Chapter One: The Morning After
A loud, incessant ringing broke the still silence of the morning, crumbling the wild fantasies swimming through Chuck's mind. He had just been lounging at the Four Seasons with a drink in his hand and a particularly beautiful and poorly-clothed brunette rubbing lotion on her delicate skin for his amusement. With a particularly heavy sigh of regret, he broke through the last of his dreams, and his senses recognized the warm breath of another body next to his.
The events of the previous night replayed in his mind like an old picture film. He opened his eyes to find Serena Van der Woodsen curled up next to him, his red satin sheets covering her nearly-bare skin.
She had shed her glittery, gold excuse for a dress sometime between the elevator ride and his bedroom. The girl was efficient. As his eyes drifted over every visible inch of her curvy body, he understood what drew so many men into Serena's web. He would even admit she held a certain fascination to him. He always thought that, if the opportunity presented itself, he would not hesitate to explore the skillful wonders that made Serena's bedfellows so eager to return.
That had been before, he thought, amused by the twist of fate that landed an eager Serena in his bed at a time which he could not bring himself to take advantage. He had his reasons.
The ringing. Hadn't there been a ringing?
He glanced over at his nightstand to see his phone light up with a missed call. In fact, when he quietly reached over to grab his phone, he found he had missed several calls. Most of them were from Nathaniel, ranging from early evening to the call he had just missed. Those calls did not concern Chuck. Nate often plagued him with drunken phone calls – especially when he felt guilty.
But what had earned him a phone call from the Queen B herself?
Chuck felt a fluttering in his stomach as he saw her name. Damn that feeling. He decided to chalk it up to too much alcohol on an empty stomach. That was the only explanation.
If he applied logic to this mystery, Blair was more than likely calling to recruit him in her army for some new life-or-death scheme. Chuck found it incredulous at times that the most intelligent girl he knew could be oblivious to the goings-on in her personal life while meddling in the lives of everyone else. How could she not have seen Nathaniel's longing gaze wandering over her best friend? Chuck thought perhaps she did notice but disregarded the observations in favor of ignorance. The idea that perfect Nathaniel didn't love her and only her didn't quite fit into her little plan, did it?
Deciding to ignore his callers for now, Chuck continued to muse over the latest developments in the sordid lives of his fellow students until he saw Serena begin to stir, moaning as her senses came alive, likely torturing her with a pounding drum of a headache and a wild, churning ache in her stomach.
When she opened her cloudy blue eyes, she instantly met Chuck's amused gaze and froze. He watched, barely containing a wry grin, as she shot up and pulled a sheet to her skin, looking around the room as if she were searching for some kind of magical answer that could explain her current predicament.
"Wh- Chuck?" Her tone alone contained a burning question as to the night's events.
Chuck shifted to lay on his side, casually propping his head up with his hand, and allowing his wry grin to escape as he addressed her.
"Good morning, princess," he answered simply. He found great amusement in the emotions that ran across her face as she fought the heavy hang-over cloud withholding her memory.
"We. . .We didn't. . . Right?"
Desperation. Was he evil for loving this? Probably.
"If you're asking if we slept together, well. . . Then the answer would be yes," Chuck stated, allowing himself the small pleasure of seeing Serena's face crumble before he mercifully added, "But if you're asking if we had sex. . . Let's just say I demonstrated a heroic amount of restraint in turning you down."
He saw the relief pass through her as she sunk back down into the bed, pulling the sheets tighter around her. "If we didn't have sex, why am I half-naked in your bed?"
Chuck sat up too, crossing his bare legs casually. Serena pretended not to notice he wore only satin boxers and socks. "When I ran into you last night, I had three choices. I didn't think you'd like option one, which was dropping you off at Lily's, as charmingly drunk as you were. Was I wrong?"
Serena groaned. "No, definitely not," she relented. "Wait. . . What was the other option?"
"I could have left you with your dear friend Carter Baizen and allowed him to have his way with you," Chuck replied, stretching his limbs as he stood, pulling a robe from the floor tight around himself. Flinging Serena's dress at her from across the room, he added, "You're welcome."
Serena groaned again, sitting up and pulling the dress on over her head carelessly. "I was with Carter? God, how drunk was I? Okay, start at the beginning. I need to know everything."
"Well, Bart's gone on a business trip, so we have the luxury of privacy this morning." Chuck opened his bedroom door and gestured for Serena to follow as he headed toward the kitchen. "I'll make you the Chuck Bass signature solution to hang-overs while I tell you what I know."
Serena stole the sheet she had been wrapped up in and curled up on the couch as Chuck moved around the kitchen, placing a menagerie of ingredients on the counter. When he saw Serena's questioning gaze, he replied, "The recipe is top secret Bass property. Avert your eyes, and trust me."
Serena sighed heavily. "What is the world coming to? I'm trusting Chuck Bass after mysteriously waking up in his bed, half-naked."
"You're lucky my conscience kicked in," Chuck told her, winking at her seductively from the kitchen. "I was enjoying the company of some very lovely ladies when I noticed Baizen's hands drifting around your waist while you struggled to stand upright."
"So you came to my rescue like the gentleman you are?" Serena scoffed, then winced at the sound of her own voice.
"Your incredulity wounds me, S, really."
"It's not like we're the best of friends," Serena retorted easily.
"Maybe Baizen brings out the best in me," Chuck quipped, delighting in the strange sense of power he felt at being Serena's night in shining armor – more or less.
"Chuck. Be serious."
