INVISIBLE STRING ☆ DANIEL RICCIARDO

sixteen

DUBAI, UAE; JUNE 13th 2022

     Isla had tried to ignore the incessant ringing of her phone for as long as she could that morning, wanting to have a day for herself and to just sleep in. Clearly the world and her friends had other plans for her today. Her eyes had been open for a good fifteen seconds before her phone started ringing again, yet another joined facetime with Amani and Luisa.

"I'm literally going to murder the both of you." she groans as she finally picks up the call, camera focused on her ceiling as she lies on her back. "Someone better be dying because I was having the best sleep of-"

"She hasn't seen it." Amani gasps, cutting off her friend.

"Oh Deus." Luisinha groans, calling out for Isla. "Okay, I'm going to send you something on instagram but you need to stay calm. Don't overreact, okay?"

Isla had fully sat up at that point, her camera trained on her as she attempts to rub the sleep from her eyes. "What the hell are you guys on about?"

Just then, her phone pings with a notification from Lu, the post being on the fucking wags update account of all places. Isla let's out a heavy sigh as she taps the notification, her eyes raking over the images and the caption in complete shock. She was hoping she could forget last night ever happened, praying that no one had seen it and that she wouldn't ever have to see him again.

But it was kind of difficult when you shared a hometown with your ex.

"Oh for fucks sake." Isla groans, flopping back onto her covers as she reread the caption. "This can't be happening right now."

Amani and Luisinha were throwing anxious glances at one another through their screens before the former decided to take matters into her own hands. "Isles, what the hell happened? Why were you with him?"

"I wasn't with him, Mani." Islas voice comes out choked as she attempts to hold back her tears. "I was at a family dinner and I bumped into him. You know Ramy, you know he couldn't just let me walk away and move on."

Luisinha felt the need to cry at how exhausted her friend sounded. "Isla, amor, what happened?"

★彡

     Isla was leaving the restaurant when she spotted him, sat at a corner table with a few of his friends and a woman wrapped around his arm. She immediately felt sick and started rushing through her goodbyes to her aunts and uncles just so she could make it out without him taking notice of her.

They had their run ins every once in a while with each other, they both live in LA and shared the hometown of Dubai so it was difficult to avoid. Every single time they had managed to run into each other, it never ended well. Ramy just didn't know how to walk away without a fight.

She had been so close, the door was only a couple of steps further when his gaze locked onto her and suddenly it was like there was no one else sat the table with him, his entire focus was on his ex-girlfriend. Which was exactly where it wasn't meant to be.

Isla was holding her breath as she pushed out of the front doors, looking left and right for her Uber, praying that it would magically appear in front of her but the driver was still seven minutes away. Seven minutes too long.

She felt her heart drop to her stomach when she heard the opening of the door behind her, praying to anyone out there that was anyone but the person in her mind. But the universe had proven time and time again that luck was never ever on her side.