Hi! I know, I'm sorry, I'm terrible at updating, but I was busy with schoolwork, then finals, rehearsals, etc. And I couldn't find the time. But I'm back and I have an entire summer just for writing :D Well I hope you like this chapter, thank you for reading it and review please!

Love you all(:

"Hey!" Rory smiled as she opened the front door for Logan. "Come in."

As agreed, Logan was joining the Hayden-Gilmore's for their usual Friday Night Dinner. Lorelai had tried to soften things a bit, deciding to have dinner at their own house on the Friday her parents would be away for a short vacation with Chris's parents. Dinner was less formal, but still intense.

"Hi." Rory pecked his lips quickly and smiled at her boyfriend. "Remind me, why am I doing this?"

"I promised I will go to that party at Juliet's with you so your friends can meet me." Logan nodded, taking a deep breath. "Are you nervous?"

"May be, where are your parents? I brought dessert, because I couldn't bring wine, since we are underage. I don't want them to think I'm corrupting you or anything."

"The Logan Huntzberger nervous? I must say I'm shocked." She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek softly. "Don't worry, Ephram won't stab you with a table knife and my parents aren't that bad. They are pretty cool."

"I just hope they like me, I'm getting back cramps from all that window climbing." Logan wrapped his arms around her, engulfing her in a hug, while she giggled.

"But the window climbing is so romantic."

"The door is much nicer and less dangerous." They both laughed and Logan ventured to kiss his girlfriend softly, before a voice made them pull apart:

"Ror, is Logan here?"

"No, mom, it's just the Chinese food delivery guy. He is confessing his undying love for dad or insulting us for our ridiculous amount of Chinese food intake." Rory called back, pulling Logan towards the living room. "I invited him in, he brought dessert."

"Why would you do that, Rory? You know how I feel about…" Lorelai looked away from the Desperate Housewives of Beverly Hills episode she was watching and got up from her seat to greet Logan with a smile. "Logan, hi! Sorry I thought you were the Delivery guy, it's kind of a funny story."

"Don't worry, thank you for inviting me over Mrs. Hayden." Lorelai didn't have time to correct him as the voice of her eldest child interrupted her:

"Delivery guy is here? Who called him?" Ephram appeared from the next room, with a disinterested expression on his face. "Oh it's just you."

"Manners, Ephram. We are really glad you are joining us for dinner, Logan. Why don't you guys go ahead to the dining room, while I call Chris? Thank you, Logan." She took the bag from him and exited the living room, leaving Rory in between a staring contest.

"Huntzberger."

"Hayden."

"Stop it." Rory intervened. "Don't go picking a fight, Ephram. We are still in deep crap, after what you pulled at mom's opening. If you screw up, we are dead."

"I won't little sis." He walked past them bumping shoulders with Logan, marching across the hall towards the mentioned dining room.

"This promises to be a fun night." Logan said with a smirk, Rory gave him a look, but he just chuckled and went the same way Ephram had gone to.

Enemies sharing dinner tables, Queen R if you want peace, always be prepared for war.

"Ephram must be going out of his mind." Nate said as he finished off his French fries.

Tristan nodded, his eyes fixed on his cellphone's screen. In the 45 minutes they had been in the restaurant grabbing dinner after a very exhausting Lacrosse practice, Tristan had been glued to his phone, in several occasions his dinner companion felt like walking out on him, Tristan wouldn't even notice if he left. Nate sighed and added:

"You know if I'm interrupting your date with your phone I can leave."

"What?" Nate rolled his eyes and the blond sighed. "Look I'm sorry, it's just Serena is not answering my texts. She worries me."

"I know Tris, but you are her friend not her babysitter. She is probably too busy shopping or her battery is dead." Nate said. "Stop worrying so much. Is this about Carter Baizen's brother?"

"Yes."

"You didn't worry about any of the guys she has seen before, what's the deal with this one?"

"He is Baizen's brother. Baizen was Serena's first everything and you know how that ended. I don't want her to get hurt again, I hate seeing her fall to pieces." Tristan explained. "This guy is bad news. The others were irrelevant, a one-time thing every time."

"Tris, I get you. I really do, but you can't be on Serena's case all the time." Nate was going to continue but noise in the background stopped him. They both turned around just in time to see a girl being robbed outside the restaurant.

