second chances ~ ollie bearman (2)

part 39

a few hours later...

me and ollie were lying in bed together after getting back from a few drinks with ollie's family not too long ago.

"baby?" ollie mutters, whilst gently stroking my back.

"yeah?"

"are you alright? you didn't eat much earlier." he asks softly.

"i was just feeling sick, don't worry about it okay?" i reply, giving him a reassuring smile.

"are you sure? you know you can tell me if anything is wrong."

"ollie, i promise. i'm completely fine. i just wasn't feeling the best." i say, before feeling immediately guilty.

"okay." he says, before we both return to quiet.

the next day...

"how are you doing?" ollie asks, walking over to where i was sat waiting.

in just under 10 minutes, me, ollie and kimi were doing an interview about my crash with ted kravitz. honestly, i think kimi or ollie were more worried than me.

if you think about it, i was unconcious. they were the ones worrying about whether i would live or not.

"i'm fine, you?" i ask, giving him a reassuring smile.

"is kimi not here yet?" he asks, ignoring my question, so i presume the answer was no.

"you don't have to do this if you don't want." i say, taking his hand in mine.

"ang, i'm okay with it." he replies. it seems ollie is okay with everything...

"i'm here!" kimi says, running up to us.

"finally." me and ollie say at the same time.

not too long later, we were sat next to each other in a black room with microphones and lights surrounding us, with ted sat in front of us.

"and... go." one of the filming crew says and we introduce ourselves.

"how was it in the car until you passed out?"

"it was... i don't know how to explain it, that's the truth i guess. i don't know what i felt."

"what did it physically feel like? explain how it was to you."

"at first it was just your normal crash, well not normal because we shouldn't have even started that race in the first place. my car was in pieces even after that with the force i hit the wall. and i had no control over the car, my wrist couldn't have done anything even if the steering was still working. it was like i was blind. so yeah, the car was obviously sliding in the standing water. i was just hoping that it was over, i thought that was it. but then i don't really know what happened then, because i passed out as i was hit."

"for all three of you, what was going on before the race?"

"every driver was on edge, everyone was stressed so it's safe to say no-one was the nicest to each other. but when we were told the race would be started, i was just in disbelief." ollie replies, squeezing my hand. we weren't exactly the nicest to each other.

"i just think it should have never happened the race. it should have been cancelled. the fia should have had a bit more caution for our lives, yes our job is to put on a show for everyone watching but we should haven't to risk our lives." kimi says.

"i was talking to my teammate at the time, zac, about it. we were honestly just waiting for the announcement for the race to be cancelled. so when we were told it would be started the first thing he said was that they were trying to kill us. which yeah, it was far too dangerous and i don't think i should have risked my life for that. countless people have died now, when will they put our lives before the show?" i say.

"how did you find out it was angelina in the car?"

"i wasn't even told, i wasn't told who it was, what had happened or even where. i was just told the race was red flagged and to come back to the pit lane. and my first instinct was to look for angel, make sure she's okay then when i didn't see her car.... i just knew."

"they didn't tell us, so we would get back to the pit lane safely. but still, having to look for my sister to make sure she's okay, it's definitely not in the top happiest moments of my life. but we immediately realised where she was, and we went straight to watch the nearest big screen... not seeing her out of the car that was when i fully realised what had happened, that she was still in the car." kimi, and ollie say at the end.

"what was your immediate reaction after that?"

"we went straight to the hospital, in our soaked race suits, with jules angel's engineer."

"we got a lot of questionable looks, but at the time all i needed to know was that she was okay. we didn't find out what had happened for hours, and they felt like the longest hours of my life."

"and angel, when you woke up, what were the thoughts through your head?"

"would aston martin still want me? if i had nearly died, had someone died? was the other driver involved in the crash still alive? were they better or worse off than me? and, how grateful i was to have my boyfriend and my brother there with me. there wouldn't have been anyone else i would have wanted to see more than them."

"how was it when you were told you wouldn't return to the fia formula 2 season?"

"it was like, you spend months on something for it all to collapse near the end. it took a while to get over that, and i hated watching kimi and ollie racing whilst i was just stuck at home. but i think the thing i hated the most was being alone."

"so it was refreshing for when you came back to racing this year?"

"yes, definitely. it was the one main thing that kept me motivated during recovery from the injuries. i couldn't deal with the fact that i might not race again. but, here i am."

"and you made quite the comeback."

we answer a few more questions about my recovery journey, and then it was over. i think it went better than i thought it would. but, i couldn't help that as soon as i thought the cameras had stopped filming, pulling ollie into a tight hug. i couldn't imagine how hard it was for him to go through all of that. and kimi too, i could never forget my twin brother.

i only found out that some cameras had still been filming when they posted a video of us on instagram later that day as a little teaser for the interview.

|| authors note ~ hope you enjoy 🫶🏼