"Blair," Dan said, looking up from his notebook at the brunette on the other bed. "You know, I really hate being used."

"I'm not using you," she said, without looking up from the textbook that she brought.

"You are using me to make Nate jealous or whatever that is," Dan said, throwing a balled up piece of paper at her.

Blair looked up, "I already told you that I was in a bad state of mind when I framed all that out to you a couple of weeks ago. It was in the heat of the moment after a lot of thinking and came after Nate punched you in the face." She chewed on the top of her pen as she tossed the piece of paper back at him, "Humphrey, do you not enjoy my friendship?"

"I'd enjoy it more if it didn't come with strings."

"It doesn't come with strings," she protested. "Look, I didn't realize that Nate was going to come storming in to claim his princess that day. I genuinely came to you because I was upset."

"But you lied," he countered.

"Okay, but who doesn't lie to make themselves sound better, Humphrey? I didn't plan on lying about it. I found myself coming here to see you and when I got here, I realized that I probably look like a crazy lunatic if I started crying about how I broke up with Nate. Plus, I had been simmering over the stuff that he said to me when breaking up with me for a week without anyone to talk about it with. I just delayed telling you that part and it happened to fall on the night that I came over."

"Blair."

"Humphrey."

"Dan."

"What?"

"My name is Dan."

"I know that your name is Dan," she said, hitting the pen against her knee, "but Humphrey has a much better ring to it. Like Humphrey Bogart. It's very Old Hollywood. Dan is so plain."

Dan sighed, "I still don't like this."

"What's not to like?"

"You are using me."

"Humphrey!" she said, sounding exasperated. "Nate being jealous is just an additional bonus to us being friends. It's a footnote. Like Humphrey and Blair are friends see footnote one and then the reader would go to the footnote and it would read that it made Nate extremely jealous and that made Blair very happy."

"Why does it need to have a footnote, Blair?"

"Because, Humphrey, Nate would be livid if he thought I just wanted to be friends with you."

"Why?"

"If he thinks I'm doing it just to make him jealous then he still thinks I'm in his back pocket and he can continue being the worst boyfriend in the world. If he thinks I'm doing it because I genuinely enjoy your company… he'll have a bigger problem with it. I don't really care what he thinks but if you want to avoid anymore black eyes, you should."

Dan banged his head against the wall of his room, "So you actually want to be friends?"

"Yes," she said, raising her voice slightly. "I have basically thrown myself at you at multiple occasions. How do you even question if I genuinely like being around you?"

"And yet you can't date someone from Brooklyn."

Blair rolled her eyes, "Well, Humphrey, I can't date anyone currently as I am currently with someone."

"But if you weren't, you couldn't date me because I'm from Brooklyn."

"Exactly."

"But you would if I wasn't from Brooklyn?"

Blair paused, "So what are you reading?"

"Blair."

"Humphrey." She put her text book to the side of her and looked at him, "What do you want me to say? Dan, you know I like you-"

"You do?" he interrupted.

"Do we need to rewind and have me repeat the fact that I've thrown myself at you multiple times? Can you follow along with the conversation?" Blair sighed, standing up as she started putting things in her bags. "I have somewhat developed feelings for you despite where you come from and it has proven to be quite irritating as I do stupid things like showing up at your door when I break up with my boyfriend, throwing myself at you and then get rejected. So, do I like you? Unfortunately I think, for the both of us, the answer is yes."

"Then why can't you just dump Nate?"

"I did, Humphrey."

"When?"

"That night, I told you this."

"But you're back together with him, Blair."

She nodded, "A technicality."

"Not a technicality. A hurdle."

Blair sighed turning around at him and walking towards his bed, grabbing the wad of paper and tossing it at his face. "If we broke up once, we'll break up again and maybe this time you don't turn the girl down."

"Maybe this time you don't show up drunk?"

"I make no promises but I'll take that suggestion into consideration. I have to go before I'm late." Blair started to walk out the door before turning back around, "Humphrey, I'm not using you. I will see what I can do about bending the rules about dating people from Brooklyn, if, and only if, Nate and I happen to break up."