Next To You [ Lando Norris ]

Part 3

Luna POV

The warmth of the sun gently kisses my eyelids and a cool summer breeze fills the room while the birds in the tree next to my window have started their morning songs. My eyes slowly flicker open and as I roll over into bed, I glance at the small clock on my bedside table which reads 7 o'clock exactly. I let my body slide under the blankets again and pull the blankets up to just below my neck before telling myself that it's okay to sleep for 5 more minutes.

After another 10 minutes of lying like this I push myself up into a sitting position. I swing my legs from under my white duvet and feel the cold wooden floor beneath my bare feet. I walk to my suitcase that I put in the corner of the hotel room when I arrived last night and take out a summer dress, it's a red dress with white dots all over it, perfect for a warm and sunny day like today.

I walk towards the large window of my hotel room and slide the curtains to the side to look out on the beautiful city of Melbourne. I open the window a little further which causes the wind to gently blow through my hair and with a smile on my face I feel the warm sun burning softly on my face.

I grab everything I think I will need for a day on the track and put it in a black purse. I put my sunglasses on my head, quickly put on my white sneakers and close the hotel door behind me to walk towards breakfast where I will meet Max and Victoria.

While trying to find my way to breakfast I listen to some music and get completely lost in my own thoughts. I walk through a big glass door into the breakfast room and immediately see Max and Victoria sitting there. As soon as they see me too, broad smiles appear on their faces and Victoria immediately grabs an extra chair so I can sit at a table with them. As soon as I reach the table I stand behind Max's chair and put my arms around him. "You're gonna kill it this weekend, I know it" I say to him and before I get up again I shake my hand through his hair which makes Max sigh because now he has to fix his hair again and while laughing I walk to the buffet to grab myself some breakfast.

I grab some more grapes and put them with the rest of my fruit in a bowl before I add some more yoghurt. With the bowl of yogurt in my hands I turn around to walk towards Victoria and Max when I bump into someone. I get scared and almost let the cup of yogurt fall out of my hands, but two hands grab mine immediately so the bowl doesn't fall. The touch feels familiar and with startled eyes I slowly look up at the person I just bumped into, but I already have a feeling that I know who it is. As soon as our eyes meet I have the feeling that my cheeks are on fire from how red they are, it's Lando. He lets go of my hands and smiles. "Hey, it's Luna, isn't it? Sorry I bumped into you again, it's like fate wants us together" he says with a smile and I nod gently with a soft but shy smile. I wonder why I suddenly have so much trouble talking, I normally never suffer from that but now not a single word comes out of my mouth. Lando chuckles and grabs a napkin before telling me that there is  a spot on my dress with some yoghurt on it. I feel my cheeks reddening with embarrasment, but Lando's soft smile makes me feel at ease somewhere. Lando grabs my bowl with yoghurt so I can clean my dress, luckily it comes off easily and you can't even see it anything anymore. I walk to the trash can to throw away the napkin and then back to Lando to take over my breakfast. The contact between our hands when I take over the cup causes shivers to run down my spine and after thanking him I quickly walk back to Max and Victoria. Lando stays for a while and when I turn around I see how Carlos, his teammate, teases him about what just happened by patting his back while laughing out loud and a little smile appears on my face as I walk back to my table.

Max apparently didn't get anything from what happened between me and Lando since he keeps talking about the race weekend, but that certainly doesn't apply to Victoria. She looks at me with a curious look all the time, making it pretty clear that she knows what happened at the buffet. Thankfully Max isn't able to stop talking about the race so Victoria isn't even able to ask me questions and I can eat my breakfast in peace while listening to Max rambling on about his car. Although I'm able to avoid the questions during breakfast, the second Max is gone Victoria ask me literally anything she can think of.

The three of us walk towards the hospitality of red-bull where we already see the personal trainer waiting for Max. As soon as Max sees his trainer, Jake, he quickly says hello and runs to him. Together they walk to the garage and within a few seconds they're out of sight. Me and Victoria walk into the hospitality and sit down on a large bench in the corner where it is a bit quieter. I run to the couch and drop my head in the many cushions which makes Victoria laugh very hard before she sits down on the couch opposite me shaking her head. I know this is the perfect situation for Victoria to ask me about what happened this morning, but I really don't feel like it right now. I sigh loudly while I am still bending my head in the cushions and hope that was clear enough for Victoria not to mention Lando, but of course that is impossible.

"So Luna, you gonna tell me or do I need to ask someone else what happened, maybe a certain someone from McLaren?" with a big smile on her face Victoria looks at me and I give her a deadly stare as I push myself up into a sitting position on the couch with my legs crossed. Victoria stands up and walks towards me, she lets herself fall onto the couch next to me and opens her arms as a gesture for me to give her a hug while giving me a reassuring smile. I turn my body towards her en let myself fall into her arms. I lay my head on her lap and curl my legs up a bit while she tucks a few strays of hair behind my ear, this position reminds me of the day my mom died and Victoria held me like this until I fell asleep after crying so much for what felt like days. A comfortable silence falls between us for a couple of minutes before Victoria clears her throat and asks me to tell her everything about this boy. "Well, his name is Lando and he is a formula 1 racer for McLaren" I say and look up at Victoria who looks at me with a look like are you serious and huffs. I giggle and continue my story. "You remember when I went to get some food yesterday?" I ask and she nods, "well, when I was on my way back to you I wasn't really paying attention to what was happening in front of me and I walked straight into him. Now I have to say that he wasn't really paying attention either, so it's not al my fault. He said he was sorry like a 100 times, which I thought was really cute, we talked for like two seconds and than he asked my name. That's how we met, but those damn eyes and that smile are seriously insane, I felt like I really got lost in his eyes." I say and Victoria smiles at me while squeezing my face and I giggle. "Stop it Vic, it's nothing. It meant nothing." But I feel my cheeks turning a darker shade of red as those words leave my mouth and Victoria starts laughing. "Do you honestly think I believe that. That it meant nothing. Girl, there is a smile on your face that doesn't even disappear for one second when you talk about him and the way I saw you looking at him this morning, it means so much to you. And to be honest, the way he looked at you was so loving, it was insane." I laugh at how serious she sounds and shake my head before standing up from the couch and say "Shall we go look for some food, I need something to eat, now." Victoria looks at me with a big smile while shaking her head and laughing out loud, but agrees with me to go look for something to eat and together we walk out of the Red-Bull hospitality into the warm sun of Melbourne.

With trembling hands of nerves I look at the screen where I can see how Max starts his qualification. Together with Victoria I sat down in the back of the garage where we can listen to the commentary given by the commentators with our headphones on while we watch the qualification of Max on a big screen.

P4, Max has done well but as long as he doesn't win he is never satisfied, so he isn't very happy with his position for tomorrow. As soon as he walks into the garage he first walks towards Christian Horner and the rest of the team, everyone gives him a hug and says he did well, but you can see in Max's eyes that he is not satisfied with his performance today. He now comes walking towards me and Victoria with a soft smile and I immediately get up and give him a hug. "You've done so well, Max, I'm proud of you." Max shakes his head slowly and I gently tap his chest and step back so he can give his little sister a hug too. I notice a feeling of relief flowing through my body because I always get a little nervous when Max is in a car at such a high speed, one small mistake and everything can end very differently, but I'm so glad he came back to us in one piece. I grab my bag from the chair and the three of us walk to the media for some interviews with Max and then we'll go back to the hotel where we're going to use the beautiful swimming pool, I already feel like swimming because it really is insanely hot here in Melbourne. I can't wait to jump into the pool and have some delicious dinner with my two best friends after that.