𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 ∞ lando norris

t h i r t y - f i v e

CECILIA'S POV

I slung the door wide open, Lando's once retreating figure coming to a pause. He slowly turned around so he could face me, anxiety etched into every movement he made.

"Sorry about that, it's a habit if you know what I mean." Lando said to my relief. I nodded my head at him, I knew exactly what he meant. The amount of times that I would say 'love you.' to a dominos driver as I closed the door is too many to count.

"Don't worry about it." I waved him off, closing the door again and too my shock and horror Marcus was stood right behind me.

"What was that about, what is a habit?" He immediately jumped into his questions, missing out the ones I had planned for him to ask.

"Nothing."

"No it's something and I need to know exactly what." He followed me as I walked, his steps mirroring mine.

"You do not." I opened the fridge, skimming through its very little contents, this could only disguise me for a couple more seconds.

"Did he confess his love to you but you turned him down? Or the other way round? But how would that be a habit?" The questions were all rhetorical, Marcus was too deep in thought at this point to be able to listen to any response he gave.

"What is a habit?" Adelina asked as she walked into the room sluggishly, a headache cap covering up the top part of her bed head.

"You are not doing that. Not when I hold your biggest secret." I mocked, dragging out my words more than needed.

"Biggest secret?" Marcus leant onto the counter, elbows first staring straight up at her.

"I blew up on tiktok." Her lie was a little too good.

"You what?!" Marcus and I said in unison, staring at each other straight after.

"Wait you should know! What is going on?" He stood up tall, looking around the room.

"Posted a video about F1 last night and just checked and it blew up. See?" She shoved her phone in my face too close, forcing me too back away and readjust my eyes. Low and behold, she had blown up, a whopping 300k likes.

"You don't have that many outfits here? Wait, how come I haven't seen this?" I asked as I watched the video. It was simply one of her sharing her opinion on what F1 teams were to wear to the paddock.

"It's a draft and I created a new account!" Her spirits seemed to be up.

"We are getting heavily off track here. What did Lando mean by it is habit?" Marcus just had to pipe up, I shot him a glare in response.

"Oh my god. Did he confess his love to you but then say it's a habit?" He hit it sort of off the mark.

"No and yes. He said 'love you' but it is a habit. Do you know how many times i've said it to a dominos driver?" I defended from their gossip loving ears.

"True. I've said it to Janis and I hate Janis. She slammed a door in my face." Lina responded with a sheaf, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and downing half of it in one go.

"You guys are no fun."

I couldn't stop tossing and turning, my brain refusing to give in. The event of tonight lingered on my mind, Marcus's words spreading more and more confusion over me the more I thought.

At one side of my brain, I did realise I did feel something when I was around him, something I don't usually feel.

But on the other side, I was probably just anxious. A very common reoccurrence for me whenever I hang out around new people.

Except Lando isn't new, i've known him for a couple months now and I feel comfortable and at ease around him. I know the feeling of anxiety and it doesn't add up.

Giving up, I threw the covers off my body and put my slippers on. Tessa's room was only down the hall and she probably wasn't asleep, I could hear her show at certain points. I slipped out my room, being as quiet as possible before sliding through a small gap I had created in Tessa's door much to her displeasure.

"What can I do for you today?" She asked, putting down her book.

I immediately sprang into action, telling her everything. "But then again for the most part our conversations were through text so anxiety is reasonable." I ended it with, she took a moment to gather her thoughts with a deep inhale.

At some point, I had lead myself vertically on the end of her bed, hands underneath my head like this was some kind of therapy session.

"Act like it never happened and just start focusing more on yourself when you are around him, what you feel, just whatever. It's reasonable that this has changed your whole viewpoint though." Her voice was soft and motherly, despite only being a couple months older than us  than the rest of us, she had pretty quickly adapted to the mother of the group role and she was amazing at it.

"Can I sleep in here tonight?" I gave her the brightest smile I could, to which she rolled her eyes at and patted the side of my bed.

"I was just watching chicago med."