What Party? The Party!

weekend of bahrain

Max POV:

Today was the day of the race, it had been a hectic weekend so far and quite a strange one. Due to the events of the previous day, I didn't get a good sleep so I got woken up by Checo almost knocking my door down and telling me that we needed to get down to the track. This made me panic slightly and it had already knocked me out of my pre-race frame of mind. Now that my routine had been interrupted, I was not looking forward to the rest of the day because the race was never good when this happened. I quickly got ready and made my way down to the track with Checo after a bite to eat. Of course it was just my luck that we shared a ride with the ferrari boys. 

Being in close proximity to Charles made my stomach turn and I don't know why; it made me lose even more focus for the race so I wasn't in the best of moods. Checo and Carlos were holding a conversation in Spanish and they kept glancing between myself and Charles. I couldn't understand that much Spanish and neither could Charles, this meant that there was an awkward silence between us for the journey to the track. When we finally got there, it seemed to take forever, we all scrambled out of the car and I was not the only one glad to be at the track, one look at Charles told me he was also glad to be there. 

Annoyingly, Checo and Carlos were still in conversation so, because I didn't want to walk in awkward silence, I struck up a conversation with Charles.

Charles POV:

Ugh, being next to Max for the car ride was so awkward. I kept wanting to have a conversation with him but to be honest, he looked really mad about something so I just left it, not wanting his annoyance turned on me. I was glad when we got to the track, then I realised that we had to walk in together, prolonging the agony. Carlos (the traitor for talking to Checo) went ahead with Checo and, once again, I was left with Max. Just as I was preparing for a long walk in silence, he bumped into my shoulder in a friendly sort of way and started talking to me. 

"So Charles, erm how are you feeling about today's race?"
"I don't really know, it could be a tight one especially with Mercedes breathing down our ears."
"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot that they are behind me."
"Yup, they are fourth and fifth I think and definitely won't give up without a fight."
"It was really close yesterday and I think they could have made the front row if it wasn't for the yellow flag ruining their final flying lap."
"Agreed, what do you think about your chances?"
"Not looking hopeful if I'm being honest."
"I'm sure you will be fine, good luck for the race."
"Good luck to you too, I have to go now, I'm at my garage."

I looked and saw that without me noticing, we had made our way to the front of the Red Bull garage, where Carlos and Checo were waiting for us. We bade the Red Bull guys goodbye and made our way down to the Ferrari garage where we were immediately taken in to look over some data.

-

Eventually, it was time for the race. I saw Max on the grid and noticed he still looked rather annoyed and knew from our karting days that it wasn't a good sign. However, I couldn't focus on Max as I had a race to prepare for, so I kinda forgot about it until what happened in the race.

Max POV:

Today just seemed to go from bad to worse to even worse and I hadn't been awake for very long. Since my routine got interrupted this morning, if something could go wrong, it did and it didn't help my mood. When I eventually got ready to start racing I was supremely annoyed and it only got worse when I saw how relaxed Charles looked. Wait! Why on earth is Charles being relaxed affecting my mood? I didn't have time to think about it but the question still persisted in rattling around my head for the duration of the time before the race started. 

Thankfully, the car did make it to the grid all in working order and it was time for the lights to go out. When they did, I immediately lost two places to the Mercedes' cars directly behind me so I was down in fifth place ahead of Checo. Then my race engineer was on the radio telling me that Christian was not pleased and I needed to pick the pace up. It was so unfair because I was doing my best with the car and the conditions on the track. Everything after that went to pieces in both my car and Checo's car. I started to struggle with the gear changes and slipped down the order due to it being difficult for me to pick up speed. A couple of laps later, I got called into the pits and was forced to retire, as did Checo who was having similar issues. This meant I had to watch the races from the sidelines and it sucked, especially with Charles winning and Lewis getting third, Carlos got second as well. So overall today sucked and I'm sure people could see this by the expression on my face. 

I watched the podium celebration take place and I wasn't sure whether it was a figment of my imagination or not but I'm sure that Charles looked right at me. If he did, it made my stomach flip and I wasn't sure why. 

-

I was just walking down the paddock after my media duties, when Charles came over and put his hand on my shoulder halting my progress. 

"Well done in the race today," he said and this confused me.
"Why are you congratulating me, I retired part way through the race?" I asked.
"If you had no issues with the car, I'm sure you would have challenged me for the win," he stated simply before removing his hand from my shoulder and walking off striking up a conversation with Lando. 

The place where his hand was, felt hot to the touch and it felt nice compared to when other people did it. I carried on walking in a daze until I bumped into somebody cause I wasn't properly focussed on where I was going. 

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed.
"No worries Max, I could see you were deep in thought, anything to do with Charles by any chance?" Lewis asked and I was mortified that was who I bumped into.
"Erm, well- erm- I erm- I don't know what your on about," I stuttered out.
"Mhmm, sure you don't, but if you need any advice on paddock romance or any questions in general, just ask," he said and clapped me on the shoulder before going off talking to Seb.

 I was left wondering what he was going on about. There was absolutely nothing between me and Leclerc. Absolutely nothing at all. But then again, I was left wondering about what he knew about paddock romance. I resolved to keep my eye out along with keeping an eye out on Leclerc because he was acting oddly that was all. That was definitely the reason for it. Over near Alpine stood Fernando and I decided to go over and speak to him as it would help to resolve my sanity.

"Fernando, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine Max, any particular reason for coming over here?"
"Yeah, everybody's acting strange today and it is taking away my sanity."
"Well, what's happening."
"Lewis made a cryptic comment about paddock romance in the same sentence as Charles and I don't know what to make of it. Also Charles congratulated me on the race today even though I retired, I mean it's so strange."

After my mini rant, Fernando just looked at me and chuckled.

"Oh Max, you'll figure it out in the future. If you want my advice, Lewis has always been that strange."
"Erm thanks," I said and decided the best idea would be to go to bed and hope the world righted itself in the morning.