Vanessa is horrified.
The consciousness of it creeps up on her slowly as she tries to repair her broken friendship with Dan.
He has been avoiding her ever since the whole Serena-Juliet fiasco.
Whenever she catches sight of him around campus and tries to engage him in conversation, Dan always makes excuses about having somewhere to be. And that somewhere to be usually involves Blair.
A couple of times she actually finds them together. Vanessa drops by his place with Chinese food, and finds Blair teaching him how to make sushi. Vanessa offers to help him study for their American lit mid-term, only to discover that he and Blair have already been swapping notes, as she's taking practically the same course at Columbia. Vanessa calls to ask him to a showing of Mon Oncle (banking on his love of Tati cancelling out the awkwardness between them), only to find that he has already seen it with Blair.
Eventually she corners him in the library. When she calls him out on his avoidance techniques, Dan informs her tersely that he has been very busy completing his internship at W.
"Yeah, congratulations about that, by the way," Vanessa replies warmly, latching onto the neutral topic as a way to keep him in conversation. "Too bad you have to share it with Blair Waldorf," she adds sympathetically. She hopes he'll take the bait. After all, it is hard to stay angry at one person, when you are bitching to them about someone else.
"Actually, if it wasn't for Blair I wouldn't even have the internship," Dan replies firmly.
Vanessa raises her eyebrow. "Really? Because I read about the slapping match on Gossip Girl."
Dan colours slightly. "We may have got off to a rocky start. Which was mostly my fault, because I didn't trust Blair when she offered to work together to outshine the other interns. I figured she'd try to sabotage me, so I decided to sabotage her first."
Vanessa shrugs, unconcerned by this treatment of her nemesis. "Well, with Blair you always have to assume there's a hidden agenda."
Dan narrows his eyes. For a minute he opens his mouth and it looks like he is about to argue, then he pauses, and continues evenly, "Well, I was wrong this time. And despite my attempt to make her look bad, Blair and I impressed the magazine so much they took the unprecedented step of offering two intern positions."
Vanessa sniffs disparagingly. "I still don't think it's really fair to you though. After all, you got in on talent alone. Whereas their decision to hire Blair probably has more to do with who her mother is, than who she is."
This time the fury in Dan's eyes is unmistakeable. He rises from his chair and raises his voice to a pitch that has the librarian looking at him forebodingly.
"Vanessa, not only was Blair hired on her own merits, but she proves she deserves that spot every day with the hours of work she puts in. Her biting candour is finally being put to good use, and EVERYONE is impressed by her creativity and drive," Dan pauses, but Vanessa is too shocked by his impassioned defence of the girl he has always claimed to hate to interject.
"And even if what you said was true than it would be more fool them because who she is, is the most frighteningly intelligent, cuttingly witty and opinionatedly cultured person I've ever met, which – by the way – is exactly what the magazine needs."
Vanessa is flustered and hurt. It was bad enough having him constantly choosing Serena over her, but now it feels like he is picking Blair over her as well.
She tries to reason with him. "This is Blair Waldorf we're talking about right?" she asks sarcastically. "The girl who makes a school of piranhas seem soft and cuddly by comparison? Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt she's right at home in the superficial, status-worshipping back-stabbing world of women's magazines, but what on earth are you doing defending her? Intelligent and cultured? I think you have forgotten that she is also the most lying, scheming, conniving, manipulative bitch you've ever met as well," Vanessa finishes, shaking with anger.
Dan regards her coolly. "Actually, no. I'm sorry to say that since the whole Juliet debacle that honour goes to someone else entirely," he tells her pointedly, before turning on his heel and stalking off.
The same day Vanessa packs up, drops out of NYU and leaves Manhattan for good.
In later years, on the commune, she will sometimes tell the story of how she lost her best friend to the insidious machinations of the Upper East Side.
But she knows it is a lie.
Because it was Blair Waldorf, not the UES, that seduced Dan away from her for good. Because even though they evidently hadn't realised it yet, from that afternoon Vanessa knew that Dan clearly belonged to Blair.