Part 16 | Brazil

The next was in Brazil on the Autódromo José Carlos Pace track. It was Lando's birthday on Sunday, tonight Friday-was practice and his birthday dinner.

I was no longer invited and it stayed that way, the other drivers and his family went out for a dinner party and I simply ate my dinner on another restaurant.

I respected Lando's wishes and stayed away. Though I had ordered his birthday gifts months before, I made Charles give it to him.

I left a small card saying a simple "happy birthday". It was a watch he had his eyes on for months before his birthday, I knew he would love it so I still gave to him, I could've sent it back, but I wanted him to have it.

Once I had eaten in the peaceful restaurant, I paid and left, I decided to walk back to the hotel instead of driving, so I began the quiet walk.

The entire week of preparations, Lando had acted like an asshole to me, I had actually begun to despise him. It made no sense to suddenly act like this.

But I guess that's what happen when you have your heart broken by your best friend.

I looked down on my phone as I walked, I saw pictures of Lando and the drivers celebrated him as he deserved.

He looked happy. I shut my phone off and put it in my back pocket of my jeans.

It didn't take long until my phone buzzed, Arthur was calling and I answered it while walking.

"Hey Art"

"Hey Jams, what are you up to?" He asks and I can tell he's bored as hell by the tone of his voice.

"Walking home from dinner" I say with a small chuckle. "Wait-you went there? To Lando's birthday dinner?" Arthur asked surprised.

"No, of course not. I stayed away as asked. But I had to eat something tonight" I say and roll my eyes a little.

"I'm sorry" Arthur suddenly said. "Hey- I need to go-Charles is calling me. I'll call you back" He added and hung up before I could say anything-as he always did.

The dude didn't spare a second whenever someone called during our talks.

Ten minutes passed and I was almost at the hotel when Arthur called me back.

"Jasmine, I just talked to Charles and something went wrong after the dinner. Lando is incredibly sick, they suspect food poisoning" Arthur said, my stomach turned upside down at that information.

"B-But he has Quali tomorrow" I stuttered, I winced at the way things had turned.

"I'm aware and so is his team. I don't know how bad it is, Charles will call you when he knows more" Arthur said and I frowned.

"Why me?" I ask confused.

"I'm not even going to answer that-see you later, Jams-oh and Lando's room number is 210, in case you would be able to use that information to something-BYE!" Arthur screamed the last word and hung up abruptly.

"That son of a-No not Pascale-Jerk!" I corrected myself as I saw the hotel coming into my view, I walked into the lobby and headed towards the elevator.

I pressed the button to my floor, which was unsurprisingly on the same as Lando's.

I sighed as I walked out. I stopped in my tracks and rubbed the bridge of my nose.

"Fuck" I cursed under my breath before sighing in defeat. Despite how Lando treated me after our split, I still worried for him.

"Shit" I added before making my way to room number 210. I groaned in annoyance of myself before knocking on the door.

The door opened and Daniel's face came into my view. "Hey, I heard what happened" I start out, relief hit me as Lando hadn't been the one to answer.

"Yeah, it's not good" Daniel said and frowned. "Do you want to come in?"

"No, I just-is he gonna be okay?" I ask Daniel, his eyes meets mine and he gives me a small smile and nods his head.

"They don't know if he'll be able to make it to qualifying tomorrow, they might bring in Nyck De Vries, if he doesn't get better by then" I nodded and felt a bit sympathy for Lando.

"That's not good" I mumbled mostly to myself and Daniel nodded before scratching the back of his neck.

"Are you sure you don't want to come in? He's in bed" Daniel said and I shook my head no and took a step back.

"No, I just wanted to know how he was. I'll go now" I say and Daniel nods.

I back up and give Daniel one last look before turning on my heel, I hear the door close behind me and I continue to my room.

I felt for Lando, I did. It was his birthday dinner and he gets food poisoning and now he might not be able to race on Sunday.

I locked myself into my room and locked it after me, then I got a long warm shower before getting into the bed.

What was now memories, pushed its way back into my head, the movies night with Lando and the way we laid in bed when we woke up.

It made me feel lonely and empty when I looked beside me to see an empty spot.

That's just how it is.

I scoffed to myself and slammed my head back into the pillows and stared at the ceiling till I passed out from exhaustion.

My mind kept going back to if Lando was okay, if he was getting better and if he had someone there.

But it wasn't my business, I didn't need to know anything and I certainly couldn't do anything.

When the morning of qualifying arrived, I got up early and prepared myself for the day.

No one knew if Lando would make it yet.

I ate breakfast with Charles and Carlos, after I drove with Charles to the track, he told me that when Lando had opened my present he had frozen completely, he had looked at it with a smile.

He put it on immediately and wore it the rest of the night, the fact that my gift to him had made him smile, sort of gave me hope that someday we might be able to be civil to each other.

When we arrived at the stadium we checked in and I stood outside of the paddock.

I was talking to Charles' team when everyone on the paddock began to whisper and then clap their hands.

I turned on my heel and watched Lando walk down the paddock to get to the McLaren paddock.

I couldn't help but smile even though he looked exhausted and more dead than alive.

His eyes met mine, I sent him a short nod with a small smile on my face, which he of course ignored, but he had seen it.

I didn't expect him to break out a smile to me, not when the situation was the way it was.

Everyone got ready and praised Lando the whole to the McLaren paddock where the team continued to praise him when they saw him.

Lando had made it, there was no stopping him now.