"Ohhhhh, Nate!" A voice cried out through the apartment.

Chuck rolled his eyes. That was definitely not the fiance of Nate Archibald, the beautiful Blair Waldorf. He would recognize that roll of the tongue anywhere: the best friend of Blair, Serena Van der Woodsen. He looked up from his morning newspaper momentarily, to call out: "Hey, Nate, can you keep it down in there? If you're not careful, Blair might hear you all of those miles away."

A few minutes later, a awestruck Nate and an embarrassed Serena, clad in only one of Nate's button-up t-shirt's and a crimson blush, stumbled out of the bedroom.

"Sorry, man," Nate murmured out of the corner of his mouth. "Can't help that I'm good."

Chuck rolled his eyes again, disgusted. He returned to his morning routine of sitting on his little blue couch with his feet propped up on his coffee table, crossed at the ankles, and sipping on a glass of whiskey.

"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" Serena asked.

Chuck glared at her from over the top of his newspaper. He brought it down a bit. "Isn't it a bit early to be screwing your best friend's boyfriend?" He waited for Nate and Serena to give him a look before he chuckled and threw his newspaper to the side. "Calm down. Look, I appreciate the concern, sis, but my drinking habits are not easily changed." He sat his glass down on the coffee table and stood up, straightening his suit.

"Where are you off to?" Nate asked.

"I have business to attend to," Chuck smirked. Nate threw his head back and laughed, knowing exactly what that meant. Serena looked around, confused, allowing his words to process through her extremely slow, blonde head. Suddenly, she scrunched her face up, looking disgusted, as she realized what he meant. She stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed, repositioning his tie tighter around his neck. He nodded at the two pathetic individuals standing in front of him and exited his suite.

Arthur was waiting with the limo downstairs. When he climbed in, he called, "Waldorf penthouse."

When he arrived into the penthouse, there was a ding behind him, signaling that someone had entered the house. Blair's housemaid, Dorota, came shuffling to the elevator. "Mr. Chuck," she said, looking surprised to see him here. "I get Miss Blair for you."

Chuck held up his hand. "There's no need, Dorota. I'll just go speak to her myself." He pushed past her protesting and opened mouth, willing her not to speak anymore. He rushed up the stairs and rapped on Blair's door.

"Come in," he heard her sweet voice call.

He slowly opened the door, peering in to see her sitting cross-legged on her bed, her hair in her face as she poured over some fashion magazine. She didn't even look up, but a gentle smile spread across her gorgeous features. "Chuck," she said. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Chuck smirked at her. "We have a lunch date, Blair. Don't tell me you forgot?"

Blair's eyes widened and she hopped out of bed. "I'm sorry!" She squeaked. "I totally did forget!" She looked around, panicked. Chuck just laughed at her as she went to her closet and started pulling outfits out. "Have you seen Nate today?" she asked, as she held a little black dress in front of her body in the face of her full body mirror.

"Mmm," Chuck mused, watching her frown at the dress in the mirror. "That'll look good on you, Blair..." Blair's eyes looked up and met his in the mirror. She held them there for a moment until he cleared his throat, and she tore her eyes away. "Anyway, yeah, he's been locked up in his room all day."

Blair whipped around to look at him. "Well, is he alright?"

Chuck rolled his eyes at her desperate need to hear news about his best friend. "Your his fiance, you would know better than I would."

Blair made an impatient face. "Your his roommate," she shot back.

Chuck sighed. "He's fine, Blair. I'm sure he'll call you tonight. I'll give him the message."

This cheered her up. "So, where are we eating?"

"Butter," Chuck replied nonchalantly, watching Blair's face light up.

"But that's my favorite-!"

"I know," Chuck smiled back at her.

"But Nate never takes me-"

"I know," Chuck replied again, nodding his head. "Now, get changed so we can go."

Blair stood there, staring at him, waiting on him to exit her room. He stared back at her, not moving from his spot, a smirk playing on his strong features. "Chuck!" She shrieked. "You perv! Get out, get out, get out! I'm not changing in front of you!" She ran towards him, hands out in front of her, until they collided roughly with his chest, shoving him backwards out of the room and slamming her bedroom door in his face. She heard him murmuring some stupid, perverted come back and rolled her eyes, but a smile found its way upon her lips. She slipped out of her pajamas and pulled on the little black dress that Nate had bought her for her sixteenth birthday. She quickly pulled her hair up into an elegant bun and put some lipgloss on, staring at herself in the mirror, trying to decide if she liked the way she looked.

