A/N- Sorry there was no update last week folks. This chapter turned out to be much longer than I'd anticipated so I had to split it. For those who are thinking a Nate/Cassie coupling is in the offing...no way. I like her with Asher so we'll see what happens there...

For: Georgie, laffinalot, Gaara-LOve, 3venst4r, flipped, Brenda, GreekLia, 23, sailor cyanide, mystripedskirt, al2010, Blood Red Kiss of Death, Richanna, Miss DK, Samantha :), dysenchanted2, GGlover-1, heavenly doll, Jenny 345, bridgeteebeethequeen, teddy bear, That Crazy Chick, SmearedLipGloss, JoJo.x, :D, Laurienlaurie, Bethany, annablake, Edwardslover09, Mary1415 your reviews have all made me smile, so please keep them coming :) And Mary1415, I really hope you're still reading girly, but I undertsnad your reasons if you're not.

Hope this chapter is good for you all :)

Five Doors Down

Chapter 24: For Before

"Can we go out and get drunk?" Blair sighed, throwing her purse onto the table by the doorway.

"What, now?"

"Yes, now."

"Where's Chuck?"

"We broke up."

"What!? Why?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Cassie frowned. "Ooookay, but didn't he just like, tell you he loved you or something?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it."

The blonde held her hands up. "Okay, no more questions."

"Are you and Asher back together?" Blair asked.

"No."

"Good."

"Why? Did he say something about me?"

"No."

"Then why are you asking? And why do you have that crazy psychopath glint in your eye?"

"It's not a glint."

Blair." Cassie looked at the brunette pointedly who rolled her eyes.

"Cassie, are we going out or not?"

"Out. But why?"

"Because then we can be the girls we were when we first came here."

"STL?" Cassie suggested with a raised eyebrow.

"If we can skip the salt and the lime and replace them with more tequila."

"Hardcore." Cassie laughed. "I like it. Just let me find something slutty and I'll be right with you."

Blair frowned. "Are you saying my outfit is slutty?"

"Well all I'm saying is that if you wanted to sleep with somebody tonight who isn't Chuck, then you wouldn't be short of offers."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Cassie grinned. "You should."

Blair breathed out as the blonde entered their bedroom to change, attempting to rest her trembling fingers against the sides of her dress before letting them trail over her flat stomach.

"Hey Blair." The blonde called. "Can I borrow your black purse? You know the one with the quilts?"

"Yeah sure-" She replied before remembering that said purse was now lying on a trash heap somewhere, hopefully still concealing the positive test.

"Do you know where you put it?" She called back as the brunette heard hangers banging against the sides of her closet. "I can't seem to find it."

"Uh actually I think I might have lost it." She answered again, frowning at her own response. It would have been easier to say she'd left it at home in Manhattan.

Cassie opened the door to quiz her friend. "You lost a $400 purse?"

"Yeah I guess."

"You just lost it?"

"What is this? Some kind of police interrogation?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "I just meant that it isn't like you to just lose a purse. Especially one that you liked so much."

"I think I must have been drunk." She lied again.

"It wasn't on the same drunk scale as that night during the second week where I passed out in the bathroom was it?" Cassie laughed. "Because that was seriously fun. We should do that again tonight."

"What? Get so drunk that the boys have to come and get us because we can't remember where we are?"

"Hell yes!" She held up her hand for Blair to give her a high five before reconsidering. "Except we won't include the boys because a) Asher hates me, and b) Nate doesn't know you broke up with Chuck, and that could be all kinds of awkward. So maybe we can just find some random boys to bring us home?"

Blair considered the offer. "Actually, that sounds like a plan."

-

"You know, the thing about Asher." Cassie slurred into her glass of wine as Blair rolled her eyes for the millionth time. "I know he was an ass about the whole 'I love you thing' but he's just so hot."

"Yeah but-"

"And I know I said we weren't going to talk about…them but what if I just lied."

"Lied about what?" Blair asked.

"Well I could just tell him that I love him."

"But you don't."

"Asher doesn't have to know that."

Blair took a huge gulp of her wine and waved the empty glass at the bartender to refill. "Don't you think that he might like, find out?"

"No."

"Cass."

"No, just listen. I could say that being apart has made me realise how much I did actually love him."

"But you don't."

"Yeah, we just established that."

"But if you don't love him why do you want to get back together?"

"Did I tell you how cute he is?"

"Yeah."

"And how hot he is in bed?"

"Okay, I think I might throw up my breakfast."

"And how I miss his hands sliding-"

"Cassie!"

The blonde offered a small smile. "Sorry."

"So…"

"So do you just want to insult them both instead?"

"How about we just do some more shots?"

"Good plan. I think I consumed too much tequila that first month of college because I'm not really feeling the effects of those ones we had earlier."

"Sambucca?"

