The day was supposed to be simple-just a quiet escape to the beach, a place where the salt air and rolling waves might soothe some of the turmoil that had swallowed Alice whole. Emily had watched her friend change so much in the past few months, fading into a shell of who she used to be. Today, she'd hoped, could help bring Alice back, even if just for a moment.
But when Alice didn't resurface from her dive, a sick sense of dread seized Emily's heart.
"Maybe she really did drown?" a voice murmured behind her. One of Alice's coworkers, who had reluctantly joined them, stood with wide eyes, their words more fearful than factual.
"No," Emily said fiercely, tears prickling her eyes as she stared at the spot where Alice had disappeared. "Alice was the coach's favorite. She competed in the finals for swimming-she doesn't just drown." Her voice broke, filled with desperation, before she lunged forward, plunging into the cold water.
The waves seemed to resist her as she dove, but her arms pushed through them with single-minded determination, searching frantically. And then she saw her-Alice's body, limp and drifting just below the surface, her hair a halo around her pale face.
"Luce, please," Emily whispered, feeling the weight of fear and love all at once as she wrapped her arms around Alice and kicked hard, bringing them both to the shore. She dragged Alice onto the sand, panic clawing at her insides as she began CPR, her hands shaking but steady as she pressed down on her friend's chest.
"Come on, Alice. You're not leaving me like this," she choked out, forcing the air into Alice's lungs with every compression, her voice filled with a pleading hope. Memories of their friendship, their laughter, their promises-they all surged through her, giving her strength. "Please."
As Emily worked tirelessly, Alice drifted somewhere between memory and oblivion. She saw flashes, familiar and blurred, of another beach, another time.
The first time she'd seen Max, he had looked almost out of place, standing by the shore with that brooding gaze of his. He'd caught her looking and had walked over, his stance guarded, his expression skeptical.
"Are you following me?" he'd asked, a sharp edge to his voice, as though he were accustomed to strangers intruding on his life.
Confused, she'd blinked at him. "No, I'm just here," she'd replied, her voice soft, unsure why he seemed so defensive.
His eyes narrowed, studying her as if trying to unearth her intentions. "Right," he'd said eventually, though the suspicion lingered. She would later understand why. To him, she must have seemed like yet another fan, one of those invasive types who crossed every boundary.
But they found themselves talking anyway, and she laughed, openly admitting she didn't even know what Formula One was. She hadn't known the details, the races, the world he was a part of, and something about that intrigued him. Slowly, hesitantly, they connected. They had fallen into an unexpected friendship-sometimes tense, sometimes comfortable-bound by the freedom of someone who saw each other simply as they were.
The memory faded, and all Alice felt now was emptiness, like sinking deeper into an endless sea.
And then, somewhere distant, she felt something. A pull, a pressure-a desperate, anchoring force that wouldn't let her go. She gasped, a choking breath as she surfaced from the haze, spluttering as her lungs filled with air, her vision slowly clearing to reveal Emily's tear-streaked face hovering over her.
"Thank God," Emily breathed, pulling her into a tight embrace. Her voice was thick with relief, and Alice felt it, the warmth of it cutting through the chill that had settled in her bones.
Alice lay there, her heart pounding with both the remnants of terror and the echo of memories she wished she could forget.
____________________________________________________
The rain beat down heavily against the window, blurring the view of the city beyond. Alice sat curled up on her window sill, notebook balanced in her lap, the pages filled with half-written lyrics and scratched-out lines. She scribbled aimlessly, her mind tangled in thoughts she couldn't quite articulate. The melodies she usually found solace in felt distant now, the words slipping through her fingers like sand."Maybe I was never meant to write a song again," she muttered under her breath, glancing down at the disjointed lyrics. But no matter how hard she tried, nothing seemed to come out the way she wanted.
She let out a deep sigh, setting the notebook aside, and looked out at the gray, misty world outside. The rain fell in torrents, and the air was thick with the smell of wet earth. It felt like the world was washed clean, but all she felt was the weight of the past pressing down on her chest.
Her eyes wandered to the faint glow of the television in the corner of the room. She hadn't meant to turn it on, but something about the stillness of the moment had drawn her in. And then, the headline flashed on the screen: "Max Verstappen's New Girlfriend Revealed: A Shocking Reveal from the F1 Champion."
Alice froze, her heart pounding in her chest as she watched the images of him, looking every bit the champion he was, standing with his new girlfriend by his side. The camera zoomed in on her-blonde, poised, everything Alice wasn't. The news anchor's voice echoed in the background, recounting their whirlwind romance, the paparazzi shots, the dates, the public outings-all of it unfolding before Alice's eyes like a cruel joke.
"Max Verstappen, the rising world champion, has been spotted with his new love interest, a model with connections to some of the top celebrities. The two have been seen together on several occasions, making headlines as the couple to watch this season."
Alice couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen. The words felt like daggers, and with every passing second, she felt something inside her breaking. She had known, deep down, that it could never last. He had always been in a world so far from hers. But hearing it, seeing it-the reality of it-was a blow she hadn't been prepared for.
Her mind reeled, flashing back to the moments they had shared. The late-night conversations under the stars, the laughter that had felt so easy, so natural. There were times when Max had made her feel like the most wonderful person in the world, when it felt like she was the only one who mattered in his eyes. He had looked at her with that rare tenderness that made her believe in the possibility of something real, something lasting.
But now, those moments seemed distant, distorted, as though they had belonged to someone else. It wasn't supposed to end like this. She wasn't supposed to be watching the news, her heart shattering as the life she had briefly glimpsed slipped away for good.
Her hand trembled as she picked up her notebook again, the words coming more freely now, as if the floodgates had opened. She scribbled down what was in her heart, the pain bleeding onto the page in the form of lyrics:
"Maybe I really did drown / In the silence of your goodbye / You showed me heaven, then pulled me down / Left me with nothing but the lies / I thought we had forever / But you were just a shadow in the light."
She paused, staring at the words, feeling the sting of every line. Each word was a confession, a release of all the things she hadn't said to him. But the page remained blank where she wanted answers. Would they ever be enough? Would he ever see her for who she was, beyond the tears and the songs she wrote for him?
She looked out at the rain again, her heart heavy with the weight of unanswered questions, and whispered, "I guess I was just another chapter in your story."
YOU ARE READING
I love you , I'm sorry • Max Verstappen
FanfictionAlice Brown, a rising star with a voice that captivates and lyrics that cut deep, finds herself under the brightest spotlights and in the darkest corners of heartbreak. After a whirlwind romance with F1 champion Max Verstappen-a relationship kept hi...