malicious | max verstappen

forty.

ELYSE's POV

The next morning, I headed to breakfast at the hotel's open buffet. A large portion of the drivers happened to be there and I immediately lost my appetite when I saw Lewis; remembering how I completely forgot to stop by his room.

"Shit, Lewis." I started walking towards him while he started going the other way. "Lewis, wait."

He wouldn't stop until I grabbed his arms.

"I'm so sorry I forgot to pass by. Really." I knew it was a shitty apology, I was never the best at apologizing– but that wasn't an excuse.

"Did you actually forget or were you busy spending time with Max all night?" He didn't sound mad, more like betrayed.

"What are you talking about, Lew? I wasn't with anyone last night." It was true, I fell asleep the moment I laid on my bed. And how the hell did he know about Max?

"You really think I'm that dumb, Elyse?"

God, I hated when he used my full name.

"No, I never said anything like that. I don't get where you're coming from. I barely even talk to Max anymore."

"Says the one who spent a whole two weeks with him when you told me you'd be staying at Ashley's." He scoffed.

I was taken aback. Who the hell snitched?

"What– How–"

"How do I know?" He completed my question, "When I went to Ashley's in hopes of hanging out with you, she told me you were running errands. I believed her. But then when I went home, I realized you still shared your location with me and guess what I found?"

I swallowed. I had no idea what to say or do in a situation like this.

"Lewis, can we please talk somewhere else?" I started to get self-conscious, realizing we were about to argue in the middle of a hotel restaurant.

"We don't need to talk, Elyse." He told me, "I just wanted to let you know how it felt to find out your bestfriend is secretly dating or doing whatever with one of our biggest rivals and lying to my face about it. It's even worse when I found out my own team principal knew, and I didn't. It's like I know nothing about you these days."

I felt my eyes start to sting, "Look, I'm sorry. I'll apologize a million times if it'll make you forgive me. I promise I've always wanted to tell you, but what could I have possibly said? Hey Lewis, I may or may not have feelings for our biggest rival and the guy who used to be my mortal enemy? I've thought about telling you all the time, and I wasn't even sure if it would stick. And clearly, that didn't happen so it doesn't matter anymore."

He sighed, "You know how much I hate being mad at you. But I can't help but feel like you're slowly replacing me with him."

"Lewis, you'll always have a place in my heart that nobody could steal." I playfully pinched his cheek. "I'm really sorry I didn't tell you about Max."

"I'm still mad about it, but for the sake of it being the last race as teammates, I'll let it slide." He put an arm around my shoulders, allowing a smile to creep onto both of our faces.

"Aw, are you gonna miss me, Hammy?" I pretended to pout, while using his least-favorite nickname.

"No, I'm rather relieved I won't have to be seeing your face everywhere." He rolled his eyes.

I fake gasped, "How could you? After all we've been through?"

"Yeah, 5 years as your teammate and roommate are hard." Lewis joked, "Even Roscoe is sick of you screaming at him everytime you see him."