[3] MARANELLO || C. LECLERC

TWENTY THREE

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CAMILLE

Anxiety seemed to consume me so quickly as I scrolled through my Twitter timeline. Last night, I saw my name linked with Stoffel's and it made me feel particularly nauseous. I didn't think anyone would have anything to say about it. Nobody cared enough about my relationship with him to say anything, until now. After Valencia, I was always scared that people spotted us together and filled their camera roll with endless amount of pictures to post online. Stoffel was with someone now, not that I knew anything about her at all, but I wanted him to be happy like I was with Charles. Our past really meant nothing at all.

Charles was still totally oblivious and unaware that I slept with Stoffel in 2016 after the Monaco Grand Prix. I still wasn't sure how to tell him because I knew that he would be annoyed, maybe even upset. All I knew was that I was immensely happy with Charles and I didn't want anybody else to get in the way of that. I knew my past with Stoffel would hurt his feelings. I didn't want to put all of this on Charles and make him worry whilst he was supposed to be focused on work in Australia. He needed a good start to the season and with such a promising stint at testing, Charles needed to be as focused as he possibly could be.

The tweets were such bullshit - 'Camille Jacobs is cheating on Charles Leclerc with Stoffel Vandoorne' - being the overriding implication, yet individual tweets and images seemed to make the situation worse. I couldn't understand how fans managed to take photos of Stoffel and I as we sat on the bench and talked about that goddamn night after the race. I thought that we'd chosen a private spot, seemingly secluded beside his team's garage, but I was proven wrong right now, with the variety of images sprawled across my timeline.

"'Camille chose Stoffel over Charles. Whore.', 'I can't believe Charles literally proposed to Camille yet she still thought it was alright to go behind his back. She's been with Stoffel this whole time.'," they made me feel sick and even more so as the words fell from my lips. Each tweet hurt a little more and I was so thankful that Charles rarely checked his Twitter. I never wanted him to see these, and not because I was keeping something from him, but because I didn't want him to get hurt. "Bastards!"

I ran my fingers through my hair, feeling rather relieved that Charles was out training with Andrea. Our flight to Melbourne left tomorrow morning, so Charles was training intensely for as many hours as his body would allow. I needed to do something about this whilst I was alone. I wasn't ready to tell Charles because I was afraid of his reaction. I didn't want him to hate me for keeping it from him. I knew he would be pissed and there was always the chance that it would ruin our relationship. I'd lied to Charles about the most important and most intimate part of our relationship and I felt so terrible for making him believe he was the first person I'd had sex with since Stefan took advantage of me. It sounded so bad when I thought about it like that. Shit.

Without thinking, I closed the Twitter application and moved to my contacts. If I didn't ask him for advice, I just needed to hear my best friend's voice. Max was the first person I told about this and I knew that he would have something to say to me about it. He'd probably tell me off for keeping it so quiet, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. A reassuring voice was all I craved right now. I held my phone carefully to my ear, listening to the dialling tone whilst I chewed on my lip. I hoped that he wasn't training too.

"Camille," Max sounded happy to hear from me and my stomach dropped as I listened to the positive tone which lingered on his tongue. My heart swelled with happiness. "Hi. I miss you. I can't wait to see you tomorrow."