A/N Chapter ten. Wow, I feel like I started this fic no more than a week ago.
Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!!! Sadly, I don't have time to get back to you on your reviews this time, I'm leaving for a three week backpacking trip to Ireland tomorrow and have a ton of stuff to do before that, but I appreciate every single one of your reviews beyond words!
(Yes, that means the next update will take a little longer than normal...I promise to make it worth the wait!)
Oh, before I forget. Yes, Blair's dress was the one from 1x18. I think that's my favorite Blair outfit ever. Chuck's outfit is from Seventeen Candles :)
Blair could've danced all night. But no matter how nice it was being close to Chuck her feet weren't in the same state of bliss and they were soon forced to take a break. Had she ever been under the impression that the high heeled shoe had been invented by a man, she would've been forced to let go of that illusion that evening. She offered her best friend a smile as the blonde came walking towards her. "I see you decided to rescue Chuck from Cassandra's claws after all." Serena said, looking after Chuck as he walked over to the bar to get him and Blair some drinks.
"I figured he'd been tortured enough with thrilling conversation subjects as the difference between lip gloss and lip balm." She mused, and her blonde friend let out a tinkling laugh.
"You guys looked amazing on that dance floor." Serena smiled and flicked a mass of blonde curls over her shoulder. Blair could barely suppress the grin that threatened to split her face in halves. The butterflies were dancing in joyous swirls, and as long as she kept the less than perfect issue of reality firmly locked away at the back of her mind, her life was looking pretty good at the moment. "Oh, there's Nate and Poppy! I haven't had the chance to congratulate them yet." Serena said, and waved at the couple to come over.
The newlyweds looked deliriously happy, Nate with an arm around Poppy's waist as they walked. "Hi, S. Blair." Nate grinned, brushing a hand through his perfectly tousled hair.
"Congratulations Natie!" Serena exclaimed and hugged their childhood friend with such force he almost lost his footing. Nate laughed at her antics, and lifted her off the ground and twirled around with Serena laughing like a madwoman in his arms.
"Yes, congratulations." Blair echoed and hugged Poppy - if not less enthusiastically. When they broke apart she caught Nate looking at her with an apprehensive look on his face.
"Don't look at me like that, Archibald." She admonished laughingly, reminding him not to feel sorry for her, and stepped in to hug him too. "We talked about this. I'm happy for you." She whispered against his neck, breathing in the so very familiar scent of him. It smelled like childhood and safety, and she couldn't help but compare it with the intoxicating scent that invaded her mind whenever Chuck was around.
"Thanks, Blair." Nate replied, hugging her tighter for a second before pulling back. With her arms still around his neck, she smiled at his goofy grin. How could she ever have thought that they were destined to be anything more than friends?
"I told you, baby." Poppy smiled at Nate and interrupted Blair's trip down Memory Lane. "Blair is way too reasonable to hold a grudge over some silly, onetime thing."
The comment alone would've probably had Blair under the impression that something wasn't quite right, and with Nate flinching slightly in her arms, there was no doubt about it. Uncertainty crept over her like a mist, and she immediately looked to Nate for some kind of reassurance. Expecting him to offer her a reasonable explanation to his wife's mysterious choice of words. But one glimpse of him was enough to tell her that he would offer no such thing.
"Poppy, there's someone over there that's waving for you guys to come over" Serena interjected, and there was definitely an odd strain to the blonde's voice.
"What onetime thing?" Blair questioned and let go of Nate. Crossing her arms across her chest instinctively. She'd always been able to read Nate like an open book, and this time was no different. Something was up. He looked uneasy…guilty.
"Uh-" Nate began, his eyes darting between her and Serena.
"It's not like we meant for it to happen." Poppy was still babbling, stepping closer to Nate and taking over the space that Blair was vacating. "And Nate was really worried about telling you, but I told him he shouldn't worry about it."
