Juliet stared at her laptop screen. Yes, it said what she thought it did. ReadyEyes808 went to her school. She could meet him if she wanted to. He had given away his personal information without the slightest worry, but the idea of meeting him in person was a little daunting for her.  

She realized what she had said to ReadyEyes was fairly irresponsible. She spouted off that line about wanting to meet him while thinking she wouldn’t actually have to. Normally, when she chatted with people on the internet, they were from the other side of the world and a meeting would have been impossible.  

What was she going to do?

She abruptly closed her laptop and went for a walk. At first, she was simply wandering, but eventually, she found herself looping her way down to the Student Group office and heading toward the Occult’s Addict club room. It was only a coincidence that she happened to pass Safewalk on the way. Who was she kidding? It was four o’clock in the afternoon. There was no way Seth would be walking anyone until after dark, so no matter how sneaky she tried to be about it, there was no possibility of ‘accidentally’ running into him.  

In actuality, she didn’t think the club room would be open either. That’s why she was surprised when she turned the corner and saw the door wide open.

She tip-toed up. 

When she peeked around the corner, she saw Rylan, with his back to the door, leaning over the office computer looking at some pictures of crop circles.  

Juliet smiled. That was one of the topics she said she was interested in. Was it possible that he was investigating it for her? Maybe. Maybe not. Whichever, the idea, no matter how unlikely, put Juliet in a good mood.

“Hiya!” she greeted pleasantly as she paused in the door frame.

Rylan wasn’t even surprised. “You have the stalking ability of a groundhog,” he said lazily without even turning around. “But you’re welcome to come in.”

Juliet found herself a place to sit in the cluttered office. “I had a good time last night at the observatory.”

“Really?” Rylan drawled, closing the open windows on his desktop and turning his attention toward Juliet.   

“Was looking at the moon really that boring for you?” she asked.

He smiled and brushed his white bangs off his forehead. “Of course not. It’s just that Taylor and I have been in this club since our first year. The only new members we’ve got in all that time have been the witches and although they can do some pretty amazing tricks, they’re white witches, and that’s the boring part.”

“You prefer black magic?” Juliet asked coyly.

“I would prefer something interesting. Like you for instance.” As he said those last four words his eyes zeroed in on Juliet’s.

His intensity made Juliet jump. “I’m not anything special,” she said, blushing slightly and sweeping away his comment like he hadn’t made it. He was probably just joking anyway.

“We’ll see,” he said, taking a starship paperweight off the desk and balancing it on the back of his fingers.

Just at that moment, Juliet got an idea. What if she asked Rylan about her problem with ReadyEyes?

“Hey Rylan,” she started. “Have you ever met someone you know on the internet in person?”

He arched one eyebrow curiously and then laughed. “No, but that’s not to say that I wouldn’t. It would depend.”

“Depend on what?”

“Depend on how I felt about them and what kind of connection we had. If it was a girl, I wouldn’t hesitate. I’d want to meet her immediately—no questions asked. If it was a guy... I don’t know why I would want to meet him unless he was claiming to be a werewolf or something, and if that was the case, I’d invite the whole Occult’s Addict to meet him, too.”

“Ah, but I’m a girl.”

“So, you’re meeting a guy?”

Juliet nodded. 

“Romantic? Ugh! Please tell me that you didn’t meet him in a singles chat room. If you did, I’ll have you banned from the club on charges of being insipid.”

“No,” Juliet countered, quick to dispel his fears. “I met him through my blog. He’s a regular visitor.”

“You have a blog?” Rylan asked inquisitively. 

She smiled. “Yeah.”

“Can I have the address, so I can be a regular visitor, too?” he asked, opening his browser and waiting for her to tell him the address.

She told him and he quickly typed it in.  

“Ah,” he said when the page finished loading. “This is adorable, and for your last entry, you wrote about our meeting last night. That’s really good of you, but I see you haven’t written anything about Seth. Considering the level of your obsession, I half expected that you would have already uploaded the pictures I sold you last night. Instead, you haven’t mentioned his name, but you’ve put my name in three times. I’m honored.”

“I didn’t want to talk about Seth online,” she mumbled, wondering why in the hell she had given Rylan permission to look at her entry. When he asked her if he could look at it, she’d forgotten that she’d written anything at all about him and was only thinking about what his thoughts might be on the formatting. It hadn’t even occurred to her that he would actually read the stupid thing.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she answered blankly, clearly playing dumb. After meeting Seth last night while carrying her poster of him, she felt the remorse of a hopeful groupie. He was not going to fall in love with a girl who adored him by putting a poster of him on her wall, especially because he didn’t even know he was being photographed. That settled it. No more buying pictures of Seth from Rylan. No more ridiculous behavior. At least, that was what she told herself.

