Rêveries

Chapter 7.

When we landed at the airport in Nice, I was about to crawl out of my skin. My mum told me to calm down multiple times. It didn't help. For the whole drive from Nice to Monaco I just wanted to call Arthur and tell him that we're coming over. I managed to keep myself from doing it but when the car rolled up on their driveway I was the first one out.

Pascale stepped out through the doors and I hugged her tightly. I was about to ask where Arthur was but she motioned towards the backyard before I even got the words out. I hurried through the house that's looked the same for over 18 years and I looked out through the glass door to the backyard where Arthur just finished working out or something.

I had a moment to just take him in. He's grown so much while I've been gone. He's taller and his blonde hair is longer. He's grown more muscular from all the training. He looks happy, even without knowing I'm here. He's not even smiling but I see that he's happier than last time I saw him. I think he's finally starting to heal, slowly.

Sliding the door open, I get his attention as he looks up. His eyes widened and mouth fell open while I threw my arms in the air to exaggerate my arrival. He put his phone away and began walking up to me, still shocked.

I ran up to him, wrapping my arms around my best friend who hugged me tight enough to make up for everyday I've missed him. He hugged me tight enough to squeeze the almost 18 years of life out of me and I feel it in my whole body just how much I've missed him.

"Que diable?" What the hell, he says before letting me go to look at me, "Salope, pourquoi tu ne me l'as pas dit?" You bitch, why didn't you tell me, he asks, slapping my shoulder.

Right after that, my parents walked out to greet him as well. He walks up to them and talks to them for a while, asking why the hell no one told him. He was so happy to see us and I couldn't wait to get him away from my parents to get him to myself. They catch up lightly before Arthur goes to shower. It's only 12:30 and even though we've traveled all morning, I'm more energetic than I've been in four years. We all get in the car and get to the paddock.

Lorenzo met us there, just as surprised to see us there as Arthur had been. There were people I recognized all over the place, but I didn't have time to greet them now, someone might ruin the surprise for Charles. We had taken the less crowded entrance and as I walked through the paddock I saw Will Buxton talking to one of the team principals I didn't really know. He had interviewed my brother and I loved that interview. Jules talked about this career and the way Will asked him questions as if Jules was the most impressive guy ever just warmed my heart. I had met him multiple times and he was the only media person I tolerated back in the day.

He saw Arthur and gave him a nod with a smile and a wave, then his eyes traveled over to me and I just waved as I kept walking, but then he started walking over to us and I couldn't just walk past him... it's Will!

So we stopped and just hoped no one would see me and tell Charles. But Will came up to us and he gently put his hands on my upper arms as he took a good look at me.

"Céline?" He says as if it's a question, as if he still has to make sure if it's really me. I smile and nod. "Céline Bianchi at a paddock?" he asks and I nod again. He still looks surprised and I can see the corners of his mouth slowly lifting.

"It's Charles' home race," I shrug even though it's nothing to shrug about, it's a big deal. "But he doesn't know I'm here," I add.

"It's so good to have you back, Céline, I'm crossing my fingers for Charles," He says with such a warm and genuine smile. He's such a nice guy.

There's people all over the place and I manage to blend in amongst other people and not get a lot of attention as I walk the rest of the way. Monaco has always been one of the most important races of the season and the place is filled with people. There are celebrities here, everyone wants to be a part of the Grand Prix weekend in Monaco. They make everything seem extra prestigious for this weekend. The large boats are out and there are big parties on every single one of them. It's grand.

Arthur is right behind me, excited to see his brother's face when I show up. We walk our way past all the garages, trying to lay low until we get to Sauber. When we're there, Arthur stays behind as I walk in. I see the back of Charles' head as he's talking to Marcus Ericsson, his teammate. I know him from Jules' time. He was also at his funeral.

Marcus recognizes me and looks past Charles right at me. He nods my way as a greeting and then waits for Charles to realize with a smug smirk on his face. I slowly begin walking further into the garage, silently. When I'm close enough, Marcus begins to laugh which makes Charles confused. He turns around with brows furrowed and sees me.

