RECKLESS | Lando Norris

9. 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥

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She should be in that car, driving it to the limits of each corner. She shouldn't be here, sitting on her living room sofa with an ice pack pressed to her side and a brace on her elbow, watching someone else drive her car through Friday practice.

Crawford was doing fine. Her problem wasn't with him, it was with Brina who did everything possible to make sure Cassie wouldn't get on a plane to Bahrain. Or try to work out—which the doctor forbid for the time being. Or do anything but sit around. She went so far as to temporarily move into her guest bedroom so she would know all of Cassie's moves.

Not that Mike or Chris or anyone would even think about letting her drive a car with a few bruised ribs, but being here in her flat and not at the track supporting her team made her feel like a shitty teammate.

"Are you just going to give me the silent treatment forever?" Brina asked impatiently, sitting next to her on the sofa. Cassie gave no answer, staring right ahead at the television, unblinking.

"Come on, Cassie! I know-" She stopped her sentence short at the creak of the opening front door.

It was Tristan, coming back from the gym, sweat dripping down his face and his muscle shirt drenched in it. "Hey," Cassie chirped. Tristan nodded in response.

Picking up a folded towel from the kitchen counter, he wiped his face with it and threw it in a bunch back onto the counter.

Cassie cringed. She just cleaned those counters.

"I'm going to shower. Make me a protein shake?" He spoke it as a request, but she knew it was more of a command. Brina glared burning holes into Tristan's back.

Hopping up from the sofa, she first went to throw the dirty hand towel into the laundry room. When she went to clean the counter again, she winced. Out of habit, she'd used her right hand to do the cleaning, which was the very arm that held her injured elbow and the same side of her body where she'd bruised her ribs.

Brina sat up intently, ready to jump if she showed any more signs of discomfort or pain. However, Cassie switched to cleaning with her left hand and no longer felt sharp pains, only the whispers of it.

Once she heard the running of the shower cease, she blended up his shake so it was fresh, just how she knew he liked it.

He came out of the bathroom in just a pair of shorts, his hair dripping wet all over the floor which would surely leave wet spots if she didn't wipe them away. Handing him the shake, she looked over his lack of clothing.

She smiled at him. "Tris please put a shirt on, we have a guest." She requested, sickly sweet. Taking a gulp of his shake, he shrugged his shoulders. "It's my apartment."

With a kiss to her cheek, he left Cassie and Brina alone, probably to go play video games. After wiping up the dots of water on the hardwood floor, Cassie rejoined Brina on the sofa, catching her sympathetic looks but choosing to ignore them.

"Crawford is doing decent, yeah?" Cassie quipped. Brina's eyebrows lifted. It was first time she'd spoken to Brina in three days. "I was beginning to believe I wasn't actually here." She joked.

Cassie looked at her through the corner of her eye. Her face showed shock, but a layer of sympathy hid underneath.

"Stop that." Cassie said, eyes to the screen.

Brina was genuinely confused. "Stop what?"

"That sympathetic look. There's nothing to pity me over."

"I don't pity you. I only wish you had a man who actually cared about you."

Cassie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "You all think that. You all tell me he's such a bad person, that he's cheating on me, that-"