Get ready for a tone of drama. Thank you for all the support and stay tuned for more excitment to come.
Everything is going not how I expected for my first book launch. Alessandra has me hiding in the study until it's time to announce me as the author. I've been stuck signing copies of my book with no one to talk to and my nerves are out of this world. No one has shown up that I know and it's making me think my book that is made of fiction is becoming my reality.
"Nate, hey, are you here? My agent has me locked in the study. Please tell me the party is good."
"I decided not to come." I was shocked that Nate would miss this event that means so much to me.
"What? Why? Is everything okay?"
"No, dude. It's not."
"What? I thought you..."
"Derek? Really? I can't believe I'm not even important enough to merit my own character. I'm one of your best friends, Dan. At least I thought I was."
"No, every writer condenses people for better dramatic effect. Hemingway did it, uh, Joseph Mitchell did it. It's you know..."
"Did they also try and steal the girl you love."
"What are you talking about?"
"I confided to you about my feelings for Ella and you told me to let her go until the time was right!"
"Nate, man the characters in my book are not real they..."
"Dan, you made my character gay which I'm cool with. But you made your character fall in love with the character based on the girl who I love more than anything. You don't see something wrong with that?"
"I uh. Well when I wrote it, it just seemed that my..."
"That you should be with Ella more than me! You know what the only good thing has she dumped your ass in the book and now I'm dumping you in real life!" Blair and Serena barge into the study visibly upset.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Humphrey!"
"I'm so sorry. I couldn't stop by. Nate, I gotta call you back cause Blair and Serena are here."
"Oh, right, because they're more important. Which is why they got their own characters."
"No, wait." Nate hangs up on me not giving me a chance to explain myself. "Nate is..."
"Furious? Yeah, because I am." Serena yells at me.
"And I'm more furious. If that's even possible." Blair joins in on yelling at me.
"I could lose my job over this."
"I could lose my fiancé!"
"Wait. What? I didn't read your parts."
"He wrote that we had sex!"
"You slept with Dan?"
"No, you really think I would do that?"
"It's not what you think."
"Is this true?" Honestly, I don't know why Serena is upset over the idea of me having sex with Blair. We haven't dated in years and she acts like she has some claim over me.
"Of course, it's true." We all turn to see Louis has now entered the study and is pissed at me. "Therefore, you had me kill your story. And why you asked me not to read it. I came here because I thought my suspicions ridiculous. Turns out the only thing ridiculous is me. I should have known."
"Dan, your father, and stepmother..." Alessandra takes this as the perfect time to have everyone gather around me. "Oh, great you're all here."
"Hi!" Lily and my dad are excited while everyone else is pissed.
"Perfect opportunity for a photo!" Alessandra pushed everyone in as we pose for one of the most awkward photos ever.
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Once the photo has been taken we go back to yelling at me.
"Is this what you've been trying to tell me all day?" Serena asks Blair. Still hung up over the fake sex thing that never happened beyond the pages of my book.
"No, it never happened. It never happened." Blair tries to change Louis mind.
"I don't believe a word you say. You said yourself that Dan has no imagination." That hurt just a little.
"Okay, uh, thanks. But Louis it didn't happen." I stand up to face the prince.
'I would never lie to you. You know that." Blair is pleading for him to believe her.
"I never know with you. And that's the problem."
"We're gonna go check on the guests. Come on, Rufus." Lily and my dad leave knowing how awkward the room is right now.
"I have no reason to stay here any longer." Louis leaves without another word.
"You had better hope I can stop your fantasy life from destroying my real one."
"Blair, I never wanted us to come between you two."
"When are you gonna get it through your head? There's no us. There never was! There's nothing here but friendship, and even that's gone now." Blair storms out.
"Please tell me, it is time for my entrance." I beg from Alessandra.
"Not yet, but you'll be fine here with your friend." I turn around to see Serena is still standing here looking pissed at me.
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"I'm sorry you're hurt."
"I'm not hurt. Mystified. In high school, you were the only one who saw me for who I really was or who I wanted to be. You helped me be somebody that I was prouder of."
"I didn't know."
