Nobody Does It Better (15 page)

Blair remained in the bathroom, preparing for her entrance, leaving Vanessa to hang back near the kitchen like a shy thirteen-year-old while Serena answered the door. Vanessa felt like a total dweeb wearing Blair's super shiny lip gloss and that one pair of black stretch Levis she'd stopped wearing over a year ago because she decided they were too tight. In fact, she felt like a total dweeb, period. Aaron would probably be a complete snob who thought she was a fat, bald weirdo, just like Blair had always thought before she'd lost her mind and decided to move in with her.

“Hey.” Aaron stepped into the apartment and kissed Serena on the cheek. “You live here too?” he was wearing an orange hemp wife beater T-shirt, his usual army-issued pants, and black cruelty-free rubber flip-flops. He pinned his dark dreadlocks back with two turquoise heart-shaped barrettes stolen out of Blair's bathroom, obviously trying to gauge Vanessa's vegan-freak tolerance by looking as vegan-freaky as possible.

Serena was relived to discover that she really was over him. “Oh, no. I'm just here to open the door.”

Stan 5 towered blondly in the hall carrying two large pizza boxes in his arms, looking like a prep-school poster boy in a khaki Hugo Boss suit, a pink Brooks Brothers shirt, and a Kelly-green-and-pink-striped Turnbull & Aser tie. “The delivery guy was downstairs,” he said, looking bewildered. “It sure is different here,” he added, making it very clear that he had never been to Brooklyn in his entire life.

“Hello again,” Serena said. “I guess you two have already met.” She took the pizzas and carried them into the kitchen. Stan 5 hovered near Aaron, his eyes searching the tiny apartment for the girl who'd actually invited him there.

Heartened by the sight of Aaron's ridiculous hairstyle, Vanessa ventured forward a few steps. “Hi!” she greeted them, wishing she didn't sound so perky and dumb. “I'm Vanessa.”

Aaron smiled, and she immediately liked his thin red lips and the way his dark, almost black eyes shone in the candlelight. He walked over and shook her hand. He was skinny, and slightly taller than she was. Five-foot-nine, maybe - the same height as Dan- but Aaron seemed bigger, more athletic. He pointed at her feet. “Hey, those are Blair's shoes aren't they? My dog tried to eat those for breakfast once.”

“Not that she'd notice. She has about eight hundred pairs,” Vanessa observed.

They chuckled, grinning a t each other. A regular mutual admiration society.

Serena was about to go and drag Blair out of the bathroom when Blair re-appeared in a cloud of Carolina Herrera perfume, her eyelashes freshly curled, her hair re-parted, and her face dusted with sparkly, rose-tinted bronzing powder. She was still wearing the same tight black T-shirt, but she'd put on a different bra and her chest looked more like a C now than a B.

“Who wants a drink?” she asked, smiling coyly at Stan 5.

“I'd love one,” Stan 5 replied. He walked over and kissed her on the cheek. He was taller than she remembered, and more formal. But he smelled like Polo for Men, which was one of her favorites.

Blair batted her curly-lashed eyes at him. I'm going to seduce you tonight, she told him silently.

Serena couldn't stand how weird everyone was being. Besides, it was almost ten o'clock- way past her dinnertime. She flipped open the lip of one of the pizza boxes. “Mind if we eat now? I'm starving.”

Vanessa and Aaron each took a vegan slice and a rum and coke and sat down at the table. Blair refreshed her drink and slipped a huge pepperoni slice onto her plate, thinking that she was going to need her energy. Stan 5 took two pepperoni slices- obviously he thought he was going to need his energy too. And Serena took one of each, because she'd always been a big eater.

“Why don't we play a game or something?” she suggested once they were around the table. Normally she wouldn't have cared, but right now she would do anything to stop them all from smiling at each other so... moronically.

Blair took a huge bite from her pizza and washed it down with vodka tonic. “Yes!” she agreed, practically screaming. “Truth or Dare!”

Serena poked at her pizza. As long as she stuck with Dares, she'd be fine.

Aaron folded his slice of pizza in half and took two enormous bites. Vanessa liked the way his cute little ears moved up and down when he chewed. “I'll start,” he volunteered, wiping his mouth on a paper napkin. “Dare.”

