our time - lestappen

return

While I wish it was him driving me back to the hotel in the Ferrari he has for the weekend, instead I've caught a ride with Zhou Guanyu as he's staying at the same hotel as my dad with the rest of the Alfa Romeo team.

I knock on the door of my dad's hotel room, and hold my breath.

Charles Leclerc

I'm pacing the room.

I got home from the interviews, called Max as he was on his way to Jos' hotel, took a shower, posted some photos to Instagram, replied to all my messages, got food, and now I'm back.

Max has been with his dad for a while now and I'm honestly terrified. I know how badly this can go, I flinch at the memories of the beginning of the year.

There's nothing I can do to calm my mind, I try to distract myself by texting Pierre but it's of no use. He doesn't know what's going on with Max and I'm spacing out from the conversation, just not able to even form coherent thoughts, much less put them into text.

Finally, I get a text from the one person I've been waiting to hear from.

Max <3:
Can u come pick me up? I'll send live location.

Charles:
i'm on my way. just wait, i'll be there as fast as i can sweetheart.

He sends me his location but it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. I don't even want to know what's going on. I jump into my car as quick as possible and speed down the roads, putting my F1 reflexes to use. I get to where his location says he is, but as I look around I don't see anyone. It's dark and this genuinely feels like a horror movie, but I need to find my boyfriend, and now.

That's when I see him. The only giveaway was the light on his phone, actually. I immediately reach over to open the passenger door and he gets in. He's wordless as I start to drive back to our hotel, it's about 20 minutes away.

"So, how was it?" I ask.

He immediately breaks down in tears. And not like a couple of loose tears, no he is full on sobbing. This is not the Max Verstappen I know, and it's really worrying me.

As we approach a red light I reach over and pull him into a hug.

"It's going to be okay, mon amour. Let's just get back and we have the rest of the night to ourselves. It's only 20:00."

"I- he-" Max tries to say something through his tears.

"Shh, baby you don't need to tell me anything right now. Just focus on breathing, I've got you now and you're safe." He is scaring the fuck out of me now, the way he is hyperventilating.

He still can't breathe normally as we pull into the parking lot of the hotel. I put it in park but stay inside, reach over, and take his hands into mine.

"Max, sunshine, look at me."

His baby blue eyes meet mine, but they're bloodshot. He's been crying since before I came to pick him up and that doesn't just break my heart, it shatters it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I say gently, rubbing my thumbs over the backs of his hands.

He shakes his hands from the light hold that I have on them to roll up his sweatshirt and what I see makes my blood boil.

Fresh marks. Fresh wounds inflicted on his beautiful body, but more importantly on his mind.

Someone remind me to kill Jos Verstappen the next time I see him.

"He- he said that he won't let us be together b-but I told him that he doesn't get to tell me who I'm with and then that's when- when this happened," Max stammers out.