Hey guys! Sorry, I feel like I kind of rushed through this chapter, but I am just SO excited to get to Cotillion. I might make the final chapter in two parts, since I don't want to leave any of my plans out. Thank you so much for the kind reviews and please, feel free to keep them coming!

Xoxo

M

Chapter Nine: Break You in Two

Following rehearsal and all of its beauty, she was happy. She and Chuck had seen each other everyday in secret for the past week, kissing and touching and holding themselves back in anticipation. It was all perfect up until her phone started vibrating two days before Cotillion.

Blair was utterly confused as she saw Nate's name pop up on her phone. There were very few reasons that he called her, all of which had to do with him wanting her back. She knew he liked Serena. She knew that if Dan wasn't in the picture, Blair would hold no interest in the mind of Nate Archibald. She tried to use what she'd seen at rehearsal as justification for her not feeling as poorly as she should about the entire thing. Still, she couldn't handle hearing that, not when she felt the way she did about Chuck. But, she was no sadist. She felt terribly about the fact that they hadn't told him yet. She hadn't told Nate that she actually loved his best friend instead of him.

She loved Chuck. She did.

Blair inhaled sharply as she accepted the call, "Hey, Nate, what's up?"

"Hey, Blair," Nate said, sounding a little distant, "I was just walking around and I thought maybe we could talk."

"Sure, I have a few minutes, about anything in particular?" she asked.

Nate didn't know what to say. There was something about Blair that was so different that he couldn't even put into words how he felt. He wanted the security back. He wanted her back. He tried to ignore all feelings for Serena and focus on what he knew he really wanted: Blair. Serena was only going with him because she felt bad, and Chuck was only going with Blair so that nobody else would be. He cursed himself for realizing too late how great things between him and Blair had been. He missed spending afternoons in bed with her, watching movies that he would have never considered had it not been for her odd tastes. He missed seeing Dorota all the time. He missed their plans for the future, and he missed feeling like he was the only person in the world who Blair cared about. He hadn't felt that lately.

"I just miss you," he said after what felt like hours of hesitation.

Blair froze, "Why are you sharing this now?"

He shrugged despite the fact that she couldn't see him, "I don't know, I guess just because Cotillion is so close. And we had always planned on going together. Things would be so different if we had."

"Yeah, well, its ok, Nate. We are still going with our best friends."

Nate nodded to himself, "Yeah, thank god I have Chuck."

"What do you mean?" she asked, a sudden spike in curiosity as she heard his name.

"Well, I mean, I didn't want to tell you this, but Chuck is going with you so that nobody else would try to cross a line with you," Nate said, a certain amount of shame in his deep voice, "When I was trying to win you back."

Blair had to cover her mouth to keep herself from outwardly laughing. If only Nate knew that it was so much bigger than that, so much deeper, he would have seen the irony in the words. The entire thing was absolutely ridiculous, "I don't know, Nate. I'm happy to be going with him. And I'm glad you're going with Serena. It will be good for us…you know?" It will be good for me, considering my plans for afterwards.

Nate felt himself sink slightly. She had completely avoided expressing any emotion toward him, and that hadn't gone unnoticed, "Yeah, I guess."

"Aren't you glad to be going with Serena? Isn't that what you always secretly wanted?" Blair asked, not holding back this time.

"She isn't you. And she's only escorting me to help get the two of us back to how things were. They both are."

Blair stiffened, "You're lying."

Nate sighed, "I'm not. They know how happy we were."

"Listen, Nate, I'm not in any place to talk about this right now. I'll see you after school tomorrow, ok?"

Blair couldn't remember a time when she had been as happy as she was the day before Cotillion. Everything seemed to sparkle in a brand-new light, like the entire world was Tiffany's and she was Holly Golightly. And Chuck, well, Chuck was everything she had ever dreamed of, a fact that still made a smile of disbelief spring to her face every time she thought about it.

