Hate You - LN

21

"Happy Birthday!" Blake greets me as she walks up beside me in the paddock. I was just about to reach the McLaren garages ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix but the freaking woman came out of nowhere and scared the living hell out of me.

I jump a foot in the air, my heart shooting into my throat. "What the. Blake don't scare me like that!"

Blake laughs and gives me a side hug. "I can't believe I had to find out it was your birthday today from Zak of all people."

"I had no idea Zak kept track of those kinds of things," I answer honestly.

Blake shrugs. "Me either, but it's nice of him."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So what are your plans tonight? Race day, there's a driver party..." she edges the question and I shake my head. "What! No, Dev you have to come. Oscar and I are both introverts and we're going. We need to celebrate you!"

"Will Lando be there?"

Blake raises an eyebrow at me as we continue to walk towards the McLaren garage for the race. "Why? Do you want him to be?"

I sigh. "No, not really."

"Then even if he is, you and I can spend the night dancing our butts off and drinking entirely too much."

I laugh then. "And Oscar?" It was his birthday yesterday.

She waves her hand in the air in a dismissing manner. "I guess he can join us." She jokes and I laugh again.

"All right, but only because it kind of sounds like you're going to drag me out even if I say no."

Blake's face lights up with a wide smile. "Now you're getting it."

Blake links her arm through mine and we walk together into the garage where the cars are already out on track and waiting for the lights. The countdown time is four minutes so Blake and I both grab our headphones walk over to our proper areas and plug them in. Even though I want to stand with Blake I can't. My plug-in for the team radio is on Lando's side of the garage so I wave at Blake and walk over to the wall where my plug is.

After my headphones are connected I listen in as the team goes through all the checks and I flip back and forth between Oscar and Lando's radios. As per usual, Oscar speaks very little over the radio. But for once Lando is the same. A small part of me is okay with not hearing his voice. The other part of me is begging him to acknowledge me.

Even though we were sharing a room again this weekend Lando's barely said a word to me. I haven't exactly been striking up a conversation with him either. But a 'happy birthday' this morning when we saw each other would've been nice. Pascale Facetimed me this morning to wish me a happy birthday and Lando was in the room. Even if he had forgotten the Facetime would have at least told Lando what day it was. 

I haven't seen Charles yet but he sent me a text wishing me happy birthday. Arthur and Lorenzo who were both back in Monaco now sent me a text as well along with a couple of other people like Kika who was in Portugal right now and Pierre. I'm still waiting for her to tell me how things went with telling Pierre she's pregnant. I don't think Charles knows yet, so Pierre probably doesn't either since Charles would be the first person Pierre would tell.

McLaren looks good around Suzuka but Max as per usual pulls a pretty large lead on the rest of the field by the third lap of the race. Once all the cars are spaced out enough that on-track battles are limited to the cars out of or barely in the points positions I zone out.

Dad was out of jail. Monaco prison notified me. So did my lawyer who thankfully helped me with putting a restraining order in place. But the whole Zoom call yesterday where my lawyer and I went through the formalities of the restraining order just felt like accepting the inevitable. Dad would have to break the restraining order and come within a hundred metres of me to go back to jail.