Chapter Twelve: Gossip Folks

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow. I loved all your reviews, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter. The last few lines were my favourite too, I agree with you all.
Now, saying that, I thought I'd address something that Crimson-Kiss17 brought up. The chapter was short, just because I knew where I wanted to take the story next and I didn't want to make it overly long. Also, I thought it'd be good to give you guys a quick fix.
This chapter will be a bit choppy, with no ACTUAL Blair/Chuck interaction. I decided I should start to involve Gossip Girl more, since she'll be involved in Chuck and Blair's little plans.
Don't forget to review! Your comments are great to read.

Many of you have been asking what's going on in the UES. I'll just say this, no news is good news. For gossip, that is. It's the calm before the storm that we all know as 'scandal'.

"Blair, what're you doing?" a voice echoed in her ear. She blinked and turned to see Kati and Isabel, mouthes open in a ditzy confusion.

"Are you okay?"

"You so don't look okay."

Blair rolled her eyes at their fake concern. She assumed that it was fake, anyways. If it were genuine then... wow, they had some problems to work out, added on to the ones they had with dressing in outfits that a cheesy mother would pick out for her five year-old twin daughters.

"Don't worry, I'm fine," she assured them, twirling her plastic spoon around in the vanilla yogurt. "Just tired, that's all."

"You're tired? Why?"

"I read that pregnant woman are always tired."

"Oh-em-gee, are you pregnant, Blair?"

"Is it Nate's?"

"Duh, who else's would it be?"

"You don't know, Kati."

Their fast back-and-forth was too irritating for Blair to deal with right now. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep. Or maybe go home, call Chuck, have sex then sleep. The latter really sounded like more fun to her.

"I'm not pregnant. My God, I know it's been a slow gossip week, but you seriously need to stop jumping to assumptions," Blair snapped. As she went about eating her yogurt, she could hear the two of them whispering to eachother. "Let's talk about something interesting. Did anyone else get their invitations for the Bass/van der Woodsen wedding?"

Isabel was quick to nod. "Yes. I can't wait. The last wedding Serena's mom had was so amazing."

"No kidding. You ended up making out with Chuck," Kati scoffed, turning to Blair to wait for her words of disapproval, and was shocked when all she saw was a shrug. "Aren't you going to say something?"

"Chuck isn't that bad. Vulgar and a manwhore, yes, but still," she said. Phase one of the plan was in effect. They weren't going for a full-out scandal, but they wanted their relationship to come public a certain way so it didn't seem awful and that they wouldn't be hated by everyone (mainly Nate because Chuck valued his friendship).

"You did not just say that Chuck Bass is decent."

"I thought you said last week he was disgusting."

"Oh my God, do you have the hots for Chuck?"

"Ew, Blair!"

"Who're you to judge her? You made out with him!"

"And you lost your virginity to him."

"That's a secret!"

"As if everyone didn't already know!"

Word on the street is that B has a thing for C. Sounds too good to be true, if you ask me.

The next day, Blair got a ride to school with Chuck after he had spent the night, but was dropped off a few blocks away. They didn't want anyone to get suspicious about why she would be in his limo. There was already a lot of talk about the possibility that Blair liked him, thought most people didn't believe that it could ever be possible. If it had been a couple of months ago and someone told her she'd be hooking up with and dating him in the future, she wouldn't have believed it either.

"Blair!" someone called from behind her just as she began to walk up the steps that led to the school. She turned, forcing a frown from her face when she saw Nate. "I thought we should talk."

"About what, Nate?" she asked, stepping down so she could be in front of him and the conversation wouldn't be heard by too many people.

He took a deep breath and looked at his feet before his gaze was focused on Blair again. "Just about... a rumor I heard. Even though you cheated on me and you acted like a whore, you shouldn't lower your standards to Chuck."

This example of basic concern would've melted her heard a few weeks ago, but now all it did was cause her to roll her eyes. "I never would've thought you to be someone who insults their best friend and follows gossip that had no evidence behind it, Archibald."

"I'm not insulting him. You're not his type."

"Please, Nate. Any girl is his type," she interrupted him. "And you said that I shouldn't lower my standard to him. Wouldn't that be insinuating that he's for women with bad taste?"

"That's not what I meant. Stop being so stubborn. I'm trying to look out for you, Blair," he told her, reaching out to rest his hand on her arm, but she pulled away before he had the chance to.

"I'm being stubborn? How am I being stubborn by trying to point out the reasons why you shouldn't get involved with this? You try to make everything about you- except when it's something bad. Then it's my fault. No wonder I cheated on your sorry ass. You deserved it," she spat before turning away to travel up the stairs again.

Nate stood there with his mouth open slightly, surprised to hear those words come out of the mouth of the girl who he once thought of as the love of his life. Now, she had this attitude that would've been undeniably sexy if it didn't turn her in to more of a bitch. He was guessing now that she wasn't attracted to Chuck, from the way that she had avoided the subject and attacked him instead. Having everyone ask her about it was probably getting annoying.

"This is some good stuff. Smoked a bit last night," Chuck said, passing a joint to Nate from across the bar in his hotel suite. Once his friend accepted it, he poured himself a glass of scotch. He wasn't in the mood to get high at the moment, but he had a feeling that Nate had a bad day and needed to. "What's wrong, man?" he asked when he noticed that Nate was inspected the joint instead of just lighting it up like he usually did.

"Nothing. I talked to Blair this morning," he sighed, setting it down on the bar. "What the fuck is wrong with her?"

"You know girls. I bet it's PMS. She's been in a bad mood lately," Chuck lied. Whenever he was with Blair, she acted all snappy and sarcastic, but it was obvious that she had fun with it. She hardly meant any of the stuff she'd say to him.

"It's not PMS. She'd take Midol if it was. You know... I still can't believe she'd cheat on me."

"You give what you get. Anyone could predict she'd want revenge for what you did with Serena," he shrugged, taking a sip out of his glass.

"That was different!" Nate protested, causing Chuck to cringe since he had heard the exact same words from Blair just weeks ago. It just hadn't been as whiny and annoying when she said it. "Whatever. Now she supposedly has a thing for you. What bull shit."

Chuck forced a laugh, pretending to be surprised and in disbelief from the news. After all, that was part of the plan. They had to make it seem like their relationship really did just come off of Blair developing a small crush on him.

"No need to worry, Nathaniel. I doubt it's true. Even if it is, I can't blame her. If another girl has something, Blair wants it too. I'm the new pair of Manolos," he joked. Nate didn't seem to appreciate this, and rolled his eyes. "Smoke up. You're being ridiculous. Get over Blair, she's not worth it." And she's taken, he wanted to add. By the way Nate was acting, it seemed like he was almost regretful of breaking up with her, like every other time.

That was one thing that Chuck hadn't been planning on happening again.