𝐁𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒, charles leclerc

chapter twenty

        the cold breeze flew up juliet's dress as she walked out of the house and towards the garage. the day she'd been dreading since sunday had finally come; it was time to bury anthoine. after the race, juliet, pierre, george, victoria and charles had travelled back to rouen and were staying in the gasly home.

she walked out of the house and saw pierre and the russells standing with her parents. "ready to go?" victoria ran up to her and rubbed her shoulder. juliet's lip turned into a slight smile and she nodded.

"sorry i'm late!" a voice said and ran up to the group. she turned around to find charles, clad in his suit but the shirt was undone and the tie hung loosely around his neck. he looked rough, and probably spent the night mourning in his own way, but juliet wasn't one to judge.

"it's okay, let's go," pierre said and got in the car. george and victoria followed him in, and her parents got in their own car.

"you can come with me," charles said in a mellow tone and unlocked his car. "alright," the girl nodded and hopped into his passenger seat.

"sorry, before we leave i just wanna fix this," he opened the car door and stood outside, buttoning up his shirt. the other two cars had already left. juliet's eyes followed his hands as he clasped each button and the sight of his abs slowly disappeared.

he was done quick and dipped down to sit in the car, his tie still hanging around his neck, untied. "could you keep this in your purse? i'll put it on after the outdoor part," he ripped it off and handed it to her. she nodded and accepted it, wrapping it tight and sticking it in her bag.

he reversed out of the driveway and rode off towards the town and funeral home. the car stayed silent the entire time; not even the radio was on. juliet was tense and just thought about how much today would destroy her. but she needed to be strong.

they finally arrived and charles shifted the gear into park and turned off the car, looking up at the already large crowd of people outside on the cemetery lawn. he huffed and looked to his right to see tears already forming in juliet's eyes.

"we can stay in here as long as you want," he said softly to her, propping his arms up on the steering wheel.

she rolled her eyes at the comment and rubbed her tears away. she wasn't allowed to be selfish at a time like this. this day wasn't about her, and her emotions didn't matter. she scoffed at her tears and unbuckled her seat belt.

"no, we need to go," she replied, "i'm not allowed to be selfish and cry alone in a car, charles. this is for 'thoine and julie."

"alright," he said, already sensing that her mood was going to be all over the place. and that today would not be a day to talk about what had happened; to talk about them.

she opened up the car door and stepped out, grabbing her purse and fixing her jacket. charles got out of the car, fixed his as well, and they walked towards the crowd awkwardly far away from one another.

they got closer to the crowd and juliet got anxious. she started shaking out her shoulders and tending up, which charles was fast to notice. he inched closer to her, whispering loudly. "psst...you're gonna be fine. i'm here with you." and with that he softly grabbed her hand and interlocked their fingers.

the pair approached the crowd and spotted julie and anthoine's family at the front. juliet sent a sincere grin to julie, following charles as they went to stand with a few other drivers.

she took a deep breath as she spotted her brother standing with george, victoria, esteban, elena, lando and mick schumacher. beside them stood the fia president, and former drivers alain prost and jean alesi.

pierre was in quiet conversation with george and mick while lando and victoria stood beside them. he stopped talking as he noticed his sister and charles walking towards him, and it didn't take long for him to see their interlocked fingers. he smiled at his sister as they made eye contact.

charles felt her tense up at the sight of her brother, and calmly squeezed her hand. she tilted her head up to meet his eyes, smiling tightly at him. they stood together until the ceremony began, hands intertwined.

the minister approached the casket and started his speech. juliet felt so small in the moment and glanced around to distract herself from the tears welling in her eyes. naturally falling into charles' neck, she nuzzled into his side and breathed heavily.

after twenty minutes of pain-staking words from the minister, anthoine's family shuffled around and julie walked up to address the crowd.

"bonjour," the girl choked up as she grabbed the small microphone, "if you don't know me...i'm julie, 'thoine's fiancée, and i just wanted to say a few words and thank you all for spending this time with us."

juliet couldn't take it anymore. she closed her eyes tight and squeezed charles' hand, listening to her friend speak.

"anthoine has always been my favourite person. we met at school in the fifth grade, and i always knew there was something...special about him," she began, "then i found out he wanted to race cars for a living, and the mystery was gone," she added sarcastically.

"we spent our high school years with our friends and at a new race track every weekend. when he made it to f3, i had never been more proud. he had finally achieved his dreams and i was there to watch the whole thing," she continued strongly, "i wasn't the only love of anthoine's life; racing topped me. his one true love had always been getting in a car and whipping around a track, and i loved him so much that it didn't take me a second to accept that."

"thank you all so much for coming today. i know he loves each and every one of you and i'd like to all to know that. merci."

julie walked back to her chair and shoved her face into her hands. her body didn't shake as she sobbed, but she looked up a few seconds later rubbing her eyes. juliet opened her eyes and looked up at charles, who had tears in his eyes and was looking at her. he pecked the top of her head and wrapped his arm around her, watching as she breathed deeply to stop her tears.

— notes!
double update today
bc i wrote this a few
weeks ago in the midst
of a depressive episode