Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (34 page)

She didn’t understand.
“Don’t want to leave where?
London?”

He shook his
head, remaining quiet. Julia bit her lip and gazed into his eyes.
He must have been thinking about Graz too – how they’d be apart in
a few more weeks. With a heavy sigh, she put her head on his
shoulder. “Everything will be okay,” she mumbled, pressing her hand
to his chest.
“I love you.”

Slowly, she could feel his
body relax against hers.
“I love you
too,” he said. “I don’t know why I’m upset. Never mind
me.”

In the hours
that followed, Michael gradually recovered from the strange
weakness troubling him that morning. By the time the rest of their
party arrived at the park, Julia and Michael were playing a game of
badminton using a set of rackets they’d borrowed from a family
sitting a little ways away from them.

“Look at you! Shopped till
you dropped?”
Julia asked with a glance
at the bulging plastic bags Gaby was carrying.

Her best friend nodded. “I
practically ransacked the store.
And
spent all my money, by the way. I don’t have any pounds left to buy
snacks on the plane tomorrow.”

“She bought a
really cool shi
rt,” Axel supplied,
winking at Julia. “Why don’t you show it to Julia?”

Gaby flushed,
pulling
a shirt from one of the bags with
a nervous giggle. It was a tank top featuring skulls, safety pins
and the line ‘I Love My Boyfriend To Death’. “Wow, talk about
romantic,” Julia appraised her friend’s purchase with a
grin.

“Ooh,
squirrels!” Tamara pointed at a pair of gray squirrels running
along the branches of the chestnut. “I’m so gonna feed
them.”

“No, you are
so
not
,” Michael said.

“I’m not? Why not?
Will I get a fine like you?”

“No, but
you’ll be harassed by a whole bunch of obnoxious squirrels.
They’re
everywhere
. If you feed one,
they’ll get all their buddies and run off with our
food.”

Moritz sniggered
maliciously. “Robbed by rodents,” he intoned.
“You think the police will believe us if we report it to
them?”

The
group
sat down laughing and chatting but
Axel peered at the horizon and frowningly pointed out a few dark
storm clouds gathering in the west. “Guys, that doesn’t look good.
I think we’re gonna be caught in a thunderstorm.”

Florian
grabbed his arm and pulled him down. “Just sit down, thou Prophet
of Doom.
We’ll be fine.”

Twenty
minutes later,
as a lightning flash
zigzagged through the gloomy skies and the first drops of rain
started to fall, Axel shot his friend a stoic look.
“Prophet of Doom, huh?” he said calmly.

“Get lost,”
Florian snapped back.
They rushed to fold
the picnic blankets and gather the food as the rain really started
to pelt down. Julia broke into a run as they exited the part of the
green shielded by trees and made it back to the hotel first.
Good to know she wasn’t completely out of shape.

“Hyde Park
Picnic
Plan: fail,” Gaby muttered,
stepping into the lobby with mascara all over her face and strands
of black hair stuck to her cheeks. “Shall we just sit down in the
lounge and eat our food there?”

The lounge
was the common room
with computers, the
bar and a giant flatscreen for the guests to entertain themselves.
Julia and her friends claimed the three sagging sofas in the
corner. Once everyone had changed, they unpacked the food and set
the table for dinner.
Florian was checking the weather
forecast on his phone. “Oh, great,” he moped.
“It’s sunny and hot in Salzburg, you guys. And here we are,
in some fine, English weather.”

“Well, maybe
we should have our final picnic outside at my place tomorrow,”
Julia replied. “So we can celebrate the final day of our trip with
a bit of sunshine.”

“That sounds great,” Moritz said. “My flight
gets me back in Salzburg tomorrow afternoon, so I can join you all
in the evening.”

Julia sat
back,
mentally drawing up a list of stuff
she’d have to get from the supermarket after getting back home.
“Remind me to go to the store tomorrow,” she told Michael, who just
handed her a pack of sushi.

He smiled.
“Don’t stress it. Don’t think of Salzburg yet –
we’re here now.”

“You’re
right.” She smiled back, scooting closer to him. He’d said he
didn’t want to leave. She wanted to be in the here and the now as
well, enjoying her last evening in London with Michael and all of
her friends. Once she was back home, she’d have to take care of
more stuff than just groceries… the orientation period of the
University of Salzburg would soon start. It would be the beginning
of a new stage of life for all of them. Michael would move to
another city, coming back home at the end of each semester only.
Their lives would change, but she didn’t want to think about that.
Today was what mattered right now.

15
.

T
he next day, Julia had gone
straight to work to set up the picnic at her place. They’d had a
calm flight without delays, and before saying goodbye to everybody
at the airport, Julia had collected everybody’s contribution for
tonight’s food.

Deep in thought, she got off her bike and
walked it to the gate when a cheerful voice suddenly woke her
up.

“Well, well…
what’s that for?”

Julia looked
up from the heavy bags she was just unloading from the handlebars,
staring straight into Thorsten’s blue eyes. Her neighbor shot an
inquisitive look at the grocery bags full of baguettes and
snacks.

“Oh, it’s for
our post-vacation picnic,” she explained. “Why don’t you join us?
We have enough food to feed the entire neighborhood.”

“I believe you,” he chuckled, cracking a grin
when Julia tried to pick up all three bags by herself. “Here, let
me help you.”

She and Thorsten carried everything to the
table outside, where Michael was busying himself making a big bowl
of fruit salad. “Hey, thanks for helping Julia, man,” he said when
he saw Thorsten carrying two bags. “My stubborn girlfriend insisted
she could take care of the groceries all by herself.”