Chuck stared up at her, watching a small grin spread across her face as she hovered above him in her uniform skirt. The exposed skin that fell between the hem of her skirt and the top of her thigh highs made him curse under his breath. She was perfect, from her amused smile, to her chocolate curls, to her perfect legs, to perfect brown eyes. He gave her a questioning look before reaching up, looping two fingers in the neckline of her uniform collared shirt, and pulling her into a deep kiss. The smile never left her lips all the while.

She couldn't help but smile while kissing him. There was just something about the fact that he was so much like her that turned her on. She knew he had to be thinking the same thing, and she knew that he'd probably always thought that from where he'd watched her and Nate from the shadows. This was where she was meant to be the day before her debut. In her room, watching High Society, and straddling Chuck Bass.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked softly as he pulled his lips away from her own.

Blair sighed and playfully responded, "A lot of things that are none of your business."

His eyebrows shot up in faux surprise, "Secrets don't make friends, Waldorf."

"I'm not trying to be friends with you, am I?" she asked, rubbing her most sensitive area against places that she had no business rubbing if they were supposed to be hanging out with Serena and Nate in half an hour, "Does this feel like something friends do?"

"Fuck you," Chuck said and knitted his brows together, as if trying to appear angry. He placed his hands on her hips to still them, though it was a failed effort from the start, "Tomorrow."

Blair shrugged her shoulders slightly and smiled in triumph, "What can I say, I know you better than I know myself."

Chuck smirked, "Is that so?"

"Mhmm," she leaned down and kissed him sweetly on the mouth before whispering against his lips, "I know that you-"

There was a knock at the door, and Blair immediately launched herself off the bed and onto the floor with a light thud. Chuck froze where he was, ignoring his boner. They shared a look of utter fear before Blair cleared her throat.

"Dorota?"

"B? No, its S," Serena said from the other side of the door. Blair looked up at the clock above her vanity and groaned slightly.

"Hey, Serena? I'll just – we'll just be a minute!" Blair called, and shot a panicked glance at Chuck, who was still laying on the bed with his shirt completely unbuttoned. She flailed her hands around in frustration, which would have been an adorable gesture if not for the dangerous look that appeared in her eyes when Chuck didn't immediately start straightening himself up.

Serena from outside the door knitted her brows together. She had figured that, since Cotillion was tomorrow and she still hadn't actually seen Blair's dress, it would be acceptable for her to arrive early and get a peek before the guys showed up. Were Blair and Nate already working things out? She certainly hoped so.

"We?" the blonde asked for clarification.

There was no answer, only the sound of feet shuffling around and the voice of Bing Crosby floating through the air. Serena scoffed slightly after a minute, growing curious and impatient all at once.

A few moments later, Chuck stepped out of Blair's room and looked her up and down. She was wearing a simple black and gray Altuzarra sweater and a ponytail, along with a look of complete shock. What was Chuck doing in Blair's room? They hadn't discussed any additional details of the plan to get their best friends back together, and Serena felt a sudden lurch in her stomach as she thought of how close the two dark haired friends had been getting.

"You look lovely this afternoon, though I am partial to the Constance uniforms. Something about a school girl just-"

"Ew, stop," she said, making a disgusted face at him, "Chuck, can I talk to you downstairs for a minute?"

He blinked, his amber eyes revealing nothing as he nodded and followed her down the grand Waldorf staircase to the foyer of the apartment. Blair was still in her room, furiously getting herself together, and he knew that Serena was going to have a million questions for him regarding every subject involving Blair that she could think of. He dreaded the conversation, and he knew that if asked anything about how he felt about Blair, he was going to panic.

"I saw that look," Serena said softly. Her voice was dangerously low as she assessed the situation.

Chuck arched one thick brow in her direction, "Come again?"

Serena sighed. She wasn't going crazy. She knew what she'd seen at the rehearsal. Chuck had never liked anyone, least of all someone as chaste and high maintenance as Blair. Nonetheless, she had seen it. A familiar look in a guy's eyes when he thinks he's in love with someone. Dan looked at her that way. Nate looked at her that way. And Chuck looked at nobody that way…until Blair. This cannot be happening.