Blair shoved her pizza at him. Big rounds of pepperoni sat on top of the greasy cheese. “That's easy. I dare you to eat this.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “No way. Truth, then.”

Blair tried to think of a good question to ask him, but Vanessa beat him to it.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” She kept her eyes focused on her pizza, picking the little egreen buds off a piece of broccoli to keep from blushing with shame for asking such a totally cheesy question.

Aaron's leg seemed to edge over so slightly in her direction until the knee of his army pants very lightly grazed her jeans. He picked the rest of his pizza up and then put it down again with out taking a bite. “Hell yes,” he declared, his thin red lips spreading wide across his straight white teeth. “I do now.”

Blair nudged Vanessa's foot underneath the table and Vanessa's entire heads flushed the color of Constance Billard's maroon wool uniform. “I told you so,” Blair mouthed with silent delight. “Now me. Dare.”

Everyone tried to think of a good one. The thing about dares was they were always something silly. Truths were always far more interesting.

Not necessarily.

“I dare you to kiss me,” Stan 5 said quietly, pushing back his chair to give Blair access. “For five minutes.”

How totally seventh grade.

“Fine.” Blair stood up and pushed her dark hair behind her ears. Did he thing she wouldn't kiss him unless he dared her to? Well, she was planning to do a lot more than kiss later on. She perched on his knee and wrapped her arms around his neck. A little blob of pizza had collected in the corner of his mouth, and because she'd drunk just a wee bit too much and eaten her pizza a wee bit too fast, the sight of it made her gag. She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of Polo for Men. “Someone start timing,” she directed.

She pressed her lips against his, trying to relax and get into it, but it was hard, especially in front of an audience. Stan 5's lips were salty, unfamiliar, and weirdly wet. She was about to break away just to catch her breath, when she remembered the time she and Nate were in a kissing contest at a party at Serena's house at the end of seventh grade, They went into Serena's walk-in closet and Serena stood outside and timed then while they made out. They lasted forty-seven minutes, but the truth was, they weren't really kissing the whole time. They were whispering ever so softly with their lips pressed together so it was almost like they were kissing when they were talking, and vice versa. Which was actually way more romantic.

“Time's up,” Aaron called.

Blair broke away from Stan 5. thinking about Nate while she was kissing him had made his lips taste much better. “I could've lasted longer,” she declared, sliding off his lap. She sat down in her chair and polished off her drink. “You're next,” she told Stan 5. “Truth or dare.”

“Truth.”

Blair tried to think of something juicy to ask him, but she only knew him in the context of Yale,. “If your grandfather wasn't on the board at Yale, would you have gone to another school?”

Stan 5 cleared his throat and loosened his preppy pink-and-green-striped tie. His neck was red. “The truth?” he asked. He glanced at Blair and swiped his hand over his face. “I'm not going to Yale,” he said quietly. “I didn't get in.”

Nobody said anything. Blair felt bile rise in her throat. She scooted her chair back and lunged across the room toward the bathroom.

Serena smiled her mother's cool, fuck-off-and-die smile ay Stanford Paris V. “I dare you to leave right now,” she told him pleasantly.

Stan 5 shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't see what the big deal was. “Is she going to be okay?”

As if he really cared.

“She'll be fine,” Serena assured him.

“There's a car service place around the corner,” Vanessa informed him, too giddy to get what was going on.

Stan 5 stood up and straightened his tie. Serena walked him to the door. “Thanks for the pizza,” he said lamely before leaving.

Vanessa and Aaron's fingers touched beneath the table. “Truth or dare?” she whispered.

“Truth,” Aaron responded.

“Do you think I should grow my hair?”

Aaron leaned over and kissed her quickly on the lips. “No fucking way.”

Serena went to check on Blair, expecting to find her kneeled in front of the toilet, where she found her countless times before. Instead Blair was sprawled naked in the bathtub, covered in green Vitabath bubble, a wet washcloth folded over her eyes, looking like an overworked drama queen.

“I don't know what I was thinking,” she moaned, turning her head toward Serena. She was just so mad at Nate, and she wanted to go to Yale so badly, and Stan 5 had made it seem like she didn't have anything to worry about...

