Fifty Shades Of Red | Charles Leclerc

22. My Responsibility

Charles' pov

"Can you maybe stop laughing?" I ask Hailey as I help her to the door, searching for my keys inside of my pocket "I don't want to disturb my neighbours."

"Your what?" She asks confused, her voice high pitched, clearly ignoring what I just said "Where even are we?"

"This is my personal house." I help her inside, turning the lights on.

"You could have just dropped me at the hotel." She says, slurring her words and I turn my face to meet her eyes.

Like hell I would.

"No." I say and take my shoes off "Tonight, you're my responsibility."

Hailey starts walking towards my living room, stopping when she sees some photographs hung on my wall.

"Awe Charlie." She says and takes the framed photograph in her hands "Is this you?" She points with her finger.

I walk closer, taking a look. In the picture, there's baby me, playing with a toy.

"Yeah, that's me."

She takes a look again and starts laughing. How drunk is she?

"You haven't changed one bit." Hailey says and puts the photograph next to my face, her eyes shifting back and forth "Except from the beard...and you're hair's longer now."

She puts a hand through my hair, messing it all up while giggling before retracting it back immediately.

"Sorry." She says, looking down.

"Don't apologise." I put a finger to her chin, forcing her head up "I liked it."

Hailey gives me a weak smile before handing me the photograph. I take a look at it again.

"Maybe it's time to pay my mum a visit." I chuckle but Hailey looks at me confused.

"My mom cuts my hair." I explain and she starts laughing at me again.

I place my hand to her mouth, trying to make her keep quiet.

"Shhh!" I say and her giggles come to an end "Can I let go now?"

She nods and goes on to look at more photographs. I restrain myself from just dragging her up to my room so we can put an end to this long, tiring day.

"Who's this?" She asks, pointing at Arthur.

"That's my brother, one of them." I say while rubbing my eyes, feeling the exhaustion kicking in.

"He reminds me of Jonah." She mumbles.

"Who's Jonah?" I ask curiously. I don't think I've ever heard her mention this name before.

Why does this name kind of sounds familiar?

"My big brother." She says and smiles to herself "He's the reason I got into racing in the first place."

"Is he a driver as well?" I ask and lean against the wall.

"Mhm, one of the best I've ever met." Hailey says and looks at everything and at nothing at the same time. It seems like a thousand thoughts are racing through her head "He taught me how to race."

I raise both of my eyebrows while focusing only on her, encouraging and hoping she'll tell me more about herself and where she came from.

"My dad used to work as an engineer for McLaren before..." Hailey starts to say but her words only linger in the air, unfinished "Jonah's biggest dream growing up was to win a championship and mine was...to be able to race alongside him." She smiles, closing her eyes while she's thinking about her fond memories "My parents never approved of me joining the sport, but they were always supporting him, however Jonah was my biggest fan."