☆.｡.:* BABY STEPS .｡.:*☆
act two — the start of the troubles
(⛈🐻💌🍯)

resorting to the large grey couch instead of her bed, thea grabbed the woolly blanket off the edge of the couch to cover herself, keeping herself warm until lando came back home. she had no idea when he would be coming home but she wasn't leaving her spot until he did, even if he took all night; but of course, if she needed to tend to louis and his needs throughout the night, then she'd do so.

however whilst his pregnant fiancé was beginning to grow uncomfortable on the soft couch as she continued watching the british show, becoming more worried about lando as the time went on, he was on his way to the club with max fewtrell. lando was never usually a man who'd willingly go clubbing on any occasion but this was the only option he could think of off the top of his head.

"i should've asked this earlier but why are we going to a club?" max looked over to his best friend as he drove the pair to the closest club, the roads somewhat empty as it was a weekday.

"me and thea had an argument and i wanted to leave." lando briefly told him, turning his phone on to see if he had any notifications, yet he had none.

"but you don't even drink?" max sounded confused at the entire situation because he could tell that lando was hiding something from him, apart from once, lando never left the house after an argument.

"i never said i was going to drink, i couldn't deal with her anymore." lando huffed, clearly frustrated about everything that had happened throughout the evening. "she just kept going on at me for stupid reasons."

"what was you arguing about?"

"i said something this morning that made it seem like i apparently forgot about rosie, something like that."

"lando, mate, i get why you're annoyed but you have to see where she's coming from aswell."

"but it's nearly everyday that she's in a mood or upset with me."

"she's pregnant, of course she's gonna get in a mood." max laughed, trying to make the whole conversation a bit less awkward. "just forget about it tonight, then have a calm conversation with her tomorrow."

arriving at the club only six minutes later, the music was blaring and the lights were bright, lando and max making their way to the bar to order a drink. deciding to stay at the bar instead of dancing, something that neither of them were a massive fan of, they had only slightly noticed the woman who was looking over at them.

as the time increased, so did the amount of the interactions between this random woman and lando; he certainly had a type when it came to women, blonde with bluish eyes, the only difference being that this blonde was dyed and unnatural. throughout the night, he'd buy her drinks, the frisky dancing that they did and they shared romantic glances which certainly made max feel uncomfortable and pissed off until he walked off, not wanting to be apart of what was going on.

max knew his friend was in the wrong and had attempted multiple times to stop lando from making the situation with the girl escalate but lando was having none of it, and as much as it annoyed max, it was lando that had to suffer the consequences of his own actions, not max.

it even got to the point where they almost went home together until the girls friends came to get her but that didn't stop lando from making a move on her, despite the fact that he was engaged to the woman at home. the pair kissing passionately outside of the club entrance, unaware that there was pictures being taken of them at that very moment, ready to be published with a headline that would most definitely be plastered all over social media the next morning, ready for thea to see every aspect of it.

the next morning rolled around pretty quickly and as soon as lando turned on his phone, it was truly chaotic; he had messages off of his family, some members of the mclaren team, especially charlotte, and many social media notifications. however, what he wasn't expecting to see when turning his phone on was the article that had only been published a few hours earlier.

LANDO NORRIS CHEATING ON FIANCÉE, THEA GREENE?!

"cassidy, please tell me that thea is here." lando began to talk quickly, his face full of panic, as soon as the door opened, revealing a very annoyed cassidy; and she had every right to be annoyed at him, he kissed another girl whilst being engaged to her younger sister.

"she's not here but even if she was, you wouldn't be seeing her." her voice was full of disgust as she looked him up and down, her being shocked and even a bit hurt at the fact that he did what he did.

"it wasn't what it looks like, i promise."

"so you're telling me that multiple articles edited a picture of you with your tongue down a random girls throat?" cassidy crossed her arms, waiting for him to try and give her an excuse but nothing followed. "i didn't think so."

"can you at least tell me where she is, please cassidy? i need to talk to her."

