and just like that, it was like back in monaco. the same cold expression on oscar's face. the hate in his brown eyes, that used to be filled with adoration for her, now casting a menacing glare at the back of her head.
he stood behind her as she tapped her pass to get into the paddock. as she turned towards the mclaren garage, him not far behind, he saw her slightly puffed eyes.
he pretended to ignore anything she said during the press conference, but he noticed her voice get shaky as if she was on the verge of tears, and her red eyes, irritated by her wiping her tears away for the past few days.
she was asked if she was okay, playing it off as hayfever from it being summer. she knew, and he knew it was the scene from the restaurant.
her friends had obviously comforted her, but also reminded her that she was the one who made the decision, of her own accord, so she could not be the one crying her eyes out all time. she was hurt, but she was not the victim.
as she walked out of the conference room, she put in her airpods, playing a playlist with a more jovial ambience to try and lift her mood. she settled on her taylor/ariana pop playlist, but in fiddling with her phone, she hadn't noticed the bright orange shirt in front of her. the stationary bright orange shirt.
her head slammed into the back of the person in front of her, knocking out one of her already loose airpods.
"ah, fuck, sorry." she trailed, kneeling down to pick up the headphone.
as she looked up to apologise once more, she saw the "81" on the back of the shirt, and oscar's face turned around to see who had shoved him forwards.
their eyes met, hers red, his cold. he rolled his eyes at seeing her, and instead of fighting back as she normally would've done, she got up and kept walking, not wanting to embarrass herself further.
filming the video was one of the most awkward things of ria's career. they were challenged to paint portraits of each other, and even though they were quite hilarious, she couldn't find herself able to laugh at his caricature. because he made it.
dionne noticed the tense atmosphere, and cut the video short.
oscar practically ran out of the room, and ria waited until dionne was done with everything she needed to do to ask her a very important question.
"hey, dionne?" she called the older woman.
"hey, sweetie. what's going on?" she responded, hugged the girl.
"i need to ask you something. in complete confidance." she said, walking.
"go on, shoot."
"how much trouble would i be in if i was to date someone on the team?" ria asked.
"oscar?" dionne asked.
"no, we're not, i'm just asking. hypothetically." she added.
"well, i guess it would cause a lot of extra work for me in the early stages, but i don't think your contracts mention anything about it. you'd have to read over it yourself to find out, but i don't think there's any policy against it." she advised. "so you wouldn't be in trouble with the team. social media is a different thing."
"alright, thank you. i'll have another read of my contract to find out. thanks." she smiled to dionne before entering her driver's room.
on friday, during practice, daniel had a big crash and ended up breaking his hand, pulling him out of the grand prix. he was to be replaced by the red bull reserve driver, liam lawson, a close friend of oscar and ria from karting.
"liam! i feel like it's been ages since i've seen you!" her words came out slightly muffled as she engulfed him in a tight hug.
"how've you been, tiny?" he made use of his long running nickname for her.
she swatted him jokingly, making them both laugh.
"not great. i'll have to explain it all later. now, come, i want to introduce you to everyone!" she dragged the boy by his wrist.
she took him on a tour of the paddock, introducing him to all the other drivers. he caught up with yuki, who had the genius idea to have all the younger drivers come together for dinner that night. that included, yuki, liam, ria, logan, arthur and oscar.
ria filled liam in on everything that had happened between her and oscar as she got ready for dinner. he sat on the edge of her bed as she sat in front of the little makeup desk.
"me, personally, it seemed like he liked you. you seemed like you liked him. but, i get why you had to break it off. come here." he invited her to hug him.
"thank you, liam." she told him.
"you're welcome, tiny." he said, making her laugh.
"now, come, we don't wanna be late. then you might have to sit next to oscar instead of me or arth." he threatened jokingly.
she rolled her eyes, leaving the hotel room with liam.
the dinner wasn't as bad as she expected. most of the attention was directed towards the newcomer, liam, so she fel relaxed. she ended up sitting between arthur and liam, but oscar was right opposite her.
he avoided eye contact at all times, catching slight glimmers of a smile on her face and her bright eyes as she listened to her best friend talking.
god, he missed how she held that same interest in whatever he was talking about. when he would start rambling about the most random things, and she just sat and listened. she adored him.
***
the mclarens did pretty well, not good enough to beat the red bulls, but good enough to get to second in the constructor's championship. but it was evident that both drivers had their minds elsewhere.
the finish in p3 and p4 was a step lower than they were used to, with ria being the driver to take the podium, but it was only due to lando's immense speed from the new upgrades red bull had brought.
she kept an eye on liam, who had finished in thirteenth from the back of the grid. she was incredibly proud of him, of how much effort he had put in over the past few days to get his driving abilities up to a good standard.
"well done, liam! you did so good! i'm so proud of you!" she ran up to the boy to hug him after the podium ceremony.
"ew, you're covered in champagne!" he shrieked.
"what, can't handle the feeling of a podium all up in your face, huh?" she mocked.
he laughed at her, making fun of how she was acting.
oscar watched on from the sidelines. he always did. he saw how she treated liam, nothing like how she treated him. the sweetness was there, but the adoration she had for oscar was replaced with a sibling-like connection with liam.
"oscar? you good, bro?" he heard logan's voice pulling him from his thoughts.
"yeah, i'm good, just tired. long race." he said bluntly.