"Only if it's raspberry flavoured. I hate the normal stuff."

Blair rolled her eyes. "Fine."

-

"I think." Cassie slurred, tumbling against Blair who was trying in vain to keep her hair parting in a straight line. "I think this is the drunkest I've ever been."

Blair nodded. "Me too."

"I know I got drunk in high school."

"And the first month we were here."

The blonde nodded vigorously and raised her glass in the air. "True Waldorf, very true. But this is like the ultimate of drunkenness for me."

"You know what would make this better?" Blair asked.

"If we stripped?"

The brunette curled up her nose, even in her drunken state still able to know when to stop. "No Cassie - if we had somewhere to dance."

She looked around for a clear area of floor, and seeing none, pointed in the direction of the dj. "That table's looking pretty good right now."

Blair considered her options. She hadn't thought about Chuck all night until now. They'd been Cassie and Blair, just like they were in the first month of school. And she didn't want to be anyone else. "Lead the way."

-

"Well it was just because he was acting weird."

Nate looked pointedly at Asher as they walked into the bar blasting loud music. "It's Chuck. If you don't know him it always looks like he's acting weird."

"I'm just saying man, he was all silent and stuff. He didn't even take the opportunity to call me a tousled-haired poof like he did last time." Asher replied with a sigh. "And I was wearing sweat pants without a shirt."

Nate laughed. "Blair probably pissed him off."

"I can see why she'd have that effect on people."

Nate shook his head as they pushed through the crowds of people to the bar. "Not people. Just Chuck."

"You're just blinded because you're in love with her."

"What!" Nate scoffed, frowning as he failed to hear his own voice ask the bartender for two beers above the cheers that were coming from somewhere across the room. "I'm not in love with…"

Through a break in the crowd, the two spied two girls looking suspiciously like Cassie and Blair on top of a table. Dancing. In very small clothing.

Asher gulped. "Oh shit."

"Blair."

"And Cassie."

"Do you want to get out of here?"

Nate watched as his friend eyed his blonde ex-girlfriend. She looked stunning in electric blue and grey, her arms looped with Blair's as the two shook their bodies in time with the beat and the cheers only got louder.

"No." He replied, leaving the bar to walk towards the table in question.

"Asher, what are you doing?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe this isn't a good idea."

He shrugged and swigged his beer. Nate did the same.

-

"Bar." Cassie mouthed to Blair, making a gesture with her hand that indicated she needed more tequila. The brunette nodded and took her friend's outstretched hand in order to get down from the table. They were replaced quickly with two other girls before a third joined them, and the crowd seemed to disperse a little, at least so that everyone else was dancing too.

"Shot time!" The blonde giggled, placing her clutch on the bar and holding two fingers up to the bartender.

"Of?" He asked.

"Your finest alcohol."

He looked the girls up and down and then came back with a clear liquid that Blair suspected was only Grey Goose. Still, she took the tiny glass in her fingers as Cassie did the same.

"We should do a cheers!"

Blair frowned. "To what?"

"To being us again. Like we were before those idiots screwed us over."

She felt bad. Chuck didn't screw her over. In fact, it was pretty much the other way around. Still, she kept a dimpled smile on her face and clinked her glass against her friend's. "For before."

-

"She looks hot." Asher mouthed to Nate as they took up residence by a post not far from the bar where Cassie and Blair were stood.

"Blair?"

"Cassie."

"Uh yeah, she does." Nate replied. It wasn't that he fancied Cassie, but he'd always found her very attractive, something most men appeared to do judging by the amount of them swarming around their two ex-girlfriends at the bar.

"She looks like she doesn't love me though."

Nate almost choked on his drink. "What?"

"Forget what I just said, this is getting weird."

"Yeah." He looked at Blair who seemed very drunk. "It is."

Asher narrowed his eyes. "Look at that guy's hand." He nodded to a blonde-haired guy about their age who didn't look nearly as intoxicated as Cassie. His hands were roaming up the back of her dress and Nate could tell from the look on her face that she wasn't enjoying it.

-

Cassie squirmed away from the blonde guy who was trying his best to slide his hand up the back of one of her legs.

"Come on baby." He breathed into her ear as he nodded over her shoulder to someone that appeared to be his friend. Someone who was taking up residence beside Blair.

"She doesn't want your hands on her." Blair told him coldly, reaching her hand out to pull her friend away. The guy beside her caught it. "Cassie let's go."

The two men blocked their way and Cassie looked helplessly at her friend as she felt lips on her neck leaving a trail of unwanted kisses. Blair tried to squeeze past but was blocked by a hand on her thigh, wishing more than anything that Chuck had been there with them. Nobody would have dared lay a finger on her.

Suddenly, the blonde groping Cassie was spun around by a very angry-looking Asher. "Get your hands off her."

"What's it to you?"

