Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (15 page)

Florian
elbowed his friend in the ribs. “Forge
t
about renting that white horse, man,” he grinned. “She thinks it’s
lame.”

In the silence that followed, both Gaby and
Axel turned beet-red.

“Who
wants another drink?” Tamara
chirped in an effort to diffuse the palpable tension.

“Yeah, me,”
Thorsten replied, happily oblivious to the clanger Florian had just
dropped. He got up from his chair. “Wait, I’ll help you.
Would you like another one?” he asked Julia.

“Yeah, sure!
I’d like a small wheat beer,” she quickly
replied.

Once Thorsten
and Tamara were out of hearing range, Florian started snickering
and poked Julia mischievously. “Well, Julius Caesar, I think we
have a suitable candidate. Your boy next door is
cute
and
he’s totally into you.
Well done!”

“Done what?
I haven’t done anything yet.”

“Well, you
asked him out, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Julia
slung an arm around Gaby’s shoulders. “Gaby told me to take action.
She’s got a keen eye for candidates.
We
had dinner at my place too, before coming here.”

Axel, Florian
and Moritz babbled on
as Julia felt
Gaby’s shoulders slowly relax a bit. She couldn’t
believe
how much of a bumbling blabbermouth Florian was sometimes.
Had Axel fessed up to Florian himself about liking Gaby, or had his
best friend just taken a lucky guess? Either way, she hoped things
wouldn’t be nipped in the bud now.

Fortunately,
everybody thought better of mentioning Gaby and Axel together for
the rest of the evening. Axel was mostly talking to the other guys
and Gaby was more or less hiding behind her sister and Julia. It
was only when the pub was about to close and they were all getting
up to get home that Axel approached Gaby again. He purposefully
strode over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Shall I
give you a ride home?” he asked with a
half-smile.

Gaby’s eyes widened. “I, uhm… I came here by
bus, so…”

“I came here
by scooter.”

“But… I
promised Tamara we’
d go home
together.”

“Actually,
I’m not going home yet,” Tamara piped up next to her. “I just
texted Anna and Gretchen and we’re going to that new club together.
I haven’t seen them for a while.”

Gaby gave
Tamara a look that clearly spelled a desire to strangle her on the
spot.
“Oh. Right. Okay.”
She
turned around to face Axel again and bit her lip nervously.
“Well… okay then.”

Axel didn’t
say anything. He just started grinning more widely and
ran off to fetch his scooter.

Julia had
listened
in on the entire conversation
with a sly smile. “Sooo,” she drew out. “Will I see you tomorrow at
Silke’s party?”

Gaby nodded, her face still flustered. “Yes,
I’ll be at your place at five. So, you’re going home with
Thorsten?”

Now it was Julia’s turn to look flustered. “I
guess so. We’re taking the same bus.”

Just then,
Axel arrived and parked his scooter on the sidewalk next to the
pub. He looked at Gaby expectantly. “You ready?”

“Ready Freddy.”

Julia watched
Gaby getting on the back of Axel’s scooter, her arms awkwardly
around his waist as if she was afraid he’d break in two. She said
goodbye to the others, then set off down the road toward the bus
stop flanked by Thorsten.

“I had a
really good time tonight,” he said. “It was cool of you to invite
me.”

“You’re
welcome. I know it’s hard to make new friends in the middle of
summer. You’ll have friends in no time once college starts in
October, though.”

“Oh, I don’t
know. I doubt I’d meet people as nice as you,” her neighbor softly
replied.

Julia stared at her sneakers. “Yeah, thanks.”
She had no idea if his ‘you’ was meant to be singular or plural,
and she wasn’t about to ask.

They sat next
to each other on the bus sharing Julia’s earbuds to listen to her
MP3 player together. Every now and then, Julia pointed out a
landmark through the window or Thorsten asked her something about
the music on her player, but apart from that, they were quiet. They
kept quiet on the walk home from the bus stop to their street,
too.

The silence
became too pregnant for Julia’s taste when they came to a stop in
front of her
gate and Thorsten ran a warm
hand down her upper arm. She gulped when he came closer, leaning
into her.

“Would you be upset if I kissed you now?” he
whispered.

Julia looked up
shyly.
“N-no, of course not.
Not upset. Just...
I don’t know if
you should.
It wouldn’t be fair.”

He looked at her
earnestly.
“You don’t like me that
way?”

She blushed. “I do.
But something happened between me and a guy I’d
had a crush on for ages, a while ago, and I haven’t gotten over it
yet. I’m not over
him
yet, either. It’s got nothing to do with
you.”

Thorsten
smiled gently, caressing her cheek.
“Okay, duly noted.
I understand.
You should take your time.
I can be a friendly friend too, okay?”

Julia
grinned. “Thanks,” she said timidly. “And sorry for giving off such
mixed signals.”

“No worries.”
He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “As long as you
do, there’s hope, right?”

He turned
around and crossed the street. Julia let out the breath she’d been
holding. As Thorsten’s door fell shut, she pushed open the gate and
went inside.

What a night.

7
.

“I
want juicy details,” Gaby
demanded when she stepped into the yard on Sunday afternoon, her
eyes sparkling with excitement. Julia had just come back from a
visit to her gran and was curled up on the bench next to the front
door, engrossed in a
Sailor
Moon
manga.

She
unhurriedly put away her book as Gaby took a
seat next to her.
“You do, huh? Well, me too. You. My
very own cousin. Last night.
Spill.”

