malicious | max verstappen

twenty two.

ELYSE's POV

I was sitting in the hotel's roof top. My thoughts were getting the best of me and I couldn't sleep. Tomorrow would be race day and I needed to get some rest to sleep off any pain from today to be ready for tomorrow. But I just couldn't.

Pressing on my mother's contact, it rung twice before it was picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, sweetheart. It's Monica." Carlos' mom answered.

"Oh, hi, Moni. How are you and Mama doing?" I asked her.

"I'm doing fine, your mom is sleeping now. The doctors gave her a strong medicine." She explained and I nodded my head. "But how are you doing after today? We were so scared."

I chuckled, "I'm okay. You didn't need to worry. I do need to sleep but I can't."

"Oh, no. Is it because of the pain?" She asked, a worried tone in her voice.

"No, no. Nothing like that, I'm feeling perfect. I just can't fall asleep, I'm sure I'll be gone in a few minutes." I lied since I didn't want to worry her.

"Okay, well if you need anything you can call me. I'm always available. And you have Carlos too."

"Of course, Moni. Goodnight, I love you." We bid our goodbyes and I was back into a drilling silence.

Usually, I loved silence. Just sitting alone with no interruptions and the whistles of the wind were enough to make me relax. However that wasn't the case now, the silence allowed my thoughts to be as loud as they want. I didn't want to think. I wanted to relax. I needed to relax.

I mindlessly scrolled through my contact list until my finger landed on Max's contact. I contemplated whether I should call him or not. I checked Whatsapp and found him online despite it being 3AM and most drivers are asleep by now. I have no idea what was going on inside my brain but something made me do the stupid decision of calling him. At 3 in the morning. With a race first thing in the morning.

One beep and he accepted the call. There was a bunch of ruffling before he spoke up, "Elyse?"

He sounded tired and it was as if all the words in my vocabulary had vanished and I lost my ability to speak.

"Ellie? Are you there?" There was more ruffling.

"I— um. Sorry, I'll close I don't know why I called you—"

"Where are you?"

"Uhm, the rooftop." I gulped nervously and suddenly the call ended. My stomach started a hurricane and I was hit with immense regret.

As I steadied myself, the large door that lead to the empty rooftop opened and Max was here. He was wearing grey shorts and a wrinkled white shirt. Searching worriedly around the place until he spotted me and sighed with relief.

I was sitting on a beanbag so he took another one and pulled it beside me, viewing the city's skyline with me.

"Are you okay?" He asked me sincerely.

I simply nodded, not wanting to give in so easily like I usually do.

He turned to me, reaching out for my hand, "Ellie? C'mon what's wrong?"

I pulled my hand away, brushing through my hair instead. "Nothing, Max. I just couldn't sleep. I'm sorry I woke you up."

"I wasn't sleeping and you could call me at any time and I'd still pick up."

I couldn't help the smile that escaped. "That's sweet, thanks."

He returned the smile before repeating, "Now what's the matter?"