Chapter Ten: Hi, Society

Ah debutante season, something that Sebastian was not looking forward to. Although it was all about the girls entering society and all that and Danni showed absolutely no interest in going his mother was still pushing him to go. Blaine was escorting some princess instead of Nat and although it was good to see him moving on he had to wonder what was Nat going to do?

…

"I don't understand why you don't want to go to this thing" Jeremy was telling his sister "they're pretty amazing"

"Should I be worried that you're so into a debutante ball?" she asked him teasingly, he hit her in the arm as retaliation "they're out-dated and totally classist" she reminded him "all I going to do is go over there, meet Sebastian's grandmother and hopefully not put my foot in my mouth like usual"

….

The dance studio in itself was pretty intimidating, all those tapping shoes and dancing couples, she had to wonder what Sebastian's grandmother would be like. She imagined an older version of Lily Van Der Woodsen but really hoped that she wasn't because she remembered how much Lily didn't like her when they first met. Although that was probably due to Lily and Rufus's shared past.

After a short conversation with Lily and Sebastian where she was pretty much blamed for Sebastian not attending the ball, Sebastian's grandmother Cece walked in.

"There is my magnificent grandson!" she exclaimed hugging Sebastian and for a second Danni supposed that Cece may actually be nice enough to approve of her.

…

Sebastian explained the situation to her latter that day. Apparently his grandmother was sick, life-threating-ly sick and she really wanted to see her grandson escort somebody to a debutant ball. Danni understood, really she did even if she hated these balls she would go with him.

"So you understand right?" he asked as they stood in the elevator, riding up to the Waldorf penthouse together.

"Yeah, anything for a sick grandparent" she told him with a smile "besides we've both got family stuff, me with my mom's art opening, you with this ball"

…

When they stepped off the elevator Sebastian lead them over to his grandmother who was standing with a brunette girl who looked to be around their age. Cece introduced Sebastian to her. Her name was Carlotta Forrester, the girl Sebastian was going to be escorting to the debutant ball; apparently they all went to school together.

"And this is Danielle Humphrey" Cece said "Sebastian's….friend"

"My girlfriend actually" Sebastian spoke up, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer as if to prove that yes they were in fact dating.

"Oh, so you're not escorting your uh – girlfriend?" Carlotta asked.

"I'm not going" Danni explained.

"Familial obligations" Cece added. Carlotta nodded her understanding.

…

Danni had been listening to Cece go on and on about how great Carlotta was for the last ten minutes and while she did kind of like Carlotta when they met she was really growing tired of hearing Carlotta's seemingly endless list of achievements.

"Ladies with such class are a rare breed" Cece said at one point and Danni was pretty sure she was staring pointedly at her. What was it with Sebastian's female relatives and not liking her? She'd met three so far and only one had been consistently friendly, thank god for Erica.

…..

As she left the bathroom she was practically cornered by Cece who looked even less happy to see her then before.

"Do you like it here Miss Humphrey?" she asked.

"Oh, well it's kind of like a museum, a little cold but the water pressure is unparalleled" she joked.

"It's not what I meant" Cece said "but of course you would make a joke, that goes to my point"

"Excuse me?" she asked "did I miss something here?"

"Oh yes" Cece said "the way you feel? It never goes away, it just gets worse"

"I'm sorry I don't quite fol-"

"You'll always use your desert fork for you entrée, you'll always feel underdressed no matter what you wear and at dinner parties there will be a language that sounds like English and you think you speak it but they don't hear you and you don't understand them as time passes you'll feel that people never see you when they look at you but wonder merely whether if you're Sebastian's whim or his charity case until the day comes when your realise that men like Sebastian don't end with Danni Humphrey, they end up with the Carlotta's of the world and people like you? They turn into cocktail party anecdotes of their foolish youth"

Danni looked over at Sebastian who was laughing at something Carlotta had said, they looked so picture perfect and it was like a slap in the face. All these years of being the Brooklyn girl shoved into the Upper East Side World were finally catching up to her. Sebastian caught her gaze and walked over, smiling at her.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked.

"Uh, nothing" she told him "I've got to go, good luck with the ball"

"No, no don't go" Sebastian told her "I thought we were having fun"

"Yeah" Danni finally agreed, smiling smugly at Cece "so much fun that I've decided to go to the ball after all"

"Really?" Sebastian asked in surprised, pulling her into a hug "that's great"

….

Danni smoothed down the dress she was wearing looking at her reflection in the mirror. It didn't feel right. She thought when she put on the dress she'd feel like some kind of Upper East Side princess, someone who belonged at that ball but to herself she still looked like the same Brooklyn girl she'd always been. She supposed she'd never be the princess type, always more Cinderella then Sleeping Beauty but she had Sebastian, didn't she? Yes, she had her prince, and maybe this prince really didn't a princess.

"You're a little over dressed for an art show don't you think?" he father asked when he walked into her room. She spun around quickly to face him.

"Dad listen, I have been meaning to tell you…" she tried to explain.

"Don't worry about your mom, I'll take care of it" he simply said.

"You don't mind?" she asked in surprise "I thought I'd be grounded when you found out, I've got to admit it would be worth it"

"You look great" he smiled "make me proud, go show that Celia Rhodes what us Humphrey's are made of"

"What's going on dad?" she asked "you're doing that thing again, where you act really weird for no reason and it's kind of freaking me out"

"Oh, Sebastian's grandmother just came to see me" he said. Her eyes widened in surprise that really wasn't what she'd been expecting to hear.

He started heading for her door again, pausing when he reached it.