Her best
friend
abruptly shut her mouth, staring
at a pebble near her right foot like it had suddenly turned into
the most fascinating object in all of Salzburg. “What do you mean?”
she said shiftily. “There’s nothing to tell. He just dropped me off
at home on his scooter. I mean, he lives in the same neighborhood.
Come on, you don’t think something’s going on?” She gingerly looked
up, giving Julia an almost pleading look.

“Hmm.”

“So what about you and Thorsten?”

Julia cleared her throat.
“What do you mean?
There’s nothing to
tell. He just dropped me off at home when we walked here from the
bus stop. I mean, he lives on the same street.”

Gaby moaned in frustration. “Oh, come on,
don’t be like that.”

“Don’t be like
what
?”

“Like nothing
happened!
Don’t tell me he didn’t even
try.” Gaby started to smile cheekily when Julia couldn’t help
blushing.
“Hah! I knew it! So tell me.”

“He asked me if... if it would upset me if he
kissed me. And I confessed to him that I’m not over Michael yet and
that it wouldn’t feel right.”

“Okay. That’s pretty brave
of you.
But kind of a pity, too.” Gaby
sighed.

“Well, it’s
not like everything between us is ruined now or anything. He said
he’d had a great night.” Julia still remembered the look in
Thorsten’s eyes – not defeated, but filled with patience and a
quiet hope.

“Sounds like
not all hope is gone just yet,” Gaby concluded. “So what time is
this Silke expecting us?”

Julia had to
stop herself from mentioning Axel again – she’d only rattle her
friend by doing that. “From six o’clock onward. Shall we catch the
twenty-to-six bus?”

When Julia
and Gaby arrived at the gate of Silke and Marco’s large country
house, the entire grounds already smelled like barbecue. Julia
pushed open the gate leading to the vast lawn, hesitantly stepping
inside. She didn’t know any of the guests who were sitting on the
lawn, and was happy to discover Donna standing by the patio door
sipping from a beer can. Gaby trailed behind Julia and looked
around her in awe. “Wow, they have such a neat yard! Silke’s mom
must be an avid gardener to keep it all weed-free like
this.”

Just then,
Silke caught up with them on the path. She was holding a bowl of
potato salad in one hand and shook Julia’s hand with the other.
“Hey, how nice of you to come! Why don’t you follow me to the
patio, I’ll show you the drinks and snacks table.”
She
looked at Gaby curiously. “Hi, I’m Silke. And you’re not
Thorsten.”

Gaby started
laughing.
“No, I’m sorry. Did Jules
promise to bring him instead?”

Chatting,
they crunched up the gravel path to the patio where the party was
in full swing. A crowd had gathered around the barbecue. Silke took
the present Julia brought for her with a smile and put it on the
gift table.

Julia
noticed the patio doors opened up into a large
living room with a beautiful, white grand piano in the
corner.
“You play?” she asked Silke, pointing at the
instrument.

“No, Marco and my dad
do.
If you want to play something, don’t
be shy!”

“Oh, cool! You don’t have
to tell me twice.”
Of course, she could
have dropped by Michael’s place to play
his
grand piano anytime, but
that was nothing short of a bad idea. Besides, playing some songs
for a group of people she hardly knew and didn’t care that much
about was decidedly less of a hurdle.

Julia stepped
inside, sat down on the piano
bench and
started to play one of Enya’s songs.

“Awesome,”
Gaby mumbled, tiptoeing up to her from behind. She always stood in
holy awe of Julia’s piano performances, having failed to ever play
more than three notes on her recorder before chucking it out the
window.

Julia’s piano
music floated outside and soon lured more people
onto the patio. When she played the last few notes
of
Watermark
, Donna started to
applaud fervently and Marco smiled at Julia encouragingly. “Go on,
play another one,” he said. “You’re really good.”

Julia
hesitated for a second,
then started to
play the song she’d written for Michael. She didn’t look up at her
audience again, but the silence that pervaded the patio was telling
her she’d captivated her listeners. Her fingers caressed the keys,
her heart beating a steady rhythm. She lost herself in the music.
Once, she had poured all of her heart into writing this song, her
music expressing something she’d never be able to find words
for.

Suddenly, she
heard Gaby gasp behind her. Absently, Julia looked up to scan the
crowd for the reason of her friend’s concern. Her heart stopped
when she looked straight
into two
familiar green eyes, her hands almost tripping on the keys as she
reached the chorus of her song. What was
he
doing here?

Oh,
right. This was Marco’s birthday party too – and
he had probably invited Michael. She hadn’t even thought of that.
Julia quickly looked back down at the keyboard, trying to continue
her recital unperturbedly, but she was fully aware of his eyes on
her. In fact, she
wanted
his gaze on her. She
wanted him to absorb every note she was playing. And suddenly, she
found herself wishing he could somehow hear that this music had
once been meant for him.

Only when the
song was over did Julia risk looking up again. A stab of
disappointment went through her
– Michael
had disappeared from the audience around the piano, who were
clapping excitedly.

“Thank you,” Julia said shyly, quickly
getting up.

G
aby grabbed her hand and
unexpectedly dragged her outside even before the applause was over.
“Did you
see
that?” she whispered urgently, as though she was
about to tell Julia a rhino had stumbled into the
fountain.

“Did I
see
what
?”

“Michael
. The way he looked at
you.”

Julia blinked in
confusion.
“What do you mean? Did he look
tortured, maybe? He didn’t even bother listening to the entire
song.”

Gaby shook
her head. “I don’t think he could. He... Jules, he was
staring
at
you, so intensely. So focused on what you were playing. And then…
look, I know this sounds ridiculous, but I swear to you, he started
to cry. He was
crying
, and that’s why he walked
away. He was touched to the core.”