Until My Final Breath - Max Verstappen (I)

E L E V E N

Joy's POV:

When I got home, I saw I had a text from Lando. He probably wants to check if I'm doing okay, how sweet! 

landonorris: Hi, can you call me? I need to tell you something. 

joydevreese: Sure! I'll call you in a few minutes, I'm going upstairs now. 

To be honest, I had a really bad feeling about it. So I quickly went upstairs, Max was doing groceries, so he wouldn't know I was calling with Lando. When I got to my room I jumped on my bed and searched his contact. Then I pressed the 'FaceTime' button. After a few seconds, he picked up. 

Hi Lando, is everything okay?

- Hi, euh yes, I think. 

You think? There was something you wanted to tell me?

- Yes, but I don't really know how. 

That was the point where I got a huge deja-vu feeling. The same feeling I had when I was in the car with Max and he told me he was in love with me. He wasn't going to say the same, right? RIGHT?

Just say what you wanna say, how it's in your head. 

- Okay. I'm in love with you, but like crazy in love with you. 

Shit shit shit. The thing I didn't want him to say. Or did I want him to say that? What about Max? What are Max and I? Do I love Max? Or do I love Lando? Do I love them both? Who do I love more? Shit, help. 

Without knowing what I was doing I ended the call. Poor Lando, he must be feeling like shit right now. And that was all my fault. And no way that I was going to manage keeping a straight face when Max got home. 

So I started packing a backpack. I took my laptop, my phone, chargers, some fresh clothes and some food and water. I wasn't going to take the car, because Max took it to go to the supermarket. I also couldn't start walking on the street, because he'd see me on his way home. So I decided to go through the woods behind my house. If I got through 8 kilometers of them, I'd reach the railway station and from there I could take the train to Brussels. From Brussels you can reach a lot of cities by train and eventually an airport, so that looked like the smartest choice. But first, I needed to survive an 8 kilometer long way through the woods. I took my wallet with my ID and credit card, and my passport. Because you never know where I'm gonna end up. I walked to the back of my garden and climbed over the fence. 

Here goes nothing. 

Max's POV: 

I got home from the supermarket and I was really excited to start cooking. I bought all the things I needed for an amazing dinner. I decided to make some pumpkin soup, followed by a steak with fries and a fresh salad. For desert I was going to make apple pie with vanilla ice cream. I was 100% sure that Joy was going to like my surprise, so I quickly got into the house and put the groceries down on the kitchen island. But when I walked into the living room, Joy wasn't sitting on the couch anymore. "Maybe she got tired and went upstairs to take a nap." I thought by myself, so I went upstairs to check if she was there. 

She wasn't. 

I quickly looked around and I noticed that her wallet, laptop and chargers were gone. I started to call her, but I only could reach her voicemail. My messages didn't get delivered and she didn't answer any of my other messages. I started to freak out, and decided to call her parents who were on a work trip. They said that she was probably on a walk and that there was nothing to worry about, but my gut feeling told me something else...

Joy's POV: 

I was 4 kilometers in the woods. It took me around 45 minutes to get here and I was already exhausted. It was already 9PM and the trees dimmed a lot of light, so it was really dark. I'm not gonna lie, I was getting scared. I heard some weird noises, but I thought it were just some animals. 

But what if it aren't the animals? What if there's someone following me? What do I have to do if something happens? My battery was dead, so there was no way I could reach someone if I needed help. Then it was me against the world. 

And just when I was thinking about all these things, someone grabbed my arm and pulled me in the bushes...