The show was over. The buzz was fading. The hotel was noisy with fans outside and roadies yelling about gear.
Tom didn’t want any of it.
He and Isadora ducked out early — through the back entrance, hoodies up, fingers intertwined under the night sky.
The room was small, barely enough space for two people, a cracked window, and a beat-up TV. But for once, the quiet felt like luxury.
Isadora sat cross-legged on the bed, popping popcorn in the microwave. “It smells like feet in here.”
Tom laughed, flopping down beside her. “Yeah, but at least they’re our feet.”
They put on The Ring — because it was 2005, and horror was the vibe. Isadora kept hiding under his hoodie every time the creepy girl appeared on screen.
“You’re such a baby,” he whispered.
“You literally screamed when the phone rang!”
They ended up in fits of laughter, tangled together in a cocoon of baggy clothes, eyeliner smears, and microwave popcorn butter.
The next morning was wild. The band crew surprised Tom and Bill in the hotel lobby with a stack of pancakes, a guitar-shaped cake, and way too many helium balloons.
> “You guys are Sixteen now,” Georg teased. “Basically grown men.”
> “Yeah,” Gustav said. “So mature, you woke me up by blasting Limp Bizkit at 6 AM.”
Bill twirled in his new leather jacket like it was Paris Fashion Week.
Tom, on the other hand, was grinning ear to ear — not just because of the cake…
…but because Isadora walked in wearing his band tee, oversized and falling off her shoulder, with a little wrapped gift in her hands.
“Happy birthday, Rockstar.”
He opened it.
Inside? A guitar pick on a chain with ‘T+I’ scratched into the back, and a tiny, black heart.
Tom blinked.
“I didn’t know if it was cheesy,” she mumbled.
He pulled her into the tightest hug. “It’s perfect.”
That night, Phantom Youth and Tokio Hotel threw a joint rooftop party (again — because rooftops are their thing).
Everyone was there: crew, friends, even some local band kids from the tour. Old-school German punk blasted from a speaker while kids drank soda from red cups and danced like it was a music video.
Bill got up on a table and made a dramatic toast:
> “To the best Sixteen-year-old twin disasters this country’s ever seen!”
Isadora snuck Tom to a quiet corner, stealing another kiss beneath a string of fairy lights.
“Best birthday ever?” she asked.
He smirked. “Best year ever… ‘cause of you." As they kiss in the night sky
YOU ARE READING
"Strings Between Us
Romance2004. Germany. Tom Kaulitz is used to getting what he wants - the stage, the crowd, the girls. As Tokio Hotel begins to rise, so does his ego... until she shows up. She's the Brazilian guitarist in a rival band - quiet, sharp-tongued, and completely...
