then you flashed your green eyes at me || Charles Leclerc

chapter fourteen

*author's note*
this chapter has mentions of traumatic events, they're written in cursive

-§-

It was almost midnight when they got off the boat and there were only a few other people on the wharf - a group of girls and a family of four. The girls squeaked when they saw them walking towards the near parking lot. They heard them whisper, then saw them approach.

Charles' smile dropped when he saw them hand their phone to Alya. "Can we take a picture please" they asked politely. Their hands were shaking. 

"Of course" Alya had smiled. After the picture she politely said bye to them, then turned to the boys.

"What just happened?" Charles asked, his mouth opened in shock.

"How did you not know she's famous?" Lando laughed.

"Yeah man, didn't you see how everyone got crazy when she was on track?"Daniel backed him up.

"I didn't" he said, even more shocked. "Who are you?" he then asked as if she was some sort of alien, making everyone laugh.

"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Alya" she giggled. He lookd at Max for help.

"She started as a youtuber, now she's also an influencer who happens to be one of the most successful self-made billionaires in the world" he said. 

"And she's occasionally an interviewer" Pierre said.

"When she's not the one getting interviewed" Carlos added.

"Lya for friends?" she smiled then, reaching out her hand as if she wanted him to shake it. He was speechless for a good minute and a half, while the others were giggling.

"How did I not know?" he asked, more to himself than to the group.

"I don't know, maybe you lived under a rock and you didn't know" she replied. "Or you were too busy trying hopeless pick up lines on strangers to open any social" she winked. 

He laughed at the joke. Carlos, on the other hand, glared at them - well, at Charles - but pretended nothing happened. 

"Do you need a ride to the hotel?" he asked her.

"Yeah, that would be great" she replied, dragging her eyes away from Charles. Why was she being like that? Maybe she had one too many beers. 

"Actually" Charles said. "Your hotel is on the way to my house, I can give you a ride" 

"It's no problem, really" Carlos said. "I'll bring her back"

"It's no problem for me either" Charles said. The tension was touchable. 

"Max will bring me back" she immediately said. Their heads snapped towards her, making her blush. "He already has my stuff in the car. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she smiled. Then she turned around and almost sprinted to Max's car to escape the situation. When he sat beside her, he glanced at her.

"What was that?" he asked smirking.

"What was what?" she tried, innocently.

"That" he repeated. "Why were you so flirty tonight? You're gonna break their hearts"

"I'm not gonna do anything, and I wasn't being flirty. I probably just had too many drinks and didn't want to ruin everyone's time by being mean" she defended herself. She was not convinced of her own words.

"You don't like either of them?" he insisted. She scoffed, denying at with a very high-pitched tone.

"I mean they're hot but" she freezed, eyes widening. She always thought they were, she just never admitted it out loud. "But they're not my type" she tried.

"Alya" Max said "I've seen the way you look at Charles. Maybe you don't like Carlos that way, but I won't believe for a second that you don't like Charles."

"I don't like him, I can promise you that" she said convinced - well, kind of. "Is he attractive? Yes, very. Does he have a good personality? Well, at times. But do I like him? Hell no"

"Whatever you say. But when you start dating him I'll tell you that I said so" he said, stopping the car in front of her hotel. "Don't forget your stuff and get some sleep. See you tomorrow"

"Goodnight, thanks for the ride" she replied, shutting the door behind her. When she reached the elevator she pulled out her phone. She had a message from Carlos, asking if she had gotten home safe, but none from Charles. 

Not that she cared.

Well, she kind of did. Not because it was him, she tried to convince herself. It was just that she was used to it. He had been texting her for almost two weeks, every single day. It had become a habit to wait for his message. 

She shrugged and opened her door. It was just a message - big deal. It was nothing. She replied to Carlos, telling him she was okay. After some skincare and work she laid on the bed with her laptop in front of her. She started looking for a movie or series to watch. 

Her eyes landed on Gilmore Girls and, once again, she let the pilot start. Halfway through the episode she fell asleep and after a while, her laptop died as well. 

Someone was talking. She couldn't understan what was being said, it felt like she had something that covered her ears. It was an indistinctive chatter. Around her it was dark, so much that she couldn't even see her hands. 

There was something about being in the dark that disoriented her. The fact that she couldn't see decreased her ability to do anything else properly. Her tact wasn't working, as she couldn't feel any kind of texture around her. Her hearing was muffled, as she couldn't properly get what was being said. 

What she could feel was the sweat gliding on the side of her head, and her breathing getting faster. What she could feel was the panic that was growing inside of her, and the accelerated heartbeat in her chest. 

Her hands were frenetically moving around, trying to grab something to let her stay balanced. When she realized she had touched a surface, she started banging on it. 

She was crying. No one came for minutes. 

After what she perceived as hours, someone opened a door in front of her. She fell forward, as she was leaning on it to support her weight. She got caught by someone she couldn't recognize, someone who was wearing some sort of uniform. 

She was shaking.

Her head fell on the side, hanging almost upside down as the police officer was trying to keep her conscious. She weakly looked to the side, seeing Lando looking at her crying, holding his mother's leg from behind. She saw Cisca's face, completely striped of tears, a hand to cover her mouth. She saw  Adam's eyes, and read in them a mix of sadness and anger. 

Then she saw her parents angrily looking at her. She could only think about how painful it would've been later on. And so she waited for that painful moment to come. 

She woke up screaming. She was sweating, her heart was beating fast and her breath was impossible to let in and out. She tried to calm down, send the nightmare away. The problem was, that wasn't just a nightmare.

That was a memory.