Until their junior year of high school there was nothing the NJBC liked more than pre-parties in Chuck's limo. Especially when those parties preceded even bigger bashes thrown by those nearest and dearest to them.
They were now heading towards the end of their freshman year of college, just in time for the party that promised to be bigger than Blair Waldorf's 17th and wilder than anything Chuck Bass ever hosted.
It was the Easter weekend and Sassy Mitchell was turning 19. Sassy was well known for her wild parties and the gossip those parties inspired. As just a face that blended into the back ground when it came to Gossip Girl blasts, Sassy was one of the many people Blair and the gang would always intend to keep in touch with but would always find a way to miss their calls.
Of course no one missed a Sassy Mitchell party if they could help it.
Which is why on this Saturday night the four friends could be found, champagne glasses in hand, partying hard in the back of a limo.
"So why are we heading to this party again?"
"Because we have known Sassy for 13 years and she always throws the best parties." Serena poured the remainder of their second bottle of champagne into Blair's empty glass. She leant over Nate to grab the other one, trying to avoid touching him. Since Blair somehow managed to unearth some deeply buried feelings within her, she felt awkward around Nate and found herself trying to hard to hide those same feelings.
It was of course futile, Blair Waldorf could see straight through Serena's front and realised that her plans were all falling into place.
"Yes but Sassy Mitchell has just spent the past few months 'travelling' with a group of miscreants from her local public school." Chuck plucked the bottle out of Serena's hands and poured himself a large glass. "I can just imagine the place being over run by unwashed, eugh, creatures."
"Chuck you are one big snob." Blair fished the bottle out of his grip and re filled the glass Serena held out to her. "Sassy was vaguely annoying at best, but she threw a good party."
"Yeah plus everyone's coming back for this one so it's going to be good." Nate chimed in, finally rescuing the champagne from Blair and emptying the rest of the bottle into his glass. He smiled at Serena who almost choked on the alcohol she had just attempted to swallow. She smiled back before turning to adjust the volume on the sound system.
Blair squealed as the limo hit a bump in the road and she spilt a bit of champagne over herself. The noise brought Serena's attention away from the music and back into the centre of the limo.
Chuck sighed and passed Blair a paper towel to pat herself down with. Serena shifted her weight off her left foot and slightly misjudged how sober she was, landing in Nate's lap.
"Well hello there Van Der Woodsen. Not a word from you since February, not including movie nights and suddenly here you are slap bang on my knee." He grinned down at her and brushed a bit of hair out her eyes on reflex. She started, sitting up quickly, barely avoiding hitting her head on Nate's chin.
Blair glanced at the two of them, shaking her head at her best friend's antics. "Honestly S what has gotten into you tonight?" She prodded her with the toe of her shoe. "You're incredibly jumpy. Have you been doing things you shouldn't have?"
"Not at all. I guess I'm just a bit too excited about seeing everyone. I can't keep still."
Chuck smirked at his stepsister's terrible attempts to hide her feelings.
Thankfully his friend hadn't been so hard to crack; Nate had confessed to Chuck that he had feelings for their blonde friend. Chuck had agreed to keep it between themselves, figuring that Blair somehow fitted into that.
The limo stopped at the lights, allowing them all to settle themselves properly and dish out more champagne. Blair figured the more drunk Serena got the less self conscious she'd be. After all everyone knew how free spirited Serena got when she was absolutely wasted.
"Hey S, I think Chuck has some vodka underneath your seat. What do you say to some shots, just to get the party started of course?"
Chuck nodded next to her. "That does sound fun; nothing will make this party more bearable than alcohol."
Serena reached under her chair and drew out a bottle of vodka. Chuck searched in a small cupboard next to the door and chucked each person a shot glass.
With his expert hand at pouring drinks in a moving vehicle, Chuck doled out the first round of shots. On the count of three they downed the liquid, coughing as they gulped for air.
They repeated the act several times before Serena clapped loudly and announced a change of track on the ipod. She scrolled through the playlist, hers incidentally, and reached the song she wanted. With a triumphant yell she pressed play, allowing the new song by Flo Rida to fill the small space.
"I love this song!" She began to dance in her seat, holding out her hands to Blair. "They play it all the time in this student bar we always go to."
Blair grabbed hold of Serena's hands and the two girls began to dance to the song.
"Ah the limo dance. Why is it that the song changes every time but the pleasure we all get from seeing you two wasted and trying to dance in the back of a car always stays the same." Chuck turned to his best friend, "right Nathaniel?"
"Right." The two boys toasted to the girls, who continued to sing along and attempt to dance in the small space.
Blair let go of Serena's hands and manoeuvred herself around so that she was facing Chuck. She began to sing to him, ignoring his groans of protest.
Serena giggled and turned to Nate. "How about a limo dance for old time's sake?"
He grinned back and copied the moves Serena was now making, which seemed to be something between the Macarena and the time warp.
As the pair attempted to keep to some sort of rhythm, Serena found herself forgetting moves and ended up waving her hands in the air.
"Come on Natie!" she grabbed his hands and lifted them up. "Wave them around like you just don't care!"
As a testament to friendship and love, Nate let Serena pull his arms in varying directions as she 'danced' with him. "Hey S, why don't you come and sit next to me for a bit. We'll hopefully be reaching the party soon and you don't want to be too tired to dance."
"That is a fantastic idea Natie." She crawled across Chuck's legs and landed next to Nate, laying her head on his shoulder. "Surely what they're doing breaks some sort of public decency law?"
She felt Nate's chest rumble as he laughed. A small smile appeared on her face as she turned to look up at him. He gazed down into her eyes.
"Hey there S."
"Hey N."
"So why have you been ignoring my calls?"
Serena turned her face away and lay back down with her head on Nate's chest. She began to fiddle with a stray piece of thread on her cuff.
"I guess I just wanted some time to think about stuff."
"Stuff? Like what, school?"
"School and Carter. And the dance you and I shared at my moms wedding." She looked up at Nate again. "I needed to have some time to think about what it all meant. I could just argue with myself that we're friends and that was as far as it was ever going to go this time. But then I didn't know if that would be disappointing myself."
She paused, waiting for Nate to say something. When he didn't she continued.
"I wanted to work out if I did feel something when we danced or if I was just allowing Blair to convince me of feelings I didn't have."
"Do you not want to admit to anything because you don't know how I feel?" He glanced down at her. "Because I think Blair's been very clear about how I feel."
She risked looking up and caught his eye. They began to edge closer together, the world around them disappearing to a faint haze, just as the limo slammed to a stop and the door opened.
"Oh look, we're here." Blair stated, forcing Serena out of the limo and into the party before Nate could react.