APRIL 11

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news." Shannon announced suddenly, shifting uncomfortably.

Avery's eyes narrowed as she turned to face her manager, who was sitting beside her in a rental car on the way to the season two premiere of Heartbreak High. Their estimated arrival was in less than ten minutes, and all of the worst case scenarios possible had ran through her mind by the time Shannon finished pausing dramatically. She'd always been one to assume the worst, something she'd been working through with Selene as of late. It was safe to say that Avery hadn't been able to fully rid herself of the habit yet.

"What now?" She asked nervously, fiddling with a painstakingly straightened strand of hair.

"They want us to lean into the dating rumors. You and Luke are scheduled to walk the carpet together." Shannon read off her phone. "But they don't care what happens when you two are away from the cameras. You could punch him in the face for all I care."

Avery let out a tired groan. It made sense for promoting the show, but it might've been the last thing that she wanted to do in that very moment. While her gut was initially against it, she knew that she'd end up giving in when it cane to the future of her job. Jeopardizing her relationship with the team while still waiting for a renewal wasn't the answer, especially knowing how easily people could be written off the show despite having prominent roles. She'd only heard back from one other potential role, a movie in her future while playing the waiting game for all other self tapes that she'd sent in recently.

"Absolutely not." She shut it down immediately.

While she and Luke had finally made their peace after their spat before press earlier that week, agreeing to fully end things between them on the phone earlier that morning, Avery wasn't sure how awkward things would be between them that night. After the dumpster fire press day just a couple days prior, she had wanted to smooth things over for once and for all. They sat on a video call for nearly an hour talking things over, Avery confessing to him that she thinks her heart is elsewhere— Luke being surprisingly happy for her as he broke out into a grin. She had looked dumbfounded, her brain confused why he was taking the news so well.

"The clip from the trailer of you two after the school dance in the season finale is going viral at the moment, they think that a publicity stunt would increase viewers for this season."

"For fucks sake, Shannon." Avery groaned.

She knew exactly the moment that Shannon was talking about, the final scene of the second season. Hartley High had caught on fire during their school formal, all of the students outside as they watched their school burn. Avery's character Izzy had been standing in Luke's character Callum's suit jacket, as the finally confessed their feelings, the snippet of Avery's character's voice whispering "I love you" in the trailer haunting her dreams.

It had sent Emilie and Hannah into hysterics as they played the trailer on their tv, Emilie falling onto the floor as she laughed uncontrollably. Avery had sat in a thoroughly dismayed silence. Her eye had been twitching as the ad loaded after the trailer finished playing, wondering how she'd be able to make it through the months leading up to the premiere with every interviewer mentioning that moment. Spoiler alert: it didn't go as expected.

"This wasn't my idea!" Shannon was starting to get defensive, her frown etching deeper.

"I know, I'm sorry. I just can't believe this." Avery groaned, fighting the urge to cover her face with her hands and mess up her professionally applied makeup.

"You'll be fine." Was the last thing Shannon said.

Settling on pursing her lips tightly together, Avery sat in silence for the rest of the car ride. She wouldn't to anything to jeopardize her career, but knew she had to make her boundaries clear for everything to run smoothly that night. Not with Luke as he was already well aware of how she felt, but with everyone else involved. The crew, the cast, the press. This had been by far her favorite job of her career, she wasn't about to let it be turned into something it wasn't.

"You look pretty." Luke grinned as she approached him.

The pale blue dress that she wore that night had been her last preferred choice if she was being completely honest, but she had deferred her styling decisions to Shannon a week prior. It may have been a slightly uncomfortable fabric to be wearing all night, but she did look picture perfect for the carpet as the color complimented the remnants of her sad excuse of a tan from summer. If anything the tan had been the aftermath of a terrible sunburn, giving her the illusion of color for a week or two.

"Thanks, you don't look too bad either." She simply nodded.

Avery stood awkwardly beside him as they waited to be called up for pictures. She kept fidgeting with the golden bracelets that covered her wrists, knowing that in less than twenty minutes she'd be inside with her best friends, able to talk it all out before receiving Selene's professional opinion bright and early the next morning.

"You're okay with doing this?" He didn't sound too convinced either.

