SEVEN

TRIGGER WARNING: PANIC AND ANXIETY ATTACKS

"One, two, three, four."

Tala Villanueva spoke in a whisper, sat with her back flat against the door of her bedroom, her hands shaking frantically as she breathed in an unsteady matter.

Tears were pricking at her eyes as she squeezed them shut, wishing the feeling that she was suffering from would just dissappear.

She kept repeating numbers in her head, speaking them out loud, counting them on her fingers in an attempt to calm herself down since she couldn't hear any voices throughout the house meaning that she was by herself.

If she were to have a full blown anxiety attack, she knew that there would be no body around to help her so that she would have to try and calm herself down, which she wasn't completely sure that she could do.

The Villanueva girl let out a small whimper of fear, as she came to conclusion quickly that she really didn't want to.

She couldn't calm herself down.

It wasn't that she was doubting herself, it was more the matter that she couldn't do it. She had no idea how she would calm herself down, since she usually needed somebody here to ground herself and act as an achor for her.

She couldn't anchor herself.

Her legs began to tremble as she felt herself getting closer and closer to the point of no return, causing her to bite down on to her bottom lip in an attempt to stabilise herself although it was all in vain.

The only thing that she could do, was to curl herself up in to a ball and hope that it would go away soon, or that one of her friends arrived to save the day.

And do that, she did.

"One, two, three, four."

She had absolutely no idea how long it was that she was curled up in a ball, but it felt like forever, her frantic breathing never slowing and only quickening in its pace.

Small whimpers occasionally left her lips as she rocked back and forth, eyes squeezed shut so hard that it was almost painful.

Eventually, she could hear voices fill the house, laughter following them as she hoped that one of the people would be able to help her.

A small knock sounded on her bedroom door, gentle as if they didn't know whether to disturb her or not.

"Tal, do you want some food? George and I are ordering takeout."

Lewis Hamilton spoke gently, his voice almost a whisper since he didn't know if she was asleep or not wanting to be disturbed.

A small cry coming from her bedroom filled his ears, making his eyes widen in panic, fear and concern for his friend, before he gained the attention of his team mate.

George Russell frantically ran towards her bedroom door, placing his ear flat against the wooden surface so that he could listen out for her, before he used the strength in his body to gentle push the door open.

He struggled for a couple of seconds, because of her bodyweight against the door, but with the help of his team mate, he was able to squeeze through the small gap they had created and slip in to the room.

The two Mercedes drivers dropped to their knees by the side of the girl who was still curled up tightly, gently placing their hands on to her arms so that she knew that they were there.

"It's okay, Tal. It's okay. We're here."

George whispered as he pulled the girl against his chest, flinching as he felt how cold her body was, panic swelling in his chest as he began to wonder just how long she had been like this.

"One, two, three, four."

Tala's lips trembled as she repeated the only thing that she could think of, her brain hardly registering that she was now being cuddled by her best friend.

Her head was placed against his chest, so that her ears could pick up his heart beat, concentrating solely on that as if it was the only thing in the whole world that was keeping her alive.

Lewis began to hum a small lullaby to the girl as he began to draw small circles on her knee caps, as both Formula One drivers took note of the fluttering of her eyelashes as her eyes peeled open slightly.

As soon as her eyes peeled slightly open, they both took note of the flood of tears that escaped her eyes as a result of having her eyes screwed so slightly shut.

"Tal, hey. How long have you been like this?" George whispered in to her hair, cradling her as gently as he could since he was worried that she would break.

"10."

The two Formula One drivers stared at her in guilt, hoping that she didn't mean what they thought that she did.

Had she been like this since ten o'clock this morning?

It was now just before four o'clock in the afternoon, and they had only just come back from a meeting that they been at the whole day.

Surely, she hadn't been like this the whole day.

Right?

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"You don't get to be biased!"

George Russell laughed at his best friends, seeing the two siblings exchanging a glance with one another before they both raised their hands up in defence.

"We're not biased. We just think you're shit."

Tala Villanueva grinned like a Cheshire cat as she noticed the eyes of her brother widening slightly, obviously having not expected her to grass him up.

"I beat Dak!"

"Yeah, because I crashed out."

Dakila chuckled, rolling the brown of his eyes whilst he lightly nudged the arm of his sister, both of them raising their eyebrows at the same time as if they were talking without any words being spoken.

"I beat Lance!"

"He crashed out too."

Lance Stroll snickered in the background as he watched with amusement, sitting beside his friends who all held small bags of popcorn in their hands.

"I beat Mick."

"My engine failed!"

Mick Schumacher laughed as he yelled out towards his friend, seeing the Russell boy roll his eyes as he noticed how they were all listening to their conversation.

"I beat Char-"

"Nope."

Charles Leclerc bellowed, one of his hands resting on his stomach as he laughed hard. His eyes squeezed shut as he cackled at the interaction between his best friends.

"You beat me!"

