The Truth About Julia: A Chillingly Timely Psychological Novel by Schaffner Anna Read Free Book Online

points: ‘Of course not, of course not, sweetheart; how can you think that of us, Julia, darling !’ he kept saying, and he, too, sounded shocked and shaken by her accusations. But Julia said nothing more and simply left the room. Of course she found me eavesdropping behind the door, but rather than being angry with me she just took my hand and led me upstairs to her room. That night, she let me sleep in her bed – she used to do that on special occasions. Just before I fell asleep she whispered: ‘All will be OK tomorrow, my pet, you’ll see. Trust me.’
    And she was right, of course. My parents never mentioned the comprehensive again. The very next day they enrolled me at Julia’s school. I couldn’t help but be impressed with her manoeuvre, but I found out later that two months before Julia’s intervention, my father had lost a big sum on the stock market. Jonathan told me. Apparently it was such a large amount that my parents were afraid of having to declare bankruptcy for a while. But somehow they managed to pay my fees in any case – how exactly they did it I don’t know. And a few years later, their finances had recovered, and all was well again on that front.
    The only time I ever saw Julia use violence was at a party she took me to when I was twelve. By then she’d shed her black costumes and her flirtation with Weltschmerz. She’s always been pretty extreme in her tastes and interests – it’s all or nothing for her. Quite abruptly, she’d moved on from death to politics and economics, and had raided our mother’s wardrobe and all the charity shops in town in search of seventies clothes. Of course, as always, I followed suit. On the evening of the party, she was wearing flared brown corduroys, red leather cowboy boots and a flowery purple blouse. Her long brown hair, parted in the centre, glistened like wet chestnuts. Her hair has always been glossy and full – not like mine, which is catastrophically brittle. You wouldn’t think we had the same genes, would you? She’d also put on lots of Indian bracelets with little silver bells that chimed whenever she moved her hands.
    Julia is the kind of person who inspires trends and attracts followers wherever she goes. Not just me, I mean: at least half of her year were trying to emulate her style. When we arrived at her friend’s house, The Doors were playing, and everyone was giggling and smoking bongs and sitting cross-legged on the carpet – you can imagine the scene. All of Julia’s friends were boys – girls didn’t really interest her. Of those male friends, almost all were in love with her, and I could totally see why – I mean, how couldn’t they be? My sister was so incredibly beautiful and smart and brave. Julia was used to being adored, but generally didn’t pay much attention to her admirers. But there was one boy in her group of friends who didn’t give the impression of being particularly enamoured with her – he was called Josh, and the party was at his house. Josh’s seeming lack of interest had awoken Julia’s own. The night before, she had initiated me in her plan to seduce Josh at his party. Not because she was in love with him, or anything like that. He was a very ordinary person – I can’t even really remember his face. I think she did it simply because she considered it a challenge. I always kind of suspected that because she was so much more intelligent than everyone around her and because everything came to her so easily and quickly, she was actually pretty bored most of the time. I think she needed little challenges like that just to keep herself entertained, you know? But in any case, we’d sat up in her bed the night before and plotted seduction strategies: what she would wear, what she would say and in which tone of voice, how she would look at him and when she would touch his hand – that kind of stuff. Ultimately, I ended up being much more nervous and excited about the whole thing than she was. At that