Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (2 page)

“Ax!” she yelled, waving at him to get his
attention.

“Hey, Julia!”
He sauntered toward her, his blond curls dancing
in the breeze.
“How’s life?”

“Full of
surprises,
apparently. What are
you
doing
here? Weren’t you supposed to fly out to London last
night?”

“I was,” Axel
replied with a long face, pushing up the glasses sliding down his
nose. “But Florian has a bad case of stomach flu, so we postponed
our trip. Uncle Helmut bought our tickets and took aunt Verena on a
short city break.”

“Poor Florian.”

“And poor
me
, too.
I
was literally storing my bag in the overhead compartment already
when he suddenly called off, the miscreant.”

“Yeah, I bet
he was hoping for a miraculous recovery. Our eternal optimist.” She
rolled her eyes.

“Ha
. I’d call that
naive.”

Julia chuckled.
“Sure.
So what should we call you – an
optimist with life experience?”

“Ouch, Jules.
You want me to run away bawling?” Axel grinned. “Sarcasm bites, you
know.”

“Sorry. Why
don’t you drop by O’Malley’s tonight? I might be easier to talk to
with a drink in my hand.”

Axel smiled.
“I’ll even buy you one.
See you at ten?”

At that
moment,
a voice rang out from across the
square. “Jules! Hi!” A disheveled Gaby was racing toward them, her
dyed-black hair all tangled up and her eyeliner even more smudged
than usual. She reached them and extended a purple nail-polished
hand to Axel. “Hey there, Axe Effect.”

“Hey
yourself, Gaby Gloom,” he
shot back.
“Been crying again? Your make-up is all over your cheeks, you
know.”

“
Meh. That
joke’s getting old. But you’re right this time. I’ve
really
been crying. I just had a hotdog with hot curry sauce and
it was a bit
too
spicy for my taste.”

“You went and
got food?” Julia asked
in dismay. “I
thought you wanted to go for pastries at Tomaselli’s!”

“Yeah, don’t
your parents feed you at home?”
Axel chimed
in.

“I’m having my period.” Gaby
glowered at him.

“Okay, I’m
not here,” Axel decided, backing away. “See you tonight!” he told
Julia before rushing off.

“That cousin
of yours is peculiar,” Gaby concluded, staring at his retreating
figure.
“But funny.” She threw Julia her widest
smile.
“Sorry I’m late. I’ll buy
you
two
pastries to make up for it.”

“Thanks! I’d love
that.
I sort of forgot to have lunch,
actually.”

The two girls
entered Tomaselli’s and made a beeline for a table at the window.
Julia dug up her cell phone and glanced at the display for the
umpteenth time that day. Still nothing.

“So tell me –
what happened after the graduation party?” Gaby asked,
catching Julia sneaking a look at her phone. She
patted her friend’s hand over the table. “I want to know
everything
.”

Julia bit her
lip. Gaby had left for a city-trip to Paris with her parents and
sister after graduation, so her best friend wasn’t up-to-date with
all of her woes and worries.

Everything
had started at
prom – the Masked Ball
graduation party that she’d been agonizing over for months. She’d
reserved a gorgeous medieval gown at a rental store weeks
beforehand, so she could make an indelible impression on Michael
with her appearance in costume. It had been the perfect opportunity
to catch his eye at last, erasing her previous two years of
invisibility. After summer, he would move to Graz to go to college,
and she’d probably never see him again. The party had been her last
chance.

It had been a
huge relief when Michael
showed up stag
that evening. And the things that had happened between them had
been on her mind ever since.

Gaby
practically drooled over her cake when Julia
told her all about Michael asking her to dance. “Yeah, I know,
right?! I saw you two. When he started kissing you, I guessed it
was time to leave you guys alone and play vampire somewhere
else.”

“Thanks.” Julia smiled weakly, prodding her
cake with a pastry fork.

“Anyway… So,
once you saved your number to his contacts…” Gaby prompted her to
go on. “What happened after that?”

“Well, we spent the rest of the evening
together. He kissed me one last time under the stars in the school
yard before I caught the bus home. The day after, he called me and
invited me over for dinner and a movie.”

Julia slowly
turned red when Gaby looked at her inquisitively. “Hmm. Were his
parents around?” her friend whispered.

Michael came
from a wealthy family. His parents spent more time at work than at
home.
“No,” she muttered back.

Gaby fell silent for a
moment.
“Aha.” She cocked her head with a
small smile, staring at her friend expectantly.

Julia bit her
lip, her face flaming. “It was so wonderful when it happened,” she
whispered, staring at her hands. “So beautiful. It was how I’d
always imagined it.”

When she looked back up, tears were pooling
in her eyes.

“So why are
you crying?” Gaby said in shock. “Darling, what
happened?”

“Nothing.
” Julia sniffed
desolately. “That’s the thing. We said goodbye the morning after,
and he said we’d talk soon.”

“And you
didn’t hear back from him
at
all
after that?”

Julia shook her head.

“Well, what
did you tell him that evening?”

“Just… how I
felt about him. What I’d been feeling for him for the past two
years. How special he was to me. How I’d wanted to tell him I was
in love with him before he moved away.”

“And what did
he say to that?”

Julia paused
for a minute, looking at Gaby with growing doubt. “He said… he
never noticed that I liked him so much. That I should have told him
before – I had no reason to be so shy and insecure, because I was a
beautiful girl,” she haltingly repeated his words.

He’
d caressed her everywhere,
slowly undressing her in the dreamy candlelight of his bedroom. And
yet, the same candle flames had also turned the two of them into
erratic, unpredictable shadows on the wall.

