I Like It Like That (12 page)

Jenny was so confused by what had happened with Leo earlier that evening that she stayed up late, painting a still life and sorting out her thoughts. As usual, there were no fruit or vegetables in the fridge except for a thousand-year-old moldy orange, so she painted toothbrushes and a bar of Dove soap instead.

It seemed entirely possible that Leo did not own a dog and did not live in that stunning apartment on Park Avenue.

Maybe he's just a normal, everyday person, she thought to herself as she carefully touched up the blue bristles on Dan's toothbrush. Just like me. Actually, she still didn't know what he was. Why didn't he just make it clear instead of playing games?

She glared down at her canvas. “This is dumb,” she grumbled, and tossed it into the trash can under her desk. Everything was dumb. All of a sudden she just felt so … dumb.

And dumb people need company.

“Oh, so now you have time to talk to me?” Elise said when she picked up the phone.

“I'm sorry,” Jenny allowed. “I've been acting stupid.”

“That's okay.” Elise's voice softened. “Anyway, I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of this. I mean, if he was so rich and his mom was this crazy person who dressed up her dog, he probably wouldn't be such a good boyfriend to have. Right?”

Jenny thought about this. “How would you know?” she asked suspiciously. “How many boyfriends have you had?”

Elise didn't answer right away. Jenny had touched on a sore subject. “Actually, I thought your brother was going to be my first boyfriend, but I guess not.”

Jenny snorted. “Like that would ever work. You don't smoke, and you don't even like coffee.”

She could feel Elise smiling on the other end, and it felt good that she'd made her friend smile. “Anyway, I think you should stop thinking of Leo as something he's not and just see if you like who he actually is.”

Jenny crouched down and pulled the smudged, wet still life out of her wastepaper basket. Maybe if she didn't think of the toothbrush painting as a still life but as a painting with toothbrushes in it, it would work better. She might even add something not so still to it, like Marx the cat. She lay down on her stomach and pulled up the corner of her pink bedspread, looking for him.

“So …” Elise said. “Are you going to call him or what?”

Marx wasn't there. Jenny stood up and went over to her computer. “No. He likes e-mail better.” She sat down, an idea forming in her head.

She was going to invite herself over to Leo's house—at least, she was pretty sure that basement apartment on East Eighty-first Street was his house. This e-mail was her warning signal. She was going to find out once and for all who he was and what he was all about—whether he liked it or not.

The phone still pressed to her ear, she went online and started to type.

“So you really don't think Dan and I could have worked?” Elise persisted. “He was writing a poem about me, I think.”

Jenny could have told her all about how Dan was still in love with Vanessa and how all the poems he wrote were really about Vanessa and him, even when he pretended they were about someone else. Also, she'd bet anything Elise would get bored with his “I'm a tortured, miserable soul” bullshit after about ten minutes.

“No way,” she answered distractedly. “Sorry, let me just finish this.”

“That's okay. I think I'm going to e-mail your brother right now and tell him what a jerk he is.”

“Good idea,” Jenny agreed.

Now both girls were typing away at their keyboards as they breathed ferociously into their phones.

When you have a tough message to get across, it's always good to have backup.

Dear Leo,

I know this seems like a strange thing to say, but I really feel like you've been hiding something from me and I don't know. I really like you a lot, and I think you like me. So how come you've never invited me to your house? The thing is, I know where you live now. So I'm coming over tomorrow at six, which is when you're usually finished walking Daphne, I think. Okay. See you then.

Jenny

Dear Daniel,

First of all, I think you are a real jerk for leading me on, because you know I'm younger than you and less experienced, and you should watch out whose heart you break, because it could come back and bite you in the ass. Also, it's so obvious you are still hung up on the first and only girl who would be stupid enough to be your girlfriend. Your sister didn't even have to tell me that—you are just so transparent, it's like you're writing on tracing paper. There, I can be poetic, too. Write that, asshole!

Your nonfriend and best critic,

Elise

The door to Georgie's house stood open. No Doubt was blasting out of both the indoor and outdoor speakers, and there were clothes strewn all over the front steps. Four boys with long hair were walking around in their underwear eating wild-mushroom potstickers and showing off their snowboarding muscles. When Blair and Serena walked in with Erik and Jan and the ski patrol guys, they turned around to gape and smile.

“Where's Georgie?” Serena asked, desperate to find the heart of the party before Jan-the-dentist tried to get her alone.

“In the hot tub,” the boys answered in unison.

Blair stayed in the living room while Serena went out the patio doors in search of their host, with Jan trailing after her. Erik went over to the bar and began to mix drinks. He'd taken a bartending course last semester—the most useful thing he'd learned in college so far.

Blair noticed that Nate was sitting by himself on a leather sofa in the corner of the living room, sort of picking at his toes. He was wearing his broken-in navy blue Brown sweatshirt and a pair of tattered yellow St. Jude's gym shorts. With his wavy golden brown curls and sparkling green eyes, he looked like a sad little boy. Blair wanted to sit down next to him and ask him why he was picking his toes and looking so sad at his girlfriend's party, but then Erik came over and handed her a glass filled with something swirly and orangey-pink.

