"It's part of a follow-my-leader game of second best we have all been playing. Rose, with Simon, Simon with me, me with Stephen and Stephen, I suppose, with that detestable Leda Fox-Cotton. It isn't a very good game; the people you play it with are apt to get hurt. Perhaps even Leda has though I can't say the thought of it harrows me very much."- I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Dan Humphrey is already out there- on the balcony and the irony of his presence isn't lost on her. He is partly responsible for the anguish she feels right now.
"Blair-"he starts, stopping when he sees the stream of tears running down her cheeks. The wet streaks make tracks through her make up and she's sniffling. He reaches out a hand to comfort her and it's retracted with the same speed that cut off his words. She may be broken but she's still Blair.
"Don't bother, Humphrey," she replies in a small voice, "Serena already explained your motive."
They stand in silence and its excruciating. The only sounds are the cars whizzing by below, the rustling of her silk dress and the sobs that rack her tiny body.
"Did you ever even ask Vanessa to explain the heinous way I treated her?" asks Blair suddenly, her head shooting up as she snaps towards him. "Did she tell you why I wanted to ruin her?"
He shakes his head. He won't apologize. Vanessa is his best friend and she's better than all of them. He can trust her to be right without asking any questions.
"She was blackmailing me. With the picture of Catherine and Marcus."
Her dull voice livens in sadistic animation at the horror stamped on his features.
"That's right, Cabbage Patch," she continued, her voice bitter beneath the taunting tone, "She was blackmailing me for something that wasn't even my fault. She was threatening to show the whole world that Marcus wasn't just my third boyfriend. He was the third guy who cheated on me with some sublime blonde goddess. And I just didn't want to be ridiculed again. Rejection and betrayal is bad enough without your humiliation being broadcast."
She's back to weeping now and he feels the guilt wash over him as he takes in her grief. She's right. He has no right to judge. They've all fallen a prey to the hierarchy they claimed to hate. His dad, Jenny and even Vanessa. Even him.
And his own words are stabbing him. The careless statement that he didn't care about Blair comes back to haunt him. She had entrusted him with her care taking with the same faith that Serena had in him and he has abused it. Over the last year, he's punched two guys, plotted revenge against a girl he kissed of his own accord, hooked up with girls over the summer with absolutely no intention of calling them back, exploited some ones emotions for a good story and sabotaged the relationship of two people who actually care about each other. Losing his virginity seems like an insignificant development in comparison.
For what is conceivably the first time in his life, Daniel Humphrey is speechless and ashamed of everything he's ever said about Blair Waldorf. Because he has absolutely no right to judge her.
"I thought it was just another game for you two."
"Chuck was wrong. We aren't stuck in this game of our own accord. We could work as a normal couple if only people would let us. It's people like you and your expectations that have ruined this for us. We're too used to falling in line with everyone else perceptions and their expectations. We lost sight of what was important."
It's another blow because now he's contemplating the idea that while a reunited Chuck and Blair might possibly spell doom for the Upper East Side, it's also possible that once their war terminates peacefully the casualties will eventually dwindle. Before he can think of something to say she's climbed on to her feet and is swishing out. He actually finds himself wishing she'd stayed. How very odd.
Back in the ballroom, Charles Bartholomew Bass is confronted by something he never thought he's see- A hurt Georgina Sparks. He's not sure what stunned him more; the pain in her blue eyes or the speed with which it vanishes. The psychotic grin is plastered over her face and it's a mask. Because even without costumes they are all hiding from something.
"Chuck," she admonishes, her voice dangerously silky, "Why didn't you tell me that my task for tonight was to make Blair Waldorf jealous? You know I always work best with a plan."
The next thing he knows, they're pressed up together in a coat closet and her drink heavy breath is filling his mouth and he can still taste the berries on her tongue. Her bony fingers are gripping his hair and she put all the force her tiny frame could possibly hold into his lips. The kiss is pleasurable but it can't compare with the earth shattering wonder of Blair's embrace. He is angry to be thinking of her when there is this hot, willing woman writhing in his arms, using all the tricks that charmed his virginity away in the first place.
Georgie breaks away first, the catastrophic pain in her eyes doubled. He reads shock there too. Go figure.
"She's broken you, Chucky," she spits out in a hoarse, demented whisper. Her small hands push him into the furs and she bangs the door on her way out.
The humiliation is matter of course by now. Georgina never did like playing second best, not even to Serena. He resolves to drink himself to death. After all; if it was good enough for Daddy Dearest it ought to be good enough for him.
Sparks is still shaking as she her way to the exit, a thread bare military jacket wrapped around her tiny form. In a flurry of white and army green she smashes into an almost stranger; a certain handsome prince we know so well. And as his inherent chivalry forces him to respond to her distress, our damsel arrives at the conclusion that perhaps the night could be salvaged. After all- the clock has yet to stike twelve.