Under the helmet | Charles Leclerc

~Chapter 37~

"Ok, last question Charles." I hesitate as I look at the question, knowing that both he and I don't want to answer this question.

"What's the question?" He prompts from the short silence between us. Reminding me that there is cameras.

"Do you prefer Maeve over Carlos." I hesitate, knowing that I don't want to ask him this question.

"I don't prefer either of them, they are both equally good. Sure I miss Carlos but Maeve is a great friend of mine now too, and also a talented driver." He responds. I'm surprised with how good he is around the cameras and how he remembers that they are there half of the time I forget.

"Right, well there's no more, we'd better head back to the start and finish line." I resume, while Charles starts driving faster into the straights. "But let's keep the car away from the walls." I continue while he just glares at me, before turning his head back to the road.

We park back up at the start and finish line where the sky interviewing crew are stood waiting to ask us a few more questions before we head off. Charles and I both get out of the car and the camera crew are immediately on it. I recently haven't been noticing the cameras as much, but for some reason, I feel like they are more in my face than they were. It feels a bit overwhelming and stressful.

"So, seems like you kept the car from the walls and had lots of fun!" The interviewer states while I try to stand away from the cameras a bit.

"Yes, it was fun to drive around in a ferrari on a track that we are going to be racing on later this week, kind of felt a bit like a warm up?" I reply nodding knowingly at Charles.

"Yeah, lots of fun. And great company with my teammate, I would definitely do this again." Charles smiles between myself and the interviewer.

"Great, thank you guys, we'll let you go and do some pre-race prep for the rest of the week and we'll see you both on track!" The interviewer concludes before nodding at us signalling the cameras are off.

"Thank you, we'll see you on track." I smile and nod politely before making my way to the car park behind the ferrari garage.

I walk back to the paddock with Charles to see Viola looking at the two of us expectantly. I remember what happened last night, she wants answers.

"Well? Do either of you have a response for me yet?" She asks, I look over at Charles who looks at me replicating my confused look. "I'll take that as a no." She sounds slightly annoyed but somewhat understanding.

"Sorry Viola." I apologise, not really knowing why.

"What for? You didn't crash that ferrari did you?" She asks, I now realise there was no need to apologise.

"Don't worry." I brush off while we all head back to the car park, a silent walk. An awkward one too.

Viola and I get into the car while Charles gets into his car that he drove here and Viola and I have an awkwardly silent ride home, I try not to let the awkwardness get to me but it almost feels overwhelming now. When I get back to the apartment I leave Viola who stays in the car and drives off somewhere else and I decide to put on some of my gym gear and message my trainer that I want to do another workout.

My personal trainer arrives at my door about 10 minutes later, and we both leave to go to the gym. When we get there I immediately go over to the treadmill to warm up and do some gentle jogging for about ten minutes, which gets my heart rate pumping. My trainer sets me quite a heavy workout to finish the day off and then I'll have some health checks after the workout. By the time the workout ends I am sweating and filling up my water bottle like there's no tomorrow. My heart is throbbing out of my chest and my lungs pleading for more oxygen to fill them. I lean down and press my hands on my knees for support and take a huge sigh before taking the health checks.

"I don't think the health checks can be taken with you this exhausted." My trainer teases as I look down at my watch on my wrist which tracks my fitness.

22:43

"It'll be fine- I'm fine." I stand up straight and walk over to where my trainer is holding a few pieces of equipment for the health checks.

"Ok, slight scratch, just to test your blood levels." A feel a slight scratch in my arm and wince slightly. "Nothing out of the norm, just going to conclude your performance, walk to the wall and back." I walk slowly to the wall and back. "I will conclude these results and I'll get back to you after the grand prix." My trainer nods.

"Thank you, I'd best hit the showers." I laugh, and make my trainer laugh too.

As I head back to my apartment I immediately head straight to the showers and wash all the sweat off and get ready to go to sleep, ignoring the fact that Rosa had left her TV on in her room.

I roll around in my bed for a few minutes and wake up. I hear a loud sizzling sound, guessing that Rosa is probably cooking something. I check my phone, and notice that it's only Thursday, and its 9:30am. The sizzling sound then stops and Rosa walks into the room.

"Oh great, your awake. I heard you come in last night after your workout. And I made breakfast." Rosa informs me and then leaves quickly.

"Don't tell me you left the hob on again..." I manage to grumble as a rub my eyes and get out of bed.

"Nope! Nope! It's fine! Everything is under control!" Rosa demands shouting from the other room.

"That means nothing is alright..." I whisper under my breath and get out of bed and quickly walk over to the kitchen.

"See, everything is fine!" Rosa protests as she notices my loud and lazy steps into the kitchen.

"I wouldn't necessarily call this 'fine', Rosa." I look around the kitchen and observe the mess she's managed to make. Rosa just smiles sheepishly at me.

"I'll fix it. I just wanted to surprise you, and also offer a day out today? Before the weekend?" Rosa offers, knowing I tend to get busy towards the weekends.

"I'll see if headquarters needs me, if not, yes we can go out." I see her smile light up a little. "And thanks, for the attempted surprise." I chuckle under my breath.

I look down at my phone and message Viola if I'm needed at the garage today and she quickly responds with a simple 'no'. To which I turn my phone off and smile to myself.

"I'm not needed today, surprisingly." I smile at Rosa who immediately comes over and bear hugs me.

"I'm excited to spend a day out with my best friend!" Rosa cheers.

"Me too, it's definitely been a while since we've done this." I hug her back.

"Let me go get ready and we can be on our way and explore Barcelona. You go on ahead, I have a few things to do, I'll let you know when I can meet you." Rosa points out.

I nod my head and put some shoes on before heading out the door towards the car park and find my car and head into the center of Barcelona to take a look around the city a bit.

The city is breathtaking and I enjoy taking in the views from the comfort of my car which causes a few stares from a few of the people walking around in Barcelona. I notice a couple of people get their phones out to take photos, some of which may be fans that have spotted me.

I notice my phone on my passenger seat light up. I steer my eyes to the passenger seat to see if I can see what it is. My focus drifts from the road and my hands idle on the steering wheel. Subconsciously my feet gently lays pressure on the accelerator. Before I can see what is on the screen I quickly turn my attention back to the road. I hear another car horn beep and I quickly move my hands to steer away from the oncoming car. My heart throbs and I inhale sharply at the fear of crashing. Thankfully, I manage to avoid the other car and continue to focus on the road. I gently sigh to myself knowing that everything is fine.