"You look great," she heard Chuck's voice from the doorway. She hadn't even heard the door open. She whipped around, daggers in her eyes and Chuck shook his head. "No, I haven't been standing here the whole time. I didn't see you change." His stomach growled and, as if on cute, so did hers. "Now, can we go? I'm starving."

Blair smiled and walked toward him, linking her arm in his as she always did. She enjoyed the way his bicep felt, and the way a warm glow spread across her skin at his touch but she kept her mouth shut. He talked about some business meeting he had later in the day and she just smiled and nodded and pretended to be listening, but all she was doing was watching his lips as he spoke, the way they curled and spread, wondering what it was like to be one of those many girls that he kissed with them. She shook her head, trying to shake the thoughts out of her brain. She must have just been lonely, been missing Nate, got distracted.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Chuck held the door open for her and she stepped inside, her insides buzzing with excitement to be at her favorite restaurant in all of Manhattan. Chuck stepped in behind her, placing his hand on the small of her back. She had to keep her body from tensing up at the electric shock she felt at his touch. What was going on with her? She swallowed hard and let out a breath when Chuck removed his hand to attend to the host. He started to say his name for the reservation but the host held up his hand. "Bass, yes, I know. Bass, party of two, window view."

Blair's eyes lit up with excitement once again. She loved the window view. Her favorite thing was to sit, eating her favorite food, watching people and trying to determine their daily scenarios or life stories. She hopped with excitement, following Chuck and the host. Chuck pulled out her chair for her, like always, but for some reason, this time, she was struck with an overwhelming feeling of how sweet that little gesture was. She smiled at him and sat down.

"How's the wedding planning going?" Chuck asked her, making conversation.

Blair took a sip of water, trying to soothe her cotton-mouth. "Good," she replied. "Well, as good as it can get, I guess." She blinked. "Nate's mother and my mother are more concerned about it than we are, I guess. I could care less about the flower arrangements and the exact time in seconds that I walk down the aisle."

Chuck looked surprised. "I thought you wanted a perfect princess wedding."

Blair shrugged and her smile faltered. "I always thought that I would be marrying someone who...made me so happy. Sometimes I'm not sure if Nate does that for me." She paused. "All he does is play video games and get high. He doesn't have a plan for college or a career or anything and it just kind of stresses me out. Of course, at some point, I'll be in charge of Waldorf designs, so I can make all of the money but it still concerns me with what he's going to do. I mean, he can't just do stupid teenage boy things forever. I suppose that's our own fault for getting married so young. He hasn't had time to mature yet-" She stopped abruptly, realizing she was rambling. Chuck had just been smiling and nodding along, surely not listening to a word she was saying. "Sorry," she added. "I'm rambling."

Chuck gave her an encouraging smile. "It's okay to express your fears and doubts sometimes, Blair. Truly."

Blair smiled back at him, appreciating his kindness and friendship towards her. Now that she thought about it, when you looked past his pervy jokes and comments, he was a really good friend. He took the time to listen to her, which not even Nate ever did. The only other person that did that was Serena. And where was Serena? She hadn't spoken to her in a few days. Normally, Serena was calling or texting her every day, fulfilling her maid of honor duties, and asking what Blair needed her to do for that day. Now that they had graduated and it was summer, there was much more time for things to be planned, which made it a little less stressful for Blair. They would be married in mid August, nearly a month and a half away, and Blair would return to work at her mother's company, while going to college full-time for a degree in business. She looked up at Chuck, realizing that she never asked what he was doing after the summer was over.

"Chuck," she said. "What are your plans for the fall?"

Chuck shrugged. "I have a huge meeting in London for an entire week after the wedding with the head of Claus Industries over there. He's going to try and let me convince him to merge our companies and go international, with Bass Industries as the name. I would, of course, have to pay him a great sum of money, but that would be no problem. If the company went international, the profit would be outstanding."

Blair grinned at Chuck. "That's amazing!" That was what she needed. A man with a plan, a man that would be able to support her and a family in the future. If Nate had done something like that, they would be a power couple. They would make so much money and be on top of the world. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You never really asked," Chuck said, looking down at his menu.

Blair frowned. "You're right. All we ever talk about is me and the wedding."

Chuck looked up at her. "I don't mind, Blair. I like hearing you speak."

Blair was surprised. Nate had never said anything like that to her. She let out a loud sigh that she didn't know she had been holding in and simply smiled at Chuck in response. "Thanks for doing this, Chuck." She said as the waiter made his way over to their table. "It really means a lot to me that you take the time out of your busy day to take me out to lunch."

"It's my pleasure, Blair. I knew you could probably use a break."

