A drunken mind speaks a sober heart.
A/N: I know. I should be updating a long, hot summer, I know. But I'm not. Instead, I come back with a one shot (:
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Dartmouth was Dan's dream; it always had been since he knew what college was. And he got in, too, defying the odds. He remembers coming home to see Jenny and Rufus sit rigidly, not moving even slightly with coffee and Dan's favourite chocolate donuts and the stack of envelopes; Dartmouth was on top of course. After all, Dartmouth was always on top.
Dan had applied to four schools; Dartmouth, Columbia, Evergreen and NYU. Even if he didn't get into Dartmouth, Columbia had a prestigious writing programme and at least NYU wouldn't be educating the likes of Scarf boy and Nate Archibald. And Evergreen? Well, that was just there for the sake of it, really. Dan was far from stupid and also second in his class, surely somewhere had to take him?
He remembers Jenny shoving the Dartmouth envelope in his hand and she was just as eager as he was. His hands started shaking in a strange erratic manner and Rufus gave him the eyebrow.
"Don't give me the eyebrow, Dad I do not need the eyebrow. Does this strike you as a situation for the eyebrow? Frankly I'm-
Jenny took it upon herself to stop the ranting. "Dan, would you just open it? Please?" She whined.
Ready, set, rip. His coffee eyes scanned the paper and he broke into a huge goofy grin. He was in. He was getting an Ivy League education. Dan 'Lonely Boy' Humphrey was in and Archibald was out.
Naturally, Serena was excited for her boyfriend. And yes, the ultimate outsider and the ultimate insider were back together because the 'fling' with Nate Archibald was 'just a summer romance' and Dan 'forgot' to tell Serena that he and Vanessa had gotten drunk together at a sleazy stripper joint. And oh, they slept together too. He woke up and she was gone. She never mentioned it and neither did he. Because of course, it was a 'mistake' and we all know mistakes never lead to romance. Because that's just wrong. Even when it feels so right.
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"Oh Dan that's amazing!" Serena crooned down the phone. Serena and Dan (read: Dan) planned on going to Dartmouth together. They would get married and have coffee addicted blonde babies. It was destiny, fate. At least it was in his mind. Serena didn't really care. She was more concerned about the Archibald-Waldorf reunion. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
"So, where did you get in?" He asked desperately across the line. Serena frowned. She didn't apply to Dartmouth, because the simple truth was, she didn't want to go. She sacrificed precious non judging breakfast club moments for D and V, and its true; opposites do attract, but for how long? Don't we always return to who we really are in the end?
Serena filed through her acceptance letters. She got accepted everywhere except for Evergreen and well, that's not of much significance when you get accepted to Princeton and Yale. Yale…Serena thought dreamily. She was going to Yale with her besties, Nate and Blair. God knows how she got in, however her interview was stellar. Blair? Of course she got in. This was Blair. The three of them, and hey, maybe Chuck could persuade Bart to make a very generous donation, if you know what I mean. She fumbled through them and the silence was verging on ridiculous.
"Serena, its okay if you didn't get in-
"And so you'd just assume I didn't get in?" She replied sharply, verging on the evil that Blair had already mastered by the age of eighteen. She tucked some of her blonde hair behind her left ear and looked on her Yale letter with immense pride.
"Serena that's not what I meant-
Enter one Blair Waldorf, she flopped onto Serena's bed, clutched the phone.
"You must remember, Cabbage Patch," she began, Dan flinching at the use of the Old Nick name, "that when we were thirteen, you were studying all weekend whilst Serena and I were probably drunk with Bass." She told him. Serena giggled. This was getting mean. Serena wasn't this girl. Blair giggled and Serena grabbed the phone back.
"Serena could you please just-
"I didn't get in." She told him, with no fake note of disappointment. Blair grabbed the phone back to Dan's dismay.
"But do you know where she did get in? Yale and Princeton." She informed him hastily. Serena laughed. She couldn't help it. She had gotten into two Ivy League schools. Now she was smarter than Humphrey, right?
