Picture To Burn [Charles Leclerc]

6. Innocent

Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything and everybody believed in you?...

***

How could I have been so stupid?

It was obvious that if people could take pictures of Charles and that girl, Diane, they could easily have taken pictures of me and him while we were talking, taking it all out of context. I just had been too drunk to think rationally.

Gina hadn't been the only one that had been blowing up my notifications. I opened Instagram only to find that my followers had severely increased since last night and that my comment section was filled with questions from imaginative fans.

Then, I opened Twitter and instantly regretted it. I saw a bunch of tweets speculating about who had left the club with Charles, if Diane or I. There were even blurry pictures of me and Charles at the bar, for God's sake.

I needed to call Gina, fast.

With shaky hands and breaths, I phoned my boss, desperately hoping she would pick up. I was sweating and the seconds seemed to have turned into ages as I was waiting for an answer.

"Aspen?" I finally heard at the other side of the line and let out the breath I had been holding.

"Gina! Gina, I'm so sorry." I started babbling, "I-I swear to God that nothing happened between Leclerc and me. All of those pictures and tweets are completely out of context, we were just talking and−"

"Aspen, calm down." Gina interrupted me, "I won't have this conversation over the phone. I have a plane to catch and so do you, so hurry up. We'll talk later."

She hung up on me.

"Shit." I let out as I hurried to grab the clothes that were laying around the room and carelessly throwing them to my suitcases.

"Why the fuck are you up so early?" Mona groaned with her face still against the mattress.

"It's almost midday, Mona."

"What?!" She was fully awake now, checking her phone to see if I was right, "Fuck!"

Mona abruptly got up, searching for her pants that were laying on the floor and her shoes that had barely made it a few steps from the door frame.

"I'm never drinking again." She said as she started scrolling through her phone, probably watching the photos that were also circulating from her and the guys, "Oh, my God. Girl you and that Diane chick are all over−"

"Don't remind me." I began undressing to put on a clean set of comfortable clothes, a traveling attire.

"And did something happened between−"

"Mona, you were there." I stopped her, "We just talked."

"I was just asking." She raised her hands defensively , "But don't worry, I've been there too. If I had a penny for every time people thought I was dating someone from the paddock, I'd be rich by now."

"So you're saying that this will pass?" I asked her as I finished packing my stuff, not even caring to check if I was missing something.