CALL YOUR MOM | ln4

fourteen.

{ jonesy }

"Holy shit!"

I couldn't stop the words from leaving my mouth as Lando crossed the finish line in P2. Sure, it's only the fifth race of the season, but this was his first P2 finish so far. The Mclaren car is already seeming 10x better than it was last year.

Like he does every time he gets a podium, Lando jogs over to the mechanics and hugs all of them. I'm not expecting another hug, even though I want one, but I still purposely positioned myself nearby just in case.

His face lit up when he turned toward me. It was a quick hug, but still a hug. "Come to my driver's room after." Lando whispered in my ear before letting go and walking off to get weighed.

Interesting.

I took a few pictures and then walked off. It'll probably be about an hour before he makes it back, so maybe the media pen could be a good place to waste my time.

Before I could even fully step into the media pen, a hand gripped my bicep and pulled me off to the side. I nearly screamed at the shock of it all.

"What did he say to you?" The familiar Spanish accent calmed my nerves.

I turned to face Carlos, his voice quiet. Obviously, he didn't want anyone else to hear us, otherwise he probably would've just spoken English. "Lando?" He nodded. "He just told me to come see him after the race, that's all."

"Be careful, Mija."

"You told me that in Japan, what do you mean?" I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest and probably looking like a child who just got told she couldn't have more dessert.

He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, "I know the two of you are friends, but if you keep doing shit like that in front of the cameras people will make it what it's not."

My heart tugged, Carlos was becoming an older brother to me like Charles already was. It almost was as though Marshall sent me two instead of the one I lost.

I didn't know what to say, because, unfortunately, Carlos was right. I didn't want him to be, but he was.

So, I just nodded instead.

When I agreed, he let me go, lovingly rubbing my arm before taking off in the other direction. I, on the other hand, went to look for Oscar. He'd finished 8th today. Not the best, but not the worst.

I took a few candids and followed him around as he conducted his interviews. I didn't want Mclaren to have any reason to say that I don't take enough pictures.

Upon noticing me, Oscar laughed, clearly finding my dedication to taking pictures of them funny. Once his interviews were done, he walked over to me, casually throwing an arm over my shoulders leading me to hook an arm around his waist. I laughed this time, dropping my head onto his shoulder as we walked, trying my best to ignore how sweaty he was.

"Proud of you regardless, Osc."

He pulled me in tighter, "4 more points than other people have."

"Exactly!" I smiled up at him.

We meandered back to the Mclaren garage together, Oscar not even blinking an eye when I continued with him down the hall to their rooms and disappeared inside of Lando's. It wasn't a secret that we were friends, thankfully, so no one really cared that I was down here.

I sat down on his couch, setting my camera off to the side and getting comfortable. Who knows how much longer I'll be waiting in here? If I had remembered to bring my laptop to the track today I'd be editing pictures, but no, somehow I left it in the hotel room. So, tiktok it was until the little hooligan returned.