The next morning, Lyla awoke to the indistinct sounds of her brother being an idiot somewhere in the house. She sat up, stretching out her back and cracking her head – body uncomfortable from the curled-up position she had assumed during her night's sleep on the window seat in her bedroom.
She didn't even bother to glance at herself in the mirror or change into some other clothes, instead she pushed her feet into her sliders and opened the bedroom door, following the sounds of her brother which were coming from downstairs.
"Sleeping beauty awakes." Pierre laughs, smiling at Lyla.
"Sleeping beauty wants to go back to bed." She replies. "Charles awake?"
"The Prince of Monaco is very much still asleep." Arden comments.
"You're not hungover?" Lyla laughs, slightly taken aback by her brother.
"No I am." Arden confirms. "But I've been more focussed on watching Pierre fail at making scrambled eggs to care."
"Hang on," Lyla turns to the Frenchmen. "So you can make anything under the sun but cannot make scrambled egg?"
"Neither can you." Pierre points out.
"Yes but I'm not a chef like you." Lyla contradicts. "I didn't spend my childhood learning how to cook with my mother."
"That was completely unnecessary." Pierre shakes his head.
"To be honest, Lyla. You spent most of your teenage years sleeping around." Arden comments. "And getting drunk."
"Sexuality crisis." She shrugs.
Arden rolls his eyes at his now grinning sister before she turned around and began to make fun of Pierre again. This resulted in the sibling-like bickering to develop between the French-Italian woman and the Frenchmen, leaving Arden to sigh and rest his head on his hands which were placed on the counter until Lyla gave in.
"Actually hang on," Lyla turns to her brother who lifts his head. "You slept around in your teenage years as well."
"I only slept around with one gender." Arden replies. "And it wasn't every night, it was like twice a week."
"If you think about it," Pierre comments, spatula in hand. "If Lyla hadn't of slept around we could very possibly be stuck with a straight Lyla."
Lyla shuddered at the thought and Arden's nose wrinkled up, Pierre had to fill up a glass of water and rinse his mouth out after the words had left his tongue because of the thought of Lyla being straight and not bisexual was something that disgusted them all.
"My straight phase was not it." Lyla mutters.
"Please never bring it up again." Arden shudders.
"I regretted it the minute the words left my tongue." Pierre adds.
The threes laughter was interrupted by the sound of Charles coming down the stairs.
"If I didn't already feel like I would throw up I would of after hearing those words leave your mouth." The Monegasque announces.
"You didn't even drink that much." Arden comments.
"Yeah, I realised." Charles sighs.
"Oh how fun." Lyla says sarcastically. "Hungover Arden and sick Charles."
"He just needs to eat." Pierre sighs. "He didn't eat at all yesterday."
"Just don't make your scrambled egg." Arden smirks.
"Alright, you know what-"
Lyla pulled a face as she watched Pierre face the smirking Arden. The love held between the two of them so was obvious yet Pierre was the only one to realise his feelings for his teammate. Lyla often joked about how oblivious her brother was towards everything related to romance and love but she hadn't realised just how oblivious he could be until she realised that Pierre had a thing for him – even her and Charles had found out before Arden.
"Don't know about you lot but I'm going to go for a run." She mutters.
"Have fun!" Pierre calls after her, giving her a sarcastic wave.
Arden shouted something about being to hungover to join her and Charles just groaned at the thought of doing any more training right now which left Lyla by herself once she had changed into her running gear and grabbed her phone and air pods from her bedroom. She young Italian woman slipped out of the front door, pressing play on her Spotify playlist before walking down the driveway of her house and disappearing through the gates once they'd opened up to allow her through.
Lyla's feet pounded against the pavement and her heart rang in her ears, her cheeks were flushed red and her body covered in sweat which was making her hair stick to whatever exposed skin it could find. She eventually came to a stop doubling over and placing her hands on her knees as she caught her breath again before she stood up straight and looked around.
It wasn't long until she returned back to the house and ducked into the shower, coming out ten minutes later with wet hair and fresh clothes on. She slipped her sliders back onto her feet and threw her hairbrush into her bedroom before making her way back downstairs. Using the sound of Charles' voice to guide her towards where he and the other two were.
"Nice run?" Arden questions his sister when she appears.
