VIPER || Oscar Piastri

Chapter 128

[POV: Narrator]

Okay. So... I know it may seem like I went a bit rogue back there.

Don't let this slight detour/moment of weakness/show of emotion fool you.

I'm still a genius.

Because yes, if we were talking about this in the context of the original three-phase-plan, it is unlikely that I could be considered one, I understand. That's fine. I'd probably be considered the opposite.

But!

Since the three-phase-plan is null and void on a technicality, I am one.

A genius, that is.

Despite her best efforts to seem composed, level-headed and calm, Andreanna Saunterre had been in this strange sort of flow state all week.

Not the good kind of flow state, the athlete kind, where everything clicks and you're untouchable. No. This was the humiliating version, the one where her brain refused to run on anything except one single track, and that track was Oscar. Every time she tried to think about anything, like what she wanted for breakfast, it all looped back. Again and again and again.

It wasn't a flattering thing to admit that she had feelings for Oscar. Let alone big, huge, massive, blaring feelings. It didn't exactly fit her carefully cultivated, competent, untouchable, terrifying-on-purpose, persona. It was messy. And now she was compromised.

It'd been a few days and a plane ride since it'd happened, and she hadn't mentioned it. To anyone.

So, as she stood watching Oscar talking with one of his engineers, with his arms crossed over his torso and his head tilted slightly as he listened, she made sure to stand at a safe, professional, distance. Hands behind her back. Body angled just enough that she could claim she wasn't staring.

Then, unhelpfully, her brain did another loop around the track.

He let me have the last protein bar this morning.
I love him.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, then back again, because out of the corner of her eye she saw the engineer flipping through a clipboard, pages rustling. Oscar leaned slightly closer to look.

And then, just to throw her off further, he happened to glance over — nothing dramatic, he probably didn't even mean to do it, just one of those flickering looks you give when you're scanning the room, and then back to the engineer again.

Oh. He gave me a blank, unreadable, passing glance?
I love him.

This is humiliating. I'm humiliating myself, she thought, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, heat creeping up the back of her neck.

This is not sustainable.

She exhaled too loudly through her nose, tugging at the cuffs of her sleeves and chewing at the inside of her cheek, doing everything except behaving normally. She then tipped her head back, rolled her eyes at herself and shook her head once.

"I need aspirin," she muttered under her breath, before pushing off the wall, turning on her heel, and leaving the room.

Oscar noticed it happen. Just a flicker of his eyes tracking her as she left, a half-second of distraction causing him to miss what the engineer had just said. He had to ask him to repeat himself.

Andi didn't see that. Which was probably for the best.

Two minutes later, she'd found an isolated vending machine, became distracted by the several flavours of gatorade, and could be found with her forehead pressing against the cold glass casing. With her hood up, trying to blend into the corner of the hospitality unit, she was banging her head repeatedly against it.