Loud and Clear (F1 x CL16)

5. Bittersweet

This season was incredible. From finishing P2 in the first race, to being consecutive in the points in the ten up following races. It was a milestone really. I qualified a lot in Q2, but made my way to the top 10 every time. I even got another podium. It was last weekends race, where I finished P3 in Germany. I was joined by Vettel in P2, and the young dutch driver in P1. At the podium Sebastian congratulated me for finishing so high and was happy to see such a strong driver taking over his place at Ferrari. That was the best compliment in my life. Even Max gave me a praise on my good start of the season. We've done 11 races now. Wherein I scored 85 points. It was an outstanding job. I had almost triple the points of my teammate. But of course, he was still a rookie.
For what happened before the weekend in Bahrein... I hadn't talked to Charles ever since. I ignored him as much as possible. There was no way we would get close again. He did try. He asked Alex where I was once when he came by the motorhome. And of course asked Pierre how I was. I heard those things from them. The closest I was to Charles was when we had the drivers parade on a big truck. I made sure I was only talking with the Mercedes guys and kept my distance from Charles, only at one point he joined our conversation. I immediately fled.
You could say I was like a little girl, scared of her high school crush, but in reality I was just making sure Charles wouldn't get any hints from me. I wasn't in the mood for any affection and surely not from my 'enemy'.
It was now a raceweekend again. I was still hyped about last weekends podium finish and couldn't wait to see what Hungary would bring. It was now Thursday and I was on my way to the pressroom, where we would get interviewed. I walked into the room and... there he was, sitting next to the other three drivers that were joining us.
Grosjean, Raikkonen and Sainz were all sat on the end of the table, with Charles sitting next to the young Spaniard. I cringed. Of course I had to sit next to Charles, this was my karma for the last few months.
I sat down, just on time. The press immediately started to ask questions, luckily not to me. The Fin was answering some questions that were thrown to him, the same for Grosjean.
"Hey." Charles said softly to me.
I startled. What was I supposed to say? "Hi." I whispered while having my hand on the microphone so the rest couldn't hear me.
Charles moved a bit closer, not that noticeable, but still I knew he moved, because every part of my body stiffened. "You haven't talken to me for days. I think the last time was at that one drivers parade." He said and I knew he was going to say that.
"Really... I had no idea we hadn't talked since than. Must've been really busy lately." I made an excuse.
"Well it seemed like you had a lot of time for others. Are you trying to avoid me?" I saw that question coming.
"No... you must be seeing it all wrong." I got my glass of water and drank it half empty. I really needed to get out of this conversation.
"Whatever I did... I'm sorry, okay. I just don't want you to avoid me." He said and I felt my heart melt from inside. What?
I picked up my cup of water and held it between us. "Look. This is my cup of care." I took a big sip and it was now fully empty. "Oh! Look, it's empty!" I placed it back on the table in front of us. So that would freeze my heart back in one piece.
Charles' eyes completely closed for a few seconds and he sighed. He wanted to say something, but held himself together. He knew he stood no chance. He just had to leave me alone.
"Brigitte, how do you feel coming into this race?" The question disrupted this kind of heated moment between me and Charles.
"I'm really happy to race here. I feel like I can really make some points here today." I smiled at the journalists in front of me.
"That's good to hear. And how do you feel after your podium, still hyped?" The interviewer asked.
I leaned a bit forward, totally getting into the conversation. "Incredibly hyped. Let's hope for more to come this season." I smiled at the interviewer and nodded. A sign that he knew enough.
"Charles, how are you feeling about this weekend?" The interviewer moved onto the guy next to me. I rolled my eyes unnoticeable.
"I'm excited, I think a podium place is reachable." He already had five podiums this year. It was quite good of him since the Ferrari wasn't the best of the best this year. But there were speculations about their updates for after the summer break, which would start after this Grand Prix.
"You have also a podium scorer sitting next to you, LaRue. What do you have to say about her two podiums." The interviewer made the subject about me again.
I was expecting something mean from Charles, but he came with the most sweet comment ever. "Well I'm really impressed by her work, she's doing amazing for her second season in not the best team out there. It really impressed me and I feel like a win is close by for her. But of course I would get that win before she would." Of course he had to make it about himself. But still, his words were so kind. Was I too hard on him with the cup thing?
No. No I wasn't. He should really just back off. I wasn't going to forgive him for that incident.
The press conference was done shortly after and I rushed out. I wanted to go back to the motorhome asap, so I could get those meetings over with.
"Brigitte, please wait." Charles called and he rushed over to grab my hand. It was in the middle of the paddock, and he grabbed my hand. In front of everyone.
I withdrew my hand. "What do you want?" I said a bit harsh.
"Why did you stop talking to me after the plane ride... was it something I said? Because I don't remember." Ah of course. Charles got a private plane he could use for the weekend and he invited Pierre to go with him, so Pierre invited me as well. I wasn't in the mood to fly alone so of course I would go with him, even if it meant being with Charles.
"No. It's not that. Now can I go? I have a meeting to attend." I turned around and started walking away.
But of course he had to come and follow. "Explain to me please what I did wrong. Where did we go wrong?" He asked me and I wanted to yell it out. I wanted to say the crash at karting. But I just couldn't. Why? I don't know!
"Charles. There's no we. We're not friends, and I don't like you. Just... let's stay strangers." How could we if we became teammates next year? Because it was a 90% chance it would happen... that last 10% was my insecurities to leave my first ever F1 team. Ferrari was determined to get me, I knew that. I outperformed my car and I really made them drop their jaws.
Charles was hurt by those words. I saw it in his green, beautiful eyes. "Sure. If you'd say so... and by the way. You have a really bad attitude when it comes to other people." He said and he made me furious at that point.
"I don't have an attitude. It's called a personality. I'm sorry you don't have one." I was so done with him. Every time I tried to like him, that incident just came up right away. We weren't meant to be friends, nor anything else. And I wasn't sure how I would fix that once we were teammates. If we became teammates.