Author's Note: Wow! I am so pleased with the reaction this story has received so far! I was afraid I would be getting yelled at for tearing Nate and Blair apart. Thank you all for reviewing, I greatly appreciate it. I hope you all like chapter two!

Chapter Two
"Her picture in your pocket
Her memory at your door
Too tired to unlock it
Too scared to ask for more.
Is there any wonder why I bother?
Hanging 'round to take the pain
Is there any wonder why I bother?
Coming down for you to fix the blame."
-Nine Black Alps

"And now, I'll leave you with some words from John Lennon, 'Everything is clearer when you are in love.'" Blair watched as Olivia Shults flashed everyone the peace sign and allowed a dazed sort of look to enter her already vacant face as she finished her oral report on John Lennon. She was dressed as the icon with a short wig, round glasses, and a skinny white man's suit.

The students in the class politely clapped as Olivia took her seat again, but Blair kept her arms folded over her chest.

Everything is clearer when you are in love.

Blair rolled her eyes. Love did not make anything clearer, it made everything more complicated and confusing and hard to decipher. How could some awesome poet like John Lennon be so stupid? She thought back to only two days ago, when she and Nate had gotten into their fight. They hadn't spoken since. Blair had already resolved that she wasn't going to speak to him first, he'd have to apologize for being such a 'weird asshole.' She was stronger than him anyway, she could hold out.

"Miss Shults, you can go to the bathroom and change back into your uniform," Blair's American History II Honors teacher told the John Lennon look-a-like and she took the pass and headed out the door.

Turning to Serena, who sat only a space away from her, Blair was about to make a snippy comment about Olivia's report but she saw that her best friend was texting away under her desk.
The look on Serena's face was, as Blair well knew from being her best friend for so long, her flirty face. She was obviously talking to a guy. But, the real question was, what guy was it?

"Miss Van der Woodsen," Mr. Krease's voice cut through her thoughts. "I believe it's your turn."

Blair watched as Serena discreetly slid her phone into her bag and marched up to the front of the room in her bell-bottoms, American flag shirt, and puffy black afro. Of course she had just put the wig on over her blonde hair which still hung past her shoulders, but, also of course, it looked endearing and cute.

"I am Abbie Hoffman," Serena began.

Blair fiddled with her Jackie O glasses that rested on her desk, tuning out Serena's words. She wasn't sure why she was desperate to find out who Serena was texting, why her finger's itched to flip through the familiar phone, but that was the way it was. She kept her eyes on her best friend though, smirking as she talked about the radical activist and all he stood for in society.

And then, quite suddenly, Nate entered her mind.

She wondered what he was doing right now, what class he was in, or if he had a free period. Her heart ached from not talking to him, not being with him... Or maybe it was just the idea that she didn't know what he was doing, who he had been with in the past two days, if he had already started looking at other girls, if he had... If he had been texting Serena. Something within Blair's brain clicked and her heart fell, tears sprang to her eyes and her throat burned. But all too quickly, as if by instinct, Blair's sadness turned to hot anger, igniting her insides with a raging fire. She would find out who Serena had been texting, even if she had to steal the phone to do it.

"Thank you Miss Van der Woodsen, you may go and change back into your uniform now," Mr. Krease said. "Miss Vetter?"

A dorky, tall girl dressed like a martian went to the front of the room and Serena went out. Blair knew this was her moment, so she pretended to drop her pencil and then she leaned forward and grabbed Serena's phone out of her bag and instantly began reading through her conversation.

Nate: I'm a second away from cutting Latin.
Serena: Haha! I feel you boy, American History is torture over here!
Nate: What are you guys doing?
Serena: Sixties icon presentations. Blair's dressed like Jackie O- so cute!
Nate: Oh.
Serena: You're missing out, bud!
Nate: Actually, Blair and I got into a fight the other day, didn't she tell you?
Serena: No, she didn't. What happened?
Nate: I dunno, it was dumb.
Serena: Well, it's Blair, you know how she can be.
Nate: Yeah. Do you think I should talk to her.
Serena: Do you want to talk to her?
Nate: I dunno.
Serena: Think about it.
Nate: No, I don't. Not right now.
Serena: So don't.

