AGAIN || MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE /Charles Leclerc/

Chapter 13

Charles

Now

I slam the car door, my fists violently hitting the steering wheel. "Shit, shit!" I want to scream, but maybe it's better if I don't. People would go crazy if videos of me, making a scene in front of my ex's house, were online. I can't understand why Celine doesn't want to talk to me, why she was nearly scared of my presence.

Alexandra is calling me for the second time, probably wondering where I am. In this moment I desperately need to talk to Liam, we grew really close this year and turned out he's good when it comes to making me reason. So I call him.
"Never knew you were a morning person!" He sounds happy, in a good mood, lucky him, I think.
"I'm screwing everything up. Can I come by?"

When Liam opens the door of his penthouse he's already fully dressed and ready for the day, despite being only eight in the morning. Strange, since he never was a morning person as well.
"Morning to you too! I just love seeing you this early in the morning, as we don't spend enough time together!" He's joking, I'd probably even laugh if it wasn't for the shitty start I gave my day.

"Please, cut the crap..." I'm begging him, it's embarrassing. "Holy-moly. What happened to you? Troubles with Alex?" Now that's a great question, for sure there will be when she finds out about my friendly chat with Celine.
"Ask me again in a few hours. I ditched her to come here." Liam's eyes open wide, he knows her as well as me. "You guys had to meet this morning? Why the last-minute planning?" I'm confused now, what does 'last-minute planning' mean?

"What? We have breakfast together every Thursday since she has the afternoon shift." He has a strange expression, there's something he's not telling me and I'm not sure I want to know what it is. "Then I'm sorry but she's being a bitch with Celine!" I cut him off.

"You don't call her that! Don't you dare ever again Liam!" This is all taking an unexpected turn. "No, you hear me out! She keeps giving her hard times for no apparent reasons." I came with a problem and I feel like I'll be going with ten more. "I'm not following, what about Celine?" Liam sighs and takes a seat next to me on the sofa, this is not going to be an easy one.

"She calls her an hour before the opening, forcing her to take the morning shift even if it should've been Alex's one. This morning as well." This doesn't make any sense, and how come he knows what happened this morning to Celine? Unless... No, it's not a plausible reason.

"How'd you know?" This conversation is not going where I imagined when I called him to be comforted. "I heard the call several times already, to be honest." Several times. Only now it hits me, 'I have a boyfriend', Celine's words echoes in my mind. My hands rubbing nervously on the jeans fabric I'm wearing.

"Celine was here this morning?" Panic attacks me all at once, that can't be true, she can't still have this effect on me. "She actually slept here. If you weren't too busy making out with Alex around the world I would've already told you!" This confirms my thoughts, and my mind is already picturing the nightmare I'll be living in the next months.

"Are you a thing? I can't believe she was talking about you!" He doesn't really need to answer that and anyway I don't give him the time to do it. "Merde!" Now I'm shouting, I clench my fists, the fingers trembling weakly.

"Hey! I don't know what's gotten into you but you need to calm down!" He's right, but right now I can't copy, I'm not able to reason. "Are you two together?" I ask again, in need of an answer. I turn my back to him, I don't want to do anything stupid but I don't trust myself in this very moment.

"What's the fucking problem Charles? You can't enter my house and start shouting at me!" His hands rest on my shoulders, shaking me violently, maybe to get me back to my senses. "What an asshole! What the fuck did I do to her to make her fuck my teammate?" I can't look at him saying this, I feel really bad as soon as I realize what Just escaped my mouth.