Rêveries

Chapter 29.

We landed in Austin on Thursday, October 11th. Charles was the one to pick us up, since Max had been the one to pick us up in Italy. He hugs us both when we get there and then we get into the car. I tell him I'm going to get a cowboy hat and he tells me he won't tolerate it and threatens to throw it out if I get one. I'll just get one and not show it.

Max meets up with us outside the hotel. It's in the middle of town instead of closer to the circuit. The circuit is closer to the airport and Charles drove us out to see it before going back to the hotel. Max asked us about our vacation and told us he felt like a ghost next to us because we've gotten so tanned. Charles didn't mention Japan at all and I think it's just for the best if we pretend the circuit doesn't exist.

Our first night, we went to bed early due to the time difference but we woke up early as shit. The drivers had to deal with a 14 hour time difference when they flew from Japan to the US and they were trying to cope, but they were awake at 4AM when we woke up, I don't know if they couldn't fall asleep or if they couldn't stay asleep.

But Charles, Max, Lewis, Seb, Daniel, Evie and I drove out of the city and we went for a hike. For some reason I've come to like it. It's quite calming. The sun was rising as we began walking and we watched the sunrise together. Lewis was taking some pictures for his Instagram story and then put some inspirational bullshit over it. Seb sat back and watched for a few minutes before telling us he was bored. Daniel looked at it as if he was in deep, deep thoughts, but then just started talking about how excited he was for breakfast. Charles and Max were talking about something Evie and I couldn't understand and we were getting sick of it, so we tried to trip them and do different things to annoy them. Charles ended up picking me up on his shoulder and walking me over to Seb and sitting me down next to him before sighing.

"Remember when you said to leave the older brother role to you older guys? there you go, she needs someone to annoy that's not me," he says, pointing at me as I laugh hard at his frustration. Seb just looks at me and chuckles.

"He doesn't want to be the brother anymore?" Seb asks and I shake my head. "He's never wanted to be the brother, that means responsibility."

"He takes responsibility anyways," Seb chuckles while looking over his shoulder at Charles who goes back to Max as Evie runs over and sits next to me and Seb. He then tells us to leave them alone but honestly... What's the point of that?

After the hike we went to pick Arthur up from the airport and after that we were the complete group for our birthdays coming up.

The day of Arthur's birthday I went knocking on his door like a mad man until he opened it. He was still a bit jet lagged and had been awake for a while. I pushed into his room and went right to sit on his bed, putting his birthday gifts in front of me on the bed. I'm skipping all of this birthday shit I just want him to open my gifts. I hate buying gifts because I have to keep them a secret until I can give them to the person they're meant for.

Arthur knows this and laughs as he comes to sit down in front of me, taking the gifts and putting them in his lap. He wastes no time opening them because he is like me, very impatient and wants to know what I got him. The first thing he opens is a bottle of vodka to celebrate that he's 18 and can now legally drink anywhere but here. I made Daniel buy it for me so I could give it to him. Arthur grimaces while laughing at the bottle. Then he opens the next one which is a wrist watch. I know he's been wanting a new one.

"Bon anniversaire!" Happy birthday! I exclaim with my arms out. He reaches out and pulls me in to hug me tightly.

"Merci, Cece," Thank you, he says right before there's a knock on the door. Arthur stands up and opens it again, this time to Charles coming in with his gifts. When he walks in and sees me he stops and grunts.