So today is the first time I actually opened my email (I would probably never do that if a friend of mine didn't ask me to, but nm) and I saw how many of you is actually following my both stories. I got really nice reviews on forums and twitter as well so I'm really grateful and appreciate that. I want you guys to know that if you have some suggestions or wishes feel more than free to share (I have tumblr/twitter and an account on tv fanatic so...).
Now, back to the fanfic. Hope you enjoy it!
xxx
"So the love of your life and you bonded over...a pie?" Heiley querid leaving the empty plate on the table after she finished her last waffle.
"Oh no, there's a lot more to tell. If you're still interested."
And in all seriousness, Dan thought that this might not be the best idea after all.
"I'd probably skip that pathetic story if I had something smarter to do."
Dan nodded expecting her to leave. It was underastandable. It's not like every daughter wants to know about the girl her dad was madly in love with, knowing the "girl" wasn't her mother.
"But since that's not the case I guess I'm with you on this one. Besides you're a writer so I'll pretend that you have a wild imagination and that none of it is real."
she took a deep breath and sat on the sofa again making herself comfortable.
Watching her laying there curled up with a blanket reminded Dan of the times when she was a small girl. She used to stretch out on the very same spot, demanding to watch a cartoon. And she was a real littlle devil when she was young.
But every night before putting her to sleep, Dan and Heiley's mom would watch cartoons with her until they all become very sleepy, so they they'd spend at least one night per week with their daughter, all three out of their beds lined-up on the sofa.
Ages ago, Blair would sit like that, when she had these well-known "Brooklyn visits", with her head peacefully resting on his shoulder.
But, that was AGES AGO.
"Dad?" Heiley repeated slightly annoyed. "This is the third time I'm calling your name and you seem to be in your own world. Put yourself together!"
"Right" Dan shuddered and cleared his throat.
The second thing that reminded him of Blair was even simpler than the first one. A bench.
"Okay this is getting even more ridiculous." Heiley pursed her lips in a very Blair-ish way.
At least that's what it seemed to Dan, and that's the only thing ridiculous. He misses her so much, even now that sometimes he sees what he wants to see.
She is still everywhere. He expected it to linger for months, maximum few years, but for all this time the memories they shared remained untouched and never faded away.
Blair Waldorf continued acting like that Thanksgiving closure never happened. That worked for Dan, because he was with Serena, but after that night he definitely had more respect for Blair and understanding even for her actions towards him.
This happened on a brunch, one of these special brunches Lily Van Der Woodsen used to throw.
"I'm so glad you made it!" Serena gushed while giving Dan a great warm hug.
"Yeah...I'm looking forward to meeting.."
"Listen, there's one part in this whole brunch story I might have left out...Dan, this is not a usual..."
"Dan Humphrey! It's a pleasure, I'm Lily, Serena's mother."
"Nice to meet you." Dan shaked hands with a perfectly "packed" older blonde who was pleasently surprised and -somehow Dan had the impression- also...relieved. Later, he realized that it's because of Serena's history he knew nothing about back then.
"Come join us, I think these events are not really the best way for us to get to know each other, but we'll have time for that!" she said leaving the two alone.
Dan's smile quickly disappeared and he now turned serious again.
"What did you have to add.."
"Nothing just my grand..."
"So this is your new.." one older lady interrupted the conversation again squinting at Dan's outfit.
"Yes grandma, this is my new boyfriend, Dan Humphrey."
"Yeah..hi Mrs..."
"Darling." CeCe stopped ignoring Dan's words and completely turning to Serena "good luck with that"
she replied talking about Dan like he was a prop.
"Although you must know that we're looking for someone...classy and what's evident and painfully obvious at this moment is that this young guy.."
"Dan." Serena said grudgingly.
"Dan" she corrected herself "is not quite of an escort material."
"Grandma I told you I'm not going to that anyway." Serena was now defending herself.
CeCe nodded.
"I know, but I hope you didn't blank out the other part...I'm sure you don't want me to say it out loud because even this poor guy beside me hearing that would be an embarrasement."
Dan's legs were shaking. His cheeks were burning and for a second he felt even worse than in 6th grade when his friends used to mock him because Rufus accompanied him to school every morning.
Serena gluped.
Darn her.
Dan was utterly confused.
CeCe raised her champagne glass adding "cheers, enjoy the party you and your...what was the name again?"
Of course, then, Dan didn't know that CeCe was the only one who knew everything about Georgina Sparks and was only using it against her.
She was being blackmaled by her own grandmother, who obviously didn't seem to care. All she seemed to truly care about was her reputation and status.
"Oh please don't even bother." he mumbled for himself.
"Daniel." he said in a shaky voice.
"Come on Dan, let's go."
For the first time, Dan turned around. This was definitely not what you call a "family" brunch since the place was full of the most popular people on the UES.
One more thing Serena completely left out about this "event".
"Dan please don't be..." Serena softly whispered it in his year so she could make it up to him.
"Yeah, it's fine" he replied still furious dissociating a little.
"Oh hey look who it is!" she said, her voice suddenly getting a lot more enthusiastic.
Dan rolled his eyes.
Blair.
She coughed and they barely had time to merely check out the other one before Serena spoke.
"B! I'm glad you made it." she was pulling her in a tight hug.
Blair hugged back, but a lot less enthusiastic.
"Yeah, I think I'll have to go soon though. I have some unfinished business."
"Please tell me it's not one of your schemes again!" Serena said in kind of fake laugh.
"No." she replied shortly.
Dan saw it in her eyes.
Something made her feel down again.
Strange how they both felt like that at the same time, again.
They shared a few glances but then B dragged S so she can tell her something leaving Dan alone.