It takes a second before his eyebrows go up in surprise instead, "Oh, mon Dieu," he just mutters as he walks over to give me the biggest hug I've ever gotten from him, "Que fais-tu ici? Comment ça va?" What are you doing here? How are you? He asks while shaking me a little.

"Nous ne manquons pas ta première course à domicile, Charles," We're not missing your first home race, Charles, I tell him as Arthur joins my side. Charles looks at Arthur before turning his gaze to me. He makes a quick scan of me while still holding onto my upper arms. His eyes are twinkling with happiness and I can't get the smile off my face. He's grown up to be as handsome as his older brother and I curse myself for not paying closer attention to it the past few times I've seen him.

"Tu savais, petite merde?" Did you know, you little shit? He spits at Arthur who just shakes his head and tells Charles about how I showed up at their house. Charles looks at me again, "Tu étais ami avec la soeur de Max, l'as-tu déjà rencontrée?" You were friends with Max's sister, have you met her yet, he asks and my eyes go wide.

"Est-elle ici?" Is she here? I ask, pointing down at the ground.

"Oui, probablement dans le garage Red Bull avec Max," Yes, probably in the Red Bull garage with Max, he says and before he finishes his sentence I'm off. I love Charles, but if Evie is here then I need to see her. I haven't seen her in years. Since 2015.

I run toward where I passed the Red Bull garage earlier and I push my way through the mechanics. I see the menace of a man we call Christian Horner and he looks at me a bit shocked. He knows who I am. I guess they just don't expect to see me around here anymore. He doesn't get a chance to say anything before I walk back to their rooms. To my happiness I see the other room belonging to Daniel, I guess they're teammates now. I know Daniel started racing with Redbull in 2015, but Max has moved up from Toro Rosso.

I begin knocking like a mad man on Max's door until it opens. There's a girl in front of me, her hair is long and a bit curly. She's my height and it's Evelina. She looks at me confused for a moment, a second later her eyes widen and she hugs me tighter than Charles and Arthur combined.

"Oh, Céline, oh my god," She says with her arms wrapped around my shoulders. I felt so safe and happy in that hug because I hadn't seen her in years. I hadn't talked to her as much after Jules passed either but I knew she cared. She had been the sweetest and seeing her again made me so happy. She had grown so beautiful; I felt jealous.

She had long legs and her hair was long and almost ombré. Her smile was bright and her eyes were shining in green. Her whole persona was glowing and it felt like seeing her like a little kid again, but in this grown-up, absolutely gorgeous body.

"Charles told me you were here," I tell her and she lets me go to look at me.

"He didn't tell me you were coming!" She says, looking offended but keeping a tight grip on my arms, as if to make sure I was real and really there in front of her.

"He didn't know I was coming, I just surprised him," I explain and a smile grows on her face, "Now where's Daniel, Lewis, and Seb? I need to meet them all!" I say as she grabs my arm, linking it with hers, leading me out towards the paddock again. "Fernando's still racing, right?"

"One at a time." She laughs as she leads me over to the cars where I can see Max talking with a mechanic and next to him, Daniel.

Evelina motions something to Max, who looks over and sees me, he realizes with a smirk on his face as he nudges Daniel before pointing over at me. Daniel looks up and there it is, immediately, the super bright smile, it's back. He walks away from the cars and heads towards us. He keeps a wide smile until he reaches us and gets to hug me.

"Céline Bianchi, what are you doing here?" he asks joyfully, squeezing tight, "You're so grown, you were a little pipsqueak last time I saw you,"

"We're watching Charles for his home race," I explain while laughing and he nods before Max joins us. He's also grown a lot, he looks so much older now.

"Right, that guy also grew up. He went from a child to that in what? Two years?" Daniel says, looking around for him.

"Hey, Céline, how are you?" Max asks as he also greets me with a hug.

