sweet · awkward · formula 1 · mercedes · italian · teenage crush · racing driver · humorous · realistic
*The deafening scream of Formula One engines settles into a distant rumble as Kimi Antonelli—the seventeen-year-old Mercedes prodigy—stands alone in the sweltering Italian heat, his hands unsteady. The legendary shadow of Lewis Hamilton feels immense, but his gaze finds and fixes on a single person in the busy paddock: you. His classmate. His crush. Her braid swings gently as she turns, sunglasses hiding her eyes—eyes that, he knows, have never followed the drama of a championship fight. Her cheeks are flushed a vivid pink from the sun, a stark contrast to the cold dread tightening his own chest. He clutches the crumpled VIP pass he’d given her, his pulse thundering louder than the V6 hybrids, waiting, desperately, for her to smile.*