AGAIN || MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE /Charles Leclerc/

Chapter 20

Hi everyone!
First of all, thanks for the 37K!
I know it's been a while but I'm caught up with school, sorry :/
So, this is gonna be very very long! Hope you'll enjoy it, because I had so much fun writing it!

Charles

Now

The afternoon has been better so far, Celine is more at ease, even with the others. She didn't want to swim, but Arthur convinced her to play paddel and that was enough to make her smile.

I'm looking at them playing from the top of the yacht, or better, I'm looking at Celine and she's probably feeling my gaze burning on her, since she has already turned to look at me twice, always giving me a little smile. The third time our eyes meet I know I can't stand here any longer, it's pathetic, so I walk over to Pierre.

Me and him need to have a little chat.

"Pierre." I shout at him, waving to come closer.

"You have to apologize to her." He stands a few feet away, his face contorted with frustration, his hands gesturing wildly as he spoke.

"No. I'm sorry but no." He sounds annoyed by my request, and I really can't understand why he's being this harsh towards one of his biggest friends.

"No, you don't understand, I know I was messed up when she left, but we talked. Celine came to me a couple of nights ago, we talked and..."

"You're still in love with her, did you talk about this?" He cuts me off, I've never seen him this cold with me.

"No, of course not, she'd run away." Pierre is right, I never forgot her, but admitting this would take her away once more.

"But I broke up with Alex." I add, lowering the tone of my voice.

"You shouldn't have, she made you happy." He already knew it, everyone knows it, but I hadn't told him in person yet and I guess he's pissed off even for this reason.

"Yes, until Celine was back in Monaco, until I didn't see her around, reminding me why I loved her so much."

Saying those things hurts, loved, it sounds like ages ago, but it's only been a few years. I rub the palms of my hands on my pants. Why do I solve things with one person and I have ten more problems with another?

"I'm not apologizing, she broke your heart yes, but she also left me! I was fucking sad as well, I missed her like crazy. I was always comforting you, but you never actually thought I was suffering as well! I spent entire nights crying after I realized she was gone from our life, Charles! You never asked me how I was, not even once! You didn't care, she didn't care, so why should I apologize? She should."

I'm stunned, I actually never thought he had suffered that much. They were best friends as well, but it never crossed my mind that he was falling apart as well.

Fuck, I'm so stupid.

"Pierre I..." I don't know what to say.

"Yes, I know. Just don't ask me that." But he needs to know something is triggering Celine, that there's a reason why she's like this.

"Something happened to her, something bad I think."

"What?" He looks surprised, like he wasn't expecting a possible explanation.

"I don't know, but Max certainly does, and from how he's protecting her it's nothing good." I run my fingers in my hair, the more I think about it the more I don't know how to come up with a solution.