Butterflies and Hurricanes

Chapter 5: Temporary

They had banned her from being a topic of conversation, it was the only way they knew how to get past this and still remain as close as they were. It was hard at first, one of them would see something that would remind him of her and would go to say something about it, and the other one would stiffen as the first sound of her name managed to escape. She had refused to see either of them for a few weeks, mostly because she had claimed this was somehow all her fault and she wanted to fix it.

Blair had stopped by a couple of days after she had pushed each of them out her door, looking more somber than ever. She was just as put together as always, but there was something off about her. After sitting them both down on the couch she paced before Dan cleared his throat, snapping her out of her trance. She folded her arms over her chest and sighed.

"I think it would be best for all of us if I removed myself from your lives until whatever this is blows over."

The two boys stared at her in slight disbelief. How was that going to help anything? It would probably just make things worse because they would both sit there and think of her, and nothing but. The looks on their faces prompted her to continue.

"I know, it sucks, but I can't think of anything else and I'm not about to be the reason you two end a friendship."

Nate began to protest but she held up a hand signaling him to stop.

"We'll figure it out, we always do. But you both should date other people, get over whatever you may be feeling, and it'll make things a lot easier. I'll be scarce, I mean, I won't go out of my way to avoid you but I'm certainly not going to be popping by everyday forcing you to read my essays or paraphrase something about law or business that I'd never understand if it weren't for you."

She made her way toward the door quickly, not wanting to give them any time to refute what she had just said. Blair had gone over this speech in her head twenty times on her way over, making sure it was perfect. It wasn't, but it would do. Her small hand grabbed the doorknob and she pulled it open, turning around before she left.

"You know what they say 'Out of sight, out of mind.'" She smiled weakly and shrugged, "It's the only way to get over all this."

But they both knew Blair Waldorf wasn't the type of girl anyone got over.

They did what she asked them to. At first, they both sat in their apartments and wallowed around, but not really saying much to each other. They both began to start putting hours of extra effort into their schoolwork because it gave them something to do other than sit in front of the television in a comatose state. It was weird, going through this together, because they couldn't really talk about how miserable they both were.

When Nate wasn't spending more time on homework than he ever had in his life, he was occupying himself with lacrosse or smoking. He had been trying to cut down before because he knew Blair hated it, but now that she was out of the picture for the moment, his clothes began to smell more and more like the old mix of pot, cologne, and toothpaste as it had in the past.

Dan got more involved in the fraternity that he and Nate belonged to and found that it was easier for him to work on his novel when his emotions seemed to be spiraling out of control. He would shut himself in his room for hours at a time doing nothing but writing. If Dan didn't have something to do, to keep his mind busy, he would go insane.

The funny thing about all of this is that the two of them actually became closer. There was this peculiar unspoken communication thing they had developed and sometimes it felt as if they only really had each other, like no one else knew what it was like to love the same girl your best friend did, only to have her reject both of you.