When Jane brought up the guest list, Sydney shrugged. "No one noteworthy." She had made the guest list about a month ago, a few weeks before her brother left for graduate school, with him and Nicole Peer. He had been very good friends with Nicole during their high school years, and coincidentally, she now happened to be Jane's stepmother. Although Sydney knew how much Jane disliked her, Nicole actually seemed really nice and Syd wasn't sure why there were issues between the two of them. Maybe it was because Sydney grew up without a maternal figure in her life, but the idea of having a girl only a few years older than her as family seemed nice. Sydney had inquired with Nicole about Jane's whereabouts during that hangout, but she brushed past the subject, only stating that she was "spending time on the west coast".
Although Sydney was in control of who was and wasn't invited, she didn't object to some of the suggestions that Nicole had. When they passed Daphne Peterson's name, Sydney explained that Jane didn't get along with her so she didn't plan on sending her an invite. However, Nicole insisted that Sydney invite her, reasoning that Jane needed to stop being involved in trivial drama with people. While Sydney knew that Jane wouldn't be happy with the decision, she had sent an invite to Daphne, but even with the extended offer, she was unsure if the girl would even come. Daphne and Jane's ongoing feud was well known to most people, especially Sydney who constantly had to hear about it from Jane, and although Sydney would side with Jane, she didn't personally have a problem with the other girl. Since the brunette hadn't brought it up, Sydney figured that she didn't know about Nicole's interference in the invites, but she wasn't going to mention it either.
The thought of the unnecessary drama seemed to fit the scene because just after Sydney spoke, Vincent approached and greeted the girls in an overly warm manner. She offered him a wary smile which quickly disappeared when Jane replied to his advance with a comment about how she would never hookup with him because of what he did to Sienna. Jane didn't know about Sydney and Vincent, but her comment still felt like a personal attack on Sydney's actions. Her hookup with Vincent while Sienna was dating him happened years ago and no one but the two knew, but the mention of Vincent cheating still made her tense up. She tried to keep the past in the past, but it was so hard when everyone kept digging it back up. Vincent's additional note about the Gossip Goddess blog didn't make her feel any better. She had heard about what the original Gossip Girl blog was about- who hadn't?- and after checking out the page for herself, it seemed to give off the same gossip and drama-y vibe. Sydney didn't mind people talking about her in a lot of ways because she knew that when so many people know who she was, there were bound to be some who didn't like everything she did. However, the idea of secrets being revealed didn't sit well with her and the one involving her and Vincent probably topped the list.
To make things even worse, before Sydney could even respond to him, Sienna and Vivienne appeared. In Sienna's motion of grabbing Jane into a tight hug, Sydney managed to slink out from under Vincent's arm, and stood on her own. She returned Sienna's smile and greeting, trying to make her voice sound authentically cheerful. "Hey! Mine was pretty laid back. Mostly just hanging out in the Hamptons and stuff," she offered, playing with her hair as she glanced around, trying to see who else had arrived. Normally she would have wanted to indulge in conversation with her three closest girlfriends but with Vincent and Sienna being there, she felt uncomfortable, and not in the same way that other people did, just knowing that they had broken up. When no one caught her interest, she returned her attention to the group, hoping that Vincent wouldn't make things more awkward for them, or if he did, that she could casually find another group of people to talk to.
Vincent's smile only grew when Jane brushed off his advance as being against her morals since she was friends with his ex, Sienna. He knew he would break her at some point as long as he continued to hit on her. In his mind, he was irresistible to every girl that knew him. It was just how long it took them to realize that which differed from girl to girl. Although he could have bragged to Jane about how she was really the only one of Sienna's friends who he hadn't gotten with, he knew not to do that. Jane didn't know that he had slept with Sydney and Sydney didn't know that Sienna knew that they slept together, so allowing one more person to know would complicate things ten times more. However, he did glance over at Sydney to see what her reaction would be to Jane's comment.
What probably made the whole situation worse was that the one time that they hooked up years ago wasn't the last time. After it ruined his relationship with Sienna, they stopped for a while, but last year things started heating up again. Even though he was no longer dating Sia, he didn't want her to know about the more reason occurrences of him getting with Sydney. While they acted like enemies in public, Vincent didn't want to hurt Sia any more than he already had and it seemed like one of those situations where "what you don't know can't hurt you" was relevant.
There most recent hookup was about a month ago. Sydney asked him to be her plus-one to attend an exclusive Emmy's after party in California. Her grandfather was the creator of SNL, which had won a couple of Emmy's that night, so the family was invited to one of the bigger parties and Sydney didn't want to go alone. Although Vincent tended to be a jerk around his peers, he was surprisingly poised and well mannered in front of people he felt were important and Sydney knew that between his good looks and personality, he would make a good impression. However, after a few drinks, they ended up in a bathroom together and one thing led to another. It was something that neither of them intended for anyone to know, but the encounter made Vincent feel even more guilty than he had before.
He tried to act like he was over Sienna and by flirting with numerous girls in front of her, he had succeeded in doing so for the most part. Still though, it was her who he would drunk text. It was her who he thought of at night before he fell asleep and really, it was her who he imagined marrying. She was different than other girls, even Sydney, but Vincent felt like he had dug himself in too deep and that there was no turning back now.
When Sienna and Vivienne came over and greeted them, Vincent offered a smile and wave. "I'll let you kids catch up," he said, excusing himself from the group once Sienna began to embrace Jane and talk to Sydney. Although they were all part of the same friend group, he felt unnecessary being there, assuming that they would probably blab on and on about irrelevant girl things.
He walked away from them and towards the school building as he pulled out his iPhone and texted Colin.
To: Colin Clay
"Dude, where the fuck are you? Jane's got this hot smart-girl look going. You better seal the deal on that one before I do."
"Dude, where the fuck are you? Jane's got this hot smart-girl look going. You better seal the deal on that one before I do."