♡●♡●♡
"My flight is tomorrow 2 pm, so I will be at Maman's home in the evening. He will be back from school then." Says Lorenzo and puts his laptop away.
"I just don't understand it." Says Charles who is still sitting in the same spot.
"Me neither."
"How did he turn around ao quickly. How- How did we miss this? We weren't even away one day, and he pushed all his anger out on Maman and then calls us to ask for help. Now I do understand that, he knows he fucked up. He's the one that needs help, and we need to protect Maman before he loses his mind and I don't even want to think what can happen then." Says Charles.
"You know how much it hurts that we need to talk like that about Arthur. The little boy we left that was so happy, energetic, laughed through life and solved everything with a hug. That is our Tutur." Says Lorenzo.
"And now he's grown up." Says Charles
It hurts him. In recent days he had been eating himself away at how they left Arthur behind and how they had pushed him aside. That he couldn't be the big brother to Arthur like he wanted, like Lorenzo was for him.
Arthur would never have the same experience he had with Lorenzo.
"After the race I will fly back, and we are going to talk with him. If he doesn't stop this bullshit then we will arrange for him to go to rehab for his alcohol disorder." Says Charles.
"Don't be so dramatic. Maybe this wasn't his intention at all." Says Lorenzo.
"Getting drunk in a weekend twice can be a bit much no. Especially when you have school." Says Charles.
"He's a teenager."
"That is bringing trouble. First he came back home with a head wound and now this." Says Charles.
"Head wound came from his friends."
"Who had drunk alcohol." Says Charles and Lorenzo sighs.
"You sound like mama now. Stop judging him for everything before we know what happened." Says Lorenzo
"Maybe it is Maman who was right all along, and we believed Arthur."
"No, mama herself told us that she did leave a lot with friends when Arthur was younger. He had a hard time in school and no one was there for him, Maman thought he was being trouble in school when people got him in trouble. "
"You know how much this situation is confusing me. What the hell happened in all the last few years and right now? From Sunday on, Arthur was no longer himself after he talked with Maman."
"Something happened to him after that conversation and it wasn't good. How we thought It would help them made everything worse."
"You need to talk to him, privately." Says Charles.
"Don't know if that is going to happen. He's probably going to be pissed when he sees me there tomorrow." Says Lorenzo.
"Then that is his problem. No matter what happens, we need to protect Maman from him, and we do that by talking. Getting to know what is going on inside his head." Says Charles, and Lorenzo nods.
"I will speak with him. Maybe not tomorrow if his mood is bad, but one of these up coming days." Says Lorenzo and Charles nods.
"Good." Says Charkes and he lies down.
"I hope everything is okay with Maman." He says and Lorenzo keeps looking at him.
"He didn't hit her with the glass."
"Imagine, then I would go over there right now and drag him around the house." Says Charles angry.
"I can't imagine him doing that." Says Lorenzo.
"I don't even know who he is anymore. We have no idea what he has to do." Says Charles.
“True.” Whispers Lorenzo.
"We have to remember one thing, he's not that little boy anymore that we know. We have no idea who this version of Arthur is and if this is how he is, then I want nothing to do with him anymore." Says Charles.
♡●♡●♡
Lorenzo has arrived in Monaco after his flight from Barcelona. Yesterday, they tried calling Arthur a few times, but the younger man didn't pick up.
Maman knows that he is coming today and will come home soon. She said Arthur will be at school again until 4 o'clock, so when he arrives Arthur arrived back.
He will pick up his mother at her friends house, and then they go to their home. Maman hadn't had any contact with Arthur after Monday and neither did Arthur try to contact her.
Lorenzo will lie if he says he isn't nervous. He has no idea how Arthur will react when he arrives with Maman. Maybe he doesn't even know what he did anymore because of how much he had drunk.
Will he be mad? Emotional? Maybe he does know and feels bad. That can be an option too. He will see how Arthur will react. Lorenzo can think a lot but he has no idea.
After he landed, he drove to his mother to pick her up. She's with a friend who she grew up with. They became best friends in their teenage years, and it stayed like that.
It's funny that they got both pregnant around the same time, 2 months off from each other. Maman and his dad broke up not long after that, and later she found Hervé, and Lorenzo couldn't ask for a better stepdad than he got. Maman's friend was always there for her, even now. When she needs her, she is at the door in a few minutes.
He steps out and rings the doorbell. Soon Maman opens the door and Lorenzo looks at her, and then she is already in his arms. Lorenzo puts his arms around her and keeps her close.
"I'm here." He says and hears her sob softly.
"What do I need to do, Lo." She asks and gets out of the hug. She dabs away the tears with the sleeves of her shirt.
"We will talk to him, and we will find a solution together." Says Lorenzo and Maman nods.
