AN
I've got one day to write a 2500 word essay and I chose to write this instead. Probably not the best idea in the world but I hope you enjoy anyway :)
Summary
A story about how Dan and Blair fall in love.
This is set after Season 2. The only difference is that Chuck doesn't come back from Europe, so the Chair 'I love you too' scene never happens.
Disclaimer
I own nothing but the story.
True Love Waits
To say the situation was awkward would be an understatement. It's Vanessa, Dan and her in Dan's apartment and she's already used her 'What's you major?' icebreaker.
Blair sits there nibbling on her sushi as Dan and Vanessa discuss a book they're reading for another class. She starts to feels a little bit third-wheel and wishes that she went to that frat party Justin invited her to. She quickly ends that thought, however, imagining all the disgusting events that would be happening. They'd probably have Doritos in a bowl and a cheap dip, she scrunches her nose at the thought.
She hears a laugh and turns to see Vanessa and Dan looking at a laptop. They're horribly close and Blair feels something churn in her stomach. She watches as Vanessa laughs and puts her hand on Dan's arm as he points to the screen.
She excuses herself to the bathroom before she vomits at the sight of Vanessa and Dan. To think that Dan would even be friends with the hippie who wears nothing but boho disgusts her. Blair will forever remember Vanessa as the whore who slept with Chuck Bass. Blair tries not to imagine Vanessa and Chuck together but the thought quickly turns into imagining Dan and her together and she finds that she is even more revolted. Only because they're both from Brooklyn, she muses.
She takes her time exploring the bathroom, anything other than returning back. Blair has always been a nosy person, so she doesn't feel guilty looking at Dan's things, even if it is the bathroom. She finds nothing incriminating, which she is surprisingly relieved about. If she were caught looking through Dan's bathroom, she would claim that she was looking for evidence she could blackmail him with in the future, not that she was hoping to find nothing so that she could continue thinking of him as her innocent Dan.
She looks at the toilet bowl and senses the familiar urge to stick her finger down her throat. She hasn't done the deed since she started NYU (coincidently the time she became friends with Dan), convincing herself that the past would not haunt her. So she looks away and steadies herself by taking deep breaths.
As she leaves the bathroom, she smells something familiar. She finds his aftershave and is not surprised to see that it's a cheap non-designer brand she has never heard of (she's just relieved it's not Old Spice). She is, however, surprised to discover that she finds the smell calming rather than nauseating, but presumes that's because there's a hint of menthol.
She returns to find Vanessa alone.
'Dan's just gone to get some beer', Vanessa simply says without looking away from the lap top.
The thought of beer disgusts Blair and she wonders if she should just leave. Anger rises within her, however, as she watches a care-free Vanessa sitting there like she didn't have a role in ruining Blair's life.
'You know, you think you're better than all of us, but you aren't.' Blair says harshly.
'Excuse me?'
'You think you're too good for the UES. Claiming that you aren't manipulative and that you're always an innocent party in everything. Yet you go around scheming to break Nate and me up and sleeping with Chuck. You're worse than the rest of us. At least we don't declare that we're better than that. I know I scheme and I manipulate. I know I'm not some amazing person that can do no wrong.'
'Look Blair, I don't care what you think about me. I know I have to work hard to achieve things. And I know that you will never have to work for a thing in your life. Because of your name, you're born with everything.'
'That's where you're wrong Abrams. Because of my name, I have to work harder. You think I want to be in my mother's shadow?'
'Oh poor UES socialite with mommy issues. Really Blair? And the reason Chuck can't say he love you must be because of his daddy issues right? It has nothing to do with how you're a selfish bitch', Vanessa replies sarcastically.
'At least I'm not a condescending, pretentious hipster with no real talent!' Blair shrieks.
Dan walks in then to see both Blair and Vanessa angrily glaring at each other.
'I've got beers, Doritos and the matching dip!' He declares awkwardly.
He watches as Blair grabs her things and leaves, while muttering that she forgot to put a bibliography on her paper due tomorrow.
'Ugh... good luck on that bibliography...?' He says and is disappointed when she walks out the door without even giving him a smile.
'What happened?' He asks Vanessa.
'Blair just being Blair'.
