COLLISION COURSE - Lando Norris [ff]

Three

“Are you kidding me, Norris?!” Christina did not act coyly or proper given their current location in the middle of the hotel’s restaurant. He knew, he should have ordered room service and not agreed to meet up with William downstairs. Only a few drivers ever used the establishment for dining. Usually, the team staff did while they stayed up in their rooms alone. A rather secluded life for sure.
Her voice was piercing sharp when she started to speak the moment she came to a halt next to his chair. With a heaving chest, she glared at him in fiery anger.

“Christina, let’s not make a fuss, alright? Could we just talk outside for a minute?” He requested and saw the wrath bubble inside of her.

She was spitting with fury but agreed and followed him through the many rows of neatly arranged tables out onto the patio. The evening was not necessarily cold but the fresh breeze that wafted across the wooden floor crept up her exposed legs and left a fine layer of goosebumps behind. She crossed her arms in front of her chest while pulling her thin bolero shut. Christina had not dressed for a quick intermission in the cool weather that was not unusual for Silverstone even in summers.

“Listen, I did not contest the penalty, okay? I don’t know where this is coming from suddenly, but I did not talk to the FIA to change their mind,” Lando defended himself in a calm tone. He felt responsible for the misunderstanding and more precisely for the fake news that were being spread on the internet, open for everyone to read. Nothing new in their lives, but now it was not only about him anymore.

“So you accept the penalty?” The AlphaTauri driver asked her colleague and saw him nod in approval, “Yes. I don’t think it’s reasonable, but that’s the sport and it’s not on me to decide whether I deserve their conviction.”

“You drove slow on purpose and we both know that.” Christina twisted the knife in the freshly healed wound.

“Do you even listen to yourself? Why should I drive slow on purpose?” He got more annoyed by the way she was getting herself tangled up in a made-up narrative of him being the bad guy on track.

“Because AlphaTauri is the only serious competitor you have this year!” She responded, and he clearly knew she was right about that. Their car had been a lawn mower wrapped up in fancy carbon-fibers ever since the testing in winter started. The AT04, however, had turned out to be a well balanced car against all the odds with the many terrible seasons prior.

“You’re just a shitty driver, Christina. All you ever do is blame others for their mistakes while cutting everyone’s corners!” His patience snapped suddenly. The FIA might have penalized him, but he was still convinced that she had proven to possess the attention span of a goldfish and did not properly calculate her turning radius which resulted in him accidentally placing his McLaren right in front of her.

“I didn’t cut your fucking corner! I was on a flying lap, and you weren’t, and you should have been the one to let me through!” She argued.

“I am not talking about today; I am talking about Melbourne!” Lando explained his rising anger.

“The FIA had an investigation, and they came to the conclusion that it was my corner,” she burst out and he took a step closer, pointed his finger at her and hissed, “The FIA also concluded that my behavior on track today wasn’t of great sportsmanship and penalized me with five positions. The FIA does what the FIA wants, and I am genuinely sick of arguing with you all the goddamn time. What the fuck is your problem, Collins?”

“You are my fucking problem, Norris. Ever since our first day in 2019 we’ve been constantly bickering, and we never caught a single break. You get along with Nyck, but you don’t get along with me, and I am tired of proving my value to you or this sport or my team. Whenever there is a problem with AlphaTauri you’re picking on me because- I don’t even know why- because you think I am the weakest link in the chain? Is it because you’re still mad at me for winning more races than you throughout our careers? I don’t fucking know what your problem is, Norris, but if you don’t stop being a fucking dick whenever we race each other, I won’t stop reporting you to race control,” Christina shot back at him and took a deep breath, “Good evening, Norris.”

She did not give him the time to react to her harsh accusations. It was clear that she was not in the mood to be messed around with. She turned around and already wanted to walk back inside, when he grabbed her wrist and held her back, “Where the fuck do you think you’re going? You owe me an explanation for why exactly you hate me so much.”

“I don’t hate you for Christ's sake!” She immediately interrupted him, not giving him the time to elaborate further. Her voice sounded offended by his assumptions, “This is something professional, solely professional, okay?” She looked down at where his warm, soft hand had grabbed her slim arm. It did not feel the way she would have expected it to. Whenever she thought about her colleague or the way they treated one another on and off track, she did not expect his touch to feel neutral- almost relieving. Relieving to know the barrier between them was not impassable even after all those years of strenuous rivalry. His eyes locked with hers, and before he could loosen his firm yet gentle grip and take a step back, they jumped a little when a camera flashed a couple meters next to them. Christina had not even noticed the paparazzi before but maybe she should have seen it coming. Ever since the sport’s show on Netflix aired, it had massively gained in terms of popularity. The good-looking, young drivers- such as the McLaren drivers themselves- were just another addition to the sport’s likeability.

“Fuck!” She heard Lando curse under his breath. The warmth his skin left behind on hers faded within seconds. He turned on his heel and entered the restaurant, leaving her behind, exposed for all the paparazzi hiding in the bushes to see. Christina held out her middle finger into the direction the sound and light had come from before yelling, "Fuck you!"

They should have reckoned that sorting out their relationship on a patio might not be a good idea, but she had been too angry to even reconsider the decision. The anger in the pit of her stomach subsided only slowly before eventually settling back down into the usual discontent.

“Are you okay? What happened?” She heard Nyck’s voice getting closer to her before eventually popping one of his hands onto her lower back.

“Someone took a photo of us, and I am fairly sure it will be roaming the internet within the upcoming two hours. You can probably already find it on Reddit,” Christina joked half-heartedly and pressed the air out of her lungs before following her friend back inside. She did not feel like having a chat with her teammate anymore. All she wanted was peace and quiet before getting into the car the next day. The last time she had gotten into trouble after qualifying was in Melbourne when she and Lando crashed and neither finished the race. That was when their mutual dislike had escalated into a harsh rivalry paired with a hint of unresolved jealousy and hatred from their karting days.

“I’ll go upstairs and catch some rest before tomorrow. See you there!” She said her goodbyes and waved at her friends still sat around the dinner table before heading out to take the elevator. The soft music playing calmed her nerves. A faint blow of air left her lips when she collected enough oxygen inside her lungs to feel the rib cage sting in overstrain. Her therapist had taught her many ways to breathe whenever it felt like everything around her broke down into pieces, and right now at the very moment, the ground beneath her feet vibrated in anticipation of the upcoming race.

Christina entered her room on the seventh floor of the hotel and slid down the wooden door after closing it. She needed to focus on her career instead of the arguments she had been getting herself into with Lando. A huff left her parted lips at her own stupidity. She hated how the Brit would always get the best of her and tickle the part of her brain that made her so agitated that she wished, she could jump at his throat. She could not though. And she was not violent, despite the raging war of emotions that he stirred up in her.
Her phone buzzed when a message from Caroline came in, attached to a screenshot of the latest tabloid publication:

The way he looks at you in this picture is ungodly sexy. ;)

_______________________________

A/N: If someone would take a picture of a person I hate and me in a moment like this, I'd certainly throw a tantrum.

Aaaand we're kind of starting to dive into their relationship more.

What about you? Do you understand Christina's reaction?

Have a great week and see (more like read) you next Monday! <3

Leave a comment and vote if you enjoyed!

– T