"Are you – do you…like Blair?" she asked awkwardly. She couldn't believe she was even having this conversation with him. It was pointless. She knew that nobody could break Chuck Bass's habits. She didn't even know why she felt the need to ask, but she did. For the sake of Nate and Blair ever being happy, she did.

And Dan. For Dan's sake, she was asking.

Chuck choked slightly, stifling a chuckle as he did so, "Excuse me?"

Serena felt the embarrassment transform into a blush in her cheeks, "Right, sorry, I knew it was stupid."

"I'm Chuck Bass."

Serena rolled her eyes and flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder, "Of course, how could I forget. And besides, even though you're completely incapable of human emotion, I know you'd never do that to Nate."

All the blood from his face drained he absorbed that comment. Nate was his best friend. He was fucking his best friend over, and the blonde boy had no idea. Nobody had any idea of how he felt whenever Blair was in the room with him, or how he felt when she smiled or asserted her dominance over some peasant. He felt alive when he was with her. He felt like, maybe, he was capable of being loved. Maybe he was capable of something good.

But Nate and Serena wouldn't understand, so he kept his mouth shut, "Why do you ask, anyway? Getting jealous?"

"Oh, god, I hate you," she scoffed, "I just thought I saw you look at her a certain way."

He began to feel his throat tighten. It would have been one thing if Blair had told Serena about what was going on, but it was a completely different story if Serena was able to decipher a look in his eyes while in a public setting. He didn't look at her a certain way, did he?

"No," he said, his voice hardening, "I don't like girls. Especially ones who remain clothed."

Serena felt herself relaxing a little, "So you aren't falling for her or anything?"

"Of course, not," he barked out a little more violently than he meant to. Maybe he was trying to convince himself that he hadn't already. Maybe there was a shred of decency in him that knew how much it would hurt Nate to know what he'd done with Blair, "It's just a game. Like you said, we will get them together at Cotillion. You bring him, I bring her. End of story. My job ends there. I'm ready for the damn thing to be over with already."

Blair stood there at the bottom of the staircase after having silently descended. She had wanted to hear what Serena was saying about the two of them being in the room together, but what she ended up hearing was far worse than any excuse he could have made. Nate had been right, to some degree, except she'd made a bigger fool out of herself than Nate knew. She'd given him everything. She didn't show it, though. She was used to hiding her pain around her friends after years of noticing Nate looking at Serena. She was used to pretending that she wasn't upset every time her mother made a comment about her weight or whenever she happened to not get a perfect mark on a test. However, hearing from Chuck's own mouth, that perfect mouth that had brought her so much pleasure, that Nate had been right was far more difficult to hide. She pulled her lips into a straight line, a sorry excuse for a smile. She straightened her posture. She knotted her fingers together so that they wouldn't start shaking.

Of course she'd fallen for Chuck Bass. Of fucking course. He had never liked anybody, she didn't know why she had assumed she would be different. She'd never had sex with anyone else. Maybe sex was like that with everyone and she just wasn't aware of it. A million thoughts whirled around her distraught head as she stood there, broken, waiting for one of them to notice her and say something.

"Oh, there you are!" Serena said, smiling at her best friend.

"Yes, well, it is my apartment, isn't it?" Blair bit out despite the smile on her lips. She didn't look at Chuck, she couldn't. She knew she would start tearing up.

This wasn't happening. Chuck couldn't believe that of all excuses he could have made to Serena, he'd chosen that one. He began to freak out. Blair had come in at the wrong moment. Blair didn't understand that that had never been the plan for him. He'd never wanted to get her and Nate back together, because he loved her.

He loved her. He did.

The penthouse elevator opened and Nate entered the foyer area, much to Chuck's demise. He felt something inside of him crack as Blair turned and flashed a too eager smile at the blonde boy he called best friend, "Nate! Just the person I wanted to see…"