Blair has trouble sleeping that night. She blames it on the extra coffee she had that day, not the picture of Dan and Vanessa together that is stuck in her mind.
She finally sees him in their Psychology lecture after avoiding him all week.
'Hey', he greets as he passes her coffee cup to her. 'So how'd that bibliography go?'
He's in a good mood compared to last week and she can't help but smile at him when he sits down in his seat with the broken table. She wonders why he never chooses the seat on the other side of her.
'I'm sorry about Vanessa last week', he says suddenly and she doesn't know why he's apologising to her when it should be dreadlocks instead. But he apologises and she can't help but feel her anger grow when she remembers that he was the one to put her and Vanessa in the same room by asking her to stay. And yet, he even makes it worse when he leaves them alone together to get beer. Like Blair Waldorf would even consider drinking beer.
'I can't be friends with her Dan', she says because there can't be any other motive behind his actions (if only she knew).
'I never said you had to be friends with Vanessa', and he sounds worried.
'You put me in a room alone with her. How did you think that would end?' Her voice is rising and she fails to detect the uneasy look on Dan's face.
'I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I thought you were over Chuck and you could put the past behind you'.
If she was paying attention, she would catch the jealous tone in his voice when he mentions Chuck. But she doesn't notice because all that's in her mind is that Dan wants her to be friends with Vanessa.
She doesn't reply to him and relief fills her when the professor enters the room the start the lecture. She hastily leaves straight after without saying bye to Dan.
It's their first fight since they became friends and Dan can't help but feel worried that it might be their last as well.
He's furious at himself for even thinking of putting Vanessa and Blair in the same room.
He shows up to her dorm room after a college party on a Friday night that he leaves early because girls start hitting on him and he finds them too blonde, too tall, too easy, too thin, too non-Blair. It's 12am and he's knocking on her door to the tune of Moon River, but it sounds more like Eye of the Tiger, and he makes a note to his drunken self that he should carry around a harmonica with him at all times.
'Humphrey? Are you drunk?' He hears her say when she opens the door. She's standing there in her nightgown, which is exposing too much skin so he invites himself in so no other college frat perverted boy walks past and sees her.
He drops onto her bed facedown wordlessly and feels himself falling asleep too easily. Her bed smells exactly like her and he wonders if he's drunk from alcohol or her scent.
He hears her sigh and feels himself being pushed over until he's on his back. He's surprised that she hasn't pushed him off the bed completely.
'I'm sorry', she whispers and he swears he must be really drunk because he just imagined Blair Waldorf apologising to him.
He doesn't reply to her apology, but she knows he's awake because he's humming an unrecognisable tune that has a hint of Moon River to it so she continues.
'I know you're friends with Vanessa, but I can't be her friend so please force me into the same room with her'.
She doesn't know why she's saying these things to him. Maybe it's because she knows he'll probably forget it in the morning, or maybe she really really misses him.
He opens his eyes and slurs, 'I love'.
She doesn't know what the make of his words so she stares at him while he closes his eyes again and the corners of his lips turn upwards into a shape of a satisfied smile.
'Who do you love Humphrey?' she teasingly asks him because she's starting to think he's adorable when he's drunk. She doesn't even remember why they were fighting in the first place.
'I love her forever. I want to kiss her and – '.
'Look Humphrey. I know you're drunk but I do not want to hear about how you want to put your tongue in some poor girl's throat'. He's hardly making sense, but she really does not want to hear about him wanting to make out with some girl.
If this was a movie, Blair would think that Dan was talking about her. But this is her life, and Dan is too perfect to like a girl like her.
She assumes it's Vanessa as she remembers Vanessa touching Dan's arm, them laughing at something inanely Brooklyn, them sharing their hatred for all things UES.
Trust Vanessa to have Dan fall in love with her. The Vanessa who dresses in cheap clothing yet manages to steal Nate and Chuck from her. The Vanessa who managed to crawl her way into the UES. The Vanessa who has known Dan since birth and they'll probably get Tisch scholarships together and get married and have 2.5 kids and live in Brooklyn and catch the subway to work and – Blair gasps as she realises that she's jealous of Vanessa.
Blair realises that she's jealous of Vanessa because Dan is in love with her.
Blair realises that she is in love with Dan Humphrey.