They didn't mean for what to happen? Blair's mind was reeling, a buzzing noise forming in her ears. "What. Onetime. Thing?" She uttered the words in such threatening calm that the other three immediately turned their attention towards her. Nate still looked guilty; Serena slightly panicked and Poppy in turn looked almost as confused as Blair was feeling.
"You didn't tell her?" Poppy frowned and looked over to Nate. The latter looking as if he would pass out at any second.
"Poppy, listen-" Serena began, but Blair cut her off with a glare and turned back to Nate.
"Tell me what, Nate?"
"You told me the two of you had sorted it out and that she forgave you!" Poppy snapped accusingly and began to look a little upset too. "I can't believe you didn't talk to her, baby! The Shepherd wedding was forever ago!"
The Shepherd wedding. The wedding that had become the UES wedding of the year when the Waldorf/Archibald wedding had turned into a real life version of "the runaway groom". Blair hadn't attended the lavish ceremony. Not because she felt threatened by the 'competition', but because the hassle and stress of planning her own engagement party had landed her with an impressively nasty cold - leaving her bedridden for three whole days. Nate had had to go without her, she'd been adamant at least one of them made an appearance. And she'd needed an insider to spy and make sure their flower arrangements didn't look too much alike, since the bride had chosen a color palette similar to the one Blair herself had picked. Don't forget to take a picture of the flowers, she'd said to Nate and ushered him out the door in his tux, Serena and the others will be there to keep you company.
The others. Poppy. The Shepherd wedding. Onetime thing.
The realization dawned on her the same way a flame eats its way through a piece of paper. She remembered it well then. How Nate had been so distant after the Shepherd wedding. How he'd acted so un-Nate-like that she'd even confided in Serena and asked the blonde for advice. It's nothing, her friend had reassured her, probably just wedding nerves, your engagement party is only a week away, he'll come around. Oh, he came around alright. Only to bail again three weeks later on their wedding day and leave her to clean up the mess and the pieces of her broken heart.
Blair vaguely registered Poppy's annoying voice ranting on and on beside her, felt someone tugging at her arm. "…we never meant for it to happen-" Poppy blathered on, and Blair needed her to shut up. Serena was pulling at her wrist,
"B? Are you okay?"
The question brought her out of her haze and she came back to reality with a crash. Took in Serena's worried blue eyes and Poppy's self-protecting ramble. Then there was Nate, looking at her like he'd just accidentally pushed Dorota in front of a bus. "Blair-" he began, taking a step toward her and making a move as if to take her hand in his. The one of his hands currently sporting the shiny, new platinum wedding band.
He married Poppy. He cheated on you with that man-stealing, tacky socialite and now he's married to her and you paid a gigolo to accompany you to his damn wedding.
"No." Blair snapped and efficiently cut Nate off - shielding away from his touch - her harsh tone causing even Poppy to stop talking. "Don't you dare put your two-timing hands on me! You make me sick!"
With bile rising in her throat, Blair feared that she might actually be sick for real. The sensation mixed with the flames licking and shredding her insides with scorching heat, leaving nothing but burnt, black slivers behind. She had to get away. Nate flinched at her words but didn't make another move to touch her, his hand still hovering in the air. Blair wanted nothing more than to smack that sheepish, guilty expression of his face with her clutch.
"Blair-" Serena was the next one to step closer and try and calm her down.
"Did you know?" Her voice didn't sound like hers anymore. It sounded too cold, too distant to belong to her. Could it really be the same voice that had laughed and promised Chuck a rain check on the PDA in the restroom less than one hour ago?
"B, please-" Serena didn't answer her question, but the look on the blonde's face along with the nervous look Nate gave her best friend was more than answer enough. Blair swallowed hard, if finding out your ex-fiancé cheated on you was a knife in the chest, then the best friend knowing about it and not telling you was the final, lethal twist of the blade. Serena's betrayal hurt more than everything else.
