Quick question – should I let it be a three parter or turn it into a proper story? By the way – thanks for the reviews! It totally gave me an incentive to write this chapter much faster than I thought I would.
-
Chapter 2
-
Whoever said that high school ending with graduation was insane because for our wonderful Upper East Siders, high school's back on track. For tonight, at least.
-
If the parties and drunken nights had done something for Serena, other than winding her up in positions she would rather not remember, it was increase her tolerance for alcohol. She could proudly say that on her twelfth vodka and cranberry, she still wasn't drunk.
But she was bored out of her mind. She sipped the drink slowly, looking around. Blair was talking to one of the teachers who had given her an A minus on an assignment. Turns out, she still wanted to know why she had gotten that mark. Serena smirked, remembering how she had passed her Biology exams. Mr. Wellington and she had certainly changed the meaning of After School Special. Nate and Vanessa were talking to some people from Nate's classes on some movie related topic, on which Vanessa was babbling on and on. Surprisingly, they were the one couple Serena had been really happy to see, without pretenses or anything else. Dan and Jenny, who had been thoroughly ignored by her, were talking to some of Dan's Physics Club friends who were as lame as he was.
There was one person who was missing, therefore.
She drowned the twelfth drink, motioning for Jason to bring her another. It was there in a flash, because she was Serena van der Woodsen.
Beep, beep!
She looked down at her phone, 1 New Message
After she clicked open, she smirked. Meet me in the Bio class. Still smirking, she picked up her glass and left the assembly hall, where the reunion was taking place. She walked through the school carefully, remembering all the fun times they had had there and also checking if there was anyone following her, Gossip Girl perhaps. They hadn't done so well in three years to start acting careless now.
The classrooms were open. In the English class, Kati and Isabel's husband were making out. Interesting. She always thought that Kati and Isabel would end up together. It was frankly obvious to anyone that they were best friends and one of the most frequent lesbian fantasies for everyone in school.
She pushed the classroom door open, smirking at the sight.
One person wasn't missing anymore.
-
An Affair to Remember, S? So, who's the lucky guy?
-
The seven place cards on Table Number 1, read: Blair Waldorf-Bass, Chuck Bass, Serena van der Woodsen, Nate Archibald and Guest, Dan Humphrey and Guest.
Blair smirked, Dan and Serena at the same table, that would be interesting. She was smirking for another reason. She had discovered in high school that there were few things she found pleasurable – dating Nate Archibald, ruining other people's lives and a personal favorite, causing Serena pain. It wasn't major pain, just the little thing that caused Serena to be uncomfortable, caused Blair to be happy.
"So, Blair," said Nate, sitting down on his assigned seat, which was right beside Blair. "How's everything going?"
She shrugged, smiling perfectly. "Great. Work is good but I have to travel a lot. I hate leaving Audrey."
"I know what you mean." Nate replied, grinning. "Chuck travels a lot too, doesn't he?"
"Yes, he does." Blair replied, scowling on the inside at the thought of her good for nothing husband. "He takes Audrey with him, sometimes, when I'm out of town. Inevitably, they wind up meeting Serena so that Audrey has someone to be with."
"Hm." Nate replied, as everyone around them sat down. He wondered where Vanessa had disappeared off too. "Speaking of, where is Chuck?"
She smiled fakely. "Work – he works too much."
There was a time when she had been in love with Chuck. The first two years of their marriage, when he was in Harvard Business School and she stayed at home with Audrey, she loved him because he was Chuck Bass. He was sweet, doted on Audrey and brought her presents. But then she realized that he was sleeping with everyone from his classes. Divorce was the first thought but what about Audrey? She spoke to everyone, from her mother (who said that unless he's cheating on you with a man, there's no point in divorce) to Serena (who said she should ask herself whether she really loved him). In the end, because of Audrey, they stayed together. He finished school, took over his father's job and they moved back to New York. After Audrey's sixteenth birthday, divorce would be the first thing on her mind.
"Hey Blair." Vanessa said, sitting down beside her husband.
"Hi," Blair greeted, whilst thinking, Brooklyn Bitch Alert! Where was Serena, so that they could snicker together? "How are you doing? I saw that documentary of yours, the one about the poor people in Brooklyn."
"Did you like it?" asked the director.
"It was good." Blair had hated it. Where the diamonds? The glitz and the glamour?
"Where were you?" she heard Nate ask, quietly.
"In the ladies' room." Brooklyn Bitch replied. Liar! Screamed Blair, in her mind. She was coming from the ladies' room and Brooklyn Bitch had been nowhere near.
"Oh, there's Chuck!" Nate said, standing up to greet his friend. They did the funky handshake before they sat down on either side of Blair. She remembered high school, when they had been on either side of her. With jealousy, she thought, where was Serena, so that they could be fantasizing about her?
