Drive to Survive

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

A persistent banging in Dylan's head woke her up the next morning and she groaned as she came to, the light filtering onto her face from the window she forgot to close. As she opened her eyes and stretched, she realised the banging had not ceased and it wasn't inside her head at all.

"Dylan!"

Someone was hammering on the door, quite incessantly. Swinging her legs out from underneath the duvet, Dylan pulled herself to her feet and traipsed over to the door, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

The person was still knocking hard and as she unlocked the door and pulled it open, she jolted in surprise, "Tía! What are you doing here?"

Reyes bustled past her niece into the hotel room, shaking her head slightly at the state of it. It was still trashed from where Dylan had got ready and she definitely hadn't made a move to tidy it up last night.

Dylan watched as her aunt settled herself on the sofa and patted the space next to her, "Ven aquí. Hablemos."

Tentatively, she closed the door and joined her aunt on the sofa. She rubbed at her face, trying to hide the stained makeup she had been too lazy to take off the night before. Reyes was looking at her in that maternal way that made her want to start crying again, but she held firm.

"Vale, now let's talk about last night."

"I'm so sorry for running out on dinner, that was really rude of me." Dylan apologised.

"Ay, don't be silly, niña. I want you to tell me about this Max boy."

When her aunt looked at her with such sincerity and kindness, Dylan couldn't help but spill all her secrets. She had always been that way.

"Well, when I first started working with him, we didn't get on. I don't know what Carlos told you- but it's true that he wasn't very nice to me for a while and I found it really hard because I couldn't understand why. And the worst bit was I was attracted to him, but I pretended I wasn't because I was so embarrassed to be attracted to someone who was so rude to me."

Reyes nodded patiently, "You didn't tell Carlos any of this?"

"No! Definitely not. They were such good friends and I knew either telling him that Max was being rude or that I was attracted to Max would damage their relationship and maybe even risk their racing on track. I just kept it all to myself but then Max went and ruined things by saying something rude about me to Carlos, because he didn't know we were cousins! They got in a huge fight and it was so messy."

"What happened afterwards?"

"Um, Carlos told me to stay away from Max and I did try to, but I work with him! I was asked to go to his childhood home to film some stuff and I dunno, it was just weird because he stopped being so rude to me and I guess I got to see a different side of him. I knew it was wrong but I just found myself liking him more and more."

"Did you talk to Carlos after that trip?"

Dylan shook her head, realising just how many chances at untangling her mess she'd missed, "No. I should have, I know. But he was so mad at Max and I didn't think he'd understand my feelings. Plus, I didn't think it would be a problem because I knew Max didn't like me back! So it was something I thought would just stay private in my head and I'd eventually get over it."

Reyes sighed and reached out to grasp Dylan's hand, "Oh, mi niña. Tan ilusa. Tan tonta."

"Tía, déjame en paz." Dylan groaned.

"Sí, carry on. Tell me the rest."

"Things were weird. Max was being really nice to me and I was spending more time with him but Carlos was still adamant that I should stay away from him, even though I tried to explain that Max wasn't being rude anymore. And then my team came to Spain early and I spent the day with Max. Some of the videos and photos from that day have been released online and that is what the Twitter rumours are." Dylan played with the ends of her hair, "People think we're dating. And Carlos thinks I've been lying to him."