“Well? Wasn’t Seth as good up close up as he is on paper?” Rylan asked, rousing her from her thoughts.

She had to act like she didn’t care. She shrugged her shoulders and asked him if he liked her layout.

“It’s beaut,” he said before he clicked on her comment bar and saw a comment posted by ReadyEyes.  

It was one Juliet hadn’t seen yet because she had been so caught up in his email she hadn’t bothered to check to see if he had commented on her blog.  

It read, “Your student group sounds fascinating. I wish I had the time to participate in something like that. It really fits the image I have of you. Make sure you write a detailed post about your next meeting. I am interested in hearing what crazy stuff you get up to.”

“Is it this guy, ReadyEyes808?” Rylan asked.

“Yep.”

“He sounds like a wanker. I wouldn’t bother meeting him if I were you.”  

 Then, to Juliet’s horror, Rylan clicked on his name and was directed to his blog. There was his post Step into the Confessional. Juliet wanted to close the window to stop Rylan from reading it, but she dared not wrestle the mouse out of his hand. Besides, if he loaded it once, he would be able to read it anytime he wanted, even if she stopped him from reading it in front of her. She paced around the room, smothering her urge to stop him. Maybe he’d change his mind about ReadyEyes being a wanker, but Rylan probably thought that everyone except himself was nothing.

When he was finished reading he turned to Juliet and said, “I’ve changed my mind.”

“Really?” she asked, totally shocked.

“Yes. I think you should invite this guy to come to the meeting on Friday. Do you think he’ll be able to come?”

“Yeah, probably. He told me he has classes here.”

“Really? Then you should definitely invite him. Like I said, it would be interesting to get some new blood in here and he sounds warped. He’d probably make a good boyfriend for Taylor, so make sure to invite him.”

“Wait, are you sure?”

“Yeah. Besides, we’ll watch your back and make sure nothing bad happens.”

“Okay,” Juliet nodded. She was a little bewildered, but what Rylan said made sense. Inviting ReadyEyes to the club activity was a perfect way for her to meet him for the first time.

“So, it’s almost five,” Rylan said. “Want to go out to supper with me?”

“A date?” Juliet asked, perking up a little bit.

“Not a date. Remember that Taylor and I are still playing our little game?”

“Oh right. No one knows whether the two of you are both female or both male.”

“Yeah, and I don’t want to blow my cover. Taylor’s still having a lot of fun laughing at everyone for not being able to figure out the truth.”

Juliet frowned. “Well, if you’re not a guy, then you’ve fooled me. Sometimes it even feels like you’re flirting with me.”

“I am flirting with you, but it’s up to you whether you want to flirt back... knowing what you know,” he said, meeting her eyes again in the most serious way.

In just one second, Juliet made her brain think of him as a woman instead of a man and it made her feel dizzy. “If you’re a girl, then you’ve got the whole ‘guy’ act down perfectly.”

“And if I’m a guy?”

“Then you shouldn’t play with my feelings for your amusement. Be honest about who you are,” she said, getting up and leaving the club room.  

“Hey, what about dinner?” Rylan called after her.

“Some other time,” she said over her shoulder. 

He got up and went to the door to talk to her. “Wait. What are you going to do instead?”

“I think I’ll see if I can instant message ReadyEyes. I’ll invite him to our meeting this Friday.”

“I’d rather you ate with me and put ReadyEyes on hold. Do you like him that much?”

Juliet took a deep breath before she answered him. “Listen, I know that it really shouldn’t matter if you’re a girl or a guy for us to be friends, but I’m having a hard time reacting to you. I don’t want to put any pressure on you to reveal your true identity to me, but I’m…”

“Straight,” he answered for her, looking bored.

“Yeah.”

“Well, why did you have such a hard time saying it? It’s obvious, especially after the way you were chasing Seth last night.”

“Sorry,” Juliet flushed. “That’s a little embarrassing the next day. I’m just…”

Rylan waited patiently for her to finish.

“I just would feel a lot more comfortable if I knew whether or not you are what you seem to be.”

“Well, work hard. Maybe you’ll be the first one to figure it out,” he said smoothly before he grabbed his coat and switched off the clubroom lights. “See you later, Juliet.”

Juliet walked to the elevator with him and playfully smacked his shoulder with the flat of her hand. “Hey, don’t be in such a hurry to say ‘good-bye.’ We still have to take the elevator together.”

Rylan stepped into the elevator with a sigh and pressed the button to take them down. “Isn’t the fun almost too much?” he said sarcastically.