Before I Ever Met You: A Euphoria Book~(Nate and Jules)

8). And He That Hath Found Her Hath Found A Treasure

RUE

I don't think I could possibly be oblivious to the fact that Jules showed up Monday far from the dejected phase I expected her to be in. Instead, she seemed to be more or less in another dimension. A place far from her normal self yet in a place I liked seeing her in.

Love.

"So, I actually have tea for once!!" She exclaimed excitedly as she sat down at our special lunch table away from everyone else.

"Oh? I definitely wanna hear this." I smirked as I ate my sandwich I brought from home.

"Okay so remember how my phone was blowing up the other night at my house before the party?" Jules squealed.

"Not a trace, but go on." I smiled as I drew a blank.

"Well it was this guy I met online, his names Tyler and he goes to that St. Mary's school, wherever THAT is...anyways, he asked if I wanted to hang out soon. Should I?" Jules practically burst with excitement.

"Okay first off, as happy as I am to hear that, you don't even know him in person.  Aren't you afraid he's not what he says he is?" I asked her, sounding like my mom and not in a good way.

"Well, yeah. I mean it is a dating app after all. But still, I just think it's really sweet of him to check in on me like he does!"

Bzzzzz.

As if he heard us, her phone lit up with a notification from him.

"Speak of the devil..." Jules said excitedly.

"And he definitely shall come...the question is, can he?" I half-joked.

"Oh my god, Rue!" Jules said, pretending to be grossed out but smiling all at once.

And then out of nowhere Maddy and Cassie came over to our table, with Maddy sitting next to Jules.

"Heyyyy bitch. What's got you all smiley and shit?" She asked the giggling anime princess across from me.

"Oh, she's obsessed with an Internet dude." I replied casually.

"Oh my god, tell us all about him!" Cassie jumped on the bandwagon.

"Well, he's a guy I met on this app and he's like really cute...."

At this point I started to phase out. I wasn't really down with the whole Tyler story again. Not that I didn't want to be supportive of my friend, but let's be real; there's a 50/50 chance with an Internet date. Either you can end up with an amazing date that fizzles out after a few days, or end up with a brutal psychopath who will slit your throat on the first meet. And in that 50/50 range, the line between the two slices deep and straight down the middle, releasing all the possibilities into the atmosphere.

Jules had confided in me the other night that she was used to getting herself into situations like this; claiming that due to her supposed level of experience that she could  "take care of herself" in the possible worst case scenario. But could she really?

Now don't get me wrong, I do not see her as a naive teenager at all, nor would I be the person to say "can a girl with those clothes be trusted with her own life?" However, I genuinely think that there's definitely another side to her that she doesn't reveal to the outside world.

Vulnerability....

Jules is the type of person to never (and I can emphatically say NEVER) reveal her true self to just anyone. Underneath the glitter makeup and the plaster skirts and that damn pink faux fur backpack she has on her body every single day, there's a war between her darker side and the genuinely good side in her mind.