Red past | Charles Leclerc

Reminiscing

The whole garage fell silent, Me and Arthur stared horrified at what we had just seen. Charles' car had spun out, hitting the tire covered barrier. Tears sat at the rims of my eyes, with every blink one releasing down my cheek. I entangled my hand with Arthur's not allowing my eyes to look away from the man I love.

Few movements from within the car warned us of his safety seconds before his race engineer confirmed his condition.

The ride from the track to the garage seemed to take forever, seconds feeling like minutes and minutes feeling like hours.

When his flushed face came into view, Arthur let out a sigh of relief, not believing his healthy state until he saw it with his own eyes. Other than increased heart rate and slightly high blood pressure he seemed to be fine.

~

Sitting in our hotel room, laying down on the bed with our arms interlocked with each other seemed so surreal after the dramatic day on the track.

His chest slowly rising and falling in a rhythmic pattern underneath my head calmed me.

I looked up at his happy face staring at the TV with his brown hair fluffed up from the pillows, his green eyes so focused on the moving pixels as if he was so concentrated.

"What?" He laughed looking down at me.

"Nothing," I smiled reverting my gaze to the one thing that could distract me from him.

He planted a kiss on the top of my head before tightening the grip he held on my shoulder, I couldn't help but love every second I spent with him.

~

"Nika, you care to share your opinion on this?" Julia's words rang through my head as I stared blankly the the TV screen completely rummaging through my mind.

"Earth to Nika," Arthur yelled gently nudging my shoulder with his.

"Huh? Yeah? What's up?" I questioned looking at the pair of them.

After Arthur's incident on the track early I insisted that we stay in the hotel room to let him rest to prepare for the race tomorrow in which I were to start P18 while Arthur stood on the back row of the grid.

"We were debating whether or not impending should be worth more than a three place grid penalty," Arthur informs me with an annoyed look in his eye.

"He thinks that it should be a three place grid penalty but I disagree," Julia interrupts, really enunciating the 'He' in her sentence.

"I really don't want to get I the middle of your little dispute so I'm going to go and get changed into something a bit more comfier.

Of course I agree with Arthur, 100% but I'm way to tired to be a part of that situation. Especially when it's 9pm.

~

I changed into some Nike sweatpants and a redbull t-shirt before sitting on my bed. I scrolled through me phone for 2 minutes before I was disturbed by a gentle knock followed by the door opening.

"Hey," Arthur smiled before jumping onto the unoccupied side of the bed.

"How comes your here and not out there with Julia?"

"She went to her room, she said that she was tired," he answered taking my phone out of my hand and placing on my bedside table.

"Ok. What is it?" I asked crossing my legs to seem very interested.

He looked at me blankly, not understanding what was going on.

"Whenever you look at me like that, it means that you want to talk about something?"

"Ok, fine," he sighed before looking back at me, "You was the only one with him when it happened. I just want to know if he was OK?"

I shook my head at him, not wanting to get involved, I don't want to care about him even if I can't help myself to.

"Anika, please," he gave me an upset look.

"He seemed better than before," I admit not breaking eye contact with him.

Charles hates when anyone he cares about gets into a crash his mind starts racing and it causes panic to sink in. Usually followed by a panic attack depending on the situation.

"You know he's gotten worse with the whole anxiety thing since you two broke up, he seemed happier."

"What am I meant to do? I can barely look at him without thinking about what happened," I snapped.

"I know, I know. I just think that you should talk to him. You haven't had a proper conversation with him since July 2020, please just try for me," he whispered.

The eyes that he shares with his brother blinked caringly at me. I knew he was right, he usually was. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my head into his shoulder as he reciprocated the embrace.

"Ok, I'll do it tomorrow. Or atleast I'll try."

~

We spent an hour watching Greys Anatomy through my phone, a show which Arthur puts up with for my benefit, before we both went to sleep.

~

The bright Sun rays shone through the curtains of our American hotel, less than a street away from the Miami Circuit. An unusual lack of heat beneath my head and arm. The brunette boy had risen from his slumber and had found his way to the bathroom.

Two minutes later the familiar boy opened the door, a towel wrapped around his waist as he walked out of the bathroom.

"Good morning Mila," me muttered planting a kiss on my lips before grabbing some clothes.

I couldn't help but stare, his perfectly defined chest highlighted by his wet, brunette hair. An amazing sight to see when you wake up.

"You know, it's rude to stare," he smirked, changing into the clothes he had chosen.

"Yeah but I can't help it," I laughed walking towards him.

He put his hands on my waist before kissing me, I could feel his wet hair on my forhead as I traced the nape of his neck with my fingers.

"I love you so much," he whispered, pulling away to look at me in the eyes.

"I love you."