My whole body seemed to tremble with nervousness because I wasn't ready to take that step, to leave our safe online world and let him become part of my unpredictable and destructive reality.

But Erik wasn't just any young man. It was fucking Erik. My best friend, with whom I spent nights discussing Greek mythology, with whom I exchanged books on philosophy and with whom I felt like someone, not something. And I would meet him. Here. Now.

“And now get moving. I'm sure he's waiting!”

Larissa pulled me off my barely safe bar stool and down into the unknown. Closer to Erik than I could handle.

Was it normal to be overwhelmed? Was he perhaps feeling the same?

“I don't know, Larissa. Maybe it's not such a great idea,” I voiced my doubts. Loud enough for her to hear me.

She wiggled her index finger before downing her Cuba Libre and indicating to the bartender that she hadn’t had enough yet.

Her stamina was remarkable. I would have been drunk by now, that's how little I could handle.

Perhaps it was simply because I had only secretly borrowed the good whisky with the maple syrup note from Amara a few times and otherwise knew only the disgusting wine from the formal temple ceremonies in Moenia.

“Forget it, you're going to see your Prince Charming now. I'm sure he's been waiting for you for a long time. And if it helps, take a sip of this.” She held out her freshly served drink with a slice of lemon stuck to it. “To help you come out of your shell.”

I waved my hands in thanks and she rolled her eyes.

“Then stop being like that and get going. Otherwise, I'll tell the DJ to ask for your Erik.” She grinned mischievously at me and my heart stopped beating.

“You're not doing that!” I stuttered, stunned, because by now I trusted Larissa to do anything.

“Don't challenge me!” she laughed loudly and sipped her drink.

I felt sick to my stomach and reached for her glass, took a generous sip and immediately regretted it. I had to cough as the cooling liquid flowed down my throat.

“There you go,” Larissa said cheerfully and also got down from her bar stool. “And now hurry! It's late enough!”

Without warning, she pushed me into the crowd, which simply swallowed me up with its movements and pushed me in a different direction, away from Larissa. All I could see was her waving excitedly after me before two dancing men blocked my view.

The beat intensified the feeling my loudly pounding heart was giving off and as I took my cell phone out of my pocket, it almost slipped out of my cold, shaking and sweaty hands.

I found myself in the middle of a huge crowd of people, which increased my nervousness. Every touch seemed to sting me and I could feel Gloria's serum slowly losing its effect. So, I hastily pushed my way through the crowd to an edge of the club where it was less busy, but the dancing and talking people still obscured my view so that I was protected from any chance encounters with Grace or other people I knew. I was afraid my cousin wouldn't let me go, especially after her statement yesterday.

My hands began to shake harder. So, I rummaged in my little white bag for the bottle of Salma I had taken from Gloria. The liquid shimmered slightly, but I didn't look at it for long, instead I hastily gulped down the contents of the small vial.

Inwardly, I hoped that nothing would happen to me tonight. This potion didn't guarantee it, but it did make me less emotional and less likely to have an outburst. I only drank half of it because I didn't want to lose all my feelings. It was still Erik I was about to meet and I wanted to react authentically to him.

Damn it. I was going to meet Erik.

My heart pounded and pounded.

Then my cell phone vibrated.

My trembling intensified.

God, I had never felt so nervous.

This morning I'd hardly been able to get anything down, apart from three cherry tomatoes. My hunger had simply passed, as so many times when excitement messed with my emotional world.

Then there was the shaking. Grace had put my make-up on and warned me that if I kept shaking like that, the make-up wouldn't work, but she had somehow managed it anyway.

I swallowed as I read his words. It was a mixture of disappointment and relief that spread through me. What if it all suddenly happened too quickly for him too?

My alarm bells rang and I got even more nervous. Bay had said that I shouldn't change the meeting place because it could get dangerous.

But this was Erik. Erik wasn't dangerous. We were friends and nothing would happen. Or was I being too naive?

The fact that he was typing for so long made me even more nervous. I finally wanted to see him, but somehow, I didn't feel ready.

I could no longer control my shaking. To make sure I didn't lose my phone, I quickly activated a live location for Larissa, slipped it back into my pocket and took another deep breath.

“Okay... You can do it,” I said to myself. No one could hear me here anyway. Then I pushed my way through the crowd dancing to Danza Kuduro by Don Omar and Lucenzo.

I felt as if the music had gotten louder. It was a wonder I didn't have a headache yet, because my body normally hated so much stimulation. Loud music, booming bass, colorful lights, the smell of smoke and sweet alcohol. All of this could have made me explode by now. But it was different. It was as if Erik had taken a place inside me from which he controlled all my thoughts. He distracted me so much that I actually made it to the exit, where I squeezed past people still queuing and high school kids smoking.

I paused for a moment because somehow, I still didn't feel ready. Erik was only a few meters away from me, somewhere out here. He would surely recognize me immediately by my insecurity and then it would be too late. I could still turn around. I could still go back to Grace, in front of whom Larissa couldn't ask any questions.

The fact that I finally left the club and found myself in the pleasantly cool parking lot was only thanks to the quiet voice inside me that called out for Erik's company.

There was no turning back now. I was actually going to meet Erik.

I walked slowly across the parking lot, where a few drunken teenagers were making out with each other.

I looked at every face, but no one seemed to be interested in me. I kept walking, moving away from the club, trying to suppress the anxiety building inside me until it suddenly brought me to a halt.

What if he wasn't here at all? What if he had meant a different club? A different university or even a completely different town with the same name? What if he wasn't from Blairville at all? And what if the whole time he was just...

“J?”

My breath stopped. Everything inside me tightened pleasantly. Time stood still. I slowly turned around.

“Erik...” I whispered softly and looked at the young man with the black suit jacket and white shirt underneath... a black mask covering the upper half of his face, except for his eyes. He was tall, at least two heads taller than me, and had broad shoulders, but it was too dark to make out the color of his hair, especially since it shimmered almost orange in the warm lantern light.

“Both of us wearing masks, what a coincidence.” His voice sounded warm, masculine, and immediately triggered a tingling sensation in my stomach. I thought I had heard it somewhere before, but that was impossible. “Are we now like the gods, who hide behind their masks while they do things that Olympus shouldn't know about?”

Through the shadows, I recognized a smirk on his lips. And I discovered dimples on his taut skin that gave me a pleasant tug in my stomach.