𝚆𝙰𝙸𝙳𝙼𝙰𝙽𝙽𝚂 𝙷𝙴𝙸𝙻 ,, magnus nielsen

chapter eight|my thoughts on you

Chapter Eight

my thoughts on you

Magnus and I sat across from the courthouse at a bus stop, a single splint being passed back on forth between us as we waited for Martha to come back from the corner store and for Jana and Tronte to pick us up. I exhaled a cloud of smoke and passed the joint to Magnus. I turned away slightly, letting my hair down.

"It was never Franziska." Magnus spoke form behind me.

I turned around, a shocked expression on my face. "What?"

"It was never Franziska. That was just something I told Bartosz at the lake because you were there. I got nervous, so I made something up."

I couldn't find words. The blonde boy passed me his phone. It was open to a folder labelled "Annaliese", and I could have cried right there.

The first video was from when we tailgated at the Poison show. I was singing Nothin But A Good Time with a group of stoners from Berlin who had shared their weed with us, dancing around the parking lot like an idiot.

The second video was during our road trip. Bartosz and I were sitting in shopping carts, Heidi pushing mine and Jonas pushing his. We were chucking a football at each other until I pegged him in the forehead and the cart almost fell over. The video was mostly centered on my face.

A third was me playing some pop punk song on the guitar. I think it was Neck Deep, but the audio was messed up. Magnus was lying on my bed, and I guess I assumed that he was just on Snapchat or something. Instead he was filming me.

"Magnus..." I had no idea what to say "It's been me all this time?"

"And will be. Forever. I know that sounds like a lot for two seventeen-year old's, but I mean it. I love you, Annaliese Kruspe. It just took me to long to realise it."

I stared at the blonde boy for a long few minutes as he stood up from the bench and met me where I had been pacing the sidewalk. His hand trailed the side of my face, carefully tracing my lips.

"I think I love you too." I whispered, pressing my lips to his with such passion and fervor that I'm surprised we didn't rip each others clothes off then and there.

Magnus picked me up and twirled me around, both of us smiling and laughing like crazy.

"What do you say we skip the ride home for my grandparents and head back now?" Magnus asked, a coy grin on his face

I laughed "Come on then."

Giggling like the lovesick teenagers we were, Magnus and I ran all the way back to the Nielsen house, only stopping for me to take off the chunky heeled boots I had borrowed form Martha for the hearing. Laughing, I jumped onto his back and he carried me back to the old-fashioned brick house.

The two of us stumbled up the stairs, high on the pure energy rush we were getting from being in each other's presence. We practically raced each other to his room, and I collapsed on his bed- which Jana had made after we left- in a fit of laughter as he tripped on one of his many plaid flannel shirts littering the floor.

"Magnus, are you alright?" I asked, helping the boy up before gently nipping at his neck, causing his face to go bright red.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

He kissed me roughly, his tongue worming its way into my mouth before I even had a chance to react. I'd been waiting to French Magnus Nielsen since freshman year. Hus hands were soft against my skin as he carefully pulled off the grey sweater I had been wearing, and I giggled as his lips touched my collarbone.

We had both been waiting for this for years.

I reached for the gold-painted buttons on his black button down, grabbing at them so roughly I thought I was going to pull the stitches out. Magnus without a shirt was a view I'd seen many times, but somehow, this was different and sent may face turning all shades of red and pink.

"Like what you see?" Magnus chuckled

"Why are you so cocky?" I shot back with a laugh

"Maybe because I finally have the girl of my dreams."

That afternoon was the first time I had slept soundly since Heidi had died.

____

Meanwhile, in 1986, Ulrich Nielsen and the Kruspe brothers- Beck and Zacharias- were bunking off school to do whatever it is teenage boys did in the woods with Claudette Landers- you may know her as Claudette Gabor, the judge- who was dating Zacharias at the time.

The four teenagers were heading towards the caves, Ulrich leading the charge with a joint between his lips and a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. Zacharias was carrying a moderately high Claudette while Beck was busy pining over Lea Broch, who later became our dear Annaliese's mother.

"Beck, come on. I don't think Lea is interested." Zacharias said to his brother "Plenty of fish in the sea. Adele Scholl is looking pretty nice this year."

"Come on, we all know she's interested in Torben, for some indescribable reason." Beck complained as the group entered the cave, Beck taking the joint from Ulrich.

"So, Ulrich. You made a move on Katharina yet?" Claudette said, laying down on the cave floor, dark hair splayed behind her head.

"He's too much of a chicken." Zacharias laughed to himself

"Be quiet." Ulrich scolded, lighting a cigarette "She is so far out of my league, it isn't even funny."

"You could always start dating Hannah Krueger. I'm sure she's just waiting for the right chance to jump your bones." Beck said pointedly, earning a slap to the side of the head, courtesy of the Nielsen boy.

"I would rather make out with Four-Eyes Tiedemann than date Hannah Krueger." The boy sighed, taking another drag of his cigarette.

"Make a move. Grow some balls." Claudette said with an air of finality, officially closing the discussion

Beck took the joint of out his mouth, obviously about to say something when a flash of light and an ominous rumbling sound distracted the group of four.

"Please tell me that I am not the only person who saw that." Ulrich said slowly

Claudette's eyes went wide as she sat up "You aren't the only person who saw that."

"What the hell was that?" Zacharias wondered, walking slowly towards the cave's entrance

The group of teenagers exited the mouth of the cave, staring in shock at a lump on the top of their hideaway.

"For the love of god, please tell me that isn't what I think it is." Ulrich said quietly, walking up the hill on one side of the fabled cave, only to back away in shock once he got there.

"What is it?" Beck shouted

"You might want to come see for yourself!" The brunette boy couldn't believe what he had seen. His mind couldn't process it, especially given the disappearance of his brother just six months prior.

Beck, Zacharias and Claudette rushed to meet Ulrich and find out what the mystery object was. The three teenagers approached the sight with varying expressions of terror. Claudette backed away, her face turning an unsightly grey as she muttered to herself the words 'this isn't real, this isn't real'. Beck approached the body with caution, the most level-headed out of the group, though he too looked like he might throw up the contents of his stomach. Zacharias stayed away, feeling that there was something familiar about the middle-aged dead man.

Beck reached into the dead man's leather jacket pocket, retracting a wallet. "Let's see who this sorry mofo is."

"That's a person, Beck!" Claudette scolded "This isn't real."

Beck's jaw dropped as he looked at the driver's license in the wallet. "This must be some kind of joke."

"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked, walking over to the taller boy. Instantly, his expression mirrored Beck's. "Zacharias, you might want to see this."

But it was no joke.

The name on the driver's license was Zacharias Kruspe, and the date was twenty-nine years into the future.