"Am I going to have to tell you every night to take your shoes off the bed?" Charles says, laughing slightly, as he walks out the bathroom of our hotel room.
"We're going out in a minute anyway." I say, shrugging my shoulders and sitting up on my bed. Charles is making me go to a dinner with him and Max. I told him I could just stay at the hotel, and I'd be fine, but he insisted I came.
I stand up off my bed, and look at myself in the mirror. Apparently I have to wear a dress.
"I look like an idiot." I say, looking at Charles, who is stood behind me, fixing his shirt collar in the mirror. He's got the top two buttons undone.
"We're going to a fancy restaurant, Emilie. You can't wear jeans and a hoodie." Charles says, sitting down on the edge of his bed and pulling his shoes on.
"You should be glad I'm letting you wear trainers." He adds, looking at my shoes.
"I'm not wearing stupid school shoes. They look ridiculous. I don't like this dress either. I just want to wear jeans." I say, whining slightly.
"Well I'm not letting you leave this hotel room in jeans, so that's not an option. Go brush your teeth." Charles says, tying his shoelaces.
"But I'm just going to eat anyway. Why do I need to brush my teeth?" I say, plonking myself back down on the bed.
"Because it's polite. Just do it." Charles says, sighing slightly.
"I'm only going to see Max, he doesn't care." I say, furrowing my eyebrows slightly.
"Brush your teeth." Charles says, slightly louder and a lot firmer.
"Ok, alright. I'm doing it." I say, before standing up off the bed, and slowly walking into to bathroom. I pick up my toothbrush, and reach for my toothpaste, but there's nothing in it.
"Charles, my toothpaste has ran out." I say, and he walks into the bathroom.
"Use mine." He says, passing me his toothpaste. He picks mine up, and tries squeezing a bit more out, but nothing comes. He throws it in the bin, and walks back into the main bit with the beds.
"This is so minty." I say, closing my eyes, as the toothpaste hits my tongue.
"All toothpaste is minty, what on earth was yours?" Charles says, slightly confused.
"Strawberry flavoured." I say, shrugging my shoulders slightly.
"Strawberry flavoured?" Charles repeats, in disbelief.
"It tastes good, alright? Unlike this." I say, pressing the button on my electric toothbrush and brushing my teeth.
Once I'm finished, I walk out of the bathroom and Charles sprays some cologne on his neck.
"That smells so bad." I say, coughing slightly.
"Stop being dramatic, it's not that strong." Charles says, laughing slightly.
"It fucking is." I respond, laughing.
"Hey, no swearing. If you swear while we're out with Max, I'm taking your phone away." Charles threatens, pointing at me.
"Sorry." I say quietly, looking down at the floor. I glance at myself in the mirror one last time.
"Please can I change?" I beg slightly, looking up at him.
"Fine. But put some smart jeans and a nice T-shirt on." Charles says, rummaging through the draw which he put my jeans in. He grabs a nice pair of baggy jeans, and throws them on the bed.
I grab a T-shirt out of another draw and quickly throw my outfit on. I grab my nicest jacket.
"Come on then. We're already late." Charles says, ushering me towards the door, and walking out behind me, shutting the door after him.
I walk down the corridor, and Charles follows me, adjusting his suit jacket so it's more comfortable on his neck.
"You smell so bad." I say, laughing slightly, as we stop to wait for the elevator. He shakes his head and laughs.
We get in the elevator, and go down to the bottom floor.
The doors to the elevator open, and we walk out to the car park, and get into one of the Black MercedesBenz cars from when we travelled from the airport to here.
Charles gets into the driver seat and I get into the passenger seat. After a short 5 minute drive to the restaurant, we arrive.
I get out of the car, and follow Charles into the restaurant. There is a big group of people with cameras and microphones, all stood in the doorway.
I grab Charles' hand tightly, making sure I don't get separated from him, and he walks straight through the group of people, not stopping.
We spot Max sat in a booth, at the far side of the restaurant, away from anyone with a camera. We walk over to him, and sit down. I go into the booth first, sliding along to the end, and Charles goes on the edge.
"Menu." Charles says, handing me a sheet of paper. I read it.
"There's like two things on this menu. Don't they do chicken nuggets?" I ask him, placing the menu down on the table.
"No, they don't do chicken nuggets." Charles says, glancing over at me.
"But I don't want any of this stuff." I whine slightly, furrowing my eyebrows. Charles sighs.
"Decide or I'm picking for you." He states, tapping the menu which is on the table.
"I don't want that fancy food." I repeat, slightly louder and slower, making sure he hears me.
"I heard you the first time, you don't need to speak to me like that." Charles says, looking down at his menu.
