[3] MARANELLO || C. LECLERC

TWO

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CAMILLE

"Leave me alone," I croaked, as a sole tear slipped from my eye and rolled carefully down my cheek. I stopped running when I came to the end of the paddock, hating the thought of creating a scene for the media. I didn't want Charles to see any of this without the context. "Stoffel, seriously, I don't need to see you and I don't want to see you. You need to leave me alone."

Stoffel shook his head as he drew closer towards me whilst I sat on one of the nearby benches. I needed space to breathe before I stumbled into a full blown panic attack and I was afraid because I didn't want to ruin this trip for Max. I couldn't even bring myself to think about how he would react.

"I'm not going anywhere, Camille. Not until we've talked and I know that you're okay," he sounded concerned and that did warm my heart, but I was still terrified because I didn't know how he felt about that night considering we hadn't spoken since. "Come on. We need to talk about what happened between us so that we both have peace of mind."

"There's nothing to say," I shook my head whilst tugging on my hair with force. "I didn't come here for this, Stoffel. I came to spend time with Max, not to be reminded of what happened between us. It was a stupid mistake, on both of our sides."

"Why did you get upset when you saw me if it was a mistake, Camille? I didn't think you'd react like that." Stoffel's eyebrows knitted together in the centre of his forehead as he stepped behind one of the motor homes to prevent us from gaining any unnecessary attention from fans or the media. I groaned beneath my breath, hoping that this wouldn't last too long because I couldn't look at him without feeling sick.

"Max has no idea about what happened, Stoffel, and I never wanted to tell him," I thought about sitting down with Max and spilling my heart out to him, breaking his and damaging our friendship when I finally admitted that I'd slept with one of his good friends, with no worry or fear after Stefan. Nothing seemed to make sense; I was so fearful of even kissing Charles, never mind anything else, and I was vulnerable when we were at the beginning of our relationship. I was afraid of opening up to somebody who was a stranger, whereas Stoffel was nothing like that. "It's going to break his heart, and I didn't come here to do that. I'm engaged, I'm happy, you know, none of this bothered me until I realised I would be seeing you here."

"Max doesn't need to find out." Stoffel shook his head and tried to take my hands, but I flinched backwards to avoid his touch.

"You don't understand," I rolled my eyes as a sigh slipped from between my lips. I shouldn't have been in this situation and I needed to get myself out of it. With a lot of discontent, I huffed whilst glancing around us. "We can't discuss it. I don't want to relive that night anymore. I'm over it, Stoffel, I'm happy with Charles and I was happy with Max, but I'm going to have to fix everything now. I should never have agreed to any of this."

"I have a girlfriend now too, Camille. I don't obsess over everything that went on between us. I just never expected you to react like this," Stoffel shuffled closer towards me on the bench we were sitting on, his hand brushing over my kneecap and leaving me in a state of shock. I didn't know what made him think that he could touch me like that. I moved to the other side of the bench. "I'm sorry."

"You need to leave me alone for the rest of this week, okay? You can't come anywhere near me," the tears continued to roll down my cheeks, except they were meaningful now. My heart was breaking at the thought of admitting everything about that night to Max and I was afraid to look him in the eyes and be honest with him. I didn't really know how to compose myself and I just wanted to go home. "I'm with Charles, you're with whoever you're with and we have nothing to do with one another anymore. We made a silly mistake to sleep with one another."