apocalypse | charles leclerc ✓

prologue

The first thing she did as soon as her father's name popped up with a notification was, obviously, ignore it. Italy was her happy place. A bubble where she could forget about her family and everything that came along with them. Just her, and her very nice, not at all stressing, longtime best friend Aurora. Really, it was like some sort of soul-cleansing ritual to be there. No annoying comments, tense energy or unhappy fa—

"Woah, you look a bit distressed." She said when Aurora walked into the room, huffing and staring at her phone like it just committed a lousy offence. "Everything alright?" Sloane raised an eyebrow.

Her friend inhaled and exhaled, something she did to relax. She knew her demeanours. "It's Pierre." Those were the only words before she shoved her phone in Sloane's face.

She blinked, the letters were a bit bleary at first. It was a text exchange between Aurora and the infamous driver. Apparently, he was insisting on inviting her to a party in Milan, emphasis on the insistence, and oh...'please invite your model friend' along with a winking emoji as she read from one of the messages. Sloane could only assume she was the model friend in question.

"Nice, we should go." Her lips curved into a smile.

Aurora creased her brows. "No, we shouldn't. It's in Milan, forget it."

"Aren't there trains here or something?" Sloane battled her eyelashes, pretending to be confused.

Shaking her head and folding her arms over her chest, Aurora gave her one of those serious glares. "It's like two hours or more, so no way. Also, we both have work tomorrow."

"We could manage." She simply said with a little shrug. "Lore won't kill me if I go out for the night, as long as I get to his atelier in one piece, everything will be alright."

"Yeah, your designer won't kill you, but my boss will." Okay, she could agree with her on that. Their freedoms were different.

Sloane spun with the office chair in Aurora's room. The room turning blurry with each spin. "It could be fun." Her voice was casual, just enough to perhaps tempt the Italian a little bit. "We haven't gone out in a while. Not like that." She mentioned and stopped spinning, coming face to face with Aurora.

She tiredly sighed. "Sloane," The vocals were dragged, showing reluctance. "He's friends with Charles, who is probably going to be there, and might I remind you this is my first year working with Ferrari. It doesn't feel right."

"It's not like coworkers can't hang out." She dismissed it with a hand gesture. "I hang out with my coworkers all the time."

"Yeah, you work in modelling. Everybody wants to hang out with everybody." Pursing her lips into a frown, Sloane nodded in agreement. "I just think it doesn't look professional."

They were indeed pretty different because if Sloane worked in the same field Aurora worked, she'd be sneaking into parties all the time. Surely those guys, with the amount of money they made by driving cars, knew how to have some fun. Proper fun. She leaned against the chair and smiled, sweetly and convincing. Sloane admired Aurora's code of honour or whatever, but she also believed the girl could have more fun sometimes. Get a little loose. The basics. It never killed someone to party once in a while.

"Look, we can go for a bit. I can get us a car, it's not an issue. You go, say hi to Pierre, and then we stay away from all of those guys. It's a club, with plenty of space to have our own fun while avoiding getting into trouble." Aurora seemed still unconvinced. "What's the worst that can happen? You make out with Pierre and I get a little high?" Sloane wiggled her eyebrows, making sure the joke landed.

The colour on Aurora's cheeks went bright red, and she grabbed a discarded sweater before tossing it at her. Sloane raised her arms in the air, trying to cover herself from the attack, her laugh bubbling all over the room. That was why she loved spending time with Aurora, she enjoyed herself. It took her mind off everything else.

"Don't say that, we're friends and former coworkers." Aurora hissed with a hint of panic, but then smiled a second later. "Plus, he said to invite you. I spent last year dealing with his pleas to introduce you two."

"He's a man, Rory. He'd do with either of us." Aurora wouldn't contradict her on that. "Plus he's French, I don't do French people."

That she could also not argue against. "He'll be devastated to hear that." The pressure on her shoulders seemed to vanish, Sloane could tell she'd relaxed. "We'll go but," Aurora raised a finger in the air after she practically squeaked with excitement. "Just for a little while, then we have to come back. Swear." The same finger pointed at her warningly.

She nodded and lifted a hand, pretending she was halfway to an oath. "We'll do whatever you want. Swear."

"And," The finger moved, pointing harder. "We're only going to greet Pierre and then blend in with the crowd at the club."

Sloane looked at her over her lashes. "We can make out with randos, though. Right?"

"Just make out." It wasn't like she'd ditch her to go home with someone else.

Despite popular belief, Sloane still had some sense of responsibility left in her. Most of the time led by her manager Vivianne, but it was there. Also, the probability of finding someone worthy enough to make her consider ditching Aurora of all people was very low. She loved Italians, she did, mostly for the fun but that was it.

"I'll just make out with some rando. I promise."

They looked at each other, Aurora still unsure but Sloane feeling quite buzzed. Like, literally, she thought, what's the worst that can happen? 

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a/n: 

one thing about me is i'll write sloane getting into trouble every time she goes to a party