Bringing a glass of his mysterious concoction to the couch and sitting casually next to his half-naked sort-of friend, Chuck decided to tell her the truth of her situation last night. "Someone had to stop you from telling the entire club that you and Nate slept together."
Serena's hand had been in mid-air, reaching for the cup Chuck offered, when she froze. "What?" Her face paled, and she collapsed back against the couch, horrified. "Oh, God… Look, I was obviously really, really drunk last night, so—"
"Save your pitiful attempt at lying for Blair, please," Chuck said, rolling his eyes and forcing the cup into her hand. "I saw you and Nate the night of the Shepard wedding."
Serena didn't respond, her eyes turning down to the floor, refusing to meet Chuck's gaze. She sipped from the cup, made a face, and took a quiet moment before responding. "Does Nate know that you know?"
"Ah, Nathaniel," Chuck sighed exasperatedly. "My poor, clueless best friend. No, he does not know that I know. Honestly, I expected him to break down and confess by now. He's not one for secrets. Not like us, huh, S?"
Serena's lip began to tremble, her eyes watering with tears. "He was going to tell her last night."
Very rarely was Chuck caught off guard by the actions of his best friend. Nathaniel was generally predictable. He had expected that his friend would pour his soul out to Chuck one night, seeking reassurance that keeping the secret was in Blair's best interest, which Chuck would probably have given – despite his mixed feelings on the subject. Then, Nathaniel would heed this advice and become a temporarily more attentive boyfriend to his naïve and unsuspecting girlfriend.
Yet… Nathaniel had jumped right into a confession to Blair.
Was that why she had called him?
"I don't know if he did, for sure," Serena said, her voice turning hopeful. "I didn't exactly wait around to hear from him."
"I imagine that's why you dived headfirst into a bottle last night," Chuck said conversationally, the pieces clicking together in his head. Serena could be wild, for sure, but her most dangerous bouts of drinking often came after some sort of emotional impact. "Not that I blame you. If Nathaniel did in fact confess last night… Well, it's safe to say you've lost your position as the Queen's right hand."
Serena shot him a disgusted look. "You think that's what I care about? My rank at school?" she spat, though the malice didn't quite infect her tone the way Chuck was sure she'd intended. Her voice was too shaky, and the tears still swirling in her eyes were a dead giveaway. "I'm going to lose my best friend. This is going to destroy years of friendship. I don't think she'll ever forgive me."
Chuck hated the self-pity seeping into the girl's tone, pretending as if sleeping with Nathaniel hadn't been her choice. Poor Hurricane Serena – a swirling mess of accidents for which she couldn't possibly be held accountable.
"Tell me, S," Chuck began smoothly, containing the bitterness he didn't quite understand, threatening to color his words. "Was one night with good, faithful Nate worth it?"
Serena flushed. "I… I don't… No. Not if I lose Blair. And Nate."
She had hastily added the last part, but Chuck felt a strange significance in the addition.
"What did you expect to happen?" Chuck asked, incredulous. "Did you think Nathaniel would leave Blair for you?"
Serena's face was outraged – but Chuck caught the guilty gleam in her eyes before she hid it with anger. "I would never ask him to leave her! She's my best friend!" she defended.
"Yet you had sex with her boyfriend," he stated wryly, not following Serena's deluded train of logic. "Makes sense."
"It was a mistake, Chuck," Serena sighed dejectedly. "I don't know why I'm even talking to you about this. Like you have any right to lecture me about right and wrong. You're Chuck Bass."
"Touché," he allowed, smirking to himself. Arguably, he had done worse. Serena shifted on the couch, the sheet slipping as she did, allowing Chuck a peek at Serena's famously long legs – tanned and toned to perfection. Chuck did appreciate their beauty. He trailed a finger along the outside of her exposed thigh slowly. "Since I'm sure you're ever so grateful to me for rescuing you…"
A perfectly manicured hand came down quickly to remove his. "Ugh, not that grateful," Serena growled, standing abruptly, curling the sheet more tightly around herself as she hurried back to Chuck's room, presumably to find her handbag and shoes so she could storm out appropriately. Chuck smirked, picking her shoes up from where they had been thrown in a corner and heading to meet the blonde before she tore his bedroom apart searching for them.
"Well, you can't blame me for trying," he said calmly, holding up her shoes as he leaned in the doorway. "After all, I am Chuck Bass."
Serena rolled her eyes at him, snatching the shoes and storming past him back into the living room, where he watched her balance one leg at a time, pulling her heels on, while simultaneously searching for and successfully locating her handbag. Even hung-over and frustrated, the girl had a natural gift for multitasking with grace.
"I assume you can find the exit," Chuck called as he began to head back into his bedroom to resume the sweet dreams that had been taken from him so very early in the morning.
"Chuck…"
He turned and saw sincere gratitude on the face of the flustered damsel. She opened her mouth to awkwardly thank him, but the words froze in her throat as the elevator lit up, opened, and exposed the furious figure of the famously infamous Blair Waldorf.
Like a whirlwind, Blair stormed through the archway and greeted her stunned best friend with a slap across the cheek that forced Serena's head to the side and caused her to stumble.
A silence fell between the two girls. Blair's dark eyes glittered with betrayal. Serena clutched her cheek and stared apologetically.
Breaking the tense silence, Chuck poured himself a scotch. "Well, S, it's safe to assume he told her."
- Rise and shine, Upper East Siders. Queen B declares war early this morning with the slap heard 'round the world.
Look out, S. Queens aren't known to be forgiving. -
xoxo - Gossip Girl