A World Alone - D.R.

one

Jade woke up in a room she wasn't quite familiar with. She had been pretty drunk the night before, and she somewhat recognised the grey drapes held back on either side of the large windows that were letting in the bright German sun. The carpet covering the floor was also somewhat recognisable and she blinked her eyes, desperately trying to stop the dry sensation in her eyeballs.

She spotted one of her shoes lying by the window and sat up, the thin sheet falling down onto her legs. She took another look around the room, realising she still had her contacts in from last night. As she reached for her phone from the bedside table, she noticed the long black sleeves of her top still covering her arms.

She peeked under the covers, not really needing to because she now felt the familiar tightness of the belt of her jeans around her middle. Thank fuck, she thought to herself. It had just gone 8 AM according to her phone and the thought only just came to her to peek on whoever it was that was sleeping next to her. He had dark curly hair and a smattering of stubble covering his jaw and cheeks. He shifted a bit and rolled onto his back. He was facing the ceiling and Jade realised who she had spent the night with.

"Shit," she said a bit too loudly, causing her companion to open one eye.

"I'm trying to sleep here, you know," he murmured groggily, looking at her through the eye that was open.

"Shit!" she repeated, louder than before. "Sorry."

He laughed at her and reached to grab his phone from the table on the side of the bed he was on. "It's cool, you've managed to wake me up in time for training," he said, his voice still sleepy,  his Australian accent very pronounced in his voice.

"You're Daniel Ricciardo," she said, still really not with it.

He laughed again, and said: "You're Jade Kirke, right?"

It was her turn to laugh this time."Shit, man. You actually remembered my name?" she asked, not quite remembering the events of the previous night.

"Yeah. I was sober." He grinned at her, still laying down and looking up at the British girl next to him. "Of course I remembered. You're quite a cute drunk, actually. Sober, you just swear a lot so far," he laughed.

Jade covered her face with her hands and flopped back down onto the bed on her back.

"I like swear words, to be honest," she deadpanned, still covering her face with her hands. "But I do other things, too," she said to try to redeem herself in his eyes.

"No, I know. We had a good chat about what you do when you're not drunk in clubs and falling into me," he hit back at her, causing her to snort.

"Shit man, you're kidding? I fucking fell into you?" she groaned, worried about the amount she had fucked up around him. "Hey, haven't you got a race today? What were you doing in a club last night?" she asked, suddenly realising which day it was.

"Yep," he replied. "I was sober the whole time and it was one of our mechanics' birthdays."

"I feel like that was still kind of a bad idea," Jade deadpanned again.

"You know we were back by like 1 AM? I usually can't sleep the night before a race anyway," Daniel replied, reaching for his phone where it was charging on the bedside table.

"Why? Too much Red Bull?" she asked, and laughed at her own joke.

He laughed at her bad joke as well. "Well, not anymore."

"Nerves?"

"Yeah, pretty much," he sighed, hitting Send on the message he had been typing.

"Oh fair. I usually have to throw up before something big." She understood what he was feeling. "Every exam in secondary school, I'd have to go throw up in the loos and everyone thought it was really weird."