Lights Out

Breakdowns

Wednesday 14th April.
A knock on the door made me huff and stomp to open it.
"What do you want?"
"Woahhh, you're looking nice. Do you have a photo shoot or something?" Lando asked, inviting himself inside my room.
"You can't just come in here, Lando," I sighed, wanting to rub my face but refraining as I'd smudge the makeup I had on.
"I wanted to hang out with my best bud." He sat himself onto my bed. I sighed again and retreated back into the bathroom to finish my makeup. I turned back around to him before I started.
"I haven't gotten dressed yet either, I'm not staying in trackies and a hoodie, so you can't stay."
"But I want to hang out," he whined, pouting. "Where are you going anyway?"
"I'm going out."
"Nahhh, really? I didn't know that."
"Piss off."
"Not until you tell me where you're going."
"I'm going to the cinema with Harry and then we're getting Italian takeaway."
"The cinema?" I heard him say, his reflection in my mirror betraying his face.
"Yes. The cinema. I think it's sweet."
"I didn't think they were open."
"Some of them are."
I finished doing my eyebrows and stepped back slightly, slouching when I still didn't like what I saw in the mirror.
"You look really pretty, Jess," Lando said, catching onto my mood. "It's not too much, don't worry, and it looks really nice. What are you going to wear?"
"I was thinking that black skirt that's on top of my suitcase and..." I came out of the bathroom and rummaged through a drawer, "this white cropped shirt thing."
"Oh, that looks good."
The shirt I'd chosen wasn't really a shirt at all, if I was honest. The thick and bumpy fabric covered from the side of my neck until the end of my collarbones, and that material crossed over to cover my chest before ending where the middle of my ribcage was. It was quite low cut, but I like it. You could see some of my chest tattoo, and you could see the tattoo of me doing a shoey, which sat at waist level on the right side of my back. I was planning to wear my black Doc Martens with the outfit as well, topping it off with a beanie that I'd bundle my hair into whilst walking to the cinema and to the restaurant we were going to. The cinema was doing re-runs of films that had already come out, so we were going to watch Thor: Ragnarök.
"Well, I'll leave you to get changed. Have fun, don't be back too late!"
"You sound like Seb."
Lando laughed, waving before going out of the door and letting it shut behind him.

I was surprised that nobody recognised me on the way there, but then again, I was wearing a beanie, my mask, sunglasses, and my headphones. Not to mention the fact that I don't often wear makeup unless it's for particular events. The weather was nice. It was sunny, and the sun was warm on my skin, but it wasn't chilly like it would be in England this time of year still. I almost stopped in my tracks when I realised that the fact of me being pregnant hadn't crossed my mind at all for the entire day, and the reminder now made me feel sick with dread and worry. My future at Red Bull was still undecided, but I knew they couldn't demote me unless I consistently drove badly. The pressure of that added to my nausea, but I didn't feel the need to sprint to the closest bathroom to be sick, which was a relief at least. I got to the cinema and went inside, scanning the ticket that was on my phone and going into the correct screen. He'd rented the place out so that we wouldn't have people coming up to us in the middle of the film. I took my mask and headphones off, and readjusted my beanie to let my hair tumble down before also putting my sunglasses into the small bag I carried with me.
"Wow."
I turned to my left and saw Harry staring at me, his mouth slightly open.
"Hey." I smiled and began to walk up to where he was.
"H-, hey. How are you?"
"I'm good, you?"
"Yeah, good, thanks. You look...wow. You look beautiful."
I blushed slightly and returned a compliment to him, of which he smiled at.
"So," he said, sitting down again next to me, "as we're eating later and I didn't know whether you were allowed sweets and stuff, I only got drinks, if that's alright."
"It's okay, don't worry. I don't want to spoil the amazing stone-cooked authentic Italian pizza I'm going to have later. What did you get?"
"I got Irn Bru for you," he replied. My smile grew and my eyes went wide.
"Oh, you fucking legend! I haven't had this in ages." I unscrewed the top and took a sip. It was ice cold. I closed my eyes and savoured the taste. To me, it tasted like heaven on earth, to Nick, it tasted like diabetes and bubblegum. But each to their own, I guess
"Mmh. Yep. That's good. Wow."
"I thought you'd like it. God, do you remember when Nick saw all those empty Irn Bru bottles in your driver's room?"
"Don't remind me. You have no idea how much he lectured me about keeping a healthy lifestyle and stuff."
The lights in the cinema went down and the Marvel intro started playing. I settled down into my seat before leaning over to Harry.
"Thank you for this," I whispered into his ear.