About six hours later Annie found herself walking up the sweeping, graveled cul-de-sac to the Bass's massive villa. She had taken the 'scenic' route along the beach, but when she had arrived at the double iron gate that separated the estate from the beach, a security guard approximately the size of a tree had stopped her.

"Entry only through front door", he had said sternly, his thick accent placing him somewhere in the East of Europe. "But is invite only."

"That won't be a problem", she had replied with a polite smile. Her dad had left her the invite on the living room table with a little note that told her he'd RSVPed on her behalf. Just in case. "Thank you."

There was a public walkway that led back to the street, but it was at least a quarter of a mile down the beach and an even longer walk back up the street to the house, so instead Annie turned to an overgrown dirt track between the Bass's hedge and their neighbors' fence.

It was a popular shortcut and every time either of the two adjacent owners had tried to close it some way or the other they had come back in the summer to find it back in business until they had given up. Rumor had it they were now in talks with the town council about having it paved and turned 'official' – all in the name of giving back to the community, of course. No better way to do good than by giving away something that's no use to you anyways.

When Annie had lived in Beverly Hills most parties she'd been to had been loud music, crowded dance floors and flashing strobe lights – even those that had been held by friends of her parents – maybe a by-product of living in the heart of La La Land. But Manhattanites were different; sophisticated to a fault and very proud of it. Ever since Annie and her dad had moved to live with her grandma on the Upper East Side it had been an endless cycle of chandeliers, champagne and what could only be described as overpriced elevator music. The first time Annie had chucked a red cup at an NYU frat party in front of Cee, her best friend had looked at her like she had just grown a second head.

Annie had silently hoped a Fourth of July bash arranged by none other than the notorious Georgina Sparks – aka. the soon-to-be Mrs. Jack Bass – would be a breath of fresh air, but when she walked up the semicircular staircase leading up to the entrance she felt those hopes being crushed by a glow of dimmed lights in the windows and the discreet sound of a piano being carried through the open front door. Looked like Ms. Sparks had already well adjusted to her future role as a Real Housewife of Manhattan.

Celeste ambushed her in the foyer.

Annie had barely had time to put the invite back into her Cashhimi clutch when her best friend came towards her with a half empty champagne flute in her hand and purpose in her steps.

For one foolish second Annie panicked. Had Quinn told her? Did she know? But her face didn't say murder, so whatever was driving her right then, it wasn't a hunger for blood.

"You're late", she said. No hello, no nothing. Classic Cee. "I was starting to think you were standing us up."

"I wouldn't dream of it", Annie gave back with a grimace. "Besides, I am still well within the fashionable two hour range. If anything you are too early."

"Touché." Celeste raised her glass and stuck out her tongue at her. "I went four weeks without a proper Upper East Side party, so I wanted to make the most of it."

Annie thought about how she would have preferred to spend the evening alone with her Netflix account and pizza delivery instead. In her head she was already contemplating how long she would have to stay until she could leave. Cee linked arms with Annie, pulling her along through the living room and towards the open terrace door.

"You know, Georgina Sparks will probably call security on your ass, if she catches you in those", she commented, with a pointed look at Annie's black espadrille wedges. "What happened to our "No Heels no Party" rule?"

"You mean your "No Heels no Party" rule", Annie gave back dryly. "I wasn't gonna do a twenty minute walk along the beach in heels, Ms. Fashion Police. Besides, I've seen our host. She looks like she is about twenty months pregnant and probably wishes she was wearing flats."

"She does look very pregnant", Celeste agreed with a grin. "That's no excuse to show up at a Hamptons party in shoes with ropes for a sole though. You're lucky the guy I found for you thinks this is the kind of event that calls for a canvas shirt. You two are ridiculously perfect for each other."

"Wowowowow, wait!" Annie came to an abrupt halt, yanking hard enough at Celeste's arm that she tripped and spilled a bit of champagne on the dress of a middle aged woman with hair that was a little too yellow and a forehead that was a little too smooth.

"What do you mean the guy you found for me?", she hissed, flashing the woman an apologetic look, before turning her attention back to her best friend. "Please tell me that I am not about to be set up with some random dude."

"Oh don't worry, he's far from random", Celeste answered suggestively. "His questionable fashion sense aside, he's actually gorgeous. Type tall, dark and handsome and built like a tree. If I wasn't happily otherwise engaged, I'd probably keep him for myself. And he just recently moved here from California. It's like he's been sent here specifically to end your little dating dry spell."

"I'm not having a dry spell!" Annie felt a heat rising in her cheeks that was equal parts anger and embarrassment. And shame. "And I don't need to be set up with a guy I've never seen before in my life."

"How about you wait and see before you decide?", Celeste offered, completely unfazed by her friend's irritation. "He's outside with Quinn and the twins. You're gonna meet him either way, so you might as well give him a chance."

"Fine", Annie growled. "Does this guy have a name?"

