Driving Me Crazy

Chapter Thirty-One

Charles

I wake up around 2:30 am to a beautiful girl in my arms. Katana is fast asleep after we both ate too much pasta and spent the entire day walking around Monza. Her laugh is so contagious and I think yesterday might have been the best day of my life. Her hair is in her face as she sleeps on my chest and breathes heavily. I slowly push her hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ear so that I get a better view of her. The more time Katana spends in the sun, the more her freckles begin to show. Her skin is soft beneath my touch as I rub her cheek lightly before I wake her.

Slowly, I rub her arm and softly call her name to wake her before the nightmares hit. Her eyelashes flutter lightly as she slowly opens her eyes and lets out a soft groan signaling that she is awake. "Good morning, sunshine," I say to her sleepy face as she stirs around the bed. "Good morning, Romeo," she says groggily before sitting up in the bed.

"It's 2 am, why did you wake me?" Katana asks, confusion flooding her face as she rubs her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I woke you before the nightmares. You can go back to sleep in five minutes, your brain just needs to wake up first," I inform her. She silently agrees before giving me a look that I can't decipher. Her eyes are slightly squinted and her smile is a bit crooked causing only one dimple to show. I take her hand and place a small kiss on her knuckles before apologizing and she lays back down silently. I rub her back and hold her until her breathing deepens allowing me to believe she has fallen asleep. I take that as my cue to go back to sleep as well.

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I wake to the sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand. As soon as I hear it, I snatch it off the table so that the noise can't wake Katana. Looking at the time, it's 6:32 am and my phone is blowing up.

Landooo: Bro... look at this. It's everywhere...

The Less Famous Carlos: Charles you're going to want to see this...

Fred: Why do you always have to cause trouble?

Clicking the links that they all sent me, my heart drops. "Charles Leclerc, Off The Roster?" is the headline of the biggest article. Things just get worse as I continue reading.

"Charles Leclerc has been spotted repeatedly throughout Miami and now Monza. The girl whom we have yet to identify seems to be American as we have spotted her at some low-life apartments in Miami. What do we think, has Twitter's famous bachelor finally settled down with a cheap American? Do we think she's only in it for the money? If you have any idea who she is, let us know!"

My mouth gets a bitter taste as I report the article and message my assistant to find the author and get it removed. I know that won't change anything considering my Twitter account has 30,000 more notifications than usual, but Katana is going to lose it when she sees this. I will kill someone if they just ruined all of the progress we have made together. I place my phone on Do Not Disturb, but the buzzing doesn't stop. Katana's phone is now blowing up, causing her to stir awake.

"Fuck," I whisper under my breath as she wakes and says, "What the fuck is that noise?" She reaches for her phone and I launch forward grabbing her arm lightly.

"What are you doing?" She asks, now more awake than before.

"Look. Before you look at your phone, just know it's wrong. Everything is wrong. Please don't let this ruin what we've started. Don't let it take you away from me," I practically beg. Her eyes grow concerned and she cautiously grabs her phone while continuing to make eye contact with me. She breaks her gaze to check her phone and every second her jaw drops more.

The silence stretches between us and my heart rate grows faster. Tears start to fill her eyes and my heart breaks at the sight of it. I sigh lightly and move forward to take her hands, but she pulls them back and looks at me with pain in her eyes.

"Gold digger, poor, cheap, ugly, fat, a downgrade..." She whispers.

My heart officially shattered when I say, "No. None of that is you. People get so aggressive because I have fame. They're jealous of you, I know what you are, and it's none of that. Money and status don't matter and you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. Nobody has ever stood out to me the way you do, and you barely let me bring you along because of the money. Social media girls think they're mine, they attack anyone who takes that spot from them."

Tears spill out her eyes as I speak and my breathing has become shallow. Seeing her hurt has me more vengeful than I ever have been before. Who in their right mind would want to win me over by diminishing the people in my life? After what felt like hours of staring at her, watching her fall apart while staring at her phone, she finally looks up at me again.

"I don't know what to do..." She practically whispers as she lets her phone fall to the bed.

"Oh, baby. There's nothing you can do except believe me," I say in my softest voice, trying to comfort her. She hiccups lightly and says, "Everyone I knew is reaching out to either call me a whore or get something from you. Indi's mom even messaged me and she hasn't spoken to me since..." Her voice breaks down and she crumples forward as she fully breaks down. Her sobs break everything in my body as I pull her into my chest and rub the back of her head. "It's okay, love. We will get through this. You're strong and amazing, and we will get through this, together," I speak into her hair trying to hold her as close as possible.

God better hide these reporters because if they cross my path, I might actually hit someone with my car this time.