Hey, guys. Okay, so this chapter is very confusing, I admit. Please accept my apologies! So if you can stumble through it, I promise that the rest of the story is going to be fabulous! Promise.

***************************************************************

"I'm tired, Dan. Can we please go home now?" Jenny begged.

"Just wait a minute," Dan said. To be fair, they had been standing in the same bookstore for an hour and a half. But Dan was trying to find the perfect book. Something that his life compared to. And that certainly wasn't easy. "You can go if you want to." He said.

Jenny shook her head. "There's nothing to do at home," she said.

"Then you'll just have to wait a moment."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nate listened to his voice-mail. So Jenny was okay, and apparently she was over him. Good. No, bad. Maybe Vanessa was the "one" but he still had feelings for Jenny. Just tiny little feelings. He was sure that if he ignored them they'd go away.

Then there was Chuck to worry about. He didn't know where Chuck was, or how he was. Chuck alone in a big city like New York was dangerous. Nate wondered if he should hire someone to track Chuck down so that Nate could find him. But then again, maybe he should just leave him alone and let him come home when he was ready. Okay, whatever.

Nate missed his dad, despite all that the man had done. He missed going running with him every morning. He missed the happy family. Nate's mother wasn't very happy these days. Nate had tried to be sympathetic, but now it was just getting old. Time to move on, Mom.

He wondered absently how Blair was. She probably was more worried about Chuck than he was, if that was possible. After all, she was in love with him.

Oh hey, there was Vanessa. With a guy. A very good-looking, smiling guy. What was she doing here with him, he wondered. Vanessa didn't seem like the kind of girl who went to the park on cold snowy days.

"Vanessa," he said, hoping he didn't sound jealous.

"Nate!" she exclaimed wrapping him in a huge hug and giving him a kiss. "Hi. Nate, this is my friend Jason. He's helping me out with a new film I'm making. And Jason, this is my boyfriend Nate."

They shook hands. Maybe Nate was imagining it, but Jason seemed a bit unfriendly towards him. What was up with that?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So anyways, as I was saying, it's like, totally obvious that Serena still likes Dan even though she's convinced that she likes Aaron. And I know that Aaron and Serena broke up, but Serena's convinced that as soon as Serena deals with Dan, she and Aaron can get back together and live happily ever after. Which is totally crazy because, how often does that happen?" Blair asked. The housekeeper looked at Blair like she was crazy. Blair rolled over in her bed and stared at the ceiling. What did one do when they had been deserted by their best friend and left to amuse themselves?

Lots of shopping in town, of course. There weren't many people out today, and the streets were deserted. Still, Blair found comfort in trying on tons of clothes and buying about fifty new dresses.

"Can you spare some change for breakfast, miss?"

Blair turned and regarded the homeless man. She knew better than to give people like him money, lest it should go to buying drugs or alcohol. Still, he did look hungry. It couldn't hurt to buy him breakfast, could it?

"Come on," she sighed. "I'll buy you something to eat."

Blair took the man to a small diner in town and bought him a huge meal. She ate pancakes.

It was kind of awkward, watching him shovel the food into his mouth. But when he finally slowed down, she asked.

"So, what's your name?"

He looked up, wiping his face with a napkin. "Charles."

Blair dropped her fork and it made a loud clatter. She frowned into her pancakes. "Sorry," she muttered. "So...Charles. What happened?" Blair never realized until later that it was a rude questioned that might have been painful to answer.

"Well, um..." Charles wiped his face again and took a drink of coffee. "I graduated from high school a few months ago. My parents wanted me to go to college but I thought that I wanted to take a break. To enjoy life for a while, you know? But they said that if I didn't go to college I had to get a job. When I refused, they kicked me out."

"And you've been on your own since then?"

"Yep. I'm doing the best I can."

Blair looked at his shabby clothes and long hair and frowned. She wanted to take him to a hotel, make him bathe, and buy him a new wardrobe. That wouldn't work, of course.

"Oh."

"It must be really easy being rich."

"What?"

"You know. Being able to buy as many clothes as you want, always having a place to live, having friends, and not ever having to worry about getting a job."

Blair considered this. What that really the way her life was? No, it was not. "Not really," she said. "You might have plenty of money, but...you never know who your real friends are. There's of drama. And..." she trailed off. There's Chuck.

"Sounds better than this."

Maybe. I wish I knew.

*********************************************************

Again, I know that this chapter is certainly not the best. I know that it is a little confusing.