Free Now- Lando Norris

13. Unexpected Heartbreak

Endlessly scrolling through social media had become something of a hobby for Lottie. She'd put her headphones in and lose hours scrolling through TikTok, passing by hundreds of videos that she wasn't even really paying attention to. It filled the time and broke up at least some of the monotony of laying in the hospital bed and waiting for the physios to arrive to torture her by trying to get her back on her feet each day.

Then the physios would arrive and drag her out of bed, slowly working on her ability to stand and walk well enough with the aid of crutches that they could send her home with Flo without worrying about her falling over. While Lottie knew it was a necessary evil to get herself out of the hospital, it was also incredibly painful and really not something that she looked forward to.

That day had been a particular struggle, and she'd been unable to bring herself to try and make any jokes to deflect from how painful and humiliating it was that she couldn't even stand unaided. She'd been in tears, unable to catch her breath to calm herself down, to the point that the physios had taken pity on her, helped her back into bed and said they'd come back and try again later.

That was how she'd found herself back in bed, scrolling aimlessly through TikTok as a distraction, and how she'd come across the video. She'd scrolled past it initially, her thumb swiping across the screen before her brain had caught up with the action. Then she'd scrolled back and paid a little more attention to the video, watching it closely.

Judging by the caption, it had been taken the night before, after the race in Miami. The video was grainy, taken in a dark club and the pulsing lights would have made it difficult to work out who the figures in the centre of the video were, had she not have known one of them so well that she could recognise him anywhere. The mop of curly hair, recently trimmed into a mullet, the white shirt with one button too many undone...

It wasn't so much that which had caught her attention though. She'd known he was going out to celebrate. He'd called her after the race, joking about Miami being his favourite place on earth after he'd managed to repeat his win from the previous year. He'd told her then that he was going out for the night with Carlos and a few friends.

"I wish you were here." He'd sighed down the phone.

She'd told him to stop being ridiculous and to go out and celebrate, that he'd earned it. But looking at the video, he'd found someone else to celebrate with. His hands planted firmly on the waist of a girl, who from the comments section Lottie had learned was a Portuguese model, his hands placed just a little too low for it to be friendly. The two of them danced, chests pressed together, the girls hands on his shoulders, one moving up to run through his hair as Lottie watched the clip over and over again. She watched as the girl leaned in to whisper something in his ear, the way his face lit up at her words.

It felt like a physical punch in the gut. It made her feel sick, but at the same time she just couldn't tear her eyes away from it. She watched the same clip over and over again, wondering what it was the girl had said to make him laugh like that. Then her mind had started to wander, wondering if that was why she hadn't heard from him since the night before. Was he still with her? Was that why he hadn't called?

It shouldn't hurt the way it did, shouldn't make her feel sick to her stomach. She was well aware of that. They were friends, she should be happy for him that he'd won and had a good night out celebrating. She should be happy for him that maybe he'd met someone, maybe this girl could be the one to help him through all of the stress of this season and get over what had happened and the disappointment of last year.

She knew all that deep down, but it didn't stop the fact that it hurt. He'd been by her side through so much, she'd come to depend on him. Every night they'd spent together, watching tv and playing cards to distract her while she'd been in hospital. The way he always called her just before and straight after every race, every morning and every evening. The way he'd check in on her, sometimes just sitting on the phone in silence to keep her company or rambling on about something pointless to distract her.