Lights Out • 1 • Formula One ✔️

Chapter 96

Despite not being the fastest in either of the Friday free practice sessions, the times I were putting in on the less-than-ideal tyre showed that the car had the pace to be competitive during the race. Also, when I did finally put in a couple of laps on the softest compound of tyre, my time shot up to third on the leaderboard, only being bested by a Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. If consider that a big win for us since I had yet to actually race here.

"You sound so much happier, Lys, I'm glad," Marcus told me over the phone.

I rolled over on my bed so that I was on my front with my feet crossed over each other in the air. "Today's been reassuring, and it's a lot easier knowing that you'll be going home soon."

"I was always going to get better, Lys," he chuckled softly, "you've got to have more faith in me."

"I have so much faith in you!" I protested.

"Start acting like it then."

"You're so-" I was interrupted by a knock at the door. Who would be knocking at this ti- oh, yeah. Between the practice sessions, Lance had caught up with me and asked if he could come by my hotel room after second practice to talk. He looked pretty sad so I couldn't exactly tell him no. The time on the digital wall clock read 23:37. Any other day, I would reject someone at this time, but practice tomorrow didn't start until six in the evening. I can afford to have a lie in. "I'll have to call you later, M."

"Alright, Lys," Marcus's tone told me that he was understanding. "Bye."

"Bye." I ended the call and shoved my phone into the pocket of my shorts before stumbling to the door. Grace was one of the last things on my mind as I tried to move past my bags that lay strewn across the floor.

I swung the door open to find Lance standing there with his head down. I was about to make a joke about it but decided against in when I saw how down he looked. "Hey, are you alright?" My eyebrows furrowed in concern as he stepped into the room. He was unusually quiet which I didn't like. "Lance?"

"Noémie and I split." His voice sounded broken, something I had never seen before from him. Lance typically has an air of confidence, borderline cocky, surrounding him so to see him so vulnerable made my heart ache for him.

"Oh, Lance." I was at a loss for words as he wrapped his arms tightly around my waist, crying into my shoulder. All I could do was soothingly rub his back whilst he got it all out. "It's going to be okay," I echoed the words that I had been hearing a lot the past few weeks, hoping that he'd actually listen to them.

His sobbing slowly started to decrease as he got in control of his breathing. I doubt I was much help other than holding him so that he could use me as a tissue, but I'm glad I could be there for him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked when he finally seemed calm enough to form comprehendible sentences. I slowly pulled out of the hug and moved him so that we could sit on the bed. Lance's cheeks were wet and his eyes were bloodshot when he looked at me to nod his head. Without hesitation, I brought the hem of my shirt up to his face level and wiped away some of his tears. "Sorry, I don't have any tissues."

"Don't worry," he sniffled. "Gosh, I don't know where it went wrong."

"Who called it?"

"Well, about two weeks ago we decided to take a break. I was never home, and neither was she since we both lead such busy lives so thought it would be best until the end of the season when we would have some free time. I mean, you and Max still worked when you guys were on a break."

"Max and I are a bad example," I sighed placing a hand on his shoulder. "This break is actually a break now. But we shouldn't talk about that, Lance. What happened after?" I could tell there was more to the story since he didn't seem too spaced out a couple of weeks ago.