LOVE OR RIDE | LESTAPPEN

chapter five - after all, we are... close

Charles

"Finish." I put my hand over his mouth when he once again starts complaining about what I wrote on his laptop. I got fed up with the argument and decided to answer the questions in the notes myself and then show him to learn it. Of course, nothing suited him, and I was surprisingly nice. "Are you fucked up!" I shout when his tongue touches my hand. I quickly pull away, rubbing my hands on my pants in disgust.

He looks at me with satisfaction, still sitting leaning toward me. At first it annoyed me and I felt uncomfortable, but after arguing for an hour I stopped paying attention to how close he was.

"We spend time together mostly in bed. Doesn't that sound ambiguous?" he reads what I wrote and glances in my direction.

"No, idiot." I roll my eyes. "Well... Maybe a little. Change it." I add reluctantly.

He laughs briefly, taking the laptop from the table. I stiffen, looking at him as if he were a ghost. This is the first time I've seen him laugh sincerely. Whenever he did, I could smell the artificiality a mile away, but now his eyes shine with genuineness. I swallow my saliva, correcting myself on the suddenly uncomfortable couch. He has a nice laugh. And among other things, I contribute to his lack of it.

"I have to go to the bathroom." I break off quickly as I feel the room get a strange atmosphere that I create myself.

I feel his puzzled gaze on me, but he doesn't comment on my behavior. I almost run into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. These are the side effects of sitting with a retard, I am becoming one myself.

I sigh loudly, placing my hands on either side of the sink. I look in the mirror at my disheveled hair and quickly wash my face with cold water when I see my skin slightly red.

"Did you drown?" I hear an irritated voice from the living room.

I leave the bathroom and return to the couch. Verstappen is lying on almost all of it and browsing Instagram. I stand over him, waiting for him to move, but he doesn't, so I throw off his legs and quickly stretch out comfortably.

"Shall we eat something?" I ask innocently as he looks at me angrily.

"Leclerc, just admit that you want to add to your note that we often spend time together in bed and eat, as if we were having a romantic dinner."

I parry with laughter at his words, but when I realize that I have just laughed at his joke, I quickly grunts back, getting serious.

"Not very funny." I say, sending a note to my email to read at bedtime. "I'm leaving, I won't spend any more time with you than necessary."

"You're still the one who decided to spend any time with me." he notes, having in mind my coming here.

"Will you ever finish? It's boring." I walk toward the door, hearing him follow me.

"On the contrary. I like to annoy you." He smiles artfully as I open the door and glance at him.

Before I have time to add anything, the boy pushes me gently, making me step out into the hallway involuntarily. I open my lips to start challenging him, and he slams the door in front of me. I freak out, and for a moment it even crossed my mind that maybe he's not as bad as I thought. And I was actually right. He's not as bad, he's even worse.

The next day

Max

I throw the phone, which bounces off the bed and falls to the floor. Lando jumps up in his seat, puzzled, looking at my smartphone, which is still ringing.

"Turn off that alarm clock." he asks, watching as I lean my forehead against the wall. "And don't act like you're going to a beheading. This is just a media meeting." he adds.