The first thing Blair became aware of was light, and noise, and then that these two things seemed to be causing her a great deal of pain.
"Miss Blair!" heavily accented English swam through her thick duvet, "the brunch of Mister Bass, you must get up!"
The duvet was pulled back to reveal Blair, her clothes from the night before scattered next to her.
"You are sleeping with your Chanel, get up, now. You father is wanting to speak with you before you go."
The door slammed and Blair winced. She was sleeping with her Chanel and Nate had slept with Ashlee. She sat up, her head screamed at her but she steeled herself. She had told herself that things would be better in the morning and if things didn't bend to her will automatically, she would make them be better.
The shower felt like a big, furry, warm hug. The steam closed in around her body and the stale fug of vomit and smoke and hairspray was washed away by the hot, pounding water on her back.
She stepped out and avoided the mirror until she had dried her hair and got into her underwear, she turned, bracing herself and oh my god.
Her complexion was pale and ill-looking, she had massive drooping bags under her eyes and her hair was in its natural state, straight and uninspiring. This would take some work. Thank you dear Yves Saint Laurent for Touché Éclat. She was going to need it.
It took Blair double the normal amount of time to get ready, she felt sluggish and when she went downstairs, her mother and father were waiting at the breakfast table in silence. Her mother was spreading apricot jam on a minature croissant and her father was reading the Wall Street Journal. Business as usual.
"Blair-bear," he looked up, smiling. This was not what Blair had expected after her outburst last night; her mother glanced up to evaluate her appearance before returning to the apparently fascinating task of meticulously spreading jam on pastry.
"I've been meaning to ask you, is Nate going to be joining us on the way to the brunch?"
Blair was thrown off at the mention of Nate, "I, uh, haven't had the chance to ask him?"
"You were with him last night weren't you sweetie?"
"It must have, um, slipped my mind."
He smiled indulgently at her. "Never mind, I'm sure we'll see him there. The Captain is usually on our table."
Blair's mother rolled her eyes and muttered something to herself, Blair caught what sounded suspiciously like "That insipid little man."
Blair's father looked at her warningly, then, "We should head off now, should we not Eleanor?"
"Blair hasn't eaten a thing!"
"I'm sure there'll be plenty there, Bass Industries is making a killing in the stocks." He said tapping his paper knowingly.
Blair hesitated as they all got up to leave, "Is something wrong Blair-bear?"
She studied his face closely and glanced over to her mother who was looking at her as if she were behaving like a madwoman.
"Nothing, Daddy, it's just that . . . is there anything . . .?" She trailed off; she had no idea what to say. Am I in trouble? Did Mom tell you I came in wasted and hysterical last night? Do you not care if I drink until I puke?
"Nothing."
That was the day Blair Waldorf learned she could do anything.
-----
The brunch was beautiful, all flowers and fine linens and models with trays of champagne flutes stacked with bucks fizz and orange juice. Nate had found her the moment she stepped in. She was wearing a navy blue shift dress with a dull gold headbands and pumps; she let her crimson lips curl into a pouting smile as she saw him though she felt reviled at the very sight of him. He had a bouquet of white roses and as he kissed her on the cheek he whispered a little line about being sorry in her ear, she smiled at told him it was okay and Nate's parents and her father smiled and exchanged looks that clearly said "Chaste love, innocent love, adorable." Eleanor regarded Nate coldly and shrewdly and only did not touch him when she kissed him on the cheek. Her smile was strained and her eyes were sharp on him. No-one noticed except Blair who felt a sudden rush of affection for her mother.
A model took the flowers to put them in water (Blair wanted to stick their heads in the garbage disposal unit a la Kirsten Cohen, even a high-society bitch could enjoy the OC). Nate led Blair over to the table where their friends sat. Blair felt smug seeing that she looked the best out of all of them, everyone else looked clearly worse for the wear, apart from Chuck who looked just like normal, but that was probably because he was constantly high or drunk or both.
Serena definitely looked the worst though, her eyes were bloodshot and her hair was limp and just washed. Her nose was slightly red around the nostrils, like she had a bad cold and on her neck a bruise shone through her concealer.
"Hey S," she sat down next to her.
Serena turned to her, and Blair was shocked to see that she looked genuinely upset, "Can we go somewhere?"
They got up; Chuck slipped his key to the Bass suite into her palm as she passed.
"Thanks Bass."
"I expect repayment in full."
