Summer
"Be good, kids!" Eleanor called as she walked out of the front door. Bart was close behind her but he stopped to turn around one last time.
"And Charles, there better won't be any calls from my lawyer for bail," Bart told him with a stern look before he followed his third wife into their limo. Both children waved at their parents with faked smiles on their faces until the limo was gone. Immediately, Blair rolled her eyes and Chuck, annoyed, shoved his hands into his pockets.
"I bet your sick fuck of a father will cheat on her as soon as she sets foot in her atelier." Blair smirked at Chuck with a quirked eyebrow. He just loved her when she got all bitchy and both of them knew it.
"And your whore of a mother will make him pay at Chanel and Dior," Chuck replied with an equivalent smirk on his lips. The two of them walked back inside. Chuck, the perfect gentlemen act well learned over the years, held the door of the living room open for Blair who offered a fake smile and a small bow before she stepped in. It was their day-to-day toying with each other, and they just loved it.
"Parents." Chuck sighed as he dropped onto his favorite couch and stretched himself out. It had been imported from Germany just for him – a rebuild of the rococo, extravagant lifestyle he enjoyed so much. Blair did too but she was supposed to be a proper lady, so she couldn't make it too obvious. If her mother had found her lying in the living room, she'd send her to an etiquette school until she was thirty at least; so Blair sat down in an armchair on the opposite site of the huge room. She took a magazine and started to flip through it.
"So, Waldorf, what do you have in mind for our free time?" Chuck asked, bored after a short while, inspecting his well manicured fingernails. He was a man, but that was no reason to be less careful about his looks, right?
"Not you, Bass," Blair replied with a sigh. She tried to stop herself from smiling, but she didn't succeed. It was their game: Blair was the pristine princess of the UES, unfortunately thrown together by new family constellations with the biggest womanizer to ever live on the UES.
"One day you'll give in. Deflowering is my area of expertise, after all." Chuck smiled. He sounded cocky but the truth was that he wasn't so sure about it after all. They had been step-siblings for almost two years now and Chuck had tried everything – really everything – to get in her pants (even if it was just to piss off his father). Blair had fascinated him from day one. There was something about her he liked more than with other girls. He could be himself around her and vice versa.
"You're heinous," Blair snapped in feigned disgust. Until today she'd avoided all the traps Chuck had put in her way. He was even desperate enough to try the good old 'get her drunk and high' trick. But he should have known that Blair was at least just as good as him when it came to scheming. So Chuck had ended that day drunk, high and naked in Bart's office. Blair had taken pictures and promised to bring up the event every Christmas until they were at least seventy. So far she hadn't though.
"You love it." Chuck chuckled briefly before staring at her; he knew it would piss her off in no time, and it was his second favorite hobby to annoy her. His first was scheming with her. They made it a sport. Of course there were victims and maybe one day it would even backfire but, right now, none of that mattered.
"God, I'm so bored." Blair threw her magazine to the floor. It only took a second before her maid – a poor immigrant from Poland named Dorota – ran in, picked it up and placed it back on the table before running out again. Chuck and Blair simply ignored her. That was enough thanks. Dorota was always there, lurking in the shadows – they get used to it and allowed it since she'd proof her loyalty.
"So call your friend Carter," Chuck suggested with a motion of his hand toward the phone. He hated Carter with a passion and once he was there, Chuck would belittle and taunt until Carter blew a fuse. Blair would be mad at him for twenty minutes before calling her little minions and ordering them to find the latest victim for her and Chuck. Carter was Blair's show boyfriend: she dressed him well enough to be seen with her, and kept him around to look good in photos and carry her books –nothing else, though. Carter had endured that torture for a while now, and Chuck had even almost begun to respect him.
Almost.
Blair shot him a glare, and then looked down. Chuck waited for the bitchy response, but instead Blair's brow furrowed and she reached for another magazine.
"You're not serious!" Chuck laughed. "He dumped you? For who?" He leapt from his couch and made his way towards her like the Cheshire Cat: huge grin on his face, eyes lit up with amusement.
"That bitch Serena van der Woodsen," Blair said after a moment before slamming the magazine back on the side table and getting up herself. She sighed and walked over to the window, staring out in the street. Chuck was right behind her.
"Ugh, the only girl in school who's even too slutty for my taste," Chuck said, disgusted before running a finger down Blair's clothed spine. She shrugged him off, but that had never stopped him before.
"Only because she didn't jump you," Blair sniped over her shoulder. It was true that Chuck could always get into the bed of anyone he wanted: every girl in her class, his geography teacher, even the last headmistress who had to go when Bart met her on his way in the bathroom one morning. Bart was so mad at Chuck that he'd even tried to ground him. It was just too bad for him that neither he nor Eleanor were never around to actually be strict with these things.
Chuck shrugged, walked over to the armchair where Blair had just been sitting and picked up one of the teen girl magazines her mother always bought in addition to the latest fashion editorials.
"So, what do we do this summer?" Blair asked, turning to walk up behind him and run a hand lazily through his hair. Chuck closed his eyes for a moment to enjoy her pseudo scalp massage until she pulled; he hissed in annoyance and she giggled before walking over to his beloved couch.
It was the perfect example of one of those afternoons they would use to plan, scheme and destroy just to entertain themselves.
"You're always turning my suggestions down," Chuck said, almost pouting. Blair laughed. She mocked him with puppy dog eyes and a girlish pout.
"Yeah, because they only involve something you won't get from me," she returned haughtily.
"For now, at least." Chuck shrugged and his eyes wandered back to the magazine. When something amusing caught his eye, Blair could tell immediately because his whole bearing changed: from languor to concentration, like a leopard on the hunt. "Have you heard about our new headmaster?"
