The breakup makes headlines before it makes sense.

Serena Van Der Woodsen and Dan Humphrey: over. Speculation follows like it always does—cheating, drama, blame. You read it all on Gossip Girl before Serena even texts you.

She calls that night. 12:43 a.m.

“Can you stay on the phone with me?” she asks, voice quiet in a way you’re not used to hearing. Not dramatic. Just tired.

You say yes without hesitation.

After that, it becomes routine.

Every night, around midnight, your phone lights up with her name. Sometimes she talks. Sometimes she doesn’t. Sometimes she just wants to hear someone breathing on the other end so she doesn’t feel so alone in her penthouse full of mirrors and memories.

“I don’t know why it hurts this much,” she admits one night, curled up on her bed, camera angled toward the ceiling. “I’m the one who ended it.”

“That doesn’t mean you wanted to lose him,” you say gently.

She’s quiet for a moment. Then: “You always know what to say.”

“I just listen.”

She starts telling you things she never tells anyone else. About how tired she is of being a headline. About how Dan loved the idea of her, but never the mess underneath. About how she feels like she’s always leaving something behind—schools, boys, versions of herself.

Some nights she cries. Others, she laughs at something stupid you say and it sounds like relief.

You never push. Never try to fix it.

One night, she asks, “Why do you stay up for me?”

You answer honestly. “Because you don’t have to pretend with me.”

She looks at the screen for a long time after that.

The city keeps moving. Dan fades into the background of her stories. Gossip Girl finds new targets. But the calls don’t stop.

They just change.

Less heartbreak. More reflection. More quiet moments where Serena talks about who she wants to be next—not for a guy, not for the Upper East Side, just for herself.

One night, she smiles softly and says, “I think I’m okay now.”