2.
The limo ride was predictably awkward- with his knowing gaze and steady stream of sexual innuendo, Chuck never failed to provoke her. She sat pressed uncomfortably against the window, watching him drink down mouthfuls scotch with distaste.
"You do realise it's barely noon."
"It's almost 2." Blair sniffed. Like that justified anything at all.
"Do you really need to-?"
"If I wanted a lecture, I'd actually consider spending time with my Father."She folded her arms defensively against his scorn.
"Fine."
"Fine."
The silence was deafening, and starting to grate on her besides.
"Didn't you have something you wanted to tell me? Or are you set on building dramatic tension?" His answering smirk made her squirm.
"Always happy to prolong a climax, Blair." She had no fitting comeback, and so settled for haughty dismissal.
"Whatever scandalous bombshell you're about to drop had better be worth it, Bass." He tensed a little, but nodded once all the same.
"Isn't it always?"
She couldn't argue with him there. Chuck Bass was capable of many things- blackmail, extortion, manipulation- but scandal was by far his forte. If Chuck wasn't at the heart of a controversy, he was almost certainly the one spreading the ensuing gossip.
Chuck finally put his glass aside after a few final gulps, and met her gaze squarely. When he spoke, his tone was deceptively conversational.
"Nathanial and Serena had sex."
Blair blinked, reeling.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard. Nate. Serena. At the Sheppard Wedding. I saw them." Blair couldn't breathe. She put her hand self consciously to her throat, a strange sort of panic rising up in her, and noted how uncomfortably quickly her heart was racing.
"I- I don't... What? Why are you... why are you telling me this?" She swallowed deeply and looked away from him, out onto the street. The cars on the road had blurred together into one large, cloudy approximation of colour and shape.
"I assumed you'd be interested to hear that beloved-Serena and golden-boy- Nathanial had relieved each other of their virginity in a drunken, very public fumble." Blair closed her eyes as she absorbed his words. She couldn't bear it.
"You're lying." Her voice was hoarse and clogged with tears, and her denial fell flat. Of course he was telling the truth. Somewhere deep down, she thought she had always known. However, it was one thing to know. It was quite another to hear in vivid detail the extent of the betrayal. "I hate you for this." She sounded meek and small and felt properly humiliated.
"That may be a little misplaced." Her head snapped back around to meet his gaze, and she felt the sadness wash away, replaced by a steady swell of hatred. Why did it have to be him, of all people, to tell her this?
"Don't try to pretend you're not getting some twisted pleasure out of this. You never do anything unless it serves to your advantage."Her voice was still brittle, but she sounded stronger, now that she was fuming. He raised his hands defensively, a grin playing at the edge of his mouth.
"Don't shoot the messenger, Waldorf. I was doing you a favour."
"Some favour."
"Would you have preferred to be left in the dark, moping about after Nate like some prepubescent teenybopper with a broken heart? It was embarrassing." Her anger had fizzled out almost as quickly as it had struck her, and she could feel tears threatening again. Choking them back, she settled on getting as far away from that mother-chucker as she possibly could.
"Stop the car. I'm not spending another second with you." She knocked on the roof with the flat of her hand. "Stop!" The driver pulled over obediently.
"Blair, don't be ridiculous." He caught her by the wrist and she struggled ineffectually against his strangle hold.
"You son of a bitch." Her nails bit into his palm and he yelped in an emasculating sort of way.
"Stop it!" The limo door sprung open and Blair wrenched her arm from his grasp with a single-minded determination, scrambling inelegantly toward the sanctuary of the curb.
"Quit making such a god-damn scene and back in the car."
"I'd rather die." The Melodrama of that statement was oddly comforting. She stalked away from the limo, half expecting him to chase her. He didn't.
"For fuck's sake, Waldorf!" She cringed as he bellowed at her from the back seat of the car, but ignored him pointedly, hefting her shopping bags a little higher on her shoulder. She was no more than two blocks from her mother's penthouse and she was resolved to get there before she allowed herself to cry.
At least she knew now why Serena had disappeared, and why Nate had been so decidedly absent from her life recently. Not that the truth was all that comforting. Her best friend had had sex with her boyfriend. The happy little bubble that had been her life had now been unceremoniously burst by the man-whore of Manhattan, and all she wanted was to lock herself away in her 5th avenue apartment until this nightmare was over and forgotten.
She'd barely made it inside the elevator before the tears came.