Blair watched with wide eyes as Cassie stayed pinned between the bar and the blonde guy, her own fate still undecided until she felt a very familiar pair of arms loop around her waist and pull her out: Nate.

"She's my girlfriend."

"Oh look Brandon." The blonde guy said to his friend. "Abercrombie and Fitch have come to the rescue."

Blair felt Nate push against Brandon's friend but pulled him back, sealing her hands around his. "Just leave it Nate." She pleaded. "Maybe we should just go home."

The girls watched as Nate and Asher eyed up Brandon and his friend before pulling them out towards a more open area of the bar.

"Are you okay?" Nate asked.

"I cannot believe you just did that!" Cassie fumed, pulling away from Asher to head out of the door. The three of them ran after her, all confused.

"Cassie wait!" Asher shouted as they got out into the street. "Cassie!"

"Why?" She spat. "So you can tell me how I wasted your time again?"

"You're mad at me for saving you from those guys? Really?"

"Do you think we should just leave them?" Nate asked Blair who still had hold of his fists.

"Are you kidding? She might kill him."

Nate chuckled a little. "What are you guys doing here anyway? I thought you went out to dinner with Chuck?"

"I did."

"So where is he?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"We broke up."

"What? Why?"

"He doesn't love me anymore. Or, at all. Ever. I don't know, I don't want to talk about it."

"I knew he was going to do this again, I-"

"Nate, can we just…not?"

"Sure." His voice was quieter as he pulled her towards him a little. "Are you okay?"

She shrugged. "I guess."

He looked at her again.

"Not really."

"You're an asshole!" Cassie screamed, interrupting them as Asher attempted to calm her down to no avail.

"I'm an asshole? Why? Because I broke up with you when you said you didn't love me!? What was I supposed to do, be all like 'no worries, you don't have to love me if you don't want to'? You're a freak!"

Nate pulled a worried expression at Blair. "I can't believe he just called her a freak."

"I can't believe you just called me a freak!" Cassie shouted.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." Asher returned, his voice still loud and frantic. "But what was I supposed to do when I saw you in there looking all cute in that dress with that guy's hand groping you? I couldn't just watch!"

"You didn't have to call me your girlfriend."

"It was the heat of the moment Cassie, it wasn't just like I had a speech planned! I saw you there and you didn't look like you were enjoying it. And I just wanted to make sure you were safe." His voice softened as he neared her. "Because even if you don't love me, it doesn't mean I just stopped loving you."

Blair screwed up her nose and muttered to Nate. "That was sappy."

He nodded in agreement. "It was like a freaking Hallmark card. Don't worry, I'll rip him for it later."

They watched as Cassie smiled a little, her eyes hazy and unfocused from the amount of alcohol she'd consumed. "You think I look cute?"

Asher nodded with a smile. "And sexy. And hot. And-"

She cut him off with her lips, fingers attacking his air as he rested a hand on the wall behind her so as to support them both.

"Why does it feel like we're watching a live porn show?" Blair asked.

Nate rubbed the back of his neck. "It's making me uncomfortable."

"Me too."

"Can we leave now?"

"Yes please." Blair replied. "Urgh, they're going to have sex tonight aren't they?"

"I'd say it's a safe bet."

"They'd better not do it in my bed again."

"They've done it in your bed?"

"Yep." She nodded. "Cassie has no shame."

Nate chuckled and rested his arm around the shoulder of his ex-girlfriend. "You want to stay at mine?" He noticed her body language and pulled her a little closer. "I'll stay on the couch. It just saves you getting your own private show of…" They watched with grimaces as Cassie looped her legs around Asher's waist. "That."

"Will you make me cinnamon toast in the morning? I don't think my head's going to like the amount of tequila I've had tonight."

He laughed a little. "Sure."

"Cass." Blair shouted, trying to get the blonde's attention. "Cassie!"

"Asher!" Nate called after Blair's failed attempt. "Asher!"

The boy in question looked around briefly to view Nate .

"We're just…" Nate pointed to a cab down the street. "Going to head back."

Asher nodded and continued his assault on Cassie's lips, neck and collarbone as Blair tutted and fought the urge not to cry.

-

Nate's cell beeped as they were in the cab. After reading the message, he quickly snapped it shut, startling Blair.

"Who was that?"

"Oh just-"

"It was Chuck, wasn't it?"

Nate laughed a little nervously. "You know me too well for me to lie."

"What did he say?"

"He told me not to tell you."

She braced herself so that her voice wouldn't crack. "It's three a.m. What did he say Nate?"

"He's at the airport."

She wasn't sure how she managed to hear the rest, what with the volume her heart was beating blocking all other sounds from her ears.

Nate continued. "He's heading back home for a couple days. Said there's some some stuff he needs to do."

"What stuff?"

"I don't know, he didn't say."

"Oh."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Blair shook her head. "No."