AFRAID | max verstappen

Prologue

A little girl was sitting next to a kart. Her kart, her very first kart that wasn't anyone else's, just hers. A black helmet, with red and navi blue stripes, was resting in her lap, waiting for the moment it was finally used. The girl couldn't have been more than 10. It was the first time they traveled to a different country for a race. Of course, it wasn't her first race, but it was slightly different from other competitions, it was more important, more eyes were on her. She knew that this was a big deal, she was no longer in her home country, no longer on a track she knew like the back of her hands. This meant she was a step closer to her dream.

She was looking at the chaos that seemed to occur at the preparations of the race she was about to compete in. There were a lot of adults running around trying to fit the seemingly lost pieces of a puzzel, that puzzel being the things that were needed for the upcoming karting race. She was waiting, but started to get rather impatiant after a while. She wanted to be in her kart and drive already, but the main cause of her impatience was probably the boredom she felt. She didn't really know anyone there, but she was used to being alone. The kids at home always found her wierd, the boys at the track always looked at her funny, and the girls never had the same intrests as her. She never understood why she didn't had any friends. Sometimes she questioned wether it was her personality or the lack of her normality. A lot of girls told her she was crazy because she loved carting and had dreamed of being a formula 1 driver, then she would either tell those girls that they are boring or would just turn around and leave without another word. The boys would just ignore her or make fun of her.

Her dad was just a few steps away from her talking with a man she didn't know. For a while, she tried to figure out what they were talking about, but she didn't yet understand the language they spoke, so she gave up on eavesdropping eventually. Her eyes then traveled a bit farther from her father and landed on a group of boys around her age. They were talking and laughing, joking around. It seemed like they were having fun. They were all wearing racing cuits and some of them had their helmet in their hands. After taking another good look at the five and establishing that they will also compete with her or more so against her, her eyes started to search for something more interesting. She couldn't see any familiar faces, nor could she see any girls.

After a while, her eyes met with another pair of eyes. The piercing blue eyes belonged to a boy. He was sitting alone next to a kart. It seemed like he was also one to observe instead of trying to make friends. The boy has been waching her for a while, he percieved the faintest flush on her face when she caught him looking, he noted the way she acted, the way her eyes scaned the whole track sometimes stopping on things that caught her attention then getting bored of it and looking for something new, something more intresting. He found himself constantly looking at her eyes, maybe even trying to catch her gaze so he could look at them more carefully. He really liked her eyes. She had very dark brown eyes, which if he hadn't been looking at so carefully he would have mistaken it for black, it had taken all of his attention he had never seen eyes as beautifull, as capturing as hers. He hasn't really seen other girls, outside of his sister, compete in carting before.He had assumed that she was the same age as his little sister.

While the boy was admiring her eyes, the girl also started to take in his gorgous blue eyes. She had never seen eyes as piercing as his. She could see a storm in them, but also the ocean. She loved the ocean, and she loved storms, she decided she also loved his eyes because it reminded her of things she loved.

They held the eye contact up until the little girls dad went and sat down next to her daughter, then she broke the contact first, but the boy was still looking at her admiring her from afar. He watched as her face lit up with love, joy, and admiration all at the same time when she looked up at her father. The little boy suddenly felt a pit in his stomach, he didn't receive a lot of love from his father, the older man only showed any kind of affaction towards him when he won a competition in karting. Otherwise, he only received anger. Anger and disappointment is something he was very familiar with. The young boy always tried his best. He wanted his father to be happy with him, but most of all, he craved for his fathers love.