The news of that stupid picture had spread fast around the paddock and unfortunately, also online. Olivia had told me that both me and Charles had become a very hot topic on social media in a couple of hours. The story that was circulating the most was some dumb rumor that I was trying to lure him towards Mercedes or Toto put me on the team to distract him from the race so that we'd qualify higher than Ferrari. It had all been dumb accusations. And all was based on one vague picture of us laughing and having coffee at work. Most of it came my way because the women are always the first ones to blame apparently: I was messing with his head, trying to seduce him and using him, stealing information about Ferrari, and distracting him to fail and people were hating on me for it, while I didn't do anything.
It was just mind-blowingly stupid and I could almost laugh at the stupidity of it, but the second the picture actually went viral I got bad. I started receiving some creepy and hurtful messages from people who told me that I didn't belong at Mercedes and I was just using everyone around me to gain fame, but then with a lot more harsh words than that. All again, because of one simple picture. It was the power of the internet. Luckily I had a thick skin built over the years and big wall around me to keep me safe. And I had my friends.
Shit... it's gonna be alright Teddy, let the social media teams handle it and this will blow over in a few days
It always does
Ignore what everyone is saying online
They are all just idiots
You are amazing and wonderful, don't let them tell you otherwise please
I'm sorry that this happens to you...
I'm sorry Teddy, it's my fault, we shouldn't have sat outside like that, I should've known better...
Charles had been texting me all evening after he heard, but I hadn't answered him at all. I didn't answer anyone at this point. He probably was following it all online as well as his messages became more concerned about me personally. It was sweet that he cared. I had also received some messages from other drives to cheer me up as well as messages from my friends who were completely confused about the situation and wanted to know what happened. I didn't know what to say as I was trying to block out whatever was going on. I only person I had tried to text was Willow, my best friend, but she was asleep as she was living in Australia at the moment. Willow always had some dumb but secretly very good advice that would make my day better, even if the was miles away.
Olivia was also trying to keep my phone away from me after a while so that I wouldn't look at the mean as she had also noticed how it affected me the moment I'd read them. I was only human, of course, hurtful messages would affect me. I stared at them blankly, the fort I had built around me stood tall and protected me, but the words were still printed into my brain. I had been called names before, but these were people that I didn't know and they very vocal about what they thought of me. Before my first F1 outing, I had imagined that something like this would happen over some dumb scandal because I did something really dumb that deserved a scandal, but this wasn't even worth calling a scandal. I almost wished that I actually did something stupid, so that they had something real to talk about. I groaned loudly and fell back onto my bed, with my hands rubbing my face in annoyance.
Olivia had fixed some food and drinks for us and we were drinking a good red wine that Mercedes would be paying for. She had tried to get my mind of the whole ordeal, also saying that it was unfair how they treated me. I was mostly annoyed at the world at this point. The anger and sadness were packed away deep inside of me, as I didn't want these trolls to get the better of me, but it was hard. The backlash actually kind of ruined the sweet morning I had with Charles. Olivia had been texting people, probably trying to fix my mess, and suddenly threw her phone at the end of the bed. Why couldn't people just let me live my life, it's not that I was that interesting, I was only Toto's daughter. I had lived my life outside of the spotlight for years, nobody cared then, why would they care now? I groaned.
"Alright, let's put away our phones and do something fun. Let it just be something we will worry about in the morning, everyone who has to be is on it." She sighed deeply and I looked up to her from my wine glass, eyebrows raised. "For now we are going to have a nice evening and forget everything and drink wine and just have fun." She ordered excitedly and I couldn't help but chuckle. "I don't like to see you like that, silent and gloomy, so we are going to enjoy ourselves and have a good night. You can choose: we are going out and get drunk or we are staying in and just relax and watch a movie or something and get drunk or we are going to chill around here and ask a few people to join us and get drunk. Or if you really, really, really want to we can go to sleep, but as it's not even 9 PM, I'm not letting you for at least another hour." I got back up and wrapped my arms around my legs. I had switched out my Mercedes outfit for a sweater and more comfortable pants and put on my black-framed glasses. Olivia didn't need to care so much for me, but here she was: not leaving me behind by doing everything she in her power to make me feel better. She was really there for me. She could also say that I shouldn't care and leave it like that. I sighed deeply, it was good to have a great friend to look out for me on the paddock. I knew if I was going to be alone or in silence I would let my mind wander too much and it might go to some dark places as my wall would crumble around me slowly.
