sweet escape [c.l.]

chapter thirteen

The effects of last night's run to the beach was definitely weighing on Rory but being there for Charles and helping him a little bit for today made it all worth it.

So she got up in the early morning, got ready, had breakfast and as she was leaving the house she sent Charles a little good luck text for today.

After last night, Charles could barely sleep with excitement, the whole time he was caressing the bracelet Rory had given him. He knew it was a way to say goodbye for good, her giving him the bracelet, goodbye to what they could have been, but it was also a promise that she would be with him no matter what.

As he arrived at the paddock he was in a much better mood than the day before when he left. He had hopes that today would be a good day and that even though he most likely wouldn't win the race, he would still make it to the points and leave the people proud of him.

When Rory's text arrived a smile grew on his face.

"A message from the girlfriend?" Carlos teased.

He quickly responded and put his phone in his pocket. "Something like that. Ready for me to beat you out there today?"

"In your dreams pretty boy, in your dreams."

Rory had been running around since she had gotten to the paddock, from drivers that needed to be checked, to a fan that had fainted due to the heat, she had had a minute of peace.

When she finally sat down for a couple of minutes all she wanted to do was have a little bit of time to herself. But of course that wouldn't be the case.

"Hey Aurora." Alejandro approached her and sat on the chair besides hers. "How have you been? It has been a while."

"Yeah, it has. I'm good." She responded dryly, not even asking how he was back to see if he would get the hint that she didn't want to talk to him.

"I really wanted to come talk to you earlier, but you know with Carlos injury time has been quite short lately."

"Yeah." How could she have dated him all that time ago?

"So..." he pulled his chair closer to hers, which made pull hers away, "How are you and Charles?"

He had asked this with a smirk on his face, Rory wondered what he knew...or thought he knew. "We're good."

"Really? I heard that there has been some trouble in paradise..."

"Aurora," someone interrupted Alejandro and they both looked up, "there you are. I have been looking for you."

"What's wrong?" Rory asked, already getting up.

"Lando says he is feeling some pain on his shoulder and I wonder if you could check it out before the race." Oscar said, looking from her to Alejandro and back to her.

"Sure, let's go." she turned her attention back to Alejandro. "Sorry to cut our conversation short but I have to go."

"Sure, duty calls."

Rory walked with Oscar away from Alejandro and when they were out of his reach she turned to him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." he gently squeezed her arm and walked back to his garage before someone came looking for him.

The race was in 20 minutes and everyone was running around the Ferrari garage to make sure everything was ready for their pilots to have the best race possible. But Charles was trying to distance himself from all of that to calm his nerves.

Charles was currently sitting in his drivers room, with headphones on without anything playing and just touching the bracelet that Rory had given him before he had to take it off. The pressure was falling on his shoulders and he didn't seem like he could erase it.

He pulled out his phone and texted Rory asking her to come to his room. He didn't know if she would even see it. He didn't even know why he texted her.

But while he was wondering all of that, a knock sounded on the door, and Rory's head peaked in.

"Hey." She walked in the room. "How are you doing?"

"I'm nervous."

She kneeled down in front of him and covered his hand with her own. "You are going to go out there and do the best you can today and everyone is going to be immensely proud of you. Okay?" She squeezed his hand.

"Okay." He smiled at her.

"Good, now go out there and kick ass. I will see you after." Rory got up and kissed his forehead before leaving and closing the door behind her.

Charles sat alone a couple more minutes and decided that after the race he was going to get his girl back, because she was everything he ever needed.

The race had already started, everyone's eyes were on the screen ahead of them to see the drivers go around in circles and try to come on top.

Charles had already gone from 12th to 8th and Rory was feeling extremely proud of him.

The problems that the car had had the day before seemed completely resolved so the race was going smoothly.

By lap 10 Charles was in 6th. Rory was watching him, clenching to a water bottle to try and calm her nerves. She could feel the cameras on her, but even that wouldn't tear away her eyes from the screen.

Lap 11 rolled around and Charles started to feel some uneasiness in the car, he warned his team, and they said that everything looked good with the numbers and that he shouldn't worry about it. But he couldn't shake it off.

"Guys, it doesn't feel good at all." Charles exclaimed as lap 12 came on. At this point he had already lost two places and was back at 8th.

"Stay calm Charles. We will take a look at it."

"Should I box?"

"Not yet."

On the other side, everyone was watching the race and hearing the radios and they could clearly see that Charles was struggling.

At this point, Rory had gotten up from her seat and was digging her foot on the ground trying to calm herself, because everything was going to be alright. Right?

2 more laps rolled around and Charles was just losing places and his team was just telling him to stay in the race.

"I don't care what you say right now. I'm gonna box."

A lot of disagreement came into Charles radio, but he didn't care. The car didn't feel right and he was the one driving it so the final decision was his.

He started to let the other drivers pass him as he was waiting to box in the next lap, but out of the sudden his brakes got stuck and he couldn't slow the car in time to do the curve.

"GUYS!!!" Charles screamed into the radio, not that his team could do anything at the moment.

And the next thing anyone knows, he was hitting the wall.