The car pivoted up the semi-circle driveway, stopping in front of the huge white front doors. The driver opened the door immediately for the girls, and they stepped out, squinting at the high afternoon sun.

"Oh my gosh! It is so freaking bright out here," Serena crooned, shielding the sun from her blue eyes. The Hampton summer was always so much more attractive to her, for the heat intensified the smell of ocean water, not rotting garbage like in the Upper East Side.

"I couldn't even agree more," Blair, Serena's best friend, said as she slipped on her Dior sunglasses to stop the rays of the sun. "It's almost obnoxious."

The girls laughed and walked into the grand house that they had rented for the month, to get away from the pressures and loudness and faces of New York City. They couldn't even be more excited by the fact that they weren't tired down to anything but each other out here, in fact, they had almost forgotten that the UES existed.

Serena's phone chirped from her Coach bag, and it was almost paralleled from Blair's phone that was snuggled in her Louis Vuitton. They exchanged looks sourly – the parallel text messages could only mean one thing… Gossip Girl.

Hello and behold Upper East Siders! Has this summer been crazy or what?! I just flew back in from St. Barts, but we're not here to read about yours truly, are we? The Hamptons will probably never recover from what I've heard. B and N have apparently been taken akin to the wonders of the ocean, spending quite a few afternoons on N's boat. S has been sick – but not with the flu! Seems like our favorite glamour girl has gotten a taste of Disco Fever, dancing on tabletops at three in the morning, anyone? C, on the other hand, has gone MIA for the past couple of nights. Maybe he's hiding out devising his newest scheme? Something to ponder, ladies and gents. XOXO- Gossip Girl.

"Ugh!"

Blair looked up at Serena, who had just made the most random noise ever in existence. "I can't believe this! It was two in the morning!"

"S, I don't even think that that matters. It was so foolish to think that just leaving that forsaken city could mean that we got out of it."

"What's up with Chuck? He's the only one who hasn't been on the gossip circuit," Serena said, pouring herself a drink. "It's kind of strange, since we've been reported about everywhere we've gone."

"I wouldn't think too much of it," Blair said, running her fingers through her long brown hair. "I'm sure he's just doing some 'underground' partying."

"Or," Serena proposed, sitting next to Blair. "Maybe he packed up and left."

Blair thought about Serena's idea for a couple of seconds, but shot it down. Could he have left? Would he even do that? The last she had even seen him was in his car, but it certainly wasn't like Chuck to sit back and let someone else take what he believed was entitled to him.

"I wouldn't get too excited about that yet, S," Blair finally said, taking a sip of Serena's cosmo. "He's around, like one of those rats that you can never kill."

Both of the girls tilted their heads back and laughed, the sounds echoing off of the high ceilings and surrounding the empty-sounding house. At the sound of the laughter, Nate came bounding down the stairs.

"Where have you two been," he asked, sitting on Blair's other side, taking her into a one-armed hug. He planted a delicate kiss on the top of her head, letting her coconut scented shampoo fill his airways. "You smell like a piece of tropical heaven."

Blair laughed, and Serena scoffed. "Well, lovebirds, I'm going to take a nap. Someone woke me up at the most unearthly hour imaginable."

Blair rolled her eyes. "So what have you been up to," she asked, poking her finger playfully into Nate's chest.

"Oh, you know, sleeping, sailing, the macho man things that I do."

"Oh yeah, because macho men just happen to have highlighted hair," Blair joked, running her fingers through the ends of it delicately.

"Very funny," Nate replied, shaking his head furiously so that Blair had to take her hands out of it. "You know what I'm going to have to do so that we're even right?"

Blair started to laugh, but inside her head was reeling. Surely he wasn't mentioning sex, right? "Ooooh, what? Is the big bad Nate going to come and get me?"

He laughed and started to tickle her sides, making her giggle and squirm like a four year old. "Nate, stop! Stop," she protested, unable to fight back the laughter. "If you don't stop right now, I'm going to kill you!"

"You mean kiss," he asked, withdrawing his hands from her waist and replacing them on her cheeks. "You seem to be getting your l's and s's mixed up nowadays…"

"Hmm, that's why I never won the spelling bee," she murmured, forgetting to add her signature sarcastic edge to the words.

