Deals with Daisy // LN4

40 ~ Silverstone Part One

Lando's POV

"Hey Elena," I say with a sad smile as I stop next to where she is chilling in the hospitality, just a little bit away from the rest of our friends - all of whom had surprised me with joke shirts to cheer me up. I knew it was her idea... it was so... her. She was one of my older friends, initially a friend of a racing friend. We met a little after Daisy and I fell out and I was drawn to her when she attended some races. I think it was natural, I was missing my friend and I saw someone who could fill the space a little. It wasn't a perfect fit but it was good and she was lovely - Russian, although you'd never know that she was from there until you saw her full name.

"Hey Lan," she smiles softly, her brown eyes so very different to Daisy's stormy grey but nice in their own way, warm as they looked up at me. "How are you doing?..." she asks tentatively and I shrug, no words coming to me as the lump in my throat reappears. It's not eased even when she reaches her hand out to touch my forearm comfortingly.

"Alright... Daisy and I called Max last night to check on him and he wasn't great but we'll all be alright," I tell her simply, checking my watch for timings, not wanting to be late to the garage. I needed to go sooner than I realised. I don't know how but I always caught myself smiling when I checked my watch now - the action always reminding me that I wished I could wear it on the inside of my wrist like Daisy did. I'd been told off by one of our media people when I'd done that a couple of weeks ago and so I was stuck doing it the regular way.

"I'm sure," she says, her eyes inviting and smile soft as I chuckle emptily, something about her presence lighting me up on the inside. Elena was comfy to be around and the flirting never hurt, it also wasn't complicated like it had been with Daisy... that being said. She wasn't Daisy. "Daisy looks worse for wear," she admits, looking behind me and I turn to follow her gaze, finding Daisy as she she stands in a simple black mini dress with her phone in hand making her hair look that bit more vibrant, sunglasses over her eyes, her outfit uncharacteristically low-key.

"She was drinking for the three of us," I admit, this time chuckling at the state of my best friend who was clearly struggling with the noise of my friends, occasionally flinching when someone shouted over the top of the boisterous group. "It's scary stuff," I say with a shrug, not wanting to talk about it anymore with Elena. As nice as she was... she just wasn't who I wanted to talk to about this stuff. "I got to get to the garage - I'll see you around later."

"Definitely - knock their socks off Norris," she jokes, her laugh coming freely and I nod, pulling my arm away from her hand as I nod my goodbye and go to tap Daisy on the shoulder, motioning for her to follow me.

She says her goodbyes to the group who have become as big fans of her as the rest of the world seems to have. We walk down the stairs in a comfortable silence that had been present since we woke up this morning, still in the exact same position that we'd fallen asleep last night.

I'd thought when I woke up first that it might be awkward when she realised what had happened and so I lay looking at her still sleeping peacefully in my arms for a little while longer. I'd not wanted to wake her up as I silenced the buzzing of my watch and moved just a little to get more comfortable. I wasn't even sure what I was thinking as I was looking at her, her breathing steady and lips slightly parted as I got to take her in, smiling as I counted the individual freckles on her face - 91 at the moment. Once I was done with that I just took in the rest of her, trying to match my breathing to hers as though that might help bring me some of the peace she was blissfully still experiencing. I succeeded, feeling the immediate panic that I'd woken with fading by the second the longer I just got to lay there.

I couldn't change what happened anywhere else but I could take care of Daisy and it was in fact fast becoming one of my favourite hobbies. Eventually my second alarm went off - this time one from my phone, blaring out loud and between that and my failed attempts to silence it, Daisy's eyes slowly open, eyelashes fluttering like something out of a movie