"Tristan! Wait, where are you going?" Nate's words were lost behind him and in a blink he was a mere feet away from the scene. The street was deserted and no one inside the small restaurant was really paying attention.

"Hey! Leave her alone." The guy turned around and Tristan noticed he had a knife. 'Great, just great.' "Look, just leave her alone and you won't have any trouble."

"I'll show you trouble, pretty boy." The guy lunged at him, but Tristan was faster and got out of the way startling his attacker, who stumbled with his own feet dropping the knife across the sidewalk. Tristan quickly pinned him down on the floor.

"I'll show you not to mess with girl's purses anymore." Tristan mocked him.

"Tristan! Are you out of your mind?" Nate came outside followed by the restaurant's attendant who quickly shouted to the Police Officer standing in the other side of the street, the thief struggled to get free from Tristan's grasp, hitting him with his shoulder blade in the face.

Tristan loosed his hold on the guy and he quickly took off running.

"Son of a…"

"Tristan!" Nate kneeled next to him, punching his arm. "You are an idiot, that guy could have stabbed you!"

"He didn't have a chance."

"Miss, are you ok?" Tristan remembered the girl and looked up, to find a shaking sandy haired girl, hugging herself. He stood up walking over to her quickly kneeling on the floor, collecting her phone and purse.

"Hey, it's okay. He is gone. Did he hurt you?" She looked up at him and shook her head no. Tristan recognized her face. It was Juliet, one of Huntzberger' s friends. Even doe she was close to tears, she still looked gorgeous as always, her long sandy hair was braided to the side, and she wasn't wearing any make up. Tristan had always liked natural girls who didn't put stuff on their faces.

She sobbed loudly waking him up from his daydreams.

"Calm down, its fine. He is gone. Did he take something from you?"

"A necklace, it's just he came out of nowhere." He rubbed her arms noticing how she wasn't wearing a coat and it was pretty cold outside. She looked pretty shaken up and tears were forming in her eyes. That stupid bastard, if he ever saw him again Tristan would gladly introduce him to his fist.

"Do you need a ride home?" Tristan asked.

"Would you do that?" She looked at him in relief. "I was walking home actually. My car is at the shop. I thought I would get it back tonight but…"

"It's no problem, come on."

3 missed calls, 1 voicemail.

Serena sighed and put her phone away, focusing her gaze back on Aaron. He had invited her out to talk things over dinner. She really did like him, but he was Carter Baizen's freaking brother. How could he be Carter's brother? I mean he was so not… like Carter.

If anything, he was the opposite of Carter. He was thoughtful, he was quiet. She just loved everything she already knew about him and she wanted to know more, that's why she had agreed to this date in the first place.

It wasn't a date, just dinner as friends.

Who was she kidding? She didn't go to dinner alone with her friends to cool restaurants.

She wanted more with Aaron.

"Serena, are you ok?" He interrupted her train of thought.

"Yeah, just thinking." She looked at him; Aaron raised his eyebrows signaling if she could elaborate on that. "It's Tristan."

"Your blond friend, who doesn't like me."

"He does like you, it's just…"

"He is not very fond of me." He half-smiled and Serena thanked god she was sitting down.

"He needs time to achieve fondness."

"I think he is waiting for me to screw up so he has a good reason to punch me in the face." She laughed, but Aaron was probably right, Tristan never got to break Carter's nose, so if he could break his younger brother's nose, he would be happy. "Is he you ex-boyfriend?"

"Oh God, no." She laughed at his confused expression. "Tristan is my cousin, but he is also one of my best friends."

"Oh."

"I know, we get that a lot, but I guess we are not here to talk about my cousin." Serena went straight to the point making eye contact with him.

"No, let's cut to the chase then." Aaron said. "Why were you avoiding me at the Hayden's opening and at school?"

"It's kind of a long story…I'm just going to say it, ok?" Serena sighed looking down at her lap. "I dated Carter."

Silence, not good.

"Carter? My brother, Carter?"

"Yes, him. I don't know if he considers it dating, but I did and it didn't end well." She looked at him and couldn't read his emotions. "It ended horribly, that's why I've been avoiding you."

"When did you guys date?"

"I was a naïve freshman and Carter was a senior with tons of experience in the girl department, he had me at his feet with a snap of his fingers." It was hard for her to talk about this. She never did, even when it happened, she never opened up. She did what Allison told her to: pretend it never happened.

