VIPER || Oscar Piastri

Chapter 17

[POV: Narrator]

"Carlos did what?" an angry Australian demanded to know for the second time, even though Lando had (accidentally) explained perfectly what had happened the first time. Clearly, Lando's ability as a lightweight to refrain from ratting out his friends was shockingly bad. "He brought her... to my house?!"

Lando, who'd been laughing continuously, wasn't laughing anymore. Instead, he seemed to sober up and see sense.

"I..." he began, only looking at Oscar when it was absolutely necessary, "I had nothing to do with it." He said, proud. With that, Oscar sped away into the crowd as he'd already spotted Carlos with a girl that he thought looked familiar, but now he knew definitely looked familiar.

With a sigh of relief and a sip of his - much too strong - drink, Lando turned to find Andi Saunterre, practically in pieces. The entire ordeal was apparently too much for her to handle; the initial ratting out from Lando, Oscar's comical reaction, and Lando's pathetic attempt to keep himself out of trouble. She'd been laughing so hard that she had to place her drink down, which resulted in a waiter swooping it away from her thinking she was finished with it, which only made her laugh harder. If it were to happen at any time, this is when Andi's smile lines would indefinitely set into her skin.

"I'm sorry—" she breathed out, hardly keeping it together, "it's just, his face, your—" she tried again, only to begin another fit of silent laughter.

"Jesus," Lando remarked at the sight of her, "you're in a worse state than me."

"Impossible." She said, finally calming down. When another waiter passed by the pair, Andi politely stopped the gentleman and requested a drink to replace the one that was stolen. Then, at the sight of Lando, she went straight back to giggling.

"Carlos really has no shame," she said, finding her way back onto the barstool she was sat on before it became too painful to sit while laughing. Lando followed suit, sitting himself beside her.

"I aspire to be a man of such unawareness." Lando answered, as if what he said was some philosophical statement.

Whilst Andi tried not to laugh at that, her drink arrived and she began to pour it from bottle to glass.

Lando sighed. "You know, we actually thought of asking you to be Oscar's blind date, but..."

Andi stopped pouring, breathing hitched.

"We didn't think Oscar would even sit down once he saw it was you."

"Oh," She was taken aback. "Is that right?" She leaned against the counter, catching Lando's eye as he turned to talk to her face-to-face.

"Oh! No! I didn't mean it— in that way, it's just that you're..." He paused, pointing at her. He regretted doing that when she raised her eyebrows. "You know... you're..."

She stared at Lando with critical eyes, glass in hand. When he realised that if he didn't give an answer he'd probably have to go chasing Carlos, who was definitely being told off, he sighed and braced.

"You're you." He said.

With a tilt of her head and nothing more, she made him continue.

"You're Andreanna Saunterre! You go to any party you can find, you— You end every night with a different guy! You—" He paused, realising she wasn't catching on. Or, at least, that's what he gathered from her lifeless expression. "You're the Viper, for god's sake! If Oscar saw that we'd set him up with you, god. He'd know we were messing with him straight away."

Andi turned from him.

Thoughts of the summer piled up, spinning around in her head. What Lando said wasn't wrong, and Andi knew that. She knew he was only commenting on what he knew and what he saw first-hand.