In between ~ Oscar Piastri

🏎️CHAPTER SEVENTEEN🏎️

December 18th 2016:

"Happy birthday," James says to Althea as she walks downstairs into the sitting room. "Thank you, dad." The girl smiles, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "What's wrong?" James asks. "It doesn't feel right. I mean, Amelie is still in Italy, doing god knows what. And my boyfriend is practically on the other side of the world. Better yet, I woke up at twelve so it's nine for him, he's probably asleep already." The girl huffs sitting on the sofa.

"How do you know?" James watches the TV. "Dad, it's Oscar. He's always sleeping. And he was in Abu Dhabi for his race yesterday, he's probably got home after the thirteen-hour flight and fell asleep straight away." The girl yawns. "We'll call him, you never know, he might be waiting for you to call him," James says with a smile. "But what if I call him and wake him up?" Althea closes her eyes.

"He wouldn't mind." James takes his daughter's phone and puts her password in. "How do you know my password mr?" Althea points at him. "Seriously? It's the eighteen twelve fifteen, it's not that hard to guess." James laughs handing Althea her phone back with Oscar's number. "If I wake him up and he's annoyed, that's on you." She points at James, as she clicks on his name and it starts to ring.

Althea brings it up to her ear and waits to hear the ringer. But as soon as she does, she hears a phone ringing behind her. "It isn't." She throws her phone across the room as she looks at her dad. "And you put a hole in the wall." James nods. Althea stands up and looks behind her to see Oscar standing there with a smile. "Pastry Boy!" She shouts, as she jumps over the sofa and runs into his arms.

"Hey, Alan." He rests his head on her head. "How are you here?" She looks up at him. "There's something called a plane." The boy says like it's obvious. "Yeah, I'm not stupid, but shouldn't you be in Australia, with your parents as it's literally Christmas in a week?" Althea says wrapping her arms around him again. "I couldn't miss your birthday, especially when none of us are doing anything. And it's our one year, stupid." He laughs.

"Your phone broke Althea," James tells his daughter as he picks her phone up. "Shit." She sighs, looking at the man. "Shit indeed." He shakes his head. "Can you go and get it fixed?" Althea wonders. "Let's open your presents first," Sarah says walking in the living room. "Where did you go?" Althea asks her mum. "I picked Oscar up from the airport." Sarah nods. "Got your personal chauffeurs already." The now sixteen-year-old laughs at her boyfriend.

"I mean they were the ones who asked if I wanted to come here." Oscar shrugs. "Awe, thanks, mum and dad." Althea smiles as she sits on the floor next to her presents. "I mean, you did say that this birthday would've been a depressing one." James sits on the sofa. "So we had to change that." Sarah sits next to her husband. "Which one should I open first?" Althea looks at Oscar, as he sits next to her on the floor.

"That one." He points to one of the presents. "No, you need to pick rather the smallest one or the biggest one." Althea looks at him. "Just open any one." He shrugs. "That's really not how it works, Pastry Boy. Which one of these?" She asks holding up the biggest present and the smallest present. "Erm, that one." He smiles pointing to the smallest one. "Okay, this is from you." She looks at him.

"What is it?" She asks. "Open it and you'll find out." He laughs. "Okay, I guess I'll open it." She shakes her head, opening the present. "Oh my god!" The girl shouts, wrapping her arms around Oscar. "What is it?" James wonders. "It's tickets to go and see Little Mix!" Althea shouts, pulling the two tickets out. "When?" Sarah asks. "It's for the third of January." Althea smiles, putting the tickets to the side.

"Wait! Does that mean you're coming back literally in like two and a half weeks?" Althea looks at him. "So I'm here till the twenty-second, then I'll be back in Australia. And then I will come back to England on the first of January." Oscar tells her. "I like how I'm going to spend so much time with you." Althea smiles, as she picks up the second smallest present. "Is this actually from Amelie or did you just buy something and say it was from her?" The driver looks up at her parents.