L O C K -U P | c. leclerc

5| Before Bahrain

A. Devereaux

I was kept a secret. Fred made sure that I was to be revealed like a wild card. He wanted to surprise the other drivers and throw them off their game.

I liked the idea of it.

I stayed in my driver's room, prepping myself for the race. Reciting my grandfather's words to myself as if it were a scripture. I couldn't lie to myself, I was nervous but I wasn't going to show that.

I already had my racing suit on and it was so strange still being in a racing suit for F1. I didn't think I would get here and I don't care if it dropped on my feet because I was the last option. It mattered to me that I was here racing. I was in the fight just like my grandfather was in his day.

Throughout the winter break, Charles and I were neck on neck, always. Sometimes it involved massive mishaps, damages to the cars and minor crashes.

However, other times, it created something extraordinary. The need to be better than the other made us more precise with our driving that for even just a second I felt in control and that I was flying.

I shook my head, reminding myself that I was thinking too fondly of the prick.

I decided to scroll through my phone and started laughing at all the ridiculous theories coming out about what's my relationship with Charles. The F1 fans are not ready for the bomb that is about to drop.

Suddenly I heard a knock on my door and I opened the door revealing the last person I wanted to have a conversation with.

I was about to slam the door on Charles' face but he was quick to stop me and let himself in, slamming the door behind him. "Charles we are not friends, I would like some peace-."

"Look here, I'm just trying to hide here and this is the last place anyone will look for me okay, cause if I had the permission to do so...I would have booted you out of this team," he reminded and I rolled my eyes and begrudgingly agreed, "Alright alright, we get it, you hate my guts, now why are you hiding?"

"Pierre, Lando, Alex, and Max have been hunting me down trying to ask why there's a picture circulating of us that looks like we kissed," he explained and I let out a big sigh remembering the thousands of tweets talking about it.

"I'd rather kiss black mold than kiss you," I reminded and he just shook his head and teased back, "As if you'd ever get the chance to kiss me. I bet that if I'd kiss you, I'd die instantly."

"Ha...ha... soooo funny, if my kiss was so deadly, why isn't Carlos dead yet?," I threw his banter back and he simply shrugged and said, "Oh he will, I've never seen him chase a girl like that. I didn't even know how he found out where we were."

"Don't know don't care," I shrugged.

"Damn, you are ice cold."

"Look Charles, you don't have anything to worry about, there's nothing between us anyways so it shouldn't affect you," I advised, and I lived by my own advice. If it's not true, then it doesn't matter. I've lived my whole life being called names and being written off as a disgrace to the Lauda name, but I know that wasn't true.

"That's not the point, it hurts my chance of having a new date," he whined, taking a seat next to me. I cleared my throat and said, "Don't sit so close to me, It's bad enough we have to be teammates."

"God, you're so hard to please," he complained again, hopping away with his chair like the Pixar lamp intro.

"Alright then, why does it make you sad that you don't get pussy anymore-," I teased and in return he threw some sort of projectile at me. "Shut up Artemis, you're such a child-."