"I'm telling you, Serena, I really do think Dan's in love with me!"

Blair grinned as she popped an olive into her mouth. Dropping her toothpick back into her martini glass, she pushed it across the bar counter and gestured for another. The bartender was quick to fetch her a new one. And Blair was quite pleased that he actually looked at her, instead of gaping at Serena. It proved that B didn't need her uber-hot friend just to get some attention.

She winked at the cute, tuxedo-plaid bartender as she delicately picked up her new drink. Turning back to Serena, she gave her an amused smile.

"Oh, please, you wish," Serena said, downing the rest of her own martini. She choked and coughed when the olive slid out of the glass and into her throat, and Blair laughed.

"Seriously, S," Blair insisted. "Yesterday he was practically begging for phone sex."

Now it was Serena's turn to laugh. "Well, Blair, you know how the guys can't resist you."

"I know." Blair let out a concerned sigh, and stirred her drink with the toothpick. "It sure is hard to be so beautiful, with all these guys chasing after me. Oh, why did God have to be so cruel? Couldn't he have given this timeless beauty to someone who needs it? Like a Humphrey girl or something?"

They both laughed, and Serena slapped B's arm lightly. "Oh, come on. No need to be snobby." Blair laughed evilly and took a sip of her drink.

"Hey, where's Becky?" Serena asked suddenly, scanning the bar. "I invited her to come meet us."

Blair shrugged. "Who knows? Becky Summers doesn't play by the rules." Serena considered this, and chose just to wait and see if she would show up.

"Well, anyway, how are things with Mr. Bass?" Serena grinned suggestively as she motioned for another drink. The bartender was quick to obey.

"Bart? Oh, he's fine. But, you know, we decided to just stay friends. For the sake of all of us."

Serena let out a very noisy laugh. A few people from other tables began to stare, but B shot them death glances, and they all looked quickly away.

"Oh, shut up," Serena said finally. "You know I meant Mr. Bass Jr."

"Mr. Bass Jr… has a nice ring to it," Blair said thoughtfully. She looked at Serena and smiled. "He's alright. But for an ex-womanizer, he sure does get jealous easily."

"Well," Serena said, tipping back her glass, "I guess he's just used to having everything he wants, and not having to fight for it."

"Which begs the question of why he pursued me, when he knew Nate and I were together."

Serena gave Blair a look that suggested that Blair was missing the obvious. "You and Nate weren't together when you two hooked up, though," she pointed out. "He just saw an opportunity to finally get the girl of his dreams, so he jumped in when he could."

Blair snorted a laugh. "Oh, come on. It was a spur-of-the-moment type thing. It's not as if he'd been waiting his whole life to confess his love."

"You don't know that," Serena said slowly. Blair gave her a quizzical look.

"Stop being ridiculous, Serena."

"Then how do you explain why he stayed with you, and didn't just move on to bigger and better things?"

"Because there is nothing better," Blair said in a very conceited tone, pulling out her compact mirror to fix her lipstick. She applied another coat and ran her finger along the edges of her lips for a long minute before closing the mirror and slipping it back in her clutch.

"Fine. Whatever you'd like to believe," Serena said dismissively.

"I'll believe whatever's true, thank you very much." The tone in B's voice was slightly defensive. "Plus, if you believe so much that he's been in love with me all this time, why don't you go ask him about it?"

Serena raised her eyebrows, and looked over Blair's shoulder, actually considering this. It wasn't such a bad idea. At least then she could give Chuck some credit for being human.

"But that's beside the point." Blair was about to ask for another drink, but she decided three was enough. She had a History exam the next day, and hangovers didn't do her academic skills any good.

She stood up to leave, grabbing her coat and bag. Kissing Serena on the cheek, Blair said, "See you tomorrow. Phone me tonight, kay?" Blair smiled, and gave S a little hug.

Serena waved as B walked briskly out of the bar. Sighing, she looked down at her almost-empty martini glass. Glancing up at the bartender, she said, "Another one, please. It's the best way to clear an overworked mind." She smiled warily as the man nodded and silently mixed her up a fresh drink.

Good evening, New York. Tonight, we have some very special, very exclusive weekly news. First of the hour: Jenny Humphrey, exiting a Brooklyn coffee house and looking quite shocked and lost. None other than Becky Summers was still sitting inside, looking more triumphant than anyone could have guessed. What have we here? What could our precious B Summers have told Little J that would change her usually cheerful disposition? I hope it's juicy. Because scandal is never out of style.

But that doesn't look like the only thing our latest It Girl is up to. Is it possible we could have a little B on B showdown, right at the Waldorf residence? Doesn't Summers know better than to challenge a fight on another queen's territory? We're all on the egde of our seats to see how this one will go down. Come on and bring out the claws, girls. It's gonna be a rough night. Rawr.

xoxo, GOSSIP GIRL

Blair sauntered into the foyer, dropping her purse on the table in the hall. She flicked on the light switch, and looked up in surprise.

Becky Summers was sitting on one of the sofas, in the middle of Blair's penthouse.

"Becky, hi," Blair said, just slightly confused. "What are you doing in my house? In the dark? At 10:40?" Blair resisted the urge to make a comment about how creepy this seemed.

A slow smile crept onto Becky's face. "Actually, I was hoping we could talk." She reached across from her and patted the sofa seat on the other side of the coffee table. Blair hesitated for a moment, but then decided to go sit down.

