FULL SUMMARY: Blair and her mother, Eleanor, have been running from something for as long as they can remember. Blair's father has always been a terrible man - coming home at all hours of the night drunk, wasting all of their hard-earned money on booze and drugs, bringing random whores into their home and sleeping with them right in front of Eleanor, and even going as far is physically abusing Eleanor and Blair. One night, he takes it too far, and beats Blair and Eleanor both so hard that neither of them can stand back up for hours. That's when Eleanor decides that she has let this go on for far too long. She and Blair packed up a few essentials and left one night while her father was at a bar, taking all of the money out of her trust fund, which happened to be more than enough, and which also was a trust fund that her husband knew nothing about, and they took the bus all the way to New York City, leaving behind only the divorce papers. This was a town that they knew was always busy and loaded with people, so how could he possibly find them there?
Eleanor buys them a penthouse and enrolls Blair in a private school on the Upper East Side called Constance, knowing that private schools are more safe. At this school, Blair meets Serena Van der Woodsen, the beautiful princess of the UES that takes Blair in as her own sister. Serena invites her to a party that her step-brother, Chuck, is throwing. They go to the party and have a blast. That's when Blair meets Chuck. He holds a certain fascination with her and the two grow very close, despite his reputation as a playboy. Blair then realizes that maybe she's becoming too close with the two of them, and if her father ever does find out where she and her mother are, he will destroy anyone and anything in his way. Naturally, Blair doesn't want her new friends to be hurt, so she pushed them away. They resist, however, and try to find out what's really going on. Can Blair Waldorf be saved from the past that she's desperately trying so hard to run away from? If Serena Van der Woodsen and Chuck Bass have anything to say about it, she can.
"BLAIR!" Her drunken father's words echoed across the house. She jumped to her feet, shaking from her inner core, terrified of what he could have possibly been yelling about. Her ribs ached from the last time he had punished her, knocked her to the floor and kicked her until she was numb. She could still feel the dull ache in her chest. She ran out of her room, closing the door behind herself quietly. Slamming the doors in the house was not prohibited, even if you were just closing it loudly be accident. "BLAIR!" He bellowed again. Uh oh. He never called twice. She knew this was bad.
"I'm coming!" She managed to choke back. She knew that sounded rude and she was sure she would be punished. She bolted down the stairs to see her father standing in the doorway, hovering over her mother, who was crouched into the corner of the room, shivering in fear.
He looked up at his daughter, anger in his eyes. "Your mother has been talking to another man behind my back. Did you know about this man - Cyrus, is it - from Scotland?" There was malice in his voice, coating his every word as it spat out of his mouth like a habit.
Blair looked back and forth between her mother and father, eyes wide, unsure of what to say. What could she say that could get them out of this situation? Nothing. Nothing ever worked. Everything she said was wrong, stupid, ignorant, punishable. Her eyes widened even more as the seconds ticked by and she couldn't gather up her thoughts. Her father didn't like silence and he certainly didn't like unanswered questions. He crossed the room in two long strides, grabbing her hard by the hair. His fingers tangled so tightly in her hair that she thought he might pull each tiny little hair out of her scalp. "Well?" He demanded. She could smell the outrageous levels of alcohol on his breath, could see the redness the drugs gave him in his eyes.
She nodded slowly, figuring her best bet was to be honest. "Y-yes," she stammered. "But - but I think," she winced as he pulled tighter on her hair. "They're just friends!" She managed to squeak out.
"Liar!" Her father bellowed in her face, smacking her across the face. The blow echoed around the dark, quiet house. It was so hard that it knocked the air out of her lungs and the stability out of her legs, as she crashed to the ground with a thud, letting out a small cry. "There is no such thing as making new 'friends' when you're married." He kicked her in the gut. Hard. She let out a sob, hands shielding her face, even though she knew he would never hit her in the face. That's the one thing that was guaranteed. Her father would never hit her or Eleanor in the face, as bruises and scratches on the face would draw suspicion to the household. After he had had enough fun kicking Blair, he turned on Eleanor, and began whaling on her, harder than Blair had ever seen him attack her in her life - which had been many, many times. Blair tried to drag herself upward to her mother's rescue.
"Blair, no!" Eleanor pleaded, knowing this would only get her daughter into more trouble. Harold grinned evilly as he turned to Blair. He kneed her in the stomach. She fell to the ground once again, where he kicked her and kicked her until she was coughing up blood. And then she was puking and sobbing and choking on her own vomit and blood, which was an atrocious mixture. Eleanor lay helpless on the ground, watching the scene in horror. She knew that all she could do was pray and wait for it to be over. Soon… The thuds echoed across the house as he continued to kick Blair. The room was spinning, she couldn't breathe and then… it was all black.