Lando Norris raised his hand in to the air and waved slightly, a large grin on his young face, his voice incredibly high pitched as always.

"Yeah I know I beat you, you're the reason that there was a safety car straight away!" George raised his voice, a scoff like laugh leaving his throat.

Lando giggled, nodding his head up and down multiple times, knowing that he had caused chaos in the race due to the fact that he had crashed at the first corner.

George began to laugh, as he took note how every single one of his friends that he had beaten in the race, all either crashed out or had faults with their cars.

"I'll show you that I can beat you all, when you're not all crashing." George laughed, as the others all joined in since they all knew that he could actually beat them fair and square.

"When that happens, I'll be blind. I won't see it." Tala grinned mischievously at her friend, seeing her brother cover his eyes with his hand.

The siblings didn't always see eye to eye, but when they did, they always created some magical moments and memories since they were always creating chaos.

A lot of their friends had no idea that they both had a spare key to each of their houses, since they could work together to distract their friends whilst the other would sneak to grab their key and make a copy of it.

Their plan was to sneak in to their friends homes and move their belongings around just enough so that they would believe that their houses were haunted.

The siblings wanted to eventually live in a large house with all of their friends, so they hoped that their sneaking around and jokes would pay off.

Dakila hoped that when his friends and himself eventually reached Formula One together, that they would be rich enough to live in a large house, where he could have an entire room just for his gaming.

Where his sister could have an entire room that she could have as many animals as she wanted in, since she wanted to adopt a lot of pets and give them a good home.

Where Mick could have an entire room as a room for when his sister would come and stay with them when she wasn't doing her horse riding competitions.

Where Lance could have an entire room as a room where he could store all of his bikes and scooters and have as many as he would like.

Where Charles could have an entire room as a room to relax in and play piano without being disrupted at all, since that was his oasis.

Where Lando could have an entire room as a room which was a large refrigerator so that he could store all of his milk, since it was one of his favorite drinks.

Where Alex could have an entire room as a joke room where he could plan his own pranks and jokes without being disrupted, busted and caught by the very people that he was trying to prank.

Where Antonio could have an entire room to store all of his hair and beauty products, since the Italian stallion loved to take care of his hair, and always had a good skin care routine.

Where Pierre could have an entire room so that he could come and stay whenever he got bored and missed them, since he was often calling them saying that he missed them.

Where Anthoine could have an entire room to watch all of the TV shows and movies that he wanted to, since he was often complaining that they were too loud and disrupting him from watching his favorite movies.

Where George could have an entire room to drool over Tala, since Dakila was very well aware of the crush that his best friend had on his sister, even of she was not aware of it herself.

Of course, he knew that they wouldn't be able to buy a house with fifty bedrooms, but that wasn't the point. It was about them all being together so that they could all be with their friends every day and never be lonely.

That was his dream. To live with his best friends and his sister.

He didn't care about being world Champion, since he knew that to be a very unrealistic dream unless he got with a good team and got in to Formula One.

Of course, if would be nice if he could be a world Champion, but there was a high likelihood that he would be unable to get to that, so he was happy to live with his friends.

If he could manage that, then he could leave this earth happy.

____________________________________________________

"Are you painting your room?"

George Russell questioned his best friend cautiously, since it had been a couple of hours since he had managed to calm her down from a very bad anxiety attack.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he noticed that she was painting her bedroom a dark green color.

"Well I'm not having a tea party, am I?" Tala Villanueva rolled her eyes teasingly at her best friend, with her long brown hair tied back in to a messy bun as she wore an oversized black hoodied sweatshirt.

"Do you need a hand with it?" George asked gently, watching with a soft smile as she was concentrating hard on it, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Change your shirt before you do. I'm covered in paint." Tala muttered, since he was unable to see all of the splashes of green that now coated her face, hair, hands and hoodie.

"I'll go and change in to my worst shirt then." The Russell boy laughed, wrinkles forming around his eyes as he noticed the girl flinch as a splatter of paint hit her in the face.

"Wear that hawaiian shirt, you won't be able to see if you get paint on it so it won't look any different." Tala spoke as she was balancing on the tips of her toes to reach higher up the wall.

George quickly changed in to his hawaiian shirt, before he sauntered over to his best friend, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her up in to the air so that she could reach higher up.

Tala found herself smiling as she was able to reach all the way up the wall, since her height didn't allow her to paint all the way up to the ceiling.

As soon as she was done, the British boy lowered her to the ground, keeping his hands on her waist for a moment longer than he should've.

Tala turned her body around to face him, not expecting his face to be so close to hers, making her gulp nervously.

Her eyes swiftly glanced at his lips, staying there momentarily before she forced her gaze back up to meet his eyes, stepping away from him with a small pat to his chest.

"Grab a roller, Georgie. We have the rest of the room to paint!"

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A/N

I'm backkkk

What do you think?

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

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

Love you all,

-RUBY