Page 134 of Away We Go

“Thank you, James.” I squeeze his hand in gratitude as he sneaks us up to a spot where no one will pay us any attention.

“Cherry, I hope you’re here to stay this time. Nicky won’t survive it if you leave him again.”

Nibbling on my bottom lip, with my eyes stinging, I can only nod in response.

“Don’t worry, dude. I’ve spoken to her. Sorted it all out.” Matt and James chuckle together and I smile weakly. My mind is stuck on what James had just disclosed.

How badly have I hurt Nicky? And what will it take for him to forgive me?

The drivers take off on their formation lap and Matt leans back in his seat with a smug sigh. “See? Nothing to worry about. We got here right on time.”

I give him a withering stare. If just one more thing had gone even slightly wrong, we would have missed the entire race altogether.

“You need to chill out, Cherry. There’s a whole ninety-plus minutes left to see if Nicky’s World Champion. And if you’re like this the whole time, you’ll have no fingernails left.”

My hands drop from my mouth and I settle for bouncing my legs up and down. Leading into this race, Nicky has a twenty-six-point lead over Nate, so the F1 maths dictates that he only needs to finish one spot ahead of his rival and he will be crowned Drivers’ Champion at the checkered flag. With Nicky starting on pole and Nate down in P3, the odds are in his favour.

“Here we go.” Matt leans forward to watch the race start, his thick brows drawn down, belying his relaxed attitude. He wants his best friend to win this almost as much as I do.

“Come on, Nicky. You can do this,” I murmur softly. He works so hard and sacrifices so much; he deserves this win more than anyone.

“It’s lights out and away we go!”

Matt and I remain on the literal edge of our seats, not talking and sometimes not breathing as the race unfolds. Nicky keeps the lead off the line, and by the end of the lap, he has a comfortable three-second gap to the driver behind him.

“He just can’t get too comfortable,” Matt says. “Anything can happen here.”

This we know too well. An untimely safety car can bring down a whole championship. It’s happened before.

“It’s looking good,” Matt mutters twenty-seven laps later. I shush him, glaring at him from the corner of my eye. It’s way too early to even be thinking those thoughts, let alone putting them out into the universe.

Has he not heard of the commentator’s curse before?

“Sis, he’s twenty seconds in front with thirteen laps to go.”

“Shut. Up.” He’s going to jinx it all.

Matt mimes zipping his lips, then takes my hand in his. I squeeze it tight and barely breathe, counting the laps down until the very last one.

“Can I say something now?” he pipes up as Nicky starts the last lap of the race, now thirty seconds in the lead.

“No.” I grin at him, excitement bubbling, taking over where the nerves had just been. There’s now just one minute and twenty-three seconds between Nicky and the checkered flag. Between Nicky and his fifth World Championship Title.

Between Nicky and legendary status.

“People doubted he had it in him to get the job done this year, but as he rounds the final corner, cementing this emphatic win, there’s no denying what a superstar racing driver he is. As he crosses the line and the checkered flag falls, the Australian driver will reclaim his crown. Nicolai Dimitrios is the champion of the world, for the fifth time.”

Tears stream down my face as fireworks explode over the racetrack.

“He did it!” Matt lifts me into a crushing hug and I sob against his chest.

“Yes!”

All the pent-up emotion bursts from me and I’m grinning and crying at the same time.

“It looks like he’s in shock,” Matt says as I wipe my eyes.

I glance at the big screen, which is zoomed in on Nicky as he remains seated in the cockpit of his car. He’s so still; it’s like he’s unaware of what he’s just done. What he’s just achieved.

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