Lights Out

Testing, Testing

Saturday 13th March.
I woke up when my alarm told me to, at 5am, snoozing for 15 minutes before getting up and stumbling into the bathroom to go to the toilet and do my morning skincare. I put on more makeup that yesterday as I wasn't being in the car today was instead on media duties, and got dressed into leggings, a team shirt and a team hoodie, separating my hair into two parts and braiding each of them up to tie two space buns on each side of my head which I secured with bobby pins and hairspray. I put my mask on and grabbed my phone, headphones and bag that I put my camera in before heading out. I was going to the track early as I wanted to look over my data from yesterday again. Getting to the Paddock didn't take long, and I soon checked into the Red Bull hospitality and made my way down to one of the rooms where we looked at data. I pulled on the headphones, sitting down in the seat and logged in. I was looking at tyre degradation, downforce, brake power, any vibrations that were picked up that were abnormal, and if the performance of the car dropped down. I posted a picture to my Instagram story and realised how tired I looked. I ignored it, like I ignored the three beers I had last night that still didn't stop me from having nightmares about Julien. I was the only one in the room. It was early, only just 6.30am. We really didn't need to be at the Paddock at this time, but I liked the safe silence. Half an hour passed with me making mental notes on things I saw that I could suggest to the engineers about Max testing out on track today. Max was doing more laps than me today, but because he'd been driving in the Red Bull for a lot longer, a lot of it was fine-tuned to him. He would know pretty quickly what was working and what wasn't, so they wanted me to make sure the setup was alright for me as well, which was why I was doing two days. The door opened and I looked up to see Harry with two steaming cups of coffee and a container.
"You're not supposed to be in here," I said, trying to peer outside before the door closed to check if anyone was nearby.
"Well, I saw your story and figured that you'd need some breakfast, so..." He gave me the container and I opened it to find my usual yoghurt and granola with mixed berries. A light smile showed on my face, and I tried to supress it as he sat down next to me. I turned the monitor off.
"No food or drink by the screens," I said, taking the coffee he held out to me and sighing quietly as the heat started to warm up my numb hands. I stood up and walked over to a table without anything that I could break on it, Harry sitting down opposite me. He took a bag out of his coat pocket and handed it to me.
"A pastry. I won't tell if you don't," he smirked, sliding the forbidden food over to me. I grinned, looking back up to him.
"Thank you. How long have you been here?"
"A while. We were up quite late last night fixing a few things and here early this morning. Got here around quarter past five."
"That's when I got up," I laughed.
"God, you drivers are so lazy," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes with a slight smile on his face. He had a nice smile. It was slightly lop-sided, the left side of his mouth curving up more than the right, but it wasn't that noticeable. His eyes were nice, too. They were a deep blue with specks of grey, and they contrasted nicely with his brown hair. Stop staring. You're staring, Jess. Heat crept up my face when I realised, and I cleared my throat awkwardly and began eating.
"I suppose you haven't got much to do today then, with you having a rest from the track."
"Yeah, I've got media duties, but I'll be analysing the data that Max brings back as well, which'll be fun. A whole day in my driver's room, yay."
"Sounds thrilling." He sipped his coffee.
"No doubt I'll get a massage, too. My neck is killing me today."
"How are the g-forces around here?"
"They're not as bad as Spain, but still noticeable if you're doing about 160 laps in a day."
"Yeah, I suppose they are," he chuckled. "You look tired. You should've stayed in bed a but more today."
"Nah, didn't need anymore sleep." He cares about me, that's sweet. Stop, Jess. You're thinking too much into this.
"What time's your briefing this morning?"
"Eight."
"See! You really didn't need to be up this early."
"I wanted to run over the data a bit more. Gotta get the best out of this car."
"Okay, I see your point." He paused, taking another sip of his coffee. "How are things, by the way. Like, how are you mentally."
"I'm alright."
He looked straight at me with one eyebrow slightly raised, his eyes tired. His eyes really are nice.
"I don't believe you."
"Sounds like a you problem," I smirked, sipping my coffee.
"Okay, I won't push you to talk about it. Have you seen De Luca?"
"Who-, oh, Gaia? Yeah, we talked a bit yesterday. She seems really nice. Have you spoken to her much?"
"No. I've seen her around but not had a chance. She seems nice, though..."
He said something else that I didn't quite catch as I shovelled in the last spoonful of my breakfast.
"I'll save the pastry for later, hide it in my room," I giggled, sipping my coffee. "Thank you for getting me breakfast. I don't think I quite realised how hungry I was."
"No problem. If you keep forgetting to eat it means I have more excuses to see you. Not that you shouldn't eat," he said quickly. "You should eat, eating is good for you, and you should have breakfast so, have breakfast, Jessie."
"I will," I laughed. "You've got to go before someone sees you here, it's almost 7."
"Yeah, that would be a good idea. I'll see you around."
"See you, Harry."