And then, just as she was about to put the phone back another text from Nate went through. Blair opened it and read:

Nate: Do you really think I shouldn't?

Blair answered for Serena without a second thought.

Serena: No, I was kidding! You should totally talk to her! She's your girlfriend, you guys shouldn't fight! Apologize!

Nate answered back pretty quickly.

Nate: But I didn't do anything wrong. No, you know what- I don't think I'm going to talk to her for now. We'll see what happens.

Something about the fact that Serena hadn't defended her, hadn't tried to help her, upset Blair to no end. What a horrible friend, she seethed.

Blair quickly deleted the text she had sent, and the two Nate had sent to Serena. And put Serena's phone back, because she knew her friend would be returning momentarily. Lucky for her the moment she straightened up Serena walked in. When she sat down beside Blair she smiled and said, "So, did I miss anything good?"

Blair smirked, "Oh, you have no idea!"

Dan sat in front of his computer, watching the screen, staring at Serena's name, waiting for the little away message icon beside it to vanish. It didn't. He looked at his phone, willing it to ring or beep. It didn't.

Leaning against the back of his chair, Dan rubbed his face anxiously and sighed.

He clicked on Serena's name, checking if the away message had changed.

It hadn't. It still said that she was 'here or there.'

For the umpteenth time since he first went out with Serena, Dan felt confused. Not just confused but frazzled and anxious and nervous and full of thoughts. His brain felt as if it needed to be drained, or unplugged, like there was a stopper in the piping of his mind and nothing was being filtered out. Everything was going into his brain and staying there, backing up until he needed to find some kind of release.

He pulled open the drawer in his desk and rifled through it until he found his old leather notebook. After grabbing a pen and flipping to a clean page, Dan began to write. He didn't necessarily think about what he was writing, only let the words flow onto the page from the ink-dipped metal. The words that he scribbled were the first things floating in his mind, the words closest to his heart at the moment, what he wanted to get out most. Finally, he read it back.

"Falling into the hole I dug myself
For the gold and silver I hate the most
Punching out all of my feelings
Until I'm left with the shell of a ghost
Misunderstood beauty dances
Angst ridden princess with a porcelain face
How I long to hold her, stroke her chestnut locks
Put her on the pedestal, back to grace
And how I want to scream in her ears
For ripping at my preoccupied heart
I didn't mean to fall so clumsily this way
It was a mistake, falling into a world apart."

As the words found their way back into his brain he knotted his eyebrows and cocked his head a little. Chestnut locks? Where did that come from? he asked himself. But it seemed to fit. He had wanted to put golden locks but chestnut just sounded better, he decided.

Dan didn't feel like it was his best poem, but he closed the book and saved it all the same, feeling as if he might want to look back on it one day. Just then, his phone rang. He jumped a little, as if he was guilty of something, and then he shook his head, reaching out for the phone and answering casually.

"Hello?"

"Dan? Hey, it's Serena!"

Dan smiled to himself, "Hey Serena, what's up?"

Serena laughed a little, "Nothing really, I was just calling to ask if you wanted to hang out tomorrow."

"Will this be a double-date again?" he couldn't help asking a little acidly.

Giggling, Serena replied, "No, it'll just be us."

"All right then, I'd love to."

"Great, I'll call you tomorrow?"

Dan nodded to himself, "Sure, I'll talk to you later."

"Bye."

"Bye."

When Dan placed his phone back on the desk he opened his notebook again and put a line through chestnut locks, replacing it with golden locks. Even if it didn't sound as good, he felt it fit more appropriately... Or at least he was pretty sure it did.

Author's Note: Chapter two! Don't worry, there will be tones of romance soon!