The worst is over now, and we can breathe again
I wanna hold you high, and steal my pain, away
There's so much left to learn, and no one left to fight
I wanna hold you high, and steal your pain.
Because I'm broken, when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
Broken - Seether feat. Amy Lee
...
Jenny sat comfortably on the fluffy sofa when Taylor walked into the room smiling happily.
Her blue eyes were glowing, full of joy.
"What?" Jenny asked curiously.
She took a seat next to her and laughed, "I was just thinking," Her voice turned a little squeaky, "Would you like to hear the names that I've been thinking for the baby?"
The anxious woman didn't even give her a chance to respond and pulled out the little note book.
Jenny sat there, quieter then a mouse, as she thought about what was happening.
She watched her carefully, trying to think a way to escape the conversation that was happening.
She didn't want to know the name. Simple as that.
If there was a name, it would mean that it was an actual person. For Jenny that was too overwhelming.
She had decided from the start that she wouldn't want to know anything.
Taylor sat and waited for her to say something, anything. Her narrowed eyes gazed at Jenny, and she finally nodded. Then she opened the notebook and started to read the names through,"So I've narrowed down my list and found the perfect names," Taylor explained cheerfully, "For a girl, I was thinking Alexandra Scarlett and Parker James for a boy." She waited for Jenny's reaction and looked at the pondering blonde.
"I like both of them." She simply stared at her and nodded her head, a smile escaping her lips, "Very beautiful."
They were indeed beautiful, but for her the names just didn't.. fit.
She began to bite her bottom lip unknowingly, her mind awash with confusing thoughts.
Yes, she had thought about it. The girl imagines what she will name her first born, it's just natural.
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, unsure if she could sit there like nothing was wrong.
"Oh I forgot to ask, Would you like it if we threw you a baby shower?"
She gawked at her then started laughing. "Seriously?"
"It would be fun. I really think we should have a baby shower." Taylor tried to convince her.
"I don't know.."
"Just a little get together. Your friends, Lily, me and couple of my friends. Even your mom could stop by."
"That sounds…" Jenny forced a smile. "Nice."
Taylor looked dejected, "You hate it."
"No! I just never imagined having a baby shower at the age of seventeen for a bastard child."
Surprised by the sarcastic tone of her voice, Taylor's smile fell.
"Sorry, sorry, it was a joke."
An uncomfortable silence landed among them.
"Jenny, I just want you to-"
She cut her off, "You don't need to do anything for me. I'm grateful for everything you have done for me already. I don't need a baby shower. Really, Taylor I just don't want to make it a big deal."
Taylor smiled, clearly uncomfortable with Jenny's confession. Something within her implored her to speak, but she felt like she was betraying herself by speaking aloud; like it would open a wound that would never heal.
...
Blair made her way through the fancy lobby of the Bass industries trying to think about something else than how much she hated him. After all she was there because he had to return the money. Now, out of all days.. he just had to call her when she was having the worst day already. She was not going to wait two hours to meet him when she was already on the neighborhood. She was getting this over with, now.
She hated him.
She hated the way his brown hair looked all shiny and soft and flipped whenever he turned to look at her.
She hated how deep his dark brown eyes were and the little specks of gold that were in them.
She hated the way he winked at her and his stupid grin.
She hated it when other girls would start giggling all over him, like he was some sort of celebrity to be giggled over and ogled at.
Her heels stomped against the marble floor and people turned to look at her perfect figure. Blair knew what she was doing. She was cutting the cord. After this there was nothing between them.
Her pace grew as she passed his secretary that he had probably fucked.
No, he had fucked her. Blair knew him that well.
"Miss Waldorf you can't-"
The gorgeous redhead tried to stop her, but she just pushed pass her and turned to look at her.
Blair raised her right hand and shot a devilish grin towards her, "Talk to the hand."
With that, she continued her way towards his office and opened the two main doors.
It apparently took him more than twenty seconds to realize who was standing on the doorway of his office.
Blair, and she looked good. Very good.
"Blair.. How are you today, Angel?"
"Oh, wipe that stupid smirk off your face, Chuck," Snapped Blair, glaring at Chuck who got up from his chair. "Just give me the check and I can go." She frowned and turned away from him.
Chuck raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Touché, my dear…" he said, leaning over towards his desk. "I thought we agreed on having dinner before business." He smiled impishly.
"Oh Lord…" Groaned Blair, staring up at the ceiling, "Are you really that stupid?"
He stopped and stared.
Her eye twitched. "Quit staring at me."