"Only that he's a French guy with a daughter and a dead wife," Blair replied, now truly curious as to why he'd bring up that theme exactly. Chuck Bass did a lot of things, but never without good reason.
"Her name's Eva," Chuck said, amused, his eyes still fixed on the magazine. A smirk formed on his lips.
"How do you know?" Blair quirked an eyebrow at him, standing up.
"Page 33 of your trashy little magazine here: confessions of a virgin." Chuck chuckled, reading the headline aloud. He shook his head as though he were reading a heinously funny comic.
"You're kidding?" Blair snapped. She wanted to see that for herself.
"Here, read yourself." Chuck said, turning the magazine around for her to read. He had told the truth; the headline said so in big, bold letters. The daughter of the new headmaster had come out as a virgin. Blair almost pitied her for the naïve thought that this might be a good thing to do. She took the magazine from Chuck's hands and read it aloud.
"'Why I Want To Wait, by Eva Dupont'...this is disturbing." Blair made a disgusted face.
"Gimme." Chuck snatched the magazine from her hand and lay down on the couch again.
"Blah blah blah...most important decision...blah blah blah...sex changes your character...blah blah blah...end of your childhood – gee, the girl talks like it would be the end of her life," Chuck summarized with a frown. How could someone be so pessimistic about cashing in their V card?
"Did you read the part about how her boyfriend Henry that wants to wait?" Blair giggled.
"Henry. Is. Gay." Chuck enunciated. When it came those things, he saw the world in black and white.
"So she's not going to let you into her pants; looks like there will soon be three women in our school who refuse to let you pleasure then." Blair put one foot up on the table and started to fix one of her stockings.
"Why don't we change that?" Chuck replied, watching her with narrowed eyes. What she was doing was risky business, but it was their game nonetheless.
"Stay where you are, Bass." Blair commanded. She was slightly afraid that one day, she'd want to sleep with him; he was a master, after all, when it came to seduction, and she didn't trust herself with him. She could thank her mother for that lack of self-esteem.
"Ah, you're no fun." Chuck made a quick movement to her side, her foot still on the table, and ran a finger over the ribbon of her stocking before she could slap him away. Chuck was in a dangerously challenging mood, and Blair was certainly not ready to lose anything – let alone her virginity – to him today. No, she assured herself, she really wasn't. After a long moment, however, his eyes told her that such a thing hadn't been his motivation anyway.
"A bet?" asked Blair, recognizing the signs which hung in the air like scent.
"Name the stakes." Chuck smirked. Now the summer had officially begun, and there was nothing more entertaining than a Waldorf-Bass bet. It always involved a lot of money, a few ruined lives (or collateral damage, as they called it) and a bitter and twisted ending for the loser.
"You help me destroy Serena, deflower Eva and I'll buy you a yacht." Blair suggested, knowing full well that he wouldn't settle for such crap.
"Please – you and your mother count my inheritance as family money, I'd just be buying myself a boat." Chuck rolled his eyes. The Waldorf family had almost been ruined by Blair's father but Bart and Eleanor were both business people, fully cognizant of the fact that this marriage was a win-win situation for them both: Eleanor got back the lifestyle she was so used to Bart gained a profitable fashion house for free.
"What else then?" Blair asked him, cocky, one eyebrow raised."
"I do both and I get you." Chuck replied, point blank. He knew what he wanted. Her. Ever since.
"And if you lose?" Blair had seen it coming. She knew he'd set his heart – or in this case, his...manhood – on it and there would be no argument. She had a decision to make: let the bet go, or take the risk.
Blair Waldorf was a number of things, but a coward wasn't one of them.
"I won't." Chuck stated.
"Don't be so sure," Blair sneered, turning her back to him and mentally balancing her chances of success. If he won and made a big deal out of it, her reputation would be crushed. On the other hand, it was something she wanted so badly for so long...more importantly, Serena van der Woodsen was a cotton wool wrapped society girl. Her mother never let anyone damage her reputation, no matter what Serena had done, be it doing blow at a society event or partaking in a threesome in a toilet aged fifteen while her mother was outside hosting a business brunch.
"Come on, Waldorf. You're not going to chicken out, are you?" Chuck challenged. He knew that the moment she started to think about it, he'd won.
"Fine. You'll destroy Serena and deflower our virgin princess before summer's over, and then I'll give to you what you're longing for. And if you lose...I get your limo." Blair wasn't one to chicken out on challenges – not now, not ever. What most people didn't know was that this limo meant more to him. It was a gift his beloved grandfather had given to him when he was six.
"So we do have an agreement?" There was victory in Chuck's eyes.
"We have an agreement," Blair declared. Chuck leaned in to kiss her cheek for a brief, sweet second before turning on his heel and leaving.
Blair knew that from that moment forward, Chuck Bass would do anything in this world to win the bet; but so would she. She picked up her cell and dialed a number.
"Isabelle? Yes, it's Blair. Listen, your mother is the chairwoman of the school's PTA board, right? Have you met the daughter of our new headmaster yet?" Blair asked, and a moment later a huge grin lit her face. "This afternoon. Well, set a place for me, I'll be there too." She didn't even wait for a response before hanging up, a triumphant smile curving her lips.
Spotted: Daddy Bass and Mommy Waldorf taking off to Europe. We wonder what their offspring is up to – here's hoping they give us a long, hot summer...
XO XO, Gossip Girl
A/N: Thanks goes to my beta Bella (The Very Last Valkyrie - read her stories, they're amazing!) who also inspired the name to this story.
Please review and tell me if you want this to be continued!