He was so sweet. He was the perfect friend. The perfect guy. The perfect everything. He was nothing like Nate. Chuck was somebody Blair could see herself spending the rest of her life with, but that's not how it was playing out. She'd thought, at some young age, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she and Chuck would end up together. She'd thought this since he had taken her to the park and laid with her under the stars when they were young, after her parents had split. But now she was engaged to Nate. She looked down at the ring, admiring it. It was a beautiful ring and Nate was a good guy. Their relationship was simple. It would always be simple. But Blair was starting to doubt if that was even what she wanted anymore. She knew with Chuck things would be a bit more complicated - they were both very proud and confident and had big plans for themselves. Finding time for each other would be hard, but that was what she wanted. But she had to stay with Nate, for her mother and Nate's mother, to feel comfortable.

They were using their children to help each other with their businesses. Blair didn't mind all that much at first. She loved Nate, she just wasn't in love with him. Her mind always went back and forth between being okay with that fact and then not being okay with it. But she always figured that in the long run, it would be better to spend her life with someone who she had already been with and put up with for so long than someone she had to learn everything about all over again.

After Chuck and Blair were done eating lunch, they climbed back into the limo. As soon as Arthur closed the door, shutting them in, Blair's phone began buzzing. She dug through her large purse frantically and looked around wildly, until Chuck nodded at her hand and she realized she'd been holding it the entire time. The screen read 'Nate' and the background was a picture of him kissing her on the cheek from two years ago. She was always surprised by how happy she looked in that picture, knowing so much had changed from then. She sighed and looked up at Chuck, who nodded with approval for her to take the phone call. She slid the lock screen. "Nate!" She chirped, feigning excitement to hear from him.

"Hey, baby," Nate said in a sleepy voice. Almost too sleepy to be 3:00 pm. Blair swallowed hard to down her suspicions, promising herself she was not going to be a crazy girlfriend - and certainly not a crazy wife! "How are you?"

"I'm good, just out at lunch with-"

Chuck cleared his throat loudly and Blair looked at him. He was shaking his head frantically and waving his hands, telling her not to say she was with him. She paused, confused, before finally filling in "...mother. What have you been up to today?"

She saw Chuck make a weird face out of the corner of his eye, like he was holding back from saying something, but she ignored him. "Oh, you know," Nate said. "The usual. Playing video games and-"

"Smoking weed?" Blair added, faking a laugh. "Of course."

"So how's planning our wedding going?"

Blair felt weird about the way he said that, as if he wanted nothing to do with planning their wedding, which he hadn't. He hadn't pitched in ideas or asked to help in the slightest. Anytime Blair mentioned something, he always just said, "Sure, whatever you want, babe." She and Nate made small talk until he began to sound distracted and she decided to let him go. When she hung up the phone, she looked at Chuck for answers.

"Why didn't you want Nate to know you took me out to lunch?" Blair asked.

Chuck thought for a moment. "Well...you know how Nate is," he tried. "He gets kinda jealous...sometimes."

That was mostly a lie. Nate never go jealous unless Blair was hanging all over someone else. He would never think anything was going on between his best friend and his fiance...unless there was. Blair's heart picked up at the thought. She and Chuck quite obviously weren't sleeping together. But that didn't mean that he didn't like her...She tried to push back the thought. Chuck Bass didn't 'like' girls. He just manipulated them, used them for sex, and then never called them back the next day.

Blair, realizing she had never responded to him and he was looking at her, nodded, putting her phone back into her purse. They pulled up at her penthouse and she slid over to the door. "I had a lot of fun today, Chuck," she said softly, placing a gentle kiss on his cheek, her lips lingering for just a moment over his hot, smooth skin. "Thank you for being so great. I truly needed this. You're an incredible friend." And with that, she slid out of the limo and walked away.

Chuck sighed loudly and slumped back against his seat, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Blair was wrong - he wasn't a good friend, not in the slightest. He wasn't a good friend to her because he refused to tell her about Nate and Serena because he didn't want to hurt her feelings. He wasn't a good friend to Nate because he had fallen in love with his fiance… and it hurt like hell.

A/N: Hello, my lovely readers! Thanks so much for reading the first chapter in my story. I know I have a lot of stories going on at once but I can't help getting bored with them, hence my crappy writing lately. Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, I just really felt that this was a good place to end it! So, Blair, Nate, Chuck, and Serena are all best friends and Nate's parents basically forced him into proposing to Blair. He's been sleeping with Serena behind her back, which we'll see more of their feelings about this in the next chapter. They've all made an agreement not to tell Blair because they don't want to hurt her. Chuck has messed everything up even more by falling in love with Blair himself. Over the course of the next few chapters, we may just see her falling for him as well... Hope you enjoy! Please R&R. :)