VIPER || Oscar Piastri

Chapter 34

[POV: Narrator]

Oscar arrived in Miami 37 minutes ahead of schedule; the first time he'd been early in a long time. Even though it wasn't him who had flown the plane, he was proud of himself, deducing that it was his short-cut he took on the way to the airport that caused him to be so early.

He was so proud in fact, that once he'd dropped off his things at his hotel and rang his mum to let her know he'd arrived, he headed straight over to the Miami Circuit, knowing who'd be there. He wanted to let Andi know that he was capable of being early, despite her countless claims that he was inevitably always late.

When he arrived, it wasn't Andi he found. Instead, Lando approached Oscar with nonchalance, greeting him "Hi mate, yeah, hi," whilst texting on his phone, before looking up suddenly, changing his entire demeanour into an interrogative one, "you're dating Andi?"

Oscar, taken aback, stammered, "I— what??"

"Andi is the 'girlfriend' you told me about?"

"You remember that?"

"Why?" Lando demanded, ignoring Oscar's question and replacing it with another.

"What do you mean why—"

Lando sighed. "Why her? Was our blind date girl really that bad? I didn't think she was that bad." Oscar shot him a look and tried to sidestep him, but Lando persisted, "I can tell Carlos to back off! Really!!" Oscar managed to slip past, a hint of annoyance on his face.

"Okay! I'm joking, I don't mean—" Lando sighed again, his tone shifting to a more serious one. "I just want you to be sure about her."

"I am." Oscar said, before Lando grabbed him by the shoulders and stopped him from walking away.

"Okay, but like—" He guided Oscar to the side of the room, away from a few people. "I know I sound like a total dick right now, and I love Andi, I really do, like she's one of my closest friends, but—" He sighed once more.

"But what?"

"You don't know know her," Lando said. Oscar's expression became lost. "She's not—" he hesitated, then continued, "During the summer, she— I mean, she's never been the dating type, but I always thought that was because she was obsessed with Charles, but apparently that was wrong," Lando mumbled, recalling their earlier conversation. Oscar pretended that Lando being spot on with his judgement in Andi's obsession hadn't made him a little amused.

Lando continued, "And during the summer, she switched completely from being this non-dater to some sort of boy-fiend! I mean, I always wanted her to get over her 'thing' or whatever for Charles, if she ever even had one, and actually date people for real! But... not in the way she actually went about doing it... And don't get me wrong! I loved summer Andi! But, just—" Lando paused, searching for the right words. "I don't know if she's changed. I don't know if the summer ever really left her."

Lando's concern lingered in the air as he glanced at Oscar, hoping his words hadn't unsettled him too much. He really was trying to look out for him, even if talking in such a critical way about Andi made him uneasy. He was a little worried that she could hear him; that she'd attached a wire to Oscar somehow and was listening in to everything he was saying about her. — And that was a possibility that was completely plausible to him, since he hadn't completely rejected his 'Ferrari sabotage' theory yet.