Stay With Me- Lando Norris

40. Your heart was glass, I dropped it

Oscar had very quickly realised on arriving at the club that Lily had not been wrong when she said Lando was going to get blackout drunk.

The club was packed with personnel from all the teams. It was the summer break after this race and everyone was more than ready to let their hair down and relax after a busy few months.

It had meant it wasn't too difficult for Lando to recruit some of the others into drinking far too many shots with him.

Max had shot Oscar a questioning look as they both stood watching Lando sink shots so quickly it might've been easier for him to just drink from the bottle. Oscar just shook his head. He didn't even know where to start on explaining that the one.

He'd started chatting to Carlos, who was probably the most sober of the bunch, and having taken his eyes off Lando for about two seconds, Oscar suddenly realised he'd lost him.

"Shit." He interrupted Carlos midway through explaining about his planned golf trip.

"What's wrong?" Carlos asked.

"Can you see Lando?" Oscar asked, eyes scanning the crowd in a panic.

Carlos waved a hand dismissively. "I'm sure he's fine, I've seen him way worse."

"It's not..." Oscar searched for the words, maybe he should just tell Carlos?

He didn't get a chance to get any further on his explanation. There was a big commotion over by the bar and somehow even over the pounding music both Oscar and Carlos realised the raised voice they could hear belonged to Lando.

Lando had been making his way back to the bar for another round of shots, because it seemed that no amount of alcohol would have the desired effect that night, when he'd collided with someone.

He'd been about to apologise when he looked up and realised who he'd just walked into.

"No hard feelings mate." Tom clapped him on the shoulder, turning back to the conversation he'd been having.

"No hard feelings?" Lando muttered, voice increasing in volume as he shook his head in disbelief. "No fucking hard feelings?! What the actual fuck are you doing here?!"

"Calm down mate, I think you might've had a bit too much to drink." One of the other Red Bull mechanics chimed in.

"Don't you tell me to calm down." Lando bit back. "Did he tell you, what he did? How are you even standing here?!"

"Aimee didn't tell you? I went back to my job at Red Bull." Tom answered with a shrug. "She's here right? This weekend. I figured she'd gone running back to tell you when I saw her."

In his inebriated state it took Lando's brain a little while to catch up to the meaning behind Tom's words.

"Oh... she didn't tell you... that's awkward." Tom smirked. "Trouble in paradise, Norris?"

It was like Lando's fist had taken on a mind of it own. It connected with Tom's face with an almighty crack before he could even process what was happening. Tom flew back at him, Lando's glass smashing on the floor as he dropped it in an attempt to try and defend himself.

He staggered back as Tom hit him square in the face, launching himself at the man for another swing when he was stopped in his tracks.

"Get off me!" Lando tried to fight his way free of the strong grip Carlos and Oscar had on him.

A couple of the people who had been talking Tom had grabbed hold of him in a similar fashion.

"I think we'd better go." Oscar said quietly, looking up and realising exactly who Lando had been fighting with. What on earth was Tom doing there? He supposed they were just lucky Lando hadn't actually tried to kill him given the circumstances.

Lando was still trying to fight them as Oscar and Carlos dragged him back up the road to the hotel. He only stopped as they rounded the last corner on to the street of the hotel. Then the constant swearing and pleas for them to let go of him so he could go back and finish what he had started had quickly turned to tears.

Oscar and Carlos had both looked at each other nervously, neither of them knowing what to say.

"You're going to have to catch me up." Carlos said eventually, sitting down on the bench they'd deposited Lando on. "Because clearly I'm missing something."

Oscar waited a moment, but Lando made no attempt to speak and fill the Spaniard in. So Oscar gave Carlos the quickest explanation he could, thankful that Carlos was sober enough that he could follow along fairly easily.

"You muppet." Carlos sighed affectionately, patting Lando on the shoulder. "Why didn't you say?" It was at least reassuring that there was a reason for what had just happened and Lando hadn't completely lost his mind.

"I can't believe she just left." Lando groaned. "And now he's here? It's got to be him, hasn't it?"

He was regretting all the shots now as his brain struggled to keep up with the new information. It couldn't be a coincidence that Tom was back and Aimee had vanished, could it?

"I don't know mate." Oscar sighed. "I had no idea he was back either."

"I need to-" Lando went to stand up.

"You're not going anywhere until you're sober and I know you're not going to start another fight." Carlos said, pushing Lando back into his seat. It wasn't a difficult task, Lando was so drunk his balance had all but vanished.

They sat there for a moment in silence, all three of them lost in their own thoughts, before Oscar spoke again.

"Come on, let's go back to the hotel. Lily's got a first aid kit. We can patch your face up and then we'll call Max in the morning and see what he can find out." Oscar suggested.

Carlos nodded in agreement. "I'm going to Scotland on a golf trip tomorrow. I think you should come with me."

"I don't need a babysitter." Lando muttered.

"You just started a bar fight." Carlos reminded him. "And it'll do you good, otherwise you're going to go and sulk the whole summer break."

"Why don't we argue about this in the morning when he's sober?" Oscar proposed.

"Fine." Lando huffed, getting to his feet.

Oscar and Carlos both grabbed him at the same time as he almost stacked it into the pavement. The pair of them rolled their eyes, looping an arm each of Lando's over their shoulder to hold him upright as they set off towards the hotel.