After nearly an hour of wandering, Belinda had already regretted the idea. Bill was right: it was impossible for them to even cross the street without running into some madwoman wanting to talk to them, touch them, or take a picture.
Even disguised in hats, glasses, and baggy jackets, the foursome was easily recognizable. With them was Marcus, the security guard, who at every intersection, as soon as someone showed signs of recognizing them, forced them to quickly turn around and take another street.
Naomi and Annalisa found the situation thrilling, but Belinda huffed and puffed at every detour, grumbling and grumbling.
At yet another turn, they slipped into the mall, trying to slip through an aisle of sportswear.
Naomi focused on a fun T-shirt, checking prices and sizes, and also drew Bill's attention to a very unusual hat.
While the others were browsing the articles, a young girl from across the aisle began to stare at them insistently.
Belinda caught their gaze and, when she realized they were about to face yet another hysterical fit, she marched toward her without thinking twice, her eyes blazing.
"So, what is there to look at?" she snapped.
The girl jumped and stammered incomprehensibly.
"What?" she urged, putting her hands on her hips.
"I'm not doing anything wrong," the other girl replied, looking at her fearfully. "I was observing your group because I thought I recognized the tall guy."
"And who's that supposed to be, excuse me?"
"He looks a lot like Bill from Scream." She smiled tentatively.
"Oh, that's what I was missing," Belinda muttered dejectedly, trying to sound credible. "At the pub they mistook him for a basketball champion, at the pastry shop for an F1 driver, and now this… what the hell is Scream?"
"Scream is a band." The girl seemed shocked by his ignorance. "The best German band… and tonight they're performing here, in Berlin."
"Oh, I'm so sorry I don't know everyone who treads the sacred ground of this city," she snorted. "You're unbearable, you know that? Anyway, for the record, this is Brian, my boyfriend, and he's a model. But even if he's been on the cover of a few magazines, I don't like everyone wanting to touch him or talk to him. Can we have a few minutes' respite? Do you think that's asking too much?"
"Oh, no! You're right, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," the girl apologized. "This can't be easy for you, can it?"
"Not really... it's the first free weekend we've had in months, away from home and set, but I can't take it anymore," Belinda improvised with feigned regret, feeling a little guilty for that lie.
"I understand... Well, I'm leaving, sorry again."
"Listen..." she ventured. "If you want, I can introduce you..."
"No, no, thanks, you're kind. But it's not the case..."
"Okay then. Anyway, I'm so sorry for being abrupt, I'm Belinda."
"Don't worry, I'm Anna Richter. Just like my nametag says." He smiled, shaking her hand and showing her a pass, hanging from his jacket, for the official Scream club in Berlin.
"Oh! So they're a serious band, with a fan club, these Scream!" he exclaimed with veiled sarcasm.
"Yeah, I'm one of the founders of the group." The girl raised her chin and smiled proudly.
"So, Anna, I hope you meet that Bill and get his autograph."
"I hope so. Bye!" He waved and quickly walked away.
Belinda quickly turned around, grabbed Bill by the arm, and dragged him up the escalator.
"What's going on?" he asked worriedly, looking around.
"Shut up, put your arm around me, and pretend you're my boyfriend," she muttered, pulling her hat lower over his eyes. "You need to get away from here, you're too recognizable, damn you!"
"More fans?"
"Yeah… I swear I'll charge you for security."
Bill chuckled and put his arm around her shoulders, leaning toward her and burying his face in her hair.
They reached the upper floor, where there were gardening shops, destinations of little interest to teenagers. The others had also separated into small groups and were catching up.
At a nod from Belinda, they slipped into a charming chocolate shop with private rooms. Naomi asked the clerk for one.
"We have to celebrate my sister's birthday," she said with a big smile.
Within seconds, they found themselves in a small room with a circular table and several red velvet chairs, into which they collapsed, exhausted.
"Enough, I can't take it anymore," Belinda huffed. "You live a terrible life."
