GRIDLOCK - Lando Norris [BOOK 1]

05

Race Day Results:

P1 - Max Verstappen

P2 - Lando Norris

P3 - Charles Leclerc

So, Max came out on top, the way it should be, especially on this track. And I was genuinely happy for him.

But I was also genuinely happy for Lando.

Qualifying hadn't gone his way either, leaving him P11 for the start of the race. To be so far behind, yet make his way all the way up to P2. That's an incredible achievement, and I really am thrilled for him.

At the time of podiums, I chose not to go down to the grid, instead, I went up to my hill. I wanted to look down on two people who mean something to me, in their both unique way, relishing in their achievements without having to contort my face to say otherwise.

Mother wouldn't even notice I was gone, she would be so thrilled for Max, that she wouldn't even stop to consider my whereabouts.

I sat up on that hill for a few hours, I watched the celebrations and then I saw the crowds pealing off and travelling home. I watched the Zandvoort go from a mass swarm of people, to absolutely nobody on the track at all. I never realised the peace that brings you, to watch chaos to peace happen in front of your eyes.

"I knew it!" he exclaimed as he made his way up the hill.

"You have to stop doing that, I'm quickly running out of my nine lives" I joke.

"You aren't a cat, Ev" he teases.

He's changed out of his usual McLaren gear and is wearing fitted black jeans and a slightly oversized salmon pink hoodie, his curls slightly wet and the pride in his eyes glistening against the gold of the sky. Right now, he isn't Lando Norris, my brother's rival, he's just Lando, a boy I really want to uncover secrets and dreams on.

"You weren't at podium" he states as if he wasn't asking me.

"I was, just from up here" I grinned.

"It was okay" he beamed.

"It was okay" I repeated.

We sat there in comfortable silence for the longest time casually stealing glances at one another which was acknowledged with a shy smile from both of us.

"Tell me something, Evelyn" Lando repeated from the other night.

I chuckled low, "another fun fact, or something else?"

"Anything" he whispers, but with a new look in his eye, cleverly disguised in his pride, he looked at me like, for the first time, there was something in me worth looking at.

"Why did it have to be you?" is what slipped out, which is definitely not what I wanted to say, but as I was caught up in that moment, and him, it's just what came out.

But instead of questioning my statement, he just silently faltered "I'm sorry".

I roll myself down so I'm now laying in the grass, my arms loosely hanging down beside me. Lando follows my lead and lays down next to me, his hand just barely brushing against mine. Neither of us flinching or changing position from where they meet.

"I'm proud of you, Lando. For the job you did today. I think you had an incredible drive and I want you to know that, I'm really happy for you"

I speak the words into the first forming stars in the sky and let them be the only ones to hear me. I don't wait for his response, nor do I need it.

And he knows.

Somehow, he always knows.

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