001. | EXHAUSTED OF TAUNTING
— AFTER HOURS, LANDO NORRIS
LANDO NORRIS was ready to take his phone out, book a flight to god-knows-where, and never return back to this hell on earth place he was right now. He wanted to abandon all of his duties and idiotic friends, whom right now where teasing him once again, and start a taunt-free life somewhere far way.
It had started to become a regular and frequent occurence for the other best drivers in the world, also known as Lando's friend group, to get under his skin. And what's even worse, is that they mostly succeeded. What did they even taunt him about?
Earlier today, Lando and his teammate DANIEL RICCIARDO had both received an invite for their team's annual inclusive pre-season dinner event. The invite consisted of an entry for the McLaren drivers themselves, and a plus-one if wanted.
However, the 'if wanted' was more of a 'bring someone, or you'll be seen as joke of the century the entire evening'. And his friends found it more than amusing to joke about Lando not having a significant other, and not having someone to bring along with apart from his family.
Only his friends knew when to stop, because they understood his boundaries. But unfortunately for Lando, the media does not.
In the press' eyes, Lando was waving a red flag and they were the bulls that stormed towards it, along with accusations and jokes. It was as if he (like Lando and his then best friend had done way too often to their high school teachers) had a sticky note hanging on his back saying the words 'Hit me!' And the media adored it to use that excuse over and over.
Lando didn't understand the whole fuss of his friends about him bringing someone blood-related rather than a date he wouldn't even want there. Like in the previous years, his sister had always tagged along with him, and yet there were no problems they both still had a great time!
If he were to invite a random girl to the event, like his friends always suggested, he probably would be bringing more unnecessary responsibilities upon himself. That, and it meant that he couldn't get shit-faced drunk like he usually would. It would be unfair towards his date, and to himself, So Lando didn't understand why his friends put their noses in his business. If he didn't care, why should they?
"Seriously though, mate." The voice of CHARLES LECLERC caught Lando's attention. The smooth voice reminded him that there was a conversation outside of his mind too, with real people involved. "You're telling me, that with your looks," Charles said, pausing to take a sip from his drink.
"You can't pull a single girl? For the party?" The Monégasque asked, but it sounded more like an insult to Lando.
Lando rolled his eyes to dismiss Charles's comment, and he seriously reconsidered his earlier escape-plan. But to make it even worse, CARLOS SAINZ joined in on the conversation as well. "Yeah, indeed!" The Spaniard loudly agreed, causing everyone's heads in the room to shoot towards him.
Great, now everyone's back in the conversation. Beautiful, fucking beautiful.
The young Brit shot a doubting look towards his former teammate, causing him to elaborate even more. "Come on man, you're a catch!" Carlos tried to convince him. "You've got the looks, the charm, most definitely the money." The Spaniard started listing Lando's qualities, counting them with his fingers.
Daniel even joined in on the conversation too, now that it was back to the teasing of Lando. The Australian shot his teammate a look with eyes full of mischief before he spoke up. "You even have a fast car! On the streets anyways, not at the circuit." Charles and Carlos were not able to withhold a quiet snicker, and Lando not being able to withhold an exasperated sigh.
"First off, It's not my fault that our car was shit last year, and will likely be this year again." Lando defends himself. Remember what I said about his friends knowing when to stop? Yeah, well. I take my words back. "And secondly, thanks for the motivation guys!" He complained, trying to guard whatever dignity he had left.
And with that justification, the boys moved on to another topic in defeat while Lando was allowed to let his mind wander off again. Not that they would ever admit to one another, but the drivers liked to meet up during the off-season, because they missed each other's jokes and company.
Like right now, they found themselves in Charles's apartment in Monaco. Despite the teasing, Lando really appreciated his friends, as they always accounted for a good time, and had each other's backs.
It would be an occurrence that happened one too many times to count on one hand, the amount of times that Charles, Daniel or Carlos had saved his ass from hatred or false rumours on Social Media.
So if sometimes being lightly bullied by them was the barter for healthy and strong friendships that would hopefully last beyond their racing careers, then that was a risk Lando felt worth taking.
But even though his friends told him many times not to be bothered by the false rumours, or ruthless opinions based from people on the internet, he couldn't help himself to open the Twitter app. He is only human after all, and curiousity kills the cat.
Obviously, there were tons of fans and immense support. But the hatred had always stuck to him more. Lando sighed as he scrolled past all the questions about whereabouts, and started asking himself those same questions.
Why didn't he have anyone? All of his friends did, what was so different about him? Like they said, he has the looks, the charm, and even though he didn't like to use it as his catch-phrase, he also had the money.
So was his personality then really that shit? Was it his fault that he could make no one stick, like everyone online always tells him? Or was love just not in the cards for him?
Seated on a white, comfortable chair hidden with Lando's darkness near the corner of Charles's lively, bright and spacious room, Lando pulled his legs up to his chest. He shook his head, trying to clear his head from the negative and gloomy toughts as he didn't want to dwell on them too much. But the questions started to spiral in his head.
Why is he always alone?
He couldn't even remember the last time he didn't feel lost in the darkness, that was when he had his light. His light, back in high school. Years ago. Lando started to think of his lively best friend. Everywhere the two of them would go, chaos and disarray would follow. But at least they didn't need to pretend to be happy, their smiles were big enough to be framed and hung on the wall. Instead of the photographs of Lando's races where he was pretending to be.
His mind drifted back to the party, and then to his old best friend. And suddenly the light bulb in his head flickered on. He had an idea, if it would work was another question, but it was always worth a try. Plus, his back-up plan of reaching out to one of the models in his DM's who would be more than willing to tag along was always still available. If he were to really become that desperate.
