A/N: Well, they just keep on coming, and I've decided it's not a curse. Lol. In fact, it just may be one of the biggest, most beautiful blessings I've ever received! Heh. Besides, a couple weeks ago I wasn't motivated at all, and now I can't stop writing. Lovely. This fic is a one-shot that just came to me a couple hours ago. It entails Nate's thoughts once he finds out CB got back together, POST S2 FINALE. Review! =)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
SPOTTED: Chuck & Blair locking lips in Manhattan. Apparently Bass gallivanting across Europe agrees with her. Now we know who all those presents were for. Wish you the best, B. Looks like someone finally got their three magic words.
-XOXO Gossip Girl
Nate scoffed.
This was unbelievable.
How could he have been so blind?
The signs were there. Everything was there.
Still, he couldn't see.
He couldn't have asked Chuck enough times to stay away from his girlfriend, to stay away from Blair Waldorf. And he had…to a certain degree.
Sigh.
He supposed that he should have known better than to try and keep his best friend and girlfriend apart. Maybe they were always meant to be together, and they just had him in the way to prevent them from realizing it.
He dialed Serena.
"Hey Nate, what's up?"
Dramatic sigh.
"Nate? Is something wrong?"
He contemplated not telling her. The thought ran through his head about a million times, but…
"Is this about the Gossip Girl post? About Chuck & Blair?"
…she always knew.
And if not telling her didn't clue the blonde in, his reluctance to respond to her easy questions would have confirmed everything.
He heard her sigh through the phone.
"Look, Nate, I can't really talk right now. But you know she was crazy about Chuck, right?"
Silence.
"She didn't cheat on you. I mean, she didn't do anything wro—"
"No, I know Serena." Another sigh. "I didn't call you to get you to tell me that Blair's done something wrong."
The blonde beauty bit her lip softly, waiting for his explanation. Because if what she had suggested wasn't it, then she sure as hell didn't know what it was.
"I just feel like an idiot."
"Oh, Nate, no—"
He cut her off with his continuing rant. It was almost like she wasn't there anymore, and he just needed an opening to talk into. "I mean, I don't think I'm in love with her anymore. I don't think I have been for a really long time. So, I shouldn't be upset, should I? I don't think so. I mean, I don't—"
"Well, Nate—"
"You're right. I shouldn't."
Serena rolled her eyes at his lack of listening skills, but she continued to nod her head along to whatever he said. Most likely he was not going to need her response to anything. He would probably just answer his own questions.
Besides, she was still riding in the limo with Carter, having not even come close to a landing pad that would take them across the ocean. These private jets and the like just never seemed to be in close driving distance. Because of this lovely occasion, she knew it would be awhile before she had to do much of anything. She had plenty of time to just listen without responding. Nate sounded like he needed someone to listen to and not respond…desperately.
"Serena?" She heard his voice earnestly in the ear resting on her cell phone. He almost sounded panicked.
"Yes, Nate? I'm here." She heard the relief in his voice.
"Maybe I should just go. You sound busy, and you said you couldn't really talk, so…"
Serena looked around herself mysteriously, wondering how in the world she could be sounding busy.
"Uh, Nate, I don't know what you're hearing, but I am doing absolutely nothing."
He smirked, though admitting softly to himself how what she was saying was very confusing, and slightly…contradicting.
"I literally have nothing better to do than to listen to you go on and on about how you feel like an idiot for losing Blair to Chuck—again."
His jaw dropped in a gaping shock, forgetting her particular 'busy' state for the moment. He wouldn't have worded it exactly in that way.
The blonde's expression turned mysterious. "Is that not what you were thinking?"
Her tone? Playful.
And he was still gaping. "Well, it's just—"
She blinked, actually finding humor in this particular situation.
"Nate?" she asked several moments and a hiccup later. He didn't even laugh when she hiccupped. It was almost insulting.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm here."
The statement sounded oddly familiar. She smiled grimly.
"So am I," she stated.