"It's not bad, I like it," Tom replied, laughing.
"Men!" Naomi scolded him, shaking her head. "They always want to be the center of attention."
"I should have let them jump you and leave you in your underwear in the middle of the street… Actually, no, not even those," Belinda told him, narrowing her gaze.
"That would have been an experience too," Tom replied calmly.
She gave him a disgusted look and turned away.
"I, on the other hand, am grateful," Bill interjected, smiling at her. "As much as I love my fans, sometimes they get a little intrusive. I almost thought I could have a different morning…"
"Well, we're out there without an escort anyway, and I'm having a great time," Tom admitted.
"So why take away the fun? Now I'm going to look out the window and tell that gang of fanatics that you're here all alone and longing for company." Annalisa laughed and made a move to get up.
"No, please!" Kristian pulled her down. "I'd rather be bored for a few minutes."
"Ungrateful," the girl retorted, returning to her seat.
Belinda looked at both Bill and Tom, unable to believe how different they were. The former so diplomatic, polite, never a wrong word, and the latter brazen, rebellious, and sometimes downright obnoxious.
"Are you sure you're twins?" she asked, surprised.
"That's what my mother says." Tom crossed his legs. "What's so puzzling you?"
"You're the opposite of each other."
"So we complement each other, don't you think?" He laughed cheekily.
"No, because you tend to exaggerate the differences!"
"If my perfect brother is all nice and polite, why should I imitate him? One is more than enough. And I feel free to be different, myself."
"So you do it to assert your personality?"
"No, I'm really different from him."
"Are you distorting reality to make yourself more believable? I mean, if Bill's an angel, you have to play the devil, right?" Belinda scoffed.
"Look, you don't know me, and I'm not letting you analyze me," he hissed across the table, leaning toward her.
"Who's wasting their time? As if I won some prize for knowing someone like you..." She grimaced, snorting in his face.
They stared at each other for several seconds, neither of them showing any signs of backing away.
"What the hell is wrong with you two today?" Naomi shouted, slamming her hands on the table.
"She's the one who brings out the worst in me!" Tom pointed a finger at Belinda. "She's a troublemaker."
"Me? Listen to the little boy..."
In response, Tom stuck out his tongue and continued to grin.
Bill reached out to touch her shoulder. "I apologize about him!"
"Forget it, this idiot needs to start apologizing himself."
Tom stubbornly kept his face turned away, pretending not to listen.
The silence stretched on for a few minutes, the other embarrassed kids not knowing what to do or say.
He's a troublemaker, Belinda thought, filled with anger. How dare this spoiled brat? He's been teasing me all morning, going from concerned friend to boastful.
A distant voice echoed to her: "You know how to bring out the dark in people."
She shivered. She sat up abruptly from her chair. She needed to breathe, to be alone for a moment. She didn't understand what her mind was playing on her, but the phone call, Tom's derisive tone, and Bill's intense glances were confusing her. She felt the suffocating fog of the past squeeze her in an oppressive grip and felt the urgent need to escape.
He put his hand on the handle and prepared to open the door. "I may bring out the worst in people, but who's really interested in that? What do you really want, Tom? Why are you using me, you know? In any case, I'm not having it."
He turned the handle and, just before crossing the threshold, turned to his sister. "Wait for me here with your idols," he emphasized the last two words sarcastically. "I'll be back in a bit."
His exit plunged the room into silence.
Bill continued to stare at the door, while Annalisa and Kristian kept their eyes down, pretending to consult the menu.
"Ah, she's finally gone," Tom snorted, looking at the others. "Your sister must have some problems, you know?"
"How dare you?" Naomi shouted, making him jump. "If I were her, I would have punched you in the face, you bully."
Klaus gave a quick smile, and Kristian coughed, embarrassed.
"Hey, hey... I was kidding!" Tom defended himself, instinctively raising his hands in front of him.
Naomi pointed her bright green eyes at him.