Lando pulled out his phone, and just to make sure no one in the room could spy along or question him, he turned his brightness down and pressed the Instagram-icon on his home screen. He immediately went to the search-bar and started typing in her name. EMERY CAPALDI.
The first thing he noticed about her, is the way her amber healthy hair, had grown even longer and healthier. She changed in many ways, since he last saw her. Obviously she grew taller, and the structure of her face had changed, as she was now a woman and not just a teenager. And he would be lying if he didn't notice that her tits had grown as well.
Pretty much everything had changed about her, yet that mesmerizing smile that Lando had fallen in love with all those years ago, was still plastered on her face.
Seeing her, even if it was only a profile picture on a phone screen, after all those years brought him back so many great memories. But one mystery kept wandering his brain, what happend that made them drift apart?
Lando and Emery had been inseperable when they were young, she was always over at his house, and his family was to her, what her wasn't, they competed in trainings and low-ranking races together and she was always there, cheering him on from the sidelines. So why did they both go from one onto the other day into their seperate ways?
Lando clicked on her page, his eyes immediately dropping down to the 'follow back' option. All these years, she had still followed him yet he didn't? Now he felt like a dick. He went to her timeline, and saw a picture only posted by her three hours ago. So she still used the account actively. Did she mean to still follow him?
He debated following her back, out of politeness. But maybe that was weird, considering he wanted to shoot her a message as well and he didn't want to show too much desperation. Why was he even overthinking about this? And did he seriously zone out again?
He gave her post a like but when he saw that Charles had done the same thing, he opened the comments purely out of curiousity. In there, Lando saw a comment from Emery's friend Quinn. Quinn, or QUINEVERE DECKER had always been an odd-one to Lando.
The energetic bouncing ball could never sit still or shut up, but Emery was always friendly and understanding towards her. It was one of the things that had made Lando fall for her in the first place, her seeming genuineness and endless patience had always been a wonder towards him.
He didn't get along greatly with Quinevere, who always insisted he'd call her Quinn, like everyone else. At school Lando was tired, tired from karting, preparing, training and even more training. He did not have the energy to deal with her, ever. But she made Emery happy, and that's what mattered to him.
It did him good to see Quinevere and Emery were still friends, he believed she deserved at least someone to rely on. Even if that meant that he didn't.
emerycapaldi • three hours ago
tagged quinevere.june
liked by charles_leclerc and 52 others
emerycapaldi quinn bought me these flowers today, and i'm seriously considering to ask her to marry me 🫶🏻
7 more comments
Lando decided to set through with his plan, it was now or never. He prayed to God that he still used the same number as the years before, because he was certain that he'd still have it saved. They might've not interacted with each other for a while, but that phone number held too much sentimental value to him to ever have the heart to delete it.
He typed in her contact name, and stared at the chat from now five years ago, allowing his mind to wander off once again.
How would he even start his message? And what wouldn't she think? Who in the right mind messages their friend back after five years of not speaking, and how would you even begin that conversation?
"Hey, so I'm sorry for not texting you for over five years. But now I need a favour!!" He mentally laughed at his joke, and then reminded himself to book another appointment with his therapist as he just laughed at himself, in his own head.
He remembers that he was always taken away by her stunning appearance. It was undeniable that she is and always has been beautiful, with freckles scattered across her face as if she was bathed in sunlight, and her kind, inviting smile.
But that wasn't a crush, right? He was only seventeen, no way that he had a crush on her. And even if he did, so did half of his karting-grid. He convinced himself that he would never have a shot with her, she was out of his league.
That second-to last sentence was pointed towards the now Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. When Emery would be cheering on the now McLaren driver, she would secretly be cheering him on as well. She thought that she was discreet, but he knew his best friend from the inside out.
And he noticed everytime her voice went up higher when the Monégasque was around, or that she suddenly couldn't look anyone in the eyes anymore.
The usually chatty and lively Emery Capaldi was dead-silent whenever he was there, and Lando remembers that he felt nothing but jealousy and envy towards the older boy. Iconic, seeing that Charles is now one of his best mates.
Lando shut off the thoughts about the potential between Charles and Emery, and started thinking of ways to start off the undeniably awkward opener that was coming her way. Because no matter what he would send her, after five years every message would be embarrassing.
Back in the days, him and her always teased each other with their last names. It had started when Lando had won his first karting race, and they announced him by his last name instead of first. Since then, it just sort of stayed until their contact had completely faded. It felt like fate to use this way of calling her out, so he started typing his message, beginning with her last name.
He started typing, and as his fingers jumped from key to key over the all-too familiar phone screen, he felt his heart get caught in his throat.
"God, why am I overthinking this?" He asked himself quietly, hoping that none of the boys were paying attention to him. Which they luckily weren't. Lando took a deep breath, and finally built up the courage to send the message.
"Fuck it." he thought to himself as he pressed the button.
ems 💕
ems 💕
please tell me you finished the
chemistry homework. because
mr. watson will genuinely murder me if i don't
hand it in again.
25/7/17, 10:23 - read
ems 💕
hey, why were you not at school today.
is everything okay? do i need to come over?
25/7/17, 17:51 - read
february 15, 2022
me
hey capaldi, can i ask you a favour? 🙂
— ps. this is lando norris.
from highschool?
the way how I'm so excited for this book is INSANE.
you might know that I'm currently rewriting AE, but I'm telling you (if you've already read the chapters) it's really worth it to begin again! the chapters are significantly different. the chapter ideas are generally the same, but the usage of grammar, sentences, words and even details is just way better than how it used to be.
and yeah, lmk what you guys think of the book so far 🫶🏻