TW: use of strong language

Gender neutral pronouns

- 1908 words

The car door slammed angrily behind you as you slumped down in the drivers seat.

"FOR FUCKS SAKE!!" You screamed into the steering wheel.

"AAAARGGGHHH WHY JUST WHY?"
You bashed your head against the dashboard multiple times before rubbing your now bruised forehead in regret.

"Unfuckingbelieveable I just- uuuggghhhh." You groaned as you covered your face with your hands.

You were in no mood to control your emotions right now, all you wanted to do was scream.

And so you did.

People were walking past your car clearly noticing your meltdown but you couldn't give a shit. You even flipped the finger at a judgemental Karen who walked past, but she definitely deserved that.

After a couple of minutes of yelling, groaning and punching everything around you, you suddenly sat back up as your frustration reached a new level.

"Oh so everything happens for a reason?" You mocked.

"Yeah right you fucking LIARS." You punched the armrest aggressively.

You were absolutely enraged. You had just blown the biggest interview of your life and to make things worse you managed to trip down the stairs on the way out. Long story short, you were pissed at yourself, the entire human race and those godamn stairs that you couldn't even walk down.

Your adrenaline was starting to wear off now and you could already feel the tears threatening to spill from your eyes.

"Nope you are not going to do this in a fucking car park y/n just calm down just-" You couldn't even finish before the tears started to fall.
"Fucking hell." You buried your face in your hands.

Sobs wrecked your body as you desperately tried to compose yourself.

"Why the fuck does the world hate me so much?" You were full on ugly crying now.

Things had been very hard in your life lately and this stupid interview had just tipped you over the edge. It was hard to try and turn your life around when you were still stuck in the worst part of it.

You sat back and took a look at yourself in the side mirror.

"I can't keep going on like this..." You mumbled while furiously wiping at your eyes.

A few sobs still managed to escape from your lips no matter how hard you tried to calm yourself down.

Emotions are fucking hard to deal with aren't they?

You finally started to get your breathing under control as you tried to distract yourself from the horrible events of today.

"Okay... It's okay, you're okay." You told yourself over and over again, but you weren't quite sure if you actually believed yourself.

You wiped your eyes for about the thousandth time, when suddenly a knock at your car window made you jump out of your skin.

"Um hi, sorry to uh interrupt but..." A young man spoke to you in a slick French accent. "Are you okay?" He looked genuinely concerned.

"Oh um yes I'm fine-" You suddenly stopped mid-sentece when you realised that you could hear him perfectly fine from inside the car. When your doors were closed.

Shitting hell.

You had left the window cracked open.

"Oh god um- how much of that did you actually hear?" You were so embarrassed, this poor guy had probably just listened to your entire meltdown at the world.

"Well if I'm honest, I started listening when you began sobbing..." He looked quite guilty for listening in.

You know those moments where you wish the world would just open up and swallow you whole? Yeah, well this was one of those moments.

"Well, if I thought this day couldn't get any worse, I've been proved wrong!" You exclaimed while covering your face with your hands again.

"Hey it's okay, I mean we all have bad days. Sometimes life just gets the best of us."

You could feel tears streaming down your face again but the stranger's words were oddly comforting.

You turned to look at him and then asked cautiously," Does it... Ever get better?" You knew that it was probably quite weird to ask a complete stranger for advice but you were pretty desperate at this point.

He looked at you with sympathy in his eyes. "It does. It takes time like anything, but it will get better eventually."

"I don't think I have the patience to wait right now."

"No one ever does. I know that from experience." You could hear the sadness in his voice.

You sighed and turned to face him.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bring you down with my stupid emotions."

"No no, it's okay. And your emotions aren't stupid, you're human. These things happen." He leaned closer to the window.

"I guess you're right." You looked down at your lap.

"Look, even if you feel like your whole world is crumbling around you, it will piece itself back together again. It might take a week, a month or maybe even a year but it will get better I promise."

You glanced up to meet his kind eyes.
"... Thank you. I needed to hear that today."

"Of course." He gave you a gentle smile.

"I just feel kind of worthless right now." The tears that had finally dried up were now threatening to spill from your eyes again.

"What's your name?" The stranger asked you softly.

"It's Y/n." You whispered, not even sure if he heard you properly.

"Well y/n, do you mind if I sit with you for a bit?" He asked carefully, not wanting to make you uncomfortable.

You probably should've told him not to get in your car, considering you didn't even know this person, but you felt pretty vulnerable in that moment and he seemed to genuinely care so... You let the door open for him.

He slid into the passenger seat carefully and closed the door behind him.

"Would you like to talk about it?" He asked you gently.

"I don't know..." You couldn't meet his eyes. "It doesn't feel like much worth talking about."

