malicious | max verstappen

seven.

"I know but it's not healthy to keep looking at them!" she explained.

"When have you ever known me to be healthy, Hailey?" I half-joked.

"I'm not joking Elyse." she sounded serious, "Stop or I'll come over there and delete every social media app you own."

"Alright, alright! What do you want me to do now?" I asked her.

"Nothing. I can fix this." she stated cooly.

"Are you sure?" I doubted her confidence.

"Have I ever failed you, Ellie?" she sighed, probably being fed up from me.

"You could never, my savior." I joked which made her chuckle.

"Alright, stay low and don't post anything until this issue gets fixed." she instructed and I hummed along as I put my hair in a bun. Before she ended the call, "And don't avoid Neymar! I know how you ruin things because of rumors like these. For Lewis' sake."

I sighed, "Fine." I rolled my eyes, "Sometimes I wish you didn't know me so well."

And with that, I ended the call and tried to look as normal as possible as I got out of the bathroom.

"What took you so long?" Lewis was first to ask.

"Lewis! Never question a lady's time spent in the bathroom! I thought I taught you better." I acted offended. "Eh, well I guess that explains why we didn't actually find you in some chick's bed like Ney said." I shrugged as I said that making Neymar laugh.

"You two are evil." Lewis shook his head disapprovingly. "But you are no lady so what were you doing in there?"

My jaw flew open for a second but I chose to ignore it and answer his question, "Hailey called, apparently photos of me and Neymar were taken and people think we're dating now."

Both Lewis and Neymar burst out laughing.

"I swear! People are bored at this point." I raised my hands in the air.

"It'd be funny to play along." Neymar suggested with a raised brow and a smirk.

"It would, but your fans are scary." I admitted.

"What do you mean?" Neymar asked, confused.

"Like they've been sending me death threats since the morning and criticizing everything about me, I mean— I knew football fans have serious anger issues but not this far." I tried to joke but the smirk on Neymar's face was now replaced with a more serious look. So was Lewis.

"I'm going to post a story for people to stop harassing you. This isn't acceptable." He shook his head before taking his phone out of his pocket.

"No, no, no. My PR said she'll handle it, Imm surprised yours hasn't called yet." I attempted to calm him down.

"She may stop the rumors but it won't make people stop threatening you unless I say something about it." Neymar spoke sternly.

I looked at Lewis for any support to help me talk Neymar out of it— I really didn't want to make a fuss about it— but he just silently nodded and said, "It's for the best."

"Hey guys. I have something serious to address regarding the new rumors that have been going around regarding my relationship with Elyse Garcia." Neymar started his video, "Me and Elyse met in a boat party just yesterday when Lewis introduced us. We have been nothing but friendly with each other and will continue to remain that way and any other accusations are nothing but lies. I do not tolerate all the hate that is being sent to Elyse's way, especially since the people who are attacking her call themselves my fans and any fan who attacks the people I care about is no fan of mine. Please respect each of our privacies and don't believe everything you see online and start sending death threats to people you don't even know. Thank you."

As soon as he posted it, I was already receiving a hundred other messages from Hailey.

"Thank you so much, Ney, it means a lot." I told him sincerely.

"Anytime. And if people still continue to  harass you, please tell me." he warned me, "Now, I need to go before my PR manager comes and slices my head open." he chuckled before bidding us goodbye.

As soon as he left Lewis turned to me and said, "The two of you are hiding something from me." He said in a sing song voice.

My head snapped towards him with my eyes widened but I quickly regained my composure. "Us? Whaat? No."

"You're a terrible liar." Lewis laughed at my attempt of covering up as we walked towards our car.

"Fine, we kissed." I sighed as I admitted and watched his eyes widen, "Once."

"It's official, I'm a match maker." Lewis announced before slinging his arms over my shoulder.

"No, I ruined it immediately. I'm surprised he kept talking me to after I brutally rejected him." I rolled my eyes at the memory.

I saw Lewis scrunch his eyebrows in displeasure, "Yikes, flashback?"

I silently nodded and hummed.

"Oh man, I'm sorry." he pulled me closer to him as we approached the car.

"It is what it is." I shrugged. "Anyways, let's go get some ice-cream."

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