[blatelove]

*waits with Fatimah*

[Rebel_Diamond]

Lazy people

[Gisele]

IKR? Jeeze.

Blair shook her head. Then she had an idea. “Hey, why don’t we keep all our letters and then open them together? You know, so we can, like, freak out at the same time?” Serena took another swing of lemonade. It sounded like the worst idea she’d ever heard, but she was willing risk getting her eyes clawed out to make her friend happy. Nate didn’t say anything. No way did he want to join that little party.

He dialed the number and put the phone to his ear before looking up. Chuck Bass was staring at him from his seat next to his jewel-encrusted mom, looking extremely gay indeed. And just the thought that Chuck might possibly have a crush on him was enough to quell the urgency of Nate’s call to Connecticut.

From: narchibald@stjudes.edu To: bwaldorf@constancebillard.edu Date: Thursday, June 1 11:50AM Subject: Bad news Hey, I know I’m already late for lunchtime lax practice but I wanted to get this to you so you can make new plans or whatever. I know you’re going to be pissed but I kind of let it slip to my dad that it was just going to be the two of us this summer and he went ape****. I think he’s seriously becoming more of an uptight prick in his old age. Bottom line is, I can’t go to Europe this summer. Basically my dad wants me around to help finish building our boat up in Maine. It’ll be cool once it’s done, and I promise to take you out on it. I’m really sorry, but I promise to make it up to you v. soon. -N

[troubled.discussions]

Thank you G!

Oh Natie. Thank you for being a normal teenage boy.

[Gisele]

N is for Naughty

Brigid had interviewed Nate back in the fall, so she already knew he'd spent every summer since he was born sailing up in Maine. Because of this she assumed he liked lobster. And because she was supposed to lavish him with the best of everything in order to entice him up to Brown, she took him to the restaurant Citeralla, where she'd preordered a giant broiled lobster for the two of them to share, along with a bottle of Dom Perignon and a basket of pommes frites.

"I grew up in Maine," she explained, tugging on her pearls. "Camden. All my family ever did was sail and eat lobster." The truth was Nate thought lobster was sort of ridiculous, like some silly crustacean cartoon character that could dance on its tail and hold a microphone in its claw and sing and tell jokes and make people giggle. It certainly wasn't the sort of food he craved when he had the munchies. Which was basically all the time.

"So." Brigid topped off her champagne flute, even though the waiter had just filled it. She'd changed into low-cut orange dress and was wearing sparkling lip gloss and mascara. Her strawberry blonde hair was freshly brushed and she looked even cuter than she had earlier that day on the lacrosse pitch in the park. She fiddled nervously with the stem of her glass. "So, enough about me. Do you, um....?" she bit her lip. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Nate poked at his salad, smearing goat cheese all over the leaves. He was pretty sure Brigid's low cut dress and flirtatous behavior went beyond her mission of getting him to matriculate at Brown. He suspected she had a crush on him. But she was still his Brown interviewer, and he wanted to make a good impression. "Um. Sort of." he told her hesitantly. "I mean, sometimes we're together and sometimes we're not."

She seemed to like that answer. "Are you together now?" Nate had always preferred beer to champagne but he gulped his wine Blair style. In theory, he and Blair were together again, happily, hooray. But they hadn't exactly discussed the terms of their relationship. Did flirting with his Brown admissions officer really qualify as cheating?

Suddenly his phone rang and he whipped it out of his pocket, kicking himself for forgetting to turn it off before dinner. He glanced at the phone's little screen. Speak of the devil.

Nate's head was a little fuzzy from the six bong hits he'd done at Anthony Avuldsen's house before he came out. Speaking to Blair might knock some sense into him. "Um, I should take this." he told Brigid. "Hey." he said into the phone. "Hello," Blair responded coldly. "Before you say anything I just have to ask you a question." Her voice was clipped, as if she was trying to use as few syllables as possible. Nate could tell she'd been drinking. "Okay."

"Tell me the truth. Did you apply to Yale?"

Oh boy.

Nate grabbed his champagne and polished it off. ****! He cursed silently. ****, ****, ****! There was definitely no right answer. If he said yes, he was a bastard and a liar, and if he said no, he was a bastard and a liar.

Brigid smiling at him expectantly, her lips all shiny and glossed. At least he could take comfort in the fact that Blair was miles away at Georgetown, who was dying to see him naked. He decided to tell the truth.

"Yeah, I did. And I guess I got in."

Blair made a strange gurgling noise, and then Nate heard the distinct, familiar sound of her puking into a toilet. "**** you," she growled into the phone before hanging up.

Nate turned off the phone and tucked it into his pocket. The waiter arrived with the lobster. "Boy, does that look good," Nate said in a hollow voice.

"Do you want to share the tail?" Brigid asked, handling the steaming crustacean with practiced ease. She pointed at the stainless steal claw cracking tools the waiter had brought. "Or get started on the claw?"

What Nate really wanted was to do a few more bong hits and then eat a big bowl of Breyers chocolate ice cream while sitting comatose in front of the Matrix, which he'd already seen eighteen times.

Brigid put down the lobster. "Are you okay?"

He shrugged. "I think my girlfriend just broke up with me again."

Brigid's green eyes opened wide. "You poor thing." She motioned to the waiter. "Can we have this to go?" She pushed back the chair. "Come on. I'll buy you a beer and a cigarette."

Nate tried to tell himself that since Blair wasn't around to murder him right now he was basically safe and should enjoy the next 24 hours before she came back. He could even hook up with Brigid if he wanted to.

The thing was, he was sick of always breaking up with Blair when they both wanted to be together. And unlike Blair, he didn't really care what college he went to. In fact, he'd be fine with not going to college at all for a couple of years. As far as he could tell, the only way to put himself and Blair back on a level playing field was to try and get his Brown and Yale acceptances revoked. And what better way to do that than to act like an *******?

"**** it," Nate said under his breath. He stood up and helped Brigid into the denim of her jacket hanging on the back of her chair. His fingers brushed her neck as he pulled her hair out from underneath the collar. They were standing very close, and Brigid's breath smelled like Hawaiian punch. "How badly does Brown want me?" he murmured into her ear.

Her green eyes opened wide. "Bad," she whispered unsteadily.
Her hotel room key was on the table. Nate picked it up and dropped it in his pocket.
"Bad," she whispered again.

The waiter handed Nate a plastic bag with the twenty pound lobster wrapped up in foil inside it. He chucked it on the table and put his arm around Brigid's waist. "Show me." he told her gruffly, disgusted with the sound of his voice.

Guess he wasn't talking about the lobster.


LOVE him.

[troubled.discussions]

Natie, our screw up

[Gisele]

Aww and he wanted to screw up for Blair. Wrong approach but good motive

[troubled.discussions]

He's such a mess without her.

[Gisele]

redeem yourself Cecily.

[troubled.discussions]

You KNOW how the book ends

[Gisele]

It better end how I want it to end.

[troubled.discussions]

... or else!

[Gisele]

POOF, on fire!

[troubled.discussions]

Unnecessary combustion FTW!

[Gisele]

I'll seriously send her a really nasty letter.