Cecily von Ziegesar - Love the One Youre With

Copyright 2009 by Alloy Entertainment

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Poppy

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue,

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

www.twitter.com/littlebrown

Poppy is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company.

The Poppy name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

First eBook Edition: October 2009

The characters, events, and locations in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 978-0-316-07161-1

Gossip Girl novels created by Cecily von Ziegesar:

Gossip Girl

You Know You Love Me

All I Want Is Everything

Because Im Worth It

I Like It Like That

Youre The One That I Want

Nobody Does It Better

Nothing Can Keep Us Together

Only In Your Dreams

Would I Lie To You

Dont You Forget About Me

It Had To Be You

The Carlyles

You Just Cant Get Enough

Take A Chance On Me

Love The One Youre With

If you like gossip girl , you may also enjoy:

The Poseur series by Rachel Maude

The Secrets of My Hollywood Life series by Jen Calonita

Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith

Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Footfree and Fancyloose by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Charlotte Bront, Jane Eyre

Its November, the time of year when fall drifts to winter and we all start wrapping our cashmere sweaters more tightly around us and thinking about the holidays. In New York, we allow the tourists to enjoy the city, whether theyre wobbling around Wollman Rink wearing their blindingly bright puffer jackets or gawking at a larger-than-life SpongeBob SquarePants balloon during the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. Its cold, its dark, but the windows in Bergdorfs are sparklier than the Marni dresses inside, and all of us Manhattan natives are just itching to celebrate the season in style.

the one thing in our way

Thanksgiving. Whod have thought a holiday all about gratitude (my short list: sample sales, Corner Bakery coffee, St. Judes swim team boys running in Central Park without shirts) would have evolved into a four-day calorie-fest all about forced bonding with strange relatives? Luckily, many New Yorkers avoid the awkwardness by heading out of town for the holidays. And who can blame them? Why listen to your drunk uncle drone on about his glory days when you could wear your slinkiest, sexiest Malia Mills string bikini on the beach or your new fur-trimmed boots on the slopes?

So take my advice: Find out whos going AWOL for the holidays, and make sure you get invited along!

sightings

A and J sharing a dressing room at Barneys, trying on Stella McCartney dresses. Theyve gone from bitches to besties in the time it takes most people to lose their late-summer tans. J, later, at a playground on Bleecker Street, with her on-again boyfriend J.P. and two freckly-faced toddlers. Babysitting, or an early visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future? R, O, and the rest of the swim team guys, drinking pitchers at one of those sticky-floored dives on Second that dont card, ignoring the pack of cougars surrounding them. Lastly, B and her best friend, the pierced, tattooed S, taking photos in Brooklyn. Theyre certainly taking Rancor seriously!

your e-mail

q: Dear Gossip Girl,

Whats going on for T-Day? Youre totally invited to my house. Rents are out of town. Suh-weet!

ponyparty

a: Dear PP,

While that sounds delightful, I plan to spend my holidays hanging out with people I actually know. But enjoy the free house!

GG

q: Dear Gossip Girl,

So, Im, like, super in love with one of the St. Judes swim team guys, but theyre always hanging out together and I feel sort of weird just approaching him in front of all the guys. What should I do?

swimfan

a: Dear SF,

A hint: Guys are like wildebeests, always traveling in packs for protection and more scared of you than you are of them. Theyre not nearly so frightening close-up. Try hunting one down on his own and see what happens.

GG

Just thought of a few more things to add to my list of things to be thankful for: Hot boys, tiny Missoni bikinis, and islands with no drinking age. Thats right, Im joining the legions of New Yorkers getting out of town. Where, you ask? Wouldnt you like to know? But dont pout. You should be thankful that no matter where I am, Ill be keeping track of what anyone whos anyone is doingon this island and any other island worth visiting.

You know you love me,

gossip girl

So, whats up for Thanksgiving? What does your family usually do? Avery Carlyle asked her friends Jack Laurent and Jiffy Bennett. They were wedged into a cozy leather booth at Amaranth, the caf popular with any socialite who needed a cappuccino or a vodka gimlet as a post-Barneys perk-up. It was exactly the type of place Avery had always imagined hanging out in New York.

Any parties going on? she continued hopefully, sipping her cappuccino.

In truth, Avery could have done without Thanksgiving. It was just a four-day interruption of her life, which already had everything she could possibly be thankful for.

Well, almost everything.

In September, when she left her childhood home in Nantucket and began her junior year at the ultra-exclusive Constance Billard School for Girls, it seemed like Avery was destined to be one of those unfortunate girls who spend the entire lunch period in the library because they have nowhere else to go. To start with, she and Jack had taken an immediate dislike to each other after fighting over a limited-edition Givenchy satchel at Barneys the day before school began. Tensions quickly escalated until they were outright enemies at Constance Billard, and Avery was completely ostracized by her classmates. Then when Avery scored a coveted internship at Metropolitan magazine and was asked to rat out Jacks secrets to a pushy gossip reporter, shed proved to herself and her Upper East Side peers that she was better than that. Shed finally won them over.

Now she and Jack were friends, and for the past month Avery had finally been living the New York City life shed imagined, full of cocktail parties, gallery openings, and caf dates like the one they were having now.

God, I dont even want to think about Thanksgiving. I have to go with my parents to Beatrice and Deptfords house in Greenwich. If Deptford doesnt die first, that is. Jiffy shrugged as she shoved a slice of avocado in her mouth. She was a petite pug-nosed girl with long bangs that fell over her brown eyes, and five stubborn pounds that kept her from fitting into her older sister Beatrices discarded couture. Beatrice was thirty-two, a constant fixture on the society circuit, and had her own column in