It had been a
dream,
and now she was abruptly waking
up.

Michael
hadn’t said a single word about his feelings for
her
. He
had only told her how he’d never noticed her silent admiration. A
heavy brick grew in her stomach.

“Didn’t he
say
anything
about your little, uhm, ‘dance in the sheets’?”
Gaby asked incredulously.

“He said he’d had a great night,” Julia
whispered.

“Well,
duh
!” Gaby
viciously stabbed the cake with her fork as if she were staking
someone’s heart. “No surprise there. Jesus, what a total asshole.
Flatters himself by listening to you professing your undying love
to him, sets up a private date so he can get you in the sack, then
never calls you back. If I
ever
get my hands on
him…”

Julia went cold
inside.
She closed her eyes, clasping her
hand over her mouth to stop herself from crying out, tears running
down her cheeks.

S
he felt Gaby’s arm around her
shoulders in consolation. “Look, I’m sorry if I was being too
blunt.” Gaby wiped Julia’s tears away. “I don’t have a filter. But
I’m just giving my honest opinion, as your best friend. If things
really happened the way you described, I’m afraid he’s been playing
you.”

Gaby
sat down on the armrest of Julia’s chair,
hugging her with both arms now. “You wanted to let him know how you
felt. If he can’t respect that, it’s his problem, not yours. You
didn’t do anything wrong.” Her jet-black head against Julia’s
platinum blonde locks painted a sad black-and-white
picture.

A waitress
pushing a pastry cart
shuffled toward
them. “Is everything all right?” she asked a bit
perplexed.

“Sure,” Gaby
replied.
“We’re not crying because of the
pastries.
They’re wonderful.”

Julia giggled despite her
tears.
“Ugh,” she said, rubbing her face.
“I’m such a gullible sucker. I was
so
in love with Michael. Why
didn’t I see this coming?”

Gaby shrugged.
“Love is blind. That’s the way it
is.”

“Maybe I
should call him. So I can ask him why he didn’
t text me back? Who knows, he might have a very good
reason.”

“Yup. I bet
his thumbs fell off,
” Gaby nodded
solemnly, and Julia snickered. “But, seriously, just call him. The
sooner you know what’s up, the better.”

Gaby
chatted on about her short vacation in Paris. It
was nice to listen to her friend’s babbling and entertaining
stories, but Julia couldn’t entirely shake the dark cloud hovering
over her head. When they left the café and Julia had to walk back
to the bus stop all by herself, her feelings of misery returned
full-force. Taking her cell phone from her bag and staring at the
thing in doubt, she leaned against the wall next to the bus
shelter. Wasn’t it better to put off her phone call to Michael for
one more day? She should give him a fair chance to respond to her
text messages. Maybe Gaby was wrong after all. Couldn’t she give
him the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer?

A familiar
sound
in the distance interrupted Julia’s
musings. Her heart skipped a beat – she’d recognize the strangely
rattling exhaust of Michael’s vintage Honda motorbike anywhere.
Whenever he’d pulled up into the school yard riding his prized
possession, she’d been around to shyly watch from the sidelines.
Her stomach tightened as she looked up, quickly stashing away her
phone.

He
approached the bus stop, turned off his engine
and parked the bike against the same wall she was using for
support. His brown hair had a golden gleam in the sunlight. Michael
hadn’t spotted her yet, but when she hesitantly edged toward him to
catch his eye, an impatient frown crossed his handsome face for
just a moment, and the broad smile he flashed at her the next
second didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Julia,” he
exclaimed a little too
brightly.
“
Grüss Gott
. Coming back from town?”

“Yeah, Gaby
invited me for tea and cakes at the pastry shop.” She swallowed
down the lump in her throat before continuing: “And where have you
been?”

“Oh, you know
– around,” he answered glibly. “Stayed with my aunt and uncle in
Hallein for a few days. Went clubbing with my cousins. Nothing
special.” He fumbled with his keys, surreptitiously looking past
her at the narrow alley leading to the Old Town.

Julia blinked
back tears, her last glimmer of hope gone. This all felt so vastly
different from the morning they’d said their goodbyes. It was as if
she was talking to a stranger she had nothing in common with – or
hadn’t shared anything with. “Why didn’t you call me back?” she
asked with quiet determination.

Michael
sighed, putting a warm hand on her shoulder
condescendingly. “Look, I thought you’d be happy with our
night together.” He sounded genuinely puzzled. “I mean – you told
me how much you wanted me. How you longed to be with me before I
moved to Graz. I wouldn’t mind going on a date with you again
sometime, but I’ve been busy. Am I missing something?”

She took a
step back.
This was horrifying – Michael
made it sound like he had done her a
favor
. He’d been generous enough
to meet up with her because she admired him, and he’d had a good
time. That was all – he’d never been serious with her. All the
street sounds faded into the background, leaving her and Michael in
the middle of a silent, barren plain where she could no longer lie
to herself or pretend she’d misunderstood him.

“You told me
we would talk soon.”
She cringed when she
heard how plaintive and clingy she sounded. “That was a week
ago.”

“I
was out of town,” he replied curtly.
“It’s summer vacation. Why would I hang around in Salzburg
all the time?
Aren’t you going anywhere
this summer?”

Julia closed
her eyes, biting back tears.
Summer
. She desperately tried to
chase away images of her and him – fantasies she’d had in the days
after their date. A Salzburg summer with Michael, who’d visit the
forest with her so she could show him the places that were special
to her. Evenings full of kissing and embracing under the stars.
Sweet words he’d whisper in her ear.