Switched | Sebastian Vettel

Chapter 9 | the excitement

Watching the lights go out in your own living room was one thing, but watching those same lights go out in the Red Bull garage, wearing the suit for the pit stop was on a whole different level of watching those lights go out. I've had butterflies not flying, but jumping around in my stomach. Concentrating was almost impossible, but Brad kept me contained. We sat on foldable chairs that we put in the garage now that there was space without the car in it.
'Can you stop that?' Brad suddenly said to me. I looked at him confused, not knowing what he was talking about, until he put his hand on one of my legs and pressed down to stop it from shaking up and down. I wasn't even aware of it, until Brad pointed it out.

'Sorry,' I laughed, but not even two minutes later my leg decided to do it again.

'You're worse then Maureen,' Brad said in a small voice so that only I could here him. I pushed him playfully away, not realizing what was happening on the screen until the garage was filled with outrage. Brad and I immediately looked back at the screen where we saw a Red Bull car standing still on the sideline. My eyes started to get big as I watch how other cars passed him. I was about to show my disappointment, until Sebastian found a way to make the car listen again and he was able to race again.
'Jezus, feel my heart,' I laughed at Brad while putting his hand on the place where you could feel my heart bouncing hard.

'Welcome to Red Bull, where they give you almost a heart attack every race weekend,' Brad said back to me, while his face showed relief that they didn't had to retire the car already. The next shot I suddenly saw my face, while the camera was zooming in more and more. I had seen Maureen a few times on the screen, which always ended with me cheer at the screen, but now I only could press my lips together and show an amused smile.
'Forgot to tell you. Maureen is very populair with all the cameraman's,' Brad whispered immediately after the screen turned back to the race. The rest of the race looked like everything went okay. The pitstop went amazingly well, but unfortunately Sebastian kept having problems with his car, which meant that in the last 15 laps he had to retire the car. The disappointment was good to see around our side of the garage, as we pulled the car back in to the garage. At the end of the race, we were so busy with the car that I didn't know who actually won the race, I only knew that Daniel became 5th. Sebastian was after he got out of the car no where to be seen anymore. He had probably enough with the car, since this wasn't the first time this season that he had to retire because of the car. I would probably leave too as soon as I could if I was in his shoes.

When I picked up my stuff together and was about to walk out to the paddock with the rest of the mechanics to go back to the hotel, I heard my name getting called and not long after a running Daniel Ricciardo stopped in front of me. I smiled at him as I heard him trying to control his breathing. He had still sweat rolling off his face from the race. He didn't seem to be bothered by it, or he just didn't notice.

'Hey,' I said, letting the others already walk to the ride that was waiting for us. Only Brad stayed and wait for me. 'Congrats on fifth!'
'Thanks,' Daniel said, while a grin started to appear on his face. 'Are you celebrating tonight with me?'
'Oh, I don't know, I-' Brad pushed my shoulders to him, so he could be seen and join the conversation.
'Of course she's coming. We all are,' Brad grinned, while talking over me.
'Good,' Daniel said back while looking behind him where he got called by his PR to do the interview rounds. He looked back at us. 'See you guys tonight, I'll make sure everyone knows where the party and after party is at,'

'And the after party?' I asked Brad after Daniel walked away from us. I raised my eyebrows up while turning around to Brad. He shrugged.
'We do that mostly when we got a podium, so now it's probably just in someone's hotel room drinking until we forget everything, or Daniel is trying to get you in his bed,' Brad grinned. I rolled my eyes.
'You mean Maureen,' I reminded him, before starting to walk again in the same direction that the rest of the group walked to. Brad came walking next to me. I kept my head looking straight as it still was pretty busy in the paddock, but I couldn't help looking at Brad with the corner of my eyes and see how he was smirking at me. 'What's that smirk for?'
'I'm just happy I have a partner in crime in this Maureen project,' Brad laughed. 'Because this whole season has been sickening to see Maureen and Daniel going in circles,' I looked back at Brad and took his expression in. I had a question that I wanted to ask Brad the day that I met him, which was Wednesday. I just didn't know if I had the right to ask him. Oh, who cares?
'Hey Brad,' I asked right before we got to the shuttle bus that would bring us back to the hotel.
'Yeah?' He asked. He looked at me with curious eyes, making me want to ask my question even more.
'I don't know how this will come over, but why do you care so much about Maureen's relationship? I mean, that I want her to date someone finally is kind of obvious, but I don't know... I don't even know why I'm asking,' Brad laughed at me but shook his head, while he pulled me a bit back from the shuttle.
'I guess Maureen didn't tell you,' This time I was the one with the curious eyes, waiting for him to start talking again. 'And maybe you shouldn't mention it to her, because I don't think I should be telling you, but you're practically her so, who cares right?'
'Actually we are both two different persons, but okay, go on,' I told him, pretending to not be a little bit offended by him thinking Maureen and I where the same person just because we were twins.
'Sorry,' Brad said. I smiled back at him, telling him that it didn't matter. 'I guess I just felt bad, after last years event when Maureen told me she liked me and I... didn't like her,'
'Why wouldn't you like Maureen?' I joked, mostly to make this conversation a bit lighter. I did feel bad for Maureen though, because she wasn't the best in telling someone else her feelings, and this must have been a big event for her.
'Anyway-' Brad said, ignoring my question. 'I really liked her as a friend, but nothing else, and besides I was dating a guy back then,' I looked surprised at him, not thinking he would be in to man.
'I'm bisexual,' he said with a smile. I smiled back at him. 'But I've never seen Maureen hurt that much, and she ignored me for a solid month, so I felt really bad, but then Daniel got Marks' seat and on his first day in the factory he was on the late side, didn't look where he was going and literally smacked heads with Maureen and at that moment I kind of wanted them to be together, definitely when I saw that Maureen took interest in him,'
I did remember Maureen telling me about her encounter with Daniel at the beginning of this year. She felt so embarrassed after that. I looked at Brad with a smile. I could see he really cared about my sister and I believed him when he told me he didn't want to hurt Maureen. Still the conversation seemed to me a bit on the heavy side, so as I always try to do is end it with a joke, just like how I did now.
'So, I guess I can't go falling in love with you, hmm?' I asked him, trying to be serious, which failed as a big grin started to appear on my face. Brad shook his head, but couldn't help to laugh.
'No, you can not. Now get in that bus before they leave without us,'

A/N: Had a bit of a delay with uploading this chapter because I've been moving stuff around to another room ant it takes longer then I wished it would. Anyway, I know I let you guys wait a long time for Seb to get really involved in the story, but I promise he's gonna be there soon.
Also I appreciate it if you leave a comment and vote on this chapter ☺️