Foggy Mirrors | Max Verstappen

Chapter 08 - THE PAST

"Hey." Leanne said as she sat down next to Alida during lunch, a tray of food in hand, while Alida glances up at her and gives her a small hi back, while Leanne looked around for their other friends not seeing them, before she realised what must be going on.

"Are you guys still fighting?" Leanne wanted to know, causing Alida to give her a sad look.

"I didn't want you all to gang up against Max, I promised Cornelis we would try to bring us all together. They are angry with me because I sided with Max." Alida explained while she played with her food rather than eating, causing Leanne to exhale slowly.

"Ah, I see." She told her friend, who gave her a strange look.

"Aren't you angry too?" Alida wanted to know which caused Leanne to shake her head.

She had a lot of feelings towards Max and because of him, confusing and scary feelings but she wasn't angry with Alida for teaming up with him, there were way more feeling overlaying that little incident. Feeling she tried to fight so animatedly, which caused her to forget about the little disagreement between her friends. Her father was about to leave town for a while again soon, so Leanne was busy trying to prepare for having to parent Isa for the next two weeks at least and finding a way to explain all of it to her logically.

"No." Leanne told her easily, which caused Alida to give her a pleading look.

"Can you talk to Rie?" She asked. "I know Ines will come around when Rie forgives me." Alida added, causing Leanne to exhale once more before promising that she would talk to the other two girls after school.

Leanne just had finished lunch and said goodbye to Alida, she still needed to get some books from the downstairs library, only to notice her brother sitting in one of the last rows in the library, his head hidden in his arms, crying.

"Josh." Leanne said softly, as she walked up to him, only for him to whip away the tears and get up.

"See you at home." He threw into her general direction, but Leanne was quick to get hold of his upper arm before he could storm past him.

"What is going on?" She wanted to know, only for Josh to pull his arm free. He gave her a stern look, before he told her to mind her own busy and to stay out of his life, especially in school. They did not know each other in school, and she should live by that rule and not be so annoying.

Rolling her eyes, she watched him go, before she got herself some books for advanced German class to read to have some material for her essay.

Leanne knew that something was very wrong with her brother, she had felt it before, but Josh wasn't one to talk. He wasn't one who would ever address it if something was wrong, so all she could do was being close and offer to help him back up once he had hit rock bottom.

She was just worried that maybe after all one of them was talking after their mother. A mental sickness was no easy fate. Being bipolar could ruin his entire life, just as it ruined their mother's life and their family life. He was being paranoid for no reason most of the time already, but Leanne didn't know if that was due to him being their mother's child and used to being abandoned every now and then, that that was the reason for his trust issues, or if it was due to him sharing her sickness.

For a long moment Leanne considered telling her father about what she worried about, but then she decided that this wasn't her tale to tell. It was Josh's decision, all she could do was have an eye on him and a hand read to offer.

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"So, you won't like it." Leanne told Alida the next day before Geography lesson would start. "Rie thought that maybe a party could be thrown, with everyone invited, the boys and us, to get rid of all tension once and for all." Leanne told her, causing Alida to think for a moment, before nodding overly bravely, as if Leanne had just asked her to go of for war or something.