Chapter 29

Chapter 29

“Hey, man,” Nate said, walking through the door of Chuck’s hotel room.
“Hello, Nathaniel.”
“Can we talk?” Nate sat down next to Chuck on the sofa.
“What about?”
“Well, I dunno. Stuff. We never hang out anymore.”
“What are you talking about? We hang out all the time. Like right now.”
“Um, actually, no, we don’t.”
“Oh, well. We weren’t that close anyway.” Chuck got up to leave.
“What? We’re like best friends.” Nate followed him to the door.
“Yeah, we should talk about that. You really need some new friends.” Chuck opened the door and walked out into the hallway. Nate followed him into the elevator, and down into the lobby. Serena was just leaving.
“Serena!” Chuck called to her, and she turned around. Hesitating, she walked over to them.
“Here you go, Nate,” Chuck said, patting his friend’s shoulder. “You can hang out with S. Knock yourself out.”
Serena nervously watched Chuck go. When they were alone in the lobby, S turned back to Nate. “Um,” she said, actually not knowing what to say. “I… I was just leaving.”
“Yeah.” Nate looked down at the floor. He could sense the huge amount of tension.
“It’s, uh, important, so I better get going. See you later, okay?” Serena quickly rushed out of the hotel and hailed a cab.
Back inside, Nate just stood there. Suddenly, his pocket started vibrating. He took out his cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Nate? It’s Vanessa. I’m done all the finishing touches. Who knew it would take this long to find a leg in that exact colour of leggings? Come over to my place, and we’ll get it printed out.”
“Great. I’m on my way.” Nate closed his phone, and hurried outside.

At Vanessa’s, V showed N the edited photo.
“Wow,” Nate said. “Impressive.”
The photo of Nate and Serena kissing was Photoshopped to make it look like Serena was the one kissing him. Nate’s hands were still around her waist, but S was edited a lot. Her arms were around his neck, she was leaning in, and her right leg was popped up. Nate couldn’t believe how realistic it looked.
“Now, to print it, and send you off to Dan.” Vanessa printed the picture and handed it to Nate. “You know what to do?” Nate nodded. “Good. Don’t screw up.” Vanessa looked at him, very seriously.
“I won’t.”

When Nate reached Dan’s building, he hesitated. Maybe I shouldn’t do this, he thought. Someone’ll find out. I just know it. Sighing, Nate realized he was torn. He didn’t think Dan was that bad of a guy, and he probably didn’t deserve this. But Nate needed Serena. And the only way to win Serena’s heart is if Dan is out of the picture.
Nate walked into the building.

“You don’t really have a life, do you?” Nate asked, laughing, as Dan let him in.
“Actually, I do have a life, and her name is Serena. But she took Jenny out shopping today, so it’s back to being antisocial.” Dan closed the door, but Nate just stood there. “So,” Dan asked, “What brings you to my humble abode?”
“Well, actually, Serena is what I wanted to talk to you about,” Nate said slowly. “Dan, obviously you try and see the best in people. And sometimes that can be a weakness. I know you think Serena’s changed, but she hasn’t. She’ll always be the Old Serena, deep down. And nothing can change that.”
“What are you talking about?” Dan looked confused. Sighing, Nate pulled the printed photo out of his pocket. He handed it to Dan.
Dan stared at the picture, studying every angle. Clearly, Serena was all over Nate. “I… I don’t understand…”
“This happened a few days ago. Gossip Girl emailed me the photo. She was probably trying to prove a point. I’m sorry, Dan.”
All Dan could do was stand there and stare at the piece of the paper in his hands.
“Look,” N said as he opened the front door, “If I were you, I wouldn’t say anything to Serena. It probably wouldn’t go well. You should just keep your dignity and move on.” And with that, Nate was gone.
Dan just stared at the closed door in front of him, an expression of deep betrayal on his face.