"Do you want something to drink before you go?" Asks Anna and Lorenzo nods.
"A coke for me, please." He says and sits down on the sofa when he arrives in the living room.
“About Arthur, does he drink a lot?” Asks Lorenzo and Maman shrugs.
"When he goes out with friends, I think. But at home, I don't often see him with beer or any other kind of alcohol in his hands. I have never seen him drunk like that." She says and Lorenzo nods.
"I asked because he also came home drunk on Saturday." Says Lorenzo and Maman nods.
"His wound still look nasty. He should really let that checked out with a doctor." She says.
"Did you say that to him?"
"No, I didn't have the time for that. And he does whatever he wants, so it doesn't matter if I say something." Says Maman.
"What happened? After Sunday he changed."
"He was the Arthur that I saw in the last few years." She says.
"He wasn't horrible. He was just sad and closed off." Says Lorenzo
"I hate that he made me feel bad and then with what happened on Monday is something I will never forgive him." Says Maman.
"I'm not asking you. I just don't understand how this all happened." Says Lorenzo
"Me neither. He made us all feel bad, like we treated him badly, but it is not all my fault, Lorenzo." Says Maman and Lorenzo shook his head.
"No it's not. We need to find a way to help him. Hurting family is way too far." Says Lorenzo and he looks at his mother.
She doesn't look at him, just at the ground and table. Her hands are slightly shaking, and she is biting her nails, something she does when she is nervous.
"It will be okay, alright? I won't let him get mad at you. And if he does, then we need to find a way to fix him. If he act like that with alcohol, then maybe we should put him in an addiction clinic. Maybe that will help."
"He will never allow that."
"Or I will take him with me." He says and she looks up.
"What?"
"Maybe that will fix something. Spending time with me and Charles. Letting him see the world and some positivity. He needs that because I didn't see him smile a lot this weekend." Says Lorenzo.
"He will never go with you. Plus he has his studies, so no he won't go."
"Maybe he can follow it online."
"Lorenzo, no." She says.
“What? Maman that will give you some peace, and he will be away from all this. It can help! Why didn't we think about that sooner?” Says Lorenzo really happy with this idea.
It can help. Maybe you never know for sure, but being away from this situation that he is in now can help.
He needs to talk with Charles about this.
“He won't do it.” Says Maman
"We can ask him."
"Lorenzo, no."
"Why not, Maman?" Asks Lorenzo surprises.
He thought that his mother would be happy if they took Arthur with them, so she could spend some time by herself without worrying about Arthur.
"You can't just take him away from me like that." She says and now Lorenzo is even more surprised.
"What? I thought you wanted some space from him?" Lorenzo asks and he signs.
"It's still my little boy, Lorenzo." She says and Lorenzo nods.
"I understand, but maybe it will fix things between you two. And you know how much Arthur loves motorsport, so maybe this will do him good."
"And then lose him too to this motorsport world? I already see you and Charles so little in a year. If he leaves then I'm here alone." Maman says and Lorenzo's eyes widen a bit.
"I had no idea you felt like that." He says and she sighs.
"Don't get me wrong, I love that you two have this wonderful job. I see how happy it makes you two, and I will never stand in your way, you know that. But the only person I still have in this house is Arthur."
"And yet you are away a lot, and he's there in the house alone."
"Yes, because he's been a lot lately, not for the past years. But knowing I still have someone home that I can spend time with keeps me in peace." She says.
"And if he's going away? He will be 20 in a few months. You can't expect him to still be here."
"But he still is studying until January." She says and Lorenzo nods.
"And then he has his diploma in his pocket and he can start working in the motorsport world. You do know that right?" Lorenzo asks and she nods.
"I know that." She says and Lorenzo nods again.
"Then why is it a problem if he goes with me and Charles. You know he will be safe with us rather than he leaves on his own." Says Lorenzo.
"I'm not ready." She says.
"But maybe it will be good for him. Think about that." Says Lorenzo and she nods.
"Shall we go to him?" Asks Lorenzo after he finished his drink and she nods.
"Let's go." She says.
♡●♡●♡
Alice grabs his wrist and pulls him to two tables, letting him go to sit down.
"Before you run from me again." She says
"I didn't run." Says Arthur.
"Don't lie to me." She says with a big grin on her face.
"I didn't." With a smile
"Arthur, you are such a bad liar." She cuckles.
"When I wanted to talk with you this morning, you turned around and walked into the toilet. And then you didn't sit with me in the class. Which you don't have to, of course, but I really hope you know that it is okay to sit next to me. You don't have to sit alone."
"Okay, I will remember for the next time." Arthur says and she smiles.
