Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (6 page)

Gaby beamed
at Julia, her black-rimmed eyes filled with elation.
“Yeah, you think?”

“Yeah, totally. Thanks for bringing me.”

After a
six-song set, the band announced their break. The lights went on,
and Axel poked Florian. “
Are you coming?
We have to get some more drinks at the bar.”

“Sure
,” Florian agreed before
suddenly freezing up. “”No, wait!” he hissed. “That cute bass
player is coming straight at us!”

Julia turned
around
to see the tall, mohawked boy
stepping off the stage and making his way toward them.

“I’m dying of thirst,” Axel whined.

“Don’t worry,
I know CPR. Just wait.”

The bassist
seemed to
cut straight through the crowd,
the sea of people parting for him as if they could sense he was a
man on a mission. His eyes never left Florian, who was starting to
look like a tomato suffering from cardiac arrest. Julia could
almost
hear
him swallow when the gorgeous musician stopped
right in front of him.

“Hey,”
the bassist said in a soft but resolute voice.
“Do you come here often?”

Florian
blinked. He was speechless. Axel visibly cringed at the trite first
line, but came to Florian’s aid by grabbing him by the shoulder and
answering for him. “Yes, he does. In fact, I bet he’ll be here
every week from now on.”

“Good to
know.” The bassist shot Florian a
lazy
smile.

“Would –
would you like something to drink?” Florian managed to utter at
last.

“Sure, I
could do with a beer,” the punker nodded, extending his
hand.
“I’m Moritz, by the way.”

Florian shook hands with Moritz. “Florian. So
uhm, I’ll get you a beer,” he stammered.

“Now
you’re running,” Axel said
indignantly as they both rushed off toward the bar, leaving Moritz
with the three girls. Julia chuckled, shooting Tamara and Gaby a
‘what-the-hell-is-happening’ look.

“Nice band you guys have,” Gaby started the
conversation. “Are you going to do more gigs here?”

“I hope so. Let’s see how
this one goes.
If you girls want us to be
back, pretty please tell the owner so he’ll book us
again.”

“Where are you from?”
Julia asked curiously.
Moritz spoke
standard German without any Austrian accent, but she did hear a
hint of something else in his voice.

“Oh, my dad
is English. I
lived in London when I grew
up. When I was ten, we moved to Cologne for a while, and now we
live here.”

“London?” Tamara
said.
“Funny – we’re going on a trip
there next month. Maybe you can give us some tips.”

Florian
and Axel were back in no
time, the former balancing two beers and a glass of soda on a tray.
Julia raised her eyebrows at Axel. “Did he knock the rest of the
people in line out of the way?
That was freakishly
quick.”

“Turns out
Florian can jump the queue
very
well when the need
arises.”

Meanwhile
, Moritz was having an
animated discussion about the best youth hostels in the center of
London with the others. By the time Moritz had to go back on stage,
Florian had managed to score his number.

“I can’t
believe this is happening to me,” he enthused, casting another
smoldering look at Moritz’s muscular back as he disappeared among
the audience. “I saw him, he saw me, we locked eyes and that was
that!”

“Shouldn’t
you take it easy?” Julia tried to slow him down. “You don’t even
really know him yet.”

“Not
yet
, but I
will. Nothing’s gonna stop me from buying calling credit for the
next one hundred years, first thing tomorrow.”

Unexpectedly,
Julia felt a stab
of jealousy. Why was it all so simple for Florian? Why did he have
the good fortune of meeting a hot, cute guy this easily, who
genuinely seemed to like him?

The rest of
the concert went by in a blur. When the spectators flocked together
outside after the music finished, Julia walked up to Moritz,
Florian and Gaby having a cigarette outside.
“I’m
going home,” she announced. “I’m completely knackered.”

“That’s all right.” Gaby
patted her sweetly on the head.
“Did you
have fun, though?”

“Yeah
, I adored the music! And
I’m not even just saying that because Moritz is standing next to
me.”
She smiled at Florian’s new flame. He smiled
back.

“Why don’t
you borrow my MP3
player?” Gaby pulled
the thing from her kangaroo pouch. “So you can listen to some of
the songs on your way back home. But I’ll be wanting yours in
return.”

“Sure you’re
not going to cry over parting ways with your sinister goth and rock
tunes?”
Axel asked with a playful grin.

Gaby shook her
head.
“Nope, I like Enya. Besides, I
wouldn’t want to ruin my eyeliner
again
and look like
shit.”

“Well, as
long as you don’t
smell
like shit.”

“Shut
up
!” Gaby
shoved Axel.

Julia said
goodbye to everyone and got on the next available bus passing the
pub.
As she got on, the first raindrops
of a sweltering summer storm started to patter on the roof of the
bus.

The rain
didn’t
let up on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Long, summery showers hit the town of Salzburg but didn’t do
anything to alleviate the stifling heat. After the rain, the high
temperatures were somehow even more oppressive. Wisps of clouds
hung between the mountain peaks like mysterious fog from another
world.

Julia stood
in the
yard, sniffing the air. She wanted
to go for a run in the woods, but it was still way too hot now.
Actually, she’d prefer running in the rain. Maybe she should wait
for that.

“Are you staring down the clouds?” Anne
asked, popping up next to her with the storybook under one arm.

“No, I’m calling out to them. I want to go
running in the rain.”

Anne sat down on the bench under the awning.
“I worked on our tree house with Sabine. See, we want it to look
like this.” She pointed at a picture of the tree palace belonging
to the fairies in the book.

“Wow. That’s kind of ambitious. Are you sure
you’ll manage?”

“Wait till
you see it, big sister.
You’ll be surprised. Thorsten
said he’d come and help us too.
You know,
Sabine’s brother.”

