GRIDLOCK - Lando Norris [BOOK 1 Gridlock Series]

04

After Lando's comment, the rest of my time at his apartment felt like the punch line of a practical joke, and whilst we made small talk about his upcoming races, I aimed to finish my tea and get the hell out of there as quickly as I could.

Of course I was just the 'little sister'. There was no slime chance of anything happening between me and any of the grid boys, much less me and Lando. And I was starting to wonder if the longer I believed in my stupid fantasy, the bigger the fool I became.

Lando offered to walk me back to my hotel floor, but not without making a comical line about 'imagine the look on Mother Verstappens face if she saw me arrive home with you at 2am.

I politely declined and made my way back to the 17thfloor.

As I crawled into bed that night, I took out my phone and opened the photographs I took today whilst Max was on podium. Although not a 'win' in my families eyes, it was still made abundantly clear I was to remain publicly proud of my brother.

I tapped on the best one I could of Max holding his trophy high in the air with a smile on his face looking down towards us.

Except as I studied the picture further, I found he wasn't the only person on that podium with his gaze in our direction. A massive smirk on his face that just spelled out 'drama'

Lando freaking Norris.

I am finished playing whatever dumb game this is your playing.

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Arriving at the paddock for the Netherland Grand Prix practice sessions, I was more on edge than usual. I knew I was going to have to go past the McLaren garage to get into RedBulls, which meant potentially having to go past Lando, and for some reason I felt like I had opened some conversation door that could risk him shouting something or making some sort of remark.

For whatever reason, and usually I am pretty good with my instinct, I couldn't place my finger on Lando. I felt like a puzzle piece in some game he was constructing, but for some reason, it made me more excited and intrigued. 

My pulse started to increase as we made our way past Ferrari, making McLaren the next garage. I couldn't do it. 

"I'll catch up in a minute, I told Johan I would meet him at the cafe" I lie whilst doubling back. 

As I turn to walk as fast as humanly possible back down the pit lane, I come face first into solid frame. "Shit, Sorry" I cuss under my breath. 

Two strong hands hold me by my shoulders with a chuckle that I felt to my core. "Can't get enough hey, Verstappen?" 

Peering up from my embarrassed stance, I am confronted with a wall of papaya. And the condescending look from one Lando Norris. 

"Lando, sorry. I was just.." again, struggling to make any human sense around him. 

"Avoiding the McLaren garage?" my god was he smug. 

"What!? No, I was" I couldn't lie. I didn't have it in me. 

"I'm sorry about last night Lando, I didn't know it was your room, I would have never have gone in there if I had known, it won't happen again." I just needed him to go back to being admired from afar. 

"Hey, I wasn't complaining" he shrugs his shoulders and darts around me, continuing down the pit lane, not even stopping to glance back as he enters the garage. 

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Practice for Max went amazing, as expected, this is his home turf and he should be killing this track every single time. And in my families luck, Lando did terribly. I understand it was only practice, but he finished in P8, which for Lando, is terrible. And after the other nights events, I was happy to see him taken down a peg or two. 

Lando, however, didn't seem as equally as amused. I didn't even see him leave the track before the McLaren roller door slammed closed and all you could hear was shouting and banging. 

My amusement was quickly dampened with sadness. I felt genuinely bad for the guy. Growing up in the motorsport world, I know how hard these hits can be for the drivers. I know how hard they work and then when there are mechanical issues they have no control of, it's frustrating. 

I attempted to drown out the conversations happening inside of the RedBull garage as they all were against Lando at this point. How karma was finally coming around. 

I managed to sneak myself out the back door, grabbing one of the fresh coconut waters off the snacks table I made my way out the fence line and up over the hill behind. I knew there was a spot up here which overlooked the entire track, I used to come her when I was little and we would be spending all the afternoons at the track with Max training. 

Settling myself underneath my regular tree, I take a seat down on the rapidly dampening grass as the afternoon sun settles in. 

"You stalking me or something, Verstappen?" for the second time, my heart had jumped right out of my skin. 

"Jesus Christ, Lando" I stammer as I hold onto my chest. "And you're on my turf, buddy" I tease. 

Without invitation he places himself down on the grass right next to me, overlooking the track I'm sure we view in completely different ways. 

The atmosphere that usually surrounds Lando is off, and I can tell that right now, in this moment, no games were being played. 

"Tell me something, Evelyn" his request comes in the form of a whisper, and whilst I am taken back by this whole scenario, I can't look past the fact he used my name. 

"Ketchup was once sold as a medicine" I think of the first random fact I can think of. But it worked, it grabbed his attention. 

"You're joking?" he exclaimed.

"I'm not" I say like I know 100% what I am talking about, giving him a light shove with my shoulder. "It was used to help people who had indigestion in the 1800s." 

He looked at me like I was both the craziest and weirdest yet smartest person on the planet. 

"You don't say" he nodes his head as if committing it to memory. 

"It'll be okay, you know that, don't you?" I comforted. 

He didn't respond, he just let his head respond for him with a weighed nod. 

"I know you're going to beat yourself up regardless, but I just want you to remember, it's going to be okay. It has to be" 

His eyes shifted to me, and for one perfect second, it was silently loud. We didn't need any words in that moment because we both knew... it had to be okay. All of it. 

"To answer your question, Ev..." he holds direct eye contact "Yes to the first part, No to the second" 

My eyes voluntarily squeeze shut as if trying to take a snapshot of this exact moment 

"At least, not to me" he adds before standing up from his position on the floor, offering his hand for me to do the same. 

Our hands pause inside each others for the slightest of moments, his thumb barely grazing the top of my palm before he drops their connection and continues back down the hill. 

I crouch back down to the grass, clutching my knees in front of my body. 

It's pathetic, I am pathetic. Because even if this is some game, I'm still hoping its you.