Drive to Survive

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Three

"Welcome to Norris Air!" Lando proclaimed, gesturing widely with his arms. 

Dylan stepped into the plane and looked around the cabin appreciatively. There were ten big chairs spaced around along with a couple sofas. Everything was a mix of brown, cream and beige and she was impressed at the luxury before her.

"You don't own this plane, you idiot!" Danny called out, his head lifting up from the arm of the sofa he was sprawled across, "It's Ricciard-air!" 

"Both crap names." Max observed, walking in behind Dylan. He collapsed into one of the chairs by the window and stretched before looking at her and realising she was still confused about the name, "McLaren rent it. Neither of them own it."

"Well, sorry we're not all World Champions." Lando scoffed, taking Dylan's rucksack from her and guiding her towards the sofa opposite Danny, "Do you want a drink, Dee?"

"Just lemonade please, Lan. Wait-" She looked back at her boyfriend, "Do you own a plane?"

Max shrugged, "Yes."

"You never said!"

"You never asked."

"Why do you never fly to races in it?" She marvelled. 

"Few reasons. Good to stay with the team, good for the environment-" 

"And the fact that it's needed repairs and repainting so far this season." Lando scoffed, interrupting.

"Well, there's that as well." Max smirked. 

Lando handed Dylan her drink and she sipped it gratefully, trying to settle in to her new surroundings. A few more people filed onto the plane, including both Lando and Danny's trainers, and another boy with brown curly hair who Dylan didn't recognise. He stopped as he walked past her and smiled, "Hey, I know you!"

"You...do?" She replied uncertainly.

"Yeah, you were all in the headlines with Lando a while back. I had to call him and ask if he had gotten into a relationship without telling me because honestly that would have been unforgivable! Why would I have been the last to know? So then I rang hi-"

"Oh my God, mate." Lando rushed over, "She gets the picture! I told you I wasn't dating anyone, didn't I?"

"Yeah." The brown-haired boy grinned, "Nice to properly meet you anyway. I'm Max, I live with Lando."

"Oh, you're Max!" Dylan exclaimed, finally putting the pieces together.

She'd heard a lot about Lando's friend who was an F3 driver and his roommate. The McLaren driver spoke incredibly fondly of his long-time friend and Dylan had heard all sorts of antics about their times driving in karts together or more recently their adventures on Twitch. She could see why they might be a close match; both had an instantly likeable nature about them and they almost looked like twins with their matching cheeky smiles. 

"So you do talk about me when I'm not here!" Max turned gleefully to Lando who was rolling his eyes, "I knew it! All this rubbish about 'Nah mate I don't even think about yo-'"

"Aw, shut up, mate!"

Max chuckled and smiled back down at Dylan, "Now do you see the bullet you dodged by not dating him?"

"We were never-" Lando started to loudly protest before catching himself and taking a deep sigh, clearly at wits end with Max, who very clearly knew the quickest way to wind his friend up, "Dylan is happily dating Max. And don't even think about making a joke about your name, I'm talking about that Max over there, you know, the World Champion one."