favourite / lando norris

thirty-one

If there's one thing I love about staying over at Max's place, it's the mornings. His flat's all windows, letting in the perfect amount of morning light. And the view...oh my god, the view. It's the perfect cityscape, the muffled sound of traffic and life rolling by a soft background noise that never fails to make me smile.

Like most mornings, I'm up before everyone else. I'm happy to find that Lando had the foresight to pack us both a bag and quickly gather up my shower things. I leave my phone on the charger, knowing the old thing needs all the juice it can get before what's sure to be a busy day at MTC. 

I take my time showering, relishing in the warm water and slow hair routine I've recently started back up after Lando'd complimented how nice my hair looks when I leave it curly. He's got no idea how much effort goes into it all, but I'm not about to complain. Honestly, I'd missed doing it.

I'm nursing my second cup of coffee when Lando finally stumbles into the kitchen all bleary eyed and sleepy. His usual morning confusion doesn't stop him from coming over to plant a kiss on the top of my head, though, and I hide my smile behind the cup in my hands. "Mmm," he sighs, pressing his face into my still damp hair, "you smell nice."

"Weirdo," I laugh, pushing him off and telling him to go shower before we're both late.

Max emerges from his room soon after, looking much more put together than Lando had when he'd walked into the kitchen. We sit in silence, the coffee I'd poured him going untouched until I mention the need for someone to drive Quincy's car back for me. "I'll be busy at MTC all day and it seems a bit inefficient for Lando and I to drive separately..." I'm being a busybody, I know, but I can't help it. Not after watching Max and Q interact these past few days.

"I can do it," Max tells me, already reaching for his coffee to pour it into a travel cup. "When's she need it back by? Is now a good time?"

I glance to the small digital clock built into the microwave. 7:42a.m. "Yeah, you could probably leave now and still catch her before her work gets crazy."

That's all it takes for Max to burst into action. He's dashing out of the kitchen as Lando comes in all dressed and ready, shouting his plans to drive the car back to Quincy's as he goes.

"Is that what I looked like?" Lando whispers rather loudly.

I shrug. "How am I supposed to know? I was just as clueless."

We all leave at the same time, Lando and I headed to MTC for a day of work and Max heading south toward mine and Quincy's, and for a moment, it feels like we're all just...normal people.

Normal people that have normal jobs and normal mornings and everything is normal.

Until I pull up Instagram toward the end of our drive and find myself face to face with a blind item post that makes my heart drop. I need to start paying more attention to these gossip pages.

It doesn't help that I'm mid-sentence. My sudden inability to speak is immediately noticed. "What is it?" Lando asks, briefly glancing over at me before returning his eyes to the road ahead.

"Nothing," I mumble, double-checking that I'm on my private account before continuing to read through the comments. "Just a weird post on my explore page."

My heart's going a mile a minute as I try to think through some kind of action plan. I'd planned on telling Lando about my confrontation with Trevor later today but what if he hears about our meeting before that? What if he sees the post and all of a sudden it seems like I'm just trying to clean up my mess? What if he believes it? What if he breaks up with me? What if what if what if what if – "I saw Trevor yesterday."