"We need to talk"

…

She knocked on the door to the Van Der Woodsen's Palace hotel room. Sebastian opened the door quickly, like he'd been waiting for her, he smiled at her and things seemed brighter again. God she just wished things could stay this way.

"You look great" he told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the hotel room.

"We need to talk" she told him.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Is uh your grandmother here?" she asked finding the room Celia Rhodes free so far.

"Oh yeah, she's just in the other room with my mom getting ready" Sebastian explained "why?"

"I've got to be honest about something here, um, I don't think your grandmother is who you think she is " she started.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I know she's got this whole free spirit act perfected"

"Act?" he asked.

"But I don't think she has your best interests at heart" she explained.

"Where are you going with this?" he questioned.

"She came by my dad's gallery today" she told him.

"She probably just wanted to see your mom's art" Sebastian said.

"No she was trying to pay him off so I wouldn't go with you tonight"

"No" he said, shaking his head "she wouldn't do something like that"

"Sebastian that's what I've been trying to tell you, that women is the most manipulative person I've ever met, she makes your mother look like Ghandi"

"That's my grandmother you're talking about" Sebastian said "I love her"

"I know and I'm sorry but maybe you love her so much that you're blind to what she's been doing" she tried to tell him. There were a few moments of silence before Sebastian finally spoke.

"Maybe we shouldn't be doing this" he said.

"Maybe we shouldn't" she agreed sadly.

"I'll just talk to you later" he told her. She stood still for a few moments waiting for something other than the cold hard look he was giving her but there was nothing. After a while she nodded and walked out the door wondering if she just ruined everything.

Sebastian turned around after she left to find his grandmother standing behind him.

"Let's get Carlotta on the phone, shall we?" she asked.

"Yeah"

….

She felt like an idiot standing in a Brooklyn gallery in her Upper East Side debutant dress but really was not in the mood to go all the way back home and come back to the gallery, no one really seemed to care all too much so that made her feel just a little bit better and at least she'd thought enough to bring a coat with her, making the dress a little less noticeable.

"What are you doing back here?" her father asked when he saw her.

"Celia won" was her explanation.

"She has a habit of doing that" he said after a while "I suppose it's for the best, you're here with your family"

She nodded, looking over at her mother and Jeremy who were standing over by one of her mother's paintings.

"Yeah, family is what counts right?"

…..

"You don't want me to be myself do you?" Sebastian asked her mother that evening after the presentations and a few dances one that turned into a brawl between Nat and Carlotta. He had no idea what was going on there but he guessed it had something to do with Blaine as Carlotta was dancing with Blaine when Nat punched her and Nat had yelled 'that's my boyfriend' at one point.

"Sebastian" was all his mother had to say, in her patented exasperated tone.

"All you care about when people look at me is what they think of you" he told her "how am I supposed to accept myself if my own mother doesn't accept me"

"I do accept you" she tried to argue.

"No, no you don't" Sebastian told her.

…..

"I'm sorry" Sebastian told Carlotta as they sat next to each other. He was pressing a cold glass of something to her bruising temple "I know this isn't what you signed up for"

"It's okay" she said, leaning back in her chair "it doesn't hurt nearly as bad as waking up that morning in the Santorini and finding out you jumped on a boat"

"Well that night wasn't exactly what I signed up for either" he told her withdrawing the glass and handing it to her "that whole thing caught me by surprise"

"No I get it" Carlotta told him twisting the glass around in her hands "which is why I was so surprised when your grandmother called me last week"

Now it was his turn to be surprised.

"Last week? I wasn't even going last week" he told her.

"Yeah, but Cece said she thought you'd change your mind" Carlotta explained.

…..

Danielle was very surprised to hear Lily Van Der Woodsen's voice when she answered her phone and she was even more surprised to hear that she wanted to meet with her outside the gallery.

"Shouldn't you be-" she begun to ask when she saw Lily

"Anywhere but here, yes" Lily finished for her "so please listen to me and don't interrupt what I have to say is hard for me, when I was your age I would've been lucky to find someone like you and I kind of did but when it came down to I thought my mother knew who I was much better then I knew myself. I'm not sure exactly who my son was but I know who he's become since he met you, he returns home every night at a reasonable hour, he doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs, I don't know if your responsible for that but I don't think it's a coincidence" she paused smiling at Danni "you belong with my son and I think everyone should know that, will you come with me?"

"Yes Mrs Van Der Woodsen, I would love to" she told her. She'd just gone from having only one of Sebastian's family members on her side to two. Things were definitely looking up.

…..

"I stood up for you" Sebastian told his grandmother when she approached him going on about how the cotillion was practically ruined by Nat and Carlotta's fight.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"With Danni, I defended you" he told her.

"We'll talk about that later" was all she had to say.

"No, we don't need to talk at all" he told her "I just need to know one thing, are you even ill?"

"No" she admitted, laughing like it okay to trick your family like that, it made him feel ill himself "but I could be, all those cigarettes and cocktails"

"Why would you do this?" he asked her.

"There's so much you don't understand" she told her "you just can't go around making your own rules"

"Things aren't like they were when you were young grandma" he pointed out "things have changed"

Celia looked over his shoulder and something he couldn't see.

"I suppose they have"

Sebastian turned around to see what she was staring at only to find Danielle Humphrey looking back at her. She walked towards him and he took her hand and pulled them both out onto the dance floor. They didn't dance like the other couples, not choreographed and perfect looking, their dancing was messy but it was so full of love. Just like their relationship.

He dipped her at one point, and she was sure he was going to drop her and she was going to go crashing down to the ground. But he didn't, he held on tight, arm around her back, hand resting on her waist. He pressed a passionate kiss on her lips and she couldn't help but smile.