fellow Brit and Spaniard couldn't discover what was wrong. The only thing they knew was that something was very wrong, they had never seen the youngster in a state like this before.
The McLaren driver didn't drive that weekend, but the other drivers all drove for Y/n. The news spread around the paddock at a fast pace and all teams were in shock. Though Y/n was a long way from driving in the top class of the sports, she was well known in the world. She was one of those people with a hidden talent yet to be uncovered.
The funeral was only four days after the news had reached Lando, and he was now walking up the aisle to give his speech for her. It was a different aisle he imagined to walk up for her, but he couldn't change time.
"Y/n was a wonderful person. Everyone loved her and who didn't was quick to be corrected by her. She was fierce, but she was loving and tender. She was everything you could want in a person." he started his speech. He had written down all of his words, all of the sentences well prepared without any grammar mistakes for once, but as soon as he had said those first few lines, he folded his paper and stuck it back in his pocket. He could do this without. She needed his honest words which came from his heart, not some prepared speech.
"I remember the moment we met in middle school. She had just moved to Bristol and was the new girl in class. She wasn't shy at all, immediately she was talking about Motorsports and how badly she wanted to be in a racing car. I think that's also why I am racing now. She was my starting point. The next thing I know, we were dropping out of school. Half willingly, half because we were going to be expelled anyways. We weren't the best students for sure, only pulling pranks on other kids and even teachers. She was a smart kid back then actually. She let me copy her homework, because she was so fast making it. We started to follow our dreams to become real racing drivers. You could find us on the local karting track anytime. I remember when Y/n told me that she was going to move to Germany. I realised that I was not going to be able to see my best friend every day anymore. But I also realised that I had fallen in love with her over time. I never got the chance to tell her because we barely saw each other anymore, and I thought it would be a thing to say in real life rather than over a phone call. I know that not many people knew about that. Me loving Y/n. And when I received the news I realised I was never going to be able to say those three important words to her. I now wish that I would have said those words over a phone call, or even over text, who knows where we would have been now then. But that's a 'what if' I'd rather not think about right now. I will never be able to hug her anymore. We will never be able to fantasize about our futures in motorsports anymore. I will never be able to hear her laugh again, or stream together, or cuddle up on the couch while watching our favorite movies. But what hurts me most, is that she will not be able to live all those fantasies of becoming a Formula One driver one day. I know that that was her ultimate goal. Everyone in the sports knew. I knew that she was going to sign a contract for Alpine Academy. She had her life right in front of her, but it only took one fuck-up to take all of that away from her. Now all that we had is left for our memories of her to relive, playing like our favorite movies and the picture I gave her. It was my favorite of us together. She deserved so much better and I so dearly wish that I could tell her how much I loved her, no love her. I still love her, so much. I miss you, Y/n. Don't do anything stupid up there until we'll be reunited in a while. I will always love you, every day, every night. I would like to request 'Beloved' by Mumford & Sons. I know she loved their music and I know that this song is on both of our funeral playlists. Thank you..."
