"I need to talk to you." Charles says firmly, getting up out of his seat and sitting down in front of me. I fiddle about with the buckle on the seat belt, and shift uncomfortably in my seat.
We're on the Ferrari private jet, flying to Saudi Arabia for the next Grand Prix.
"I want to know why I got a phone call from your school, on Wednesday, saying that you punched another student." He states angrily, but keeping his volume down so it doesn't spark any unnecessary attention.
Carlos watches us from across the aisle, I assume to make sure we're ok and that Charles doesn't kill me.
"She deserved it." I whisper, looking down at my lap, not wanting to make eye contact.
"Right, so people deserve to have their faces smashed in do they?" Charles asks, at his normal volume, obviously having minimal patience left.
"I only broke her nose." I state quietly, still not making eye contact.
"That's not the point." Charles states loudly, making the whole plane go silent. I take a sharp breath at Charles' outburst.
"Charles." Carlos states, looking at him slightly shocked, nodding his head towards me. My eyes well up with tears as I try to prevent myself from crying. I don't like it when Charles shouts.
"What could she have possibly done to deserve getting her nose broken?" Charles asks quieter, and everyone resumes their conversations, filling the cabin with noise.
"She told everyone that I was drinking on Tuesday night." I mutter quietly, still not looking at him.
"Well you were. If you didn't want people to find out, you shouldn't have done it." He states, leaning back in his chair, not giving a shit.
I look up at Charles in slight shock at his response, and his eyes are cold. The only emotion in them is anger. I thought he would be more understanding. More tears form in my eyes as I try my best not to cry.
"Fuck off." I state quietly, before abruptly standing up out of my seat and quickly walking down the aisle, towards the toilet.
Charles stands up and follows me, his strides long and his pace fast. Charles' head engineer, stands up out of his seat, blocking my path.
"Move." I say, trying to get around him.
"You don't speak to Charles like that, he deserves your respect." The head engineer states firmly, not letting me past. I barge past him, shoving his chest as I go round, forcing him to lose his balance slightly.
I walk to the cubicles, with Charles still following after me. Luckily, no one is in the cubicles. I go into the toilet and lock the door.
"Emilie." Charles' stern voice sounds through the door. "Get your ass out here now." He adds, still in the same stern, scary voice.
I take deep, shaky breaths trying to compose my breathing. I think I'm having a panic attack. Charles is so scary when he's mad.
"I can unlock this door from the outside. Open it now." His voice says, clearly with little to no patience left.
"Mate." Carlos' voice comes from behind the door, talking to Charles. "Just give her a few minutes to calm down." He adds.
"She doesn't need time to calm down. She needs to listen to me." Charles states angrily, in response to Carlos' statement.
"You need to talk to her like a rational person." Carlos says calmly.
"Emilie, come on." Charles states impatiently, anger still laced in his voice, knocking on the door. "If I would have sworn at my parents when I was younger, I would have gotten a right slap. She needs to learn respect. Obviously her dad never enforced it, so now it's my job. I'm letting her off lightly by just grounding her." He adds, slightly quieter, speaking to Carlos.
"Emilie." He says loudly, banging his hand on the door, making it rattle slightly.
"No, you're going to shout at me." I say quietly, but still loud enough for Charles to hear me on the other side of the door.
"I'm not going to shout at you." He sighs, clearly having enough of all this.
"If you don't unlock this door right now, I'm going to do it myself." He adds firmly, having zero patience left.
"We're about to begin our descent, please take a seat." A flight attendant says kindly to Charles, on the other side of the door.
"Can you open this door from here?" Charles asks her, and the sound of keys can be heard jingling. The lock twists and Charles pulls the door open.
He grabs my upper arm and practically drags me out of the toilet, letting go of my arm once I'm stood in front of him.
"Go and sit down." He states sternly, pointing towards where we were sat before. As I walk down the aisle, Charles close behind me, everyone looks at us. I keep my head down, not wanting to speak to anyone.
Charles sits down opposite me. Every time I glance up at him, he is staring at me. It's like he's watching me to make sure I don't walk off again.
"Please buckle your seat belt." The flight attendant says softly, as she walks over to us. I just sit there, with my arms crossed, not answering anyone.
"Sorry about her." Charles apologises, smiling slightly and looking at the flight attendant. "Emilie, do your seat belt." He adds more firmly, looking back at me.
I ignore him, not even making eye contact. He unbuckles his own seat belt, and leans over so he's closer to me, before grabbing both ends of my seat belt.
"You need to behave." He says, connecting the two ends, buckling my seat belt. He looks away from the buckle, looking at me. I'm still not paying any attention to him.
