Free I Will Always Love You by Cecily von Ziegesar Page B

sailing,” he said. The boat was docked in Newport, Rhode Island, for the winter. He hadn’t really thought about
     what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Chips was still in Florida, and Nate doubted he was going to set sail again
     anytime soon. And now that he knew Blair didn’t hate him, he didn’t really want to go anywhere. “I could train for the America’s
     Cup,” he added. That would be pretty cool. He could sail up and down the East Coast during the week, see Blair on the weekends,
     and maybe catch up with Serena for coffee on Monday mornings. It would be perfect.
    Blair’s eyes lit up as if she’d just had the best idea in the world. It was a look Serena recognized all too well.
    Uh-oh.
    “Come to Yale!” Blair cried. “They have a sailing team.”
    “Could I do that?” Nate wondered. For the past four months, he’d barely read a book. Hell, he’d barely even spoken to anyone except Chips. Even here, it had felt too overwhelming to order breakfast; he was thankful Blair had stepped in.
     There were too many choices, too many decisions in the real world. He felt like he needed a remedial course in life before
     he started at an Ivy League university.
    “Of course.” Blair patted him on the knee. “You only just deferred. You could start spring semester. I can e-mail my advisor
     and ask him to help you pick classes. He’s the best,” Blair said, busily creating a mental list of all the things she had
     to do. First, she’d have to head to New Haven to find an adorable town house she and Nate could rent. Then, they’d go shopping
     at ABC Carpet & Home to decorate. She’d have to help him pick the right classes and she’d have to talk to Petra, a nice but
     way-too-sporty girl from her econ class, to see if she knew any of the sailing guys….
    “How’s the movie biz?” Nate asked Serena, interrupting Blair’s reverie. Blair felt a wave of annoyance ripple through her.
     Who cared? After all, they were talking about Nate’s future.
    “It’s fine. It’s a lot of sitting around and waiting for something to happen or running from place to place, meeting people
     you’re never going to see again. I kind of wish I could just lie in the grass somewhere and read books,” Serena mused.
    “College isn’t really about lying around and reading books,” Blair scoffed, placing her hand territorially on Nate’s thigh.
    “I know.” Serena sighed. “I just miss the way it used to be, sometimes.”
    “I don’t,” Blair said as the waiter set their plates of food in front of them. “I feel like our real lives have started. Don’t you agree?” She turned sharply toward Nate and snatched a slice of bacon from his plate.
    Suddenly, Serena couldn’t stand it anymore. If she had to watch them be couply with each other, she at least needed a drink.
    She cocked her head and gestured to the waiter. “A round of mimosas? We’re celebrating!” she announced. All she had to do
     was pretend she was in a movie, and she’d be able to make it through the rest of breakfast.
    And would that movie be called The Flat Tire on the Perpetual Third Wheel?
    who says you can’t go home?
    “Daniel-san!” Can you get more rocks for the fire pit?” Rufus asked, poking his head out of a lopsided canvas-and-log structure that
     served as a sweat lodge. Dan had spent the last few days in an upstate New York campsite with Rufus and his motley group of
     friends: Mika, Herbert, and Ron. Ron preferred to be called Running Rainbow, and when he wasn’t serving as a barista at Starbucks,
     he taught tai chi for free in Central Park. Mika and Herbert were tall, skinny, bald members of a folk-rock band that played
     open-mic nights around the city. Rufus had met all three of them at a seminar at the Ninety-second Street Y called Bringing the Age of Aquarius into the Age of the Internet.
    Rufus emerged from the sweat lodge wearing a blue-and-yellow striped towel around his waist and white Crocs. He