Rêveries

Chapter 14.

Evie and I wake up early, just before seven AM. We're both slightly hungover, but nothing too bad. I did wake up with a lot of anxiety from last night, though. No one would bat an eyelash about the way we were walking, considering it shouldn't be weird after almost eighteen years of friendship. But I'm afraid I was a bit too comfortable and excited about it. He had his arms around my shoulders and I held onto the wrist hanging off my shoulder while my other arm was wrapped around his back.

I did enjoy that too much. I know I did. So what was the reason behind it this time?

The alcohol, the mood within the group all together, finally being together after these three years. There were a lot of factors and none of them include anything inappropriate.

The sun is just about to rise so Evie and I roll out of bed, put on some training clothes and head out for a morning walk to watch the sunrise while getting rid of the hangover. We bring our water bottles and head out, walking down some streets before getting down to the water. We walk along the water at a quick pace, looking at the sun slowly rising in the distance, sending a golden glow over the city.

"Did you have fun last night?" I ask her, planning on getting to Pierre, trying to find out of it was a success or if she just randomly realized that he's a stupid dick or something.

"I had a blast," she laughs, "Max would've dragged me home by the hair if he saw me dancing in the middle of the street, especially with someone he works with."

"No he wouldn't," I shake my head, he can't be that protective over his sister. She's actually 18 now. "You talked a lot to Pierre, though," I point out.

"He's funny, easy to talk to," She shrugs, "great dancer apparently."

Yeah, no, he really isn't but if she wants to believe so then I won't say anything. They looked like they had enough fun to not care about the dance being good. They could just enjoy each other's company.

"Did I hit a nerve yesterday?" She asks. I squint and look over at her. She's looking at me curiously and I just shake my head trying to act confused.

"When?" I ask.

"Last night, about Charles?" She says and I am dreading to answer this question because I did act like she hit a nerve but I can't explain why it did, "If you think that I believe you don't enjoy his company then I'm sorry, because I know the both of you love spending time with each other, best friends and all that, I was just trying to make bad joke," she says and I shake my head.

"No, it's fine, I don't know why I reacted the way I did," I try to laugh to make it sound casual and less awkward, but I think I made it worse.

"Céline..." She says, stopping next to me. She has a smirk on her face and she's looking at me with so much mischief. I stop and look at her, waiting for her to continue, "Are you crushing on him?" she asks and I think everything shuts down in my body for what feels like forever before I force myself to break out into laughter.

"No, I am not. Not even if a star fell down and landed on my head." I shake my head.

"It would be totally fine if you did, I mean I'd understand, he's good looking and he's a nice guy... a bit annoying but he's-" She rambles before I put my hand over her mouth and shake my head at her, looking sternly into her eyes.

"I am not crushing on anyone, especially not Charles," I tell her. Her response is to lick my hand to make me remove it. I screech before rubbing her saliva off my hand on her clothes.

"If you say so, darling," she says before we begin walking again.

We get back to the hotel when the sun is fully up. We go to our room to shower, put some makeup on and get dressed. I put on a pair of white flowy, wide-legged pants in the softest material ever created. If I'm going to be at the paddock all day then I need to be comfortable too. I pair it with a blue off-shoulder tank top. It had a little bow in the middle, at the top of the shirt, so when I braided my hair I let the end be secured with a ribbon in the same blue as the shirt.

Evie puts on a pair of flowy pants, like mine, but they're black and she pairs it with a black tank top and just brings a beige sweater in case she gets cold, she ties it around her shoulders and then we go down for breakfast.

We're sitting outside in the garden with our breakfast when Arthur comes downstairs and sits next to us. I haven't seen him until now, since he wasn't at the paddock when I got there and we both did other things last night. He hugs over my shoulders from behind when he gets down and I just pat his arms before he sits down.

"Sorry I missed you yesterday," he says and I shake my head while chewing.

"It's fine, Evie and I went to dinner with Charles and Pierre."

"I saw, Valerie sent me a picture she saw on twitter," he says. I still cringe when I hear her name but I hide it by shoving some more cereal into my mouth and looking over at Evie who looks terrified.

"It's on twitter?" she asks, looking wide-eyed at Arthur.

"Yeah, people were debating whether or not it was the four of you dancing because they couldn't even imagine that Pierre and Charles would be dancing," he says, looking through his phone before putting it in front of Evie who looks at it with worry dawning on her face. I glance over and someone passing must've taken the photo because it was taken quite close up.

"Well, I'm good at getting what I want," I shrug, then feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up over my shoulder and see Charles sitting down on the chair next to me.

"Ta bénédiction, ma malédiction," Your blessing, my curse, he says. Arthur laughs and shows him the picture of us that proves to people on the internet that it happened. Charles cringes and hands the phone back, clicking his tongue.

When Max comes down we all tense up, waiting to see if he knows about it, but he just comes over to the table with his plate, sitting down next to Evie as he says something to all of us about the breakfast buffet. He doesn't seem to know.