"Look at me when I speak to you." He states quietly, not wanting to make another scene. When I don't answer him, he firmly grabs my chin, angling my face towards his.
"Look at me when I speak to you." He repeats more sternly, raising his eyebrows slightly. He swiftly pulls the seat belt tight, tighter than what is necessary, and I wince at the sudden restraining belt which is now holding me into the seat.
His grip drops from my chin, and he sits back in his previous position on the chair opposite me, staring me down. He buckles his own seat belt.
"Stop messing with it." He says, as I fiddle with the buckle, trying to loosen it slightly.
"It hurts." I admit quietly, angling the silver buckle slightly, making the black belt slip out. I gently pull the belt, until it's just touching my lower abdomen. Not too tight, not too loose.
•~•~•~•~
"I'm not being sworn at, today. If you do swear at me, your phone is gone for a week, am I clear?" Charles states, searching through his suitcase for something. Him being crouched down, in some cream coloured trousers, with no t-shirt on.
"Am I clear?" He repeats slightly louder, standing up from his previous crouched position, and staring at me when I don't answer.
"Mhm." I hum, nodding my head slowly, keeping my eyes fixated on my phone. I'm laid on Charles' bed, in my comfy clothes, on my phone.
I roll off the bed and stand up, before walking past Charles, and into the bathroom to go to the toilet. A minute later, I walk back out, and see something blue on the bed where I was just sat. My vape.
I quickly walk over to the bed, and pick up my vape before sliding it into my jogging bottoms pocket.
A hand comes over my shoulder, in front of me. I turn around sharply, being met with Charles' now clothed chest.
"Give it." He states firmly, not looking amused what so ever. The Ferrari badge on his red t-shirt being shoved in my face.
"Give what?" I play dumb, knowing it will get me into more trouble. It's better than just handing my vape over though. Hopefully he didn't see what it was.
"That vape." He answers, growing impatient. "I'll take it by force if you don't give it now." He adds, looking down at me, and holding his hand out in front of him.
"What vape? I don't have a vape." I say quickly, not making eye contact with him.
"I'm not going to tell you again." Charles states firmly, looking very pissed off, not wanting to have an argument about this. I sigh exaggeratedly, in slight defeat as I reach into my pocket, pulling out my vape.
"Thank you." He states sarcastically, roughly grabbing it out of my hand and proceeding to slam it down onto one of the cabinets tops.
"I see that again, and you're in a shit ton of trouble, am I clear?" Charles says loudly. I gulp at his outburst and nod my head. "Good." He states.
"Now let's go." He adds, sliding his shoes on and grabbing his jacket. He opens the door and holds it open while I get ready, going on his phone while I do so. I quickly grab the vape off the cabinet, shoving it into my jogging bottoms pocket again.
"You ready?" Charles asks, looking up from his phone. I nod at him and walk towards the door, him sliding his phone into his trouser pocket.
I walk out of the door, Charles grabs his lanyard off the side and follows me out, checking he's got everything. It's a night race tonight, Charles qualified p12, so he's not too happy.
After a short 15 minute drive, we arrive at the circuit. I follow Charles through the turnstiles, trying to keep up with his fast pace.
"Hey kid!" Lando shouts, jogging slightly to catch up with us, then placing his hands on my shoulders. I smile at him, still trying to keep up with Charles' speed.
"Did Charles talk to you about what happened at school?" He asks, as we drop back a bit, trailing further behind Charles.
"Yeah, no thanks to you." I state, not looking at him. He sighs slightly and drops his hands off my shoulders.
"Hey mate." Charles says, noticing Lando behind him, stood next to me. Lando greets him and begins walking next to him, leaving me to walk behind. I think I've upset him.
"You need to do some homework today." Charles says, looking behind himself, at me. I groan and throw my head back in annoyance.
"I'm not doing it." I state, looking at the back of his head while he continues walking. I look at Lando for help to get me out of this, but he just shrugs his shoulders.
"You've got to, Emilie. I'm not arguing with you about this." Charles states, not even glancing at me.
"I hate you." I mutter, looking down at the floor. Charles stops walking and turns around to face me. I almost walk into him. He furrows his eyebrows and nods slightly while biting his bottom lip.
"You're still doing your homework whether you like it or not." He states while taking a long breath.
"I've got to go. I've got a meeting. I'll see you later. Bye Emilie." Lando says before walking down the paddock and going into the McLaren building.
