An Education
An Education
It didn’t seem real to her. She, Blair Waldorf, was finally at a prestigious university. Okay so it wasn’t Yale like she had strove for. But she had to admit, it wasn’t half bad. And she was still in the city, which was always a plus.
Classes were fine for the first few weeks. She did her work completely and even did a few extra credits. But she couldn’t help but notice, her social life was severely lacking. How could one continue to be the Queen Bee when she couldn’t even find time for socializing?
She was walking to the library when she ran right into someone. She dropped her bad and fell over. Immediately she looked up looking for the culprit and saw a familiar face.
“Humphrey?” she said disbelievingly.
“Nice to run into you too, Blair” he said holding out his hand to help her up. She reluctantly took it.
“I hope you washed your hands,” she said grumpily brushing dirt off of her skirt.
“First rule I learned in kindergarten,” he said picking up her bag and handing it to her.
She took it from him and repositioned it over her shoulder. She then looked at him and waited. After a good five minutes, she was compelled to speak again. But this whole situation screamed awkward.
“I didn’t know you were attending NYU,” she said trying to make conversation.
He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. He couldn’t believe Blair was trying to have a civil conversation with him.
“Serena didn’t tell you?” he asked.
“If she had, I wouldn’t have asked, now would I, Humphrey?” she said. The minute she let the words come out of her mouth, she regretted them. She didn’t know why though. Why was she trying to be nice to Humphrey of all people? She must be really starved for attention.
“I guess not,” he laughed and looked at his watch “Look if that’s all, I have somewhere to be”
He started to walk in the opposite direction, but was stopped by Blair’s voice calling him.
“Hey Humphrey, want to have coffee sometime?”
He turned around and walked slowly back to her. Why was the Blair Waldorf asking him out for coffee? What was the world coming to? He immediately suspected something.
“What are you up to Blair?” he asked cautiously.
“Nothing, I just thought it would be nice to have a cup of coffee with a familiar face” she said biting at her bottom lip. “Look if you don’t want to, that’s fine. I wouldn’t want to ruin my social standing by seen with you anyway”
“Okay,” he started ignoring her previous statement. Why not? What could it hurt? “What time should I meet you?”
“11 am and don’t be late Humphrey,” she said turning away and walking off.
Dan chuckled to himself. He had a feeling he had just fell into her trap.
“You’re late Humphrey,” she said tapping her watch with one manicured finger.
“What, it’s only 11:02!” he said dropping his bag and taking a seat across from her. She had her books spread out across the table. What? Has this turned into study session as well?
“I said 11:00 am. You’re two minutes late.”
“Well aren’t we he strict,” he joked. “I’ll order for both of us. What would you like?”
“Hazelnut with cream and two sugars and only two sugars Humphrey, I have to watch my figure, you know?”
“Yes Your Majesty,” he said bowing. She smiled at that. He suddenly felt a strange warmness in his belly. But he ignored it and went off to order.
When he returned with their coffees, she had a textbook opened and was writing in a notebook. He looked over her shoulder. Jeez, even her handwriting was perfect.
“Oh this is perfect,” she said reaching for the mug.
“Careful, you don’t want to burn yourself” he said sitting her mug down next to her textbook.
“Better than chancing spilling it on my textbook,” she said sipping at her coffee daintly.
Dan took his seat and sipped at his own coffee. “You’d rather get burned than risk the textbook?” he asked skeptically. “I mean you could always replace the book”
“I know Humphrey, but I’ve got special notes in this textbook and if it were ruined, how would I replace them?”
He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything else.
“So what’s your favorite movie?” he asked out of the blue. Things were getting awkward again and someone needed to break the ice.
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” she said without missing a beat.
“Why?”
“Because I can empathize with Holly, she wants the best for herself and she’s willing to go to any lengths for it. Plus I’ve always wanted someone to love me the way Paul loves Holly” she said quietly.
Dan was stunned. He’d always thought Blair was the shallowest person he sorta kinda knew. To learn that she had depth, well that was surprising to say the least.
She then asked him what his favorite book was. He told her that he had so many that he couldn’t choose. The time seemed to pass by while they talked and worked on their homework. Who knew the two had so much in common?
Over the months, Blair and Dan had become friends. They made study dates and Dan found himself looking forward to each one. But finals were coming up and suddenly he didn’t see as much of Blair as he had before.
He found himself at her dorm. He knew from experience that she had a single. He didn’t know how she managed to swing that one, but he was sure that her mother had donated something so that her only daughter could have her privacy.
He knocked on the door and heard a muffled Blair say come in.
When he stepped in the room, he was struck by how messy it looked. The bed was unmade, there were notebooks thrown everywhere. To top it off, Blair looked a mess.
She was sitting on the floor with her head in her hands.
“Blair what’s wrong?” he asked sitting down next to her.
“I’m going to fail Humphrey,” she said looking over at him. He could tell that she had been crying.
“You’re not going to fail, Blair.” He said pulling her to him and stroking her hair.
“Yes I am. I signed up for too many classes and it’s too late to drop them.” She said leaning into his shoulder.
“What if I helped you with studying?” he asked.
“You’d do that for me Humphrey? Don’t you have your own finals to study for? I know you freeze up on tests.”
“I’ve got it under control,” he said softly.
“I wouldn’t want to be a burden though.” She said uncertainly.
He looked at her doe eyes and he wished he could confess to her how felt about her. He longed to make her his. But he knew she could never feel the same way he did. It was too much to hope for. If only he could have one kiss from her. One sweet kiss and he’d be satisfied.
“You’d never be a burden to me Blair.” He said earnestly.
“Okay, well first thing I have to do is get cleaned up. Mother would kill me if she knew.” she said standing up.
“That the Blair I know and love” he said softly.