Come Back...Be Here - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 82: Big little brother

🎶 Most Girls - Acoustic — Hailee Steinfeld 🎶

Mum and dad picked me up on Friday afternoon from work to drive to Bath. We had taken Dad's big SUV to be able to pack up all the stuff that Oli still had in Bath on our return.

I was watching the second Free Practice session of the Styrian GP. Ferrari was still struggling with their cars after their disastrous race in France, with Charles and Carlos being only in P10 and P11 in the morning session and P11 and P13 in the afternoon. I knew Charles was going to be disappointed, since he especially wanted to get a good result there, since it became "such a special place to my heart" as he explained to me yesterday evening. Yes, I was still swooning about that, it was a special place now for me too. I recalled the day we met, me having absolutely no clue about who he was and behaving like a complete fool. I had to chuckle at the memory. But the smile on my face was soon wiped away when I saw an annoying Oli waving at us frantically on the road where his dorm was situated. Could he be any more embarrassing?

We parked our car at the small parking lot there reserved for students and made our way to the pub to have dinner all together.
"Nervous about tomorrow, honey?" mum asked him with her usual pampering tone.
"Yes! I'm going to be one of the last people though, thanks to my last name" he answered.
"Well, it's not like the ceremony is going to finish sooner if your name started with A" I said and rolled my eyes.
"Ah I just love it when my sister is in such a good mood" Oli said and put his arm around me, pulling me closer to him. I quickly swatted it away but Oli was having the time of his life at annoying me.

Thankfully, dinner was over soon enough and me and my parents made our way to the hotel we had booked our rooms in. My dad had been generous enough to book me a single room for myself, I definitely was too old to share one with them. Since it was late and Charles was probably already sleeping, I just sent him a text:

Mary ❤️
Screw surviving the next year with my brother, I don't know how I'm going to survive the next weekend with my brother 😵‍💫
He is just going to embarrass me so much, I already know it 🤦🏼‍♀️
Sorry for the rant, I know your day wasn't easy, I just hope tomorrow will be better ❤️
Je t'aime

I met with my parents the next day at the breakfast buffet. My mind wandered to Oli.
"Oli's having his last breakfast at his hall right now" I couldn't help but get a bit emotional.
"Since when are you so worked up on where Oli is having breakfast" my mum chuckled.
"It's not Oli mum, I was thinking about my last breakfast on graduation day in Oxford. I just guess that this weekend is bringing up a lot of memories from my uni days and I am kind of missing it" I said and chuckled, a tear running down my cheek.
"Oh honey" my dad said and put his hand on my hand. He then turned to my mum with watery eyes and said to her: "They're all grown up now Bea..."
My mum laughed at our emotional outbursts and said "Don't worry darling, they're still not grown up enough to be living alone apparently".
I laughed and said jokingly "Hey, you parents happen to be convenient!"
"Oh Paul, see, no need to get emotional, we are convenient for them!" Mum said and laughed, while pulling me into a side hug and giving me a kiss on my head.

Before we could get any more emotional we made our way to the University of Bath's ceremonial hall and took the seats that were reserved for us. I felt some boys staring at me and whispering and just rolled my eyes, they had probably recognized me. Under no circumstances I wanted to make this day about me, it was Oli's day and I would have been furious if he pulled something on my graduation day. He had worked hard for his degree and deserved the attention today. So I chose to ignore my surroundings, even though it meant risking that there would be some article about me tomorrow, stating my arrogance or whatever they would come up with this time. British tabloids could be really harsh.