FOURTEEN

"Tala, are you okay?"

Lance Stroll questioned softly as he approached his best friend, who had joined them in a Formula One race, only to have a panic attack and run in to George's driver trailer.

"Not really."

Tala Villanueva whispered softly, her voice trembling, seeing not only Lance but multiple of her friends staring back at her, having ran to check that she was okay.

They'd be in trouble for not finishing their interviews, but they didn't care.

They knew what today was, and knowing that she had come to a race on the anniversary of her brothers death was bound to hit her hard. They didn't know what had caused her to suddenly run away, though.

She had never done it before, always staying behind and grieving by herself, but had decided to change that and support her friends just like her brother would want her to.

A series of arms wrapped around her in a tight hug, recognising them as all of her best friends comforting her together, like they were all there for her.

Because she knew that they were.

It wasn't just her who was grieving, they all were. She lost her brother, but so did they. Dakila Villanueva wasn't just their friend, he was their brother, somebody who they loved as if he were part of their respective families.

So, she had to share the grief, she knew that.

"It would have happened even if I was there, wouldn't it?" Tala whispered, crystal clear droplets held within her tears ducts now free falling down her cheeks as she stared up at her best friends.

"Yeah, it would've. I'm so sorry, Tal."

George Russell apologised profusely as he crouched down in front of her, wrapping his arms around her, knowing that she was blaming herself just like he had been blaming himself for causing the fatal crash.

"It's not your fault... is that why you don't come to more of our races? Because you think that if you do, that something will happen to us?"

Lewis Hamilton questioned in surprise, his face filling with a look of pure sympathy, all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly clicking in to place as to why she never wanted to come to more than six races a season.... too scared in case that she was cursed and her presence was causing the crash and other crashes.

It was as if they were all finally being able to see inside of her brain, and it made their hearts hurt at how they didn't see it before. It had been seven years since the crash and they only seemed to finding out now as to why Tala didn't come to their races.

They felt like they had failed her.

"Tally, look at me."

Lando Norris spoke as he moved to crouch in front of his best friend, his arms wrapping around her in a hug, tears of happiness yet also sadness both evident within his eyes.

Tala slowly lifted her head up to look in to the eyes of the Norris boy.

"I won today, for Dak." Lando whispered, a slight crack appearing in his voice as he did so, overwhelmed of the emotions of winning the Dutch Grand Prix.

It was hard for them all, having the anniversaries of losing both Anthoine and Dakila so close together, within a matter of weeks, but Tala had suffered the longest, they all knew that. She had been watching Anthoine's last race from the apartment and she wished that she had just slept through it.

It would've hurt less, knowing that she had lost the both of them.

"He'll be partying with Anthoine." Tala's voice wobbled as she responded to him, trying to stand to her feet so that she could congratulate him properly, and give him a deserving hug.

Which was exactly what she did.

Lando squeezed her body tightly as he hugged her, feeling like they both needed the hug in order to overcome their grief, his grip tightening which caused her to tighten her grip too.

"Uh, guys? Maybe don't try to choke each other out today, please?" George let a small chuckle leave his lips as he noticed how red their faces were getting, refusing to loosen their grips.

"Let them be, you know how they both share the same braincell."

Alex Albon laughed loudly, beginning to move his body towards the exit of the trailer, because he knew now that they would both be okay.

Though he also knew that there was a pretty big risk that they would squeeze out that last braincell and be left with nothing at all within their brains, nothing but empty space.

"Yeah, one braincell and it doesn't even fucking work."

__________________________________________

"I made you breakfast."

Tala Villanueva smiled as she slowly entered the bedroom of her best friend, seeing his tired face smiling back at her, looking as if he woke up only three seconds ago.

"This is why I love you."

George Russell smiled with happiness as she walked further in to his room, sitting on the side of his bed in order to place the tray down in front of him, his nose inhaling the glorious scent that the food gave off.

Tala watched as he moved to cut his breakfast in half, moving one half towards her, wanting her to eat some of it too, staring at her none stop until she did.

"What do you want to do today? Wanna go out somewhere for the day?" George questioned lightly, one of his eyebrows raised as he wondered what it was that she would say.

"Sure, I wanna get some more paint supplies, I wanna change my room again, I'm thinking some stencils, and I might paint an image on the wall, and no, you can't be Mr judgdy face behind me again telling me that my brushstrokes are wrong." Tala released a small scoff like laugh as she watched her best friend roll his ocean blue eyes at her.

She knew that he would suddenly become an Art Critic just like he always did.

"Well, we can get some dinner afterwards, what do you think?" George smiled, noticing the way that her face lit up, her head nodding up and down a couple of times.

"I'd love that, there's a new steak restaurant nearby so we can always try going there, what do you think, George?"

The Russell boy released a small breath, his smile lighting up his face as he agreed, happy that he would be able to spend time with his best friend in a place that wasn't a race or their home.

Plus, he wanted to see if he could detect a change of feelings from his Tala if they were in a romantic setting, he wanted to know.

He had to know if there was hope.

A/N

Another one here, we're doing this, I'm gonna complete this soon I promise, I know it's been a while since I made this so I know I need to complete it, I'm determined,

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 🇵🇸🇨🇩🇸🇩🇸🇸🇺🇦🇾🇪🇱🇧