P E N A L T Y | c. ѕaιnz jr.

12| I do

January 21, 2026: Barcelona, Spain

S. Rivera

It was nightfall and the bun that my hair was put up in was starting to give me a migraine. In fact, the whole thing is giving me a migraine. Kika wanted to do my make-up just so that I could have a breather from anyone who didn't know about my sham marriage and my mamá was here too, trying to calm my nerves. Kika put the finishing touches of blush on my face then said, "Hey, you look like you're going to be sick? Do you need a vomit bucket or-."

"No, no I'll be fine," I said but my mamá walked up to my side then held my hand, "You look so beautiful ya zghiri, I love you my darling...if you want to walk away from this now...I'll find a way to convince your dad, it's hard seeing you hesitate." I shook my head, I saw the fear in her eyes and I wanted to just break down and tell her everything but I couldn't. I couldn't ruin the bubble that her and papá blissfully live in. It would break her heart to know that her daughter stopped being in that bubble a long time ago. I shook my head then replied, "Papá is losing favour with the board, I'm doing this for him and I don't want him to lose his seat just because his own daughter is a mess."

"That's not true," she tried to reason but I interrupted her, "Ommi, it's okay. I'm not a little girl anymore, I can handle this." Kika helped me up from my chair and said as she cupped my face gently, "For what it's worth, you look amazing Sal. Doesn't matter if the marriage is real or not, it's going to feel an amazing."

"Not really when you're lying," I joked and she rolled her eyes then said, "Well, what they don't know won't hurt them." I gave her a half-hearted smile and said, "Yes, but it'll hurt me just pretending like everything's okay." My mamá and Kika gave me one last hug then I said, "Alright, I'm ready."

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C. Sainz Jr.

No matter how many times I tried to fix my tie, it wouldn't sit straight. I decided to give up after 10 minutes of trying to fix it and decided that I'd go on without it. Charles and Lando looked on at me with worry so I said, "What are you two looking at?." Charles sighed then replied, "You know, you and Max should be mending your friendship right about now, he's still your teammate for this coming season."

"Another time," I replied further, "I have more important things to deal with like getting married." Lando scoffed, "Yes and stop acting like it isn't hard for Sal too. The fact that you punched Max without even talking to him about what happened first...it's not right. Both Sal and Max deserve better than that." Charles nodded and added, "Yeah and besides, she's not your real fiancé and she's not going to be your real wife either. She can kiss or fuck whoever she wants. Just like she lets you gallivant away with Esme as you please."

"I don't want it to be like that," I muttered and Lando raised his brow and asked, "What do you mean?" I took a deep breath then admitted, "The reason why I was so mad at Max is because he knew. He knew how I knew Salomé. He's the first one to ever know how I met her, and that I liked her. I really really liked her and because of her I did really well during my debut race." Charles eyes widened as he said, "What? Since when? Is that why you didn't marry Isa?"

"That's not...forget about it," I said as I fixed my hair one more time before I decided to go, "Let's get this shit show over with."

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S. Rivera

I wasn't particularly happy with how the cool night air hit my back because of my backless dress. It just wasn't the correct weather to be wearing it but there was no time to have it changed. I refused to even pick a dress because all those wedding traditions and excitement, I didn't feel that. I only felt dread and despair like I was about to be brought to a guillotine. Is this how Elizabeth Bennet would have felt if she was forced to marry Mr. Darcy at his first proposal? The feeling of being pushed to be shackled to a man you have complicated feelings for.