"Maybe she was right, dreams don't always come true. It was all my fault. Linda didn't want all this; she came here to build her future, and I wanted to force the concert and you on her just because I liked you."
Tom lowered his eyes. "It wasn't my fault."
"It's always your fault!" Bill snapped, annoyed. "You're incredibly rude. That girl tried to give us a special morning, and all you did was unload all your arrogance on her."
"I didn't ask her to be my nanny."
"In fact, it seemed to me that you were the one who was supposed to take care of her," Bill attacked. "Who was the one who was acting like a worried gentleman until two hours ago?"
Tom stood up. "It bothers you, doesn't it, that I didn't ask you?"
Bill stared at him for a few seconds, stunned.
"You mean you're making all this fuss because you're jealous?" he asked when he found his voice again.
"You didn't understand anything! And it wouldn't be the first time."
Furious, Tom kicked the chair, which tipped over, sending Annalisa leaping to her feet.
"Now do you two want to start?" Klaus scolded them, placing a hand on the girl's arm to reassure her.
"Shut up!" the twins thundered in unison.
He raised his hands in surrender.
Naomi buried her face in her hands and began to cry.
"It's all my damn fault!"
Everyone in the room turned to look at her, surprised and embarrassed, as she sniffed and searched for a tissue in her purse. Annalisa went to hug her.
"I can't believe we got to this point..." Bill muttered, shaking his head in disappointment.
"It's my fault. I knew Linda didn't want to come to the concert, that she didn't like you, and yet I practically forced her to come with me and get up on stage to sing," Naomi stammered through tears. "I don't think she's mad at Tom... it's just... oh God, what a disaster!"
Tom stood up and ran a hand through his hair, swayed on his feet, then sighed and approached her, placing a hand on her arm. "I guess I wasn't very nice, I'm sorry. You wanted to meet your idols, and seeing them up close, maybe we're not what you expected."
"No, you guys were wonderful to us, beyond what one expects from your favorite band." Naomi raised her head and smiled through her tears. "But I shouldn't have done this to Linda, not after everything she's been through recently."
"Did the person who called her this morning have anything to do with it?" Tom asked.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but then slowly nodded. "I think the way you were acting reminded her. And after that phone call... What a bad day!" She sighed and wiped away the last tear.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Bill interjected. "I feel like I've fallen into a movie whose beginning and end I don't know."
"It's a bit long to explain… but it's also a situation that concerns her, and I don't think it's my place to tell you about it." He looked back at Tom. "My sister is a wonderful girl, you don't know her at all."
The boy gave a crooked smile. "That's the same thing she told me about you. You're very close, right?"
"Yes… even though we argue about practically everything. I couldn't imagine my life without her, especially after what she's been through."
"And what do we do now?" Kristian asked, shuffling his feet on the floor.
"Let's go back to the hotel," Bill replied, straightening his shoulders.
As they stood up, the door opened again and Belinda entered with a tray laden with cups of hot chocolate. She silently approached the table and set it down slowly, without looking up.
"I wonder why the pastry chef thought it was my birthday." Her tone was flat and impersonal. "And she went to such lengths to decorate this cake."
Everyone looked at the fantastic chocolate cake, the words written in blue icing standing out: Wünsche, Bilinda[1].
Naomi burst out laughing at the name written that way and exchanged a smile with her sister. "It's not your best day."
"Definitely not," she murmured, but she was delighted by the unexpected dessert.
She caught the serious expression on Tom's face, who had remained stiffly behind the others. "I'm still waiting for your apology," she said, a smile playing on her lips.
"Which won't come!" she replied promptly, her expression still troubled, belying her words.
"Good."
"Good," the young man relaxed.
They exchanged a glance laden with unspoken words, and Belinda walked around the table, sitting next to Bill. They studied each other for a moment, but she shook her head in response to his silent question.
"Since I'm celebrating my birthday four months early, can I have my cake and chocolate?" she asked Klaus, who looked at her perplexed.