"You are such an amazing person Olly, in case you didn't know that yet." I spoke with a small smile on my lips and she put her hand on mine with a reassuring smile. "We can play Mario Kart? And I wouldn't mind inviting some other people to come over to just chill, it will take my mind off things to be around some people."
"Well, good thing that I know what you'd want, because I already invited a few people over to just chill here if you don't mind as your room is huge." She grinned and I rolled with my eyes but I couldn't suppress a laugh.
"Oh, I've changed my mind, I don't wanna see anyone anymore, I wanna cry in my bed, alone. Please go now." I joked and Olivia pushed me over, making me laugh louder as I pulled her with me, just careful enough to not spill the wine over the bed. It was a good red wine that would stain the white sheets badly. There were only two small glasses left of the bottle. "I do still wanna play Mario Kart and beat you."
"Oh, you are getting cocky now? Thinking that you are the best gamer?" Olivia laughed and we sat back up as I grabbed my Nintendo Switch and handed Olivia her a controller. I shrugged.
"Well, I'm a gamer gurl." I joked, rolling the 'r' in 'gurl' and poking out my tongue. "And I have to say that I'm quite good at some games, like Mario Kart."
"We'll see about that." Olivia laughed loudly as I sat back next to her. We refilled our wine glasses and emptied the bottle and started to race.
It took a few races before the first person knocked on the door. We had been yelling, laughing and screaming as I beat Olivia barely in the last corner at the Rainbow Road track by pushing her off the track. I had learned that she was also the oldest child and only had younger brothers, four in total, who were all very jealous that she worked at Mercedes. She wasn't allowed to play games with them, because she'd beat them when they were younger and now she'd be beaten by them. It was nice to hear some adorable stories about her past and family and it did take my mind of things, maybe the wine also helped.
"Come in!" I yelled laughing as Olivia buried her head in my pillow, screaming in defeat and I saw both Lewis, Mick and George pop into the door frame. The Mercedes-boys! "Hey guys!" I continued giggling, my face turning red from laughter.
"What is happening over here, it sounded like someone was being murdered." Lewis chuckled confused, looking from me to Olivia and back to me as Olivia was in no shape to answer a question.
"I beat her so hard at Mario Kart." I giggled and Lewis raised his eyebrows with a chuckle. He noticed the empty wine bottle.
"N-no! She beat me by pushing me off the r-road and... Claiming first place which I had all round until the last fucking corner." Olivia now added with her face red from laughing and she sounded out of breath.
"Good to see you two laughing and having a good time." George said grinning and sat down in the big fauteuil next to the bed and Lewis sat down next to him. Olivia and I both caught our breath and looked at each other, making the other laugh again. Then Lewis and Olivia exchanged a look and they seemed relieved. I turned my attention to Mick, who had sat next to me and was looking at me and I was suddenly very aware of my very flustered head. Olivia had crawled out of my bed and put on some music and started chatting with Lewis about something, but I didn't catch it.
"Are you okay?" Mick asked softly and I shrugged at his question. "It's not fair how people are treating you online. Everyone on the paddock has your back, you know." His words filled my heart with warmth and I smiled at him. I knew that, I had seen some messages of the guys, but it was nice to actually hear it come out of someone's mouth like Mick, who also could just easily not care if he wanted to and that would've been fine as well. But he cared, they all did. I nodded softly and put my head on his shoulder for a second. His shoulder felt like a safe place to be.
"I'm fine." I whispered. "Or I will be at least. I just need to get used to this, that's all." I sat there for a second and Mick wrapped his arm around my shoulder, softly caressing it in the meantime. I had closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling when I heard another knock on the door. How many people had Olivia invited? I thought it was only gonna be the Mercedes-guys. I looked over at her and sat back up, raising my head from Mick's shoulder. Olivia looked back at me, smirking and I frowned.
"Come in!" Olivia said and the mystery people revealed themselves to be Esteban, Lando, Pierre and Charles. I bit softly on my lip as I saw the worried face of Charles, but quickly turned my attention towards Olivia.
"Did you really invite the whole paddock to come to chill in my room or what?" I shot at Olivia sarcastically and laughed, as she yelled something about me having an insanely big room so I should shut up.
"Told you that we all care for you." Mick whispered sweetly against my hair and his sweet words made me blush. He was so sweet and I felt understood. It was something new and it felt good.
I was happy that the room was quite big and that I had a balcony so everyone could find a chair, cushion, or somewhere else to sit down. I locked eyes with Charles for a moment as I was looking around. He looked worried but turned away as he saw me with Mick.