“Oh, that guy you seem to like so much.”

Anne snorted.
“
I
don’t like him.
I thought he might be your type.”

At that
moment,
Axel emerged from the house. He’d
dropped by on his old scooter to have lunch with them and borrow
some books. “I’m off. Hey, Jules, did you have that job interview
at Höllrigl yet?”

“Going there tomorrow afternoon. I called
them yesterday, but the manager won’t be in until tomorrow.”

“Well, let me
know about those employee benefits, okay? I’ll come round and reap
them when you’re manning the
checkout. A
bookworm is always hungry.”

“So is a tapeworm,” Anne supplied absently,
her head in the storybook.

Axel
suppressed a laugh. “Aren’t you
a little
Wikipedian.” He smiled proudly at her. “Come here, worm, want me to
read you a story?” He sat down on the bench next to
Anne.

While Anne
listened to
‘The Prince of Trees’ yet
again, Julia went inside to put on her running gear and get Gaby’s
iPod. When she got back outside, it was raining just as she had
hoped. Dark storm clouds were gathering in the skies.

Axel pulled a
face
as he started his scooter and put on
his helmet. “Hoping for the best,” he said, looking up at the
sky.

“This
is
the best!”
Julia
waved at him before sprinting off, popping in her earbuds before
slowing down at the end of the street. She jogged toward the forest
at a leisurely pace.

The
wind-swept trees
swished and showered
raindrops on her head. It wasn’t raining heavily yet, but the sound
of the falling water hitting the tops of the trees sent an
agreeable quiver through her body. She set course for her special
oak and sat down for a minute against it, stretching her calves and
staring up at the branches winding their way upward to the skies,
reaching for the light, escaping the ever-present gravity of the
earth. The canopy of the tree branches kept her from getting
wet.

Julia
switched off Nina Hagen on
her borrowed
MP3 player and closed her eyes, resting her head against the oak
tree. Every now and then, she heard the rumble of thunder in the
distance. Very softly, very far away.

When the rain
started to come down faster, Julia got to her feet and ran
back to the forest trail in the direction of
Eichet. She wanted to pay her grandmother a surprise visit and have
tea with her. After twenty minutes, she reached the edge of the
woods and jogged down the asphalt road at a steady pace. In the
meantime, the rain had soaked all her clothes, but it didn’t bother
her. The temperature outside was still agreeable.

Julia
ran up to the front door of Gran’s house and
rang the doorbell with a wet, slick finger. The sound of
Mozart’s
A Little Night
Music
jingled through the house. Julia
edged forward under the awning to find shelter from the rain and
wring out her wet hair.

“Hello?” she
called out through the kitchen window, which she saw was slightly
ajar.
“Gran? Are you home?”

Nothing.
She peered through the ribbed glass of the front
door, seeing the contours of an empty umbrella stand in the
hallway. Apparently, Gran had ventured out in the rain as well.
Maybe she’d just missed her.

Disappointed,
Julia turned around and walked out of the front yard. At the end of
the street, she suddenly spotted Sabine walking in her direction,
flanked by a tall guy about twenty years old carrying a red
umbrella. Julia waved at the two of them and waited for them to
reach her.

“Hi, Julia,”
Sabine said cheerfully. “Didn’t you bring an umbrella?”

Julia
chuckled. “Yeah, while jogging? Not such a good idea.” Her eyes
drifted to the guy standing next to Sabine, who was observing her
with a slight smile. He caught her eye and extended his
hand.

“Thorsten
Ebner,” he introduced himself.
“I’m Sabine’s
brother.”

“Nice to meet you.
I’m Julia Kandolf, Anne’s sister.” She smiled
back. The boy had friendly, blue eyes and an eye-catching smile.
His black hair curled out from underneath the hood of his rain
jacket.

“Wow, you’re
one
athletic girl to go out running in a
downpour like this,” he commented.

“Oh, it’s
not
that
bad,” Julia replied as a blue lightning bolt split the sky
in two and the thunder rumbled just above their heads. The next
moment, the clouds seemed to burst, rain coming down like an
impenetrable curtain pelting down on her drenched head.

“What the…” She glared up
at the clouds.
Thorsten burst out
laughing, and Julia continued mock-reproachfully: “You know, this
is all
your
fault.
You shouldn’t have used the
word ‘downpour’. That’s where it all went wrong.”

“Oh, really? You’re
blaming me? Not the best way to make friends.
You know what, I’ll just be on my merry way without using
the word ‘sunshine’.”
He grinned
mischievously.

“Thor, can we please go to
the bus stop?”
Sabine asked plaintively,
gripping her brother’s sleeve in white-knuckled fists. “I’m afraid
of thunderstorms.”

“Of course we
will,” Thorsten said with a reassuring smile. He
glanced back at Julia. “I don’t think that second word
actually helped. You joining us under the umbrella?”

Julia shook her head.
“I’ll run back.
It’ll be all right under
the trees in the forest.
Talk to you
later!”

“Are you sure?” Thorsten looked
puzzled.

“Yeah, absolutely!
Don’t worry.” She quickly turned around and ran
off in the direction of the woods, her socks making squishy sounds
in her sneakers by now. She passed the bus stop, hesitated for a
moment, then continued down the road. She’d rather walk. Of course
she hadn’t brought her bus card, and she didn’t feel like borrowing
money from a guy she’d just met one minute ago – not to mention
sitting next to him looking all rained out and bedraggled. A hint
of a smile crept onto her face when she re-entered the woods. Anne
was actually right for once: Thorsten was a cute guy indeed. She’d
wanted to make a good impression. Him being the boy next door
really cheered her up.