She’d wanted to do it herself because Michael
still wasn’t feeling too well after his bout of dizziness in London
yesterday. He’d offered to help, but she’d declined because she
knew he still felt sick. Making a fruit salad was the least
strenuous activity of the day, so she’d asked him to do that and
nothing more.

“No problem,”
Thorsten replied. “I carry around crates of insanely heavy
groceries in the supermarket every day. Julia’s mom is a real
dictator of a boss.”

“I heard
that,” Ms. Gunther sweetly sang as she stepped into the yard. “I’m
cutting your bonus, young man.”

Just as Julia
and her mother were done putting all the food on the table, Axel,
Gaby and Tamara pulled up to the house in Tamara’s car. “London
Calling,” Tamara called to them from the driver’s seat before
parking next to the gate. She got out holding a
six
-pack of duty-free Guinness beer
bought at the airport that very morning. Axel and Gaby followed
her, carrying bags filled with salt and vinegar chips.

“More
food?” Thorsten cried out
in mock alarm. “Wow, you guys must be happy I swooped in to help
you eat all that.”

“I’m always
happy to have you around,” Julia told him with a warm smile.
Thorsten glanced sideways, looking like he was about to blush.
“Hey, shall I get my guitar?” he suddenly said, sprinting off
before she could even say yes.

Julia blinked
and turned to Michael standing a few steps away from her, giving
her a thoughtful look. Suddenly, she felt like an idiot for saying
things like that to Thorsten. She really hadn’t meant
for it to sound flirtatious – she’d meant every
word – but it had an effect on her neighbor that Michael couldn’t
have missed if he’d been miles away. She hoped he wouldn’t be
jealous, because there was nothing to be envious about.

She gingerly
strolled over to
him and leaned in to
kiss him on the lips.
“I love you,” she whispered
against his mouth.

“I love you
too,” he mumbled back, staring into her eyes with so much love and
tenderness that she wondered if she’d imagined
his look of envy before.

When Florian
and Moritz completed the party
showing up
with a large bowl of homemade potato salad, Thorsten showed up
again too. After dinner, he played them some well-known songs on
his guitar that everybody could sing along to.

“Okay, now play us something soulful,” Tamara
requested after they’d all blared the ending of ‘Hey Jude’ at the
top of their lungs.

Thorsten
looked down at his instrument, tuning the highest strings a little,
before launching into the song he’d written himself. He looked up
at Julia searchingly. She felt her cheeks flush red, shaking her
head almost imperceptibly, but Michael had already nudged her and
made her get up from his lap.

“Sing,” he simply said, looking at her
expectantly.

Her heart
hammered in her throat when Julia sat down next to Thorsten. Damn,
she was even more nervous than the time she had to play her own
song In front of all her classmates at the graduation ceremony. Why
was this so difficult for her? This was her old, familiar group of
friends.

Her eyes
darted from Michael to Thorsten and back, and it suddenly dawned on
her why this was majorly awkward. This was the first time she would
sing this song with the two of them together. It was Thorsten’s
song, but they were Michael’s lyrics. It was like two worlds
colliding, nothing being able to stop their fatal collision
course.

”Mein Ruf ist dünn und leicht
,”
she sang in a bright and gentle voice. “
My call, quiet and eerie.
”
The wind rustled the trees around the house as her voice gained
strength and seemed to mesmerize her audience. She sang and poured
all of herself into the music. When the song was over, everybody
sat and gazed at her in admiration.

Thorsten
turned to her and put his hand on her arm. “Thank you,” he quietly
said.
“That was beautiful.”

She turned red.
Last time, he’d thanked her differently. She
stared at him with an unspoken question in her eyes.
Can we ever be just
friends?

His blue eyes
seemed to send her a message back.
I will always look at you in my own, special
way
.

Gaby broke
the silence by erupting in applause, and the rest followed suit.
“Wow, that was amazing!” she said. “Did you write that
together?”

Thorsten shrugged
shyly.
“Kind of.” As everybody started to
fire off questions at him about his music, Julia quickly got up and
went inside to get a glass of water from the kitchen. When she left
the kitchen to go back outside, Gaby was waiting for her in the
hallway.

“Jules,” she said. “I don’t think inviting
Thorsten was the best idea you’ve had today.”

Julia blinked at her. “Why?”

“Oh, because
it’s painfully obvious he’s still in love with you. And because you
are a bit too friendly with him.
And Michael can
clearly see that.”

“
Oh.” Julia cringed. “No.
You think?
But I didn’t mean it like
that, Gab.
You understand that, right?”

Gaby shrugged
reluctantly.
“Yeah, kind of. But the
question is, do
they
?”

“I… I don’t know,” Julia
said miserably.
So she
hadn’t
imagined Michael’s envy after all.
This whole
situation sucked. She had to talk to him tonight. Gaby was right –
she was being stupid. “I’ll explain it to him.
I promise.”

“We’re going to play a game of poker,”
Florian announced to Julia and Gaby when they came back to the
table. “You girls are in, right?”

“Only if I
can be o
n Axel’s team,” Gaby
demanded.

“Naturally,
Your Gloomness. Nobody would dare to keep you apart,” Florian
replied meekly. Axel slapped his friend on the head, then pulled
Gaby onto his lap.

They played
for hours. When it got so dark they could no longer properly see
the playing cards
by the light of the
outdoor lanterns, they decided to call it a night and clean up.
Julia recruited Gaby and Tamara to bring all the dirty plates to
the kitchen, while she gathered all the empty deposit bottles into
a plastic bag to dump in the shed. Her mom could take them to work
and return them at the supermarket.

She halted
when she heard two people talking behind the shed – Michael and
Thorsten. Were they talking privately? Nervously, she edged forward
and tried to catch what they were saying. She couldn’t quite make
out Michael’s voice, but he sounded resolute, whereas Thorsten
seemed upset.