"Do we have much of a choice? Neither of us brought dates to rescue us." Avery replied drily.

"Where's Prince Charming?" Luke wondered as they shuffled forward in the wings for their turn to walk the carpet.

Avery scowled up at him. "England, probably. Maybe Monaco?"

"Monaco? So he is a prince." The tremors she heard in Luke's whistle gave away that he was fighting back a real laugh.

She shrugged, her frown disappearing as she fought back a smile herself. They were ushered onto the red carpet, catching the attention of the first wave of photographers. Luke gently pushed her out towards them first, the shouts of her name drowning out the laugh that he finally let out once she was a few feet away as she looked appalled.

"You're insufferable." Avery shook her head at him, trying equally as hard to not laugh.

"I have my moments, don't I?" He called back grinning.

He did.

Walking the carpet felt like muscle memory to Avery, pausing every couple steps with a small smile as she turned to face the flashing cameras. Her name was hollered from all directions, photographers jockeying for her attention as she slowly continued on her way. The ten minutes spent felt like hours, until she was finally able to escape inside and could breath easily for the time being. She exhaled slowly, rolling her shoulders back as she fixed her posture and kept walking down the hall towards where her friends had said that they'd be waiting.

"Everything okay?" Hannah wrapped an arm around Avery's shoulders, pulling her into a hug.

Avery leaned into her friend, gratefully for her presence at that moment. She watched as Luke entered the room, walking past the three women as he walked towards their castmate Thomas. As Luke passed them by, he flashed a smile and waved once, continuing on his way without a word. Things were good between them.

"Great." She nodded with a slight smile.

"Thank fuck." Emilie huffed into her flute of champagne.

All three would let out a collective sigh of relief, not having to be on edge the entire night in fear of awkward cast dynamics. No matter how many times Avery swore up and down that she could keep her emotions in check, Hannah would remind her of all of her reactions during season one press that would live on the show's social media pages as memes for as long as the internet existed. Some were rather unflattering, and she promised she would keep the celebratory drinks to a maximum of one to even further reduce the chance of her true thoughts being captured on camera through her expressive facials.

"You and Luke?" Hannah asked the question that their other flatmate was wondering as well.

"In the past." She nodded decisively. "We're good, just trying to enjoy the night and all of our hard work."

"Good." Hannah said firmly as she placed a glass in Avery's hand. "It's time to celebrate!"

The three girls clinked their champagne glasses, eager to see their hard work over the last year finally come to life for everyone to see during the showing of the first episode. It was slightly embarrassing, having filmed scenes for every episode, but Avery was failing to remember the order in which they were sequenced. Watching the final product had always been exciting, fitting together the puzzle pieces of what else her castmates had been up to while they had all been on set.

APRIL 12

The next morning was a rough one, Avery barely running on four hours of sleep as she sat slumped in the lounge chair in her therapist's office. Selene had let out a yelp upon finding the redhead in her lobby, her client looking horribly hungover and disheveled in the matching sweatset and oversized sunnies that she wore to her appointment that morning. The appointment had been scheduled long before the premiere date had been confirmed, the two agreeing to take it relatively easy on the other for a session.

"And what did you learn?" Selene raised her eyebrows from across the office.

Avery let out an exasperated sigh. "That things aren't going to be as bad as I make them out to be in my head, and to not avoid needed much conversations?"

"Exactly." Selene agreed. "That was a big step, I'm proud of you."

How proud she was of Avery may be short lived with the information that was about to come her way. It seemed to be a common recurrence, talking about a positive step towards progress before admitting to something that was in the absolute opposite direction.

"But then this morning I deleted every social media app off of my phone to avoid seeing what people are saying about this season online." Avery admitted sheepishly.

She knew it sounded ridiculous, but she couldn't help it. Avery was proud of how the season turned out, the work she put into it and what her castmates had done. But they couldn't control the reactions of the viewers, and that scared her. She couldn't think of anything that would be downright enraging, but a few changes she didn't foresee going over the smoothest. Casting switches, unexpected pairings and storylines that could be taken as out of character from the previous season.

