Never Again

Chapter 24: Lies

Life felt as normal as it could be albeit the circumstances. It was as if the last year never happened and she woke up excited to start the day every morning. If this was everything life had to offer to her, she was totally OK with that. Although she missed having someone around the house and therefore she seriously considered to get a pet. She loved having Molly around when she had stayed here with her parents and could imagine herself sitting on the sofa with a little puppy on her lap. She pulled her knees up to her chest and took a small sip of her hot chocolate. It was a typical lazy Sunday and she had made herself comfortable on the sofa. It was one of her favourite places to spend her time, because it provided the best view in the house. The green hills were reflecting summer when she looked out the window and the mountains with eternal snow provided a beautiful contrast.

Sunday was the only day she hadn't go to work and she had grabbed that opportunity to spend the whole morning on the sofa reading a book. Normally she would've hung out with Seb, but he had been away for a few days. He had told her it was work related and that he would be back on Monday again. She had understood that he had to go, but it had been very lonely these last few days. She had missed him coming in for coffee and she had to spend her breaks alone, while her colleagues were teasing her about missing Seb. With a sigh she threw the book she was reading across the room, frustrated with the fact that her colleagues were kind of right. She felt rather lost without Seb and had became rather dependent on him during these past weeks. Not that she wanted to admit that, but they had somehow fallen into a routine and seeing him was the highlight of her day.

She had laid on the sofa thinking for a long time and when she checked her watch it was already past two. Having to decide if she wanted to stay laying comfortably on the sofa or giving in to her rumbling stomach she closed her eyes. She was too lazy to stand up, but eating was kind of necessary. In the end she got herself off the sofa and made herself a sandwich, she didn't have the energy to make something spectacular today. When she flopped back down on the sofa she switched on the TV. A German speaking woman was trying to sell her cleaning supplies, not needing any she switched the channel. After flicking through several channels she ended up hearing a familiar sound. When she investigated why she had been drawn to this sound, she recognised the Formula 1 cars on the TV. It had been a long time ago since she last watched a race and a lot of memories instantly came back to her.

The nostalgic feeling was increasing when she spotted drivers like Räikkönen, Button, Massa, Webber and Schumacher. She was sure Schumacher had retired, but apparently he had came back to drive a Mercedes and she could see he hadn't lost any of his race craft. Button was leading the race, but Schumacher was battling a guy named Vettel in a Red Bull for second place. She recognised the name, but she couldn't put a face with it, he must be one of the younger guys she thought. It was and enjoyable battle to watch and she felt herself holding her breath when it looked like they would crash, but Schumacher pitted and Vettel carried on. Clued to the TV she remembered why she had loved the sport for so long and it was stupid that she had given up watching the races. Life had been so busy and there had been so many changes that she hadn't had the energy to keep up with everything.

What she could understand from the commentary was that there had been an enormous crash at the start and that a driver named Grosjean had almost decapitated Alonso and had also taken out Hamilton in the process. She also learned that Vettel was the current WDC, Button was heading to his second win of the season and Alonso was leading the championship by a large margin. Seeing the cars racing at this historic circuit made her fall in love with the sport all over again, Spa had always been one of her favourite races. She had always supported Räikkönen and therefore she followed this battle between Schumacher and him with great interest, he was named the King of Spa for a reason after all. Seeing these two still swap positions after all those years made her feel like nothing had changed, only the colours of their cars. She cheered Räikkönen on when he finally made his move stick and noticed she had been biting her nails out of nervousness. The rest of the race her heart kept pounding and she hoped nothing would fail on his car, she only felt herself relax again when they all crossed the finish line.