Cropped out - an Oscar Piastri x OC fic

Chapter 15- jpg

Eliana:
I tap my lanyard onto the scanner at the barriers to the paddock, camera around my neck, as I follow Lando under the heavy rays of the Australian sun. He looks at home here, with people in a sea of orange behind barriers screaming his name. He walks over to them, signing some caps and taking some pictures with fans, and I encase the moment for eternity with my camera. We agreed the other day to meet at the track entrance, and I stood there, McLaren cap on my head to protect from the onslaught of heat, as I waited for him to show up (which ended up being about 10 minutes late.)

When he moves away from the fans and makes his way further towards the paddock, he waves at them and a scream goes up that I'm sure would burst my ears if I was closer. I look at lando, brows raised in shock, and he just laughs.

"I'm an honorary Aussie."

"Are you now?" I ask, a smirk on my face as we walk past lots of people who are too busy to really notice us.

"Yep. So this is technically my home race. One I wish to not do shit at, so make sure you get some good pictures of me, yeah?"

"Oh, always." I laugh, and he just nudges my arm playfully.

"Oh, by the way, Oscar's parents are coming to the race." The way he says it so casually makes my breath halt, but I don't falter my steps. "They want to meet you or something, I said I'd introduce you."

"Oh. Yeah, okay." I'm so confused that I nearly walk past the garage before Lando practically grabs my arm and swings me to the side so that I'm walking in the right direction.

"Is that not a good idea?" He asks, a small smile on his face. Dickhead.

"No, it's perfectly fine." I muster a smile. "Any reason they want to meet me, of all people?"

"I'm basically their son now, so they wanted to meet you because I was talking about you." Oh, okay. That's... normal I guess. "And also something about seeing you on Oscar's phone."

I stop in my tracks, "what?"

Lando stops when he realises I'm not next to him, and turns around "I don't know, said you were pretty or something."

I swallow then walk back to Lando again, "who did?"

"Huh?"

"Who said that I was... pretty?" I hesitantly say.

He just pats my shoulder,a smile brightening his face "I guess you can ask them."

I chuck a pen at him, "you're useless."

"Oi. Not at my home race." He says, hands on hips. "And besides, I thought you didn't like Oscar?"

"I don't."

"Yeah, sure looks like you don't." He says,
eyebrows raised. "You are both the same."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I say, a slight frown on my lips, but he just starts walking away. I stay there in shock, then move to follow him, "Lando?! What does that mean?"

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I've followed lando around all day, and all day he refused to bring up what he said earlier, and it's driving me insane. It's gotten under my skin and is multiplying like a virus, spreading throughout my body and leaving me in discomfort . But I need to be rid of it, since I'm going to be in the proximity of both Oscar and Lando, as they're doing some filming for the McLaren YouTube channel.

I take Lando to the McLaren hospitality and we go upstairs to where they've set up for filming, introducing ourselves to everyone we meet. I move off to the side and am so deep in thought that I don't even notice Oscar and Cody walking in, don't notice Oscar glancing at me as he moves to sit down.