lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

15.

September 2013

"Hey, Sarah, haven't you seen Pia anywhere by chance?" Charles asked one of his classmates when he couldn't find his girlfriend during their free period. She left so quickly, so Charles assumed she just didn't want to queue while waiting for lunch, but then he realised she wasn't at lunch at all.

"Well, I just assume that she's outside with Théo, Victor, Camille and Juliette," Sarah replied with displeasure. She hated this little group of theirs. Sarah was always an excellent student, so she couldn't understand why someone would skip school and ruin their chances in life by it.

"Why would she be with them?" Charles asked her confusedly and furrowed his eyebrows together. He knew them, and he knew his girlfriend. They had nothing in common.

"You haven't seen her for a while, right?" Sarah asked Charles even though she already knew the answer. He wouldn't look so surprised if he saw her recently. She was sure that he had probably seen her outside of school since they were dating, but she doubted that Pia was like it in front of him.

"Yeah, I was just busy with karting." It was true. Charles was more busy than usual. Karting was getting harder and harder with his age, but he realised that he might have a shot at racing in the future, but only if he would work hard enough.

"They seem like great friends nowadays," she explained to Charles with sorrow in her voice. She liked Pia and Charles too, so she was sorry that Charles would see his girlfriend in such a state.

"Are you looking for Pia, Charles? I think I saw her smoking in the schoolyard," Simone joined their conversation. She said that so unbothered it surprised Charles. It felt like it wasn't anything unusual for them to see P smoking.

He marched over to the hallway in order to see through the windows what was going on in the schoolyard. His face straightened when he noticed Pia with a cigarette in her fingers. He kept looking at her, only thinking about the way she would ruin her life.

"Who cares what she does?" Simone said to him. She was so done with Pia. In her opinion, Charles deserved someone so much better than her. He definitely deserved someone who didn't slowly turn into a junkie.

Pia reached the classroom thanks to the help of Victor and Theo. Charles was quite sure that without them she would get easily distracted and would walk in a completely different direction.

"Oh, Charles. I'm sorry, I haven't waited for you, darling," Pia started to talk when she noticed her boyfriend. She tried to sound serious, but she had to laugh at the end. She simply couldn't control her emotions. Charles could smell the weird smell around her. It was something unknown. He was definitely sure that his girlfriend wasn't smoking cigarettes. He knew the smell of them. The realisation hit him right away.

"Jeez, are you high, Pia?" he furrowed his eyebrows together. When he saw her this morning, he would swear that everything was alright. She was still the same happy Pia as she used to be, but now a whole other person was standing next to him. She suddenly felt like a stranger.

"Maybe," she giggled. "Why do you care?" she rolled her eyes at him. She was amused by the fact that he cared now. He left for two weeks, and then he just again appeared here with his wonderful smile and tight hug. She was so close to breaking down this morning when he hugged her. She was just so lonely without him. As time flew by, Pia realised that she didn't care about what her mother had done. She would be able to forgive anything at this stage, but even if she would, she was still trapped here with her father. Well, it would be better to tell without her father because he was rarely home. Pia despised herself that she said at the court that she wanted to live with Anthonie. She was so stupid.

"Are you serious right now? You're at school and not at the fucking club." It was probably the second time Pia saw her boyfriend mad. He was always so calm, and he kept his emotions to himself. The first time she saw him like this was when he argued with Max back in Italy.

"Trust me, I know," Pia said while giggling. Under normal circumstances, he would love that sound, but now it was hard to listen to it. He wanted to see her happy and laughing, but not because of the drugs in her body.

"It's not good for you," he said worriedly but in a warning way. Pia blinked a few times before she sat down. "I don't fucking care," was her answer.

"You're dating a pretty cool chick, Leclerc. She just had a zoot with us. Fancy one too?" Victor asked him with an arrogant smile on his face. He waited for this moment ever since Pia started hanging out with them. He just wanted to throw it in Charles' face. Victor could finally show him that he was nothing more.

"Fuck off, Victor," he was so mad. What had they done with his little petite girl?

"Your bad. You could use it. You're so prim," he reacted before he left the classroom with his friends. They were skipping school once again. How typical of them, Charles thought.

---

Rays of the sun seeping through the curtains woke up Pia. She immediately realised that she wasn't home. It didn't take her long to recognise the room. She was at Leclerc's.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Charles greeted her when their eyes met. He got up from his chair and made his way to the bed. She thought he would kiss her on her lips, but he planted a kiss on her forehead.

"I took you to our place yesterday. I said to my mum that you weren't feeling great, and your father was not home once again." Pascale was always so nice to Pia. She started to see her almost like her own daughter. She was so worried about her when Charles brought her from school. Pia looked so dizzy and out of this world. Pascale wanted to call a doctor, but Charles stopped her. He didn't want to know how his mother would freak out if she found out. And also, that she would be super disappointed in Pia, and he didn't want that. It was enough that he was disappointed.

"Thank you so much, Charlie. Come and lay with me, pretty please." Pia whined.

As soon as Charles' body hit the bed, Pia's arms were wrapped around his torso. Her head was hidden in his chest. She needed that for such a long time. Charles was currently the only one who let her feel normal and loved. She was embarrassed to admit it, but Charles was the only steady point in her life right now.

"Pia?" Charles asked her carefully while caressing her hair. She was so fragile at that moment. "We have to talk about it." They both know that this conversation was inevitable.

"No, please. I don't want to talk about it. Please," she wanted to postpone this conversation, but she also knew that it was just a question of time.

"I just need to know what is going on. I want to help you. Let me help you, love" his hand was caressing Pia's hair.

"I'm just so alone without you. My dad is rarely home. Everyone in school is looking at me through their fingers, and I just want to see my mum, but I was so cruel to her. I doubt she would like to see me," she just told him everything that was on her mind. The last thing was probably the worst for her. She knew that she hurt her mum a lot, and Pia wasn't sure if she would be ever forgiven.

"Shhh... It's going to be alright. It's okay." Charles tried to calm Pia down since she started sobbing. She felt so embarrassed for herself. She knew that she wouldn't fix anything with smoking or with drugs, but she just couldn't help it. She was so ashamed of herself.

"We can fix it together. I promise you that. We can fix everything. I just need you to stop with this, please," he begged her. He wanted to help her desperately, and the first on the list was to make her quit smoking.