Serena Vanderwoodsen's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

The silver box sat on the ice bench between them. Serena had not opened it. She had covered Nate's hand with hers and let the quiet do the work, but quiet was not an answer. Nate had walked back through the woods for her. He deserved one. She picked up the box. It was lighter than she expected. She did not lift the lid. She turned it once in her palm and set it back down closer to him than to her. "I'm not opening this today," she said. Nate watched the box, not her. "But I'm not giving it back either." She waited until he looked up. "I want to keep it in my pocket for the rest of the trip. That's what I can promise right now." "Okay," he said. "Okay isn't enough. I need you to tell me if that's fair." He thought about it. He always thought before he spoke, and she had learned not to fill the space. "It's fair," he said. "I didn't bring it for an answer today. I brought it so you'd know." "I know." She slid the box into the inner pocket of her snowsuit and zipped it shut. "Now help me get out of here." They went out the back of the ice castle and cut through the trees. Her phone buzzed twice more. She did not read it. At the edge of the woods they crossed behind a small skating rink ringed with clear glass rails, empty in the late light. A rental kiosk stood dark beside it, skates hanging from hooks like ornaments. Nate steered her past it toward a shed at the treeline. Inside the shed sat two snowmobiles, one white, one red and pink. Blair's family kept them here. Serena had forgotten. Nate had not. "Blair told me where the key was before she got on the helicopter," he said. "In case." Serena laughed once. "Of course she did." She swung a leg over the white one. Nate took the other. The engines caught on the second try. They rode out along the back trail, away from the front of the castle where a man in a heavy coat still watched a door. Halfway to the village lights, her phone buzzed again. She pulled off one glove and read it this time. Lost you. Nice trick. She showed Nate the screen at the next stop. He read it and nodded once. "He'll try again," Nate said. "I know." She put the phone away. Her hand brushed the box through the snowsuit lining. It was still there. "But he's behind us now, and Blair's home, and I told you something true." Nate almost smiled. "That's three things." "It's a start." She pulled her glove back on and turned the throttle. The white snowmobile carried her toward the village, and the box rode with her.