barely legal | max verstappen ✓

chapter 17 | one is pretty and the other lies

«If I knew it all then, would I do it again? Would I do it again?»

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She found herself face-deep into Aurora's kitchen cabinets, groaning and rummaging like that would magically help her to manifest a bottle of tequila or something. In the end, she grabbed two bottles of wine, one with each hand and closed the cabinet with her elbow. Sloane turned to Aurora, the bottles lifted in the air, her friend adverted her attention from the phone in her hands to her from where she sat on the sofa. They looked at each other and Aurora smiled, recognising her expression.

"Do you only have wine? No tequila? Not even vodka?" Aurora shook her head. "You're too young to drink nothing else but wine."

Aurora shrugged, pursing her lips into a frown. "Wine drunk is good. Like a desolated housewife, you know." She joked.

Well, no. She didn't want to become her mother even more. "Wine drunk gets me flirty."

"Everything gets you flirty, Sloane." She would've complained if it weren't true. "But you've never tried to flirt with me so you're safe, don't worry." Her friend offered a sweet smile. "Those are good, mamma brought them from Italy."

With a resigned huff, she accepted her faith, reaching for a coffee cup, not a glass, and poured wine into it, almost reaching the top of it. Aurora stared at her with curiosity as she gulped down the wine, her eyebrows slightly raised to show she was impressed. When the last drop of wine slid through the cup, she wrinkled her nose and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Aurora snorted with laughter. Sloane threw her a glare and rounded the kitchen aisle, making her way over to the Italian. Her friend placed a cushion on her lap and gestured for her to lie down, so she did without hesitation.

There was something incredibly peaceful about Aurora. She didn't find that anywhere else, only with her.

"Shall we watch something? Or listen to music? You're the special guest so you get to pick." Aurora waved the remote in the air.

"Can you play We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, please?" That would be her new karaoke song from then on.

Seeming unimpressed, Aurora chuckled. "Be serious."

"I like the quiet better." Or as quiet as it could get in that building and area. Her neighbourhood was noisy. Still peaceful somehow. "I've been thinking, you know in the past hours, or reflecting more so...maybe I should start dating only girls. Like, fuck men, right?" She said with the tone of someone who just invented the next big thing.

Her friend's gaze drifted down at her. She pulled a face and nodded. "Your ex-girlfriends have always been prettier than your ex-boyfriends, so you might win if you do that."

"Even prettier than Charles?" Aurora gently tugged a strand of her hair and Sloane scoffed. "Though remember when I dated that girl who was in one of your Communication classes and she invited her ex on a date for Valentine's Day because I couldn't be in Naples with her for that? Maybe fuck girls too. Not you, but you get the point." There were some unresolved trust issues going around with her. She couldn't deny it. "Should I turn celibate? I don't know, become a nun? Since love doesn't seem to be for me. Am I unloveable? Ugh."

"Don't say that." Aurora pointed at her with the remote, rather warningly. "You're very loveable. I love you, so does Vivianne, and Irina...and I'm sure Salma's somewhat fond of you." The girl was. Salma just had her very own ways to express feelings. "My parents, they adore you, Slo. If my dad knew about this, he would kill Max."

That wouldn't be the only reason, she believed. "Are you sure that's not just the Ferrari fanaticism running through your family speaking?"

"He would kill anyone for you, Sloane. You're basically his second daughter." Now she could've made a joke about how her dad probably had Charles on surveillance because the guy was two for two, but she'd save it for another less dreading time. "Besides, you can't become a nun. It's not like you can register into a convent like it's a hotel. Maybe don't devote yourself to religion and only have a nice Eat Pray Love experience. That's better."