That's how she became Serena Van Der Woodsen, party girl extraordinaire, different guy every night.

"I can't believe he did that, Al." Serena cried into her hands, she had gone to Allison's house for comfort. Carter had texted her, telling her they were done for good, that she had been a fun time but that was it for him.

"Can you be more pathetic, S?" She looked up to meet gazes with Allison. Her cold hazel eyes were staring at her with boredom. "It was obvious he was going to use you and leave. You were just his booty call."

That hurt, she wiped her tears and glared at Allison. Who just laughed in her face, she was supposed to help her, hug her not make fun of her.

"Serena, darling, boys are the same. We need to be always one step ahead in this game we call love. Never get attached, because when you get attached you lose." Allison explained crossing her arms in front of her chest. "So wipe your tears, doll face. This never happened."

Even back then, at only fifteen, Allison had been the biggest bitch ever. Serena still hadn't forgiven her for many things she had done and in some ways she was glad she was gone.

"Look, I know this is weird. I used to date you brother. This is not weird, this is messed up." Serena mumbled the last part to herself. "I don't even know why I'm here, sorry."

"Serena, wait." He quickly grabbed her hand to stop her from standing up. "Don't leave, please."

For a fraction of second she was sure she was going to let go of his hand and walk away forever from Aaron Baizen, but she didn't. She starred at his eyes and something made her stay in her chair.

"I know this is seriously messed up and it won't make you feel better, but Carter is my half-brother. I lived in England, my parents moved there after I was born; he lived with his mom and stepdad here and spent the occasional holiday with us. But that's it." Aaron sighed. "I never saw much of Carter until I was ten, but I know he is bad business."

"He is only your half-brother?"

"Yes. I swear I didn't know what he did to you." He said. "I really do like you and I want to get to know you."

Spotted: Serena Van Der Woodsen is about to bet for love, but tell me S, how much are you willing to lose?

Dinner was going as smoothly as possible, there was no awkwardness, besides Ephram's mumbles under his breath. Her parents and Logan had hit it off well. Christopher was quite amused and entertained while hearing Logan's prank stories, giving him tips and telling some of his own.

"Your friend, Finn, seems to be a remarkable young man." Christopher laughed.

"He is remarkable; I doubt you'll like meeting him, Sir." Logan smirked.

"I've never laughed so much in ages." Lorelai smiled at Rory and wiggled her eyebrows at Chris. Roy just sighed happily, Logan had charmed her parents. Now he and Ephram only needed to carry on like the other didn't exist.

"I'm going to bring dessert, I'll be right back." Lorelai said, standing up quickly. Bridget, Emily's maid, quickly appeared to take the plates. The secret behind their delicious meal was that Lorelai had hijacked her mother's maid to cook and prepare a proper dinner.

As if they could have been able to pull a three course dinner on their own without exploding the kitchen.

"I'll see if your mother needs help, I think Gigi might be lurking around the kitchen." Chris stood and left the three teenagers alone.

Rory felt the tension built up, Ephram looked from his lap and openly glared at Logan, who just smirked knowing he was pressing all the right buttons to make Ephram angry. Oddly Ephram smiled at them.

"You two make such a lovely couple." Ephram started. Rory knew him like the back of her hand and she knew she wasn't going to like his next words.

"Cut it off, Ephram." Rory hissed.

"It's just you are so perfect for each other. Heartless Queen of Hartford and Daddy's little minion, you should watch out, Huntzberger, because the rumors about Rory are true. She is a bitch with the façade of an Angel." Ephram smirked. "Give it time until she eats you up."

Rory tensed in her seat and looked at her brother, biting back the tears. Rory Hayden was indeed a strong young woman but those words had shattered her tough exterior, leaving her broken and speechless.

"Hayden, just stop, Rory doesn't deserve this." Logan defended her glaring at him.

"Apparently, you don't know her well enough yet, the things she's done. She deserves worst." Ephram glared at her, blue meeting blue. For an instant, Ephram almost backed out; Rory was indeed hurt, his baby sister was close to tears.

Because of him.

But once disaster is set in motion it can't be stopped, he smirked once again, tasting his last words before spitting them out harshly. "You know, Rory, you are truly messed up. Allison rubbed in you, far more than you let show. You are a liar and a manipulator, just like her. I hope you are happy."

