The bet | Charles Leclerc

• Thirty •

Saturday

The big, wide cinema screen lights up. White and blinding. Slowly, faint noise erupts, like an old film starting.

And then suddenly, an old recording of a karting track shows.

All with little boys driving, karts speed by the camera, the crowd shouting various things at the extremely young boys, driving at extreme speeds.

The video cuts to a small podium, just 3 steps in the middle of a field.
A mini Charles Leclerc steps into the top step.

He smiles widely and proudly, as he lifts his winning trophy up into the air, his old Bieber bowl cut blowing in the wind.

When my brother steps onto the second step, I know which karting track it is.
It's the karting track.

The one I was brought along to.
The one I'd watch Charles from...

The camera moves, away from the small boys and instead towards the crowd. The camera searches through the people.

And it stops.
On me and my mother.

She's hugging me, cheering for Max.
My father isn't there.

Now I know why Max looked so scared on the podium...

Second place is never good enough.

"How does Richard know?" I ask Charles into the darkness.

Every muscle in my body is tense, worrying for the mini Max I'd just seen in the recording.

That boy didn't deserve to have Jos Verstappen as his father.

Charles turns his head, a smile curling up his lip. "That man knows everything" Charles whispers gently.

My gaze is snapped back to the screen, as the recording disappears. Silence and darkness erupts for a brief second.

Then an all too familiar scene appears.
A press conference.
Charles and Sainz ready for questions.
My microphone in hand, by one of the many chairs.

"The first question.." Charles whispers, his gaze just as intense as mine. The day I saw him for the first time, since we were kids..

The day a whole new world opened for me.

My voice from just a few months ago sounds inside the room. A question to the pair about their friendship.

That day was also the beginning of my career.

It was the start of everything.

"I think I fell in love inside that room" Charles says under his breath, his eyes glued to the screen. On the screen, Charles stares sweetly down at me.

Shivers run down my spine. "You sure you weren't just securing your bet?" I ask harshly, my tone cold.
Internally I'm crumbling piece by piece.

Charles doesn't look at me.
But his eyes drop from the screen.
His jaw clenches.
And then tears glaze his, beautiful, eyes.

I look away immediately.
I don't want to see anymore.
I don't want to hurt him.

The screen cuts to a new interview.
I immediately remember which one.
It was my first "private" interview with Charles.

My ears ring, as I watch the past Charles smile so widely at me. As I hear myself giggling behind the camera.

And then the line comes.

"I'd like to make a bet with you."  Innocent, and unknowing Isa said, to the man she was secretly so infatuated with. 

Now I'm the one with tears in my eyes.