"Hot." Lyla mutters, stepping out onto the patio.
"Yeah, your mad." Pierre laughs.
"One of us has to carry the hotness don't they?" She grins.
"I'll have you know that I'm extremely hot." Charles comments cockily.
"Says who? Your non-existent girlfriend."
"Boyfriend." Arden corrects with a grin.
"Girlfriend – designated straight of the group." Charles looks at the laughing Arden. "And no, my fans and everyone else."
"Ah yes sorry. Your fans." Lyla rolls her eyes. "The obsessed 17-year-olds?"
"I hate you."
"I love you too."
"I will give it to him," Arden comments. "He's hot."
"Thank you!"
"Kiss ass."
"You know what Lyla, fuck you."
Lyla smirks, opening her mouth to make a dirty comment but being stopped by Pierre who shot her a look which made her close her mouth again. Charles was left stifling his laughter as he watched Lyla narrow her eyes at Pierre when he turned his back, the Monegasque using his foot to kick her shin, warning her to stop being petty.
"Spoil sport." She mouths to Charles who sticks his middle finger up at her.
"Okay, major question." Pierre turns back around. "Which team?"
"Maybe not Ferrari," Charles raises his eyebrows. "She threatened to punch Mattia again."
"The dick deserves it alright." Lyla looks at Charles.
"As much as he does, we can't allow that." Arden shakes his head.
"Both teams have a guest pass for you." Pierre shrugs. "Like usual."
"You're leaving it up to me again?" Lyla groans. "You know I can't make decisions. It's too much pressure."
"Yeah we know." Arden laughs. "Hence why we made a schedule."
"Lifesavers." Lyla mutters.
Arden handed his sister his phone and she took a look at the timetable they had made. She would spend pretty much every other race with each team, with the odd couple of weeks – starting with Imola as Ferrari's guest.
"You promise not to punch Binotto." Charles looks at her.
"Me and Carlos won't hold back if he starts talking shit." Lyla sighs.
"Yeah, I know." Charles held a dopey grin.
"Maybe you can punch Zak Brown whilst you're at it." Arden adds.
"And Horner." Pierre also comments.
"Nah, I'll go for Binotto, Brown and Helmut." Lyla smirks.
"Our little violent girl." Arden hums.
"Bitch I'm taller than you." Lyla fires towards her brother.
A silence devoured the group, Pierre disappeared inside to grab everyone a bottle of water and Lyla fell onto the chair with Charles, cuddling up into his side as she pulled her phone out. Arden was left to ponder his thoughts on the chair opposite them.
"You showered right?" Charles mutters.
He receives a nod in reply before turning back to his own phone screen and placing his arm around Lyla, his hand on her lower back to keep her from slipping off the sofa and onto the floor. From his chair, the still hungover Arden glanced over at the two who were completely quiet. Lyla looked half-asleep as she scrolled through her phone and Charles kept looking away from his device and down at Lyla before glancing back to his phone, his thumb absentmindedly rubbing at the small amount of exposed skin on Lyla's back making both of them calm down and relax.
"And you say you're not in love." Pierre laughs, walking back outside.
"Just a couple of besties." Lyla hums, not looking away from her phone.
"Yeah, she's gay idiots." Charles rolls his eyes.
"She's about as gay as you are." Arden comments.
Lyla looks at her older brother, sending him a death glare which had him laughing, Pierre falls back down into his chair, pulling out his phone.
"Only the one today?" Arden asks.
"You can shut it." Pierre points at him.
Lyla's lips formed into a smile, her eyes flickering up to the top of her screen which displayed an incoming notification from Arden. She clicked the pop-up, looking over at the brunette on the other chair with a questioning glance. But her question was answered when the messages app loaded up and showed Arden's message – which just so happened to be a few photos of herself and Charles which he'd taken.
Arden
Attachment: 3 images
'Just a couple of besties'
Really Lyla?
Like you and Pierre are besties?
What are you on about?
Don't change the subject!
Your so fucking stupid it hurts
Like more stupid than Charles
Which is hard to beat...
I'm stupid?