"I'm good Max, how are you?" I ask and we spend the next 10 minutes catching up.

Daniel told me that I might as well become a celebrity on the paddock today. Word travels fast and soon I'll have to talk to all the drivers that drove in 2014. I laughed at him, telling him that it was a flattering thought. But after five more minutes, Charles walked in to pull me away from the others. He had people to introduce me to and people wanting to say hi.

Charles put an arm around my shoulder, pulling me with him and I was quick to grab Evelina's hand, pulling her with me. We got out of the garage and headed to the Toro Rosso garage.

"Regardez qui j'ai trouvé!" Look who I found, he yells into the garage and as we pass the corner into the garage I see Pierre Gasly walking towards us. He hugs me too, greeting me, telling me I've grown a lot. Being one of Charles' best friends, I've spent much of my childhood with him and I've always teased him, but now that he's in front of me I regret it. He looks like he could kick me across the country if he really tried.

I don't really focus on Pierre or what he's saying, I just mindlessly reply because my mind is busy thinking about how Evelina is acting in his presence. As soon as we walked in here, she squeezed my hand and now she's looking around instead of at him. Her whole demeanor became shy and careful. She's never been like that around other people from what I've seen. I make a mental note of this.

"Oh my gosh! Ms. Bianchi, come here" There's a voice behind me and I turn to see Lewis walking towards me with his warm smile and his arms open. I feel my whole face light up because oh, I've missed him. I really could've used some of his motivation when I was away.

"Lewis!" I chuckle over his shoulder as he hugs me, rubbing my back. He lets go and laughs a little. He scans me up and down and he smiles so warmly.

"Will told me he ran into you, I had to go see for myself," he says, that wide and sweet smile the whole time. He looks over my shoulder to Charles, giving him thumbs up before fist bumping him over my shoulder, "Good luck today man, home GP is big stuff," he says before he puts a hand on my shoulder, telling me we'll talk more later. He put a hand on Evelina's shoulder before he left, I knew they were close.

In time for qualifying, Charles takes me back to the garage and places me at the back with a pair of headphones just like Jules used to do. Arthur comes to join me and soon enough our parents come too. Evelina goes back to the Red Bull garage to watch her brother.

Charles qualified 14th, his qualifying was pretty short for that reason but it was still good for a rookie. After this he changed and we were about to leave the paddock when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Word travels fast, since it travels with Lewis," Sebastian says, making me turn around as quickly as I can to see him smiling his welcoming sweet smile. Oh, I had missed him so much even though I wasn't sure how to explain my relationship with him. He was a lot older than me, 13 years. I missed him like you miss an uncle and you finally see him during a family gathering.

"Seb, I was looking for you!" I say as I walk up to hug him.

"Well, here I am, I didn't know you were coming." he says when I've let him go.

"We came to surprise Charles." I explain just as Charles joins my side.

"Lucky you," Seb says to Charles, not even trying to hide his smile, "How are your parents? how's Sweden?" he asks, turning back to me.

"Good and decent." I shrug, "I miss Monaco."

"I bet, especially when you have your two knights to mess with," he says, looking back at Charles and looking over my shoulder for Arthur.

"If they insist on being the oldest then they have to take the responsibility of looking after me and also getting pissed off by me," I laugh before Arthur yells at us to hurry up. The motherfucker is hungry already and can't wait.

"I'll see you tomorrow." he says and I smile as we walk off.

"I didn't get to say hi to Toto, I've missed his good looking face," I mutter, making Charles look at me with so many question marks written on his face.

"He's 46." Charles says.

"He's hot." I reply before running up to Arthur, jumping onto his back.

Life felt alright again after only one day there. I enjoyed myself. Of course, it would always be better with Jules, but he was gone and I couldn't change that. But it felt the best it's been since he passed. I was okay with that, even though I knew it would only be for a couple days. Being back at a paddock made it easier to pretend he was still here.

They put the fire out from the crash that happened years ago. I got out alive.