Stay by my side [L.N]

„The start"

I was standing in my new apartment, looking out of the window to see beautiful Monaco's streets. It was a small apartment with a cozy kitchen, living room with three big windows, a bathroom and one bedroom. This morning all the furniture had arrived. I signed and walked out the window. I didn't want that, but my dad bought me an apartment without telling me. I wanted to buy my first apartment with my own money, but he just gave me keys a month ago, so I didn't have a choice. I knew how generous it was, but it just wasn't as I planned it. I moved to Monaco with my parents and my sister when I was three years old and Vic was five from Norway. My father was an art restorer and my mother a french artist. It was her dream to live in Monaco. Art and my sister were everything for her, literally everything, that's why things between us were a little bit complicated. I left this city when I was 18 to go to the medical university in Italy. Five years later I was back at home, starting my new life and career.
"It's the last one petite" My brother said walking in with the last box. "Where should I put it?" He asked.
"Thanks Charles, can you put it on the table? There are some mugs and plates in that box, so be careful" He nodded and put the box on the kitchen table.
"Your first apartment, it's so exciting" He smiled at me and sat on the sofa. I rolled my eyes and sat next to him.
"No, it's not mine Cha, my dad bought it, not me" He gave me a little push in my ribs. "Hey? For what?" I said to him.
"For being stupid. I don't care who bought this apartment, it's yours and the best thing is that we can live near each other again." He smiled at me. Charles and I were like siblings. When we moved here it turned out that Leclerc's were our neighbors. Me and Charles started to get along from day one, especially because I was only two years younger than him. We were growing up together and for a long time he was my only friend. I loved him like a brother and I treated him like one. After all these years abroad it was good to be back at home.
"We will not spend a lot of time here tho" I said and looked at him. In two weeks was the first race of the 2021 season. I couldn't wait to start my internship in Red Bull as a physiotherapist. It was a dream come true to me and Charles was the person who knew it the most.
"I know, but we will see each other more. Thanks to that you are working for our rival" He winked at me.
"Sorry Cha, everyone is a Ferrari fan, but I have a Red Bull heart." He laughed at my words.
"I have to go now, but I can't wait to beat your ass" He said while standing up from the couch. I went after him to the entrance doors.
"Not going to happened Leclerc"
"We will see about that Larsen" We both laughed and I closed doors behind him.
I still had a lot of things to do. Unpack all the boxes and prepare the apartment for being ready. I poured myself a glass of water and went to the window again. It was the start of my new life. All I have to do now is focus on my job, show Red Bull I am the best physiotherapist and live my life with my friends. It was the second most exciting thing. My best friend was going to start work at Formula one with me. The smartest Italian girl I have ever met-Rory was going to start an internship in Ferrari. Her dream was to become an engineer though. Our two were inseparable in university and now it was our time to shine. I put empty glass in the sink. I really needed to start cleaning the apartment. I promised Charles that I will go with him for a little party that Daniel organised. Thanks to my brother I have met almost every driver on the grid. I was keeping in touch with three of them the most-Max, Daniel and Pierre of course. I couldn't wait to see them again after a couple of months. I started cleaning and preparing the flat. I emptied all the boxes and after three hours it was done. I put one last photo on my nightstand. Photo of me, my sister and Leclerc brothers. It was taken in their garden in summer 2007 by Pascale. I smiled to myself as this memory came alive in my mind. I looked at it one last time and I got up to get ready. I took a shower first using my ultimate favorite lavender shampoo and then I did a quick not too heavy makeup. I chose to wear a long sleeved midi navy blue dress for the evening. Before leaving the flat I put some lipstic on and I took my bag. I left the building quickly and I saw Charles already waiting for me.
"Damn, petite, how long can you get ready?" He said when I sat in the passenger seat.
"Oh come on Charlie, you are the one that is always late so don't be hypocritical" I laughed.
"Okay okay, fair enough" He smiled. "Daniel is super excited to see you again, like everyone else to be honest." He said and glanced at me.