He smiled his cute half smile and drew her into his lips, running his hands through her hair. He slowly deepened the kiss, running his tongue on the inside of her bottom lip. She couldn't help but smile softly. She missed the way Nate kissed.

After a couple minutes of making out, he started to toy with the strap of her shirt, pulling it down from her shoulder. She shoved his hand and pulled away from the kiss.

"Not here," she protested, climbing off of Nate's lap.

"Blair, nobody is around. What's wrong with right here?"

"Nate, it's practically a public place!"

"Does it still make it public is nobody is there," he said, adjusting his shirt.

"Nate, I didn't mean that we shouldn't do it, just not in the living room. People sit on this couch."

He smiled crookedly and took her hand, leading her up the stairs. Once they found their way to his bedroom, he shut the door loudly, flicking the lock into place.

Blair flung Nate's arm off of her, slipping quietly into her clothing that was strewn across the room. After she was sure that she looked presentable, she opened the door silently and slipped out before he could wake up and notice her absence.

She walked the halls barefoot, letting the cold wooden floors sting her feet with each step. She needed something to wake her up and let her know that this was all real, her and Nate being together, and, well, her and Nate were back to where they should have been if it weren't for Chuck.

The same made her nearly sick to her stomach, just like a rollercoaster ride's first drop. She was glad he was missing 'in action', and she prayed that he would stay there, maybe for eternity, if it helped at all.

She opened her door, looking up and taking a step back from fright. "Chuck, what the hell are you doing here?!"

He was sitting on her window seat, drumming his fingers against the wood like he was lost in thought about physics or something scientific and thought-provoking.

"I'm here to see you," he answered like it was the most obvious question he had ever been asked, like she had asked him what color an orange is.

"Why? Nobody asked you here," she retorted, keeping her distance from him.

"Nobody ordered me away, either."

"It's not like you would follow the request, anyway."

A small smile played at his lips. "You know me all too well, Waldorf."

"Unfortunately for me, Bass. So, why are you here? Did some blonde tramp turn you down in bed or something like that?"

"You wish," he said, standing from the seat. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I would think that you just got back from having rather mediocre sex."

Blair flushed bright red. "Mediocre?"

"Well," he explained, "that expression is nearly what you have after me, but just not quite there yet."

She frowned and dodged his arms. "So why are you even here? Not satisfied with ruining my life just once?"

A light bulb went on over his head. "So you and Nate are back together, I suppose?"

"So you still have some brain cells left after all those late nights of partying? That's amazing. We should call some scientists."

He shook his head sourly. "Are you serious? You're back with Nate?"

"Why is that so hard to believe?"

"Because, well, after you and he broke up the last time, he just always swore that he would never mess around with you," Chuck said. "I do actually believe that he used the words 'tramp' and 'hoe' in there somewhere, but my memory, as you already pointed out, could be quite faulty."

Blair froze. "What the hell do you mean, Bass?"

"I think you know what I mean, Waldorf."

The two stood in a stony silence for a couple of seconds as Blair digested the words.

"Out! Out!" She screamed, hitting him on the head with her purse. "Get OUT! Get out of my LIFE; get out of my ROOM, just GET OUT!"

He flinched each time the purse collided with his skull, but even more at her words. "You're just going to kick me out?"

"Why the hell shouldn't I," she screamed, trying to force him out of the door. She was putting all of her strength into pushing him out, but he still looked calm and relaxed in the doorway.

"After all that I've done for you? Talk about being an ingrate," he replied, his smirk returning on his handsome features.

Blair stopped pushing him for a second and decided to act this scene out. "Well, you know, Chuck, you have a point." He nodded eagerly. "You've just done so much for me in these past couple weeks, I mean, seducing me and then trying to kidnap me at a party, and then of course, the way that you like to hold a HUGE mistake I made months ago over my head. What am I thinking by hating you?"

She smiled and then kicked his shin with her heel. "And don't you dare ever show your face in my room again, BASS."

Blair slammed and double-locked the door. Boys were really just too much trouble nowadays.