[POV: Oscar Piastri]
This girl cannot act.
I'll give her an A++ for sheer effort, though.
She pressed her forehead against the window of her Viper, both her hands being used as a make-shift pair of binoculars to somehow see better. She kept making noises like 'uuuuum...' and 'hmmmm...' as if she was really looking for anything, when in reality she had already stuffed her keys back into her bag once she was out of Charles' sight.
"You know... I think I see them over there." She said, still looking into the car.
"Really?" I said, inching forwards. She stepped back from the car for the first time, allowing me to take a turn at 'looking'. "What do they look like?" I played along, knowing the answer already. The reason I asked wasn't because I wanted to better my own personal acting skills, but because I wanted to tease her. Why that is will become more obvious when, or if, she answers me.
"Uuum," she hesitated, probably picking at her nails. "They're... black and have the Viper logo on them. Which is also black. And..." she trailed off. I wondered if she'd actually commit to the act and answer me. Then, I got my reply. "And there's a lego Batman figure...and a Minecraft creeper figure, too..."
I looked back for a second, saw her rubbing her forearm and looking away from me altogether and thought I'd embarrassed her enough.
She left out the other thing, I thought, deciding to leave it alone for now.
I turned back and resumed my act. "Oh, wait—" I said in a hopeful voice, one that made her walk up to the car and ask what I'd seen, clearly confused since she knew her keys weren't in there and that I couldn't have possibly found them. She just didn't know that I knew that too.
"A black set of keys with the Viper logo, Batman lego figure, creeper figure, and a shrimp?"
"Yes!" She stated, clearly not picking up on what I was insinuating.
"You mean the ones in your bag?"
"Yeah! The ones—"
I looked at her, head tilted. She slowly turned to face me too, a look of panic plastered across her. It was a funny sight, to see her so starstruck, so I began to laugh.
"Oscar, what the fuck?!" She swung at my arm and I tried my best to block her, laughing even harder. She smiled, mouth agape and in shock, telling me that she wasn't actually mad. "If you knew the whole time, why didn't you stop me?! I was making a complete fool of myself!" She laughed and hit me again, basically chasing me around her car since each time I tried to dodge her.
"A shrimp?" I said, avoiding her question since this one was much more interesting to me. "Why, of all things, a shrimp?!"
"That," she said, panting and catching her breath from all the attacking, "is NONE! of your BUSINESS!" she pointed at me, and for a second I found it hard to breathe properly.
She then reached into her bag and retrieved the keys, unlocking her car and getting in. She didn't tell me to get in, but neither did she tell me not to. I wondered if it would be rude to get in uninvited, but then thought it was rude to make her wait also, and if she—
"Get in, wise-ass!"
Yep, okay.
I did as she told me, did up my seatbelt before I realised—
"Wait, no-no-no, you can't drive." I stated, firmly. I unbuckled the seatbelt and went to unlock the door.
"Um, excuse you." she said, sounding offended. I paused. "I can drive, thank you very much. I'll have you know, I'm quite good, being a MotoGP driver and all—"
"No! No, no, that's not what I—" She raised a brow at me and sat back in her seat. For a moment, I contemplated leaving the matter, but then decided I'd rather not be an accomplice to a serious crime. "You can't drive because you're over the limit."
She didn't say anything for a while, but continued to stare at me - I wondered if she could read my mind, which couldn't have been good for me since she'd know how hard I was trying not to appear frightened. I looked elsewhere, trying not to notice the crazy-lady sat beside me.
Then, she moved. She undid her seatbelt and left the vehicle without saying a word. I then imagined if this was how I died.
She then hastily opened my door and said, "Come on." as if I was supposed to know what that meant. I got out of her car and stood in front of her. I cleared my throat and stepped back. "Uh, yeah, I'll find another way ba—"
Andi then went and sat in the passenger seat. I blinked, contemplating if I was the crazy one here. After a while, she looked up to discover that I hadn't moved, which clearly wasn't what she wanted.
"Well?" she prompted, "You can drive, can't you?"
I blinked again, trying to read her face.
"You're going to let me drive your car?"
"Yep."
"You're going to let me drive your... Vintage... Dodge Viper?"
"Yes, Oscar."
"Um..." I scratched my neck.