"I mean, I would do that too." Selene tilted her head from side to side, weighing her options. "I'd just call that protecting your peace. Being proud of the work you put in, not listening to unwarranted negativity. Now if you weren't pleased with how it turned out, then maybe you'd seek validation from those who shared the same opinion. But you aren't, so I don't see why that's a bad thing really."

Avery nodded slowly, letting her words sink in.

"Are you going to watch?" She wondered.

"Oh of course, you'll be getting my very strong opinions next week." Selene said immediately, shaking her head vigorously. "I won't hold back either way. I need to see how things play out. How art mimics reality. No? Okay."

She held her hands up defensively, before lowering them to fidget with the cuffs on a bulky sweater that she had made herself. Selene had many a time suggested crocheting to Avery as a hobby to release stress, but after the girl had threatened to stab Emilie with a crochet needle after a game night with the three girls got a bit rowdy, it was never recommended again. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that Avery's character was into running on the show, becoming an outlet for her to blow off some steam while off set.

"If we get renewed, then I think I'm royally fucked. Maybe I can ask to be written off the show?" Avery mused.

"Avery."

"He just took it too well. I don't know why I was expecting Luke to be really mad."

"You were expecting the worst." Selene raised her eyebrows, jotting a note down.

Avery wrinkled her nose. "There's just no way I can kiss him for another season."

The romantic plot lines with Luke's character involved with hers were supposed to be short lived, with her character returning to her ex-boyfriend who practically had a personality transplant over the course of a season to win her back. But unfortunately the fans loved Izzy and Callum together, and the rest was history. She'd tried to advocate for sticking to the original plot line, but the received positive response for Spider and Missy instead had been much larger.

"You're a professional." Selene reminded her. "But maybe it wouldn't hurt to pretend he's someone else?"

Avery froze, brain scrambling to try and remember if she'd ever told Selene about Oscar. Her eyes narrowed, unable to pinpoint whether or not she had.

"If you were so set on ending things with Luke, who you've been talking about for ages, there must be someone else?" Selene wondered.

"Oh, would you look at that!" Avery pointed at the clock that was hung on the wall. "We're out of time. Bye Selene, I'll see you next week!"

It was very quickly that she grabbed her purse and slid on her sunnies, practically running out of the office as she ignored Selene calling after her. Avery had never been the most punctual, but every day was a new opportunity to start being so. Today may have been that day in her eyes.

"Your post has been up for three minutes, and guess who already commented?" Hannah burst out laughing, practically slamming her phone screen down on the table.

The three were sitting in their kitchen eating dinner, following their usual routine of five minutes of sitting and scrolling after squabbling for the entirety of the time it took them to cook, before putting their phones down for the rest of the meal. They made an effort to at least have two meals together a week, trying to align their schedules.

Their topic that night had been finally dissecting outfits from the premiere the night before as pictures were gradually starting to surface online, discussing whose dresses they'd steal and whose they would burn immediately if it was an option for them when being styled. Hannah had assumed control of Avery's online presence once more, carefully curating pictures from the premiere to post in honor of the show then being available worldwide. After a long debate, Avery finally agreed to switch her account to public despite feeling like a nervous wreck as she watched the following numbers creep from a couple hundred into the thousands.

From across the table, Avery looked on blankly in confusion as Emilie leaned over to glance at Hannah's phone screen with a smirk growing across her lips. She rolled her eyes at her two friends, annoyed at how childish they were acting. Like they were fourteen again with their school crush having liked their picture, reading far too much into it as they giggled conspiratorially feeding into each others delusions. If only she knew how much truth the fleeting thought would hold.

Hannah huffed, "Just guess already!"

"I don't know? The cast?" She floundered for an answer.

"No!" Hannah exclaimed. "Come on Avery, use your brain! Who do you know that would be almost immediately be commenting on your pictures?"

"Shannon!" Avery was confidently wrong.

Emilie sighed loudly. "The comment says 'Cheers, Avery! Can't wait to watch.' With a clapping emoji after. Now who does that sound like?"

The way her friends were staring at her, silently cursing her obliviousness made her feel stupid as the pieces all fell into place mentally. Oh. Avery covered her face with both hands, trying to hide the flush of her cheeks from her friends. No matter how cool she tried to play it, she was over the moon. But chances were that it was a social media manager scrolling through his feed, seeing another Australian and growing the online network between rising stars.