"What's up?" she asked optimistically.

"You and Chuck are dating, right?" Becky asked, the strange smile still plastered on her face. Somehow Blair realized that she didn't answer the question.

"Um, yeah," B said slowly. "Why?"

"And he loves you, and you love him. Right?" Becky's eyebrows were now raised, waiting patiently for an answer. But not too patiently.

"Well…" Blair weighed her answer in her mind. To tell or not to tell? Could she really trust this Becky girl, whom she hadn't seen in 3 years, and technically didn't know anymore? She decided on the best answer she could think of. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"I was just curious." Finally. An actual answer to Blair's own questions. "I mean, you two seem really close. Chuck talks about you all the time."

"Chuck… talks about me?"

"Mm-hmm." Becky's facial expression didn't change in the slightest. "How could he not? I mean, Chuck and Blair are… epic. More epic than Blair and Nate, I would say."

Blair looked down at her lap, trying to find the reasoning for this chat within her own mind. No such luck.

"But… you see, Blair Waldorf, the question is, how long has he loved you? How long have you been number one in his heart?"

"Serena… Serena says forever," Blair said quietly, with a little laugh. She didn't like this at all. She felt so powerless in this strange conversation.

"Forever," Becky repeated, thinking it over. "Forever's a long time, don't you think?"

Blair looked up at her, a fierce glow starting to burn in her eyes. She wouldn't lose control here. Not now, not in her own home. She wouldn't let this girl take away her authority. She was Blair Waldorf, after all.

"Yes, it is." Blair's voice was much more firm than how she felt inside.

But still, Becky's strength didn't waver. She was holding on to something, something that would leave her victorious. But the question was, what? Why was she doing this?

Becky let out a very quiet sigh through her nostrils. She cocked her head and gazed into Blair's eyes. Leaning forward, her eyes never unlocked from B's.

"You weren't Chuck's first love. Believe what you want, but everything has to start from something. And Chuck's bad-boy, womanizer attitude didn't just come out of thin air. There was a reason."

Blair swallowed. Hard. She tried to search Becky's eyes for answers, but her face was as unreadable as a blank page in the middle of a suspense novel. It told her nothing, when she needed to know everything.

Becky's voice lowered even more. But the assuredness never left her tone. "The philosophy here is, when you take someone's virginity, you take a little piece of them. A little piece they will never get back. You own a piece of their heart. You have control, and power, over them." Becky let a half smile grace her lips. "Exactly like Chuck has power over you."

Blair's mouth opened in surprise. But really, she couldn't be all that shocked at the fact Becky had known about her losing her V card to Chuck Bass.

Now, Becky's voice was an evil whisper. She took pleasure in every word, coming closer and closer to tearing down Blair Waldorf with every syllable. "And exactly like I have power over Chuck."

Blair's eyes grew wide, brimming with tears. One rolled silently down her cheek as she sat there, speechless. Blair felt her heart clenching as she forgot to breathe.

"Chuck Bass will always be mine, Blair Waldorf," Becky said, a little smile on her face. "Don't think because you handed him your innocence, your fairy tale life will have a happy ending. Deep down, Chuck will always hold that love for me in his heart. He knows he can't replace me, try as he might with little sl**s such as yourself. I hold the one thing that has kept Chuck Bass from being capable of true love. And I won't let it go until that love is restored to its rightful owner."

Becky put an index finger to her chest, a victorious smile adorning her wicked-looking face. Even in the light of the huge crystal chandelier above them, Becky Summers looked as dark as the time a girl from Blair's freshman class had dressed up as Marilyn Manson for Halloween.

Another tear rolled down Blair's face, and her bottom lip started to tremble. A sour taste filled her mouth, and her lungs felt shrivelled. She let out little gasps for air, still trying to maintain some dignity in front of this horrible person. But it was the hardest thing Blair had ever tried to do.

"Get out," she managed to hiss, her voice croaky.

"Excuse me?" Becky smiled mockingly, taunting her.

"I said 'get out'," Blair snapped, her voice louder and stronger this time. She glared and Becky, feeling like at any moment she would vomit all over Summers' exquisite, diamond-studded heels. Which wouldn't have been such a bad thing.

But Becky just sat there, looking as innocent as a newborn kitten. Her head was cocked slightly to the left, showing fake concern.

"I said, GET OUT!" Blair yelled, snatching Becky's purse from the coffee table and flinging it across the room. It slid to a stop in front of the elevator door. "And leave my friends, and my boyfriend, and me, alone." B's tone was laced with poison. But still, it didn't seem to affect Becky in the slightest.

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't do that, Blair darling," she said sweetly. "Your friends love me, and your boyfriend doesn't fall short, either."

Blair resented her with all the hate in her body. She wanted to just reach out and grab Becky's perfect head of golden brown locks, and slam it over and over again into the glass coffee table.

"Blair," Becky said softly, looking into her chocolate brown eyes, "You know I hold more power than anyone here. And I know more secrets, and more things to use as blackmail, than any other seventeen-year-old girl on the planet. So I strongly suggest you stop trying to mess with me. You think you're tough? You don't know what I can do, Waldorf. And you don't want to know."

With one last smile, one filled with evil, Becky stood up, briskly picked up her bag, and slipped out into the elevator.

Blair sat on the sofa, looking at the place where Becky had been sitting. Suddenly, she stood up and ran to the nearest bathroom.

Damn it. The vomit had come just a few minutes too late.