Whispers in the rain | charles leclerc *ੈ✩

Part 1 🩷 : Chapter 18 : This is me trying

Jules 🌟
Someone had just pulled me away into a shady corner. My heart raced as I tried to make sense of what was happening.

That's when I saw him, after two weeks of thinking about him, two weeks of not seeing him, two weeks of going back-and-forth in my mind about him.

He looked the same. The same eyes, the same the same lips, the same hair. And his smell, the one i called home.

"What! What are you doing here?" I asked my voice, trembling with surprise and a hint of fear.

"I can't do this Jules, I can't," Charles said, his voice raw with emotion.

"Can't do what?" I asked my heart pounding as I felt his body touching with mine.

"This... pretending like I'm okay when you're not with me," he confessed his eyes, desperate as they locked onto mine.

"Charles, please. Someone could see us!" I hissed glancing around nervously.

"I don't care if someone sees us, Jules! Please!" he reached out his hand, gently brushing my arm, sending a shiver through me.

"Charles, I can't. I'm sorry. He's my brother. He's the only family I've got." I pleaded my voice, cracking with the weight of my words.

"I love you, Jules. Isn't that enough?" his voice was almost a whisper.

My heart sank at his words, but thought of losing Max was just too much to bear. "I can't please. Max is everything to me."

Charles, stepped closer, his eyes, searching mine, "And what about us? What about everything we've been through? Are you gonna just throw it away?"

Tears weld up in my eyes. "It's not that easy. You don't understand."

"Then help me understand!" he shouted, as his frustration boiled over.

"I'm just trying to protect my family. I can't be the reason he gets hurt again." I said, my voice shaking with emotion.

Charles ran a hand through his hair, exasperated . "So you're just going to sacrifice your happiness? Our happiness? For what? To keep him in the dark?"

"It's not like that," I insisted, but my resolve was was weakening.

"Then what is it like,Jules?"he said cutting me off. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're too scared to fight for what we have." he shot back and his words stinged like a slap.

Tears spilt down my cheeks. "You don't get it Charles. You Don't get the pressure I am under. You don't understand the expectations from me. I can't throw it all away."

He looked at me with a mix of anger and pain . "And what about me? Do I not matter to you? Does I love mean nothing?"

"Of course, it matters! But I can't choose between you and Max. I won't." I cried, my voice breaking.

"Then you're choosing him," Charles said.

"No, I-" I started, but he cut me off.

"Yes, yes, you are. You're choosing to live in fear instead of fighting for us," he accused, his eyes blazing with hurt.

The tension between us was unbearable. My heart felt like it was being torn into two. "Please don't make me do this," I whispered.

"I'm not making you do anything, but if you walk away now we are never gonna make it. We'll be over. Over for good."

I stood there, my legs frozen as he turned around and walked away. It felt like my heart was in pieces. I wanted to tell him. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was, but the fear of losing Max held me back.