Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (9 page)

“I really
have to get goi
ng,” Julia replied,
retreating a few more steps. “Axel is waiting for me…”

Her voice
caught in her throat when Michael bridged the distance between them
in two big steps and put both hands on her shoulders, his eyes
boring into hers.
Julia stopped breathing
when he leaned into her and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead,
his body so close to hers that she wanted to lean back. “I’ll see
you soon,” he promised.

What
was that?

Her limbs turned
cold.
Michael had said the
exact
same
words to her the morning after they’d slept together. The morning
after which he’d never bothered to call her back.

Stifling a
sob, Julia pushed him away. She didn’t want him to see her tears.
How
dare
he invade her life again after callously ditching her only
a few days ago?

“Bye,” she
choked out before storming out the door and stomping down the
stairs. Without looking back, she opened the front door and ran
down the Giselakai. Michael would
have
the noble task of explaining to his mother why she was fleeing the
scene. This was the last time she’d set foot in that place. Michael
was way too dangerous to hang out with – because he still had
access to her heart.

As
she settled on the bench in the bus shelter,
Julia noticed two new messages had come in on her phone.
She opened them both.

‘congrats on
gettin ur book job chick!! xx Gab’

‘didnt mean 2
hurt u. sorry. x mick’

She stared at
the second text message with red-rimmed eyes,
taking note of the time he’d sent it to her. Straight after
she’d run out the door. So he really seemed to care about her
feelings.
But why
now
?

Julia sighed, resolutely putting away her
phone. If only she could put away her feelings for Michael as
resolutely, her life would be a lot easier.

That
night,
Julia stepped into the pub wearing
a new summer dress. Yesterday’s bad weather was over. It was a
muggy summer night and all of Salzburg’s youth hitting the town
seemed to have gathered at O’Malley’s. Julia could almost feel
carefree, if not for the fact that her visit to Michael was still
bothering her.

“Hey, you
guys!” she called out enthusiastically, walking over to the table
where Axel, Florian and Moritz were sitting.
“The
girls aren’t here yet?”

“We sent them
away to fetch us drinks,” Axel
smirked.

Julia cocked an eyebrow. “I see.
Chivalry is dead.”

Florian rolled his
eyes.
“Axel is just joking around. Tam
and Gab haven’t gotten here yet. Shall we go get drinks?” He tugged
Moritz’s purple mohawk. Florian and his new boyfriend made their
way to the bar holding hands and shooting each other lovey-dovey
smiles.

“So, how are
you?” Axel asked seriously when she took the bar stool next to him.
Julia had talked to him on Facebook after the accident, telling her
cousin all about her rescue operation in the woods, but they hadn’t
really discussed how the whole situation had affected
her.

“I’m okay.” She
shrugged.
“What can I say? Small
world.”

“Strange
world,” Axel added with
a frown on his face. “I mean, you of all people coming to his
rescue. Plus, Kolbe is acting
really
weird. In fact, it doesn’t
get weirder than this.”

Julia blinked
at him owlishly. “What... what do you mean?” she stuttered,
following Axel’s gaze toward the bar. The bottom dropped out of her
stomach when she made out a familiar head with light-brown
curls.
“What? He’s
here
?!”

“As you can
see,” Axel replied drily. “And like I said, he’s acting weird.
So
nice
.”

Julia
clenched her jaw
, gawking at Michael in
consternation. Okay, this was absurd. Why couldn’t Michael just
disappear from her life and
stay
gone
? What was he even doing here
so soon after an almost fatal accident? Only yesterday, he’d lain
bleeding in her lap. He should take it easy, stay indoors and go to
bed straight after
Sesame
Street
. She had to stop herself from
marching up to him to give him some unsolicited medical
advice.

“When I came
in here a half hour ago, he was playing darts with two friends,”
Axel continued, apparently oblivious to her inner turmoil.
“
He said hello, then asked me if he could
buy me a drink and whether I wanted to join their game. Seriously,
it was like
The Twilight
Zone
. I was actually chatting with them
until five minutes ago, when Florian and Moritz finally got
here.”

“Huh. I thought he only hung out with the
cool dudes.”

Axel smirked.
“Yep, I hear you. I mean, I love myself just the
way I am, but I can totally see how reading books, fixing computers
and building model airplanes could be considered un-cool by His
Highness Kolbe…” He jabbed a thumb toward Michael. “Until now, that
is.”

“Well, what
did he sound like?” Julia asked in a hushed voice. “Did he say
anything to you?”

Axel frowned
down at the beermat he was busy crumbling to pieces in his hands.
“Yeah, of course we talked. You know, this may sound strange, but I
got the distinct feeling he was
different
.” He looked up at his
cousin. “You think that hit to the head did something to
him?”

Julia sucked
in her breath. So Axel noticed it too – Michael really
was
behaving strangely. What did it all mean?

At that
moment, Florian and Moritz came back to their table, and to her
mounting alarm, she saw Michael trailing behind them, making eye
contact with her.

And then he
was at their table.
“Hey you,” he said,
leaning his arms on the wood of the bar table, his fingers brushing
hers. “What’s up?”

She prayed to
God he wouldn’t mention her visit this afternoon, because that
meant she’d have a lot of explaining to do to the boys – not to
mention to Gaby if she ever got wind of it.