"Listen. You hating me doesn't change the fact that your dad is dead. If I didn't offer to take you in, you'd be in foster care with some random strangers. But you're not. You've got a good life, surrounded by people who love you, no matter how bitchy you are to them." Charles states, stepping closer to me and looking down to meet my eyes.
I take a deep breath and look at him angrily and in slightly shock at the words which just escaped his mouth.
"You didn't just say that." I say quietly before pushing past him and walking in the direction of the Ferrari garage. I don't want to talk to Lando right now and I most certainly do not want to talk to Charles. Max will just take Charles' side no matter what so he's out of the question as well.
I walk into the Ferrari garage, Charles following close behind me. The first person I see is Xavi. This day couldn't get any fucking worse. I really don't like him.
"Log onto the website for your homework. I'll find you some paper." Charles says, pulling his chair out and gesturing for me to sit down on it. I sigh and reluctantly throw myself down into his chair.
I go on his laptop and log into my homework. I hate this, I hate homework. Charles passes me a piece of paper and a pen.
"I'm going to talk to my mechanics. You get on with your homework." He says, tapping the piece of paper in front of me. I slap his hand away and look at him with an angered expression on my face.
He smacks my hand slightly harder and points his finger in my face, staring down at me with anger glinting in his eyes.
I push his arm away and he takes a deep breath before turning round and walking away. Carlos arrives at the garage, walking over to me and sitting down in his chair next to me.
"Hey kid." He says, facing me with a wide smile. I greet him with a small smile, then proceed to get on with my homework.
"What's up your ass?" He laughs, tapping the back of my chair playfully, spinning in his chair to face me.
"Charles, and homework." I state, with slight anger in my voice. Carlos pulls his chair closer to mine, looking over my shoulder at what I have to do as my maths homework.
I write down the first question, and answer it. I'm putting minimal effort in, my writing looking like scribbles on the paper. I type my answer into the computer, pressing the answer button afterwards.
How is it fucking wrong? I hate this fucking maths homework.
"Mate, that one's wrong. Check it again." Carlos says, pointing at my piece of paper after working out my question in his head.
"Just fuck off! I don't need your help!" I shout at him, throwing my pen down on the desk and standing up off my chair.
"Hey!" Carlos says, raising his voice and standing up off his chair, him now towering over me. "Calm down." He adds slightly quieter.
Luckily, Charles has just left the garage to warm up for the race with his personal trainer.
"I'll do this shit later." I state, pointing at the computer and walking out of the garage, with all eyes on me.
"Emilie." Xavi calls after me, trying to get my attention. I turn to face him, sticking my middle fingers up while walking backwards. My back hits a hard chest and two large hands come over my shoulders, covering my fingers, preventing me from swearing anymore.
I quickly spin around, being met with the chest of Charles' chief mechanic.
"Less of that." He states, gesturing towards my hands, a stern look on his face. I barge past him slightly, walking away from him.
I walk over to a quiet corner next to the McLaren paddock building, and get the vape out of my pocket. A few mechanics from various teams wander past, but none even look in my direction.
"Yeah mate. I think we've definitely got a chance this year." I hear Lando's voice from around the corner. He walks past me, our eyes meeting, him being trailed by Oscar. I quickly stuff the vape into my jacket pocket, hoping he didn't see anything.
He furrows his eyebrows as his eyes travel to my pocket.
"Why aren't you in the Ferrari garage? Charles told me you weren't allowed to leave the pit lane." He says, stopping in his tracks and walking closer to me. I shrug my shoulders, trying to avoid eye contact.
"Give it." Lando states, holding his hand out in front of him. I pretend to look confused.
"Come on. Hand it over. Now." He instructs more firmly, taking a step closer so I have to look up to meet his eyes. I stay silent, hoping he will just give up.
"Emilie." He says, his voice now full of anger and authority, making me feel the slightest bit intimidated. I contemplate wether or not I should do as he says or to pretend I've got no clue what he's talking about.
"I swear to god I will get Max and Charles." He threatens, pointing his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing towards the paddock behind him.
"Don't." I say, looking up at him and sighing slightly.
"Then give me what ever it was that you just put in your pocket." He states, pointing at the right hand pocket of my Ferrari jacket. I shake my head.
"Is it stolen?" He asks, raising his eyebrows slightly and looking down at me with a stern expression on his face.
"No." I state, furrowing my eyebrows and continuing to look up at him.
"Give it to me, then." He says, a scary look now plastered across his face. I reach into my pocket and pull out the vape, handing it to him.
"See. It wasn't that hard." He says, examining it before sliding it into his trouser pocket. "I'll give this to Charles and he can decide what to do with it."