Update.
He'd liked that Serena. That Serena with her bright laugh and abused liver. The Serena who drunk into oblivion and schemed with him; who'd laugh at Blair's dignity and Nate's hero-complex. The blonde star who'd let herself go, let the alcohol and drugs decide her actions, as he'd laugh at the trail of stunned men drooling after her. The blonde whirlwind who let her heart lead her, not her brain. He'd wanted that Serena, with her drunken giggle and more strangers dirtying her sheets than his own. The Serena with heels thrown carelessly on his floor, a mixture of musk and alcohol seeping through her pores. Hell, he'd trusted that Serena. More than that, he understood that Serena. She was like him in so many ways. With their broken families, escape within bottles and random hook-ups, and even at her most destructive Serena kept her silence about his late night confessions. He was never beneath her, never unworthy. She didn't look down on him like he was less than dear Nathanial, and in the rare moments of complete sobriety Chuck recognized the pain in her eyes; a pain Nathanial and Blair could never understand; the pain of lost parents and nights imagining their smiles, the ache of having a best friend just not understand and the confusion of being trapped in a reputation of your own creation.
Her return brought change to the UES for she was no longer the tainted princess they'd known, not the equal partying companion Chuck'd known. He hated this Serena, the reformed version with steady relationships and soda water at parties. The Serena on her god-damn pedestal because she'd changed and he was still as he'd always been. The very same tall blonde he kept hoping would show up at his door with puke in her hair or Blair's latest complaint on her tongue. But she never showed up like he'd hoped, instead she came with serious eyes and fears, even a freaking apology. She came completely sober, attempting to be a good friend, to Blair, to himself, and as much as he hated Serena 2.0 he found that he actually respected her. She'd managed to prove society wrong for at least a while, to turn habits into pastimes and stay still long enough for the past to catch up. He stopped waiting for her fall and instead watched in subdued wonder as she climbed because as much as he disliked it, he believed in the reformed princess.