"Hey Teddy!" It was Lando's British voice that caught my attention and I looked over to the younger Brit who was standing next to Charles and sat down on the end of the bed. "We are so sorry that this crap has happened to you, so we'd thought it'd be nice to cheer you up a bit and just come and chill here if that's alright with you. Olivia told us you might need some company. We also brought some snacks and drinks! Only no alcohol, because we race tomorrow, but I promise that they are still good!" I only now noticed that he was carrying some drinks and snacks in his hands as he smiled excitedly. I nodded with a genuine smile. I barely knew these people and they made me feel so welcome and at home and I didn't know why they cared, but they did.
And they made themselves feel right at home as well in my hotel room and basically decided that this hotel room would be the place they'd spend the evening after qualifying. It was very sweet and they didn't have to do that, but they did and I liked the company. Every one of them had asked me how I was doing and said something along the lines of that they were there for me or that they hated how the media did whatever they did and hoped that I wouldn't let it get to my head. They all were chatting together about everything you can think of and there was a very comfortable vibe in the air. I had avoided talking to Charles because something in me was too nervous to speak with him. Lando wanted to play Mario Kart with me as he had noticed that Olivia and I had been playing it, but it was really fun as we started to sound so British when we were cursing and yelling at each other, that it made everyone look over in confusion as a few more people had joined. The game with Lando took my mind of the whole ordeal of the hate on social media. Mick was rooting for me as Esteban was rooting for Lando. Lando won, but not by a landslide, so I felt good about myself as he was a real racer and I merely liked Mario Kart. I became second, only a few seconds behind Lando.
"Now it's our turn!" Esteban spoke with his thick French accent and I handed him my controller and Mick had to snatch the other one out of Lando's hands, as he clearly didn't want to let go of it. I giggled softly and scooted over to the edge of my bed so that Mick could sit in front of the tv. I glanced over toward Charles and caught him staring at me, he quickly looked away flustered. I had noticed it a couple of times already when I yelled or made some kind of noise during the game. He had been talking to Pierre since they had arrived, I figured that they were great friends as they were radiating some brotherly behavior. I wanted to talk to him, but something in me held me back to step toward him.
"Oi, Teddy. You should come and play some video games with us on stream sometimes." Lando said as he got bumped to the edge of the bed, and I smiled at him.
"Sure thing, sounds fun. I'm not a good gamer, but I like it." I answered.
"Maybe we can play some Among Us or something, do you know that?" He asked and went with his hands through his fluffy curly hair and I nodded.
"Yeah, played it quite a bit with friends during lockdown. I'm not that good, but sounds fun!" I beamed.
"Ah mint. I'll let you know when we have time to play." He said with a cheeky grin on his face. "Maybe it'll be fun to reunite the Twitch Quartet from lockdown." I raised my eyebrows in confusion, but I saw both Charles and George from the corner of my eye physically react to the name. "It's what they called George, Alex, Charles and me as we streamed a lot during lockdown." I made a soft 'ah' sound and nodded in agreement as it did sound fun to play some dumb online games with some of them. I made a mental note to look them up online, or I could ask George about it.
"Sounds good, you can always message me to see if I have time to join. I only have a laptop though, so I can't play big games besides the Sims 4, but that one is lagging so much as well." I giggled and Lando chuckled at my remark.
"No worries, we will fix something, it'll be fun!" He grinned wide and got distracted by some French curse words of Esteban. I stood up to grab a drink and I looked over my shoulder to Charles because I felt a pair of eyes burning on my back - and I was right. I caught Charles glancing my way again and gave him a timid smile and he clearly felt caught again as his eyes grew a bit wider. I didn't like this one bit. We had a great connection and now it could get awkward because of all the stupid gossip regarding that stupid picture.
After watching Mick and Esteband curse in both German and French, I decided that I needed some air. It had gotten quite busy with everyone talking at the same time and my head had already been filled to the brim after this day, so I longed for some fresh air to clear my mind. I stepped outside and took a deep breath as my lungs filled with the cool air and leaned onto the balcony with my arms, looking up at the night sky that was filled with beautiful stars. I always had been fascinated by the sky, the universe beyond our little planet, and the meaning of the stars that shone every night in the dark blue sky. Now that I was traveling the world, I loved examining the illuminated sky from different places in the world. Every place had its own version of the same sky, with the same universe beyond. It was always mesmerizing.