When Blair awoke, her mother was at her side, clutching her eighteen-year-old daughter in her arms. Everything was blurry and everything hurt. She felt paralyzed. And for a moment, she was afraid she was, until she realized that if she could still feel the pain, that was a good thing. Her mother was stroking her hair and crying. She looked up at her, blinking rapidly, swallowing hard to ignore the pain. "I'm sorry, mom," she choked out. "I just wanted to help you."
Eleanor shook her head. "I'm sorry," she replied. "I'm the only one who should be sorry." She wiped her eyes and stood up, pulling Blair to her feet. "We're leaving."
Blair's eyes widened in shock. "What?"
"Your father has gone to the bar. We must hurry before he gets back. Go pack your things. Not everything - only the things dear to you and the sum of your clothes. Whatever you don't have, we'll buy when we get there."
"But - but," Blair stuttered, trying to wrap her mind around the concept. "Where will we go?"
Eleanor looked around the house. For what, Blair was unsure. "I can't say, in case he's got the house wired." She gave Blair a strange look. "Somewhere safe, somewhere nice."
"But won't he find us?" Blair asked.
"We can only pray not," Eleanor said. "We'll go as far away as we can. I've got a taxi on its way as we speak. I've emptied my entire savings account, the money my parents left for me, the only money he didn't know we had. There was quite a bit more than I had thought in there. Enough to buy us a place and enroll you in school somewhere private, somewhere safe. I'll find a job, somewhere lowkey. Everything's going to be okay, sweetie." She kissed her daughter on the forehead. "I'm just sorry I let this go on for so long." She turned to walk up the stairs, pulling Blair along with her. Blair looked at her mother with awe. She was the strongest woman she knew for doing this.
They packed their things quickly. They left their cell phones at the house, knowing he would be able to track them if they took them with them. On the front table, Eleanor left divorce papers for him to sign, though they all knew he wouldn't give up that easily. Blair just prayed that maybe, somehow, he would come to his senses and see they were all better off alone. She and her mother could go live happily somewhere in the city, and he could stay at home, with his drugs and alcohol and horny women every night. Once they were in the cab, Blair felt a rush of relief. It wasn't too big and she knew it wouldn't be until they were out of this city. Blair felt her heart soar when she and her mother arrived at the bus station and got on a bus that was headed to the Big Apple. She had always wanted to live in New York City. Maybe not under the circumstances of hiding, but it was still always something she had aimed to do. She had visited there with her parents once before, when she was younger, when their family was happy, when things were different. Oh, how things had changed. And she wasn't even quite sure what had happened. Along the way, something in her father had snapped. Her father? He was not someone she wanted to call that. He may have been her father by blood but she deserved more of man than that as a father in her life.
The bus ride seemed to take forever - and it did. It took days and getting off at different stops to get on different buses and stopping at gas stations to pick up some grab 'n go food. She felt her heart swell when they finally entered the city. The lights were bright and there were people everywhere, even though it was eleven o'clock at night on a Thursday night. This was a city she could feel comfortable in - somewhere loud and busy, always full of people, somewhere she knew it would be hard for Harold to find him, out of all of these people.
They pulled up to a grand hotel when her mother informed her that they had purchased the penthouse at the very top of the hotel, and hired a maid named Dorota to help out with housework, as she would be working long hours at her new job. She informed Blair that she would be enrolled in a private school called Constance. She was very excited to start a new life, a life where she wouldn't have to live in fear every second of her day. Of course, she would still be a little on-edge and worried, but not until she had a reason to be. She was going to make the best of her new life. She was determined to. When they entered their new home, everything was already decorated beautifully. Blair looked at her mother in awe, realizing that this must have been something she had been planning for a very, very long time. Their new housemaid, Dorota, introduced herself to them. She had a very thick accent and a very beautiful face. She seemed like a very sweet and kind-hearted lady. She toured them around the penthouse and finally, they found Blair's room. It was big and spacious and everything was decorate in a pale pink. Her closet was full of clothes and shoes. Everything was perfect.
And for the first time in a long time, as Blair snuggled into her new satin covers, she felt comfortable.
She finally felt safe.
A/N: Sorry about the shortness and awkwardness of this chapter. I'm not very good at introduction chapters! I promise the other ones will be longer. I'm just really excited for Blair to meet Serena and Chuck. I'm trying to be patient and take this story somewhat slow, though! Please review. I'd love to hear from you. :)