Novels by Cecily von Ziegesar: Gossip Girl You Know You ... - Weebly

pretty sharp when he first put it on, but he still couldn’t deal with
the Kiss on the Lips party. So when Jenny let him blow the party off,
he’d come to The Five and Dime to apologize to Vanessa for being
such a dick over the Marjorie thing.
He’d tried to convince himself it didn’t matter that he’d probably
never see Serena van der Woodsen again in his life. After all, he told
himself, life was fragile and absurd.
Life was absurd all right. Because there Serena was. In
Williamsburg, of all places. His dream girl.
Dan felt like Cinderella. He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep
them from shaking, and tried to plan his next move. He would walk
over and suavely offer to buy Serena a drink. Too bad the only
suave thing about him was his outfit. Even it was only half as suave
as it could have been if he’d kept the Armani from Barneys.
“Hey,” Dan said when he reached their table, his voice cracking.
“What’re you doing here?” Vanessa said. She couldn’t believe her
luck. Did it have to be quite this bad? Was she going to have to sit
there for the rest of the night watching Dan drool over Serena?
Sorry, honey.
“I blew off that Kiss on the Lips party. It really wasn’t my thing,” Dan
said.
“Me too,” Serena said, smiling at Dan like he’d never been smiled at
before.
Dan clutched the back of Vanessa’s chair for balance. “Hey,” he
said shyly.
“You remember Serena,” Vanessa said. “She’s in my class at
Constance.”
“Hey Dan,” Serena said. “Nice tux.”
Dan blushed and looked down at himself. “Thanks,” he said. He
looked up again. “And that dress is . . . looks . . . pretty also,” he
stuttered. He hadn’t thought it was possible to sound so idiotic.
“What about my shirt?” Vanessa said loudly. “Have you ever seen
me look this hot?”
Dan stared at Vanessa’s shirt. It was a red T-shirt. Not very exciting.
“Is it new?” he asked, confused.
“Never mind,” Vanessa sighed, impatiently swirling the maraschino
cherry around in her glass.
“Grab a chair,” Serena said, moving over to make room for him.
“Ruby’s band is going to play in a minute.”
The rumors couldn’t possibly be true. Serena didn’t look like a sexcrazed,
drug-addicted maniac. She looked delicate and perfect and
exciting, like a wildflower you stumble upon unexpectedly in Central
Park. Dan wanted to hold hands with her and whisper to each other
all night long.