Eric is alone. Again. It doesn't bother him to be alone, just to be left alone.
Serena is out seeking adventures, her lips on strangers and drink in hand, like always. Like their mother. Lily is out with another date, also with her carefully colored lips on a stranger, soon to be step-dad, and a martini in hand.
Just like it has always been.
Back when that blurry picture of 'dad' disappeared from lily's nightstand and from their few photo albums and his mother started coming home an hour before they had to leave for school. When their maids, who never lasted more than a couple of weeks, not only signed onto being a maid, but a mother for two.
Serena would allow him to stay up late and wrap her skinny arms around him, while they watched whatever was on tv, the cartoon channels already shutting down for the night, seeing as no kids were up this late. Not with responsible parents, anyway. They'd eat candy until their stomach's hurt, determined to use this freedom on something good, and wait for that moment where the elevator in hallway would make a tiny noise and open it's doors.
There was no hugs and 'oh, you shouldn't have waited up for me, let's get you kids into bed'. Instead Lily would just look at them, sitting there in the darkness, with only the tv lighting up the room (because already back then they had a feeling that this was a secret). She would mutter something drunkenly that none of them understood, and stumble into the bedroom, her heels clicking and leaving a scent of expensive perfume behind.
But then S grew up, and began staring a little bit too long on the calvin klein underwear commercials in the magazines. Her and blair began whispering to each other, giggling behind their hands, and tell him that he didn't get it. No one was interested in coloring outside the lines with him anymore. He still needed a babysitter and now serena would leave an hour after their mother and come home an hour later.
Yes, Eric had always been the sensible one.
Eric supposed it was like he had skipped the whole being a teenager-thing and fast forward'ed to being an adult.