The Bull Prince | Max Verstappen

Chapter 16

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Opening the door Daniel wasn't surprised as he saw Joanna leaning against the wall opposite his room. Rather unusual for her, she wasn't smiling with her arms crossed in front of her chest. Pushing herself away from the wall, she walked into the room, as Daniel took a step back but made no move to close the door. 

Joanna watched Daniel as he walked around the room. Abandoning the shirt he was charring on the bed and the wet towel with which he dried his hair moments before was thrown over one of the chairs in the corner. Joanna didn't pay him much mind. Rather taking in the difference between his room and her own.

His shoes were kicked off messily in the corridor, where Joanna was still standing, not sure how much she should move into his private space. Daniel didn't seem to pay her any mind. Or he was offering her time to accumulate to their current situation. Joanna wouldn't know. Maybe she was giving him too much credit.

"Are you going to talk or are you here to watch me sleep?" Daniel questioned, looking over to where Joanna was still standing. She seemed not very present like coming here took her a lot and Daniel hated it. He wished things would be like they were before Joanna decided to use the power the other drivers gave her for her own advantage. 

Letting her gaze wander over Dan's suitcase and the furniture of the room, she felt painfully aware of their situation and how it must seem to an out stander if someone would walk in on them right now. Maybe she should go, but Joanna knew that they needed to talk or things would escalate even more. Daniel wasn't a bad person, he was her friend for many years, so something must have happened for him to turn against her like that. She missed him desperately.  

Upon seeing her still standing in the corridor with a closed-off expression, Daniel exhaled a little bit more aggressively than he had intended while walking over to her. Grabbing her hand, before pulling her over to the bed and pushing her down, so she was sitting next to the blue shirt with the white Red Bull logo he had put there.

"Watching you sleep would be creepy." Joanna tried to joke, but upon seeing Daniel's face fall, she understood that the Aussie had hoped they would have a serious conversation for once. Swallowing hard, Joanna lifted her leg onto the bed after kicking off her shoes, so she could rest her arms on her knees. 

"It seems like I'm making a lot of mistakes lately, so please Daniel, just tell me what I did." She pleased with him, which caused Daniel to snort. A few mistakes was the understatement of the year. 

"You don't even know." He muttered in disbelieve, which caused Joanna to look at him. Her expression plank and Daniel couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. 

"All these rules we have, you and Seb made these rules after Jules and you simply break them. Nobody ever holds you accounted for it, because it's you. I can't watch you do that, not any longer." Daniel started which caused Joanna to lift her eyebrow in confusion. So this whole thing was something personal after all. 

"Why haven't you said something before?" Joanna asked Daniel, not sure how to react to his statement. She knew how important their rules were and she was playing by them as far as she could, but at the end of the day, it was her job to keep everybody in check, and sometimes fear can help you lead. It can help you keep control. 

"What was I supposed to say? Stop playing with Fernando, it killed Jules."

"Me trying to control these games hasn't killed Jules, you know that," Joanna argued which caused Daniel to look at her again. the pain in his eyes visible and she wondered how she hadn't noticed what was happening before.