"You know," Blair turned to Poppy who looked like she wished to be abducted by aliens right that very minute, "I always knew you were a whore," she spat, ignoring the offended gasp from Poppy and the stuttered objection Nate offered in his wife's defense. Then Blair returned her attention to her best friend - the girl she'd considered her sister for as long as she could remember - with tears burning in the corners of her eyes, "but I never knew you were a liar."
Her movements felt sluggish as she turned around to leave, as if she was moving under water. She needed to get out of there. She needed him. When Serena's hand closed around her wrist again it gave reason for the anger to flare up. "B-"
"No!" Blair hissed, yanking herself free from the blonde's grip. "He cheated on me,"
"I know, but-"
"Nate cheated on me with that whore, and you knew all along." Her voice came dangerously close to breaking, and she swallowed before she continued with barely contained distress. "You knew, Serena, and you didn't tell me. You're supposed to be my best friend - my sister - and you didn't tell me. I'm not going to stay here and pretend like that's okay, because it's not. It's not okay."
XOXO
Chuck made his way towards the bar, contemplating walking across the lavish ballroom to the other one to avoid that smug, know-it-all bartender. But then a familiar-looking profile stole his attention and he froze mid-step. Then, with a grace he'd had no idea he possessed, he threw himself behind a group of men discussing the stock-market to avoid being seen. Fuck.
Turning around with the intention of finding Blair and in some way (any way) convince her to say her goodbyes and go home with him, he cursed silently for the second time in less than ten seconds. Blair was hugging her good-for-nothing ex and the sight made his blood pressure spike possessively. Frowning, Chuck was about to walk over there and get Nate's hands off his date, when he saw Blair pull back with a frown on her face. From that on Chuck could only watch in growing trepidation as the scene played out in front of him like a silent movie. Double fuck. Judging from the sheepish look on the blond man's face and Serena's nervous expression, all hell had just broken loose. Someone had told Blair. All but groaning in frustration Chuck watched how Blair tensed visibly and barely managed to put on a mask of angered indifference.
Chuck had known. He hadn't wanted to, but he'd known about it. The two-timing groom had, in a beer-induced state of mind, shared some very unwanted information with him concerning the man's earlier indiscretion with the socialite brunette. It had pissed Chuck off. Both because Blair didn't deserve a cheating fiancé, and because he didn't want to be the one having to tell Blair about it. Didn't like the feeling of obligation one bit (when did he grow a conscious anyway?)
But he had come to terms with his fate, and had planned on telling her once she got back from the bachelorette party. But then she'd showed up outside the hotel and caught him off guard, looking so damn happy and carefree. At that point Chuck had just thought 'fuck it', and later when she'd leaned over and kissed him inside of the limo, he'd been a lost cause anyway.
But apparently now she knew, and she was hurting. It made his insides clench - seeing that broken look on her face that was barely hidden behind an angry sneer. He watched her throw some kind of vicious insult in Poppy's direction and turn to walk away. When Serena grabbed her by the wrist, Blair spun around like the crack of a whip, her face contorted from the effort of holding herself together. Serena let go as if she'd been burned, and both him and the blonde looked after Blair's retreating form as she stormed out of the ballroom.
Their eyes met, and he scowled at the pleading, apologetic look in Serena's eyes. She'd known too, he assumed. Wasn't there like a 'girl code of conduct' for stuff like that? With a last icy glare in Serena's direction, Chuck left the room in search of his date.
XOXO
Chuck made his way down the empty hallway, Blair nowhere to be seen. Cursing under his breath he was about to turn around and head outside when he spotted a familiar looking shape inside a dark, closed ballroom. Stepping through the grand glass doors, he could tell that it was in fact Blair leaning against a table with her back to him.
"Hey," he called out quietly, pausing in the doorway for a moment before shutting the door behind him. You are so out of your league man, he thought to himself, since when are you the one to comfort a girl? But he needed her not to hurt, so he decided to do his best. "What are you doing out here?" He continued, when there was no response from the brunette, and walked up to where she was standing.
