THE END | Oscar Piastri

4. theres no you and I

Oscars pov

good luck babe I'll be supporting you from home :)

It's the text I got from Elaine as I weave through the large amount of people in the McLaren hospitality, trying to catch up with my teammate who's effortlessly walking through the mass.

I mutter apologies to the people I accidentally bump a shoulder into or trip on. There's too many people in here for my liking.

I apologize to another man who's shoulder collided with mine. When I look back, I realize I've lost Lando in the sea of orange. I mentally curse myself for losing him, but I know where he's going. It's only a matter of how quickly I can get there to catch up with him.

When I break into the sunlight of the paddock, my eyes start searching the heaps of people in hopes of catching a glimpse of Lando.

When I do spot him, he isn't far from the motorhome, but now I have no desire to catch up with him. The people, or rather person, with him causes my breath to cease completely.

I dive into one of the seats close by, pulling out my phone to look busy. I didn't know she was here, and just the idea of talking to her again causes my stomach to turn over uncomfortably.

thank you I'll call you after the race❤️

I glance up again to see them still talking. Lando says something that makes her laugh, the sound carrying from where she stands all the way to my ears. It fills my head, almost making me dizzy. The sound travels down to my already churning stomach and adds flutters to it.

Please don't ever become a stranger who's laugh I could recognize anywhere.

The lyrics follow her laugh. They're her lyrics. Lyrics from a song written about me. Lyrics written while we were sitting on her living room floor together, making jokes that caused the both of us to double over.

Those lyrics become all too real to me right now.

I feel like I'm going to be sick as a train of memories hits me hard. They're all memories of us, ones I've forced myself to forget because they're too painful to remember.

I try to distract myself, trying to think of anything other than us. It proves to be useless as I begin to drown in the memories of us.

There is no us.

The night that caused that creeps up on me unexpectedly. God, I wish she asked me to stay, I wish she fought for us. If she even fought it for a moment, I wouldn't have been able to leave. I would've run back into her arms and stayed in her embrace forever.

looking forward to it now go kick some ass😘

The text from Elaine causes guilt to replace those memories.

How could I possibly think about someone else when I've already got an amazing girl all to myself? I'm disgusted with myself that I allowed it to happen.

I glance back towards the small group to see her and Logan waving Lando off as they walk away. I take it as my sign to catch up with him.

I notice his eyes following her as she walks off. "You know, she's got a boyfriend?" Lando turns to his head to me quickly, his eyes wide as he's been caught in the act.

She doesn't have a boyfriend, at least not publicly. I'm not sure why I've told him the lie, it came naturally to me, almost instinctively when I saw his longing gaze.

His face drops slightly, then recovers almost as quickly. "Oh." He's disappointed and trying to hide it. It's not working too well for him.

"Are they like... serious?" He asks, a eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. I laugh, bumping his shoulder with mine, but the pang of jealousy in my chest doesn't go unnoticed.

-★-

The race was a disaster. We didn't have the pace to keep up, and I was unable to focus the entire time. I blamed the latter on this being my first race in formula one.

"at least it wasn't 20th." Lando's joke causes an airy laugh to fall from my lips. "Yeah." I breathe out, deeply disappointed with my p15 finish.

I stare down at my shoes as the two of us walk through the paddock. I could've done better, I should've done better. I just got so caught up in my own head.

I don't care what those standings say you're still p1 to me. 🩷

Elaine's text causes a smile to spread over my lips, the warmth of happiness washing over me. I forget all about the shitty result, my thoughts are just on her.

love you lain, call you soon❤️

too immersed in my phone, I don't pay any attention to where I'm walking, and end up running into someone.

I grab onto their arms to steady them and myself. "Sorry I wasn't watching where I was going." My face heats up from embarrassment. The other person laughs lightly at my apology.

It's a laugh that causes my heart to sink completely. It causes my brain to go fuzzy, and my stomach to do cartwheels.

She looks up at me, small laughs still falling off her lips. "No you're-" you can see the exact moment she realizes it's me.

She turns a shade lighter and seems to stop breathing. "You're okay I wasn't looking either." She spits the words out all at once, they're hardly comprehensible but I manage to catch all of them. As she's speaking she's also trying her best to get away from me.

"Bye Lando!" She calls to the brunette I forgot was beside me. He'd watched the entire scene unfold and no doubt has questions.

"Sav wait!" Wait, what? I didn't know. I don't why I called after her, I didn't have anything I needed to say to her right now I only wanted to see her face again, to be able to study every little feature of hers again.

Even if she didn't look at me like she used to.

Before, her eyes were always soft, along with her smile. To be in her presence always felt like a warm hug.

But now, that's completely gone. Her eyes weren't soft at all, instead they held a hurt look in them. Her smile wasn't at all present, instead it was replaced by slightly parted lips, formed out of shock.

But I think the lack of that warm hug was the worst part. Instead, her presence felt empty. Not a hint of anything. None of that warmth, not even a hint of coolness. Just absolutely nothing.