"Well obviously I do because you're not listening to me." I whisper, putting my elbow on the table, and leaning my head on my hand.
"If you're not going to pick, I'm getting you a steak." He says, looking down at me.
"Whatever. I'm not eating it anyway." I say quietly, shrugging my shoulders slightly.
"Yes you are." He states, raising his eyebrows at me.
"No I'm not." I insist, crossing my arms in front of me, putting them on the table, and laying my head in my arms.
"Fine, don't eat anything. But I'm not buying you any more food later when you decide you're hungry." Charles says, pretty much giving up with arguing against me.
"Ok." I say, not caring. Deep down I do care, but I'm not going to show it. The waiter comes to our table, and Max and Charles order the food, Charles ordering for me.
The waiter brings our drinks, and half an hour later, the food arrives.
Charles places my plate in front of me. It has a massive steak on it, and a small portion of chips to the side.
I just stare at the food, not wanting to eat anyway, never mind eat a giant steak. I need to loose weight as it is, I don't need more food.
"Eat." Max says, pointing his fork at my plate, and digging into his food. I shake my head at him, not making eye contact.
"Come on kid, eat some food." Charles says, looking at me.
"I've told you I don't want to eat anything." I state, looking up at him.
"You've got to eat." He says, looking at me slightly worried. Max looks at me, with the same expression on his face.
"Charles! I don't want to!" I snap at him, attracting loads of attention.
"Hey! You don't speak to Charles like that." Max scolds, pointing his finger at me and raising his eyebrows.
"It's alright." Charles says quietly to Max. "How about, you only eat what you want, then I'll finish it for you?" He adds, compromising with me.
"But I don't want any of it." I say quietly.
I move all the way to the end of the booth, and lean my back on the wall, bringing my feet up and putting them on the seat next to me, between me and Charles.
"Feet down, come on." Charles says, tapping my ankle. I ignore him and grab my phone out of my jacket pocket.
"Emilie, feet down." He repeats, and Max looks over at me. I ignore him again, and go on my phone.
Charles grabs my phone out of my hand, sliding it into his trouser pocket, without saying a word.
"What the fuck?" I say, looking at him, holding my arms out to the side. Charles engages in conversation with Max, not answering me, no matter how much I try to get him to speak to me.
"Fucking ignore me then." I say quietly, leaning my head on the wall behind me, my feet still up on the seat.
I just sit there, occasionally eating a few chips and picking at the skin around my thumb. I do that when I'm either bored, nervous or scared.
Max glances over at me every so often, I presume to make sure I'm eating, even though I told them I wasn't going to.
Each time he sees me pick a chip or two up, he looks somewhat relieved.
"Are you eating that?" Max asks, pointing to the massive steak in front of me. I shake my head, and push my plate towards him. He grabs it and starts eating my steak, sharing with Charles.
~•~•~•~•~•
"We're going to be so late!" Charles says, walking out of the bathroom, visibly stressed, while trying to pull on his T-shirt.
"Why aren't you dressed?" He exclaims, after getting his T-shirt on, and seeing me sat on my bed, in my pyjamas, playing on my phone.
"We've got plenty of time." I say, not taking my eyes off my phone.
"We were supposed to leave five minutes ago!" He says, staring at me. "Plus I never gave you that back!" He adds, snatching my phone out of my hands.
"What the fuck?" I shout at him, as he slides my phone into his trouser pocket.
"Get dressed." He states, pointing his finger at me.
"Emilie, I don't want to have to tell you again." He adds, when I don't move. I sigh before standing up off my bed and slowly walking over to my drawers.
I get out the jeans and T-shirt I wore yesterday, when we went out for dinner with Max.
"You wore that yesterday." Charles states, picking up his phone and wallet off the counter, and sliding them into his pocket.
"These are my favourite jeans. I'm wearing them again." I say, picking up my clothes and walking into the bathroom to get changed.
"That's disgusting. Put something else on." He says, staring at me.
"But-" I begin before being cut off.
"You know what, I don't care anymore. Put whatever on. We've got to go." He says, shaking his head slightly, looking very angry and stressed.
I change into my clothes, and walk out of the bathroom.
"Have you brushed your teeth?" Charles asks, as I walk out of the bathroom, carrying my pyjamas.
I just look at him.
"That's a no. Brush your teeth." He states firmly, pointing back into the bathroom. I throw my pyjamas at him, and he catches them, before folding them up and placing them on the end of my bed.
I groan and walk back into the bathroom, and brush my teeth.
"That wasn't two minutes." He states as I walk back out of the bathroom.
"It's better than nothing." I say, shrugging my shoulders, and picking up my AirPods off the bedside table.
