Keep the rain [CL16]

Chapter 13 - Athena's P.O.V.

No matter how often I travel and how many times I will sleep at a different place, the first night in a new bed will always be uncomfortable.
It was 3 am and I was tossing around in bed, unable to get any sleep.

I was lucky that I got my own bed for tonight and Lewis and Ares were sharing a bed. I wondered if I would have the same luck the next day.

We've rented a huge Villa in Northern Italy for a New Years Eve get-away.
And with huge I mean enormous.
15 bedrooms, amazing kitchen, bar, heated pool, private chef, a boat, a gym and a sauna were just a few things in this villa.
Enough space to house the 10 drivers that would come and their girlfriends and some of their friends. In the end we would be over 30 people for the party, of which 20 are planing on staying at the Villa with us.
Some stay a week, others just a few days.

Since Lewis rented the place, we came here before everybody else.
Lewis, Ares and me drove here yesterday from Switzerland.
We've spent Christmas with our families, Lewis in the UK, Ares and me in Switzerland.

I loved Christmas.
I loved the hot chocolates, Christmas movies, blankets and candles, seeing the joy on peoples faces when they unpack their presents.
It was one of the only holidays my family could actually celebrate, outside of all the racing troubles. It was the holiday my dad always was free to spend with us when we were little and now it's a holiday we can spend relaxed without worrying about racing.
No matter what happened during the racing season, Christmas was always spent laughing and filled with love in my family.

Especially this one. I've been feeling like my fathers pride and joy ever since the end of the season. I didn't win the season but I was damn close to it. And my father showed me how proud of me he was.
I finally felt like all the troubles I went through, all the hate and all the fights with dad were starting to be payed off. I started racing to make my father proud. And I could see that he was.

So after Christmas Lewis flew down to us on the 27th.
And on the 28th Ares, Lewis and me drove down to the villa to get the keys, go grocery shopping and prepare the place for the others that arrived today on the 30th.

Daniel, Heidi, Alex and Lilly traveled together and arrived this morning. Next were Carlos and Isa.
Mick, Max and Kelly, George and Carmen, Lance, Lando all arrived during the day.
Pierre, Charles and Kika, Pierres new girlfriend, were the last ones to arrive today.
Esteban and Yuki would come tomorrow, as well as some friends.

Ace declined our invitation. He said he already had plans but didn't want to tell us what plans.
Over all he was barely at home over Christmas, so we guessed that he met someone. We already teased him about it but he just walked away from me and Ares.

My mind was going a million miles per hour, making lists of the things I still had to prepare for the party tomorrow, what had to be done before the start of the season. I saw the comments beneath the Porsche post, in which they announced that me and Danny are gonna be their drivers for the next season.

The reactions have been surprisingly well. Barely any hate. Barely. There were still some people telling me that I would just fuck up the season and that they wished for me to crash, but over all the reaction has been positive.
Maybe being Vice-World Champion changed how the fans looked at me.

Most of all was I constantly replaying the way Charles looked at me during dinner.
The way we awkwardly greeted each other, neither one of us really knowing how we should treat the other.

We've left things awkward after the gala in London.
We both said that we were sorry for what happened but neither of us reached out in the last few weeks and we didn't talk about it at all.
We just ignored that anything happened at all but we both weren't able to act like it.