Lights Out • 1 • Formula One ✔️

Chapter 25

We left our apartment at three am. Three fucking am. No human should be up and awake at such a time, in my opinion, especially when it's to travel for over twelve hours. The drive to Dover took us two and a half hours which was faster than we had anticipated and the sun was already beginning it's ascent into the sky. From there, we were waiting for over an hour for the ferry to dock, and then another hour for it to leave again. By then it was  almost eight am.

"I'm knackered." I whined, resting my head against Kudzai's shoulder.

"You had a nap in the car, Lys, get over yourself." Another thing to note is that Kudzai was also not one to wake up early. When she did, she was grouchy until she either had her coffee or a really long nap.

"I offered to drive."

"You can't drive with your wrist the way it is." Kudzai pointed out.

"Well I still offered, the thought was there. It's a shame dogs can't drive." I sighed, looking down at Murray who was sprawled across our legs. When I get tired, I often find myself spewing out a load of random shit that a normal person wouldn't say in an everyday conversation.

Kudzai laughed, smoothing the sleeping dog's head. "If Murray is anything like you, he'll be a shit driver."

"I'll have you know that I'm a fantastic driver."

"Not in a road car, you're not. How many times did you fail your test again?" I looked up to see a sly smirk on Kudzai's face.

I sat up and folded my arms across my chest. "Shut up, that's irrelevant."

"And I passed first try." She boasted.

"Yeah well I drive a formula one car which trumps everything and anything so ha!" I stuck my tongue out in a childish manor. Luckily, the ferry was quite empty so no one was around us to hear our conversation.

"You mean the one that you crashed?" Kudzai teased.

I jut out my bottom lip. "Shut up."

"You know," Kudzai looked thoughtful, "I'm surprised that they managed to convince Checo to fill in, I was expecting it to be your old teammate."

"He's busy with the F2 championship so he declined. I just hope that Checo doesn't come out of retirement for good or else my place at Force India will be gone." I said.

"No it won't, you're just as good as Checo, if not better. The team needs young, new drivers to test the limit. If he does make a comeback, I doubt it'll be in F1."

I couldn't help but chuckle. "I think I test the limit a little too much."

"No, you overstep the limit too much." Kudzai laughed. "But that's never a bad thing, it just shows you're developing as a driver."

"I just can't wait for Monaco - I want to get back in the car again so badly." I sighed.

"We could always arrange to go karting before hand?" Kudzai suggested. "We also need to build your confidence back up."

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I guess that'll be good."

"We can invite Max, Daniel and Vic as well, if you want. It might relieve some pressure and turn the experience into a bit of fun. Max knows that you used to kart with your dad, right?" I nodded my head in reply.

"Gosh, I can't believe it's almost been three years." I sighed, resting my head back against Kudzai's shoulder. "I hope that, wherever he is, he's proud of what I've achieved."

"Of course your dad'll be proud of you, Lys." Kudzai soothingly rubbed my shoulder. "Even before he died he was your number one fan."

"Yeah," I smiled at the memories, "I'm just thankful he didn't try and stop me dropping out of college unlike mum. He always knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life and tried to support that."