"Hi, honey," she said, stomping his foot with her three inch heels. "You shouldn't work too much."
Chuck didn't say anything, instead looked around the table. Miffed that her husband didn't even bother to reply to her now, Blair pressed her hands into the napkin, looking down at her lap. She felt her neck prickle, indicating that someone or the other was probably looking at her. She didn't give them the satisfaction of looking up.
"Hey guys!" said the annoyingly sweet voice of Jenny Humphrey. She heard two chairs shift and the two unwanted Humphreys sat down, looking around as though people actually wanted them here. Brooklyn Bitch probably did, to feel more at home.
"Hey Jenny." Nate greeted the younger girl, like the chivalrous idiot he was. Blair wiped her mouth, although there was nothing on it, with the napkin and looked back up. "How's the design collection going?"
"It wouldn't be going if it hadn't been for you," gushed the blonde. "And of course, Eleanor," she added, remembering Blair's now elder, but still the same looking, mother. A couple of seconds later, "I wanted to thank you too, Blair. With the publicizing you're doing in Vogue."
To be honest, Blair had done that to make people realize how utterly awful the Humphrey Designs were, not to make her famous. Was she the only one who knew what good fashion was? Serena agreed with her, though.
"Now that you're famous, I'll stop," she replied sweetly, making the blonde speechless. Speaking of blondes, where the last member of their table?
"Have you seen Serena?" she asked Nate.
Her husband smirked. "It's Serena, she's probably fucking some guy in the coat closet."
"You just wish it was you, Bass," said the talked about blonde, sitting down with her customary drink in her hand.
"Hi Serena." Jenny said, making Blair raise an eyebrow. The girl had guts. "How are you?"
"I'm better than you." Serena replied, with the same sweetness which Jenny had showed her. 'Atta girl!' thought Blair, smirking as Jenny looked down into her lap. Everyone at the table, save for Lonely Boy and Brooklyn Bitch were holding back smirks.
"Hey!" defended Lonely Boy, "You're such a –"
High school happened again as Nate and surprisingly, Chuck, came to her rescue. The latter wasn't as vocal with his words but the former was. "Don't finish that sentence, Dan." She suspected that he didn't want to hurt Dan, because his friendship with her wife but she also knew that when it came to Nate, no girl (except Chelsea) came before Serena.
"Yeah, sit down, Dan." Chuck said, smirking.
-
It's high school again, isn't it, B? With every guy's attention on S?
-
Dan scowled, sitting down quietly. He didn't remember why he once thought of these people as being decent, even being their friends at one point of time. He remembered when Chuck, Nate and Blair refused to let him see Serena before his girlfriend broke up with him because she "cheated". He remembered when he helped Blair bring Georgina down. He remembered when Nate and him had taken care of Jenny and Vanessa.
He sighed. The root of his problem had always been the Upper East Side Prince Charming. With Serena, they had a past which neither of them could escape from. With Jenny, they both wanted the best for her but unfortunately, their ideas of what was best were different. With Vanessa the problem was still going on.
He knew that Vanessa and Nate weren't happy. She had told him so, on that night they spent a couple of years ago. They didn't spend night together, as he had hoped but Vanessa did stay the night, telling Nate that she was too tired to come home, when she was actually drunk. He wasn't as pathetic as people thought – taking advantage of a drunk girl? That was Chuck's area of expertise. But Vanessa had told him that they weren't happy.
Or was it they weren't as happy as she wanted them to be.
No, Dan thought, it definitely wasn't that. If they weren't happy, then they shouldn't have been together. He spent the last two years trying to convince Vanessa that she wasn't happy, that she should leave him. Of course, Vanessa denied being unhappy and there wasn't any way she was leaving him, especially since Chelsea was still so young.
Stupid kid, he thought.
-
Putting your blame on kids, Lonely Boy? Here's a reality check for you – like Harris Tweed and silk don't mix, neither does Brooklyn and the Upper East Side.
-
"Why does everyone have kids on this table?" asked Jenny, in mock anguish. "God, you all are just twenty two."
"I don't." Serena said, finishing off a drink. Jenny rolled her eyes. No matter how beautiful, gracious her idol may be, she was an alcoholic. Jenny was surprised that she wasn't drunk by now.
"When will you have kids, S?" asked Blair, interrupting Jenny's flow of conversation. Jenny scowled, on the inside, at the pretty brunette. "When will you get married? Settle down? Ha –"
"God, B, you sound like my Mom." Serena mumbled, making everyone chuckle and the brunette frown. "And I'm just twenty two. Unlike the rest of you who decided to jump from eighteen to eighty, I'm going to live a little before settling down."
