apocalypse | charles leclerc ✓

chapter 12 | not the same anymore

Unlike the previous year, the car promised to be good this time around — apparently, people gathered that from all the preseason testing or whatever, Sloane was still off regarding some of those details — and she felt very happy for Charles, and Carlos as well, but there was this side of her mind, and she did feel guilty, that was glad because it could translate to the season not turning out to be as depressing as the previous one. It didn't mean she was forced to join him during races, no, Sloane enjoyed the experience really, but sometimes perhaps she'd done it because going through the Ferrari experience alone sounded dreading, and Charles was a bit too hard on himself even if the main problem focused more on the car and not on him as a driver.

It made her wonder right there if she'd taken that flight to Bahrain because she wanted or because she got used to it.

"You can take a quick nap before the start of the race. But not here." Aurora wrinkled her nose, looking to her side at the rest of the staff wearing Ferrari polos and chatting with one another.

She softly laughed, wrapping her fingers tighter around the cup. "No, it's fine. Maybe I'll need a Red Bull to stay awake but that's all. Do you think if I go over their garage they'd give me one?" Aurora scoffed, fully aware Sloane wouldn't drink an overly sugary drink even if they paid her for it.

"You'd be seen with a can of that and someone would say you're fraternising with the enemy or something." Even as a joke, it did check out. The year before, when she didn't attend the last two races of the season and posted a campaign she'd done for a collaboration between Proenza and Mercedes, some people decided to theorise they had broken up. It was stupid and annoying, tiring, to have every minor detail of her relationship analysed that way. "I can keep the coffee cups coming if you want." Aurora offered, giving her a side smile.

If it wasn't because she was truly there in live and living colour, sitting across from her, she'd feel like the girl was some kind of fever fantasy created by her brain to reduce the fatigue. "It's alright, seriously. I can't drink too much of this anyway or my heart will burst out of my chest. It gets me buzzing like a bee."

"I'll keep you hydrated then," That she would accept.

At some point, Aurora excused herself because she had to go back to work. They didn't pay her to keep Sloane awake and entertained during races. She took the opportunity of being left alone again to find a bathroom where she could splash some water on her face. She wasn't on the verge of passing out — that would be left for when she arrived at the hotel later — but she needed some way to maintain her eyes open and her face cold.

Flashes of her hotel room in Paris came to her, and how she could've been dozing off on silky sheets and cotton pillows. She couldn't catch a minute of sleep during her flight.

Her reflection in the mirror was gross, she concluded when the sight hit her. She leaned against the bathroom counter to take a closer look and okay, the bags under her eyes were an entire Louis Vuitton collection. Why had no one mentioned she looked like that? She tried to fix her makeup, but couldn't even redo her eyeliner because her hand trembled, that was on the coffee for sure. In the end, she resorted to looking like she would be taking headshots to audition for a skincare campaign and removed her makeup with a nearly empty pack of travel wipes found in her makeup bag. The girls at the fashion show would say: at least you're naturally pretty. She smiled sadly at the thought. Her time in Paris had been nice.

While she looked at herself in the mirror, someone else walked into the bathroom. Sloane tried not to eavesdrop because her new companion was busy having a conversation over the phone...in Dutch. The simple detail perked her curiosity and she took a peek at the pass hanging around the girl's neck, then it made sense. God, she was really bad with faces and names, like she should've been able to remember other people's girlfriends by now. She'd blame it on the lack of sleep though.