lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

~ ventuno ~

Great Britain, July 2019

It was over three in the morning, and Pia was still wide awake while the Monegasque was peacefully sleeping by her side. The Italian had to smile when her eyes landed on him. Thanks to the slight stubble, he looked a little older than he really was. His mouth was slightly ajar, yet it bore a smile. His eyes were closed in a relaxed kind of way. His hair was messy. It was all over the place - a few strands in that direction and a few in a totally different one. It was cute - he was cute, a bit angelic even.

But it wasn't Charles' cuteness that kept Pia awake. It was self-disgust, which she felt, and also regrets. She cheated on her boyfriend, but she also cheated with someone's boyfriend. It was wrong on so many levels. She wasn't like that and didn't want to be like that.

The Italian got up from bed and walked around the room for a bit. She was arguing with herself in her mind. She tried to persuade herself that she wasn't the villain of this story when she clearly was, but the Italian needed to hear that she wasn't. So, she decided to get reassurance.

She walked towards Max's room just in Charles' black T-shirt and knickers. She aggressively knocked on his door because she knew he would be asleep. It took a few minutes before the annoyed Dutchman opened the door. The Italian didn't wait and hugged him tightly.

"Max, am I a bad person?" she asked between the sobs. She couldn't keep it together.

"What happened, Pia? Why would you be a bad person? Of course, you're not," he caressed his friend on her back.

"I don't want to hurt him, Max. I really don't, but I want to be happy. Is that bad?" she muttered into Max's shoulder. "He will hate me," she said more to herself. Even though she doubted Lando was able to hate. She knew he wouldn't want to see her for a bit, but eventually, he would get over it. He was that type that forgave but didn't forget.

"Who will hate you?" the Red Bull driver asked when he tried to pull Pia away from him because he wanted to see into her face, but she just tightened her grip even more.

"Look at me, Pia, please," he muttered. To his surprise, she obeyed. She pulled away and looked at her friend. "Who could ever hate you?" Max whispered and caressed Pia's hair. He did that for a few minutes because he needed Pia to calm down.

"Now, let's remove all that mascara, okay?" The Dutchman smiled at his friend. She looked a bit like a panda, in his opinion. Pia just nodded while she tried to wipe her tears a little bit, but because of that, she just made the mascara situation worse. Max grabbed her hand and brought her into the bathroom. He made her sit on the bathtub's edge while he reached for the makeup wipes.

Pia could see Max's focused face when he was removing the mascara near her eyes. He was really gentle. The Italian expected the Dutchman would just rub her eyes, but Max was really careful while wiping the mascara under her eyes. It made her wonder if he had already done something like that. Perhaps he removed makeup for Joanna when she was drunk too.

"Thank you," she said when the Red Bull driver finished removing her mascara. He didn't get why she was even wearing makeup. In his opinion, she was beautiful without it. He didn't understand this girl's obsession with makeup.

"It's okay. Let's go to bed," the Dutchman suggested. It was really late, and he didn't want to look that horrendous in the morning. "I'll talk about everything in the morning," he said and smiled at her.

"Yeah, I'm tired," the Italian agreed with her friend. She wanted to sleep at it all. Even though she wasn't looking forward to the morning because Pia would have to explain to Max everything, and also, she would have to explain to Charles why she left in the middle of the night. She just wanted to hide in front of her problems.