Chapter Ten: Skeptics and True Believers

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry that it's taken me so long to update. I planned on finishing the chapter last night, but... I got really sick. I haven't eaten anything in the past 40 hours, and I've had about twenty hours of sleep in the last day because I've been exhausted.
This chapter takes place a while after the last.

With his head pressed in to his pillow, Chuck could still hear the faint sound of the shower being turned on. He had no doubt it was Blair, just cleaning up before she slid out and went home to pretend she had just gotten out early in the morning, or that she spent the night at a friend's house. He couldn't deny that it was cute how she still put on the 'I'm innocent, I swear!' act for her mother. Eleanor probably had no clue what a bitch her daughter turned out to be. Speaking of which, a gigantic bitch Blair may be, but Chuck still enjoyed her 'company'.

The thoughts of her in his shower prevented him from falling back to sleep, so he pulled himself out of bed and stumbled in to the bathroom. He paused at the sink, looking at himself in the mirror that hung over it. His hair was a mess, and there were red marks all over his neck. Yes, they could've been mistaken as hickeys, but he wasn't sure that was what they were. Blair never left hickeys before, nor did any of the other girls that he slept with. Chuck was the one that left hickeys to make his mark and show that someone had claimed the property already. The only girl that Chuck usually didn't do that with was Blair, since she had a rule against it. It had something to do with people thinking she was a whore, he was sure. One day she had attempted to explain it to him, but he got distracted with something else.

"You woke up early," he said as he stepped in to the shower with her, uninvited though he knew he wouldn't be unwelcome. Even if he was, it was his shower. Blair couldn't kick him out of it.

"I need to get home," she told him as she squeezed some shampoo in to the palm of her hand. "We should plan our little visits better."

"They're still only going to be little visits?" he asked with a slight frown. As odd as it sounded, he wished that their relationship would progress more.

She grinned, turning to look at him for a moment. "You really want them to be more than that?" In Blair's mind, he was being adorable. Just a while ago, they were upset with each other but now they were... happy. Together. Happy together, despite the fact that they weren't technically together.

"Of course." He narrowly missed her elbow as she reached up to lather the shampoo in to her damp hair.

"So... Dating? Publicly?" she asked, shutting her eyes to avoid the shampoo dripping in to them. It would sting like hell if she didn't, and it would be embarrassing to have it happen in front of Chuck.

"Perhaps not publicly yet, but we could make it official and secret at the same time," he suggested to her. Sounded like a good idea to him, and he was hoping that she would go for it too.

"A secret relationship? Interesting. How about we talk about it later?"

Normally, hearing the words 'We can talk about it later' was an almost bad sign, but Chuck knew it wasn't. Blair was just distracted, and he'd have to admit that he was too.

"Alright. I'll let you finish your shower," he said, pressing a kiss on to her cheek before stepping out of the shower.

Nearly a week later, they had yet to have talked about it. There was always something getting in their way, whether it be unfortunate timing of Serena going to visit Blair, or just simply an overload of homework. With the exception of a couple of phone calls and a quick make-out session in Chuck's limo after he offered to drop her off somewhere, they had barely acted like they were together anymore. It was disappointing, especially considering how fantastic the previous week had been. Hopefully, everything would be back to normal soon.

But for now, Blair was stuck in the van der Woodsen suite with Serena, Lily and a wedding planner whose every words were laced with a thick accent. And why exactly was Blair helping plan the wedding of her best friend's mother? It was because she understood the pain of having to sit through the planning of something that you didn't even care about. The things that Blair usually didn't care about planning were parties thrown by her own mother. If Eleanor had been planning a wedding, it would have been entirely different, considering Blair's love for them. She knew why Serena hated wedding, though. It seemed like Lily got married every two years.

"Are you going to have an engagement party?" Blair asked, smoothing out her skirt.

"Most likely not. Perhaps a dinner, but a full blown party would be a bit too much at the moment," Lily answered as she flipped through a book that was filled with flower arrangements. It seemed strange to Blair that they'd be planning the wedding, yet they weren't even sure about the engagement party yet.

On the table, Blair's phone buzzed for a second to indicate that she recieved a new text message. Serena picked it up and went to pass it to her before noticing that the screen read '1 new message from Chuck'. She gave her friend a confused look before the phone was pulled out of her hand.

"Why is Chuck texting you?" asked Serena. She knew that they were friends and had hooked up before, which made her confused about why he'd be sending her a message.

"He's just... asking if I know where Nate is," Blair lied as she texted him back. The truth was that he was actually asking where Blair was, and if they could meet up later, to which she replied 'serena's. your place in an hour?'.

"Why would he ask you that? I'd think that he'd know that you two broke up."

"I'm sure he does know... Maybe he just assumes we're back together. You know, we're always off-again-on-again," she pointed out.

The look that Serena had on her face suggested that she didn't exactly believe her friend. As good as a liar she was, it wasn't often that she smiled when getting texts from Chuck Bass.