Amnesia Hearts - Lando Norris

𝙵𝚒𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

『 ❛ 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝙸'𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎. 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚠𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎? ❜ 』

Pʀᴇsᴇɴᴛ Tɪᴍᴇ ﹣ ₂₀₂₄

It is a different kind of heartbreak when there's no proper closer. It's almost like I'm grieving for a person that's still alive, yet I never a proper goodbye.

George's message is the first I notice, the first to stand out between the other notifications. My eyes read through the black letters, and my heart involuntarily jumps at the entirety of his text.

I've visited her. She seems good, though. She talked to me, and even asked about you at some point and then asked if you want to visit her at her parents' house after you land. She seemed a bit hesistant because she doesn't want to hurt you more than she already has done.

But in all honesty, I would let her run over my heart with a truck if it meant I could try and convince her one more time about the history she and I share.

I waited for the valet driver to bring me the rented McLaren; Zak had put in his help so I'd drive comfortably and, of course, still show off the team. It would be another hour before I'd be at Aurora's parents' home.

The entire drive, I feel my heart pound against my chest, as if anxiety tries to cripple inside the cracks and the remains of what's left in the shallow place where once was my heart.

Anxiety that keeps whispering, taunting, and pestering me about all the negative scenarios in the current conditions of who used to be my girlfriend– fiancée.

I feel like passing out when I knock on the familiar oak door, anxiety tripling over as my hands begin to shake and my breathing gets harder. My vision begins to blur, and behind my eyes, the tears start burning in request to be let out.

Yet, the moment I hear the click of the door, it seems like everything falls back into place. My hands are no longer shaking, my vision is no longer a burning blurry with teary eyes, and air fills my lungs up perfectly.

"Hi, Lando," Aurora's mother smiles at me before stepping aside to let me in. She closes the door behind her and hugs me tightly, "It's so good to see you again."

I hug her back, "Thank you," I whisper back. "It's so good to see you, too."

Elise slowly lets go of me, "Aurora is upstairs in her room. If you need anything, just tell me, okay?"

I nod and smile at her as I wordlessly thank you before slowly walking up the stairs. The door to Aurora's bedroom is slightly ajar, and I feel my heart rate quicken again. If this continues, I will end up with a heart attack at 24 years old.

Aurora sits on her bed; I see the photo album in front of her. Her fingers run over the photo on the page that's open in front of her before she turns over the page and repeats the action.

With a soft knock on her door, I let her knock I am here. She looks up at me and immediately smiles, making my heart skip a beat as I see the smile I fell in love with so purely again.

This woman was definitely going to be the death of me, one way or another.

"Hey, Lando," she says softly, her smile slightly falls as her eyes go back to the album in front of her. "Come on in."

"Hi," I say, swallowing away the urge to call her baby. "I'm glad to see you got my package."

She nods and gestures to me to take a seat next to her on the bed, "I was scared to open it at first."

I take a look at the page; it's a picture of us in front of my F1 car in Imola, 2022. My third-place trophy is in front of us; we're both smiling widely at the camera.

"What a shit show, huh?" I ask, softly chuckling as I look back at her.

Aurora laughs along softly. The picture on the next page is us in the airplane; we were on our way to Miami, Aurora, fully dressed in my McLaren merchandise.

"You looked so beautiful," I say, stroking my fingers next to the picture as if touching the picture would make it fade away, along with the lost memories.

"I know it's me in the picture, but it almost feels like I am going through a picture book of someone else," she turns over the page; it's a picture of the day she graduated with her degree. The sun was shining brightly; she wore a light blue summer dress, and I wore a blouse matching that color.

"I wish I could say I understood you," I say, and my eyes momentarily shift from the picture to her face. She does the same before she turns over another page, which is a picture of me and Lewis Hamilton on the podium of the 2023 Great Britain Grand Prix.

"You've aged," she says, her fingertips softly tracing the outlines of my jawline and brushing the hairs on my chin; her eyes trail the hairs above my lips.

"I know," I smile. "Surprisingly, I did."

Normally, her gestures would have made me smash my lips against hers, but right now, goosebumps spring up on the skin of my arms and neck, taking in the feeling of her fingers on my skin.

She goes back to the picture of Imola; you wouldn't say those were only taken a year apart, and Aurora chuckles, too.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," she then says, her eyes back to me. "Caitlin showed me the video of the burn scar. I... I trusted Valerie so blindly, and she must have hurt you in the past, too."

I want to shrug it off as if it is nothing, but I know that wouldn't be fair to the both of us, so I nod, "Valerie played a very good game, I must admit that. At first, she seemed to be the caring best friend, protective, too. Later, she would flirt with me when you weren't around; she would badmouth you and try to convince me she would be the better pick. And then she would make up lies, some of those lies causing us to argue."

Aurora softly nods, signaling she is listening and taking in the new information, so I continue: "I tried to show you her real colors, but she had been your best friend for so long, I didn't want to make you choose between her and me, all I knew back then was that she was doing everything to make us split."

"And then she even tried to sabotage our relationship even after our friendship ended," she states, and I nod.

"I am glad you at least know who Caitlin is and that she was able to show you the video."

"I am grateful for that, too."

In silence, we go through the remainder of the photobook. They aren't filled in a specific order, but mostly in the order Aurora seemed fitted, and that would be a random pick of printed photos.

"Lan," Aurora says, and I immediately turn to her as I hear my shortened name roll over her lips.

"Yeah?"

"Can we go and do something new? Something you haven't done either?"

I nod immediately, "Of course, we can."