Everyone rolled their eyes.
"We're not eighty, S." Nate commented, though he was grinning.
"Yeah, we've still got a couple of more years in our youth!" Vanessa said, grinning, like her husband.
Husband. Jenny hated that word. It wasn't that with husband came faithfulness because she clearly remembered her mother cheating on her father. It wasn't that with husband came love because everyone could see that the "love" that Blair and Chuck once shared was now gone. But with husband came stability.
And twenty year old Jenny Humphrey wanted nothing more than stability.
Stability with a certain Nate Archibald, to be specific.
She couldn't remember when she realized that she was in love with Nate but over the years, it had grown from just a crush, to an infatuation to a deep liking and eventually love. She tried to hide it, deny it and do everything but in the end, she knew that she loved Nate.
What was worse was that he was married. To one her close friends. She spent a lot of time in the Archibald house, in the pretense of being with Vanessa. But most of the time, she wished to catch a glance of Nate. It was getting so pathetic that she was even thinking of moving somewhere close to them. There was no way she could handle the rent of the Upper East Side but she was looking, just in case something cheap showed up.
She looked around, wondering what people were talking about now.
"Last I heard, you were in Hawaii." Vanessa was saying, talking to none other than Serena.
God, Serena was all they talked about. What was so great about her anyway? Sure, she was probably the prettiest girl in the room and a majority of the men (married, unmarried, single, gay) were staring at her. But she was a bitch!
"Yeah, there's a little island which has some amazing water sports." Serena replied, grinning.
"Where are you going next?" asked Vanessa.
She couldn't even understand how people found Serena more interesting than her. She was the one with the famous clothing line!
"We're doing a big cities thing for a couple of months. I'll be going to London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Chicago, Los Angeles – mostly the capitals and largest cities of some countries."
Vanessa nodded. Jenny didn't miss the unconscious way she grabbed her husband's hand. Nate looked up when he felt Vanessa's hand wrap around his and rubbed it softly, leaning in to peck her cheek.
It turns out that Jenny wasn't the only one enthralled by the couple.
Dan and Blair looked at them in jealousy, because the former wanted to be the one Vanessa was kissing and the latter wanted what the two had.
Jenny stared at them, feeling as though her heart was breaking, piece by piece.
Serena stared at them with a fond look, as though she was a sister or a mother who was happy to see them together.
Chuck, with his usual smirk, stared at them. Jenny thought that he was probably having a porn show in his mind.
Ew.
-
Like S said, Little J, you're just sad it's not you who N's kissing.
-
"Hey man."
Chuck looked up, waving his hand to invite Nate to sit down. He sloshed the Scotch around in the glass before the blonde sat down, his hand enclosed around a glass of coke. Although Chuck still drank, he didn't drink like his father did – in front of a child. He knew that he wouldn't have a problem with Audrey drinking when she was elder (although boys were a different thing) but he didn't want to influence her too soon.
"Hey," Chuck replied, "Where's the wife?"
"'Round here somewhere." Nate replied, chuckling. "Where's your wife?"
Chuck raised an eyebrow at the tone. "'Round here somewhere."
Nate shifted in his seat. Chuck was sure that his friend was debating in his mind whether to ask about Chuck's marriage. To be honest, he wouldn't mind spilling some beans but there was a certain person who would kick his ass, as she had put it, if he did.
"How are you guys?" asked Nate, finally.
"Fine," replied Chuck, shrugging. "Don't we look like a happy family?" the sarcasm was evident in his voice.
"No, you don't…look, man, we've grown up here. You know how hard it is for a kid to grow up with parents who hate each other. You and Blair obviously aren't in love with each other anymore, I can see that. You should figure it out before Audrey gets old enough to know what's happening." Nate advised.
Chuck hadn't seen it that way.
"There's…" he started, but stopped. Was there another reason he was staying with Blair, apart from the obvious? Yes, but he wasn't going to tell Nate that. "There's another woman."
To be honest, Nate wasn't surprised. Chuck Bass was Chuck Bass. "Is she, like…just another mistress or is it something more?" He didn't think that his friend would have anything more than fling.
"It's something more," admitted Chuck. At Nate's expression, he continued. "It started a long time ago, like three years or something. At first, it was just sex, you know. Blair and I weren't doing it, considering we couldn't stay in the same room together without having World War III. I started spending more time with this girl and it got…bigger, you know."
"Oh." Now, Nate was surprised. It wasn't shocking to know that Chuck had been cheating on Blair. Everyone knew he would but actually cheating on Blair with someone worth cheating for? He didn't think that his friend a romantic bone in his body, especially after the Tuscany Blair fiasco. "Does she know you're married?"
Chuck rolled his eyes. "Yeah." He decided to bend the truth a little. "She's actually met Blair."
