VIPER || Oscar Piastri

Chapter 42

[POV:Narrator]

One thing about the whole Charles-not-being-with-Andi-in-Monaco situation that Andi found rather comforting was that without him, people took little to no interest in her. With him being the so-called 'Prince of Monaco' and all, anyone who saw Charles would normally gawk for a few seconds, whisper to their friends for another few and then finally approach him to ask for a photo.

Andi was normally the one who took the photo.

It was always the very same; girls would flirt, flash their best smiles and attempt small-talk as Andi stood idly by waiting for Charles to politely exit the conversation. She would never admit it of course, but it made her jealous. Pointless jealously, she'd think to herself, knowing that Charles (probably, she really really hopes) had no interest in any of the random women who came up to him.

But today, there was practically none of that; There wasn't nearly as much attention being directed in her general direction as there would've been if Charles had been there.

However, Andi would be much more comforted by that fact if it was not the very thing she needed. Desperately. In this specific situation, attention was what Andi needed more than anything.

As she and her — pretty much forced — companion wandered around the streets of Monaco, they found that nobody really caught on to the fact that it was them, that they were there, and that they were, in fact, holding hands the entire time.

Oscar thought that it was fine.
Andi did not.

Naturally therefore, if people didn't notice them, she'd make them notice.

"Why are you doing this again?" Oscar asked politely, querying for the fifth time as to why Andi was trying to get 'the right angle' on a very simple picture of the two of them sharing an ice cream.

"Because people love a good soft launch?" She answered as if he should've known.

"Oh, obviously," he shrugged, sarcasm evident in his tone. Andi payed him no mind and continued in her endeavour. After a while, the ice cream began melting as she was taking so long, and poor Oscar had been asking for three minutes if he could finally eat it.

"There! See? Subtle. Not too much," Andi beamed, showing the picture she'd taken to Oscar. All it showed was the ice cream on the wooden bench they were sat on that overlooked the beach — a double tub of cookie dough and chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and a flake — with two spoons in it, angled so that it was obvious two people were planning on eating it.
... Not that Oscar even expected he would get to eat it at this point.

He looked at Andi, worried.

"Gosh," she said, holding her hand to her heart. She then proceeded to wipe a phantom tear from her cheek. "I truly am a genius."

Deciding not to ruin her triumph, though he had absolutely no clue what she'd achieved, Oscar merely chuckled and began digging into the ice cream. Finally.

Meanwhile, Andi went to post the photo to her Instagram story. "Wait," she hesitated, "Do I even follow you?"

"No, you don't," Oscar answered promptly, not even looking away from the ice cream to do so.

"You've checked?"

This time he was silent.

Surprised and doubtful, Andi began to search for Oscar's account. I'm sure he's wrong, she thought, I definitely follow him. "Okay! got it—" Andi paused. "What... is this?" Suddenly, whatever was on her screen had tickled her, causing her to burst into laughter right there and then.

"What?" Oscar asked, calmly confused at first. He continued to eat the ice cream.

Once Andi showed him what she'd found he no longer acted so calmly.

"Where'd you get that?!" He exclaimed, reaching for the girl's phone through instinct. When she dodged him, Oscar placed the ice cream tub down on the bench and tried again, failing. Every time Andi scrolled, she'd laugh even harder, giving Oscar even more of a reason to try and get the phone from her.

"You look—" she gasped for air, exasperated, "adorable!" she showed him her phone again; another photo of Oscar zoomed in on its screen. A 'meme' account is what she'd found, as was stifling through every last post.

When he'd finally given up, Oscar protested. "Fine!" he said, "I can do the same thing!"

"Hey," Andi's face dropped, "wait, no—" She went to grab his phone; to stop him from doing what he was about to do. He dodged her just as she had done earlier, and Andi grabbed hold of his arm instead. Andi scratched her neck with her free arm, knowing it was too late — he'd already gone and done it.

Seconds went by of nothing but quiet. Andi sighed, knowing he'd seen the articles written about her, involving the two of them.

"They'll die down," she told him. "They will, I know they will," she repeated when he didn't look convinced.

Due to their current proximity, when Andi finally faced the boy whose arm she'd been holding the whole time, she could see clearly that he was troubled by what he'd seen and read. "You don't believe these do you?" he asked, tone pointed.

She scoffed, "No! Are you daft?" and let go of his arm.

When Andi looked back at him, he still looked the same; Troubled.

"Seriously, I don't care. They can say what they want about me, doesn't make any of it true."

"Well," Oscar said, finally a spark of hope in his voice. He smiled, "Surely, then, we should just... prove them wrong?"

Andi let the words ring in the air for a moment. Then she smiled, too. "Yeah," she nodded, "and it starts... with an Instagram post!"

Oscar rolled his eyes, still not understanding the significance of the ice cream picture. But, nonetheless, as Andi went to excitedly post the photo — trying her best to come up with a caption that wasn't too revealing but still left something afloat for people to speculate — Oscar couldn't help but feel like the ten minutes he spent waiting to eat the ice cream were worth it.

"Done!" She cheesed, clapping her hands together in celebration. "Now we wai—"

Just as Andi was about to finish her sentence, her phone rang. She looked up at Oscar before she answered it; weary.

"Yes dad?" She held her phone to one ear and placed her palm over her other one to hear better.

"You're with Oscar right now?"

Andi shot Oscar a look. It wasn't a suspicious, unsure look — more like a shocked yet ecstatic one. He furrowed his eyebrows as if to ask what was wrong. All she could do was smile widely at him and answer her dad: "Yes, why—"

"Great! I'll see you both later, then. Tell Oscar he can have the main guest bedroom. Don't be out too late; us three have got an early start tomorrow. Oh, and don't let him carry his own luggage to his room — you do it."

Then he hung up.

For a second, Andi's face of joy faded as she replayed her dad's words in her head. Then, choosing to ignore them for the time being, she reached both of her hands out and placed them on Oscar's shoulders. "It worked!" She exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement. "He got the hint; I did it right!"

Oscar, barely understanding what she meant, supported her anyway.

"Oh, and also, by the way, just to let you know, you have to stay at my house," Andi quickly added as quietly as she could before returning to her celebratory state.

"I have to— what?!"

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