malicious | max verstappen

thirty four.

"If you wouldn't mind." I chuckled. He shook his head and we took a seat at one of the cafeterias.

We caught up since it's been quite some time since we bonded. He told me about his wife and children whom I loved to spoil everytime I saw them. I told him about my recovery process and vague details of the crash.

"How's Mercedes' like?" He asked.

To be clear, nobody knows that I got injured due to the team's carelessness and not checking the security of the seatbelts. It was just a crash— deeming it a driver's mistake. Maybe that was why the team was suddenly so caring— but still. I was pissed.

"How's Redbull like?" I asked back.

"It's great." He answered, "Let me guess, you're having problems?"

I tried to keep my mouth shut, reminding myself that he was apart of our rival's team despite him being like a brother to me.

"Why would you say that?" I questioned.

He shrugged, "I mean, they screwed up a bunch of your races and kind of threw you aside when you lost the lead of the championship. It's pretty obvious if you notice it."

I sighed before confessing, "My injury isn't just because of a 'driver' error."

He furrowed his brows, "What do you mean?"

"The seatbelts weren't secured properly." I elaborated, "They have been careless with everything that concerns me. I even found out that they installed upgrades for Lewis and not me in Austin and nobody even told me."

He stayed silent for a while. Stunned, even. "Oh my God, El. They're jeopardizing your safety. How can you stay silent after all that?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. I'm so sick of fighting with everyone that I don't see the need to pick fights over this stuff anymore."

"Well, are you going to re-sign with them?" He asked me, "Or did any other teams offer you anything?"

I looked at the ground, "I've received zero offers so far. Not even from Mercedes' themselves and it doesn't look like any seats are opened except for Kimi's and I'm definitely not going to Alfa Romeo."

"That's not necessarily true." He discreetly smiled.

"What do you mean? Are you hiding something from me?"

"I'm going to retire at the end of this season." He sprung on me and my jaw dropped.

"No you won't." I objected, "Why?"

"I want to be there for my kids while they grow up. And I'm already old enough." He reasoned.

"But you're at the peak of your career right now! You have a championship winning car, why leave now?" I was so confused.

"When you grow up you'll realize that winning a championship or two isn't the only thing that'll bring you joy. You'll find love, get married and have kids and then they will be your priority, not racing." He said.

"I hope you're happy with your decision, but you will have to come by every now and then." I pointed a threatening finger his way. He raised his hand in defense before agreeing.

"What's up, guys?" Max came out of nowhere, taking a seat beside me. "What are you talking about?"

"Checo's retirement." I allowed my seat to engulf me as I sunk further into the seat.

"Oh, yeah." It was as if Max forgot about it. How long has he been planning on retiring? "Why do you look you're about to cry?" He pointed out.

"I'm not going to cry." I ignored the way my eye twitched. "It's not like my big brother in the sport is leaving."