Attention → N. Archibald [Gossip Girl] (undergoing editing)

Chapter 31

I walked into the new penthouse Nate and  I purchased in a building near Blair's and walked into our new bedroom.

It was painted a bright shade of orange and sunlight poured into the room through the French windows. A desk was placed in the extreme right, next to the window and the bed was placed right in the middle while I had a walk-in closet even bigger that my previous bedroom at the Palace on the left.

I guess I was fine now, since I was living in a new environment, away from my mother and I wasn't thinking about it so much.

A Gossip Girl blast about Serena's return from Barcelona distracted me from my thoughts. I picked up my phone and called her immediately.

"Hey, S."
"Leah, hi!"
"How was Barcelona?" I laughed at her excitement.
"It was really great. I had the best time. There was this-" she giggled but was cut off by another caller who was trying to reach her. "I'll call you back in a second." She told me and hung up.

"Hey, beautiful." Nate said.
"Hey," I replied, looking down at my phone.
"Do you wanna go get some food?" He wrapped his arms around my waist.
"Sure." I said, not even listening to him.

I saw him getting ready to leave and walking out the door, expecting me to follow. I continued to scroll through my text messages and thought that I would catch up with him later.

I had a message from Nick Sanders, a model I met last week saying,
When are we meeting next?
I shook my head and thought about how mad Nate would be when he found out what happened.
I have a boyfriend. I typed, hoping he would understand.

"Leah?" Nate called  out.
"Coming!" I grabbed my bag before I walked out the door.
He slung his arm around my shoulder and talked to me to which I replied,
"Great." And a series of yeses and okays.

I couldn't stop thinking about last night, and how I let Nate down. He was going to be so mad.

"I need to tell you something."
"Yeah?" He looked at me with a concerned expression on his face.
I couldn't get the words out. It was  like they were stuck in my throat.
"I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow. I'm doing a photoshoot for Japanese Vogue." I chickened out at the last moment.
"I know." He told me.
I nodded and fiddled with the buttons on my white blouse.

We sat down at a table at a cafe overlooking the park. I ordered a coffee and looked over at two boys playing with a baseball. I was deeply lost in my thoughts and didn't realise I had been  been staring at them for a long time until Nate asked me if something was wrong.
"Nothing." I told him. "I'm just a bit stressed, that's all."
"Why?" He asked.
"Oh, I'm just waiting on my acceptance letter from Columbia."
"I'm glad we're going to be at the same college and that you decided not to go to Cambridge." He smiled.
"Yeah, that's because I didn't get in." I mumbled.
He looks at me with a confused expression on my face and smile, hoping that he didn't hear what I just said.

If I was going to keep this a secret from Nate, I had to make sure that no one would tell him. Hopefully, Nick would keep his mouth shut. If not, I don't know what I would do that could possibly make Nate understand.