Dan woke slowly, not daring to move in his small bunk bed in his bus. He knew that as soon as he moved, the pain would come. When Serena had shown up last night, he had planned on insisting on a quiet night between the two of them but his band had shown up soon after and it turned into madness. Shots and beers and shots and shots and shots. He didn't know when he had passed out but he wasn't sure he even made it past midnight. Dan turned his head and saw the golden mane he had once loved hanging from the bunk above him. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes again. Typical Serena. She would come every time they were in town claiming it was to see him and catch up and always ended up in the same place every visit, with the drummer on the bunk above his.
He moved his body slowly, his feet brushing the floor and he could already feel the pain in his head. It felt like pins being stuck into his skin and sticking in his brain. Dan groaned and grabbed the water bottle he kept under his bunk and started to guzzle it. He needed hydration and he needed to get out of this bus. The second was less of a need and more of a want as he didn't want to be there when Serena and Greg (the drummer) awoke and claimed that nothing happened.
Dan stumbled into the living area of the bus and was pleasantly surprised to see that at least none of the fans that had managed their way on to the bus last night had stayed the night. He fell on to the couch and reached for his phone, which had been plugged in last night as a source of music and was now completely dead. "Fuck." He was too lazy to get up and plug it into a power source and yet was oddly compelled to do this very thing from the piece of paper burning in his pocket of his jeans (he hadn't even made it out of his clothes the night before prior to passing out).
He basically crawled from one couch to the second to plug his phone in and started to close his eyes. Hearing shuffling above him, he opened one eye, keeping the other closed behind his palm. "Serena," he said, slowly and gruffly.
"Dan," she said, cheerfully. She was always so cheerful, it killed his soul sometimes. "Sorry about last night. Nothing happened, obviously."
"Yeah, yeah. Nothing happened. Funny that's the same story I think I've head for five years since having Greg in the band."
Serena rolled her eyes, "Believe whatever you want. We're just good friends."
"Serena, we've been broken up for ten years and in that ten years, have I ever gotten jealous of you sleeping with anyone? Why do you even lie about this?"
"Because his bed is over your head and it protects my dignity, Dan," she smirked. "Look, I need to go and meet my mom. Thanks for the tickets last night." Serena leaned over and kissed his forehead, "It's always great catching up with you."
"Catching up with Greg, you mean," he joked, before turning his head to look at his phone that had vibrated to let him know that it was alive again.
"Fuck you," she laughed. "Hey, what was Blair doing here last night?"
"Waldorf? Writing a story."
"That was her story as well…" she bit the inside of her cheek, a trait Dan used to fall for every time she did it. "I thought maybe she was having a much needed affair. You would have been my obvious pick to. It would piss Chuck off the most."
"Chuck?" Dan asked, rubbing his eyes. "She said… well, she implied that she's not married any more."
Serena chucked. "It's Blair. Haven't you learned to not take anything she says or does at face value? They're still married, although I don't know for how much longer."
"What do you mean?" Dan said, perking up and turning his head to her. "For how much longer? What do you mean by that?"
Serena shrugged, "It's not my story to tell. Why don't you play investigative journalist with the actual journalist and get to the bottom of the story. I'll see you later, Dan."
"See you next time Greg and I roll into town," Dan said back as a goodbye and turned again to his phone.