Max
She was reading the menu, her ponytail falling over her shoulder. Her hair was what made me remember her. It was why I immediatly asked her who she was. That's why she was mad at me and I was still mad at her. But whenever someone else was around we were friends.
So when she looked up and locked eyes with me, I put on the best smile I had. Her reaction was an eyeroll and she looked back down. Great.
Atleast I was trying.
...
We all ordered and I was talking to Sophia while the waiter walked away.
"I'm glad you guys handled this as adults." she said to me and Lavigne at the same time. Right, I was friends with her. "Yeah, I'm so glad that he apologized about all of it." she answered giving me a sarcastic smile. I glared back at her. "Indeed, instead of ignoring eachother we just talked about it." I shot back while looking her right in her eyes. If looks could kill, I would've been dead.
Sophia looked at us both confused while taking a sip of her drink. "Right, that's great." she said slowly. Lavigne already turned her side to me and joined a conversation of Lando, Lewis and Daniel. I watched her as her expression went from tensed to loose.
"I know you guys didn't make up. But altleast you're pretending." I heard Sophia say. I turned my head towards her. Ofcourse she knew, she knew everything.
...
Jules
I didn't want to talk to Max or about Max anymore. Luckily Lando was talking about how much he hated fish. Which was more than I expected. "You've never eaten sushi?" Lewis asked him in suprise. "No, ofcourse not." he answered. "But you're one to talk. You're scared of onions." he shot back to Lewis. "Excuse me, how dare you say that in front of Jules. She didn't know yet." Lewis said while pointing to me.
"Oh, I've seen the video Lewis. I'm sorry." I said laughing as I patted his shoulder. "What about you? What are you scared of?" Lando asked me. I thought for a little before answering. "I'm scared of spiders. Actually I'm terrified of them. I just become paralized when I see one. Even when i'ts really small." I confessed. Daniel nodded in agreement. "Same." he said while the rest started laughing. "What? They have eight legs. Eight!" he tried to explain himself.
"Okay, so Daniel and Jules are scared of spiders. Lewis is scared of onions and I'm scared of nothing." Lando said while smiling. "You just told us that you were afraid of fish." Daniel pointed out. Lando shook his head. "I said that I hated it." he explained. "So what are you afraid of?" I asked him curious. "I already told you; nothing." he simply said. Lewis started laughing. "I don't believe that." he stated while the waiters came to bring us our food.
I looked back to Bianca as she got a plate of pasta in front of her. "I love these kind of dinners." she told me. "But don't worry I'll wait untill you have your food. We can take our first bite together." she said exited. I chuckled while wishing I still got that happy from little things.
...
Max
While eating, Lavigne didn't look up at me once. She talked to Sophia, but made sure she didn't look my way. Why did that annoy me so much?
Everyone was already finished when Lewis tapped his knife against his glass again. "Let's take the picture." he said to us. We all got up and followed him to the place where we always took the picture. He gave his phone to a waiter and explained to him how he should take the picture. He took this very serious.
"Okay, teammates next to eachother." he told us, so I went to Daniel who was talking to Lando. I walked to his right and looked to my left to see Yuki. He smiled at me and I smiled back. But if Yuki was here that meant that-
"Jules, here." he said. Did really everyone call her Jules?
I heard her voice from behind me. "Here you are, teammate." she said while playfully hitting Yuki's shoulder. He took a step to the right and made Lavigne stand between him and me.
I already had an idea about what her reaction could be. As her head started to turn my way I tried to look away. But I couldn't, because we were friends now. She tilted her head and looked at me. Her expression was unreadable, it was blank. She didn't smile, but she didn't seem mad somehow. She didn't look away and I didn't either. After what felt like minutes, but surely wasn't, she turned her head back to the front. Suddenly I saw a flashing light from the corner of my eye.
"Smile." the waiter told us. I looked back to the front and smiled. Very well aware of Lavigne's arm slightly brushing mine. Even when she took a step to the right and our arms stopped touching, I still felt it. What was happening to me?
The waiter gave us a thumbs up and Lewis immediatly went to look at the picture. We all waited to see his reaction. Last year Lewis made us do it again and again and again...
I held my breath while he studied the phone with a frown. He looked back up and smiled. "Good job guys." he said smiling. Everyone let out a sound of relief while laughing. "I think I had my eyes closed." Daniel whined. "Lewis would've told us to do it again if someone closed their eyes." I said reassuring. "I hope I look good." he kept complaining.
