Foggy Mirrors | Max Verstappen

Chapter 05 - THE PRESENT

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While most men commended respect with their voice, Leanne Van der Verden's way of talking, of communicating demanded attention. Her words were slowly spoken, meaning in every syllable she allowed to slide from her naturally formed, almost perfect lips. No words ever got to waste, unfailingly addressing an audience, which was ready, waiting to suck in every word. Leanne simply had a way with words.

It wasn't always like that. As with any skill, it took its time, devoting and training but once Leanne wanted something, once she was ready to learn, she's a fast learner and an ambitious student.

No man was talking over her, no one ever thought one of her answers – as short as they might be – as boring or not enough. Her words were wisely chosen and only spoken if she thought one of her interventions were beneficial for her cause. Leanne Van der Verden never rambled or fell over her own words. She had understood the power of speech, what felt like a lifetime ago. The Dutch controlled her output of words and decided what issues was worth a statement and which wasn't. It was this very restrain of unimportant words that marked her value in society.

Max always thought about what his father used to say when he wondered about his fellow Dutch. A woman, a wife should be seen but never heard. Max hated that saying, not understanding what it was what would ever demand a woman's silence or why it only applied to women. He didn't want his mother to hold her tongue or his sister to be forbidden to use her voice. Why give her a voice if using it would be frowned upon?

It was years later that Max understood the real meaning of these words and what it meant to say them. He was still on the side of his mother and sister, but he couldn't stop himself from resenting Leanne a little bit for playing into their cards like that.

It was the younger's way of capturing attention. Max knew that and he begrudged his own gender for how well it worked. Of course, it wasn't the only cliché Leanne leaned into for a personal advantage. She liked to let men believe they were right about so many things, but believing and knowing were two totally different things. They were so blinded by her womanly attributes, which she wasn't shy of using for her own benefit, that they didn't even see that Leanne was the embodiment of all the things they were standing against, just because she smiled at them, her lips slightly parted and her bottom lip stuck out a tiny bit to prominence their fullness while nodding. Always in a tasteful manner, never too much.

Leanne Van der Verden did all the things they hated right in front of them, hidden by her feminine features and her womanly curves. And for that Max couldn't resent her. They all needed to find their footing, so they had a base from which they could operate. A ground level from which they could adapted and work with. He was no different, even though his methods differed from hers.

His resentment was connected to the nearly lifelong acquaintanceship they had. It was the enormous difference between the Leanne who had fought with him in the sandpit over a bucket, unafraid to say her thoughts openly or let her facial expression morph into anything less than a perfectly neural but approachable expression. He thought it was ridiculous. All these adjustments. The change in the way she spoke, the way she moved, even the basics traits of her character have been modified just to fit into a society Leanne had always detested.

Max missed the Leanne he grew up with. The one who got sent to the principal's office at school due to shoving her food into her mouth in a not very ladylike way and talking with her mouth open. Loud, unafraid and most importantly absolutely unbothered. He missed the Leanne, who would climb a tree faster than any boy and take a bath in the sea in Autumn just because Max said she couldn't. The girl who laughed one day so heartly in class at an awful joke he made, that she fell off the chair. Only to laugh some more rolling around on the floor and whipping away tears while their teacher scolded her for it, even though it was Max who had told the joke and it also was Max, who watched her with a found expression. Leanne took the punishment like a hard fellow and never told anyone that it had been Max fault in the first place.