REMEMBER THE NAME

2019:25

"You are an idiot, you know that." Sophie shouts to the back seat as Alex gets in her rental car, trying her best not to laugh at the situation.

"I know." He just huffs. "I don't know how it happened."

"You we're probably too busy chatting to your girlfriend that you forgot to pack it." She begins to make fun of him as she pulls out and drives away from the airport.

"I thought out of everyone, Lando would be the first to forget his drivers license, but I'm just so disappointed it was me." Alex huffs, crossing his arms.

"Hey!" Lando exclaims from the passenger seat, making Sophie laugh.

"So did we all." She muses, focussing more on the traffic since it was rush hour. "But he'll be the first to lose his passport." She jokes further, earning a glare from her friend next to her.

"Actually, I kind of done that on the plane as well, that's why I was running late while they searched for it for me." Alex awkwardly scratches the back of his head in embarrassment whilst the two in the front buckle in laughter at him and his unlucky day.

Once the laughter had died down Alex perked up from the back. "Thank you for coming and picking me up Soph."

"It's no bother." She kindly smiles. "I had been going to get Lando anyway since his company car was getting dropped off at the hotel instead."

"She's being very nice and helpful today." Lando calls out whilst still looking at his phone. "I'm taking full advantage of it whilst it lasts." Which Sophie rolls her eyes at.

"I'm nice most of the time" she mutters, before the car falls in to a nice peaceful silence.

"What's this?" Lando calls out accusingly two minutes later, turning his phone around.

"Lando I'm driving on the motorway in rush hour, I can't exactly stop to look at a photo."

"It's a picture of you and Charles." Alex shuffles forward so that his head is above the centre console, allowing him to see what Lando had pointed out.

"Well there you go Lando, Alex has answered your question for you." Sophie sarcastically replies, focussing on taking the right exit off of the busy motorway.

"I knew it was a picture." Lando rolls his eyes. "But why is there a picture of you and Charles?"

"Because we were hanging out and then we got spotted by some fans." Sophie tries to brush off the interrogation awkwardly.

"When were you hanging out." Lando probes further, still with his accusing tone which wasn't sitting right with Sophie.

"We were both in Milan to help Pierre, and then Pierre had some work to do so we grabbed something to eat in the meantime." She tries to explain as they approach the hotel, not loving the interrogation.

"It looks like a date." Alex teases his friend with a smile.

"Well then the media got what they wanted if they made it look that way." She tries to nip his shit stirring behaviour in the bud as she parks at the hotel.

"Right." Sophie whispers under her breath as she undoes her seatbelt, with Alex already having his door open and getting out. But a hand over hers stops her and she looks up to see Lando looking at her.

"You head in Alex, I just need to speak with Soph." He shouts without breaking the eye contact, keeping Sophie in her trance as she doesn't break it either.

"Okay." Alex says confusedly before grabbing his suitcase and shutting the door without any further questions.

Neither of the pair want to be the first to speak, both for their own reasons but for Sophie it was because she didn't want to break the moment.

"Is everything alright?" She softly asks, still keeping the eye contact.

"Yeah-erm-ah." He awkwardly removes his hand and uses it so scratch the back of his head. "I-erm I was just wondering how Pierre was since I've not seen you since you came back."

"Oh." For some reason Sophie was confused at her own disappointment. "Yeah, he's doing as well as he can. It's obviously hurtful what redbull has done, but he's doing what he can to see the positives and he managed to get his mind away from it."

"Good, good." Lando breathes. "And was it just you and Charles who went to make sure he was alright?"

"Anthoine was there when we arrived but it was just Charles and I that were both staying with him. Charles stayed for a bit longer than I did, but we took him out regularly to take his mind off of it."

"That was nice of you both." Lando smiles. "Did you - er - get closer with the both of them?"

"I got to know them both better." She nods awkwardly before cracking a smile. "Are you jealous that they might steal your best friend." She jokes, nudging him lightly.

"Not a chance." He shakes his head laughing. "I don't see them taking Max away anytime soon."

Sophie can't help but laugh, placing a hand over her heart in feigned hurt. "Don't wound me Lando, my little heart can't take it."

"Just be careful." He turns serious for a moment, his sea green eyes staring in to the depths of her sky blue. "I don't want to see that little heart of yours become broken."

"It won't be." She breathes out, partially shocked at his seriousness for her well-being.

"I'm one of your closest friends Soph, there might be things you're hiding from others, the media, even yourself, but you can't hide them from me." He takes a moment to breathe, looking down at his knees and looking back at her almost as if it was painful. "But just know that you can talk to me about anything at anytime. And if that little heart of yours does get broken, I will do my best to help mend it back together."

At that moment Sophie realised that Lando was truly there for her. He knew something was going on between the girl and Monegasque, and that her heart was indeed involved. But the Brit hand her best interests in his own heart and only wanted to be there for her.

"After the pictures were released he asked me out on a date." Sophie announces without even thinking it through.

"Oh." Lando replies, keeping his face neutral. "And what did you say?"

"I agreed." A small smile unknowingly came out on her face. "It was lovely, quiet and low-key but also incredibly thoughtful."

"So are you official?" He asks slowly whilst Sophie still looks out the windscreen.

"I don't know." She realises. "We never really discussed that. But we then spent the next few days together, of course with Pierre. And it wasn't overly couply but there were a few moments where it began to feel like a relationship, and then we've spoke everyday since. But I don't think there's labels." She voices all of the thoughts she had been holding back, unaware that with every syllable, Landos heart was beginning to crack.

The girl had no idea, but her best friend had been admiring her since they first met, and soon the admiration morphed in to adoration. Finding her jokes funny slipped in to finding her laugh cute, and finding her laugh cute turned in to finding her smile magnetic, and soon he was trapped within a pit of his own feelings with no ladder to climb out.

Although it was only in this recent year that he had began to notice his own feelings, their friends had seen it for years yet kept their knowledge to themselves, allowing the pair to discover their feelings on their own. The only problem now was that although Lando had realised this, Sophie was unaware of it all, and instead stumbling in to the embrace of the kind best friend, she had slipped and fell in to the arms of the charming Monegasque, leaving her brunette friend alone with his emotions.

"Are you happy?" He whispers, trying to hide his sadness.

"I think." She grins widely. "I don't want to jinx it." She laughs, to which he joins in painfully.

"As long as your happy Sophie."