"Have you talked to him recently?" Hannah wondered curiously.

Avery shook her head. "No, but I haven't tried to. I'm busy, he's busy. It probably wasn't even him that commented. Two million followers and as high profile as he is in his sport? He has to have someone managing his social media. I mean, you run mine."

"Avery!"

"If he calls, I'll answer. If he doesn't, I'm not worried about it." Avery picked at the piece of chicken on her plate.

She was trying and failing to be nonchalant. That weekend in Melbourne had felt too perfect, too convenient that she'd almost been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sure, there wasn't exactly a shortage of men interested in Avery Forrester. But it seemed too well timed, and she was struggling to find anything wrong with Oscar Piastri. He was kind, funny, supportive, and was well established himself. On paper he checked off every box, so why was she so uneasy about it all?

"You know there's never going to be a perfect time, right? He'll be busy with racing and development year round, and your schedule is never consistent with auditions and filming." Hannah reminded her.

"I don't want to convince myself that this is something that it isn't." Avery verbalized her fears. "I just don't want to get hurt again."

Selene would've had a field day had Avery decided to open up during their session instead of bolting at the first opportunity that presented itself. The unattainable standards she held for herself of what she thought others expected of her, the worries of what was thought by those in her life. Learning to trust others and assure herself that their intentions were good, to move from her past memories of being wronged.

"Oh, please." Emilie rolled her eyes. "We moved past questioning his feelings forever ago. I mean look at the flowers that are still everywhere."

She had a point. As if he could hear them talking about him, Oscar's name lit up on her phone screen with an incoming call. Dropping many expletives under her breath, Avery just stared at her phone as her friends shouted at her to just answer it and put everyone out of their misery. She was frozen with her phone clutched tightly in her hand, it was a few seconds from kicking him to her message box.

"See? It's all in your head." Hannah reassured her. "You're okay."

Avery nodded, accepting the call to quickly pull the phone away from her ear as Oscar sounded rather outraged. "You're telling me that Izzy, the most qualified of them all, wasn't elected as school captain?! Also, I'm glad she didn't burn in the fire. I reckon it would've pissed my sisters off."

She shook her head to herself as Emilie pursed her lips, trying not to laugh as both girls across the table had overheard his reaction to the show. Avery did let a giggle slip, taking a deep breath in as she realized that she had been once again jumping to the worst conclusions about others and it truly was just her brain trying to play tricks on her. But her nose crinkled in confusion while trying to do the calculations trying to figure out how he had seen that much of the show, wondering if he had the show spoiled for him by his sisters. Hannah had pointed out one of them in her follow requests before she opened her account up to the public.

"You watched the whole show already?" Avery was still shocked.

Oscar made a strangled noise on the other line. "Well— kinda? Few episodes yesterday, a couple today. I skipped around a lot when you weren't in the scenes. It was getting boring watching some of the other characters."

Her doubts were a figment of her imagination, she had nothing to worry about.

Right?

Delaney's Rambles!

Timeline note: so clearly I have no idea how Netflix releases and time zones work apparently, so we're pretending that the shows drop at midnight on the 12th in Sydney which still lines up with the rest of the world (for the most part) streaming it on the 11th which lines up with the official release date.

Hi! I also want to thank everyone who is sticking by this story. I know it hasn't been updated in two months which has partially been attributed to the worst case of writers block that I think I've ever had, along with taking a full course load, applying to med school, I ran a half marathon (!!), and my job.

Also on a more creative note, I was kind of waiting it out until the end of the F1 season to see where things ended up. When I started planning this book over the summer, there was a lotttt that I didn't think would happen and needed to change in my outline (Logan being dropped, McLaren's upward surge in the Constructors, etc). So hopefully now that we're on break, the updates should be a bit more frequent (like one a week possibly) for a bit.

I think I was also stressing myself out too much about writing, and some chapters will be longer than others and thats okay! Going to be totally transparent and say that I hate this chapter, so I'm sorry I didn't have the energy to scrap it for a third time and come up with something I felt better about— just wanting to push past and continue with the story.

Next chapter will be more entertaining I promise, as we get into more averyoscar moments and her trip the States for Natalie's graduation and possibly something else up my sleeve...