Broken Speed | Lestappen

17 | falling apart

-|- Miami -|-

A chill ran down my back at I saw Christian starring at me. The paddock was quite crowded and it seemed like the race had ended, but the Brit was only starring at me, starring at me as I was coming out of the Ferrari hospitality.

I didn't know what to do so I slowly walked over, also because Luka and Lio were still there and I wanted to get them, also because I was feeling so lonely right now. I probably just destroyed my friendship with Charles so they were the only thing I had.

"Max." Christian said in a cold tone as I reached him, "In my office, now."

I could only nod my head, following him inside and up to his office where he closed the door behind us.

"So, I'll come straight to the point. What were you doing at Ferrari?" he asked and a cold shiver rushed through my body.

I had experienced him angry before, but this was a new level, the coldness in his voice, the look in his eyes. He had been mad a few times over the last weeks, also a few days back when I was crying on the toilet instead of doing the interview.

"I... I was just asking Charles if he was okay." I stuttered, trying to explain myself while I felt my confidence slipping away from me.

"Max, look, I know he's a friend of you if I can call it like that, I know that the kids like him, but he's still the rival, he's still one of our main competitors. I simply can't tolerate you being at that team, or speaking to their drivers on such a level."

At first Christian spoke slow and calm, but the more he said the angrier he got.

"I hired you as our third driver to give you a chance to come back, I understood your situation, but lately you're acting like a child. You're always late, you're crying and you have horrible mood swings. And now you even talk to the rival!" he shouted the last sentence, smashing his hand on the table, which let me shrug together.

"B... But Luka and Lio like him." I mumbled, knowing too well that I was also feeling more for him than I should for a rival.

"They are kids, they don't understand! Max, I really loose faith in you wanting to be in this team. You do nothing for RedBull and rather spend your time at Ferrari!" Christian shouted, not caring that he was scaring me with it.

"That's not true." I blurred out, before I added, "I'm not spying on RedBull for them, I don't tell them anything."

"Well maybe you do, who knows?!" he said, adding, "Because you help the team with nothing and one could easily think that you're just here to gather information."

"That's not true Christian, you know me." I nearly begged him to believe me, feeling how some tears were building up in the corner of my eyes.

"Well, looks like I don't. I know what happened to you was horrible, but that's nearly half a year ago and I can't recognize you Max, you're a totally different person. And I don't know if I can trust that new version of you." he simply said, shrugging his shoulders.

Slowly now I was the one getting angry as he had no right to talk about my sister's death like it was some loss of my favorite football team in a simple league game.

"That's no fucking new version of me, I am me and I'm the same as before. Of course I'm different because I lost the person who was closest to me, yeah that changes and yes that takes time, but I'm still RedBull's Max Verstappen, your driver, a person you always trusted."