"Hey." A soft voice startled me and I quickly looked over my shoulder to realize that it was Charles who had joined me again on a balcony. He looked unsure and shy. I didn't hear him come through the door and I gave him a smile as soon as I realized it was him. He chuckled softly at my startled reaction and dropped his head with his gorgeous smile.
"Hey." I replied quietly and I waved him over and he took a few steps to stand next to me and lean against the balcony as well. He had closed the door behind him, and nobody could hear us. The only sound in the night was the sound of the city far away. We had a hotel a bit outside of the city and somehow it was quiet, it was relaxing during a busy weekend.
"I'm sorry." He mumbled after a comfortable moment of silence, with sorrow in his voice and his accent very noticeable. I furrowed my brow as I looked up at the man next to me in confusion. Why was he sorry, he didn't do anything wrong. "I should've known better than to sit outside with you in the open air where everyone could see us, it was destined for us to get caught one way or another and now you have to pay the price of the horrible trolls of the internet. I feel so sorry that this has happened to you, please forgive me." I turned my body towards Charles and grabbed his hand. He had started to ramble on and put the blame on himself, but it wasn't his fault at all and he wasn't to blame. His big puppy dog green eyes softened as he looked at me. I held his hand in mine. I gave it a soft squeeze and the feeling of his hands was electric in mine, a good kind.
"You didn't do anything wrong, Charles." I whispered. "They did. The fact that we can't just have a nice coffee in the morning sun without reporters catching us and turning it into various versions of stupid stories is not your fault. Besides, it was probably bound to happen at some point that the media turned something randomly into a scandal about me, I only thought it wouldn't happen so quickly. I'm new and they know nothing about me so they make stuff up to get a story." I told him the same things that Olivia had told me. He looked down for a moment before returning his eyes back to mine.
"I know, I know, but still... I should've known better and now you have to deal with something that could've been avoided if I had thought a second longer about it and not just so whatever I want to at the moment." He did really seem to blame himself and that hurt to see, I could hear it in his voice. I softly bit on my bottom lip. I had never met such a sweet guy before, nobody ever cared. I stared into his eyes, holding his gaze.
"You shouldn't blame yourself, you know, I surely don't blame you. You aren't selfish. This could've happened with anyone at any moment." I whispered and felt how his thumbs softly started to caress my hand, giving me a nice tingling sensation as I stared at the man before me. He nodded and his fluffy hair bounced around his head, his eyes not breaking contact with mine as I stared into the gorgeous green eyes. We looked at each other for a moment in silence.
"It's just so unfair, they shouldn't hurt you like this. Those words they are saying about you are so horrible. But you are just so - nice... and just a lovely person." He whispered softly and paused for a second to think about his words. He cared, I could feel it. It was a weird feeling.
"It could've been worse though." I added, trying to lift to the mood as I didn't want this conversation to turn all moody and I saw the corner of his mouth twitch up slightly. We both chuckled.
"That's true."
"And I'll be fine."
"You sure? It can be quite hard when the media turns against you like that... Not that I think you couldn't handle it or something, but... You know... Just looking out for you." He stumbled a bit in the words he spoke and gave me a bashful smile. I felt a flush creeping up my cheeks as he spoke and smiled back at him.
"That's sweet of you. It's a shitty situation, but I'll be fine. I've been through worse things in my life." I brought out in a whisper. I always had a very select group of friends who I knew looked out for me when needed and I wasn't used to having new people doing the same thing. I always had to look out for myself, I was always on my own, a lone wolf with some good friends who would help me when I let them help. But that doesn't give away the fact that I lived a large part of my life in a very crappy situation.
Quite often my walls were up, a castle build around me, but in the last couple of weeks, since I started working at the Grand Prix I felt myself more comfortable around people, I felt like I could be myself more easily, feeling more comfortable to do so and letting them in easier to a certain extent and I only just started. This job did wonders for me, even though I now had to face a dumb media scandal. "But you shouldn't be too hard on yourself too, you know." I added quickly as I didn't want to talk about the 'worse' so I turned the attention back to him. He dropped his head with a chuckle.
"I know..." He mumbled and felt him starting to intertwine our fingers carefully as we both looked at them. The touch of his fingers going through mine sent a shiver down my spine and was holding I breath I didn't know I was holding. I didn't want this feeling to end, my head was spinning and my heart beating in my chest. "I know, I can be quite hard on myself sometimes. This season start isn't going as we had hoped and I feel it getting to me." He whispered while dropping his shoulder a bit and leaning a bit more toward me as if nobody besides me was allowed to hear it. I had forgotten about everyone inside for a moment and forgot them again when I looked up into the deep green eyes of Charles, whose eyes were soft and dreamy as he stared back at me. He could easily pass for some sort of model prince or something with those gorgeous eyes with long lashes and eyes as colorful as the oceans and skies combined. If you looked long enough you could see every color in them.
