barely legal | max verstappen ✓

chapter 6 | rumour has it

«They tell you while you're young: "girls, go out and have your fun". Then they hunt and slay the ones who actually do it.»

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Irina pressed a Bloody Mary glass to her forehead, groaning in either pleasure or discontent, Sloane wasn't sure yet. She looked at the girl with amusement, Irina looked absolutely knackered. On her other side, Salma took a sip of her mimosa and chuckled as Irina kept making different noises to complain. Sloane knew the two have been together during the weekend, she just wondered why one of them looked so terrible while the other seemed to be coming back from the Bahamas. Although, one of them was Salma so it made sense.

"What's got you looking so worn out, Rina?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at the blonde sitting across from her.

Her friend looked at her and cursed under her breath as the sun hit her eyes. "I did a shoot for Claudé's new bikini collection and it was exhausting. That woman had us under the sun for hours I tell you. And then, Salma here," She motioned with her hand at the brunette. "She had the great idea of going to a club in Saint Tropez. Best night of my life in years, but I don't think my body is used to partying like that." A groan came out of her lips. Salma snickered behind her glass. "You should've come with us though, it was so much fun. Where were you?"

"You haven't heard?" Salma chimed in before Sloane managed a word out. "She was at this weekend's Grand Prix, apparently." Salma even exaggerated her French accent with the right words. Sloane blinked.

"That's the racing thing, right?" Irina asked in confusion. Unlike Salma, she didn't know much about the topic. Only that Sloane's ex-boyfriend drove fast cars and that she worked on a shoot for Puma and Mercedes. That was it. Salma confirmed with a nod. Sloane sipped on her drink, shrinking deeper in her seat. "You must really like that sport." Irina joked, not maliciously, just casually.

"Or the drivers," Salma added. She glared at her. "I mean, rumour has it our dear Sloane is getting quite close to someone there." Not this again, she thought.

Rumour has it Sloane is seeing someone. Rumour has it Sloane was at the last race. Rumour has it Sloane was having dinner with Max Verstappen. Rumour has it they've been seeing each other for a while. Rumour has it Sloane is dating another driver. Rumour has it. Blah blah blah.

It was somehow enticing, the way information and rumours just went around and spread like a virus. The whole thing could be equally as funny as it could be exhausting, depending on the situation. Dating rumours for example were amusing in the sense that they really brought out an internal detective in some people, but they weren't as nice when they became suffocating. Sloane's mother hated rumours when they weren't good ones. She would definitely have some words about the situation as soon as it reached her. Her father too, probably. If he cared enough. Or if he still cared about her.

Aurora on the other side...that had been interesting. Her best friend had asked if she was at the race, which Sloane didn't deny because it would've been useless considering the sightings and social media stuff regarding that, she just told Aurora something about Max and Daniel and then proceeded to persuade her for a change of topic, talking about Cassandra, the woman she'd met at the race — later Sloane found out that the reason Cassandra looked familiar wasn't that she was with Sebastian, it was because she was an actual famous author, she ended up purchasing one of her books at some point. Back to Aurora, it had been curious because what her friend asked at the end of their call was for Sloane to please, take care, with that sweet voice of hers. It came to mind for Sloane how she'd told her something similar the year before.

They weren't very good at listening, apparently.

"Really? You're dating one of those guys again?" Sloane blinked at the sound of Irina's voice. Her friend was looking at her with big and curious eyes. There was no answer from Sloane, just another sip and a scoff from Salma. "Honestly, good for you, Slo." Irina's lips tugged into a complicit grin.