After few minutes when Serena had returned he saw that Blair left.
"So sorry Dan. B was not feeling okay."
He took a deep breath before saying the same sentence in the same pissed voice "It's fine."
She didn't notice, she just took his hand and added "Now let's eat."
xxx
"You really don't like an apple juice?" Serena chuckled while putting another piece of salad in her mouth looking fabulous as always.
"That's strange."
For the first time he was not blinded by the whole "it girl" thing. The first time he had noticed how platonic their relationship seemed, had a realistic view of where exactly does their relationship stand at the moment;
Of course she was pretty, she was quite nice..only..
When he fell for her he didn't expect their conversations to be this shallow, that's all. Also, the fact that she ignored what how furious he still was because of the thing with her grandmother made him even more upset.
She took that for granted.
All that while keeping this radiant smile on her face.
Even when Blair was obviously feeling down it took time for her to realize.
She has that smile even now, when she was slowly drinking her juice sip by sip and enjoying her meal.
"You didn't eat a thing."
"Yeah, I guess I'm not hungry."
"Oh" she shuddered.
"Hey lovebirds."
Dan turned to see who it was.
"Hi Nate." Serena replied politely.
"Dan, this is Nate Archibald, Blair's boyfriend." she introduced him to Dan.
"Oh, I've heard a lot about you." Nate continued.
"I don't like the sound of that." he joked.
Nate laughed.
"Man tell me you're not being serious!"
"Why?" Dan was bluntly confused.
Serena was giving some strange signals to Nate now feeling a lot less feverish than a minute before.
"Oh come on! Serena told me everything about your super famous dad, and your sister who's a young successful fashion designer. Even my mom was a little intrigued when I told her about you and your family! And trust me, it's hard to impress Anne Archibald. Guess Serena got very lucky. Now, Martin, is it?"
Martin.
The next thing Dan remember is ditching Serena and all these people and running away from everything.
Serena lied to Nate about who Dan was. Later in life, she explained him everything, but at the very moment Dan left the party. He felt betrayed. He thought Serena wasn't ashamed of who he was.
He left the building slamming the door.
He needed peace. He needed rest.
He needed it now.
There was a park near Serena's building.
This was something he always did. Even when he was a kid, feeling unwanted, he had the custom to sit on the nearest bench and relax.
It always worked.
It was unusually cold in New York, even for this part of the year.
Still park was full of people of every age. Kids were playing around while their parents were somewhere around, observing them and talking to each other about school and adultery stuff; some people were returning from work or just passing by in a rush, and some of them were just there in order to catch this glaring smell of Christmas in the air. In this time of the year you could feel it everywhere.
It was full, seemed like not even a one free spot in the whole park.
Soon he noticed a girl sitting in one corner. She was wearing a bright blue hat and a matching coat, with a what-Dan-would-say is a new expencive pair of Louboutins. He dated Serena Van Der Woodsen for only few weeks and he became fashion-trained. That was a little striking for his image of a Brooklyn writer.
Not even paying attention to what she was doing he came closer and asked
"Is it free?"
The girl raised her head and he felt like someone just smashed him in the face.
The girl was Blair Waldorf.
xxx
"Oh for crying out loud Cabbage Patch!What are you doing here ? Are you stalking ME now by any case?"
At first he didn't know what to reply on this one because he felt weakness in her voice; as she was struggling with something just so he wouldn't notice.
He decided to play dumb so he quickly managed to answer :
"No."
"Aren't you supposed to live your fairytale out there, meeting this new world and fabulous rich UES elite with your dream-girlfriend?"
"I don't know, aren't you supposed to be planning your winter Soiree?"
She wipped the tears from her rosy cheeks and went on in typical Blair Waldorf manner.
"That was the dumbest thing I've ever heard Humphrey! A winter Soiree? Seriously?"
"Well...I'm not really into your world anyway, so yeah how could I ever know."
Blair glanced at him now noticing that he wasn't in the mood as well.
He saw that face once.
Thanksgiving this year.
"Not that particulary I care..." she coughed..."But...is everything alright?"
This was a grand gesture in Dan's opinion.
Especially since Serena didn't even care enough to ask such thing.
"I was about to ask the same thing."
"I'm not.."
" 'Cause I'm not and I.."
Their eyes met and she felt something...strange for a second.
Well it's cold and she probably even got a temperature by now. Maybe she even has hallucinations.
After an hour spent in the park Blair still didn't agree to have a cup of tea with him, despite the fact her whole body was shaking. This weather was intolerable.
He felt sorry for Bher.
Just seeing her hands trambling like that gave him a shivery feeling as well so he promised he'll be back in few minutes and dropped to the nearest coffee shop to get them a tea and a sachet of something that looked like cookies.
"Serena just isn't that experienced when it comes to serious relationships. She was never really...commited but she cares about you Dan."
she said carefully chewing what's left of her bisquit and taking the last sip of tea that was still hot and giving off smoke in the air.
He nodded "Yeah..."
"What happened with you and Nate?" he asked.
Then she told him everything about Nate's parents pushing them both too hard, how she feels that Nate's doesn't appreciate enough all the things she's giving him every day...
"I'm sorry. You don't deserve that."
"You really think so?"
He looked at her straight in the eyes.
Her ruby cheeks, her delicate skin. Her lips even now a little chapped because of the cold. Her eyes and eyelashes, and movement. The way she talks. The way she smiles.
He never noticed none of this before.
She looked so damn beautiful that it almost made him wonder how is it even possible for a guy not to care enough about her.
Dan always got to see the other, worse, side of her but this was the very first time he actually got to know her better and...she had so many qualities.
After she called his name bringing him back to reality she replied :
"I really think that."
xx