“Mai tai. Careful, it doesn't taste it, but it's almost all liquor.”

“Thanks.” Blair took the glass. Normally she preferred vodka tonics, but she'd drink anything Erik made for her.

“I'm going out to sit in the tub,” Erik said. “Wanna come?”

Blair shook her head. “No thanks.” The idea of jumping into the hot tub with Georgie and whoever else was in there really wasn't all that appealing. And she didn't want Erik to think she couldn't fend for herself at a party. Besides, there was a whole table of catered food standing only ten feet away. If Erik went outside, she'd have a chance to stuff her face without worrying about whether he thought she was a big fat pig or not.

A girl needs fuel, especially when she has a long night ahead of her.

As soon as Erik left, she grabbed a plate of spring rolls and plopped down on a love seat next to a guy with shoulder-length brown hair, who was smoking a joint.

He looked up at her and smiled. “You board?”

Blair had no clue what he was talking about. “No.” She took a deep breath through her nostrils. She never got high, but she was feeling sort of nervous all of a sudden, and all the stoners she knew were so mellow. Maybe a few hits off this guy's joint were just what she needed. “Is that pot?”

The guy smiled again and looked at the roach in his hand. “It was. Sorry, it's kaput.” He wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes, and he still had his ski pants on. They were bright green, with reinforced knees.

“So how do you know Georgie?” Blair asked, still chomping her food.

“Who?”

Blair could feel Nate watching her from across the room. Maybe he thought she was sharing this guy's joint.

Oh, the irony.

“Where do you go to school?” she asked, figuring the guy must be about twenty and in college.

“I don't do school,” he told her. “I board from March till December and then surf the North Shore all winter.”

Blair shoved a potsticker in her mouth and chewed. “How can you snowboard all summer?”

“Chile. Argentina.”

“And the North Shore is in Hawaii, right?”

Don't ask how she knew this. It was the kind of thing a girl with brothers just knows.

The guy nodded. “You surf?”

Blair shook her head, intrigued by the idea. She envisioned herself in her new pink Eres bikini and a Hawaiian lei made of white orchids and red hibiscus blossoms, balanced on a surfboard and riding out a humungous wave. She'd have an amazing tan and incredible butt muscles—the kind that actually look good in a thong. And after a long day of surfing, Erik would massage her with coconut oil and feed her the fresh fish he'd caught that day. Maybe she didn't really need to go to Yale or any college at all—she could just … surf.

Nate got up all of a sudden and walked over to her. His emerald green eyes weren't sparkling so much as smoldering. He looked like he had a lot on his mind.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” she said back. “How come you're not in the hot tub?”

Nate shrugged. “It's too hot?”

Blair jumped up and dumped her paper plate in the trash. She didn't like making small talk with Nate when Erik was outside with Georgie and Serena. It didn't make any sense. “Come on,” she said, leading the way outside.

“Catch you later,” the stoned guy called after them.

It had snowed for a few hours earlier in the day, and Georgie's backyard sparkled in the moonlight with crisp, fresh, dry snow. No Doubt had morphed into Missy Elliott, and the ski patrol guys were dancing with a group of girls from the local high school on the deck surrounding the hot tub.

Serena had always loved soaking in hot tubs outside at night in the cold, especially when it was snowing lightly and everyone was naked. This time she was particularly grateful to be wedged between her brother and Chuck Bass, while Jan-the-Dutch-dentist gazed at her dreamily from the other side of the tub.

Georgie had eaten too many potstickers or too much something and was doing handstands in the middle of the tub, leaving no part of her naked body up to anyone's imagination.

“Oh,” Blair said, anxiously surveying the scene. Okay, so she'd been planning to get naked that night, but not in front of Nate and Georgie and the Sun Valley Ski Patrol and the entire Dutch Olympic snowboarding team. And she certainly wasn't doing any fucking handstands.

“You coming in?” Erik called from inside the tub.

Serena blinked water out of her long, dark lashes. “It's nice.”

Blair pulled the sleeves of her borrowed sweater down over her wrists. “Not right now.”

Georgie popped up out of the water and wiped her nose. Her skin was ghostly in the moonlight. “Leave her alone. Maybe she has her period.”

Blair blushed angrily.

“Does Nate have his period, too?” Chuck taunted.

Nate pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his shorts pocket, lit one, and then handed the pack to Blair. Then he trudged off into the dark, snowy lawn behind the house, wearing only his sweatshirt, shorts, and tennis shoes.

Blair put a cigarette in her mouth, wishing she didn't feel quite so sorry for Nate. It was weird, this sympathy-for-Nate business. And probably totally undeserved.

“I'm going back inside,” she said pointedly.

Serena elbowed Erik in the ribs. “I think that's your cue.”

Behind her, Blair heard someone splash out of the tub.

