Jules
It was friday morning in Bahrain and today was testing. I already had my race suit on while talking to my engineer.
"We just want to do a few laps." he told me. I nodded put on my baclava and took a deep breath before putting on my helmet.
I did a few laps and was asked to come back in the garage. "What is my time?" I asked. "1' 33.760" he answered. "What's the fastest lap?" I wanted to know. "It's Fernando with a 1'32.305." he told me. I nodded to myself and reassured me that I didn't have to be the best at all times. I couldn't be the best when I was just a rookie.
I drove into the pit and got out of the car. I took my helmet off as soon as I could. While I walked up to my engineer, he gave me a thumbs up. "That was great." he said while patting my back.
I talked with him for a while before walking towards my drivers room. I touched the thirteen on the door before going inside. I did it everytime I walked in, thinking that it would bring good luck. Inside my room I sat down for a while. I knew that at any moment Alice would come in to take me to some interviews. And indeed a few minutes later I heard a knock on my door. I got up and opened the door.
...
Max
I didn't really remember how I got into this situation. After practise Christian wanted to talk to me. He showed me an article that read; 'Lavigne and Verstappen already off on the wrong foot.'
Apparently people heard our conversations. The one's where we clearly weren't friends. He told me to fix it. To go and be nice to her in public. Even though that was the plan since the dinner, it seemed like she was ignoring me ever since. Daniel said that it was just in my head. But I had to fix this, the season barely started and I was already on the front page of some gossip magazines.
So that was why I was walking towards Lavignes drivers room. What was I going to say to her? Did she see the articles too?
I didn't have time for this. I wanted to shower and go to sleep. But I needed to deal with this and I also had interviews to attend.
I knocked at her door. Her name was written on it with her number.
Juliette Lavigne 13
For a second I thought she might've been at an interview but then the door opened. I was greated by a red face with messy hair. Her eyes fell on my face and she frowned confused.
"What are you doing here?" she asked me while opening the door a little more. I tried to smile and make this seem like a normal visit to my friend. "You didn't see the articles?" I wondered. She glared at me while sighing deeply. "No, what articles?" she asked me.
Great, she didn't know.
"Well, there are some things online. About us beeing unfriendly to eachother." I started. "Christian told me to fix it." I followed. "How are you going to do that?" she asked me. I shrugged. "You promised to pretend to be friends, remember?" I pointed out. She nodded slowly. "But you've been ignoring me ever since." I told her. "When did you even try to talk to me?" she shot back. "You walked away every single time I came to join a conversation. Or was that just a coincidence?" I asked her getting quite annoyed. She just rolled her eyes.
"If we keep acting like this we'll be the center off attention, in a bad way." I warned her. "What do you want me to do?" she asked me impatient. That's when I rolled my eyes. "Let's just be overly friendly with eachother in public. Like I tried before." I answered. "I was already beeing as nice to you as I could." she told me. "Whatever. I don't want bad publicity. You're not going to ruin my reputation just because you're to stubborn to even act like we're friends." I said harsh and walked away.
"Wait." she turned me back around by my shoulder. I looked at her hand resting on my shoulder. My breaths suddenly became less controlled. I pushed her hand off and waited just like she asked.
"Don't walk out looking mad. What do you think they'll write about that?" she pointed out. Then she closed the door behind her and started walking out. She looked at me over her shoulder. "Are you coming?" she asked me. I walked up to her quickly and we walked towards the exit of the building together. Without saying a word.
Just before we walked out she tapped her hand against mine. "Say something funny." she whispered. I raised my eyebrows and looked at her. "Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut?" I blurred out. She looked up at me. "No." she said slowly. I swallowed, this joke was so stupid but it was the first thing I could think of.
"He just needed a bit of space." I finished the joke. Lavigne looked at me with big eyes. To my suprise, she cracked a laugh. I felt my stomach flip. Making her laugh was like solving a math problem. I almost felt proud.
"Really?" she said laughing. "That joke is so stupid that it's funny." she told me. I dramatically put my hand on my chest. She just kept smiling while we walked outside.
Around us I saw a few cameras, they were probably dissapointed to see that we weren't fighting. No, we were friends now. Even though I still couldn't stand the way her hair looked so soft and her cheeks were always flushed. I hated it.
...
Jules
During the interviews I couldn't stop thinking about my encounter with Max. I couldn't stop thinking about his red face and his messed up hair falling in front of his eyes.
In every interview they asked me about my relationship with Max. My answer was the same everytime; 'We're friends.'
Eventually Alice and I walked back to my driver room and she looked at me concerned. "Are you alright?" she asked me. "Just tired." I answered while rubbing my eyes. "Are you and Max really friends now?" she wondered. I chuckled. "It's complicated." I told her. She smiled at me. "Please don't do anything stupid. We want you to have a good reputation." she said to me. I nodded. "I've seen the articles and it's not too bad right now. So don't ruin it, instead fix it." she told me.
It was fixed. All those people with a camera that me and Max just walked by will write about us in a good way. They would say that we made up. Then I could just focus on racing. Which was, obviously, the most important part.
That evening I decided to rest. Tomorrow was qualifying and I was already stressed. So when I arived at my hotel I just went straight to bed.
It was already 2 pm when I was staring at the ceiling. I couldn't sleep. I just couldn't. Thousands of questions flew through my head. I grabbed my phone and called Simon.
"What the hell Jules. It's 2 pm." I heard him say through the phone.
"I'm sorry, I just can't sleep."
"I get it, qualifying is stressful. But I know you can do it."
"What if something goes wrong?"
"You've been training for this your whole life. You've won the F2 championship. You're going to kill this."
"You think so?"
"I know so. Besides you're just a rookie, they won't expect you to win every race. They won't even expect you to finish in the points every single race."
"If I don't get any points I'll lose my seat, you know that."
"Alright, but you will score points. Remember in F2, your first race? You placed 9th. Everyone was so proud of you."
"I do remember."
"You can do this, but you need to sleep now."
"I will, thanks Simon."
"No worries Jules, just go to sleep."
"Good night."
"Good night Jules."
I hung up the phone feeling more confident. I took a deep breath and put my head on the pillow again. No worries, I could do this.
...
Nothing really special this chapter, but more interactions :)))
I love the relationship between Jules and Simon.
Don't forget to vote if you like this story :)))
Thanks for reading <333