Redemption {Charles Leclerc}

27

Sophia's POV. 

It's Sunday afternoon, three pm.

You kiss your necklace as you pray for a safe race and anxiously watch the cars line up on the grid.

Charles is in third position behind the two Mercedes with Sebastian in P5 behind Max.

Before you know it, the sound of roaring engines fills your ears as the lights go out and the cars drive away. You jump off your seat when the front of the pack drives off into the first corner. 

"C'MON SEB, LET'S GO CHARLES!" you scream loudly. 

When the first lap is over and there's been no action at the front, you sigh in relief. It's a shame neither Seb or Charles has been able to overtake their rivals at the start but there's still a long race to go.  

Your eyes stay glued to the screen as you slowly sit down on the couch again. 

Yes, the couch. 

The couch in your house. 

You're home in Switzerland. 

You're not at the race track. 

You've been thinking about whether you should go and eventually you realized you just couldn't do it. You're not ready to engage with people.

You can pretend that you're okay and that you're strong but the truth is, you're not. And you're not gonna be okay nor strong for a while. It's only been two weeks and you're still dealing with the first-hand anxiety of the experience. That means basically everything makes you feel uncomfortable right now. You need time to forget and to heal, if you'll ever heal again.   

But you can't lie. Not going to the race in Silverstone is also motivated by another factor. 

Charles. 

You've come to the conclusion that you need to forget about him and that he needs to forget about you too. You're not sure if he was seeking a friendship, a fling or something more than that but it doesn't matter anymore. It's better to have no form of a relationship at all so you both can just forget about each other. 

You need to focus on yourself and he deserves someone better, someone who's happy and who knows what they want. Not someone like you who's broken, unstable and has a handful of issues to deal with. 

So that's why you're gonna provide him with the opportunity to move on. You haven't replied to his texts since yesterday and you're not going to anymore. He's called you a couple of times as well but you haven't picked up. It hurts you not to talk to him and to not wish him well for the race but it's for the best. 

You don't deserve him in any shape or form so you're going to let him go. 

That's what he needs and that's what he deserves. 

You sigh as you sink deeper into the couch. 

You thought about not watching the race because of how you feel about Charles but you honestly couldn't. You've seen every race since Seb joined Formula 1 and you realized how stupid it would be not to watch simply because of a guy you have a crush on. 

So therefore you've decided to push your feelings aside and watch the race to support Seb like you always do. And you'll be cheering and praying for Charles too. It's not like you hate him or anything. It's the opposite actually so there's no reason to not want him to do well. 

As the race continues, you suddenly hear Holly enter the room. 

"HAS IT STARTED? DID I MISS ANYTHING? WHERE IS SEB? WHERE IS SEBASTIAN?"