"You shouldn't be hard on yourself. You are not the only one responsible for the performance during the race. If the car is not good, you can't make it magically amazing. You can only do your best." I smiled at him. "But I can imagine the pressure you are under, especially after finishing second in the WDC last year, you want to be better and win this year." He only nodded as he stared into my eyes, holding onto them as his hand very slowly pulled me closer to him. It was as if something changed in his eyes, as if he felt understood and I was captivated by his soft gaze. "Charles, everything will work out, maybe you will win, maybe you don't, but you shouldn't beat yourself up too much." I gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed his hand now. "And you can always come and rant about stuff with me if you need to. I only can't listen to your strategy stuff, or maybe I can, because I don't understand it, but if you want to talk about anything you are welcome to knock on my door." He smiled again and was not letting go of both my eyes or my hand. I didn't mind. My heart wanted him close, my head wanted him closer.
"You too, you know. Also for the smallest of things. I really-really like talking to you, so you can also always come to me if you need something off your chest or just need some uh-company." He spoke softly with a loving gaze in his eyes, tripping over his words as he seemed to have a little difficulty translating in his head. I almost drowned in his eyes. "You are not alone." I felt loved and felt my cheeks burn by his words.
"Neither are you.." I answered him as I felt butterflies in my stomach. He chuckled softly and dropped his head again, breaking eye contact for a mere moment as he leaned his head a bit more toward me at the same time. At this point, we stood quite close together. One step forward and I would be on his toes. A hint of his cologne entered my nose, he smelled expensive, but so, so good.
"Maybe we should go back inside." He spoke in the smallest whisper after a short silence, his head was close to my ear. His warm breath tingled my ear and it made my head spin. "People are probably wondering where we went off to." I nodded slowly in agreement and as he leaned back a little bit as we let our eyes find each other. This time they were closer and dreamier as ever.
"We should." I managed to get out of my mouth. This man had me wrapped around his finger and I couldn't care less. I liked talking with him and I liked being around him even more. The beating of my heart, the warmth in my cheeks, the smiles and the comfort, it was all such pleasurable feeling. We looked at each other for a moment longer and then both giggled as we didn't step away from each other to go inside again. It broke the tension. His giggle was something that could cure the world's most horrible diseases and I wanted it printed in my brain for every time I needed a bit of serotonin. Suddenly I felt him pull me into his chest by our connected hands to hug me. I was a little startled, but let it happen as it filled my body with warmth and butterflies. I could get used to this. My face was suddenly burrowed into his chest as his arms were wrapped around my shoulders as my hands were placed on his strong back. His hand was on the back of my head. I felt how his head tried to hide in the crook of my neck and in my hair. His warm breath tickled my neck and I listened to his fast heartbeat. I was quite sure that it wasn't going too fast, mine probably wasn't doing any better. And we stood there, comfortably holding each other, enjoying the warmth of the other and holding the other in our arms as if they were made to hold them. For a moment we were the only persons on earth and I could stay here forever. I felt safe. I felt loved. I felt like I belonged there.
"Aw, that's cute." Someone exclaimed with a chuckle in his voice from the doorpost. I felt Charles groan loudly as his face left my neck. "People were wondering what you were doing out here, but I've seen to interrupt something very adorable over here." It was as if our special connection had been broken in that instance and brought us back to reality with shock.
"Mate, you are so very annoying, you know that right?" Charles giggled as it was his friend Pierre. We slowly let go of each other, looking at each other for a moment longer as we tore our gazes apart. Charles turned so that he stood partly in front of me. I tried to hide behind Charles as my face was bright red. What had just happened?
"I love you too, Cha." Pierre answered with a wicked grin, knowing very well what he had walked into, probably even better than I nor Charles did at this moment.
"Let's go back inside..." I said and we quietly stepped inside again. Charles let me go first and as I passed him I glanced his way, seeing that he was blushing with the most adorable smile on his lips, a smile that you couldn't suppress. Even though I just had his arms around me and our bodies as close as they could be, the moment our fingers grazed when I stepped inside, I felt my heart skip a beat again. God, this man would be the death of me and I would fully let him.
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A/N: omg you guys, thank you soooo much for 3k reads <3 you are all so lovely and amazing! don't be shy and let me know what you think of the story so far :)