He sighed. "Sorry. Can't. Must be something wrong with my eyes. I just can't take them off of you." He beamed.
"There's something else wrong with your head, too," she replied scathingly, "And soon there will be broken bones if you don't stop messing around with me." She swore one of these days he was going to drive her literally insane and then she'd have to be committed, "I'm here because of the check. Nothing else." She crossed her hands over her chest.
He had to take a second look at her determined stand, but soon understood what he needed to do.
"I can't give you the check without your mothers permission and apparently her phone is closed.. so that means while we wait for that certain phone call, we have dinner together. You know it's the law."
There was a slight pause in which Blair looked tremendously horrified and Chuck looked tremendously ecstatic.
"Chuck," She took a daring step closer, "I want the money now. I might be here because of my mother, but believe me when I say this once- I will never sit on the same table with you and your lying mouth."
"Come on Blair," He said, sounding just a tad arrogant, "We haven't talked in months. I know that you care for me enough to sit down and just talk."
She sighed, "There is nothing to talk about."
"There is a lot to talk about." His voice was deep, "One dinner. One conversation and I will hand you the check." His genuine voice made her head dizzy. She knew that if she just went, it all would end quicker, but at the same time she couldn't stand the idea of having dinner with him, "No… NO… NO! AAAGH! Blair! No! No!"
She gritted her teeth. Just one dinner. It means nothing.
...
Jenny took a deep breath then slowly exhaled. You're going to be fine, she told herself for the millionth time, you've done this before. Nodding her head resolutely and clenching her fists- a vain attempt at reassuring herself- she pushed the glass door open and stepped inside. She didn't like places like these. Actual cafés that were always full of people who knew her. Public cafés at Upper East Side. A nightmare for pregnant Jenny Humphrey who badly had to go to the bathroom.
Now that she was inside, Jenny had no idea what to do. People were staring.
Should she say something, or run away while she still had the chance? Her eyes roamed the café and she caught sight of Vanessa and Nate laughing together on one of the tables. His blue eyes met Jenny's and he straightened up. A lock of dark brown hair fell into his eyes as he motioned her to join them.
"Jenny! What are you doing here?" Vanessa smiled ever so kindly.
She took a deep breath, frowning in her anxiety. "I just needed to use the bathroom.."
Vanessa propped her elbows on the table, looking slightly amused, "You could join us."
"Uh.. Sure." Jenny smiled, and turned towards the bathrooms.
Vanessa watched her leave and turned to look at Nate, "You don't mind that I asked her to join us?"
He grinned, a row of white teeth gleaming from a shadow of his lips, "No, it's fine."
"She just looks so.. lonely, you know? She needs her friends right now."
"I know." He said nervously.
A few minutes later Jenny walked back and sat across them.
She shifted her feet, feeling awkward, "So.."
Vanessa cleared her throat, "You've grown."
The blonde laughed dryly. She looked from Nate to Vanessa, a puzzled expression on her tired, pretty face, "Being pregnant usually does that."
A strange fascination grew as he saw the new-found motivation in her sky clear blue eyes. For some reason he found that he couldn't stop looking at her- there was something new about her, something intriguing that he couldn't quite put his finger on. She looked so fragile and innocent, but there was also this fiercely independent side to her.
"How are things with Lily and all that?" Nate asked.
"Better. She started chemo and the doctors are positive. It has been hard, but thankfully I don't have to worry about the adoption anymore and I can focus on other things."
"That's great-"
He completely ignored Vanessa and interrupted her, "Yeah I heard about that. Chuck wasn't too pleased."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jenny raised an eyebrow at Nate, bemused, "What we talk with Chuck, is between me and Chuck. It's our baby after all."
His scornfully reserved manner was beginning to irritate her and she wondered what had set him off.
Nate turned to see Vanessa watching her intently. She cleared her throat awkwardly, "Of course it is. I completely agree and so does Nate, right?"
He tried to compose himself and act like he knew what he was doing.
He shrugged coolly and feigned a smile, "Right."
"Anyway, so what are you two doing here?" Jenny tried not to pride, but it had caught her eyes in the first place. Vanessa and Nate together enjoying coffee together? Was it purely innocent? She needed to know.
"We are just catching up," The brunette smiled and playfully nudged him. She blushed, a fantastic crimson that drifted across her skin, "It's nice to just sit and talk."
"Oh." It was the only word Jenny could muster. She couldn't tell if she was more shocked or embarrassed. Here she was, pregnant- alone- and she was sitting across someone who she still loved while he had clearly moved on. Her face burnt in humiliation and her hands began to sweat like they always did when in adverse situations. She gripped the strap of her bag tightly, and her knuckles gleamed white against her porcelain skin, "-I mean, it's great that you are such great friends." She added hastily. Jenny rose from her chair, "I should go."