“I’m fine,”
she replied, avoiding his gaze. She was afraid she’d turn red if
she looked him in the eyes for too long. Michael was looking
way
too
good tonight. He had that characteristic, irresistible smile on his
lips, and his eyes looked gentle and friendly. When Julia finally
dared glancing back up, he took her hand in his.

“You want to play a game of darts with me?”
he asked.

Julia felt the skin of her hand turn warm
under his fingers. “I can’t play darts,” she squeaked.

He smiled. “So I’ll teach
you.”

She
fervently shook her head.
“No, I’m
serious. I can’t play.
I’m a total
disaster. You could be Phil Taylor himself and still fail to teach
me.”

“I can attest
to that,” Axel agreed. “Last time I played darts with Julia, one of
her darts ended up in my
shoe
instead of the
board.”

“S
ince you already had a narrow
escape from death this week, I wouldn’t risk it,” Florian added
with a wink.

“Yeah,
speaking of which, how is
your
head?”
Axel inquired curiously.
“Are you allowed to go out again?
Is the
doctor okay with that?”

Michael nodded.
“Yep. The wound is almost healed. They called it
a miracle in the hospital. That’s why they discharged me this
morning.”

In the
silence that followed, the entire group
gaped at him in disbelief. Axel cleared his throat,
sounding as though he was about to ask more, when Michael turned
around and inched away toward the dartboard. “I’m going back to my
game,” he said, suddenly seeming in a hurry. He looked sideways at
Julia. “You sure you don’t want to join me?”

She shook her
head. Axel, Flori
an and Moritz watched
him make his way back to the other side of the pub, their jaws
still slack.

“Almost
healed?”
Julia echoed.
“That’s
impossible
. I know what it looked
like.”

“What baffles
me even more than his miraculously healed head injury is his
good-guy act,” Florian said dazedly. “Imagine my surprise when he
popped up next to me at the bar and made some small-talk out of the
blue? He even congratulated me on having a new boyfriend! Kolbe,
our resident gay-basher!”

“Oh. Is that
– does he really hate gay people that much?” Florian had never told
her that. She was starting to discover all kinds of things about
Michael that she didn’t like one bit. Then again, he seemed to have
a completely new side to him all of a sudden.

“Well, he
never flat-out threatened or harassed me.” Florian shrugged.
“He
’d just give me these contemptuous
looks after it became obvious I was batting for the other
side.
You know, being his usual, condescending
self.”

“From what
I’ve seen, he seems li
ke a nice guy,”
Moritz protested. “He doesn’t strike me as an arrogant person at
all.”

“I
know
!
That’s what I’m
saying,” Florian cried out.
“He’s
different
. He changed.”
He broodingly took a swig of beer and scooped up a handful
of salted peanuts from the snack bowl they’d brought.

“What do you
think happened to him?”
Axel asked
pensively.

“Who knows?” Julia
mumbled. “He had a near-death experience.
That must have done something to him.”

Florian’s
eyes widened in sudden surprise.
“Jules, that’s
it
.”
He
hit the table with a fist full of peanuts. “He’s been at Heaven’s
Gates.”

“Uh-huh. You
think?” Axel snorted.

“Yes. And he
met Saint Peter, or someone. And this saint told him he was only
allowed to live out his life on earth if he promised to better
it.”

Axel smirked. “Of course,
Flo.
That must be it – he was blackmailed
by an apostle. Gee, I can’t believe
I
didn’t think of
that.”

Julia
giggled, but tried to
stop when she saw
the offended look on Florian’s face. She shouldn’t laugh at him for
his theory. In fact, she’d thought something along the same lines;
Axel just made it sound so funny.

“There are
plenty of stories about people who came back from the dead,” Moritz
backed up his boyfriend. “They cla
im they
saw dead relatives, or some sort of peaceful, bright light.
Whatever it was this Michael guy encountered, it must have changed
him.”

Everyone was
pondering his words when the door to the pub swung open and Gaby
and Tamara trotted in.
“Darlings!”
Gaby hollered, sashaying toward them with Tamara following
in her wake. “Have you guys started drinking without us? Shame on
you.”

Axel got up
from his stool. “Let me prove chivalry is
not
dead,” he said, winking
at Julia. “What would you both like to drink?” he asked the two
girls.

While Axel
went off to the bar to get drinks, Gaby and her sister squeezed in
between Florian and Julia.
“I can’t believe this
heat!” Gaby huffed.
She was wearing a
purple-and-black striped tank top and a big purple pentacle
dangling from a chain around her neck to match. “First we get rains
heavy enough to make Noah bring out the Ark again, and now it’s
like Austria was relocated to the tropics overnight.”

“Be glad,”
Florian said. “You’re working at the riding school this summer,
right? Nothing says ‘this seasonal job sucks’ like having to
work
outside in the rain all
day.”

“I appreciate
the sun, of course. Just not to this
extent.”

“So
, how are you?” Tamara turned
to Moritz. “Any more gigs this week?”

Moritz’s eyes
start
ed to sparkle. “Actually, I’ve been
meaning to tell you all. Our band was invited to play a club in
Camden Town in about one month.”

“Which is in
London,” Florian
explained.

“Awesome!” Gaby and Tamara blurted out at the
same time.

“That’s why I
thought it might be a good idea to go to London during the same
week,” Florian continued, probing their reactions. “So we can see
Moritz and the band perform?”

“Of course we
should,” Julia enthused, looking around the circle of faces. “He’s
gotta have his homefront supporters with him. And in return for our
attendance, he can be our guide in London.”