malicious | max verstappen

nineteen.

MAX's POV

I didn't know what I was thinking when I kissed Elyse that night on her balcony. It didn't help that she was purposefully avoiding me ever since then.

The bigger surprise was the day Kelly showed me a picture she snapped of the two of us that night. I brushed her off telling her, "It's all part of the plan, she's got nothing on you." With a kiss, silencing her.

Though, considering how my body reacts whenever I recalled the details of that kiss, all the signs begged to differ.

The day after I was hanging out with her mom, she kept telling me stories of Elyse during her childhood. Many of which Carlos was in, which made me feel a twinge of jealousy— though I pushed it away, knowing they were no more than friends. It was stupid to even feel jealous.

I had a loving girlfriend who was willing to put up with my bullshit. But I had to admit, for some reason, everything in Kelly and I's relationship was starting to feel rather suffocating than loving. Our relationship had started to strain ever since the whole thing with Elyse started. That was why we were staying in separate rooms when we first got here, but after we supposedly made up, we decided to stay in the same room.

However, with Elyse, she was like the tide of the ocean pulling me towards her no matter how hard I tried to get away. But with Kelly, she was the seaweed that wrapped around my legs with a strangling grip, dragging me underneath the surface of the water making it harder for me to catch my breath.

The whole time Elyse has been ignoring me for was rather unpleasant. I wanted nothing more than making up with her, even if it meant doing the things she enjoyed, then so be it.

With all that in mind, I preferred to enjoy the moments as they are and face my problems as the summer joy faded and we were back to reality.

ELYSE's POV

The whole house was getting ready for an outing to celebrate my mother's birthday. Our birthdays were just a week apart. And despite her continuous pleads of not making her a crazy birthday, we settled on going out and making her enjoy her 40th birthday.

As I was adding some finishing touches to my makeup, two knocks on my door interrupted my getting ready and begrudgingly got up to answer.

I was ready to immediately shut the door once I found Max at the door with a small box in his hands. The only thing that stopped me from closing the door was the unusual pleading look on his face.

"Max. What are you doing here?" I asked him, politely.

"I wanted to give you this," he handed me the box, "an apology gift."

I held the box in my hands, unsure if I should open it.

"Why do you think you need to apologize?" I asked him.

"Because I kissed you?" he replied, in a questioning tone. "You've been avoiding me ever since."

"Oh— I've just been busy preparing for my mom's birthday, that's all." I lied, playing with the strings of the ribbon on the box.

"Yeah, but you still made time for Carlos and Lewis and like, everyone other than me." He pointed out and that's when I knew I was busted.

I sighed, opening the door wider as an invitation for him to get inside. I really didn't want to have anyone eavesdropping on us. I put the box on my vanity.

"Fine, I was avoiding you." I admitted, "But you kissed me when you have a girlfriend!"

"I know it sounds bad—"

"It is bad, Max. I can barely sleep every night because of the guilt." I told him, dying for him to understand, "I don't know how you can continue acting like everything's okay with her."