lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

~ diciassette ~

Great Britain, June 2019

The Italian sat on the sofa in Lando's house in Woking when her phone almost exploded with the notifications. She was confused. What was going on? She unlocked the phone only to see her whole Instagram feed filled with pictures of Joanna with headlines claiming that the Austrian was sick.

Pia didn't understand why people were making such a buzz about it. She probably had the flu or something, so the only question was if she would drive or not. The Italian assumed that she wouldn't be able to because why would people be crazy about it otherwise.

She didn't even want to read the articles, but eventually, she opened one of them and started reading. Pia suddenly understood the buzz about it when she read the words sickness and death in one sentence. It wasn't just the stupid flu.

The Italian tried to maintain her cool. She knew how easily fake stories were formed. She knew that you couldn't believe anything from the media. She knew that one out of ten stories they published was correct. Pia hoped this one belonged to those nine, and it was just a load of bullshit.

To find out if it was true, she could either call Joanna or try to call her Dutch friend. Max was sleeping with Joanna, after all. He should know if any of it was true. She rejected her idea to call the Austrian almost immediately. Pia was sure that Joanna's phone was dying under the wave of notifications and calls. So, she dialled Max's number, but her call was redirected to his voicemail because he wasn't picking up. She guessed that he was with Joanna.

She waited like ten minutes and tried to call him once again. She was happy when she heard the Dutchman's greeting.

"What the fuck is going on, Max? It's not true, right?" she asked without greeting him. There wasn't time for the formalities.

"I don't know. I went to the Mercedes facility, and it just got crazy. When I came with Pierre, Daniel was already there. Then Charles and Sebastian joined the party, together with Lewis, and it was too much on J, so she just fainted," Max muttered into the phone. He should've known that something like that would happen. Joanna always struggled with such conditions.

"Yeah, it was probably too much on her," the Italian tried to calm her friend down. "And how is she now?" she asked him worriedly.

"She hasn't woken up yet. I'm with her in her driver's room," Max explained. Then there was silence. There wasn't much to be said.

"She's pregnant, Pia," the Red Bull driver said out of nowhere. He wanted to confide in his friend. The Italian wasn't stupid, and she quickly connected the dots. It had to be Max's child. Under normal circumstances, she would congratulate him, but was it appropriate now?

"It's gonna be alright, Max. Joanna will be alright and that kid as well." Perhaps that was the most appropriate thing she could say - the most cliche thing about how everything would be alright.

"I cannot possibly lose another kid. I wouldn't be able... I just can't," he confessed. It was hard to hear that because he was so young to face these problems. He was too young to know how it was to lose a child. Well, you shouldn't know that feeling at any age.

"You won't. They will be alright." They had to be alright. Pia couldn't imagine Max if something happened to Joanna. "When did she tell you?" The Italian asked him before he could say anything else.

"Technically, she didn't. I figured it out during that bar fight in France. She was holding her belly and... I just knew." His voice was silent. Pia wanted to believe it was because he didn't want to wake up Joanna, but they both knew that wasn't the reason. He was just fighting his emotions, but then he just let go. Pia saw him cry already a lot of times. He knew that she wouldn't think that he was weak. A loud sob left his throat, and Pia tried to calm him down, even though he had every right to cry.

"You know, I would like to be like... oh, this is bullshit. Joanna would tell me if she was sick, but I can't be like that because she doesn't tell me shit. I always must figure it by myself," he said after he calmed down. Pia could hear that he had left Joanna's driver's room because he had shut the door quite loudly.

"I know, Max. She's like that. I don't want to be rude, but you could've expected that," Pia said quietly while getting up. She made her way to the French doors and looked at the garden. She would get used to living there.

"Yeah," he just agreed with his friend. "Where are you anyway? I thought you would be here. I would really appreciate having you here now," he whispered the last sentence into the phone. He knew that someone could listen to his conversation on the phone, and he didn't want it to be interpreted in the wrong way.

"In England. I had an argument with Sebastian, and I just didn't want to be around," the Italian explained. She did call the German to tell him where she would be staying, but that was it. Sebastian wanted to talk to her but also respected that she needed time.

"You seem to argue a lot these days," Max pointed out the obvious. Their lives seemed to be fucked up at the same time. Or maybe they just had fucked up lives every time.

"It's all because of the press. They make everything more difficult," the Italian sighted.

"Yeah, tell me about it," the Dutchman laughed. It wasn't the right time to laugh, but this whole thing was ridiculous. The media was shit. "You're staying at Lando's, right?"

"How do you k-" Pia didn't even manage to finish the question because Max was already responding to her.

"Lando told me," Max clarified. "I was surprised, but I don't mind," he said as he made his way into the Red Bull facility. He quickly greeted a couple of his mechanics before shifting his attention back to the call.

"He did?" the brunette was quite surprised. They weren't keeping it really a secret, but Pia wasn't telling about it to friends. She talked about it with her mum, but that was it.

"Yeah. I asked Lando when I saw that stupid smile on his face, and he just told me that you are staying over at his place. He clearly likes you," Max again pointed out something undeniable.

"Yeah, I know," the Italian just agreed with her friend.

"The question is... do you like him as much as he likes you?" he asked while sitting on the bed in his driver's room. Lando and Pia were a strange fit. He didn't mind it in the slightest, but there was just something off. Perhaps, it was that in Max's head, Pia belonged to Charles. They were together for years.

"What do you want to hear, Max?" the Italian sighed. She did like Lando. There were some feelings for sure otherwise she wouldn't be with him. But if Charles came and told her that he loves her and forgives her, she would probably run after him. Was it unfair towards Lando? Certainly yes. Did she feel guilty because of it? Of course, but she was just afraid to be alone again.

"The truth preferably." As much as he loved Pia, he also cared for Lando. He didn't want him to end up with a broken heart just because the Italian couldn't get over Charles.

"I don't know," she said and sat on the sofa. Her hand went through her hair. Thinking about it, she was so selfish.

"You know. Don't pretend you don't." The Dutchman read her like a book. He and Charles were probably the only persons that could recognise when Pia was lying.

Her mind wandered back to that kiss with Charles. They both cheated, but they both liked it. That moment just showed that she knew what she wanted.

"I know, Max, but there are more serious problems than Lando and me. Have you-" she stopped herself in the middle of the question. "Have you wondered what you would do if the journalists weren't lying?" she asked him quietly.

"They are. They have to be," he whispered. He didn't even want to let that idea to his brain. He was too afraid of it.