The movie

19

What A Time - Julia Michaels

All the journalists started whispering, probably thinking of questions to ask me. I'm sure you're wondering why I would even admit to something as scandalous as this but I knew this was gonna happen somehow, it was just a matter of when and if they found out I lied they'd be furious. This was the secret I never wanted to share yet could never escape. This was about H. H was my English teacher in high school. I was with him before I left to work for Red Bull. I won't go into too much detail about how things came to be but I'll say this wasn't your casual everyday pretty little liars story. He reached out to me suggesting we had sex, I didn't want to but the connection grew. We got closer and closer and we became good friends. At one point I started devolving feeling which he didn't reciprocate. He just led me on for sex but I so desperately wanted to believe that wasn't the case. That he was just a fucked up character that I could fix but obviously that was just me being naive. It was so illegal but we never got caught. At one point we got into a fight, a bad one. I couldn't deal with the fact he didn't love me and he was an aggressive type of person. Lashing out the moment things got heated. I told him that if he wanted to fuck someone he could go to somebody else which he did. I got to school one day when I found out he wasn't there, I went to another teacher who was a friend of his to ask where he was, he told me he sprained his ankle and had to stay home that day. I thought it was odd knowing he would never take the day off but I decided to just ignore it, it wasn't like I was gonna text him anyway since I blocked him. During the break I got a phone call from my friend, she never called which further peeked my curiosity so I decided to go outside to answer it.

She told me H had tried to do the same to her. I was heartbroken. She asked me what to do which left me speechless. I loved the guy to pieces, how could he do this to me?. Eventually he reached out, FaceTiming me, sobbing about how he made a mistake and begging me to not tell. As stupid as I was I didn't which was the stupidest thing i could have done. The saga continued. He kept leading me on and at one point he just blocked me. I knew I had to get away from that school so that's what I did. I applied for the job at Red Bull and that was that but I knew the past was coming back to haunt me the moment I decided I wanted to become an F1 driver.

"Can you explain any further?." The journalist continued asking but was cut off quite quick by the Red Bull team. One of the Red Bull staf members took me away, leaving Max to vent for himself. He just stared at me when I walked out, no sadness, no anger. Nothing which just made me feel worse.
"Stay in your room, don't talk to anyone." The staf member instructed me before guiding me to my room.
What the fuck did I just do?. This is gonna be the end of my career.
I buried my head in my hands. Wanting to hide in them forever. After a while I heard a knock on my door which turned out to be Max.
I looked at him, scanning his features, searching for any emotion he must be feeling but I couldn't find any.
"I'm not angry." He assured me, taking his seat next on the bed.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." My voice cracking due to the lump forming in my throat.
"Hey." He shushed me, giving me a hug. This caused me to break down even more. Sobs escaping my mouth.
I buried my head in his neck. He started whispering sweet nothings in my ear which calmed me down a little bit.
Once my sobs had become more quiet he pulled back.
"Can you please explain it to me?." He asked softly which surprised me considering his aggressive nature.
I took a few deep breaths before starting off my story, he grabbed my hand rubbing smooth circles on my hand.

I started off where it all begun, how he approached me. What he said. All of it. There was no hiding it anymore.
"He was lucky I didn't know the story when I first saw him otherwise I would have beat him up like no tomorrow." He said, balling his first in anger.
"You were only 14." He stated, almost like it just dawned on him.
"I just wanted to leave it all behind." I explained.
"I understand, I just hope you know the possible damage it will do to your reputation."
"I understand, I don't even know who leaked it." I sighed out of frustration.
"Red Bull will find out." He told me, staring into my eyes showing me he meant it.
"I wanna go out tonight." I announced.
"What?." He exclaimed, very confused as to why I would want that.
"I need to let go for the night, I don't wanna sit around moping. I need to show that I'm not weak."
"I'll ask if it's okay." He told me, showing me he didn't want to judge me for my decision.He went out of the room, leaving me alone for a bit which made me go through the articles that were published about me.

"Oh my god." I said out loud. Shocked by the words I read. Turns out the reason it was leaked because he got a court case due to what he did with the other girl. He confessed what he had done, dragging me into the mix. This is the way he's always been. He didn't want to be with me but he couldn't let me be happy with someone else either. He always needed to remind that I loved him but I was tired of it. I'm not the same person who I was. I can't take this bullshit anymore. My sadness turned to anger, wanting to show I was okay even more.
The door opened once more, revealing Max's broad figure once more.
"We got the green light." He announced.
"But we can't do anything crazy, they're still figuring out how to fix this mess. They didn't want to let us go out in the first place but I urged them to." He continued which just made me give him a quick kiss before opening my suitcase to pick out a cute dress which made him laugh.
We both got ready, him dressing up in some casual jeans and a short sleeve shirt which turned me on tremendously.
I decided on this short pink dress.

"You look gorgeous." Max exclaimed, looking me up and down.
"Let's go."