Tuesday flew by for Lita with little incident. She received her assignment for the Ivy League reception the next night and was even given the honor of addressing the students and representatives before Blair would announce their charity sponsor. She would have been completely thrilled with the day if it wasn't for the fact that she had promised to have dinner with Chuck and his mother. That, she was dreading.
"It won't be so bad." Serena tried to convince her as they sorted through her closet looking for the best outfit. "You're great at charming parents. All adults really."
"It's true." Blair agreed from Lita's bed where she sat giving her judgment on each of the outfits the girls produced.
"Yeah but this is Chuck's mother." Lita groaned. "I know practically nothing about the woman other than the fact that she birthed him and then took off."
"Well, that's all there is to know." Serena shrugged. "I know you came to New York right after she left but you didn't really miss much, right B? Chuck always had nannies and babysitters. I don't even really remember what she looked like."
"It's true," Blair nodded. "From what I've heard my parents say, she was quite the pill popper and partier. She was completely bored with the Upper East Side and not at all interested in having a child and doing the domestic thing."
Lita shook her head in disgust. She really had no interest in getting to know the woman but she wanted to make Chuck happy. "What if I just wear the Diane Von Furstenberg dress and call it a day."
"You'll look great and she'll be wowed by your wonderfully good taste." Serena gave her friend a side hug. "Don't look so glum, you never know, maybe she came back because she's ready to repent. And I'm sure she's really excited to get to know you since you mean so much to Chuck."
"Well that's true." Blair added. "Now that you and Bass are exchanging the L word, you're definitely the key."
"Great." Lita rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. "I've always wanted to be the pawn in a family drama!"
Chuck was surprised to have Serena and Blair answer the door at Lita's house.
"She's still getting ready." Serena explained.
"And her Mom and sister went out to dinner already." Blair added, giving Chuck the once over.
"Okay." Chuck contemplated waiting for his girlfriend in the limo but figured Lita wouldn't appreciate him being so rude. Luckily, Serena intervened.
"So, Chuck are you going to be escorting the representative from Princeton?"
"It appears that way." Chuck nodded.
"I wonder how many phone calls, Bart had to make to arrange that." Blair smirked at Chuck's death glare. He knew it had a lot of truth to it but he didn't want Blair to rub it in.
"I think it only took one." Chuck said icily. "Is Lita almost ready?"
"B, why don't you go check on her." Serena suggested. Blair rolled her eyes but went anyway. "Okay, what's up with you and Blair, it's like you two have upped the hatred level considerably during the last few weeks."
Chuck shrugged, not trusting Serena entirely. "Blair Waldorf hates for other people to be happier than she is and she hates for others to have the things that she wants."
Serena didn't respond immediately but thought about what Chuck had said. "You know, Lita trusts Blair."
"She's a trusting person." Chuck agreed. "But I know Blair is up to something, I just haven't figured out what it is."
"You're nervous." Chuck noted as he helped Lita out of the limo. She looked stunning in her black wrap dress that hugged every wondrous curve of her body.
"I can't help it." Lita confessed. "What if she doesn't like me?"
"I like you."
"I'm serious Chuck, she's your mother, I want her to like me." Chuck stopped walking when he heard the serious tone of her voice.
"That woman may be my mother but her opinion isn't what matters." He pulled her closer. "I love you and you're the most important person in my life." Chuck leaned down and kissed Lita; neither of them cared in that moment that they were standing outside of one of the most exclusive restaurants in the city. Chuck felt Lita's body melt into his and he deepened their kiss, his hands moving from her waist and sliding lower, their hips pressed firmly together.
"Have you decided to skip dinner and go straight to desert?" A voice snapped Chuck and Lita out of their trance. Lita blushed and quickly straightened out her dress when she realized they had just been caught by Chuck's mother.
"Mother, you remember Lita." Chuck didn't appear frazzled at all. Instead he took Lita's hand and once again pulled her close.
"How could I forget." Misty gave a tight smile and started for the restaurant without another word to either of them. Lita groaned and shot Chuck a glare.
"Your mother hates me."
"Lita.." Misty took a sip of her wine. "That's an unusual name."
"It's a nickname." Chuck answered before Lita could. "Short for Carlita."
"Except no one calls me Carlita, not even my parents." Lita added. She wanted to engage Misty in conversation but it felt as though none of her efforts were paying off. "They named me after my maternal grandmother."
"How nice." Misty looked around the restaurant with a bored expression. "I think we used to have a maid named Carlita, didn't we Charles?"
Lita gaped at Misty's comment. "Excuse me?" It happened to be the exact same moment that Chuck's phone started ringing. "I have to take this call; do you think you can manage to be civil for just a few moments while I'm gone?" Chuck asked his mother.