"Ephram, I…" She tried to speak up but he interrupted her.

"You make me sick by just looking at you, you two deserve each other."

"Dessert's here!" Lorelai's cheerful voice interrupted them. She immediately noticed the tension in the air, her eyes switching from one teenager to the other. "Everything ok, here?"

"Everything's fine, mom. But I'm not that hungry anymore if you excuse me." Ephram smiled, standing up, kissing his mother's cheek and leaving the room with a casual stroll.

Dear Queen R: Our most dangerous enemies are the ones we never knew we had.

"Do you like this?" Amy asked Blair, holding a top to her chest. Blair just glared at it and turned around to keep looking through the boutique. "I guess that's a no."

Blair had invited Amy shopping, only God knows why, it probably had to do with the fact that Rory was having her boyfriend over for dinner with her parents and Serena was M.I.A according to Tristan. How she had let herself be dragged out of her house for a session of torture with Blair Waldorf was an incognita.

Amy had always liked shopping, she did. But shopping with Blair was a whole new level and she didn't like it one bit. It consisted in her finding something she liked, Blair glaring at it and her leaving it back in its rack.

They had been to zillions of stores and Blair got nothing, it was starting to get frustrating. She hadn't even made an effort to pursue or carry a conversation with her.

What was up with her?

"Blair, why did you invite shopping?" Amy asked. "I mean you haven't said two words to me since we got to the mall."

"You are my friend." Blair said simply.

"Yeah right, I'm not your friend. We share a couple of classes together, you acknowledge my presence now and then and accept the fact I'm hanging out with your actual friends." Amy said rolling her eyes. "What is it then?"

"I want to be your friend?" Amy raised an eyebrow. "Fine, you want to why I'm hanging out with you? Because you are constantly around my friends and I need to know who this new girl who Ephram dragged into our group is."

"Fair enough." Amy said. "Would you like to elaborate on that?"

"Do you need answers for everything? God." Blair turned around and kept looking through the dresses behind her.

Dresses.

Blair had immediately gone to look at the dresses in every store they had been to. Something instantly clicked in her mind.

"You've got a hot date?"

Blair's shoulders tensed and Amy let out a giggle. The brunette spun around in her heels and looked at her fiercely. "If you must know, yes."

"I think you should wear that, you look great in backless dresses." Amy pointed at a black dress in the far corner of the store, Blair's face lit up when she saw it, but she maintained her cool. "Try it on."

"I will, I'll be right back."

We all know that the way to a girl's heart are clothes and accessories; especially if the girl is Blair Waldorf.

Ephram stared blankly at his laptop's screen. He was going through his old files and stumbled into a folder full of pictures of the previous years. First tryouts for lacrosse team, the first party they had gone to as high school students, silly pictures of them from two years ago during a barbecue at Nate's on July 4th, he had found some embarrassing pictures of Tristan he could now hold against him.

He was stuck looking at a photo of Rory and him, they had just turned 12. Their faces were pushed together and looked like clones back then. Their faces full of cake frosting adorned by the hugest grins ever.

What had happened to them? When did everything get so messed up?

"Penny for your thoughts?" He looked up and met eyes with Logan Huntzberger

"What are you doing here?" Ephram sighed closing his laptop. "You are going to piss me off so I pounce on you again and I get sent to Reformatory school."

"Even if the idea appeals me, no." Logan was unusually serious. "Look, Hayden, I don't like breathing the same oxygen as you do, but I need to talk to you."

"Talk about what? As if you and I had something in common." Ephram mocked him.

"We both care about Rory."

"You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"I care about her, if I didn't I wouldn't be exchanging words with you. Rory loves you, you are her brother, what you said to her was vile and cruel and it really hurt her. You know that." Ephram felt like someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water on him. "I want her to be happy and so do you."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I keep out of your way and you keep out of mine. For Rory's sake, we'll be civilized." Logan groaned at Ephram's skeptic face. "You can pretend I don't exist but you can't do that to Rory, she is your sister not some stranger."

Ephram let the words sunk in, allowing Logan to continue.

"Swallow your pride and apologize to her, or you'll regret losing the only person who has always had your back"

"Thank you for the ride." Juliet said to Tristan giving him a small smile.

"Anytime." Tristan said. "Just remember, pretty girls like you don't walk alone at night, ok?"

