As they locked eyes for the first time in over a year the tension between them was so thick it made Serena short of breath. Her eyes anxiously darted around the room, trying to establish if Blair had returned from talking to Eleanor, who had dragged her back upstairs to fix her hair before she saw Nate. Blair wasn't back yet and Serena realised that she didn't know if it soothed or unsettled her. She was looking everywhere but at him, desperately trying to avoid a scene in front of all of her family's friends and half of the Upper East Side.

Nate beamed at her, pure joy clear on his face. He started to walk towards her with an air of being at ease that he alone still held in the room. When he stood before her she finally flicked her eyes back up towards his, a pouty look of distress on her face.

"You came back." She said flatly. Nate frowned.

"Yeah... you're disappointed?" He asked. Serena's face contorted with anguish.

"I don't know how I feel. I need a drink." She mumbled, pushing past him and out of the room.

She side-stepped the waiters and guests that she passed, instead heading straight for the Waldorf's liquor cabinet. She grabbed the first bottle she could reach and took a swig before pouring herself a sizable glass full and taking a sip. She leant heavily against a nearby mahogany table, causing the antique vase on it to wobble precariously. She grabbed it with clumsy hands and closed her eyes with relief. She sighed and drank deeply from her tumbler. She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her mini dress and leant her head back, trying to figure out how to escape all the horrors of the afternoon. A hand laid on hers and made her jump.

"Sorry," he said with a wry smile, "I didn't mean to shock you. I guessed I'd find you here."

She looked at him, confused. "Here, why?"

"I could tell you were stressed because all our parents were staring at you, of course you came to get a drink." Nate grinned at her. Serena wrinkled her nose and pulled her hand away before stepping away from him.

"That's not me anymore, Nate. I've changed." She told him, an edge to her voice.

Nate scoffed a little before stepping towards her to take her hands in his. "I hope not too much, I liked things the way they were." He whispered, looking seductively into her eyes.

Serena's face turned livid and she snatched her hands away. "Well that's a pity, Nate. It's been a year, things have changed. You can't just take off for months and walk back into a life exactly the same as the one you left. Everything is different now."

"I didn't want to walk back into the life I left, I hoped you'd be happy to see me, I thought you'd have thought about-" He stammered, confused. "Serena, I thought you would have missed me."

"What does it matter if I did?" Serena cried, throwing her arms into the air. "I miss The Gilmore Girls, but it hasn't stopped me moving on with my life."

Nate's face turned stony. "I'm back. I came back f-"

"Don't, Nate!" Serena shouted. "Don't you dare say you came back for me. I didn't ask you to come here, I didn't ask you to come back and ruin everything all over again."

"Then what do you want, Serena? I left because of you; did you think I'd just disappear?" He hissed, stepping towards her. "I'm taking back my life, Serena. You think you can control everything; you, Blair-"

"Do not bring Blair into this!" Serena interrupted, stepping towards him and grabbing his arm hard. "What happened was our fault and she doesn't deserve to be hurt again!"

"And what exactly gives you the slightest impression that either of you have any effect on me, or me feelings?" Blair said, seething and calm, from the doorway. "As far as I'm concerned you never came back and as for you," her eyes slid over to Serena, her expression pure hate, "I've already learnt to expect nothing but disappointment and betrayal from people like you."

She swept out of the room too quick for Serena to stop her, leaving Chuck alone in the doorway, shaking his head slowly, a satisfied expression on his face.

9th July 2006, 06:30am

The first thing Serena was aware of was the deep ache on her hips and between her thighs. Second, by only moments, to this was her pounding head. Her eyes felt sore from another late night and sleeping in her make-up, and the situation wasn't helped by the sun light searing through her eyelids. She could tell something was wrong, but she wasn't quite sure what. The light was different, somehow, like it was brighter than usual. The light in her room was usually soft in the morning, as it came in from behind her bed.

It suddenly hit her. Not again. Another night. Another bed. Another guy.

She groaned and covered her closed eyes with her hand, curling her sore legs up to her chest. She grimaced when she felt her companion roll towards her, snake an arm around her waist and kiss her shoulder. She grabbed the sheets and rolled wriggled away to sit up against the pillows. She looked for the first time to see who she was in bed with.

Her heart stopped.

Wrong night. Wrong bed. Wrong guy.

She clutched the sheets tightly up to her chest as her best friend's boyfriend stretched next to her, smiling like the cat that had got the cream. He opened his eyes slowly and gazed at her, reaching out to put a hand on her bare back. She stiffed at his touch, but before she could say anything or shift out of his reach she heard the unmistakeable sound of a phone vibrating somewhere in the room. Nate sighed and rolled away from her to get off the bed. Serena blushed and averted her eyes as Nate stood and pulled on his boxers before beginning to look for his phone. She glanced back when he had moved away and slid off the bed, never taking her eyes off him to make sure he didn't turn back around as she grabbed her crumpled dress and pulled it on.

She had just zipped her dress up and started frantically scanning the floor for her shoes when she heard Nate's noise of exasperation and the soft 'flump' as something small landed on the bed.

"Blair," Nate grumbled, "and my phone showed twelve missed calls from her last night. Hey, what are you doing?"

"Looking for my shoes, I stole them from my mom's closet." She said, tucking her hair behind her ear as she dipped down to look beneath the bed. She found one of the shoes and stood and turned, surprised to find him stood directly in front of her. "Nate, please, I have to get home."

"No, stay." He said softly, rubbing her arms. "We can breakfast, relax, maybe- Damn, Blair again!" He strode across the room and grabbed his phone, pressing the reject call button before throwing it down on the bed again.

"You should answer that." Serena said, brushing past him and grabbing the other shoe from on top of the television.

"What?" Nate asked, baffled, turning to look at her. "She called me twelve times last night, Serena. In an hour. I mean, that's-"

"That's what a girlfriend does when her boyfriend disappears from an event they were attending together." Serena said, a little acidly. Nate frowned.

"Girlfriend..? Serena, I can't stay with Blair anymore, not after last night. Not now that we-"

"Now that we what? Made a horrible mistake? Betrayed our oldest friend?" Serena snapped.

Nate stared at her for a moment, open mouthed. "But... Serena, you know how I feel about you."

"And I know how Blair feels about you. And I could never do this to her. I can't believe you could." She walked towards the door. "This never happened, Nate. I won't be this person."

"I can't just ignore this!" He cried, making her turn around to face him again, her lips pressed into a firm line. "I can't just answer Blair's phone calls, meet her for brunch, be her boyfriend. I don't want her, I want you."

"I don't care. I don't want her hurt; I don't want her to ever find out about this. If you can't stay here with Blair then leave." She snapped. "If I'm the only reason you have to be here, then you might as well go. I'm not your reason. I'm not yours. I'm hers. Blair is my best friend, always has been, always will be. And I won't let this ruin that."

She stormed out of the room leaving Nate alone, in his boxers, in the middle of the room.

AN: I'm really enjoying writing this and I'm so happy with all the feedback I'm getting! I think this story is taking a bit of a chapter per character direction, is this bad, good, dreadful? Reviews much appreciated!