"Of course he does", Celeste quipped. "I think it was Jack. Or Jim? Pretty sure it was something starting with J... To be honest I've been too distracted by his abs under that ridiculous shirt to really listen."

She stopped a waiter on his way into the house and swapped her empty glass for two full glasses from his tray, handing one to Annie.

"Drink up", she ordered. "You look like you're about to have your wisdom teeth removed."

"This sounds like an attractive alternative right about now", Annie muttered, downing the whole drink in one angry gulp as she followed Celeste outside.

Their friends were standing at the champagne bar that had been set up by the illuminated swimming pool. Annie found her eyes immediately drawn to Quinn. He looked unbelievably handsome in his white button-down shirt and cream colored pants that Celeste had one hundred percent picked out for him and she felt her heart ache in the exact same way it had whenever she'd seen him for the past two years. Funny, how the more things changed the more they stayed the same.

How stupid of her to think – hope even! – that anything remotely good could come from that ugly, fucked up mess she'd made. That maybe by acting on those fantasies she had tried so hard to bury, she had finally gotten Quinn out of her system. But like with so many other things lately she had been dead wrong.

Now she'd had a glimpse of what it was like to be with him – seeing him that afternoon and even more so seeing him now – suddenly it felt like all she could think about was how much she longed to be with him like that again. This feeling – this desire – was so powerful, so consuming that for a moment Annie forgot everything else. Like the whole world had been turned into a blur until all she could see clearly was him.

Reality came crushing back in swiftly and in the form of Sophia and Nicky Redford, aka. "The Redford Twins", who'd erupted into excited cheers when they had seen her step onto the terrace. And for a short while everything was hugs and cheek kisses and happy chatter that was lost in the overall joy of the moment.

Annie adored the twins. In fact, she had already admired them from afar since before they had met at Constance two years ago. They were exceptionally clever and beautiful and just overall interesting young women. Starting with, but not limited to the fact that they weren't actually twins. Technically, they weren't even related. A black girl and a Latina girl growing up as sisters on the Upper East Side following the wedding of their parents twelve years ago. They had been as thick as thieves from the moment they met. And they had quickly learned how to cash in on the fact that they were a small Manhattan sensation.

There had been a time when their blog had attracted almost as much traffic as Gossip Girl. Especially after the "St. Mary's Science Fair Incident", when they had collaborated on a project called "Things I'll get away with doing (that my black Sister won't)". There's never been a complete version of said project anywhere on the internet and witness reports largely differed on the number and severity of the incidents listed in the twins' paper, but it had been enough to have the private middle school issue an official apology on their website and on a local news segment.

Last year Nicky had decided to very publicly come out as bisexual - "I can do it now or I can wait for that Gossip Bitch to do it for me", she had told Annie with a shrug - and when Richard van Stroup III – a disgusting little lacrosse jock whose father was a full time property shark, slash slumlord and part time Trump suppository – had kept harassing her between classes, making obscene gestures and suggestive remarks about the sisters "sharing a bed", Sophie had punched him so hard in the face she had broken his nose in two places.

She had faced the possibility of being expelled for assaulting a fellow classmate, but luckily it had become very clear which tree the combative apple must have fallen off the second Nicky's mother had stormed into the school, a vision of patchouli, paint spots and righteous fury.

In the end Sophia was still in school with not even the tiniest entry in her file while Richard's father was still desperately trying to find a college that needed a new building and was willing to take his cockroach of a son after he had been forced to transfer to a boarding school in Long Island.

Long story short, the twins were badass and Annie had no idea why they had decided to settle for life in the shadow of "Queen Celeste" when they could have single-handedly won over Constance had they set their mind to it.

"This is great", Celeste beamed. "The whole Court finally together again."

"Maddie's not here", Annie corrected her almost automatically. For as long as she'd been a part of the group, Madeleine Hayes had never made it past being a sort of afterthought for Celeste. Sure, she was pretty and she was clever, but so was almost every single girl at Constance Billard. Annie was positive that her best friend wouldn't have looked at the younger girl twice, had she not gone through a very becoming "growth spurt" right before her sophomore year, awarding her the questionable nickname "Makeover Maddie".

There was rumors that it hadn't been just nature that had its hand in Maddie's transformation from duckling to swan. Annie was pretty certain that Celeste had started some of those rumors, if not all of them.

"Yeah, I know", Celeste said, waving her off with the same bored gesture she would use to get rid of a mildly annoying fly. "I'm gonna text her later. But first let me introduce you to our new friend..." She trailed off, looking around with brows furrowed. "Where's Tall, Dark and Handsome?"

"Getting drinks." Sophie nudged Annie's shoulder with a broad grin. "You're such a lucky girl. Tyler is pure eye candy. I would totally wanna tap that, but Cee has made it very clear that he's off limits."

