unexpected - ruel van dijk

nice to meet you

i wrapped my wet blonde hair in a towel as i walked into my bedroom and got dressed into my pyjamas already half-asleep. as i climbed into bed, i turned my salt lamp on and let its orange glow fill my dark room. i then flopped down and finally let my fatigued limbs relax. it definitely was a good fatigue, i hadn't experienced this post-concert feeling in what seemed like forever. i shut my eyes and tried to sleep, but despite my immense exhaustion, the ringing in my ears was persistently keeping me awake. instead, i decided to put on one of my vinyls quietly and the piano chords of 'let it be' by the beatles washed through my room. i sighed happily and stared at my roof. 

eventually out of pure boredom and insomnia i reached to my bedside table for my phone. i noticed as my phone unlocked that the guy who i met in the mosh pit had messaged me. his name, as written on my phone screen was ruel. i opened snapchat and sure enough he had sent me a photo. i'm not going to lie, i was slightly confused; usually guys don't talk to me. i prefer to keep to myself; fade into the background. it was far easier that way. anyhow, i know i am and never will be their first option. 

he had sent me a photo of himself pulling an obnoxiously stupid face with a simple 'hey' written. i looked confused at my phone for a few seconds. he probably hadn't meant to send it to me anyway. reluctantly, i took an equally obnoxious photo, wrote 'hey' and sent it back. he opened it straight away much to my shock. i waited a couple of seconds until my phone screen had lit up again with another snapchat. 'check instagram' he wrote. i looked at my phone quizzically. i sent a photo back. 'instagram? bahaha you don't even know my instagram?' i replied. he literally replied instantly. 'they found you, not me 🤯🤣' he wrote. 

'they?' i replied as i shut snapchat and opened instagram. sure enough, my notifications absolutely blew up. i had over 200 follow requests, and had been tagged in at least 500 photos. 

"what the actual fuck" i muttered and laughed quietly to myself as i scrolled through my notifications. i tapped on one of the images that i had been tagged in. it was a photo of me talking to that ruel guy at the concert. was this guy famous or something? he seemed to have a cohort of 14 year-old girls obsessing over his every move and apparently i had been swept up in the midst of their adolescent obsession.

i scrolled through my follower requests; majority of them were fanpages for ruel. eventually i came across what appeared to be ruel's instagram, @/oneruel. it was verified, so i assumed that it was probably him. i tapped accept and then curiously opened his profile so i could see what all the fuss was about. in his bio was one word: 'ooft' . i began to scroll through his feed to see what all the fuss was about. so he was a musician. a singer to be exact. i opened a video of one of his concerts, and i was taken aback. he had an amazing voice. i went back onto snapchat and messaged ruel. 'oh my god that's insane' i wrote. he replied with'i know hahaha'. i shook my head. 'so what? they think i'm your new girlfriend or something?' i joked. 'apparently' he answered.'i literally talked to you at a concert once, now i get ambushed at mcdonald's by 12 year olds and abused on social media by fanpages trying to figure out who ruel's new girlfriend is 🤣' i wrote. 'damn it really be like that sometimes' he replied. i laughed, probably louder than i should have. 'it really do' i wrote back.

'so yes as u can tell i'm pretty cool' he wrote. 'right, whatever you say' i replied; unsure of where this newfound confidence had come from. he sent back a photo of himself pouting, in the way a five-year-old would his hair was obnoxiously spiked up in a way that let me know he was taking the piss out of the situation 'what's that supposed to mean' he wrote. 'oh i'm sorry is someone angry? 😤 ' i wrote mockingly. 'yes they ARE angry 😡' he replied, i knew that he understood my sarcasm, and this alone made me unbelievably happy. he sent me another snapchat: 'what are you doing tomorrow?' he said. i froze. i literally didn't know what to do. this kind of stuff didn't happen to me. i replied 'did you mean to send this snapchat to me? lol' he opened my snap and replied. 'yes i'm pretty sure i did... are you free or not?' he wrote. 

i honestly had no idea what to do. 

of course i was free, it wouldn't shock anyone that i've never actually had a social life. but i forced myself to build up some courage and slowly typed 'yeah i am'. i let the words linger on my phone screen for a few seconds, before closing my eyes and pressing send, as a rush of adrenaline flowed through my body. i know that sounds pathetic, but it was a very rare and nerve-racking occurrence for a guy to message me, let alone ask to hang out. 'lets hit up the glebe markets tomorrow morning. i haven't been since i got home' he said. 'hell yeah i'm down' i replied.

'cool. see u there at about 10:30?' he asked. 'sounds good' i wrote and sent. i turned my phone off, threw it down onto the bed and grabbed one of my pillows, wrapped my arms tightly around it and squealed; in absolute disbelief of what had happened. a guy had asked me to hang out. 

i calmed myself down, as i began to overthink everything as per-usual. what if he didn't show up? what if he didn't like me, just like all of the guys at my school. i knew that i wasn't pretty enough; i didn't look like all of the other girls all over instagram. i quietened my mind as i shut my eyes and finally began to drift off to sleep; a cocktail of emotions enveloping me into a void of slumber.

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hey!!

it's so nice to see that there have been some people who have actually bothered to read this story. sorry it has been a while to wait for this next chapter!

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