SEVENTY ONE

"I'll let you put makeup on me if you say that I'm the best."

Charles Leclerc smiled happily as he stood beside his love, Larissa. He hadn't yet asked her to be his girlfriend, but he was planning on doing that in the future, he just needed to plan it absolutely perfectly and make sure that she had the same feelings that he did.

"What if I say that Danny is the best? Huh? What would you say to that?"

Larissa Cohen laughed at the Monégasque driver, seeing his green eyes glistening in the sunlight as they sat on the grass, near to the paddock where they would be racing later in the day.

"I mean, that is factually correct, but I would still like you to say that I am the best. I like to be delusional when it comes to success." Charles laughed, his giggles making the Cohen girl that was beside him light up in to a bright and beaming smile.

"That's why you are at Sauber, no?" The Brazilian released a loud laugh at the unamused yet comical face that she received as the answer to her question from the Leclerc boy, squeezing her eyes shut momentarily.

"Sauber is practically the same as Toro Rosso, so I don't know what you are laughing about. We both choose to stay delusional to our problems." Charles lightly nudged her with his elbow, seeing her nod her head up and down a couple of times.

"My problems tend to get sorted because it's just one giant problem, and Zahra seems to sort him out by threatening him with a wooden spoon." Larissa pointed out, since most of her problems with Toro Rosso were actually just the same problem over and over again.

Franz Tost.

"Have you looked in to reporting him for how he has been treating you? It is still unbelievable that your diet was barely any food, he was putting your health at risk." Charles released a scoff of annoyance as he remembered finding out the news about her diet and exercise plan that her team boss had done for her.

"I'm working on it, Kimi and Lucy are helping me with it. They are trying to make me take it to the FIA."

"You go girl! Tell them everything, the sexism, the racism, the fact that the guy from Mercedes ripped his trousers just now..."

Zahra Bailey interrupted the pair abruptly, taking a seat on the grass between the two of them, having heard a lot of the conversation.

"The guy from Mercedes?" Charles frowned in confusion.

"She means Toto." Larissa informed the boy, seeing his face fill with humor once again.

"Yeah, he was chasing after Roscoe and went to pick him up, and the next thing that I know, I'm seeing his ass." Zahra cackled, making the two of her favorite people beside her laugh along with her. "Which, you know is so weird, considering the fact that he is practically my dad at this point. I had to cover my eyes."

"It could be worse! When I was a kid, I once walked in on my parents 'making love' as they called it. I'd rather see Toto's ass than what I saw, any day of the week!" The Cohen girl grimaced as she remembered the horror that had scarred her young brain.

"Who saw Toto's ass?"

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen laughed hysterically as they too joined the trio, sitting down beside them, having only heard the very last part of their conversation which sounded absolutely dreadful out of context.

"That would be me." Zahra raised her hand in to the air, a small smile on her lips. "It's kinda traumatising me, I may need to bleach my eyes, if I'm being honest."

"Or just traumatise yourself with something worse than Toto's ass." Larissa grinned, an idea forming in her mind, her grin appearing rather mischievous.

"Like Jos' face."

Max Verstappen immediately spat the water that was inside of his mouth out, as he was forced to cough, the words of the Toro Rosso driver taking him by surprise, with the group immediately bursting in to laughter.

"Wow, thanks lieve!" Max bellowed with laughter as he recovered from nearly choking on his drink of water.

Charles shifted uncomfortably at the pet name.

The Leclerc boy carefully pulled his phone from out of his pocket so that he could send a text message to that of the Verstappen boy, the two of them making eye contact before they both made their excuses to leave, heading in the same direction.

"What's the secret text for?" Max asked the Sauber driver, confusion evident on his face.

"Do you like Larissa?" Charles found himself questioning, insecurity making himself panic.

"Yes? What is it to you? Jealous?" Max stopped dead in his tracks, having known why he had been asked such a question. He knew that he wasn't great at hiding his feelings for the Cohen girl, but neither was Charles.

"Well, I-I just wanted to ask you, as a friend because I really like her an-"

"If you weren't a rival, you'd be my best friend, but you are, so, fuck off." Max spoke in an abrupt tone, because Charles was his competition to Larissa's heart.

As much as he got on well with Charles, he was his rival for her affection and her love, so they couldn't be friends, no matter how good friends they would be if they were.

"I'm sorry?" The Leclerc boy stared at the Dutch boy in confusion, having never expected Max to come out and say such a thing.

"I've liked her ever since I was a kid, Charles. She could never remember me whenever we would see or speak to each other, but I always hoped that she would eventually feel the same. I'm not about to ruin my chances with the girl of my dreams, by becoming friends with you." Max admitted his feelings to the Monégasque, seeing him nod his head up and down a couple of times.

"Would you ever change your mind on that?"

"Maybe, but don't hold your breath. In front of her, I'll act like your friend, but just know that I am not. I'm pretending just so that she is happy, because that is all I care about. Her."

The two boys walked back towards the group, unaware that somebody had been stood just outside of the garage where they had previously stood, shaking her head from side to side.

Lucy Appleton released a scoff before she disappeared back in to the Toro Rosso garage, taking a mental note to inform either Larissa or Zahra of what she had just heard.

"Boys."

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"Boys!"

Zahra Bailey shouted at the top of her lungs as she gained the attention of all of the men that were standing and sitting inside of the house in Milan that belonged to Pierre Gasly.

Whilst Carlos had originally planned to drink in his hotel room, he ended up changing his mind and moving their party to the house of the French man, who had only agreed to join them because Larissa and Zahra were going to be there.

