Even though Juliet said she was going to try to get ReadyEyes online, it took a lot of nerve to log into her account to invite him to chat with her. She agonized over it for most of the evening before she finally did it. In the end, the only reason she was able to press the ‘finish’ button was because she kept telling herself, “He won’t be online. He won’t be online. Even if his status says he is, he’s probably away from his keyboard.”

However, he wasn’t AFK, and he accepted her invitation.

“Hi,” Juliet typed hesitantly.

“Hi,” he replied immediately.

“This is going to take forever,” Juliet moaned. Then she got down to business typing to ReadyEyes what she had on her mind. “I was intrigued when I got your email saying that you attend the UofA. I go there, too.”

It was a second before his answer came through. “Really? Do you still want to meet me?”

Juliet was a little reluctant to answer, but Rylan had said the whole Occult’s Addict would stand behind her. “Yes,” she typed. “My club is meeting this Friday in the Forestry’s greenhouse at midnight. Would you like to come?”

“I have to work,” was his response. “But give me a little time, and I might be able to find a replacement.”

“It’s okay. If you can’t make it to this meeting, you could come to the next one. My club is called the Occult’s Addict.” She posted the link to their web page. “You can look at the schedule on their site. I just joined, so I’m not listed as one of the members, but I’m very interested in it, so I can pretty much promise I’ll be at their meetings from now on.”

“I’ll be there. I already found someone to take my place.”

Juliet gawked. “That fast?” she typed.

“Yeah. I’m at work right now, so it was easy.”

“Should you be playing around on the internet when you’re at work?”

“You make it sound so irresponsible,” he responded. “But it’s not. A couple of other guys are playing on the Playstation.”

“What kind of job do you have?”

“A very respectable one, I assure you.”

“It sure sounds like it.” She added a wink made out of a semicolon and a right bracket.

“Well, do you want to tell me your name, or do you want to leave it a secret until the last second?”

“Isn’t that more fun?”

“Then how will I know you?” he typed.

“Let me think…”

“...I’m waiting…”

“Okay, I’ll be wearing a green sweater.”

“I’ll see you then, but right now I’ve got to go. Got a call.”

Juliet’s mood went a little flat as his icon turned red. Juliet stayed online until she went to bed, but ReadyEyes didn’t sign in again. It was too bad, she thought, she wanted to get to know him better before they met.

After turning off the lights, she stretched out in bed and thought about Seth, Rylan, and ReadyEyes. If things went well at the meeting on Friday, she’d get to meet ReadyEyes without much trouble, he’d leave before she did, Rylan wouldn’t cause any trouble and she’d get to call Seth for a walk at the end of the night.  

***

Juliet didn’t see ReadyEyes online again before their meeting. He didn’t email her, he didn’t comment on her blog, and he didn’t make any new posts on his own, which Juliet thought was amazing considering how many girls posted on his blog to express their sympathy regarding his wretched state. Most of them sounded a lot like her. Was he planning to meet all of them?  Yuck!  She was starting to doubt the sanity of promising to meet him. If Rylan hadn’t offered her the safety of numbers, she would have backed out by now.

Even though ReadyEyes didn’t write anything in his blog, that didn’t stop Juliet from writing in hers. She wrote several entries. She posted a paper she wrote for one of her classes, posted one of her poems (inspired by the poster of Seth on her closet door, though she wouldn’t have wanted to admit it), and one where she ranted about the increasing anxiety she felt with midterms coming up.

Since she’d given Rylan her blog address, he became a regular visitor. Though he didn’t admit his name, his alias was Force_of_Destruction. At least, Juliet didn’t think it could be anyone else. For the post that housed her paper, he said what he expected her grade to be (he was only off by two percent when she got her paper back on Friday morning). For the poetry, he pointed out a spelling error and commented on how innocent she was.  

His exact words were, “Poor child, still wishing to be a vampire’s victim. If only I had fangs to turn your throat to ribbons, then I’d have your heart, and the rest wouldn’t matter to you.”