"Whatever, let's just go." Charles says, ushering me towards the door. I walk out of the room, and Charles follows me after grabbing his warm Ferrari coat.
"You're not going to need those AirPods. You've got no phone to connect them to." Charles says, as he walks quickly down the corridor. I have to jog slightly to keep up with him.
"Whatever." I say, sighing slightly.
"Fuck, I've left the passes in the room." Charles mutters, tapping his all his pockets, trying to find the paddock passes needed to enter the race track.
I sigh and we turn around, before walking back towards the hotel room. Charles unlocks the door, and walks in. I grab the door before it slams shut, and walk in.
I see my red Ferrari hoodie on the back of the desk chair. I pick it up, before walking out of the room again. Charles picks up the passes and follows me out of the door.
We go down in the elevator, and walk out the exit to the hotel. We get into one of the black MercedesBenz, and Charles starts driving.
"Jesus Christ! You just ran that red light!" I shout as he speeds through some traffic lights, driving well over the speed limit.
He ignores me, and focuses on driving. He weaves in and out of traffic, but still safely enough that we're not going to crash and die.
He approaches the entrance to the race track, and slows down majorly. We pull into the driver's car park and Charles parks the car in an empty space.
We get out of the car and walk towards the turnstiles. Charles taps the pass on the scanner, but it doesn't beep to say it's approved. He tries it again, still no beep.
"For fuck sake. I can't deal with this today." He mutters, before trying to scan the other card. It approves. "Go through." He states, ushering me forward.
I walk through the turnstiles, and Charles tries the first card again. It still doesn't work. He looks at it.
"Fucking Saturday. That's why it won't work." He says, staring at me. "Did you fuck about with these? They were in piles." He adds, pointing at me.
"I didn't touch them!" I shout at him defensively, holding my arms out to the side.
He jumps over the turnstile, acting like nothing happened when he gets to the side I'm on.
"Conference room, go." Charles says, tapping my back, and nodding in the direction of the conference room.
"We are 20 minutes late. Run." He adds, when I start walking slowly.
"Can't I just go to the garage and I'll see you there after the meeting?" I ask, whining slightly.
"No. Move quicker." He states, practically pushing me along.
"If you don't want to be here, I can get one of my engineers to take you back to the hotel." Charles says, when he notices my efforts to not walk any quicker.
"No, I do want to be here. I just don't want to run. It's too early." I complain, now being pulled along by Charles.
"It's two o'clock in the afternoon." Charles says, raising his eyebrows at me. I sigh.
"Alright, whatever. Go wherever you want. I'll send Max to find you after the conference meeting. I expect you to behave. Do not leave the track grounds." He says, while walking away.
"Ok." I say, before he smiles at me briefly and begins running in the direction of the conference room.
I slide my hoodie on, over my head. It's so big, I don't remember it being this big. It feels like something Charles would wear.
I pull the neck up and smell it. Cologne. It's definitely Charles' jumper. I shrug it off and walk towards the Ferrari garage. His hoodie is like a dress on me.
~•~•~•~•~•
"Oh no, no, no. Come on. No power. I'm sorry guys." Charles' voice comes through the radio.
"Fuck." I mutter, throwing my head back.
"It's alright Charles. Just get out of the car, get to safety away from the track." Xavi says through the radio.
"Yeah, ok mate." Charles says, sounding really sad.
The cameras show him pulling himself out of his car after placing his steering wheel on the front of the car.
He jumps out onto the ground, gripping the opening of his helmet.
"Walk back to the pits, mate." Xavi says, earning acknowledgment from Charles.
He walks back towards the pits, once everyone has passed in their cars.
I walk out of the Ferrari garage and see Charles walking angrily in this direction.
"Are you ok?" I ask him, as he walks towards me.
"Not now Emilie." Charles says, shaking his head slightly, and walking straight past me. I sigh and watch him walk into the garage before shouting at Xavi.
Charles sits down on a chair, and holds his helmeted-head in his hands. I sit down on the chair I was sat on a few minutes prior.
I feel bad for Charles, it's not even his fault his car failed on him. It's so stupid. I blame Ferrari and the engineers who made it.
Charles looks over at me, and takes his helmet off, furrowing his eyebrows slightly and smiling. He stands up and walks over to me.
"Is that my jumper?" He asks while laughing slightly. He's got tears in his eyes.
"Yeah, I picked the wrong one up." I respond, laughing.
"I spoke to the headteacher at the local school back at home. He said you can start on Tuesday. It's a good school." Charles says, smiling slightly.
"I don't want to go to school though." I say, whining slightly.
"You're going." He states, raising his eyebrows at me.