"You look amazing, Danny." I heard Lavigne say. She patted Daniel on the shoulder and gave him a sweet smile. She looked a lot nicer when she smiled.
"I think we all know that you'll look the best." he pointed out while picking her up and turning her around. They only knew eachother for a few hours. When did they even become friends?
"Put me down." she commanded while laughing loudly. She looked even nicer when she laughed out loud. I caught myself staring at her. But it was just because I was so confused about the fact that she could look nice.
She did, when she smiled.
But then her eyes met mine and her smile slowly dissapeared.
I liked her more when she smiled.
"You do look quite nice." I said to her. That's what friends do right? Compliment eachother. It was only when I said it that I noticed the way her hair matched her dress and eyes. I noticed the way her cheeks were always slightly blushed. I noticed the way she wiped her hands onto the sides of her dress a lot. I noticed all those things on the five seconds she looked into my eyes.
"Thanks, Max." she said, my name coming out her mouth slowly. I could tell she tried to not smile, but then she did. And suddenly I felt better, because I made her smile. After her glaring at me the whole evening. This smile, this one was real.
...
Jules
Why did I let that smile slip? I could tell he enjoyed making me smile too much. I didn't know that him telling me that I looked 'quite nice' would have such an impact on me. I wiped my hands on my dress and felt my cheeks getting hotter. I hated him.
Suddenly, and luckily, Bianca pulls me by my hand. "Can I borrow her?" she said to the guys. "Thank you!" she yelled while walking away with me. I chuckled and followed her all the way to the dancefloor.
There were already a few people dancing. Sophia was talking to the DJ and then walked up to us. "Let's dance girls." she said while taking both our hands. 'This Is What You Came For' was playing and I had to keep myself from saying that Taylor Swift actually wrote this.
We all danced together while more and more people came to the dancefloor. Bianca went away and came back with shots. "Don't tell my coach!" she yelled through the crowd. I took the shot and drank it. The liquid burning my throat. I had already drank a bit of wine and because I never really did, I already felt tipsy.
Sophia and Bianca weren't sober either, we all just danced toghether. Enjoying the last days before the season started.
'I stay out too late.' I suddenly heard.
I turned my head towards Sophia who was smiling at me proudly. "I asked them to play Taylor!" she yelled at me. "That's so sweet of you!" I yelled back while giving her a hug. "It's because this is your first F1 party, of many, you should be the one having the most fun." she whispered in my ear and I barely heard it. "I'm having a lot of fun." I answered.
"Come on! Dance!" Bianca yelled. I let go of Sophia and started jumping and singing along. Bianca took my head and twirled me around. I kept on dancing untill my favorite part came.
'Hey, hey, hey! Just think, while you've been gettin' down and out about the liars, and the dirty, dirty cheats of the world. You could've been gettin' down to this sick beat!' I sang along feeling dizzy from the alcohol. I looked to my right and saw a pair of eyes.
They were still blue.
So blue.
I couldn't tell if he was glaring at me or just looking. Maybe he was taking a nap with his eyes open.
He didn't look away. For a second I took all his features in. I noticed his eyes before, but I never really noticed the way his hair fell in front of them. I never really noticed the way his smile made him look nicer. And the way he breathed so deep that his chest rose a lot. I noticed all that in five seconds. Because then I looked back to Sophia and Bianca who were yelling along the song.
Maybe I shouldn't have drank.
...
Max
Her cheeks were red, her eyes looked right into mine. She looked tipsy. Just before she turned to me she was singing along to Taylor Swift. Did she like her songs?
Why did I care about that? Why did she suddenly became so much more interesting to me? Why did I feel better when I made her smile? Why did her hair became my point of attention?
I had so many questions. She made me so confused.
"Are you alright?" Lando asked me. I forced my eyes off of the back of her head and turned me to him. "Ofcourse." I answered. "She's nice right?" he said to me. I looked at him confused even though I knew who he was talking about. "Don't tell me you still don't know who she is?" he asked me worried. Did really everyone know that this happend?
"You know about it too." I sighed. He chuckled. "It was a pretty rude thing to do." he answered. "But it's good that you guys made up." he followed. I just smiled. Lando started dancing again and I turned around once more. She was still dancing, her hair swaying from the left to the right. The alcohol clearly did something weird to me.
Maybe I shouldn't have drank.
...
Don't worry; they will not suddenly be real friends.
I kinda really hate friends to lovers.
My TikTok acc is 'Livia (Taylor's Version)'
I post some things about this story on there :)
Thank you and lots of love,
Livia xxx