The boys burst out laughing, clearing away the tension.
Belinda winked at her sister, who was looking at her tenderly.
She was very angry with herself for having let herself be carried away by Tom's arrogance, but it wasn't his fault if she'd snapped like that.
The shock of the phone call, the panic attack, the pursuit of the fans had unnerved her so much that she'd exploded over a trivial matter.
She'd realized it as soon as she left the room, but not knowing how to apologize, when she was intercepted by the shop assistant, she took the tray Naomi had ordered when they arrived and went back.
She felt foolish for putting her sister in that embarrassing situation, in front of people Naomi adored and whom she had no right to criticize. After all, they weren't her friends; she didn't even know them. What had gotten into her, why had she reacted that way?
She couldn't understand, and no matter how hard she tried, she found his reactions exaggerated, ever since the night of the concert.
And it certainly wasn't Tom's fault, despite his irreverence. In fact, Belinda found him nice and was sure that if she'd had a brother like him, they would have made a formidable couple.
She shook her head thoughtfully, and as she raised a piece of cake to her mouth, his eyes met hers thoughtfully.
Instinctively, she raised a hand, and after a few moments, he placed his on it, silently apologizing with a smile.
Yes, they had understood each other without the need for words…
Her heart skipped a somersault at the thought that there was someone else like her, so dark, so constantly struggling with himself. Tom was a complicated guy, but he knew how to understand his mistakes and know when it was time to move on.
But above all, he wasn't Alex.
Beside her, Bill was nibbling on his cake, lost in thought.
"Sorry for overreacting, guys. I don't think I've recovered well from this morning's illness, and all that running around has really annoyed me. I didn't mean to be rude," she began, her gaze wandering around everyone.
"Are you okay now?" Bill focused his attention on her, making her shiver.
She didn't understand why those dark, deep eyes had the ability to simultaneously captivate her and make her retreat. She felt their intense scrutiny on her skin, like an intimate, subtle caress that urged her to run away.
"Yes..." she murmured, swallowing nervously. "And I'm glad to be here with you."
Her words brought a sense of calm to the room. Kristian began to tell anecdotes of their first experiences together, while Klaus nodded amusedly, interjecting to add a touch of color.
Tom assumed his usual bullying attitude, teasing Kristian for his poor cooking skills and eccentric mannerisms.
"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" Belinda whispered softly to Bill, who, though he was intent on following the conversation, was constantly casting dark glances at her.
"No." She shook her head. "I just don't understand what's going on between you and my brother. Nothing like this has ever happened before."
"We're both hotheads, we can't live together... No, jokes aside, maybe we liked each other right away, but we also felt like we were competing. We're a bit like those chemical elements that are fine as long as they're separated, but if they come into contact with each other, they explode."
"You like him a lot, don't you?"
"Yes, that's true. But not in the way you think," he admitted. "It intrigues me, but it irritates me at the same time."
"That could be a good start, right?" Bill murmured, twisting the spoon between his fingers.
Belinda let out a bitter laugh.
"No, Bill. A relationship requires much more than curiosity and character affinity. And besides... I don't think I'll ever fall in love again," he replied firmly.
Bill, shocked, turned his attention back to her.
"You can't know," he whispered gently.
"Listen to the bullshit... Who said in an interview, 'I don't believe in love, I don't think it exists'?"
"That's different... I've never experienced it, so I think it's unlikely."
"I met him, and he destroyed me. I don't want to hear about it anymore!" she retorted categorically.
Bill was about to reply, sensing a deep sadness in those words and longing to bring a smile back to the face of that adorable, unknown girl, but Naomi caught his attention.
"What do you think?"
Bill apologized for not understanding the question, his voice lost in the general chatter. Belinda sighed and went back to eating her cake in silence, a thousand thoughts swirling in her head.
"Happy birthday to me," she murmured, popping the last piece of cake into her mouth.
[1] Happy B-day, Bilinda