Sunset Boulevard (37 page)

turned down admission to Princeton so they wouldn't have to be separated. But instead of Kati,

a girl with a ski-jump nose and straight brown hair stood next to Isabel.

"This is my girlfriend, Casey," Isabel announced proudly.

"Oh." Wait, did that mean
girlfriend
girlfriend? Serena noticed Isabel's hand intertwined with

Casey's.

"We met in a women's studies class." Isabel smiled adoringly at Casey.

There's her answer.

"This is Serena van der Woodsen. We went to school together," she explained.

"Nice to meet you, Casey," Serena said, holding out her hand to the tall girl, who took it

gingerly.

"Nice to meet you, too. I haven't seen any of your movies," Casey announced self-importantly.

"How's Kati?" Serena asked.

Isabel sighed and shook her head. "She has this, like, football player boyfriend and is pledging

a sorority that wears pink sweatsuits to class. It's awful," she sighed disdainfully. "Casey and I

pretty much do our own thing. But what about
you?
I saw your movie. You were pretty good,"

Isabel allowed.

"Thanks," Serena said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Things are okay. Just working a lot.

We're filming a sequel to
Breakfast at Fred's
that's coming out in summer, so that's fun..."

Serena trailed off. Even though she'd been on the cover of the October issue of
Vanity Fair
,

part of her felt stuck. After all, she'd come home from her big premiere to her same pink

childhood bedroom in her parents' sprawling penthouse. If possible, she almost felt
less
grown

up than she had last year, especially since she now had an agent and a publicist who told her

exactly what to wear, what to say, and who to be seen with.

"Sounds great!" Isabel cooed. "Anyway, I was just showing Casey all the old places we used

to go. Remember how we used to like, spend hours trying things on at Barneys? I just can't

believe we were ever so
young.
Things have changed a lot," she mused, nuzzling her blondhighlighted head against Casey.

"Things
have
changed," Serena agreed. Less than a year ago, she and Blair and Kati and Isabel

would meet before school to smoke Merits on the Met steps and imagine their lives in college.

Now, Blair was a poli-sci major at Yale, Isabel was a lesbian, Kati was a sorority girl, and

Serena was a movie star.

"So, have you seen anyone?" Isabel asked.

"No." Serena shook her head. For her, only two people really mattered: Blair and Nate. She

and Blair had tried to keep in touch, and once Serena had sent Blair a package full of Wolford

stockings and black and white cookies in a Barneys bag--all of Blair's favorite New York

things. Blair had reciprocated with a stuffed bulldog wearing a Yale T-shirt. They'd send

occasional e-mails and texts, but never anything long or involved. It was fine, though. Blair and

Serena were the type of friends who could go weeks without speaking, then pick up right

where they left off.

As for Nate... they hadn't talked since he left, to sail the world for a year. Serena wondered if

she'd ever see him again. But she didn't want to think about that right now.

Or ever.

"Are you going to Chuck's New Year's party tomorrow night?" Isabel asked, draining the rest

of her drink. "I mean, I know he's, like, such a misogynist, but I figured, you can only protest

so much, you know? I prepared Casey."

"Wait, didn't Chuck go to military school?" She hadn't thought about Chuck--with his sketchy

history, his trademark monogrammed scarf, or his questionable sexuality--for months. But the

last she'd heard, after getting rejected from all twelve schools he'd applied to, he'd gone to some

underground, in-the-middle-of-nowhere academy. Of course her parents saw Chuck's parents

socially, but they never mentioned him. It was an unspoken rule on the Upper East Side that

parents didn't discuss their unsuccessful children.

"Who knows?" Isabel shrugged. "The party's on, though. I saw Laura Salmon at City Bakery

this morning and she told me she spoke to Rain Hofstetter at some lame Constance alum tea

party that Mrs. M organized. Thank god I missed that. But, anyway, I guess she talked to

Chuck? I don't know. It's at the Tribeca Star. But I guess since you're a movie star and all, you

probably have to host some MTV special or something, right?"

"Well..." Serena trailed off. In truth, she already had an invite to a party at Thaddeus Russell's

Chelsea loft. Thaddeus had been her
Breakfast at Fred's
costar and was a true friend. But he

wouldn't mind if she stopped by to say hi and then went off to Chuck's party.

"I'll be there," Serena chirped. She suddenly couldn't wait for New Year's Eve. How could she

not
go see her old high school crowd? While she may not have been thinking of them all that

much recently, it wasn't like she'd forgotten them.

And they certainly haven't forgotten her.

I will always love you a gossip girl novel the secret is out 11.03.09