Juliet was a little annoyed by his remark. It was true that she was fascinated by the dark majesty of a vampire, especially by the romance and mystery of that kind of relationship provided, but she didn’t often reflect upon the price that had to be paid. In short, she had never considered being murdered by a vampire, and when she did think of it, the idea seemed ridiculous. Instead, his cynicism only diminished her pleasure dreaming of a dark lover. It felt like Rylan had seen through her visions and wanted to point out the obvious evils she ignored with the power of her idealism. She hated him for bringing it up when what she wanted wasn’t a fantasy. Seth was unattainable, but what was so wrong with dreaming about him?

Monster, she thought angrily before she typed her reply. “With that sense of humor, even if you had the sharpest canines in the world, my throat would still be out of your reach.”

She didn’t believe that Rylan could melt her heart after he had offended her, but when she complained about the course load and how much work she had to do, he was awfully sympathetic.

“I’m sorry, my dear,” he had written politely. “I know what you’re going through. We all go through it at this time of year. If you tell me what courses you’re taking, I might be able to help you. I think I wrote an essay like yours for a philosophy class I took. Please come by the clubroom and I’ll give you all the help you could possibly want. And if things still go wrong, I’ll cram you full of junk food and then I’ll let you admire my photo album (there’s something there I know you’ll be interested in).”

Then he signed it, “Your loving pal, 4ofD.”

Juliet wouldn’t normally have been touched, but she didn’t have anyone to turn to when it came to school work. His offer meant something because she knew he wasn’t bluffing. He really would help her. Besides, when was the last time anyone had paid that much attention to her? She couldn’t even remember.

***

Juliet slipped her green sweater over her head. It was an old sweater, but it was the one she promised ReadyEyes she would wear that night. As a matter of fact, it was her secret weapon. She looked fantastic in green because of her eyes, and the soft pond-water green of that sweater made it the most accenting piece of clothing she owned. It was short through the body with extremely long sleeves and a charming boat neck, but that wasn’t the most charming thing about it. It was fuzzy. When she paired it with a long-bodied white tank top, the straps showed at the neck and the body of it covered her stomach, which was good, considering how cold it was.

After putting on her jeans and enough black mascara to make her eyelashes catch any man’s attention, she felt like she was ready to go. At ten to midnight, she left her dorm room and headed toward the Forestry’s greenhouse. Once she was half-way there she realized that she should have called for Safewalk to escort her, but it was already too late.

“Next time,” she promised herself as she hurried, but she still felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner.

The Forestry’s greenhouse was an extension of the main building and it was actually closer to her dormitory than the science building. It only took her a few minutes to walk there.

Juliet approached the doors, peering speculatively through the glass.

“Wow,” she whispered appreciatively. “I didn’t know there was a place this beautiful on campus.”

Through the glass windows, she saw the interior of the greenhouse. There were cement walkways, glistening fountains, steady pools of water, exotic trees with foreign crimson blossoms. As she opened the doors and entered, she heard the chirping of birds. The members of the Occult’s Addict were already assembled in the center, and the witches were setting up dragonfly-shaped patio lights around the center of the room.

“This place is amazing,” Juliet breathed, as she stood in the middle of their arrangement.

“Yeah, it is. Haven’t you been here before? It’s one of the sights on campus. And look, there are fish in the fountains,” Taylor said.

Juliet saw the white and orange koi racing through the water.  

“They’re just here during the cold season. They’ll be in the outside fountains this summer.”

“Hey,” Juliet said, looking around. “Where’s Rylan?”

“Oh, he’s somewhere. He’s probably pouting. He’s been in the foulest mood today. Something’s bugging him. But what about you?” Taylor asked, suddenly changing the topic. “I hear you invited a guy you met on the internet to the meeting? It’s good of you to incorporate your date with our club. We can always use more members, you know.” Heady excitement was lighting up Taylor’s eyes.  

“Yeah, he should be here any second. Which reminds me,” Juliet said as she took off her coat. “I told him I’d be wearing a green sweater.”

“So, you don’t know what he looks like?”

“No. Is that bad?”

Taylor answered, but Juliet didn’t hear her because just then, the most astonishing thing happened. Seth Halkias, the director of Safewalk, the object of Juliet’s wildest and most passionate dreams, walked through the door.  

Juliet’s heart felt like it took a plunge in the fountain behind her—the fountain of good fortune—and she didn’t even have to throw in a quarter.