He nodded, realizing her possible confusion. "Look, I don't mean to be bothering you—"
"Nate!" She cried out in frustration. This was getting out of hand. "I am doing nothing, and even if I was—even if I am, since when do I not make time for you?! You're like my #2 priority, right after Blair, and I've already said my goodbyes to her for the summer, so it's all you."
She waited, hoping her passionate speech wouldn't scare him off. She didn't think Blair dumping him and running after Chuck was going to wound him so much. It wasn't like he had made any attempts to win her back. Her forehead creased, and she sighed.
"Serena—"
"So help me, Nate, if you apologize for interrupting my day or wasting my time one more time, I am going to pinpoint your exact location and have the driver run you over with the Bass limo."
Nate smirked, and even Carter seemed to be quite amused by her threat.
"Don't," she said, turning to Carter for what seemed much longer than 3.5 seconds.
"What?" the blonde boy asked, his eyebrows furrowing.
Serena shook her head. "Nothing. I was talking to Carter."
"Carter? What are you doing with Carter?!" he fumed.
She sighed. "Nothing, it's nothing."
"Serena—"
"No! We are not talking about me and Carter, we are talking about you and Blair and your inability to tell me anything because you don't even know what you feel!"
Silence on the other line.
She sighed, whimpering and dragging one of her hands across her face. "Nate, please, just talk to me. And not about Carter."
Carter looked at her in mock-hurt and shock, but she avoided his gaze. The last thing she needed to deal with was wounding Carter Baizen's ego.
Nate cleared his throat.
"I just feel like I should have seen it coming," he finally said, and she was glad he had dropped the Carter issue. She was even gladder that he had come to some sort of grip as to what he was actually feeling. "I knew it was going to happen. I just knew it."
Serena sympathized, a half smile curving her lips downwards. "But you didn't want to believe it."
Nate nodded. "Chuck had been so stubborn already, and sleeping with the uncle is…is…"
"…worse than sleeping with the best friend?" she quirked an eyebrow.
He sighed. "Yeah."
"Well, you've probably known Chuck the longest, Nate."
He nodded, wondering where she was going with this.
"So, when he told you he had fallen in love with her at the Van der Bass wedding last year, you should've taken it to heart. Chuck doesn't say things like that lightly."
He sighed again. "Yeah, I know."
"But…?"
"Well," he huffed, aggravated with the whole situation, "he just seemed to be moving on so many times this year!"
She was quiet for awhile, and then she parted her lips, daring herself to speak. "They fit, Nate."
Silence. She knew he wanted her to continue, so he could put the pieces together in his own mind, the pieces of whatever she had decided in her mind was right. Because if she had put it together, then he could put it together, and he would believe it if she did. He would make himself believe it. Especially since it was his best friend and his ex-girlfriend, and he knew he wouldn't be able to have either of them in the future if he couldn't accept what they had.
"They're Chuck and Blair, Blair and Chuck," she chuckled softly. "They understand each other, they know each other—better than they know themselves," she sighed, "And if we're being honest, you were never entirely in love with her anyways."
His eyebrows narrowed. "Now just wait a minute…"
And she waited. She waited for him to defend himself and say that whenever he was 'in love' with Blair, he wasn't 'in love' with Serena just a little more.
But he said nothing, and that was all she needed to know. She pursed her lips together.
"Nate?" she asked.
"Hmm? Oh right," he sighed, "I think you're right, Serena."
Her eyes widened. Was he actually going to admit to still being in love with her? To always being a little more in love with her when he was supposed to be in love with Blair? She had hardly even thought about Nate in that way in the last year or so, but suddenly now everything came rushing in on her, the way it had when she came back to New York in the middle of her junior year.
"Blair and Chuck have always had something going on. Maybe it was more between the lines and hidden, even to them, but it was there." He sighed, and Serena forced herself to focus in that venue. She smiled into the phone, hoping her mind—her heart—would transfer over to what her face was trying to say, what she wanted it to say.