"Ok." She laughed. Once again Tristan caught himself starring at this beautiful girl, they had talked the entire way to her house and he had discovered Juliet was actually really fun to be around. She wasn't the Hartford Socialite Tristan had thought her to be. "I almost forgot."

"What?" He asked her frowning as he saw her roaming through her purse; she pulled a rectangular piece of paper out of it and handed it to him.

It was a party invite.

"I'm hosting a party tomorrow, if you want to come. It's going to be a blast." Juliet smiled. "I wouldn't miss it if I were you."

"Then I won't." He liked how she could keep up with his flirting without blushing or giggling silly like other girls.

"My number is on the side, call me and let me know if you are coming." She leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Thanks again, Tristan. See you."

"See you." He waited until she got inside the house before dialing Nate's number with a silly grin on his face. "Nate? I think I'm in love!"

Rory fought back a sob as she was lying on her bed just looking at one her nightstand where her favorite pictures rested, front and center were Ephram and her; he was giving her a piggy back ride and they had been talking, traces of smiles on their faces. It had been taken when they weren't paying attention.

That's why she loved it.

If she could do anything to get Ephram to not hate her, she would. She couldn't stand the thought of him hating her, more than her brother, he was her best friend. Rory wanted to go back when things were simple and they went out in the middle of the night to buy coffee at her favorite shop.

What had happened to them?

"Knock, knock." Her mom was standing in the doorway of her room, holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies. "Dinner came out great, fruit of my loins."

"Yeah it did." She shifted on her bed, letting Lorelai sit down next to her and putting the plate in-between them.

"Then why aren't you happy, sweetheart?" Lorelai asked running a hand through her hair.

"Ephram hates me."

"He doesn't, sweetie. He is just angry."

"He does hate me, mom." She hid her face in a pillow. "He hates me and I can't do anything to fix that."

"Rory, I know your brother is angry right now, but he will get over it. Just give it time." Lorelai said. "Things will get better I promise."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I am."

There was another knock and the door was opened, someone cleared their throat before speaking up: "Rory, can I talk to you?"

Ephram was awkwardly standing with by the door, fidgeting with his sweater; Lorelai took this as her cue to leave, kissing Rory's temple and then Ephram's.

"Don't be up until late, ok?" Their mom smiled closing the door behind her. Ephram went to sit by the edge of Rory's bed, looking directly at the back of her head.

"Are you going to turn around? So we can talk."

"No." Her voice came out muffled.

"Come on, Ror, please look at me."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because you hate me and I can't stand it." Ephram felt a tug in his chest as he heard her sob. He quickly went to her side and engulfed her in a hug, she desperately clung to him, wetting his shoulder with her hot tears and Ephram felt like the biggest asshole in the world.

"Rory, I don't hate you." He said quietly. "I can't you are my baby sister."

"I'm sorry for everything, I'm sorry for lying. I just didn't know what to do, I felt so confused and I knew you didn't need to add me to your list of problems…"

"Rory, listen to me." He grabbed her shoulder so they were face to face; he wiped her tears with his thumb and kissed her forehead. "You are my sister; you are not a problem for me. I will always be here for you to help you through anything. I'm sorry for everything I said, I didn't mean it."

"You don't think I'm a heartless bitch?"

"Of course not, I'm truly sorry for that. Forgive me?" Rory smiled and hugged the life out of him. "Ror, calm down. I can't breathe."

"It's just… what made you change your mind?"

"Don't tell him, but Huntzberger did." Rory looked at him confused. "Your boyfriend is not that bad, he does care about you. I'll be civilized towards him, but I won't doubt finally breaking his nose if he hurts you."

"You called him boyfriend." Rory smiled.

"Is that seriously the only thing you heard from what I said?"

"You called him boyfriend!"

"Oh Goodness." Ephram rolled his eyes with a slight smile on his face. "I'm out of here."

"Love you, big brother."

"Love you, little sister." He smiled and kissed her cheek, before taking the forgotten plate of cookies with him.

"Hey! That's mine!"

"You snooze, you lose."

Every happy ending is just a new beginning. Because in Hartford, the good times never last forever.

You know you love me,

Xoxo

Gossip Girl.

Hey! Hope you liked it! Sorry for the wait again, thank you for reading and let me know what you think in a lovely review, they are always welcome. Read you soon(:

Love,

Miss Gossip Banana ;)