"I'm sure that's not true. It wasn't nothing that made you breakdown in a town center parking lot."

You sighed. You knew he was right but it just... hurt.
"I just- I just can't deal with it anymore." A sob escaped your lips.

"Hey, hey its okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you even more." He placed a comforting hand on your shoulder.

"No it's fine. It's not your fault." Another tear trickled down your cheek.
"It's just been so hard for so long and I don't know if it'll ever get easier." You looked down at the floor sadly.

"I get it."

"Really?"

"Yeah I do." He shifted in his seat to face you properly.
"A couple of years ago, I lost a very close friend of mine and I was in a dark place for a while."

Your heart broke for him.

"I didn't think it would ever get better either."

"... But you're here right now." You finished his sentence for him.

"I am. You know why?"

You waited for him to continue.

"Because the thought of giving up completely, actually scared me even more than trying my best to keep going. I knew if I gave up I'd be letting Anthoine down and I couldn't do that."

You considered his words thoughtfully as he spoke up again.

"I was given a chance to keep going. How could I give that up when Anthoine's chance was taken away so soon?" His voice broke slightly as he finished his sentence.

"I'm so sorry about your friend..." You were still in tears but his words hit you deep.

"Me too." He let out a sad sigh. "But I hope you know how important you are to the world. Your time isn't up yet, which means you're still capable of carrying on and living."

He was right, you couldn't give up. The last chapter of your story still hadn't been written yet.

"Thank you." You looked him in the eye. "You have no idea how much I needed that." You said while wiping the tears from your eyes.

He gave you a comforting smile.
"You're always welcome." He paused to think for a second. "Can you promise me something though?"

"What's that?"

"Promise me you'll keep trying from now on, no matter how hard things get."

"... Okay. I promise."

As he smiled at you in relief, only then did you realise that you had no idea what his name was.

"I never actually asked you what your name is."

"Oh that's right you didn't." He smirked, trying to be playful.

"Well are you gonna tell me?" You laughed.

"It's Pierre. Pierre Gasly."

"Nice to meet you Pierre Pierre Gasly."

"Shut up." He said with a glint in his eye and you both chuckled.

You leant back in your seat with a content sigh.

"You know, I can't remember the last time I was able to talk to someone this easily." You turned to him with a genuine smile (those were pretty rare these days).

"Really?" He looked flattered, in all honesty.

"Yeah. Is that sad?"

"Not at all. I'm glad you feel comfortable talking to me."

"Me too." You carefully reached over to take his hand and he took yours gratefully.

You sat there like that for a few minutes, just enjoying each other's company.

A passerby then walked past your car with a coffee in hand, which seemed to remind Pierre of something.

"Oh I was actually heading over to that little café over there before I stopped to talk to you."

You raised your eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

"Would you like to join me for a cup of coffee?" He asked quite shyly.

Your cheeks flushed slightly at his question. You couldn't deny that he was cute and you didn't want your conversation to end just yet.
So of course you accepted.

"I'd love to join you Pierre."

He sighed in relief. "Awesome, that's great! That's uh really nice-"

You chuckled at his reaction. "Did you think I was gonna say no?"

"I don't know, I just thought it might be weird since we only met like 15 minutes ago." He glanced at your hands that were still intertwined.

"It's fine, honestly. I was kinda hoping that we could keep talking anyway." You brushed your thumb gently over his knuckles.

"Well I guess it worked out perfectly then!"

"Yeah I guess it did." You chuckled.

You went to open the car door before Pierre stopped you.

"Don't forget to roll the window up." He winked at you.

"Oh my god- you had to bring that up again didn't you."

"Sorry!" He said while already halfway out of the car.

"Pierre Gasly you get back here right now-" You chased him out of the car, after double checking that your windows were definitely rolled up.

He stood by the pathway waiting for you with a smirk on his face.

"I'm surprised you didn't just run off without me." You said snarkily.

"Well I didn't want to be too mean."

"Ah much appreciated on my behalf then." You gave him a smile.

He smiled back and held out his arm for you, "Shall we head over?"

"Lead the way." You linked arms with him and the two of you headed off to your first coffee date together of many more to come.

-
This one is very loongg but I actually enjoyed writing it so I hope you liked it as much as I did!

Also if any of you ever need to talk about literally anything I'm always here!! Please don't be afraid to message me if you need it. I'll do my best to listen even if you just want to full on rant at me (I tend to rant to my friends a lot so I know what it's like haha). And even if you think that your worries aren't a big deal, just message me. I promise you, your feelings are valid. Hell even if it's just bc you saw a cute pic of a cat PLEASE FEEL FREE TO TEXT ME :))
ILY ALL HAVE A NICE DAY/NIGHT ❤️

Written by Fay.