Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

PROLOGUE

Juliette laid down on the hotel bed and placed her hand on her heart; it was beating like crazy. She deeply inhaled by her nose and blew the air out by her mouth. Everything was shaking: her breath, her limbs, it even felt like her heart was shaking. Laying down made the situation even worse. Juliette sat up and looked at her hands, she couldn't keep them still. Her eyes closed and she breathed in again, and out. Nothing was helping.

It had been a while since the last time Juliette felt like this, and it didn't just stop; she wanted it to stop. Juliette got up and started to walk around in her hotel room like there was a hurricane inside her. She was moving like her brain was demanding an athlete's energetic expenditure, but won't tell her limbs what to do. Yet somehow Juliette managed to walk around. Walking around made the feeling of the shaking limbs, of her heart, less fierce - at least, that was how Juliette saw it. It didn't get less, it didn't get worse, it stayed the same. But for the thoughts, it was acceptable, it was a distraction.

Juliette was snapping her knuckles, it slightly hurt because she was forcing it. She never snapped her knuckles, unless she was stressed. Words flew over her lips. Talking like she didn't have enough time to say what she wanted to. Her words were crowded together, words were probably missing. A few tears streamed down her face, it was barely noticeable.

The hotel door flew open, and a few people stormed into the room. Juliette looked up, and her lips parted; she looked lost at Toto, Peter and Delilah. She put both her hands on her head and stopped walking. Her eyes were scanning the people; more people were standing in the hallway.

"Jesus Christ, Julie, what's wrong?" Delilah asked right away and looked worried at Juliette.

Juliette turned away from them, walking towards the window. She covered her face with her hands and shook her head.

"Juliette," Peter said sternly. "What's going on?"

It was like the words didn't get filtered. Juliette could hear them talk, but she couldn't form phrases from it. She sat down on the couch and tried to find an okay position to sit. That wasn't the case, it even annoyed her more. She got up again and started to walk again.

Peter placed his hands on his hips and looked at Toto; he didn't know what to do, and he couldn't afford this situation now. They had an important race coming up, they couldn't work with one less. Even though it was a private situation, Peter only could think of the race. Everyone was having much stress and a lot of pressure. Peter sighed and rubbed his forehead, there was no chance now. "I'm going to see what I can do with the board," he mentioned and walked back to the hallway. Delilah followed him outside.

"What is going on, Juliette?" Toto asked. "And start talking, please."

The eyes of Juliette shot up to Toto's eyes; he was talking on a forcing tone, and she knew she couldn't stay silent now. "I..." Her breath was shaking.

"Are you sick? Do you need to see a doctor?" Toto continued asking. "We can't lose you today, this is so important... You are so important today. You have been ignoring us, and we can't afford to lose more time on this situation." He was watching this situation from the work perspective, not the human perspective. It wasn't like he didn't care about his people, but there was so much pressure on the team. "We've already lost one man because of food poisoning, another one is not good."

Juliette was shaking her head. "I'm not sick." The words were pressed over her lips. She deeply inhaled and closed her eyes when she stopped walking. Her limbs felt like jelly. "It's called anxiety, Toto."

Those words changed the situation. Toto switched from being the chief to a human being. "What can I do? Do I need to get Pierre?"

The facial expression of Juliette straightened, she was also confused. How did he know about Pierre? "W...what? No, no," she said and started to snap her knuckles again.