the lakes - charles leclerc

𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟏𝟖

day broke yet again in dim windermere. the majority of this new morning has passed before heads rose and eyes were rubbed. once everyone had gathered around the fire pit, words started being spoken.

"hey, has anyone seen olive? i haven't seen her since..." hailey pondered. "yesterday," she looked up, head soon glancing back and forth.

"she accidentally woke me up this morning, don't know what time but it was early. the sun was still rising." commented maeve. "seemed in a bit of a rush, but that could've just been me in a sleepy haze at god knows what hour."

"that is strange, she's never like that. or so i thought. early bird catches the worm or whatever,"

"well, the question i think needs to be asked is her whereabouts," pierre mentioned. "assuming she's not been abducted, where would she be?"

"she's not quite a runner, so i don't think she would have took a scenic route this morning. we can check the perimeter and start trying to locate her," adriana's morning voice answered.

charles jumped in before anyone else could, finding it necessary to spend some time with his girl. "i'll go with adri and we can make a start. we'll go to the other side of the lake. you can sort out where you'll go yourselves. we'll meet back here once we think we've done,"

"let's just hope this doesn't take forever."

charles grabbed her hand and led her around the vast size of the lake. mentioning the small things he noticed (more like the stuff he just adored about her), she couldn't help but grin from ear to ear every single time anything came out of his mouth.

"angelo mio, did i mention how bright your eyes look this morning?"

"oh shush, handsome. you don't look too bad yourself," her lips pressed against his lips, pulling him in by his collar.

"you- you need to s-stop doing that, darling, we need to keep looking fo- for olive," he grinned as she kept leaving small pecks on his lips. "you're distracting me,"

"what if that's the whole point,"

"ah, fuck, stop stop stop stop stop," he pulled away, "you're actually driving me fucking crazy! what the hell!"

she laughed lightly, "sorry, pretty boy. come on, we've got important shit to do,"

after decent surveillance of the area (he insists that his eyesight made him see everything), charles and adriana then made their slow walk back around. they met with lando and alex along the way. they shared their disappointed results with each other, before returning to a scene at main camp.

"where the fuck is she?" hailey shouted, slamming the cabin door after checking for the fifth time in the space of an hour. she stormed off in a huff towards the exit, the others positively certain she wouldn't leave.

"no money was offered. she wouldn't go without a word said. surely?" lando brought up, not once believing it would be true.

silence laced the camp. the unthinkable was thought; all were in complete disbelief that olive would do such a thing. so close to the end, yet, to her it  wasn't close enough. the realisation soon kicked in. like adrenaline, anxious fury flowed through the veins of those who remained. what was the purpose of her packing up and leaving? nothing of her was left. it appeared to many she wanted herself removed from their memories and only be a figment of their imaginations.

"oh my fucking god," lando muttered. "she actually did go,"

pierre added, "and we have no answers for it either. what the hell,"

"i've just spoke to one of the producers. she left for £1 million. ONE. FUCKING. MILLION. POUNDS. IS SHE ACTUALLY TAKING THE PISS?" hailey shouted, returning back as if her exit was an interlude.

"you what?"

"olive left for £1 million,"

"oh my god, i thought it couldn't get any worse..." adriana commented, head soon placed in between the palms of her hand. charles' hand soon rubbed up and down her back, as he knew the two of them were relatively close as when she was younger she played alongside her.

"how can she do that? surely that's infringement by us not knowing shit about it," georgia added. "like there must be some fine print in them damn contracts,"

"i read every printed word on that page and it didn't mention anything about the sort. only that if money was offered and you left on that day you would get that sum." george nonchalantly spoke, a hint of annoyance lacing his voice.

"of course you read every word," alex scoffed under his voice.

silence filled the camp once more. they soaked in the atmosphere: this new atmosphere, without olive. this was their new life for the next few days, and they would have to learn to live with the sound of bittersweet symphonies.