english love affair | lando norris

4

4

Tuesday, 2nd April, 11:35 am

The plane finally lifts off, as we head out of Melbourne and towards Japan for the next Grand Prix of the season. We had organised everything of every race weekend ahead of us, making sure the house Aurora and I shared, was looked after during our time away, which would be a decent amount of time since we weren't coming back until after Spa, maybe not until after Singapore for Sam's AFL final (manifesting).

All of us, Aurora, Oscar, Lily and I are on the jet together, Aurora and I sat together trying to work out how to play some form of card game that Aurora's dad had taught her as a kid, trying to recall the rules from the back of her mind. Safe to say we were struggling a LOT. After the whole, well, thing, that happened just days earlier, Lando and I had not talked, but gossip pages were definitely talking.

Sam had found a post on Instagram and this had sent my feelings into a spin. Aurora had tried convincing me it was all okay, and trying to comfort me after the hate comments started rolling in. I had found myself in this situation before, when gossip accounts had caught onto the brief fling Jack and I had, linking me into drama and the chaos of Formula 1 brought only hate coming my way. I dealt with it and had moved on, but the anxiety I felt during that time made it harder to go to Grand Prix's, but this time has to be different, I reminded myself. 

Oscar walked over to us struggling, pointing out a few cards we could both place.

"No, Oscar that doesn't... oh, yeah... I see, thanks," Aurora said,

"I know what I'm doing sometimes," he replies,

"Yeah, key word there Oscar is sometimes," I say, earning a teasing glare from Oscar, and I laugh at his attempt to be angry at me.

"Can we chat?" He asks, staring deep into my soul, my brows itching together at the sudden switch in mood.

I nod, and Aurora quickly smiles at me before walking over to Oscar's vacant seat, and him taking hers.

"What's up, Osc?" I ask while stacking up the cards on the table between us.

"You seem off, and I wanted to check in with you," he starts, "I don't know, you were off at the paddock in Melbourne, and I thought that had something to do with Jack, but it hasn't left. Has something happened?"

My shoulders relaxed, I didn't realise how tense they had been.

"Osc, I really don't know. It was Jack, but then it wasn't. Nothing really made me anxious, but I had an anxiety attack the other day, I guess just built up stress... but it's okay, me coming along won't make anything worse, being with you and Rors helps me cope." I breathe out, my words coming out faster than anticipated.

I fiddle with the hair tie around my wrist, waiting for him to say something.

"Oh Mal, when did that happen?" His eyes soften, flickering between my eyes and the hair tie in my hands.

"After the footy, I wanted to call you, or literally anyone else but I called Lando." I look up, awaiting Oscar to reply.

"You called... Lando? Did he help, at least?" He asks, almost tip-toeing around the topic.