Misty's icy smirk was the only response that he received. Chuck gave Lita's shoulder a squeeze and headed to the front of the restaurant to take the call.
Misty's eyes narrowed immediately once Chuck was out of her sight. Her face, to the average passerby, would have been the picture of calm and composure but Lita could see the fury in her eyes "Look, Carlita, I'm sure you're a very nice girl but I hope you don't seriously believe that you are right for my son."
"Chuck and I love each other."Lita responded immediately. "He's my best friend."
"I'm sure you think that now," Misty sipped her wine. "But you're just another phase to Charles."
"You really don't know what you're talking about." Lita shook her head. "I don't think you know your son well enough to say that to me."
"Can you honestly look me in the eyes and tell me that Charles hasn't inherited his father's inability to express his emotions? Can you tell me that he doesn't have a wandering eye? I might have been living across the ocean but that doesn't mean that I don't know what kind of things he's been up to."
"Chuck has changed a lot." Lita's voice hardened and she felt herself getting very angry. "And if he has trouble expressing his emotions, maybe that has something to do with the abandonment issues that you left him with."
"Well, I'm back now." Misty smiled as she saw her son returning. "And I ensure you, young lady, I'm here to set things straight.
Lita had gone to bed furious. Chuck had been distracted throughout most of dinner. Alternating between texting on his blackberry, no doubt to Nate who seemed to be having some sort of a crisis, and arguing with his mother. He seemed oblivious to Lita's increased discomfort and they hadn't gotten much of a chance to talk after dinner as he had to take off on some mysterious quest.
Waking up seemed no better than falling asleep. She was greeted to her mother yelling rapidly, and quite furiously, in Portuguese. Sitting up and brushing her curls out of her face, Lita frowned.
"What?" Her mother stood in her doorway holding a stack of computer paper.
"Look what Ellen just sent me." Lucia Nadalia came into her daughter's room and dropped the stack of papers on her bed. Ellen was the Nadalia family's publicist and Lita couldn't imagine what she could have had to say that would have sent her mother into such a frenzy at 6:30 am. "Where did they get these photos?"
Lita stared at the first photograph in shock. It was a picture of her standing outside of the Ostroff Center in tears. It had a headline of '16 isn't too young for rehab'. "Oh my God! Mom!"
"There's more." Lucia sat down on the bed and showed Lita some of the other posts from blogs. It appeared as though they had found pictures of her from Gossip Girl's website and were making her out to seem like an out of control party girl. The last picture in the stack was of her and Chuck from the night before- his hand was dangerously close to being obscenely low on her back and the two were passionately kissing.
Lita felt tears pricking her eyes. So many of the articles not only made her seem reckless but also made her parents seem negligent. "Mom, how could they do this?"
"It's their job." Lucia brushed her daughter's hair back. "Where did they get this picture from?"
"I don't know, I guess that stupid Gossip site that I told you about."Lita groaned. "I can't believe someone took this picture."
"Why were you crying?" Lucia looked at the photo of her daughter outside of the Ostroff Center.
"I'll tell you," Lita told her mother. "but we can't use this to help me."
Lita got ready for school and tried to put on a good front. Her mother insisted on helping her with her outfit- wanting to ensure that her daughter looked as demure and innocent as possible. When Lucia was satisfied that Lita looked presentable, she called for a car to pick Lita up and drive her to school. There were a couple of reporters outside of her house but Lita simply kept her head down and walked straight to the car without responding to any of their questions.
Once in the car, Lita asked for the driver to take her to The Palace where Chuck had promised to be waiting outside for her. True to his word, Chuck stepped into the car moments after it came to a stop.
"Why exactly does Gossip Girl have a photo of you crying outside of the Ostroff Center?" Chuck asked immediately. He'd woken up and checked his phone that morning only to see that his box was almost full with texts from friends asking him how long Lita had been in rehab. He'd gone to Gossip Girl and saw the post about Lita, including the picture of her outside of the center.
"I work there." Lita groaned. "No one was supposed to know. And now it's not just gossip girl." She opened her bag and pulled out a couple of the print outs that her mother had shown her. "The whole world now thinks that I'm an out of control party girl slut."
Chuck looked at the papers closely. He felt furious that Lita's privacy was being invaded so publically. "Can't your parents' publicist do anything about it?"
"They're trying to figure out who sent them the photos." Lita felt her eyes watering. "I'm so embarrassed. It was bad enough when Gossip Girl wrote about us. How am I supposed to face everyone now?"
Chuck put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. "We'll figure this out, L."
"It's too late. My Dad is so furious with me. He's flying home from his film shoot today. That's going to cost the studio tens of thousands of dollars." Lita sobbed.
"Whoever is responsible for this is going to pay. I promise you that."
I sped the plot up a bit because I want to get to some new ideas that I had. bear with me- it'll get better and more fluff is on the way!