"Tyler, huh?", Annie chuckled. She opened her mouth to mercilessly tease Celeste for the whole 'something starting with J' bit, but then she caught Quinn looking at her and the words got stuck in her throat. He looked... miserable. Like the mere thought of her meeting another guy was unbearable. It felt like someone had put the world in slow motion as they stood there, surrounded by their friends, staring at each other like idiots. How could he just look at her like this? Right there in front of everybody. In front of Celeste. How was she not supposed to notice what was going on right under her nose?

"Did I hear someone say my name?"

And suddenly there was Mystery Guy, balancing a full tray of champagne, breaking the tension and thus very possibly saving the day. Even in her Quinn-induced haze Annie had to admit that both Celeste and Sophie had been spot on. Tyler was spectacular. Tall, dark and handsome indeed.

He was at least 6'4, but maybe he was looking even bigger than he was, because when Celeste had told her he was built like a tree she had not exaggerated. Neither had she been lying about his abs showing through the thin fabric of his shirt - which might not have been the perfect fit for the occasion but together with a pair of dark washed jeans made for a great outfit. He had dark eyes and straight, black hair that almost reached to his chin. In short, Annie had no idea why Celeste was under the impression he could possibly ever be interested in her.

"I hope it was something nice", he joked as he casually passed each of them a glass of champagne.

"Actually, I was just telling my friend here about you", Celeste answered with that special, saccharine smile she usually reserved for teachers and connected Ivy League alumni only. "That's Annie. She's from LA, too."

"Nice to meet you, Annie." He offered her his hand with a smile."Where did you live? Maybe we've run into each other somewhere."

"I think I would remember if I had bumped into someone like you", Annie was equal parts surprised and mortified at how easy the playful remark had come to her. Even out of the corner of her eye she could tell that Celeste was practically buzzing with excitement and Qinn was... not. "I lived in Beverly Hills."

"Then we probably didn't meet", he laughed. "I moved here from Glendale. I have a feeling we didn't exactly move in the same circles."

Annie didn't know how to respond to that. She had become so used to looking down her nose when it came to the Upper East Side and its unparalleled elitism, she had completely forgotten that in LA there had been places too that might as well have been on a different planet instead of a mere one hour drive outside Beverly Hills.

Tyler looked at her, politely waiting for her to say something. Like any normal person would in a friendly round of small talk. But Annie wasn't the smoothest small talker even on her best days and this definitely wasn't one of her best days. The playfulness she had somehow unexpectedly displayed just moments ago had practically drained from her. Instead she found that right then and there – trapped between her best friend, a handsome stranger and the boy she'd been in love with since she was thirteen years old – her conversational skills had basically been stripped down to nonexistent.

"And yet you're both here now", Celeste chimed in when the silence between them threatened to move from awkward to uncomfortable territory. "I'd say it's fate."

"I'd say it was the charming young lady who came up to me, felt up my arms and asked me if I wanted to meet her hot, single friend", Tyler gave back good naturedly. "Definitely didn't see that coming."

"Oh my god...", Annie mumbled, covering her face with her hands to hide her embarrassment. "Cee...!"

When she looked back up the twins were pointedly avoiding her eyes and Celeste seemed... weirdly happy with herself and completely oblivious to her discomfort.

"Come on, Annie. I told you I'd find you a guy. And not to butter my own parsnip here, but I think I delivered."

"I'm just gonna go and take that as a compliment", Tyler offered with a careful smile, obviously catching up on the sudden change of tune around him and trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

Annie couldn't think of another time when she had felt more humiliated than she was feeling in that exact moment. It didn't help that she could still feel Quinn's eyes positively boring into her. She looked at him and could tell immediately that he was physically struggling to keep his mouth shut. Suddenly Annie felt like she was gonna throw up and all she wanted was to get out of there as fast as she could.

She was distantly aware that her phone buzzed softly in her clutch. Just once, probably because of a message or an email, but it gave her an idea.

"That's my phone", she told the others in an unexpected moment of inspiration, vaguely gesturing at the small bag, pretending her phone was still buzzing inside it. "I told my dad he could call me tonight and... I'll just be a minute."

And with that she bolted, handing her glass of champagne back to Tyler with an apologetic little smile and then practically making a beeline for the house. She needed to get out of there. Not just out of this house and away from this party. In that moment all Annie wanted was to get out of the Hamptons, out of Manhattan and away from the Upper East Side. For the very first time she understood what had driven Serena van der Woodsen out of the city all those years ago.

Annie quickly made her way through the living room, not caring anymore if she knocked into people. She didn't care if Celeste and the others would be mad at her for bailing on them like that. That was a problem for tomorrow's Annie. Today's Annie just wanted to go home, crawl into bed and cry herself to sleep.

There was an antique dressing table nested in a small alcove in the hall and as she hurried past she caught a glimpse of herself in the old mirror – wide eyes in a pale face, framed in mahogany.

"Annie, please!"

She had almost made it to the door when the sound of Quinn's voice stopped her. She turned around to find him standing just a few feet away from her with a pleading look on his face. He was out of breath and visibly shaking.

"I'm going to break up with Celeste."