"i don't know where she is but don't be surprised if she doesn't want to speak to you, i wouldn't if i was her." and with that, she shut the door in his face, lando rubbing his face before walking back to his car deciding to go to his parents house to check if she was there.

thea hadn't been back for long, her only coming back about ten minutes before lando arrived, her eyes red and puffy from the the tears she had shed on her way home, her big blue eyes now stinging from the salty tears. she had taken louis to the cafe to see margaret, this being her way to distract herself from everything that she'd seen since she woke up, the articles being the only thing she'd seen on instagram, twitter and even from her friends and family that sent it to her.

"i can't believe you, lando, that poor girl is in bits upstairs." was the first thing that cisca said when she saw lando walk in, the sudden voice making him jump. cisca was disappointed and somewhat disgusted in her sons behaviour as her and adam had never brought him up to cheat on his partner, especially not when she was the mother of his children.

"we raised you better than that, lando. you don't know how much you've hurt thea." adam told his youngest son sternly, him wanting lando to know how much of a mistake he made.

"thea? are you in here?" he opened the door to his old bedroom, finding her sat on the bed playing with her freshly manicured nails. "are you alright?"

"don't act like you care about me now, i've seen the articles." she spoke, not lifting her head as she continued to pick at her nails, making lando walk towards her.

"the articles are fake, thea."

"you see, i don't believe that one bit because according to max's story last night, it looked like you was at that club." thea now stood up, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she wanted to hear the truth from him, even if it hurt her. "so you can either tell me the truth or i leave right now, it's your choice."

"okay, i was there." he sounded defeated, knowing that he had no chance in getting himself out of this situation. "but i only kissed her once, i promise."

"i don't care if you only kissed her once or had sex with her multiple times, you still betrayed me." thea shouted loud enough that his family downstairs would definitely have heard.

"thea, babe, i promise you it was a mistake, you have to believe me." lando pleaded, reaching out to hold her hand but she pulled it away before he got the chance to touch her.

"and i'm just supposed to believe that your tongue ended up in her throat? do you think i'm that stupid, lando? i wasn't born yesterday." thea said the same thing that cassidy had said to him, it being as if the two sisters could hear what each other say.

he was silent. he had nothing to say to that, his face full of guilt but the clogs in thea's head were spinning, putting puzzle like pieces together before all of the realisation hit her at once. 

"this isn't the first time that this has happened, is it?" she asked quietly, her voice close to breaking as a lump grew in the back of her throat but she didn't want to cry, not whilst he was stood in front of her.  "who was it with?"

"iona." his voice came out like a mumble, barely audible but thea heard what she needed to hear, the last piece fitting perfectly in her mind; all of her overthinking, gut feelings and worries were true.

"iona? just when i thought today couldn't get any worse than it already is." she sarcastically laughed, shaking her head at what she just heard as she looked up at the ceiling. "remember all of those times when i mentioned her and you told me that i was paranoid?"

"i never said you was paranoid, i told you that you had nothing to worry about."

"and that makes it better does it? you cheated on me with the girl who you reassured me about!" thea let out a choked out sob, the tears now falling profusely down her rosy cheeks. "i can't keep doing this lando, i can't act like i'm okay when i'm not and im not doing it anymore. can't you see that i'm getting bored?"

"what are you saying thea? are you breaking up with me?" lando's face dropped and although he shouldn't be surprised that this is what thea wanted after what happened, he still was.

"i don't know what this means for us yet, but i need space to sort myself out."

"what about louis?"

"i'm not going to stop you seeing him, you can see him as much as you want but it's best if he stays with me."

"why can't he stay with me?"

"if he wants to, he can stay with you whilst you're home but when you're racing, he's going to be with me." she told him, her reason fair and balanced so he had no reason to go against it.

"where will you be staying?"

"i don't know yet, i'm going to my mums for a few days though so i'll figure it out after that."

"stay at home when i'm gone, i know how much you love it there." lando's voice now slowly beginning to break as he looked at her through a tearful vision. "or i can stay here and you can stay there the whole time?"

"i'll let you know when we're back."

"i'm so sorry, thea."

"don't tell me you're sorry, be sorry for yourself."