the week-long break of the calendar was over and it was time to get back to racing. This weekend, the grid was travelling to germany for the german grand prix.
juliet and pierre gasly looked out the window of the plane, bracing themselves for take off. the siblings were travelling via 'air max'—aka max verstappen's private plane. onboard with them was max, his girlfriend kelly and her daughter, and daniel ricciardo. charles had gone back to monaco for two days before he needed to leave for germany.
"p, why don't you say hi to our guests?" max pointed at his almost step-daughter as she settled in his lap. juliet smiled at the sight, and leaned forward to tickle the baby's belly. "hi penelope, i'm juliet!"
penelope giggled and max pulled her into a cradle to let her relax in his arms. juliet turned to kelly as her brother and daniel talked. "she's the cutest," juliet complimented the baby. kelly smiled and rubbed penelope's head.
the chatter died down and juliet stared longingly out the window. she saw a body sit down in front of her, but couldn't care to make eye contact. "ça-va?" pierre asked his sister. juliet looked up and sluggishly nodded, trying to make him leave.
"you disappeared for the last few days of break," pierre joined her in looking out the window.
it was true. after that stupid night on the balcony, juliet felt a sense of discomfort in her own home. he was always there. she went outside to the pool, he was swimming with pierre; she went into the kitchen, he was making food; she sat down for nightly family dinner, he was in the seat directly across from her; it seemed never-ending.
so she tried to ignore him the best she could, but it just got too hard. she began leaving the house early and driving off to the beach across town, eating at random cafes, and catching up on some long-awaited reads.
but there was some of juliet that felt ashamed of ignoring him—a part that had no idea why she was even doing so. it was charles. charles from karting. the boy that she had giggly eyes for every time she saw him—and even when pierre talked about him. fifteen-year-old-juliet would've smacked present-day-juliet for pushing him away; but fifteen-year-old-juliet was just a naive little kid. she couldn't have thought of a clear way to explain this to pierre.
"yeah, it had been a long time since i just went around the country...so i took advantage of it," juliet sighed. "charles convinced me that you hated being around me for so many days in a row," pierre smiled wide and chuckled. that smile always made his little sister send one back.
"i can assure you that's not why," juliet sighed and looked back out the window.
———
the gasly siblings strolled down the paddock on their way to red bull hospitality. they walked past the ferrari building and juliet clenched, hoping the driver she saw approaching them wasn't charles.
"ciao ragazzi," the spaniard ferrari driver, carlos sainz, grabbed pierre's shoulder and started walking with them. "where are you off to?"
"hospitality," pierre smiled, "and have you met my sister juliet?"
carlos looked at the girl and smirked, "no, but i've heard lots about you." juliet's face turned red, "have you? from who?"
"just some people," the spaniard smirked again.
the trio continued walking, with carlos and pierre making small talk about the race and their activities over the past week break.
juliet stayed quieter, smiling at people she knew that walked past and adding in a comment here and there to her brother's conversation. she felt her heart drop when she saw charles walk out of an alley, and it fucking sunk when carlos waved to him and called him over.
"hey guys," charles smiled at each person, stopping for an extra long glance at juliet. he started exchanging in italian with them, which juliet of course understood none of. he seemingly made a joke, because pierre and carlos both laughed, making charles grin widely with them.
he has such a pretty smile, juliet thought.
— notes!
ONE MORE WEEK TILL
SPA IM SO EXCITED!!!!!
my happiness needs to
increase so charles babe i'm
gonna need a good result :)))