Chapter 1: "Old Friends"

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2019 was the best year of Elise Hubert's life. or at least, it was supposed to be.

She was on a roll. Top of her class, taking an internship with a formula one team, and her career was already looking promising. She had everything she could ever want.

At least, until the accident.

"That was a pretty nasty crash"

"Do you think he'll make it?"

"It looks really bad"

They say the accident changed her. Of course, it changed everyone.

"Oh shit this isn't good"

"God please let them be okay"

After that day, she swore she would never set foot on a formula one track again. A year later, here she is breaking that promise driven by her grief.

"Elise... they tried everything they could."

And that's how Pierre finds her, teary eyed at eau rouge. Hands balled into fists, knuckles paper-white, and tears silently streaming down her face.

She half expects him to say some half-assed condolence. To tell her something like "it's ok" or "it gets better" without knowing even a smidge of her pain. To cast her the pitiful glance that other people give her when they find out who she is. but he doesn't.

Instead he puts down the flowers he bought for his friend, he kneels down, and says a prayer, and he stands back up.

"Elise Hubert, right? I think I remember you from when you used to visit Anthoine in the dorms at le mans."

a moment of shock passes. After the accident, people were always so cautious around her. Like she was weak or fragile.

He doesn't.

He understands.

Understands how it felt when she saw his car a complete wreck. How much she despised when people gave her mock sympathy to feel better about themselves, and how everyone made everything about the accident when all she wanted to do was forget. How she tried everything to try and get closure on why it happened, only to be left even more broken than before.

She likes that about him.

she nods her head in response. "Yeah, Pierre gasly? although everyone knows that. You were his roommate back then I believe?"

She doesn't treat him like the others do. The special treatment from being a formula one driver, or just their sheer hatred and dismissal of his abilities when they know nothing about him.

She talks to him like she would any other person, even sticks her hand out to let him shake it.

"Yeah, yeah I was." he says. "It's nice to see you again Elise."

She gives him a soft smile. It's not forced, or with practiced politeness like she does with her teammates, or with Gunther, or with her drivers. It's genuine, and pure and real.

"It's good to see you too Pierre."

YELLOW ROSES || a pierre gasly shortficWhere stories live. Discover now