"Tell Serena I'll talk to her later." He mumbled, crestfallen. Blair clicked off and laughed wickedly, but Serena now looked wistful.
"Hey. You got into the school of your dreams with me and Nate and that's all that matters. Not where Humphrey wants you to go." Blair told her, then again, she was not the one lying about it. She and Nate decided on Yale a long time ago. Lucky for Archibald, Dartmouth rejected him. He may have been a legacy, but Nate was more "I'm the hot guy on the lacrosse team" than "I'm going to write the next great American novel."
"I should have been honest with him." Serena murmured. "I don't lie Blair."
Blair put a hand on Serena's shoulder. She couldn't see the downside. She was going to Yale with N and S, maybe Chuck would…tag along if it was so necessary. "Is it over for you two then?" Blair asked casually, as if Serena had never really fallen for Dan. Blair knew Serena better than Serena knew herself.
"I don't know." She responded.
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Turned out, that was it. Serena came clean that she hadn't applied to Dan's dream school in the first place and that was the final straw for him. Rufus informed Dan that "You should have gotten rid of that blonde debutante ages ago" (read: Lily decided her marriage was more important than Rufus's lasagne) and Dan shrugged things off. They say that for every year you go out with someone, it takes another month to get over them. Approximately, Dan and Serena were together two years (they don't count the 'fling'). Let it be known that Serena was officially over Dan Humphrey in about two days. Blair wouldn't accept anything else.
When Nate and Blair reunited, it was much…unnoticed, like they had never been apart. It seemed that, Serena woke up and Blair called to inform her of the reunion that the two simply had a small argument and that was that. Because Serena had been steamrolling over her feelings for years, why stop now? Her exact words were;
"Oh? What-about-Chuck?" She stuttered.
Blair replied, "What about him? That man-whore, that Bass-tard, that-
We won't continue.
And Nate? Vanessa was still not over Dan and Nate wasn't over Serena, but that doesn't matter when its Blair's world and you're just living in it. Chuck preferred to resort to his old ways. He did miss the limo sex though. It had become a hobby.
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Thirty years later, Blair was Chief of surgery at New York Presbyterian. She had never considered becoming a doctor, because usually when she did nice things she ended up regretting them. But Chuck had a thing for the white lab coat she walked about in. And she always wore heels to work, because she was the absolute epitome of professionalism.
Serena was a model. She admitted to disliking her job, but it gave her power. She was extremely successful, America's sweetheart. She was on billboards. She still turned heads. It was if she had never changed from high school. Nate couldn't be prouder.
Blair Waldorf recalls one of the many nights that she and Serena got quite drunk. The reason for their frequent inebriation, apparently, was that neither thought the other drank much. Therefore they mistakenly used each other as a bench-mark for how much to drink, as they done so many times before. Obviously, that was a disaster, because they both thought the second-nay, the third bottle of wine was always a good idea. Anyway, this particular drunken night they dissected their respective marriages. Bottle one: Chuck and Nate were heroes who had saved their girls from divorces. Bottle two: they lamented having married men they hadn't thought they'd marry. She was Blair Waldorf and Chuck was just a teenage infatuation that was supposed to have worn off by now. And Nate was Serena's best friend's boyfriend, how could such relationships work? Blair always thought she'd marry Nate, prince charming. She came from New York royalty, it was only natural the princess had her prince. Blair had always felt Chuck was the jester.
Serena always thought she'd marry Dan. The break up only lasted a month and two days before she flung into his arms again. He was a poet, a maverick.
Bottle Three: they came to the strangely insightful conclusion that opposites attract – for a while. For Nate and Serena were two of the same. Blair and Chuck were two of the same. The blond, golden couple who had been in love since they first set eyes on one another. The evil planners whose chemistry together never went unnoticed.
When Nate and Chuck entered after a guy's night out and flung their arms around their respective wives, that was when the two women decided;
They had married the right men.
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Hope you liked (: