WARNING: I know that there are spoilers floating around about what was supposed to happen after The Thin Line… Please remember, I hate spoilers. If anything I write resembles those spoilers in any way, I don't want to know—and it is pure coincidence (which HAS happened before). Please respect my wishes and do not refer to them in any reviews.
Thank you! XOXO Sharon
"Blair! Wait up!" Serena hollered, picking up her pace to meet Blair.
It was Thursday, four days had come and went and school was just as horrible as ever. She was really getting tired of being ignored and laughed at.
Blair paused and looked back at her.
"How'd you get that far behind? Come on slow poke!" Blair laughed.
"Well, uh, gee, B, it could have something to do with the fact that we've been walking forever!" Serena finally caught up with her, breathing heavy. She had paused to look in the window of a shop a block back. Blair had just kept walking—probably because she didn't want to look at wedding dresses at the moment.
Blair just shrugged and continued to walk.
"Where exactly are we going and why are you looking for a different salon for you to get your hair done? You know Maddox will be upset if someone else touches those ends," Serena asked, referring to Blair's usual hair dresser.
"I heard about this place and wanted to try it out," Blair said. They finally arrived.
"Here it is!" Blair said excitedly and put her hand on the door knob.
"Wait a minute," Serena said, stopping Blair. "You heard about this place? You knew what it was called? We couldn't have just taken a cab instead? Blair, we've been walking for almost an hour!" Serena was exasperated.
"The exercise was good for us," Blair said.
"We don't need that much exercising Blair. We're not fat. You're as skinny as ever—and beautiful too," Serena said, hastening to compliment her because she knew Blair's self-esteem wasn't the greatest.
"There's a difference between being skinny and fit. Muscles are very important too Serena," Blair said reproachfully. "Come on, let's check this place out," she said as she motioned Serena inside.
Serena just shook her head and followed her.
As soon as they got inside, Blair put in a request and they were seen almost immediately.
On the way back Blair finally spotted her quarry in a chair.
"Mrs. Gilbert, what a wonderful surprise," Blair said, coming toward the woman and holding out her hand.
Mrs. Barbara Gilbert was apparently having her tips frosted on her short dark cropped hair. But that didn't mean she didn't have time to say hello to a Waldorf. She had been friends with Eleanor and Harold for years and it was only recently that they had lost contact.
"Blair, dear, so lovely to see you," Barbara gushed.
"Why, my mother will be so happy to know I bumped into you," Blair said, grinning prettily.
"I do miss Eleanor, you must let her know," Barbara continued.
A glint flickered in Blair's eye, a glint that hardly anyone would ever notice.
"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Blair asked suggestively.
"And how's that my dear?" Barbara asked, anxiously swiveling her head around—much to her stylists' dismay—thinking Eleanor might be there too.
"She's having a small get together next Friday night at our home. Why don't you and your husband join us?" Blair said with a wide smile.
"Why, that does sound lovely. Of course we'd love to come!" Barbara was very excited about this change in events. She'd been hoping to talk to Eleanor for some time about the beautiful designs she had begun making since Harold left.
"Seven o'clock," Blair said with a nod. She started turning away but flounced back around, "and bring your daughter with you too. Elise, is it?" Blair asked as if she had no idea.
"Yes," the woman nodded enthusiastically. Her daughter was lovely but not very popular—still a little awkward at school even. If Blair Waldorf had noticed her though, maybe there was hope for little E yet.
"Very good! See you next Friday," Blair said before continuing to follow the stylist that she was assigned to a different chair.
"What was that?" Serena whispered.
Blair just smiled.
"Your mother isn't having a dinner party next Friday. And you don't know who Elise is. What's going on Blair?" Serena asked suspiciously.
"Well, mom's having the party now. She'll be home in time. And I do need some other friends, don't I S? Besides, Barbara really is a lovely woman," Blair said grinning.
"Whatever B, just keep me in the loop okay. I can't go to the dinner party though. You know Dan and I already made plans that night," Serena said.
"That's okay, I can fend for myself you know," Blair said rolling her eyes.
And she would fend very well for herself. Serena and Dan may have plans, but so did the rest of the Upper East Side. Next Friday night was the same night as a party being held by some guy at St. Jude's. Blair hadn't been invited of course…but neither did little E. Blair knew it was the perfect opportunity to lay some ground work for her plan.
Little Jenny Humphrey was going down like a stack of bricks, one way or another.
Nate was getting sick of the quiet dinners alone with his mother.
His melancholy was doing wonders for his biceps…though working out was requiring less and less thought, so like as not he spent the time remembering Chuck and Blair anyway.
Some of the guys at the gym had given him a hard time too until he plugged his ipod into his ears and completely zoned the world out.
He really did miss having a best friend around. Not that he was going to ever forgive Chuck for this, but just the feeling of hanging out with and shooting the breeze with him. He was bored out of his friggin mind half the time now. He really needed to get out more. Maybe he'd go to that party next Friday that everyone was talking about. It would be his first real thing since Blair and he had broken up again. He sort of dreaded the thought of going, but anything was better than this self-imposed numbness he seemed to have entered into.
Nate found himself wondering more and more why Chuck and he had ever been friends to begin with—they were so different.
Ever since Chuck understood that he could do whatever he wanted—had almost complete control over his life—he did whatever he wanted. That was probably why he liked Chuck so much. He was so free while Nate had everything set.
In a way, Chuck actually controlled Nate as much as his parents and Blair did…just differently. They always wanted Nate to look to the future: college, marriage, kids, etc. Chuck wanted him to have fun and live in the now. He wanted him to blow things off, almost corrupt the perfect image his parents and Blair had of him—albeit in secret of course.
It only showed how much of a robot he had been all his life that Chuck couldn't corrupt Nate completely.
God, he thought, I could really use a hit right now.
But his rapidly dwindling supply had reached its end a day or so ago and since Chuck had been his only supplier, Nate was pretty much out of luck for now. He figured he'd ask around at school tomorrow—but only some of the quieter guys.
He didn't need those shit-for-brains "friends" having one more thing to spout off at him about. He was getting really sick of them asking him all their sick questions: "Hey Nate, now that you and Blair broke up would you mind if I hit that? Chuck did, and it is only fair to share the goods with everyone else."
Or their lies: "Yeah, sorry man, I tapped that last night. I just had to get it off my chest…speaking of chests, she could use a little more sumtin' sumtin' up top couldn't she?" "I've been screwing Blair since middle school, oh…you didn't know. That's so cute." "Hell, if Chuck would go for her, you know she'd have to be pretty decent in the sack….wait a minute, no she wouldn't. He'd screw anything hot with legs…and maybe even the legs were stretching it."
It was endless and wouldn't fucking stop!
He definitely would need some of that weed tomorrow. Funny how perfect Blair always wanted things to be and she didn't mind his dalliance with pot. Of course she'd been known to hit it on very rare special occasions, but that wasn't the point. The point was that she didn't mind much of what he'd done at all until he slept with Serena.
She had always been demanding of him, but that was just Blair. The Blair he knew and loved and had pleased. He wanted to please her at the Cotillion. He thought he knew her better than anyone else. Her wants, likes, dislikes…and he really did know all that…just like she knew his.
Serena had been another one of those passing dalliances. Blair had always been there for him and when he couldn't reach her about his dad, Serena had been available. His family was falling apart and he mistook the comfort he felt with Serena for something more. He knew now that Serena was just trying to be a good friend…and that's all she'd ever be.
She had long since forgotten about him, and he her…he had been so wrapped up in Blair since before the ball that he'd finally realized just how good he had it and how good he wanted it forever.
Chuck had said that Blair needed someone and he was there. He guessed she needed comfort just like he did. He knew he was Blair's world and when they broke up it fell apart. He just wished she had told him. He still didn't know if it would have made a difference. But at least he was starting to see things more from her side.
Not that he was going to forgive her either.
There was a sound of glass shattering from the kitchen. Jenny and Dan both looked up toward their tightly closed bedroom doors and raced out, wondering if their father was okay.
They both froze in front of the kitchen counter and watched Rufus turn away from the sink. He gave them a parental scowl.
"Sit!" he almost yelled.
They hadn't seen him this angry in a while so they quickly did as he commanded, both sliding their stools as far away from the other as possible.
"It's too bad one of the bowls had to take a shattering, but it was the only thing to do to get the two of you out of your rooms!" Rufus glared at both of them.
Jenny and Dan looked away in opposite directions. Jenny started to get up to go back to her room.
"Sit I said!" Rufus did yell this time.
Jenny sat down, wide eyed.
"This has been going on for over a week! I don't know what's wrong and I get that neither of you want to talk to dear old dad about it. That's okay, work out your problems yourself. But I want to eat dinner with my children. So sit down, shut up, and eat!" He said before slapping a plate down on the table in front of each teen. He reached over from another counter and sat down a bowl of spaghetti and plate of bread.
Dan started filling his plate with his head down. Jenny just sat there looking to the side.
"Jenny," Rufus said, a warning in his voice.
"I can't eat that. It has too many carbs," Jenny explained still looking away. Dan grunted.
"Fine!" Rufus said before going back into the refrigerator. He pulled out some cold cubed chicken, grapes and baby carrots. He pulled a bunch out of each bag and washed the fruits and vegetables off before plopping them down on Jenny's plate with the chicken.
"Eat," Rufus said. As an afterthought, he reached over and grabbed a small slice of bread. "And everyone needs a little bit of carbohydrates."
Jenny looked at him annoyed, but he just placed the small slice on her plate anyway.
The silence that followed was only interrupted by the sound of fork against plate and the occasional tinkling of ice in glass.
"Dan," Rufus interrupted the silence finally, "I need you to prep the gallery for the art show next Friday. You and your sister," he enunciated the word to invoke guilt, "both should help."
No response. Dan just kept chewing his bread, and twirling spaghetti. Dan really didn't want to sit there longer than he had to, so he was eating rather quickly.
"Dan!" Rufus said loudly, startling both Dan and Jenny.
Dan looked up, paused, and put his fork down. "May I be excused?"
"No, you may not. Finish your dinner," Rufus gestured to the plate. "And are you going to respond to what I just said about the gallery?"
"No," Dan said before digging back into his food again.
"Why not?" Rufus asked.
Dan sighed and dropped his fork.
"For a whole lot of reasons, most of them just silly or stupid, but you know I just have to go into explicit detail because that's what you seem to want. I am not an employee at your gallery; hire someone else to fix it up. And you almost always want me to help out with the show, but you have neglected to find out if I am available or not—which I am not, because Serena and I do, in fact, have plans that Friday. Oh, and how could I forget the most important thing," Dan said, standing up and pushing the stool back with force. "I don't have a sister anymore! Some clone gossipmonger wannabee rich girl has taken over her body."
Dan grabbed his napkin to wipe his face before throwing it on his plate.
"I'm done," he said before turning to stalk away.
Rufus looked at Jenny, hoping she'd provide some light on this behavior.
"I'm not a clone!" Jenny turned and shouted at him.
Dan froze and turned back. "You promised me Jenny. You said you wouldn't change. You said you knew who you were and those girls wouldn't change you."
"I kept my promise! I know exactly who I am!" Jenny argued with him.
"Well if this is who you are, I don't like you very much," Dan grimaced before turning around again.
"Dan! That's not fair!" Jenny was really upset that her brother kept turning his back on her.
"NO Jenny!" Dan said, turning on her once again and stalking across toward her. "What's not fair is using information that you received through listening in on my private conversations for your own gain! What's not fair is sending information to Gossip Girl so she could send it to the entire school and ruin someone! What's not fair is that you almost destroyed mine and Serena's relationship because of that information! What's not fair is that I still have to look at you and know that there's no getting away from living with the very thing I hate most about Constance Billiards!"
"I didn't tell Gossip Girl!" Jenny shouted, rising from her chair and getting into her brother's face.
"Yeah right!" Dan hollered at her.
"I only told Nate that it was Chuck!" Jenny exclaimed. "He's my friend! He deserved to know the truth!"
"Yeah, well who else would have told her Jenny? Who else?" Dan stared into Jenny's eyes, daring her to come up with someone. She didn't respond.
"That's what I thought," Dan said. "You can deny it all you want, but I don't know who the hell you are anymore…so why in the hell would I believe you?"
With that Dan turned and went back to his room, slamming his door shut. Jenny looked despondent and twitchy before turning back to her seat.
She sat down and quietly resumed eating her dinner.
Rufus just sat back and said nothing. He wasn't sure what to say and he didn't want another explosion. But he was starting to realize that there were a lot of changes in Jenny lately…clothes, hair, makeup…he'd just never noticed those things before. He was going to have to start paying more attention now.
To be continued…