Drive to Survive

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Seven

When Max came to, he had to glance down at his phone. He'd only meant to close his eyes for five minutes but his body had clung to the rest it so desperately needed and the time on his screen said he'd actually been asleep for over an hour.

It was bizarre and a bit disorientating.

He'd never been one to take naps; rather, he was always looking for the next thing, ready on the go, and never taking a rest. He'd dismissed naps as a waste of productive time but he had to admit that he felt remarkably refreshed right now and a great deal more himself than the flighty, anxious person he had been an hour ago.

Next to him, Dylan was still lightly snoring and he gently shook her shoulder, rousing her from the slumber. Whilst a nap may not be the complete waste of time he thought it was, he still maintained that it was counter-productive to sleep for too long in the day. It could mess with your sleep cycle and circadian rhythm.

Dylan felt the movement and groaned. A small frown formed in the centre of her brow as she was pulled from her peaceful dreamland and the light seeped through her opening eyelids, "Is it morning?"

Max rolled his eyes, reaching down to place a gentle kiss on Dylan's forehead, "It's been morning all along, you doughnut."

"You know what I mean." She yawned, "What time is it?"

"It's just gone 12."

"Ugh, I've got the nap hangover. Such an icky feeling."

She sat up and rubbed at her eyes before running a hand through her hair and smoothing the frizz. Certainly, she felt a lot more alive than she had a couple hours ago.

The memories of the morning's incident caused that twist of anxiety to come back to her stomach again and she tried to push it away, holding onto the feeling of relaxation. Nevertheless, her questioning thoughts seeped in.

What had happened after she had left?

What did Max think?

What would everyone else think of her?

If anything, it had shown her that enough was enough. It was absolutely unreasonable to think she could carry on like this. Incidents like this put too much of a strain on her, and all the people around her.

She couldn't ignore the fact that she was feeding into the problem as well; for someone who worked in a media-based role, she knew she was handling the media terribly and she could definitely make life a bit easier for herself if she reached out for more help and was a bit more open with things.

Max seemed to be thinking along similar lines as he turned to look at her and said, "We need to talk about this morning." His hand came under her chin as he scrutinised her, "You look better. Do you feel it?"

"I feel more alive, yeah." She nodded, "Thanks for letting me sleep in here."

"Of course. Good to finally use the bed for what it's meant for."

Dylan's eyes widened at the potentially dirty implications of Max's words and he spluttered, seeing where her mind had gone, "Not that! I mean I've never slept in here, damn it. I don't take naps. Fuck- I...that's not what I meant."

She chuckled, "Relax! Was the nap good, at least?"

"Yeah." Max replied, knowing it was entirely because she was there.

There was a beat of silence as they both put off what they needed to talk about.

So much hung in the air; the events of the season, the struggles of the media, the upheaval of friendships and relationships across the last few months. In their own ways, they'd both been through hell and now there was just one question remaining: how did they move on?