"Do you even remember that girl that you feel in love with? Or just that she got so drunk on Thanksgiving that she got grazed by a taxi or that she got married in Barcelona or slept with not one but two of her professors?"
"I hate to break it to you, but those things happened."
"It's not the things. It how you wrote about them."
"That's the point. Dylan Hunter is a judgmental dick who can't even look at himself in the mirror. My character comes off the worst of all of them. He puts off his writing. He misses job interviews. He ignores his grades. Why? Because he cares more for a pretty blonde than he does his own future..."
"And is that why you wrote you're almost happy ending with Ella in mind?" Here we go.
"Again, it's fiction. Nothing happened with Ella and I just like I didn't have sex with Blair."
"Out of everyone you placed Ella on this pedestal that you... That you've never placed me on. Why?"
"I didn't do that I..."
"You wrote that if Dylan had to choose between Sabrina the shallow insensitive pretty blonde or the compassionate exciting Eliza he would choose Eliza. She was someone who made him feel alive and worth living." I can hear the hurt in her voice that I've never heard before.
"Serena that was just the book, it's not how I really..."
"Feel?" Because I think you are in love with Ella and you won't admit it! What is it that you and Nate love so much about her?"
"People could ask the same thing about you?"
"Excuse me?" I knew that wasn't going to go over well.
"I mean you had guy's falling for you left and right. Some willing to jeopardize their careers for you and yet you're not with any of them. It makes you wonder what was worth being with Serena van der Woodsen to give up everything for."
"Wow, and what Ella is worth everything to you?"
"No to my character! Don't you get it none of this is real? None of the feelings my character has is real. None of his friends are happy for his success. They all turn their back on him and he deserves it!"
"Yeah, he does."
"I need to find Blair. I gotta make sure she's okay."
"No, we're not done here."
"I just messed up her engagement. I could ruin her life."
"And what about mine?"
"If you can't tell the difference between what I did to Blair and what I did to you, then maybe your portrayal in the book is more accurate than you thought. Ella would know the difference"
"That sounds exactly like something Dylan Hunter would say." Serena walks away from me just like everyone else did tonight.
"It's time. You ready for your big moment?" I take a deep breath.
"Absolutely."
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"Everyone? Everyone. Hi, I know you're not all here to here I speak, but to finally find out who is anonymous. It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to the amazingly special and very talented author of inside. Dan Humphrey." She opens the door and I step out to shake hands with strangers. Just how Dylan did in the book and my fiction is now my reality. I think my big night is over when I turn to see the last person I would expect to be at my party.
"You came?"
"I wouldn't miss your big night Dan."
"No one else stayed for it after reading how I portrayed them. Everyone is mad at me and..."
"Dan, you don't have to apologize for what you wrote."
"Does that mean you are okay with how I wrote you?" I feared her answer.
"If I'm being honest, I loved your book."
"Really? Ella Bass loved my book."
"Dan, I know you've been saying the book is fiction but is any of it true?" I take her back to the study so we can talk in private.
"I know you may be surprised with how I made our characters interact and..."
"Dan our characters were supposed to get married and Eliza Trout broke your heart by leaving you at the altar."
"I just believed that Dylan didn't deserve a happy ending."
"Happy ending or happiness at all. Dan, do you think I would ever hurt you like that?"
"Ella, I know more than anyone that you would never do such a thing, but I had to write it because it gave more depth to my character."
"I understand why you wrote it Dan, but I hope you know I care about you and your success and wish you nothing but the best."
"You're the first to say that."
"Dan, our friends, and family don't take being called out on their mistakes easily. They will come around once they get over their own egos and hurt feelings."
"Why aren't you upset with me? I portrayed you as a cold-hearted model who doesn't let anyone know who she really is."
"Because of Dan, you're not wrong. I am cold hearted and I don't let many know me for who I am."
"So, you're not upset?"
"In fact, I'm alright with everything you've written. All the way down to Dylan being in love with my character."
"Really?"
"It was touching how they fell in love, you're writing was spectacular."
"Ella, it means so much to me that I have your approval."
"You need to stop worrying about approval and just be you. Wanting everyone to love you is absurd. The world will love and hate you, but the ones you care about most will be there for you in the end."
How will Val react to Dan's book?