Ugh. Once they reached the penthouse, Serena sat down and put her head in her hands.
Blair came and put her arm round her, then she remembered how Serena had glanced at her the night before and laughed, she wondered what Georgina had said to her. Her arm felt dirty on her.
"What's up S?"
"She's marrying Claus!"
Blair was confused, "Again? I though he was in "mandatory rehabilitation"."
Serena shook her head, exacerbated, "No, she's found another one, this one's name starts with a C, or maybe a K, and the old one started with a C, I can't remember."
"You mom does work fast, what's he like?" Blair was stroking Serena's hair; she wanted to yank it out of her head.
"Horrible! Sleazy! He tried to put his hands down my pants on Bastille Day!"
Blair's nose wrinkled, Lily had terrible taste in men, and holiday destinations. Why go to Monaco for Bastille when you could go to Paris?
"What am I going to do B?" she wailed.
Blair looked up nervously, "What abut last night?"
Serena whipped round sharply so that Blair and her were facing, "What about last night?"
"Well, it's just that I didn't know you were into that kind of thing."
Serena's face softened as she looked at Blair, "Oh, I don't know, I don't think I am. It's just you know what I'm like with Georgie, and I do always have a good time, I don't know, maybe make too big a deal about these things. I feel fine. When did you leave anyway?"
Blair studied Serena's face, "About half one, after Nate and that skank . . ." she trailed off, Serena put her hands around Blair's.
"So S, how did you get that bruise?" She giggled.
Serena hit Blair on the arm and giggle, "Just know I had a goooood time last night."
"Okay S," and with that the two girls headed back downstairs. It wasn't until Blair talked to Kati about the night before that she heard the rumours, that Serena had gone back to Carters' place with Georgina, and that they had all stayed the night.
-----
There was so much food on her plate, she didn't want to eat any of it, lobster and salmon and asparagus and strawberries. She pushed her plate away untouched. Nate was eating roast beef and horseradish at an incredible pace; it made her feel a little sick to watch him, Serena was picking at some kind of goats cheese soufflé, an elbow resting on the table (Eleanor would've had a heart attack), Chuck wasn't eating, he didn't seem to eat much at all, but Blair was pretty sure he must've polished off at least a bottle of White & MacKays' scotch. Chuck had ludicrously expensive taste, but then again, so did Blair, so who was she to judge?
She saw her father leave the room out of the corner of her eye with a tall, slim man with a dark tan and eyes. He was not just a man, he was a god, an Adonis, he was almost as good as Nate. Blair wondered briefly who the man was, most of her fathers clients were old and rich, not young and sexy. Her eyes travelled to her mother, who was talking to Nate's mother. Blair liked Nate's mom, but she did make her feel uncomfortable, she was so perfect, Serena said she was straight out of Stepford, but Blair aspired to that level of perfection. She could not bear the thought of ending up like Lily, someone who people whispered behind their hands about and who remarried as easily as she bought a new pair of Loubourtin's.
There were speeches, Blair used them to practise her high society clap, neck erect, hands slapping lightly together briefly before she placed them back in her lap.
Serena leaned over, "You look like you're on haemorrhoids."
Blair clapped a little more casually after that.
-----
Blair and her mother were silent during the car ride back. When they arrived at the house, Eleanor asked Dorota to fetch her a gin and tonic, stat.
"Where's Daddy?"
Eleanor took a long drag on her cigarette and took the drink from Dorota with shaking hands. After a large gulp she waved her hand dismissively, "God knows," then she mutter something about a Roman in a French accent, though none of this made any sense whatsoever to Blair.
"Mom, have you thought at all about what I said last night?"
Eleanor regarded her and for a moment her face softened, "My darling Blair," and they both sat down at ends of the chaise longue, "You are only fifteen years old," she placed her hand on Blair's chin and regarded her face, "You are just beginning to learn how things are between men and women, I wish you didn't have to ever learn this." She looked devastatingly sad and was silent for a moment, "Where you are going now, what you will learn, I cannot stand beside you. My daughter, you must never forget what can be gained through turning a blind eye." A moment of silence. "Now go and fix your hair, your curls are dropping."
Blair was so stunned she blithely went and curled her hair and fixed it with hairspray.
Sometimes she thought she had imagined these few minutes with her mother, it certainly had been out of character for Eleanor and her mother never mentioned the incident, or tried to advise Blair ever again.
