Flight K109 (#1 ¬ Aiello Racing Series )

Elliot Ilves

I hate having to make decisions. Why must it only be one thing and not the other, why not both. I very much would like to have my cake and eat it too. And now the universe has thrown the hardest decision of my life at my face. The big one, the 'choose your life path decision'.

"You know where your mother and I stand on this Elliot." my father's tired voice says, repeating the same tired line over again, "We will support you no matter what you choose. But you have to think this through, because you have to bear the consequences your decision will have."

I knew what my father wanted me to choose. He wanted me to make the safe choice and go to university like my brother and sister, study architecture or become a lawyer. I'd probably be fine at it and end up in some well paying office job, nothing special but nothing risky either. No risk, no reward. But then again, he'd always told me to follow my heart too, and my heart wants to race. No, it needs to race. 

Racing is the one thing where I can say, damn, I am really good at this.

And I've got a spot in the official Formula 3 championship on a brilliant team. Arguably the best team, and not one that's easy to get to. But that would mean most of my life would start to center around racing. There'd be no more Sunday dinners during the season, no more nights out with my friends during the week. F3 is a serious thing, you're either committed or not. I'd be spending more time abroad than at home most of the year. Especially since the team is Italian. I'd be flying to from Italy and Estonia frequently for half a year just to see my family on weekends. That would be my life.

That's what this summer is for I guess. I get twelve weeks  before I have to make my decision, I'll be alternating one week at home in Estonia and one week working with the team in Taranto. And hopefully by the end I'll have made up my decision.

"Just make sure you make the right decision. You still have time to think." my mother says

"I know ma....."

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"I can't believe you're spending half of our last summer in Italy." Sascha says as we play videogames on his couch

This is something we do often, I'll go to his house, climb up through his window and we'll play video games until we get bored or pass out. We've been best friends since diapers and I don't have many memories where he's not included.

"You'll see me every other week dumbass, and it's not like we won't see each other after summer."

"When will we see each other man? I'm gonna be in Minsk for uni and you're probably going to be racing all around Europe."

I pause the game and turn to him, this information being news to me, "You're moving to Belarus? Why are you just telling me now?"

"I thought you knew."

I lean back on the sofa and stare at the ceiling. Sascha has a bad habit where he thinks he tells someone something, or that they know something, when he hasn't said shit. 

"I didn't." I sigh

I can't believe I'm just finding out about my best friend moving to another country for the next four years of our lives. Especially when my first flight to Taranto is tomorrow. We won't be seeing each other for another week. Suddenly, six weeks in Estonia don't feel like enough.

"Oh."

"So this really is our last summer together huh?" I ask

"Sure is brother." he says quietly, really letting it sink in

"Jesus. I can't believe it's just going to end like this."

Sascha shakes his head and turns to me, "It's not over yet El, we've just got to make the most of our summer now. And, I mean, I'm sure I'll be back in Tallinn for holidays and shit. We'll keep in touch man."

"Yeah, yeah I know that." I say, though I'm not sure I believe it, "I just haven't really wrapped my head around it I guess. We've spent more than a decade and a half together, that's almost our entire lives man. And just like that we're done. And our classmates? Most of us will probably never see each other again after graduation."

"Life is crazy like that sometimes." he mutters

We sit in silence for a minute before Sascha restarts the game, claiming our goal for the summer is beating every level of the stupid game. It's a game we've been playing since we were 9. We've gotten through the first two editions of the game, now we're down to the last 100 levels of the final installment of the trilogy.

Internally I make myself a promise, I will do whatever it takes to finish this game with Sascha before he leaves for Minsk.