Your so blinded that you don't realise
what's in front you
Lyla sent yet another glare to her brother who just rolled his eyes and shook his head. She wanted to scream at him and make him aware of the love he and Pierre shared that he was too dumb to see and apparently he wanted to do the same to her regarding the supposed love between herself and the Ferrari driver she was cuddled up with.
The thought of love scared Lyla. It seemed that everyone she loved left and she didn't want that to happen with Charles, Arden, or Pierre. The young woman had never voiced her concerns or feelings to anyone, she liked to keep that to herself – the boys had enough to worry about without adding Lyla and her stupid thoughts to the mix. She turned her attention back to her phone but was unable to focus. Pierre and Arden were too distracted with their own conversation to notice Lyla zone out.
Charles gave his best friend another glance, seeing that glossy look in her eyes as she stared off towards the nothingness before her. He tapped his fingers against her back, watching her blink and draw herself back into reality. Lyla looked around briefly before her eyes landed on Charles' and the Monegasque gave her a 'are you okay' kind of look to which the woman smiled and nodded.
He didn't believe her – but it wasn't his place to make her talk about anything she didn't want to talk about.
The hours passed by rather quickly and it wasn't long before Pierre had fired up the BBQ and had dragged Lyla up with him to try and get some of her Italian cooking skills to come to light after years of being dormant.
"Your trusting her?" Arden asks, leaning against the doorframe.
"I am." Pierre replies, French accent dripping from his tongue.
Lyla looked up from the BBQ and turned her head. She couldn't help but smirk as she saw Pierre turn away from checking out her brother and caught Arden checking the Frenchmen out. She turned away before she herself could be caught, following Pierre's instruction so she didn't manage to set fire to anything.
"If you had spent your teenage years learning to cook you wouldn't be relying on Pierre to feed you." Arden comments.
"Ignore him." Pierre whispers in her ear. "He's trying to aggravate you."
"Tell him to fuck off then." Lyla hisses in response.
Pierre turns to face the man he loved, sending him a look to go away which Arden replied to with a grin and putting his arms up before backing off. Lyla let out a sigh before tucking her hair behind her ear, taking in a deep breath.
"How do you deal with him every weekend?" She asks.
"Oh I don't." Pierre smirks. "I run off with Charles and leave him with Max."
"Ah, smart choice." Lyla hums.
Charles eventually walked outside talking in Italian with Arden. The two travelled to their respective chairs and sat down, kicking their feet up.
"Thanks for the help, guys." Lyla looks over her shoulder.
"You know I can't cook anything." Charles replies.
"Yeah, you set fire to fucking water." Pierre laughs. "Even Lyla hasn't done that before."
"What can I say?" Charles smirks. "I'm just amazing."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy." Arden hums.
With the help of Pierre, the food was eventually served and everyone munched it down quickly. Charles was left to do the washing up whilst Arden and Pierre headed into the living to flick on a film and Lyla travelled upstairs to talk with her godmother on the phone.
Lyla glanced over to the door when she heard a knock against it, Italian words falling from her tongue as she gestured for Charles to come in. The Monegasque driver walked into Lyla's bedroom and closed the door behind him, making his way over to the window seat and sitting opposite Lyla who was fiddling with the rings on her fingers. When she hung up the phone, she threw the device onto the bed, stretching her legs out and holding her arms out for Charles who she could tell was in a cuddly mood.
Charles moved to lie down between her legs, head resting on her chest with her heartbeat ringing in his ears, his arm rested across her abdomen, fingers drawing shapes on her exposed skin. Lyla let her head fall back against the wall behind her, one hand playing with the strands of hair at the nape of Charles' neck.
"Are you nervous for Imola?" Lyla asks, looking down at the driver.
"Yes." He replies quietly.
"Really?" Lyla raises her eyebrows.
"Ferrari will probably make some shit strategy call or we'll have a DNF." Charles mutters, adjusting his head.
Lyla sighs. She was thankful to be spending a wide majority of the season in the Ferrari garage compared to the Alpha Tauri garage because she knew that Charles would have an emotional breakdown at one point.
"Ferrari needs to stop being Ferrari." She sighs.
"Tell me about it." Charles chuckles. "Did Carlos call you last weekend?"
"He did. I sat and listened to him rant and call Binotto a shithead in Spanish for an hour I think." Lyla laughs.
"Sounds like Carlos." Charles sighs.