𝘽𝙄𝙏𝙏𝙀𝙍, max verstappen

chapter twenty-one.

the past four weeks had been a blur. with the russian grand prix, which lewis had won — much to the teams pleasure, singapore and suzuka being cancelled, and camila's marvellous win in turkey and the us, the championship lead had every possibility of being handed to her after this week in mexico. camila prayed that it would.

her last two wins eased the a lot of the weight off her shoulders, the team also genuinely seemed happy for her as well — camila was finding her mojo back.

and by doing so, camila's social life had also seemed a blur, she couldn't even remember the last time she spoke to lewis — and they were driving for the same team.

the sound of camera clicks could be heard as camila walked across the paddock, her smile radiant as she was feeling prepared for qualifying.

as camila walked through the paddock, she soon passed by daniel, who quickly pulled her aside.

"cami — hey, i haven't seen you since the after party in italy... you doing okay?" daniel asked, concern written in his voice, causing a wave of realisation to flow through camila's body. she hadn't realised how much she had been distancing herself from the people around her — too immersed in the world of racing and championship winning to even bring herself back to reality.

camila's smile faltered; "oh... yeah, i'm doing okay. sorry i've been sort of distant recently" she confessed, daniel's eyes softening.

although daniel had gotten drunk that night in italy, he hadn't forgotten the hostile encounter between camila and max — their hateful stares, hurtful words and the way both their mood's had immediately changed after having seen one another. it had made daniel begin to wonder what went so wrong between them. he was yet to ask max, and now that camila was standing in front of him — he decided to take the opportunity to find out now.

"i've been meaning to ask you about italy," daniel hesitantly began; "you and max — the way you spoke to each other, what happened? i thought you guys were going to talk?" he asked; camila's jaw clenching.

she knew daniel was just being a concerned friend — and she appreciated that, but the mention of max just caused her blood to stir, and she could now taste the bitterness from her coffee this morning.

"we did talk, he just didn't take what i had to say very well" camila shrugged — and it was true; max couldn't accept that they were terrible for one another. they would never work.

daniel's face scrunched up in confusion, camila obviously was still angry over whatever had happened — he could clearly see that, based off of her cold expression the moment he had mentioned max to her.

he began to grow conflicted; max was his best friend, and so was camila — and he wanted the best for both of them. so how was he supposed to respond?

"i hope you guys figure out whatever's going on, good luck this weekend cam" daniel smiled, deciding now was probably the best time to end their conversation, camila clearly wasn't in the mood.

camila engaged in minimal conversations up until qualifying. with the final free practice going as planned, she was feeling prepared to push out some fast laps for quali, pole position was the target today, and a race win was the target for tomorrow.

the sun began to dip low over the horizon as the qualifying session began. the vibrant colours of the car's illuminated the track, each racer pushing their machines to the limit — all in pursuit of the desired pole position.

camila navigated the twist and turns of the circuit with absolute precision, pushing and pushing, a desperate need for the fastest lap time; it now being q3.