I thought for a moment. I'd heard horror stories from Lando about how protective this girl was over her car. Since she'd got it, she was the only person who was allowed to drive it. Lando had asked and asked and asked, only to be denied every time. He told me she'd said something nasty the last time he tried, and when I asked him what it was, he teared up and ended the conversation.
And so, to have her, Andreanna Saunterre, tell me that I was allowed to drive her car, her Viper, was a little hard to believe.
So hard to believe in fact, that I started to laugh again, thinking she was probably joking about all this.
When all Andi did was continue to stare blankly at me, clearly not finding any amusement in her offer, I figured I was wrong.
"Jeez, Piastri. You know, if you don't want to drive it, I'm happy to."
"No! I will!" I snapped, still not loving the idea of her possibly getting done in for driving under the influence. "I'll drive. Yeah." I rushed around to the driver's seat, got in and started the car. Preparing to move off, I held the gear stick and looked in the rear-view mirror when I felt something rest on top of my hand. It was Andi's hand. I looked up startled, finding her to be looking at me already, smiling.
"Just, so you know..." She began caressing her thumb across my hand slowly. I gulped, looking down at her hand on mine. "If you do, anything, to this car..." I met her gaze again, wondering if I'd accidentally turned the car's heating on. "I'll make sure you never get behind the wheel of a car again."
Suddenly, I realised I hadn't been listening all that well and snatched my hand away from the gear stick.
Okay, what the fuck.
I cleared my throat and shook my head, looking back towards her for a split second. There, where I'd expected to be met with the same scary - yet only slightly captivating - stare, was a look of boredom, as if she hadn't just threatened me.
"Did you just... threaten me?" I asked, still in awe of what just happened.
"No! What? Of course not." she insisted, turning to look out the window nonchalantly.
Liar, I thought, having spotted the smirk forming on her lips.
I then drove the slowest I had in my entire career.
*
The whole way back to her hotel, I came up with reasons as to why what had happened at the bar happened.
I mean, I was aware of the supposed fact that Andi has, or had, or whatever, a crush on Charles. Now, I couldn't really be sure of anything. When you 'like' someone, aren't you supposed to want to be around them? From the limited experiences I've had with Andi, about 95% of them have involved her wanting to get away from Charles, not near him.
From what I saw, I'd believe they were mortal enemies more than anything, not people who were interest in each other, nor people who are (supposed to be) best friends.
I'm no psychic, but from what I could tell (especially from the look on Charles' face) this is not a simple case of friends fighting. If I were a betting man, I'd say that there was something else at play here.
But, hey. What do I know.
I hope they figure things out.
To literally quote Andi, it's none of my business.
...
...However.
What happened tonight is kind of my business, if you think about it... I mean, I was dragged into the situation unwillingly, so shouldn't I know at least something?
I convinced myself of this notion and fixed my posture, looking to the passenger seat where Andi had her feet pulled up onto the seat, forming a tight ball-like position.
"So..." I said, clearing my throat, making her look up at me. "Are you going to tell me why you lied to them back there, or..." From the current look on her face, she didn't like the question. So, I gave my reasoning for asking it. "Because you kinda-sorta lied to me too, so—"
Her sigh cut me off. "Yeah, look, I'm sorry about that, I just..." she trailed off, clearly feeling uneasy in having to answer. She pulled her sleeves down so that they covered her hands entirely, proceeding then to wrap her arms around herself. I almost spoke to tell her that she didn't have to tell me if she didn't want to, but she beat me to the punch. "It's nothing," she mumbled, avoiding me.
I wanted to pry, but her tone was different. It was like she wanted to let her words out but they got stuck; Something was preventing her. She sounded conflicted, irritated even. So I didn't pry.
I didn't want to be the person to force her to speak when she didn't want to.
Was I disappointed that I'd probably never know what she was really thinking? Or what her true intentions were? Sure. Maybe a little bit.
But I'd much rather her be comfortable with her choice of silence, then to feel pressured by my interest.
So I left it alone, returning on the - for the most part - very quiet and very slow drive.
...
"I'm allergic to them." she said suddenly, after minutes of silence.
"What?"
"Shrimp."
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I have so many Capcut template ideas for this chapter 😭 someone needs to take that app away from me I stg
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