malicious | max verstappen

eighteen.

ELYSE's POV

The morning after Max and I kissed on my balcony, I found him and my mother chilling and talking by the pool.

I simply looked the other way, not wanting to face the horrors of the day before, especially not with the raging headache I was dealing with right now. I'm never drinking again.

I headed to the kitchen in hopes of finding anything to eat and ended up eating some cereal. I knew it was too late to be eating breakfast but I didn't have the appetite to have lunch right now.

Loud voices came from the gaming room and as I entered, I was surprised to see Kimi and Seb playing a round of FIFA against each other.

Taking a seat between Carlos and Checo I asked, "Who are you guys betting on?"

"Oh, Seb for sure." Carlos nodded his head confidently. I looked at Checo who said the same thing.

"I'm going for Kimi." I placed a 50 euro bill on the table since it was the only money I had on me for now.

"Hey!" Seb acted offended, as if I betrayed him.

"Sorry, Seb. Kimi for the win." I cheered, making the unusual occurrence of a smile appear on Kimi's face.

In the end, Kimi won and I was 500 euros richer. After that, the guys decided to go for a swim in the ocean and I left them to it, finding the girls who were  having a gossip session in the library/living room.

Apparently, Kimi's wife accidentally spilled that her husband would be retiring from Formula One by the end of this season which made me have a mental breakdown for a couple of minutes. The moment I saw Kimi after they came back from the beach, I clung onto him while crying and saying a bunch of incoherent words. One shared look between his wife and he understood why I was being all dramatic and even hugged me back before patting me on the head and saying it'll all be fine. I'm pretty sure everyone else thought I was a maniac but I couldn't care less.

Kimi was going to retire!— and he just hugged me back, but who am I to fangirl?

Anyhow, it was time most of us drivers started to head to the gym daily. Despite us not having our trainers with us— going to the gym together really boosted our eagerness to beat each other which actually helped us improve generally. My biggest competitor in the gym, other than Lewis and Carlos, was Lando.

If he was running on Speed 4, I'd up my treadmill to Speed 5 and so on. If he was doing a plank for 1 minute, I'd do one for 2. And vice versa. I don't think I've ever been this competitive or eager to work out but beating Lando certainly changed that.

For the remaining two weeks of the summer break, our morning consisted of a wide and united breakfast, then heading the gym, getting back for lunch and some pool or beach time, having dinner and last but not least, movie night or going out. Though, it was usually movie night.

All throughout those two weeks, Max and I had barely talked. Mostly because I've been avoiding him and would run away from him any chance I could. I had no idea how to feel about the whole thing between us— I didn't allow myself to feel anything. The only thing I did feel was so much regret and I hated myself for not stopping us when I had the chance to, especially when he has a girlfriend. Yet, he acted all lovey-dovey around her, even after he cheated on her. It made me mad and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. But I'd like to say that I felt more anger than jealousy.

I knocked on my mom's room door, the thoughts were killing me alive and I wanted nothing more than to sleep.

A brief  'Come in' sounded from behind the doors. I entered the room and immediately plopped myself in her arms as she started to calmly play with my hair. She always did it when I was in distress.