Oscar:
I walk into the MTC at the early hours of Monday morning, running on 6 hours of sleep and a hefty cup of coffee. My face still feels slightly puffy from waking up and I know my hair is less well-kempt than it usually is, but it's the least of my worries.
Cody, my media manager and friend, meets me at the cafeteria with a smoothie waiting for me on the table already.
"You all good mate? Rough weekend?" he playfully jokes
"Haha, you're so funny. Where's Lando? Thought we were both supposed to be here?"
"He came in about 10 minutes ago looking like he got fucked by a rainbow. His happiness during early mornings stresses me out, and I'm not even a driver" Cody releases a chuckle
"Tell me about it" I mumble as I sip my smoothie.
Cody has been on my media team since I was a reserve for Alpine, but we've only become close within the last year or so. He's seen me at my worst, especially after helping me deal with the whole Alpine situation, so I see him as one of my closest friends now.
"So you'll meet Lando's new media manager today, she'll do similar to me and just follow him around taking photos and managing his socials."
He continues talking but I stop listening after he says 'she'. A woman. I'm not sexist in any way, shape or form, I like seeing women getting involved in the sport, but you barely see women in the media department unless it's journalism, like Lizzie Mackintosh or Danika Patrick.
"You listening?" Cody waves his hands in front of my face
"Yeah, just tired." I respond
"I get it, early mornings are not your thing"
—
We continue talking a bit whilst I finish my drink, when two hands land on my shoulders causing me to nearly choke on the smoothie.
"Good morning lads" an overtly enthusiastic Lando says as he drops himself on the chair next to me.
I just smile at him, giving him a slight wave.
"Oh come on Oscar, it's a new day, a new lovely British morning. Not long til Bahrain, surely you're a little pumped?"
"Not when I nearly get killed by smoothie juice before my debut can start" I deadpan
He downward- smiles "sos. Anyways, I'm excited to meet my new media manager today. Zak says she's good. And that means something if he says it."
"Yeah I've seen her portfolio. She's more than good." Cody interrupts, "you're in good hands Lando."
Just then, Lando checks his watch and gets up to move. "Right boys, we better be off. Come on Oscar it's time to go and get ready to meet the mystery woman." He grins
I don't even know why I need to be here.
⋆⁺₊⋆𖦹⋆₊⁺⋆
We've been waiting in the hall for a while, just chatting about the upcoming season and our winter break whilst we wait for Zak to inevitably show up with the girl. Lando is in the middle of talking about somewhere he went on holiday with George when I hear voices from further down in the hallway. My ears attach themselves to the woman's prominent voice. My heart drops. Is that? No, it can't be. Why would she be here? Lando notices my change in mood and is about to question when he sees them enter. It's then I see her. The woman from Saturday at the club. That's her, 100%.
"You've got to be kidding me" I whisper under my breath
Lando just raises his eyebrows in a silent question, but turns to walk towards them when he sees them looking at us, so I follow suit.
Zak introduces Lando to the girl, who I now know as Eliana, and I just awkwardly stand to the side like a spare piece. Why did I need to be here again?
"And this, here, is Oscar. Our new addition and rookie for this season. You'll see him around but you'll mostly be with Lando, so unless these two are attached at the hip like Lando usually is with his teammates then you will just be with Lando" my boss chuckles across from me.
She doesn't seem to recognise me, so maybe I've got it wrong.
"Nice to meet you" I say, with the least amount of animosity I can muster, after I hear Zak excuse himself and leave the room. It's when her face falls that I know I was right. Fuck sake. I have to work with this girl for at least a year. I just hope she stays out of my way and focuses on Lando.
The silence is deafening as she realises who I am. What do I say? Can I even say anything?
"Am I missing something?" Lando questions, whipping his head from me to her, then whisper-ghasps "oh my god, did you shag?"
I turn to him and shout "NO!" at the same time Eliana does. The last thing I need is for Lando to think something is going on between us.
"Damn, alright alright. I was just asking." He says, chucking his hands up in defence.
"It was just a misunderstanding." I try and clear the situation
"Yeah, I bet it was." She scoffs under her breath
I look at her, "watch your tone."
"Or what?" She grins at me. Grins at me like she knows what gets under my skin and wants to play me till I snap. I feel my blood pressure rising. Who does she think she is? How fucking da-
"Okay okay, she works for me, so let's just leave it at that and I'll show her around a bit, okay?" Lando interjects
"Sure" I say at the same time Eliana says "yeah"
Lando leads her out of the hall, looking back at me with a question on his face. I know he's going to ask me about this later, and I don't know if I will be able to keep it from him because she just riles me up. So much. She hasn't even done anything particularly wrong, just her presence irks me. I'll have to keep my distance, I don't want to make Cody's job any more difficult than it already is.
⋆⁺₊⋆𖦹⋆₊⁺⋆
I have a few meetings with my team throughout the day, rarely seeing Lando or Eliana around. I only saw them once, when I was walking to meet Cody and was gonna get a drink, but I turned around and went the long way when I saw them sat by themselves in the cafeteria. I heard them laugh as I turned the corner and clenched my jaw. How is she already laughing with him? It's been like 3 hours. Whatever, it's not my problem.
⋆⁺₊⋆𖦹⋆₊⁺⋆
It's 5pm by the time I sit in my McLaren, courtesy of the job, and nearly 7pm by the time I enter my apartment. I lock the door and just stand there, absorbing the shit show of today. At least she's not on my team, she's with Lando. It could be worse...could it? I grumble and walk to my sofa, plopping down on it and looking at my phone. A message from lando on it.
Lando
She's nice eh?
I just huff and leave him on read. I can't be arsed to think about her again. I need to clear my mind before I start to see her nearly every weekend. On the bright side, my team showed me some improvements to the car ahead of Bahrain. It looks good. I have a bit more confidence now, but we won't know until we actually race, which is in a couple of days. Me and Lando fly out on Wednesday afternoon, which means I don't have to get up until at least 11am. God, I really hope the car is good.
⋆⁺₊⋆𖦹⋆₊⁺⋆
Word count: 1343
Authors note:
New character alert!! Can't wait to build up Cody and Eli's relationship and see how pissed off Oscar gets 🤭. Hope you enjoyed x
Bye bye, Freya xx
YOU ARE READING
Cropped out - an Oscar Piastri x OC fic
RomanceEliana is an aspiring photographer, having worked in low-level marketing and media jobs she finally found her place in f1. That is until she meets someone and ends up on the wrong foot. Their tension must snap at some point. The question is when.
