DETERMINED - LANDO NORRIS

-11-

"Of course I'm not! Why would you even suggest that!"

"Because you win from every single boy or girl, no matter what age or how experienced. Still, somehow you can't seem to beat him. Tell me, Norah, why can't you beat him? Why do you keep losing against him? Are you just not good enough? Was all this a waste of my time?"

"I- You, You don't have the right to be mad at me! I don't even want to be here! So you can shove it."

Lando remembered how Norah was screaming at her dad. At the time it looked like an upset kid being extremely childish towards her father, but now it made sense. Back then he had missed how he stood on her foot, preventing her from walking away. How he grabbed her by the arm when she turned away. He missed how the tears had streamed down her cheeks, immediately regretting her actions, because she knew what would come next.

They couldn't be older than 10 back then and she was already afraid of what her dad would do to her. The worst part, nobody had any idea, nobody had noticed how their perfect dad-daughter relationship was ruined by the tragic death of her mother. Nobody, not until now 8 years later and if Lando had to guess the situation would have been going on much longer than that. Probably since she was seven when her mother had died.

Lando could see the guilt in the girl's eyes. She was caught and now because of her, he would get in trouble. Nobody was supposed to notice and because she was incapable of hiding her face and coming up with good excuses someone knew.

He knew.

-

Norah was sitting in her hotel room, basically waiting for Friday to step into the car again. The girl didn't really have friends so on race weekends she didn't hang out with other drivers. She didn't even get out of the safety of her room most of the time. That's why she was surprised to hear a knock on her door.

She contemplated on opening it. She didn't know who it was, but she didn't really felt like having a talk with anyone at the moment, but something inside her still thought about the possibility that it was something urgent, so she opened the door anyway.

Not entirely surprised by the boy standing in her doorframe she opened the door further. Norah's eye had significantly gotten better. It was barely noticeable if you didn't know about it. She still had a little scar on her cheek and there were still some blue hues, but both the teenagers knew the girl would come up with some excuse for that.

When she opened the door completely, signalling him to come in she even had the politeness to ask if he wanted anything to drink and then got it for him.

When she came back from the kitchen with the two glasses she could see on his face this was going to be a serious talk, so she plopped next to him on the couch and passed him his drink.

Taking a deep breath Lando started. "Look, I just wanted to apologise for pushing you as hard as I did, that wasn't okay." The girl nodded, showing she agreed with him. However, she felt a 'but' coming. She hated 'buts'

"I just have one question." The girl nodded again, signalling him to continue. "Why? You turned eighteen last year why don't you just leave?"

Lando's eyebrows had furrowed together by now, both confusion and sympathy present on his face. Norah huffed. If only he knew how many times she tried that already.

"I can't"

"What do you mean you can't? You turned eighteen, didn't you? He doesn't have anything to say about you anymore." Lando was genuinely confused. Why did she let him do this to her? Manipulate her like he did?

"You don't get it." Norah said softly looking up in his eyes she continued. "I- I can't"

She said again like the same words said in a different way made him understand. You could see Lando trying to figure out what that meant. He just simply didn't understand what she meant by that, why can't she? What's holding her back?

"I don't follow."

Norah took a deep breath looking up the keep the tears at bay. "I- I can't lose him too. He's the only one I've left. Kate's busy with college and making up for the rebellious teenage years she missed because of me and- and, fuck, I don't have anyone else. I can't leave him. I just can't. I'm already so alone and.."

Lando's heart shattered in thousands of pieces. Somehow Norah could make everyone forget about what happened to her mother. Her attitude never made anyone believe she had lost someone, especially someone so close to her.

But the puffy red eyes were painfully present on her face and the remaining of her black eye only exaggerated the look.

How could he forget?

How could he forget the minimal two weeks she had been gone because of it. How could he forget the glassy eyes she had when she was back on track for the first time. She looked at the kart like it was the most viciously dangerous thing in life. Like the thing itself had come to her house and killed her mom.

The mere sound of the thing made her want to cover her ears and cry. How could he forget the look on her face when her dad pushed her into the kart the first time after the accident? Or the look after that same race.

Norah stood a couple of meters back arms crossed in front of her chest. "I don't want to!"

"Norah just get in the damn kart, why do you always got to whine like that!?"

"No! I'm not getting in." Tear tracks were evident on her face. Lando had thought she was being childish at the time. Like she was just doing this out of her rebellious kid years. He had never even thought of the possibility that she was scared.

Her father grabbed her arm a sob escaping past the girl's lips. "You are getting in the fucking kart, end of discussion."

She tried to pull her arm back, but his grip on her arm was too strong. That was the first time he had hurt her like that.

"Ow, let go!" desperately trying to stay as far away from the thing she used all her weight- which wasn't a whole lot- to stop him from walking. She tried burying her feet in the ground, but the small kid didn't stand a chance against her father.

He realised that with the death of her mom she didn't only lose her mother, but she also lost her dad. He realised the only reason she didn't want to be friends with him was because she was afraid to lose him and only that made him want to throw his arms around her and never let go. To show her he wouldn't leave her.

He realised that every time she looked at him she saw her mother. Her mother who always used to tease her with the way she looked at him. The same woman who would stay and talk with his parents and congratulate him if he had won it.

Every time Norah saw the boy she was painfully remembered that the woman who was so fond of him wasn't around anymore.

That was the reason she didn't like him.

-

There you have it, the reason norah doesn't particularly likes Lando.

Can you believe we only have 5 chapters left?

Don't worry though, I've started writing a new story already so that should be out soon.

I need your help though, who woukd you like to read about

Charles leclerc

Daniel ricciardo

Max verstappen

I've started working on 2/3 already so I'll like your opinion on which i would have to focus on as next story

Thankss for reading, I can't even start to explain how much I love y'all. This is getting crazy lmao

Xxx

word count: 1375
Publish date: 17/05/2019