“Oh, wow!” she heard Georgie squeal, and knew she was looking at Erik.

Sorry, babe. He's spoken for.

“Wait up, Blair.”

Blair stopped in the kitchen and snatched a chocolate macaroon from off the caterer's tray. She took a bite and then turned around to face Erik. He was wearing only a white towel, just like when she'd first seen him at the lodge, the day they'd arrived in Sun Valley and she'd realized that he was the man to deflower her.

Now was as good a time as any.

She grabbed a bottle of chilled Veuve Clicquot champagne from the kitchen counter, tucked it under her arm, and picked up the plate of macaroons. “Let's take these upstairs.”

“I don't wanna go inside,” Georgie pouted as the high-school girls and the ski patrol guys followed Conrad, Josef, Gan, and Franz into the house to get something to eat. “I wanna do something wild.”

Serena's skin tingled. Me too! Me too! She was tired of tagging along with Erik and Blair's little lovefest. And she couldn't wait to escape Jan's lovelorn gaze. It was time for an adventure.

“Did you see? Those guys have one of those ski patrol toboggan things on top of their car. I've always wanted to ride in one of those. …”

Georgie was out of the tub before Serena even finished her sentence. “Come on!” she cried, stepping into her moon boots, the rest of her just as naked as ever. “Let's check it out!”

Leaving their clothes behind, Chuck and Serena followed Georgie out to the car-filled driveway in front of the house. Quickly and quietly, Chuck and Georgie unhooked the toboggan from on top of the ski patrol guys' Subaru wagon and lowered it onto the snow. Georgie opened the back door of one of the Dutch Olympic snowboarding team's Mercedes SUVs and groped around inside.

“Anyone want one?” she called out.

“Me!” Chuck replied, joining her.

Serena didn't know what Georgie was offering, but she didn't need anything at the moment except a warm coat. “Aren't we going to be cold?” she ventured. The toboggan had a thick wool blanket strapped to it, but unless they all got under it they were going to die of hypothermia.

“Don't you want to be in the papers again?” Chuck wheezed. It sounded like he was snorting something.

Georgie pulled her head out of the SUV and slammed the door. She rubbed her nose, her brown eyes wide. “All we have to do is keep moving.” She pointed at Serena. “You get into the sled and Chuckie and I will pull you—like Santa's reindeer!”

Not one to poop on anyone's party and eternally grateful that Jan-the-dentist was too much of a wuss to join them, Serena undid the straps holding the blanket down to the toboggan, wrapped the blanket around herself, and then lay down in the toboggan. Georgie crouched beside her and tucked Serena's arms into the blanket. Then she buckled up the straps, pulling them tight across Serena's body, as if her bones were all broken and needed to be held together. Serena noticed tiny beads of sweat on Georgie's upper lip and forehead, even though it was only twenty-eight degrees and she was naked.

“Ready?” Georgie shouted, her moon boots ankle-deep in snow.

It felt odd and a little scary to be strapped in lying down. Serena couldn't undo the straps even if she wanted to. Underneath the blanket, she pressed her palms against her thighs to steady herself. “Ready.”

Georgie and Chuck giggled as they tugged on the toboggan's harness, their naked butt cheeks straining with the effort as they dragged it down the driveway and onto the snowy shoulder of Wood River Drive.

“Wait, where are we going?” Serena called out helplessly. She lifted her head to see, but all she could make out were two naked bodies gleaming in the moonlight as they jogged down the quiet road. Chuck had a tan line left over from Christmas in St. Barts, but Georgie was as pale as a daisy.

Though not nearly as pure.

Serena's neck was aching and she was about to let her head fall back, when Chuck and Georgie's bodies were set aglow by headlights. A car was coming.

“Help!” Serena cried, her face aflame at how pathetic she sounded.

Never mind how strange the sight must be.

“Woo! Nice ass!” someone shouted out the window as the car screeched past.

The toboggan bumped and slid along as the car's taillights disappeared down the road. “Hey, you guys!” Serena yelled, straining her neck. “Can you stop?”

Her so-called friends didn't even turn around. Perhaps they didn't hear her, or maybe they were just pretending not to hear.

“Please?”

But still they didn't stop. The road lit up again as another car approached. This time the car slowed down. Then a siren blared, and red-and-white lights whirled and churned up the night.

“Fuck, it's the police!” Chuck shouted. “Run!”

“No!” Serena shouted back. The toboggan bumped and slid as the police car drew closer.

“Let go! Let go!” Serena heard Georgie scream.

All of a sudden, the toboggan zigzagged haphazardly, before careening into a ditch. It rolled once and fell on its side in a stream of freezing slush. Water seeped through the wool blanket and covered her knees. It was so cold, it felt hot.

“Stop! Stop right there!” the police ordered as they gave chase, the lights on top of their car whirling off into the distance.

Serena shivered in the ditch. The police hadn't seen her.

“Help,” she whimpered. “Please, help.”