Broken Speed | Verstappen & Leclerc

13 | best friend

-|- Miami -|-

"Max, are you in here?" Christian's voice echoed through the bathroom.

"J... Just five minutes." I croaked, trying not to sound like I had just cried my heart out.

"No! We start now, we're already late so come out now!" the team boss seemed angry, but luckily left the bathroom again.

Slowly I opened the door of my stall, stepping out and in front of the mirror. My eyes red from all the crying, my hair all messy, gosh, I looked horrible. But it was only the result of Charles's words, telling me that he had kissed me because of Alex.

Because of his damn girlfriend. The girl who wanted a puppy, so he got her one. It was so fucking stupid and one could laugh about my behavior, but my heart didn't, it only broke even more after his words.

Scared that Christian would come back and see me like that, I bend down and splashed some cold water into my face. Suddenly though the door of the RedBull bathroom got opened again. I shrugged together, in fear that the team boss was back, but he wasn't.

"You okay?" Daniel asked, looking worried while at the same time taking his distance, not sure if I would ignore him again.

"N... No." I croaked, wiping my face dry with some paper towels.

The Aussie was clearly overwhelmed by me suddenly speaking to him so he didn't know what to return. I felt regret coming up inside me, regret that I had treated him so badly over the last weeks, even months.

He had done nothing wrong, he had been my best friend, hopefully still was, but I behaved like shit.

"I'm so sorry Daniel." I therefore suddenly broke out of me and I started crying again, "I'm sorry for ignoring you."

"Shh, don't be." the driver said and stepped closer, pulling me into a friendly hug.

Being that close to someone, having the feeling of having someone again, someone I could talke to, someone who was there for me, it only made me cry even heavier.

"P... Please forgive me, I... I..." I stuttered, pulling my head back to look up at him, seeing how his first anger slowly faded off and his expression got softer.

"I will, just please stop crying Max." Daniel said before he looked between me and the door, "We... Christian said..."

"I know." I mumbled and stepped away again, cleaning my face, "But can we talk afterwards?"

I nearly begged him, nervously biting my bottom lip as I was scared he would reject me now. He had all the reasons for it, cause I really wasn't a friend over these last months. Well, I was not feeling well, but that surely wasn't a reason to behave like that.

So five minutes later we were sat around a table, also with Checo, as the marketing team explained today's video to us. Christian had looked at me as I walked out the bathroom, slightly angry, but I simply ignored it.

In the corner of my eye I saw Luka and Lio sitting on another table, coloring some pictures, so I calmed down a little, knowing that they were alright. 

The next hour then was filled with some stupid games, some of them were actually fun, but most of them were just annoying. After that some interviews and sponsor talks followed. As Daniel had an event that evening we agreed on meeting the evening after, to talk.

So after both practice sessions for him and some media for me, we met in the hotel's restaurant on Friday evening. Luckily they had a spot in the back corner for us, two little tables, so nobody could see or hear us.