Away We Go • 2 • Formula One

Chapter 38

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At first, I definitely had my doubts about having two of my closest friends joining me and the Wolff's for a Sunday dinner. I hadn't seen Marcus since I got back from Canada despite him wanting to see me. He was understanding of my reasons - I needed my own time to come to terms with everything that happened. Marcus was the one I was worried for; he was so caring. I knew my pain would cause him pain, just like how I was feeling when he had his accident. Compared to Damien, he was more mature and wouldn't want to crack jokes in fear of upsetting me. I hated that I had caused him, or anyone else, worry.

My clothing options at the Wolff house were limited to shorts, t-shirts, and jogging bottoms. None of these clothes were suitable for a Sunday dinner so I asked Damien to choose me out a nice dress to wear, or a smart shirt with a skirt, from the collection of clothes I keep in their house. D was the best dressed out of the three of us, the only person who could rival him being Kudzai, who was still in France.

"Alyssa! Damien's here!" Susie's voice called through the house. I was in the kitchen with Toto, helping him with the final few aspects of the dinner. He kept me under close supervision because of my infamous lack of ability in the art of cooking. My jobs were simple, like making sure the water in the steamer didn't bubble too high, so leaving Toto alone in the kitchen to greet my friend wasn't going to make dinner take any longer.

With a small smile on my face, I headed towards the entranceway of the house. Damien stood on the mat under Susie's watchful eye as he took off his shoes. She had recently cleaned the laminate flooring with a little bit of help from me. It was no surprise she wanted it to remain scuff free. Beside D was a small pink suitcase. His smile grew when he spotted me and opened up his arms for me to run into. I snuggled my head into his chest, inhaling his warm-smelling cologne.

"Where's M?" I asked when I finally pulling away. My bottom lip tugged between my lower lip as a dull throbbing erupted from the site of my healing wound. I was due to be taking another one of my pain meds but decided to wait until after food, which was what was recommended to me by my doctors.

"He's on his way," he reassured. "I refused to sit with him for the entirety of the journey because his music is so bad. I also thought that you might want your car with you here. You should know that that thing is very hard to park."

"You brought my car?" I questioned, surprised. "Is it still in one piece?"

Damien rolled his eyes. "I'm not as bad a driver as you, Lys. It's fine."

"Thank you," I said, "for bringing my car, not the comment about my driving," I added with a frown.

"I also couldn't decide between the fifty thousand articles of clothing you've got at our place, so I put together a few things in the suitcase to give you some options. Susie told me you've been alternating between the same three outfits and I can not let such a fashion crime continue - not on my watch, sis."

I smiled gratefully, taking the handle of the suitcase. "Thanks, D."

Knowing that the wheels could scuff the floor, and not wanting to ruin Susie's hardworking, I reached down to pick up the suitcase without thinking. I hissed in pain as the skin around my wound pulled, immediately regretting the action. Damien quickly put his arms around mine so that I didn't drop the case. There was a feeling of dampness and the thin material of my shirt clung to the skin. I had taken the dressing off to allow for the air to help the wound heal (under instruction to do so by the doctors) and it had just started to scab. My guess was that I had just reopened the wound slightly.