"Good, because fuck what other people are saying. I don't care about their lies." She says and with her index finger she turns in a circle as a sign to the people around them.
"You know me for three days now." Says Arthur.
"And yet I trust you more than the other assholes here."
“Shh.” Arthur lets out a cuckle when they got looks.
"I don't care, Arthur." Says Alice
"And yet you need to be carefull." Arthur says, and she signs and her face went from a laugh to pity.
"Why do you let them control you?" She asks and Arthur frowns.
"What do you mean?" He asks, and she lays her hand on his arm.
"You keep your distance from me because every time we sit together one of them says something about it. I can't find you when we have lunch break, and you keep yourself calm and quiet. You stop laughing or joking when you notice that other people are watching. Why do you stop yourself when you're having fun?" Alice asks.
He never looked at it like that. Did he really do all that? Did he really stop himself from not getting the attention?
He tells himself that he doesn't care what they say or think. That their action doesn't mean anything to him. They can beat the shit out of him, and he will still be freed from them in January.
So no he didn't care, he let them do it, and sometimes he had the nerves to talk back, he can do that. It's not like he's scared of them, but he doesn't want problems also, so that is sometimes difficult.
"Hey." Alice grabs his hand and Arthur looks at it.
"Sorry." She takes her hand back and Arthur shrugs.
"No worries." Arthur says, he knows it's a shit answer but he didn't know what to answer.
"I'm not scared of them." Says Arthur and she leans her head on her hand that is leaning with her elbow against the table, and she looks at him with eyes that Arthur can't place.
“Did they do this?” She asks and runs her thumb over the wound near his eyebrow and Arthur pulls his head away with slight pain when she touches it.
"No." He says, and she widens her eyes and stares at him with this look.
"Don't lie." She says and Arthur rolls his eyes.
"I went out with friends and I fell." Says Arthur.
"You sure?" She asks and Arthur nods.
“Hmm.” He hums, and he sees how her eyes went behind him.
"He said something in the lines of beating you up again, when we were back in the hallway."
"They didn't."
"Arthur, I heard Nathan saying something in those lines. Did they do this to you? Do they really get violent with you?" Asks Alice and Arthur looks at his side where he hears Nathan and Lias laughing together.
Is it so obvious?
Is there any point in lying to Alice? She already knows even when he denies.
“They did, right?'' She asks and Arthur only has to look at her, and she nods in understanding.
"Assholes. Oh my god, they make me so mad." She says and Arthur shrugs.
"8 months." He says.
"You say that every time, but that is still a long way to go, Art. They ruin Uni experience for you!" She says
"Shh, they don't have to hear you."
"Arthur this goes deeper than I thought." She says and Arthur shook his head.
"No, it doesn't. Yes, they are not friends, and they are not very nice to me, but I'm used to it by now. It has always been this way, no matter what school I went to, after my dad died, I was a kid without a father, how fun is it to pick on him." Arthur says.
"That isn't."
"But it is still what happened, and to be honest, Alice. You get used to it. Nobody likes me and I don't even try to make friends sometimes because they will leave eventually. And then they want to know if I'm the brother of Charles Leclerc, because that is what they all care about, not about me." Says Arthur.
"But I'm here, and I'm your friend. For you, and only you." says Alice, and Arthur looks up surprised.
“Yeah?'' It came out quietly out of his mouth and to be honest, he hates the pity look that he got from her.
"Yes, you're my friend and I can't wait to make this a fun year for the two of us." She says and Arthur smiles.
He made a friend.
♡●♡●♡
The moment he steps off his bike and sees how two extra cars, that he knows very well, are in the parking lot. He knows that all he wants is to step on his bike again and cycle away.
What is Lorenzo's car doing here? Maman he can expect, but Lorenzo is in Spain, right?
He drives around to the shed and places his bike in it before walking to his back door.
He sees them sitting there, Maman and Lorenzo on the couch with drinks in their hands.
They have seen him, they both look at him and Arthur swallows before he opens the door and steps inside.
"Hello." Says Arthur confused. He immediately walks towards the living room and takes off his jacket and puts it over the chair. He didn't take the time to hang his coat on the coat rack. Something is right about this and Arthur certainly doesn't trust the look on his mother's face.
"We need to talk." Says Lorenzo.
~~~
Better late then never, Sorry!
This race weekend felt so weird.
I was looking for Arthur as habit everytime in F2 and he wasn't there, made me so sad.
I'm loving his twitch live streams tho!
And with F1, i'm happy Max won again but what had lots of drivers problems with their cara like holy shit. Hiw Charles kept it out of the wall, I wonder how Lewis his back is and Daniel with his car problems and still drove back to the field. I have an opinion too about what happend between Yuki and Daniel but if I share then I get a lot of hate from Yuki fans probably :)