Serena kicked off her shoes and rolled up her jeans. Then she sat on the edge of the tub and dunked her feet into the water. “I don't know either.” She wiggled her pink-polished toes underneath the bubbles, daring herself to tell Blair about going to Yale next year.

Blair reached out blindly and plopped a big pouf of bubbles on Serena's cheek. “I dare you to get in with me.”

Serena giggled and began to unbutton her jeans. They could talk about Yale some other time.

Back in the living room, things were getting just as steamy.

“Is this what you're supposed to do when you're about to graduate from high school?” Vanessa asked, helping Aaron remove his flimsy orange shirt. She kissed her way up his neck to those thin red lips she'd loved the moment she'd seen them.

“You mean make friends with the bitchiest, most high-maintenance girl in your class and then hook up with her stepbrother?” he responded honestly, then laughed. “I'm not sure.” He traced his finger over the stubbly top of Vanessa's shaved head. “I guess at this point we're all trying new things.”

Guess so!

Gossipgirl.net

A STAR IS BORN AND SHE COULDN'T CARE LESS

Remember a few months back when a certain shaven-headed, Brooklyn dwelling, filmmaking genius won her school film contest? The prize was a trip to Cannes Film Festival to compete for the Most Promising New Filmmaker award. Any normal girl would have been shopping for the right dress, the right shoes, the right hairstyle, the right escort, as soon as she'd found out that she'd won. She would have been counting the days. Winning the award would be like being queen for a day. Not that our filmmaking genius friend even cares. She skipped the whole thing, and festival MC and independent filmmaker Ken Mogul had to accept the award on her behalf, calling her “the most original voice in filmmaking, since Charlie Chapman.” Not necessarily a compliment, since Charlie Chapman made silent films. Still, it's not every day that thousands of fabulously dresses celebrities rise to their feet to applaud you. Most of us would have wanted to be there. One thing's for sure, she'd not in it for the clothes or the fame- something I find impossible to understand!

NOW ABOUT HER FILM...

Remember a few months back when a certain shaven-headed filmmaker was camped out in the park, interviewing any senior kid who was willing to talk about schools they'd gotten into or not gotten into and how their lives sucked or didn't suck? Well guess what film won the New Filmmaker award in Cannes
? Do we dare show our faces in France
ever again?

Your e-mail:

Q: Dear GG,

I was wait-listed at Yale and I just got a letter from them this morning. A rejection letter. I heard no one's getting of the wait list cuz everyone who applied is going. 2 bad 4 me.

-dumdum

A: Dear dumdum,

You are so not a dumdum for not getting in. Your guidance councilor wouldn't let you apply if she didn't think you had a chance. I know lots of crazily smart people who didn't get in, and some dumdums who did. Anyway, does this mean everyone who's on the wait list will be hearing back this week? Guess we'll find out soon enough...

-GG

Q: Dear GG

Please tell me how to win back the heart of the boy I love. He is depressed because his father won't let him go out of the house because he is being punished for a crime. But I love him and I must see him or I will die.

-tristesse

A: Dear tristesse,

I take it English is not your first language. Let me put it into simple terms: maybe the boy in question isn't as into you as you are into him, n'est ce pas?

-GG

Sightings:

B and S at the Five and Dime in Williamsburg
on movie night, drinking cosmos and lip-synching along with Audrey Hepburn in Charade. V and A at the Mousy Brown salon in Williamsburg
. Tell me he's not getting his head shaved to match hers! K and I making laminated NO BOYS ALLOWED signs at an Upper East Side Kinko's. Silly girls don't they know that's just asking for trouble? A dark-haired French girl in a fringed Prada poncho and a Fendi moccasins scaling the walls of N's East-Side town house. He certainly has a penchant for crazy women. J and the rest of the Raves, on the lead singer's roof, singing her heart out in the middle of the night- Sunday night, that is. Guess who spent the whole weekend partying at a certain rock star's house? Now there's a girl who'd in it for the fame. Is she trying to get her face in the papers, or does it just come naturally to her?

Now we have something to talk about in school on Monday- as if we're ever lacking things to talk about!

P.S Thursday night is the long-awaited Archibald Benefit Cruise to the Hamptons
. Don't forget to bring your monogrammed Louis Vuitton life jacket!

You know you love me,

Gossip Girl