All of the men then turned their attention to that of the Bailey woman, who was dressed as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, having decided to dress up and cheer everybody up, even though she struggled with the events of Spa, herself.

But, she did what she always did. Try and cheer everybody up, and plaster a smile upon her face even though all she had wanted to do was to cry and grieve for her friend.

"I would like to introduce to you all..... straight from High School Musical, Sharpay and Ryan Evans!" Zahra's voice was loud, piercing above all as she pointed the both of her hands towards the door where she knew two people were bickering about who would enter the room first.

In the end, Ryan Evans entered the room first, though it was rather ungracefully.

Then again, Larissa had used all of her force to push Lando in to the room, sending him stumbling through the door until he finally collided with the hard wooded floor that covered the ground.

Once Lando was completely on the floor, Larissa entered the room, a blonde wig upon her head, dressed in a pink skirt which paired well with the white shirt and pink feather boa that she had used for her costume.

Her heels were pink too.

Lando grunted as the Cohen girl stepped on his back to step over him, the both of them trying desperately to stay in character even though they both wanted to laugh at the way that the Norris boy had fallen.

At the sight of his former team mate and best friend, dressed as a character from High School Musical, Pierre found himself laughing, finally having a happy smile cover his lips.

"Can I finally have a drink now? It took me ages to get in to this wig." Larissa spoke with a slight glare aimed at the Bailey woman who decided to hide behind her boyfriend, the pair of them snickering quietly.

They both knew that she looked great.

"Whiskey?"

Carlos Sainz smiled at his friend with an amused look in his dark eyes, seeing the girl nod her head up and down, gulping down the drink of whiskey that he had given her, within a matter of seconds.

Larissa stopped dead as she spotted how she looked in one of the many mirrors within the home of the Gasly man, the smile that had appeared on her lips dropping as she realised what it was that she was doing.

She was masking her pain once again.

With smiles and laughter, and giggles and grins and smirks and jokes.

She didn't want to do that. She just wanted Anthoine to walk through the door and give her the biggest hug that she had ever received.

But she couldn't get that, so she drank instead.

As the party went on around her, she found herself slipping out of the room to go and sit in the back garden of Pierre's house, the French man himself having spotted her, but only gave her a reassuring smile that gave her a small amount of comfort.

Pierre was trying to hide his pain by drinking too. So was Esteban. And Charles.

"Room for a little one?"

A British accent spoke up from behind her as she sat away from the house, the Brazilian turning her body around to see a smile that always made her smile.

"Hey, Al."

Larissa smiled sadly as Alex Albon took a seat beside her, taking a hold of her hand so that he could squeeze her hand and give her the comfort that he knew that she needed, whilst also allowing her to rest her head on to his shoulder.

"How are you coping?" Alex asked as they sat in near perfect silence.

"I'm not, Al. I'm not coping." Larissa admitted, her lips twitching up as the Albon boy lifted her hand up to his lips so that he could kiss her knuckles, before squeezing her hand.

"And are you sleeping? Any nightmares?" Alex gently questioned, not wanting to trigger anything in her mind which would make her shut anybody, especially him, out again.

"I have nightmares every night. The only time that I don't, is when I'm at the hospital with Juan and I sleep beside him." The Cohen girl admitted to her friend, seeing the Thai boy nodding his head up and down as he listened.

"Can I propose something?" Alex asked with raised eyebrows, smiling as the girl beside him nodded her head up and down. "Can I propose a new tradition, that happens every year which involves, Lando, your beautiful self, Mick, George, Pierre and myself?"

"Are you going to propose that we have an annual sleepover?" Larissa's voice cracked as she said the words, pain flooding in to her chest at the thought of no longer being able to have her annual sleepover with the boy who was her best friend.

"I am..." Alex released a deep sigh, pulling the girl against his chest. "When Juan is better, I want him to join our annual sleepover, and I want it to be where we all watch the most cringy, vomit worthy movies that we can possibly find, eat a new cuisine every time, and we always have to try a new alcohol that we have never tried before."

"How does that sound?"

Larissa nodded her head up and down a couple of times, looking up at the Albon boy who had always been there by her side when she had needed him, the boy who was a complete angel, even if he did like to play pranks on her all of the time.

"It sounds like a great idea, Al."

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"I'm quitting Formula Two."

Tatiana Calderon spoke abruptly, taking her best friend by surprise, her eyes widening to the size of saucers.

"Why on earth would you do that?"

Larissa coughed repeatedly, having to have her back patted by the Colombian girl as she struggled to get the air back in to her lungs.

"I can't race there without Anthoine, and I want to see if I can get anywhere in another championship. I might try and get in to IndyCar." Tatiana admitted, seeing the grimace that formed on the face of her friend at the mention of his name.

"Well, you'll have the funding from me." Larissa smiled sadly at her friend, seeing the other woman nod her head in appreciation. "I'll support you no matter what you choose to do, and no matter what championship or no matter what car you choose to go in to."

"Your company is going to be the future of Formula one and motorsport, you know that right, cabezon?" Tatiana smiled at her friend, the pride that she felt for the girl only swelling more in her chest.

"If it is, it'll be because of Anthoine, he spent so much of his time promoting it for me, so any success, I owe it to him." Larissa admitted. "But, loca, don't give up on racing, okay? He wouldn't want that. For either of us."

"I know, it just hurts knowing that my friend and my team mate isn't here anymore." The Calderon woman hugged her friend as she spoke, missing the young French boy.

"I know, but he's going to be cheering us on when we both win our World championships."

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A/N

Four chapters left.....

I'm gonna make them bigger so they'll be about 4k words, so I can have more scenes in, but I can't believe that it's nearly over.

What do you think?

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY