VIPER || Oscar Piastri

Chapter 53

[POV: Narrator]

Oscar Piastri was sat on the sofa of his and Andi's hotel room, phone in hand, pretending to be preoccupied by it and not the increasingly bizarre ritual that was happening right in front of him.

Andi has been pacing for about twenty minutes now.

He can hear it—back and forth, back and forth—walking in, lingering for about ten seconds, and then walking right back out.

She's either trying to reach a step count goal... or... she's plotting something... I don't know what she's doing.

I don't think she knows what she's doing.

As Oscar expected, she eventually appeared again, hovering in the doorway. She stayed there for longer this time, biting her nails. He was watching her out of the corner of his eye when she finally spoke.

"Oscar?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you need a lift to the airport tonight? I can—"

"It's all good, I'm calling a taxi."

"Cool."

And then— she was gone again. He stared at the blank TV screen for a second, then flicked his gaze toward the bedroom door. It wasn't fully shut, just left ajar. A moment later, Andi was back.

"So you're gone for... how long?"

"Two weeks."

"Cool. Cool."

When she moved to leave again, Oscar interjected, trying to save her a few steps.

"That's okay, right?"

She halted. "What? Yeah! Duh. I was planning on going back home too, anyway. Canada's cold."

"...Cool."

The silence stretched before she nodded, and then disappeared once more.

She continued to ping-pong in and out of the bedroom and grill Piastri with questions that he — personally — deemed pointless until around midday. Yet, he didn't mind answering them all anyway. Maybe there was a point to all this.

'What're you doing today?'
'Nothing? That's boring.'
'Why's the mini fridge so empty?'
'Should I order food?'
'Isn't room service normally free?'
'Do you think I should? Okay I will.'
'You don't want anything? Now I can't have anything either!'
'Yes, I'm serious!'
'You're really not doing anything all day?'

After a few unnecessary back-and-forth's, a few pointed glares, and a lot of 'Cool's, Andi finally sat down on the couch, having exhausted herself from all the pacing. The pair eventually agreed that since neither of them had any sort of plans, they'd stay in. Andi suggested that they watch something; a new movie, maybe. She'd suddenly remembered that one had just come out— and that it was supposed to be really, really good. Oscar agreed, thinking it'd be some same-old action flick or a cheesy rom-com, until Andi let it slip that it was a horror film.

He refused to watch it.

In a huff, Andi left the room to 'get comfy,' as she put it. Oscar figured she'd have done that a while ago, if not for all the walking in-and-out, that'd taken up the entire morning.

And, just when he'd thought Andi was done with all her questions, he heard another one come his way.

"Oscar?"

"Hm?"

He must not have been loud enough, as Andi raised her voice significantly the second time round.