malicious | max verstappen

thirty three.

Unfortunately for me, Max did put his thing to sleep since he was thriving in first during Q1 and Q2. And I was second, every. single. time. It didn't help that whenever we locked eyes, he'd wink or blow a kiss my way.

During the break between Q2 and Q3, I overheard the mechanics talking.

"How is she doing better than Lewis? We installed new upgrades in his car, weren't they supposed to make him faster?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, we don't know how that happened, Chief." Another one answered.

"Well, know what the problem is and fix it! We didn't spend a bunch of money on upgrades for them to not work." The same person ordered.

"Yes, sir. We're on it."

I scoffed and quickly walked away before anyone could spot me. Fucking unbelievable.

I walked over to Thomas who was sitting beside Toto and a couple other important people in the team by the pit wall.

"Hey, Ellie, aren't you supposed to be in the car by now?" Thomas asked me.

"Yeah, but I had a question." I told him and watched as Toto leaned near us to listen.

"Go ahead, tiger."

"Did you guys get any upgrades this weekend I didn't know about?" I asked.

"No, not that I've heard of." Thomas shook his head and I believed him since he was the most loyal person in the whole team.

I looked at Toto. "Did you know? Oh right, of course you did— you're the team principal."

"What are you talking about, Elyse?" Toto furrowed his eyebrows, "Of course you'd know if we got any upgrades."

"So Lewis' car doesn't have any upgrades?" I questioned him, waiting to see if he'll lie or not.

"No." He shook his head.

I cracked my knuckles as I scoffed in disbelief again, "You guys can be mad at me, ignore me, and treat me like shit and I didn't say anything. But getting upgrades and hiding them from me because you know how shitty what you're doing is, is out of line. Even from you, Toto and I will call you out on it. I've been in the lead for the whole season— a few fuckups, that didn't mostly come from me, doesn't mean you're allowed to throw me aside." I pointed an accusing finger towards him, "And don't even try denying it, maybe try to silence your mechanics or something. Just don't continuously keep lying to my face."

I walked away after speaking my mind and quickly got into the car. I started my first flyer lap and hope filled me when I heard Thomas say I had provisional pole.

That hope was promptly demolished, though, when I was informed that Max set a faster time, dropping me down to P2. I had enough time to make one more lap.

I pressed down on the gas pedal completely, only slightly letting go when I braked. I nearly lost the car in a couple turns, but I was able to keep it on the road. At this point, I was the only car out on track and I could feel everyone's eyes on me.

As I was approaching a turn after a long straight, I could see something moving on the road and it wasn't until I got closer when I realized what it was.