King Of My Heart

❃ two ❃

febraury 27th, 2020

"And Max, hearing about the rumours of George Russell's sister, how do you feel coming to the track?"

It was media day and while Max was being interviewed by one of the sports people, Matilda was sitting with Lily in the cafeteria, watching the interview live on the TV.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Max asked, furrowing his eyebrows as Matilda sipped her coffee. 

"Means I'm a slut," she muttered as Lily glanced at her then back at the TV. 

"I mean," the man said, "given how many of the drivers Matilda had managed to manipulate. . . ."

"Let me stop you there," Max said as Matilda looked up at the screen, "Matilda did not manipulate anyone. Everyone involved was all adults and of the legal age. First, I don't even know why this is such a big deal. She's a grown woman, she can do what she wants and people shouldn't criticise her for it. Second, this question has nothing to do with Formula One so unless you're going to ask me a question about my career and not what a grown woman chooses to do in her spare time, I'm leaving."

"Did, did he just defend me?" Matilda asked, looking at her best friend.

"I think so," Lily said as Matilda looked back at the TV screen.

✲ ✲ ✲ ✲ ✲

"Hey, Max."

Max turned around and saw Matilda walking towards him.

"Oh, hey," he said as she stopped in front of him.

"Thanks," she said looking up at him, "for what you said in the interview." Max nodded.

"It's just the truth," he said shrugging.

"Still," the brunette said, "I appreciate it." Max nodded as the brunette sent him a small smile before walking off. 

"Hey, Tilda?"

"Yeah?" she asked, turning back around. 

"We're going out tomorrow, wanna come along?" Matilda smiled and nodded.

"I'd like that," she said smiling. Max smiled and nodded as Matilda nodded and walked off. 

✲ ✲ ✲ ✲ ✲

"Charles, I need to talk to you."

Charles looked up from his phone at the table with Charlotte to see Matilda standing there. Charlotte's face turned into a scowl when she saw the brunette as Charles nodded. He got up and the two walked to a more private area. They walked behind the cafeteria and stood there, facing each other. 

"What?" he asked.

"We dated for the whole of last year, and you have the nerve to sit there and let people, including your girlfriend, call me a whore, a home-wrecker, a slut!" Matilda said as Charles looked at her. "You told me you loved me, that you wanted to marry me! But you have the fucking nerve to sit there and keep your mouth shut while I'm getting slut shamed and hated on!" 

Charles said nothing as Matilda looked up at him.

"Say something!"

"What do you want me to say?" Charles asked as Matilda scoffed and shook her head. The brunette walked away, completely unaware that Max was behind the corner, listening in. 

The brunette was making her way towards the Williams tent where her brother was sitting. George was sitting with his teammate, Nicholas Latifi. George heard footsteps and looked up, a smile on his face but it dropped when he saw the tears on his sister's face. 

"Tilda?" he asked, getting up.

"I-I need o talk to you," Matilda said, wiping the tears from her eyes. George nodded and lead his twin sister to his drivers room. 

"What's up?" he asked, shutting the door behind him. 

"It wasn't just fun, with, with Charles," Matilda said, as she looked down, "we were together from the end of January until the day he dated Charlotte. He told me, he loved me, and he wanted to marry me and spoke about a future with me. But I found out that from October until we broke up, he was seeing her. He was going to her house, spending nights there. He told me not to worry about it. But the day we broke up, he told me he needed to focus on himself and his career, and then a few hours later I found out that he was dating her via social media."

"Oh Tilda," George said, hugging his twin sister tightly as she sobbed into his chest. Just then, there was a knock at the door and Alex walked in, looking worried with Lily at his side.

"We need you," Alex said as the twins looked up, "there's a situation. Hurry!"

Without any hesitation, the twins hurried after the couple and ran towards where a large crowd was. 

"This is your fault!" 

"What's going on?" George asked as the four of them pushed through the crowd. Matilda's eyes went wide when she saw Max and Charles in the middle of the crowd, both yelling at each other. 

"You don't know anything!" Charles yelled back as Matilda held onto Lily's hand. 

"I know that you were in love with her," Max yelled, looking the angriest Matilda had seen him in years, "I know that you cheated on her! I know that you treated the most perfect woman like shit and that you ruined her! You are vile for that!"

"You know nothing!" Charles yelled, swinging for Max. His fist with Max's cheek and knocked him to the ground.

"MAX!" Matilda yelled, running towards the Dutch driver. Matilda looked at Charles with a look of horror. "What is wrong with you?!" 

She looked at Max and furrowed her eyebrows. She helped Max up, sent Charles a disgusted look before walking back with Max to his drivers room. Matilda shut the door behind her as Max faced away from her.

"You can go," Max said bluntly as Matilda ignored him and grabbed some cloth and rinsed it under the tap and looked at him.

"Sit down," she said, looking at Max. Max turned around and saw Matilda standing there with a damp cloth. 

"Matilda. . . ."

"Sit down," she repeated, "now." 

Max sat down as Matilda walked towards him and cleaned up the drying blood on his cheek.

"Why did you do that?" she asked quietly.

"I heard what he did," Max said, just as quietly as he avoided Matilda's eyes. "To you." Matilda hesitated ever so slightly. 

"How?" she asked.

"I didn't mean to listen," he said, "but I was around the corner when you spoke to Leclerc." Matilda looked at him.

"Why?" she asked. "Why did you do that?" Max hesitated.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I just saw red."

"Well, thank you," Matilda said as she smiled lightly at him.

"You're welcome," he said nodding, "no girl, especially you, deserves to be slut shamed."

"I'll tell you what," Matilda said chuckling, "this is going to give me a new hit." Max chuckled as he looked at the brunette. 

"I can imagine," he said as Matilda smiled.