"Man, you're one sardonic asshole." Nate commented, rolling his eyes. "Does Blair know?"
"Probably," the brunette replied. "She – this girl, is the other reason I'm not leaving Blair. She likes Blair, apparently and doesn't want me to break her heart."
Nate raised a skeptical eyebrow. "And she's okay with being the other woman?"
Chuck could only nod.
"Do you love her? Blair, I mean."
Chuck shrugged. "I loved her. The first two months of our marriage, I thought we could make it work. We could be the couple my Mom and Dad could never be. But then…" he trailed off, looking down at the glass. "Then I realized that I cant love Blair. I just cant. I've tried, again and again to love her, to like her but it's fucking impossible for me."
"Do you love her, the other girl?" asked Nate, raising his eyebrows.
Chuck smirked. "I wouldn't admit it. I haven't admit it. To her, at least. But…yeah, I'm in love with her. I can see myself being happy with her."
"Wow, Chuck…wow." Nate said, getting up from the seat, "You should think it over. Don't let Audrey grow up in a fake home."
Chuck watched his best friend leave, pondering what Nate had said. Should he break up with Blair? It would make things a helluva lot easier for everyone. And Audrey wouldn't grow up with her parents hating each other. Divorce could be a better option for the little girl.
"Chuck," said the base of all his problems, sitting down beside him. "I want you to be home tomorrow night."
Chuck raised a brow. "Why?"
"I'm throwing a dinner party." Blair said, smoothing down her dress. "For our senior class."
"You're fucking kidding me," he hissed, rolling his eyes. "Why would you fucking do that?"
"Mrs. M wanted someone to do it and she came to me." Blair replied, getting up with a fake smile. "Now, be there, don't be drunk, be on time and don't you fucking come with some slut's perfume all over you."
-
How are you so sure it's a slut, B? It could be someone around you? It could even be the Channel No. 5 who was in the bathroom or the Elizabeth Arden who smiled at you.
-
She had been there for over an hour and a half and frankly, Serena was tired. She wasn't physically tired, she was mentally tired with acting as though everything was perfect. Everything wasn't perfect. It might've good but she knew that perfection was something no one in that room could achieve, except maybe Nate and Vanessa.
She had left the school, sending a message to Blair that she wasn't feeling well. Her friend had replied back, saying that she should get a good night's sleep because tomorrow she was throwing a dinner party for everyone.
Walking into Central Park, with a Mocha Latte in her hand, Serena smiled fondly at all the memories they had shared here. If though she had traveled most of the globe, the only place she would ever feel like home was New York. And it wasn't just because of the Park or the steps of the Met or the Barneys, but New York was home.
"A penny for your thoughts?" asked Chuck, sitting down beside her. Where had he come from? Serena shrugged, mentally and offered him her coffee. He shook his head. Surprisingly, coffee was the one thing Chuck hated. Everyone could practically picture him chugging down cups and cups of coffee after a hangover but Chuck Bass's firmly believe in "poison kills poison," otherwise known as alcohol kills a hangover.
"I think my thoughts are worth more than a penny."
Chuck rolled his eyes. "A hundred dollar bill for your thoughts?"
She giggled, shaking her head. "I was just thinking about home, New York…" she trailed off. But he didn't need to read her mind to know what she meant.
"I was talking to Nate." Chuck mumbled, unconsciously taking out a cigarette to smoke. "He said I should break it off with Blair."
"It would break her heart." Serena said, bluntly.
"But she doesn't love me."
Snorting, the blonde stood up. "God, Chuck, you're such an idiot! No, you're a boy!" she all but screamed, pacing the length of the bench they were sitting on. "It's not that she doesn't love you because deep down, she still does. Just because it's stopping showing on the outside doesn't mean it's not there on the inside. Divorcing her would devastate her, Chuck. What about Audrey, how is she going to feel?"
"It'll be better than growing up with a mother and father who cant stand each other." Chuck replied, looking up. "Audrey can deal with this, we can help her deal with this, she's young, she'll understand."
"Besides," continued Chuck, holding out a hand. "I can't stay with Blair anymore. I don't love her. I never will."
Serena ignored the hand. "But you once loved her."
"Once, Serena. It was a long time ago. Anyway, I've got you now…"
-
They say that there are some people whom you just cant stay away from. For Rhett Butler, it was Scarlett O'Hara. For Howard Roark, it was Dominique Fancorn. For Edward Cullen, it was Bella Swan. And for our lovable S, it seems that the person she cant stay away from is Blair's love interest, whether it's N or C.
-
Yes, it's a Chuck and Serena. I'm pathetically in love with them as a couple but…if I extend the story, I might just think about Chuck and Blair. All you've got to do is review and tell me!