[December 19th.]

[turnthebadinme]

Part of the point of living outside of the Compound had been so that Serena could avoid thinking about what had happened, but the trouble was, she knew why she was out there. It made it hard not to think about all that had come to pass. No matter what she did, though, she still felt uneasy at best about the situation. At worst, she was furious. In

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[learnwhatsreal]

Admittedly, Jenny hadn't been expecting to see much of Serena anytime soon. There would be time needed to let things settle, of course, and Serena had high tailed it out of the room pretty quickly when she and Chuck had come with the news, if it could even be called that. It had left Jenny more uncertain of where she stood with her than with anyone else -- that was, until she saw the look on Serena's face after she approached. She knew that smile, though she'd never been on the receiving end of it from Serena before

[turnthebadinme]

Serena had never had Blair's talent for it. The broader strokes, the petty revenge, that she could do, probably better than anyone who hadn't known her before would ever have suspected. The finer details, though, were sometimes lost in impulsive gestures. If she planned ahead, she would have been a master, but, at least today, she hadn't. She'd simply walked over and cornered her prey. Of course, the smart thing to do, she realized too late, would have been to come over properly contrite and play Jenny for all she was worth. She was Serena van der Woodsen. It was an act people believed

[learnwhatsreal]

The shift was enough to make Jenny pause, her own expression fading a little. This wasn't what she'd expected, but maybe it should have been. Serena had always seemed at least a little more understanding than the other girls in her social circle. Still, just because she was relaxing didn't mean that she was lowering her guard completely. The last thing she needed was more trouble.

"Sort of," she replied lightly, shrugging. "I mean, it was more because I couldn't get the image of my brother, you know, going at it out of my head, but... yeah." Their asking her to keep the secret wasn't so much a factor; it just came into play because she no longer had a reason to do as he wanted her to. Tensions between her and Dan had only heightened, and she could still hardly believe some of the things he'd said to her. "Are you okay?" she added, almost as an afterthought. She hadn't actually been thinking about Serena's part in all of it when she'd gone to Chuck, but that wasn't worth mentioning now. "I mean, it can't be easy, right?" She didn't

[turnthebadinme]

"Not," Serena interrupted, shaking her head as she held up a hand, "a mental image I wanted to replay either. Thanks." If Jenny had really cared how this would affect Serena, she ought to have considered it before. No matter how much Serena had liked her before, Blair would always take precedence, regardless of what she'd done. Maybe Serena had yet to forgive Blair for it, but she'd protect her until her dying day, she was sure of that. Besides, she had a guilty suspicion she'd been neglecting Blair. That changed now.

"And no, it's - it's not easy," she agreed, apparently guileless for the moment. "Knowing someone I love's been hiding such a big secret from me all this time... Oh, but now that you've cut off Blair and Dan, I guess you don't care if they know about the Valentino, do you? I mean, after what they've done, who cares what they think, right?"