Vanessa was taken aback, "Couldn't you stay another five minutes? I just would like to hear how everything is going with the baby and-"
"No, I can't." This time she looked straight into Vanessa's eyes.
Vanessa took a sharp intake of breath as she met Jenny's moist eyes and flushed face.
"Oh, okay. It was nice to see you."
"You too, both of you." She smiled shyly and turned to leave.
Just as she was about to walk away, his voice stopped her, "Jenny, wait."
Jenny winced and reluctantly turned around
"About before… I apologize." He said softly.
"It was nothing." She looked away and a moment later the door had swung open. She was gone.
Soon as she was gone, Vanessa turned to look at him, "What was that all about?"
...
Blair was busy looking around the room with the many fine pieces of oriental art work and classic place setting complete with high end priced linen table cloths. She was so involved that she had not noticed that Chuck was now watching her until their eyes inadvertently met.
"What?" Blair said a bit nervously adjusting her menu on the table for her hands to have something to do.
"You look surprised. What's wrong?"
She shrugged, "You were never a friend of restaurants like these."
A young man, the waiter, interrupted them with a small tray and began to place a small metal tea pot between them along with a large piece of French bread, pre-sliced and several dipping sauces with slices of fish before disappearing.
Waiting until they were along again, Blair cocked an eyebrow at him.
He laughed, "Blair, it's just food."
"Isn't that like raw fish or something?" She made a face.
"Yeah," Chuck chuckled, "It's not half bad if you give it a chance."
She gave him a slight smile and decided to just eat the bread.
Blair pursed her lips and leaned forward in her chair, bored out of her mind. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a warm hand over hers.
She gritted her teeth, telling herself to keep her anger in check. Prompting herself to remain calm- or at least, as calm as she could be- she half-hissed, "What do you think you are doing?"
His eyes raised to meet Blair's furious ones. He didn't know why he had done it; he hadn't meant for it to happen, "Sorry. Old habits."
She said nothing and blankly stared ahead.
"Blair?" his voice brought her attention back to him.
"Oh. Um. What?" She stumbled. Her tongue felt heavy, like she couldn't form words properly.
"You're bright red." He pointed out.
And she was. She was beyond flustered.
"What do you want from me?" She demanded in protest, "First you act obnoxious and then you take me out to a cheap restaurant to eat raw fish. This is not like you."
"Just...I don't know." He said huskily, "Maybe I'm trying to change Blair, for you."
"That kind of change doesn't happen over night." She gnawed on her bottom lip.
"We both know that it's still there," He leaned closer, "The spark. It will never leave."
They stared at each other, breathless, as if saying what they felt would make the moment disappear– changing into a reality that neither wanted to remember.
But apparently, Chuck could not even enjoy an amazing moment like this without being assaulted by one of…
"Charles!"
…one of them.
It was a blonde this time, a blonde with blue eyes- how perfect is that? She kept batting her eyelashes at him and the most that he could do was smile pitifully and try to stay alive from Blair's hateful gaze.
"Hi." He said briefly.
She grinned and giggled, "You didn't tell me that you were coming here today!"
He couldn't remember her name. Something with a "-na" at the end. Maybe Tina? No.
"How are you?" The blonde asked cheerfully and took a seat on the table.
Blair was not excited by this sudden guest of theirs.
"Fine," he said dryly while looking at Blair, "You?" Was it Christina? No….
She smiled and replied, "Oh, I'm just great."
Blair rolled her eyes, "Charles," She snapped, "Would you like to introduce me to your friend?"
Good God. He rolled his eyes and took a wild guess, "Blair this is-"
The perky blonde answered for him, "Brittany"
"Brittany," He corrected, "One of my co-workers daughter. We had dinner a couple days ago."
Blair flashed a nice fake smile, but Chuck knew that she was hurt.
"You know what? I will leave you two here to catch up," Blair rose from her chair and looked at him, "That check please."
He reached into his pocket and handed the check. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
His sad eyes watched her leave, unconsciously, his hands balled into fists. No.
He was not ready let her go.
"What are we having?" Brittany giggled and took Blair's seat.
AH I know everybody wants to kill "Brittany" right now :D lol.
I'm so proud of myself for updating because there has been a lot going on in my life and once again I want to thank you guys :)
2 chapters and we have full 30! AMAZING! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORT! :) LOVE YA ALL!
XoxoDesireh