"Serena?" she heard Carter ask, and she turned to him. He was so concerned, and for once in her life she was glad she had brought the conniving scandalous schemer along with her.
"…and I'm not really upset, I don't think." Nate beamed. Talking this out with Serena really had done him good.
She smiled hesitantly now into the phone. With Carter watching her every move, and being able to sense that she was faking a majority of her enthusiasm…well, it was harder to fake it.
"Thanks, Serena," Nate continued, "I think I'm okay with Chuck and Blair being together." He laughed then. "I think I'm even happy for them. I'll talk to you later, okay Serena?"
Click.
Serena stared at the phone, hardly expecting to have gotten this worked up just trying to make Nate feel better over Chuck and Blair's new union.
"Hey, hey—"
Serena turned to the voice calling her. Carter Baizen. She smiled at him, and it seemed to soften the anguish heating up in his eyebrows.
"Nate?" he asked. She nodded, and then he brought her to him and tucked her head under his chin.
"I'll help you forget," he whispered, and soon she was asleep.
………………………………………………………………………………………….
"Vanessa!" Nate called out to the Brooklyn girl. She was packing up the remainder of her items for the month long backpacking trip across Europe. He didn't know how he had found the Abrams' residence according to Dan's directions, but it had happened and he had his limo driver to thank for it.
"Nate, hey! I thought I wasn't going to see you till tomorrow morning!" She beamed when she saw him, and hugged him on instant. It had been horrifying living without his smile directed towards her for the whole long while he had decided to date Blair Waldorf again. Now she had a month of him to herself, and she was even getting a little bonus time.
"Yes, well, I've got all my things packed and nothing else to do for the rest of the day, so—"
"—you want to help me pack and spend the rest of the day with me? Sounds fantastic," she finished for him, smirking all the way. He laughed with her and went to assist the packing process in any way he could.
Serena and Blair. He sighed, thinking back. The two girls he had started off with, and the two he was officially rid of. It was a good feeling, he supposed…to be moving on. Then again, he felt he had moved on quite quickly throughout the year—regarding girls at least, and it suddenly puzzled him why Chuck had never really been able to do so.
Maybe they were meant to be, as Serena had suggested. Regardless, he was happy for Chuck and Blair now, and he found it odd that it hadn't been obvious before.
"Hey Archibald, focus!" she called out the items on her list again, making sure he ensured that each of the said items were in the little plastic Ziploc bags on her bed. Once everything had been properly packed and carried to the far side of her bedroom, Vanessa turned back around and led an exhausted looking Nate Archibald through the front door of her family's low-rate apartment.
"Let's go do something fun," she suggested, looking over her shoulder to make sure the upper east sider was still following her. "You can tell me everything you've been up to for the last month and a half." She smiled brightly at him, and he returned the favor.
This is what he loved about Vanessa. She always had a listening ear and a sparkling smile to match. It almost made him wonder why had dumped her to begin with. But if he thought really hard, he could pinpoint several things about all the girls he had gone out with, good and bad.
He sighed.
Perhaps it was best not to focus on any romantic relationships at the moment. After all he couldn't guarantee that moment lasting very long. Knowing his track record from the last year, promising himself anything in regards to the opposite sex was very… unlikely to be followed through.
In fact, it occurred to him right then, that he wasn't sure of anything. But one thing he did know: Chuck and Blair were finally a couple, Gossip Girl had confirmed that—as had Serena, and he was okay with it. He had adjusted to that fact as of a few hours ago, and he couldn't very well find it in himself to be upset about it any longer.
Serena had told him they fit after all. They had really always fit, and that was something he could always be sure of, even if he wasn't sure of anything else.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
A/N: I hope you loved it! I really wasn't planning on having all this Nate/Vanessa/Serena/Carter nonsense. Lol. It really was just supposed to be Nate's mutterings/thoughts after seeing the GG post about CB…*shrug* But it happened and I really hope you review, because this seriously took me ages. XD REVIEW! =D