AGAIN || MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE /Charles Leclerc/

Chapter 1

Celine 

NOW

As soon as I step off the jet, a black car is parked on the runway. Leaning against the door, Max is writing something on the phone.

"Max!" My voice comes out higher than expected, but I don't mind it, too happy to finally see my friend again.

"My God Lin, I missed you like crazy" His arms hold me in a suffocating hug that says more than a thousand words, and before I know it the tears start to fall once again on my cheeks.

"I'm really, really sorry, Lin" He whispers in my ear, stroking my hair.

"What did I do wrong? Why Max?" My breathing is getting faster and faster, so much that I don't know if my friend actually hears what I'm saying.

"It's not your fault Celine, they just lost you." I shake my head, I don't need to hear this bullshit, and Max knows it deep down.

"Maybe it would have been better if I had died, if no one had saved me. At least I wouldn't be in so much pain now." Max stiffens, he pulls my head away from his chest and forces me to look at him.

"Fuck Lin, don't ever say something like that again, aren't you thinking about us? About your parents?" I remain silent, I know I just said something I should have never said.

"A part of me died that day, I might've as well just died."

Max is getting angry, but I need to vent my frustration with him since he's the only one who can bring me back down to earth. He's about to say something but I shake my head again.

"No, no Max, it was all my fault, all my fault! I deserve all this suffering, but I don't know if I can take it anymore."

"Lin, what's the real problem?" Well, he understood that there's something else bothering me.

"I don't wanna see him, I can't. I could never look him in the eyes again, because all I would think about is how it all was my fault." A drop wets my face, but this time it's not my tears: it's starting to rain.

"Come on, let's get you home, you should catch some sleep." I decide to listen to him, and following him into the car, where a driver has been waiting for us for a while now. I rest my head on Max's chest, but I have too much adrenaline in my system to just fall asleep.

"I want to have fun tonight, like I did with Danny before I met Charles." My best friend knows that partying for me and the Australian meant rivers of alcohol and maybe some hook up with a stranger in the bathroom of the nightclub.

"Well I'm sorry but forget that Kelly will let you 'have fun' with a random stranger. And this evening I'm on her side." I snort.

"I wasn't asking anyone's permission, don't worry." Max doesn't laugh though, I'm pissing him off today and that certainly wasn't my intention.

"I really don't understand Lin, why'd you came back to be like this." Yeah, I don't understand either. A strange silence fills the car for a few minutes.

"Charles was my first serious relationship, my first love. I knew from the beginning if things went wrong with him we would both suffer a lot. Two years have passed and there hasn't been a single day I haven't thought about him, about his green eyes which for nearly four years were the first thing I saw in the morning when I woke up. So, why does it have to be a tragedy if for one evening I want to think about something else?"

"If that's what you want, fine. Just be careful please."

I don't know exactly how long later, I feel a hand gently shaking my shoulder. I open my eyes slowly and to my great surprise Max is no longer next to me but his girlfriend Kelly is.