He was expecting tears or sobbing rants. Mentally prepared for hysterical crying. He wasn't, on the other hand, prepared for Blair throwing herself at him and attacking his mouth with shocking fervor, her hands fisting in his hair. Chuck stumbled backwards, his hands instinctively coming up to rest on her hips. "Take me now." She breathed against his skin before kissing him again. Caught completely off guard, Blair was done unbuttoning half the buttons of his shirt before Chuck could get himself together enough to protest.
"No," he managed to choke out, breaking off the kiss. Still recovering from her unexpected…outburst, he saw as much as felt Blair go rigid in his arms before pushing him away.
"Am I not good enough for you, is that it?" Blair hissed, rejection washing over her in waves and tearing on her already crumbling defense. "Well that seems to be common protocol, so join the club!"
"That's not what I was saying." Chuck retorted, buttoning his shirt up in jerky movements. She had almost got him out of his shirt entirely before he could even form a complete sentence. Given other circumstances he would've been impressed.
"I'm sorry, is it not in your job description to sleep with women?"
"It's not in the job description to be your sexual punching bag!" Chuck spat, "If you want to sleep with me, I'll take you home right now and fuck you senseless. But I won't be used in some sort of delayed revenge on your cheating ex!"
"Who the hell does he think he is anyway?" Blair shrieked suddenly, throwing her arms in the air in exasperation. "I'm Blair Waldorf, you don't cheat on me! I'm not Jennifer Aniston!" She finished, before spinning around and attempting to storm off again.
"Whoa," Chuck called out and grabbed a hold around her waist to prevent her from leaving. As soon as he touched her, Blair stopped in her tracks. Still with her back to him she drew a ragged breath.
"I hate them." She whispered fierily and Chuck could feel her tremble with the effort of holding it all in.
"I know," He replied and watched her shoulders sag in defeat. Slowly, as one would a spooked horse, he closed the space between them and then offered her his hand. Pleased beyond belief when she reached out and slid her hand into his (maybe he wasn't that bad at the whole comforting thing after all?)
"I could always punch him in the face, if you want?" He offered, and breathed a sigh of relief when she laughed quietly at his suggestion.
"Somehow I don't picture you as the type that throws a punch."
"I must admit, social destruction has always been my forte." Chuck smirked, and his expression quickly turned devious. "We could always tell people he's impotent..."
"I like the way you think."
"You like the way I…think, huh?" Chuck drawled, coming to a halt and pulling her close. Now there was something he was well adept in.
"Amongst other things," Blair agreed, grinning as she tugged at his belt buckle and his breathing hitched. "Now, I believe I made you a promise earlier, Bass."
"That you did." Chuck murmured against the crock of her neck, drawing circles on her lower back.
A brief moment of eye contact, and then they walked hurriedly towards the doors. Within seconds they were out the door. With Blair's hand still in his, Chuck pulled her with him as he walked down the hallway, heading for the exit, when a voice cut through the buzz coming from the wedding guests inside the ballroom.
"Charles?"
Fuck. Chuck could literally feel the blood in his veins turn to ice as the too familiar voice called out for him questioningly. He had to get out of there right that goddamn second. Not bothering with acknowledging the voice at all he kept on walking. Too bad Blair slowed down, and looked over to him confusedly.
"Chuck, I think that woman is-"
"I have no idea who she is," Chuck snarled, lying through his teeth. "Come on, movie star, let's go."
(Keep moving, Bass.)
"Charles," The person behind the voice wouldn't give up, and this time Blair really did stop and refused to budge - shooting him a questioning look. He was acting weird again. "Chuck Bass?" Defeated, Chuck slowly turned around and found himself looking into a pair of stormy grey eyes.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Thanks for reading!
Yes. This is where my fic diverts from the movie plot.
Cliffie!
Please don't hate me, and please review! ;)
Camilla