"I can't wait to see them too." I smiled. "I haven't seen them since summer break, this is definitely too long. But you mentioned that there are going to be some people that I don't know." I looked at him. "I hope not too many" I wasn't in the mood for the big party after such a long day, I just wanted to catch up with my closest friends and with people that I just trusted.
"Not a lot, don't worry." He said. "Only us, Max with Kelly, Pierre with Kika, Daniel with Heidi of course and... Lando." He mentioned the last driver's name and I looked at him. I have never met him, there was no occasion honestly. When I was attending races I was always at the Ferrari's garage and I spent all the time with Charles.
"Oh okay, that's nice then" I said.
"You will like him, he is one of a kind, but he is a good mate, you will see." He said and he pulled the car over Danny's house. "Here we are." He said and we left the car.
I knocked and a few moments later a smiley face of the Aussie appeared.
"Lex! Long time not see. Come on in" He said to me and I hugged him.
"It's great to see you too Daniel, really." I said to him, I hugged Heidi as well and all of us went to the living room where everyone already was. I hugged all of them and quickly introduced myself to Lando. Daniel made us drinks and me and Max were drinking gin and tonic, like always. We were laughing and talking about lots of things-how they spent their winter break and just talking about the old times. We took a couple of photos with the girls and of course Pierre who was always the model in our group.
I didn't know that I missed them so much until I remembered how wonderful it is to have friends with you... to spend some good time with your loved ones. I was after my third drink when I got up to take cigarettes from my purse.
"You smoke?" Lando asked me.
"Yes she does, because she is stupid" Kika said.
"I am not stupid" I said to her. I looked at Lando. "I smoke but hardly never, last time when I did that was probably like three months ago on some kind of party"
"But you're still smoking Alex." Kika said. She and mostly everyone else hated that, but I couldn't help it. Sometimes you just have to smoke this one little cigarette.
"Yeah she is right" Lando said. "Smoking is smoking"
Kika showed me her tongue. "You see? Even Lando Norris thinks the same"
I threw a tissue at her. "You should shut up" I said laughing and I walked to the balcony. The warm breeze covered my face when I lit a cigarette. Soon after I heard the balcony doors open and I saw Lando.
"You are a physiotherapist and you smoke." He laughed. "Interesting combination."
"You sound like Kika now" I lined up on the railing of the balcony. Lando stood next to me.
"You are not from Monaco right?" He asked
"Nope, I moved here when I was three, my mum is French and my father is Norwegian." I didn't mention my sister. This was a gentle topic for me. Not a lot of people knew that we moved here as a family of four, not three.
He frowned his eyebrows. "But you don't speak French with Charles?"
I smiled. "It's embarrassing, but when we were children we spoke French, but at home my parents were talking in English and then at school I was at an international class, where all lessons were in English, so I kind of forgot that language." I said to him. "I still can understand some, but I don't feel confident enough to speak" He nodded.
"Charles told us that you used to attend his every race" He said. "Actually sometimes he can't shut up about you" He smiled.
I smiled gently too, kinda embarrassed, Charlie was the best brother, but sometimes he just didn't know when to shut up.
"I love watching him on his races. When we were younger I used to go to his every race, but when I left for university everything changed. I didn't have that much time to visit him all the time and he was busy with his career." I said. "That's why I am so happy to start an internship in Red Bull. We finally can spend more time together". I told him and I threw away the end of the cigarette. "I heard that Charles stole your teammate tho" I joked.
He scratched the back of his neck and smiled a little bit. "Well he kinda did, but it's alright I still can't wait for this season, besides Daniel is always a good companion." He wanted to add something more when we heard that the Aussie that we talked about started singing karaoke. We looked at each other and we laughed.
"I guess it is time to get inside." He said to me and opened the balcony door. "After you" He added and I walked to the living room again where Max and Daniel were now singing 'We are the champions'. I started laughing with everyone at that view. Yes, it was good to be finally back.