One thing is sure – when Serena wants to be somewhere, there is no chance to make her go away. She comes in the loft almost every day, even when Dan has classes. She cleans up (something she never did in her entire life), orders food, puts on nicer clothes than usual and waits for him. She doubts that something is happening (with Jenny of course) because whenever he comes home he barely notices her. He thanks her for the food, and usually goes to bed very early. There isn't any meaningful conversation or God forbid a kiss or anything else.
The day when he comes back from college and opens his lap top and starts to write something, it dawns to her – this isn't about Jenny at all. But she decides not ask anything.
A loud knock on the door interrupts the silence in the loft. Dan is faster and goes to open up.
On the other side, Chuck Bass personally, wearing deep brown long coat, suit underneath, a bowtie and his face is darker than he ever remembers it was. He doesn't greet him; he doesn't say a word, just stares at him with slightly narrowed eyebrows like he knows something.
"Chuck?" – Dan says. – "What are you doing here, how can I help you?" – Chuck still stares at him with frozen face, not even blinking, looking at him with disgust mixed with the urge to destroy his presence.
"You can never be able to help me" – He mumbles the words arrogantly and with such despise and Dan knows that something big happened.
"I'm confused" – Dan says.
"You are?" – He raises his eye brow. – "May I come in, so I make things clearer to you" – Dan steps aside and Chuck walks in. Serena is nowhere to be seen.
"Can I get you anything?" – Dan asks to ease the heavy atmosphere and the dark cloud Chuck brings with him.
"Nothing." – He turns to face him. – "What are you doing with Blair? – He brings her in topic.
"With Blair?!" – Dan's face is even more confused and he already curses her, because knowing how fucked up pairing her and Chuck are, she had probably told him about their drama at NYU. He quickly thinks of a lie, that he never had any conversation with her, even though it's silly to think of that because he is not afraid of Chuck, why would he be? – "Last time I checked, she hated me and run back to you, wherever you were…"
"Don't fuck with me Humphrey"- Chuck gets closer to Dan, breathing the words annoyingly, and Dan can see his anger and rage burning in his eyes.
"Ok, step back, I don't know what the hell you two are doing, but don't put me in this!" – He raises his shoulders like he defends himself.
"You think I'm a fool? She goes to that college, comes back home confused, absentminded, doesn't call me, she's changed and I also happen to know that you went back to NYU… Coincidence?" – He hisses.
"I'm barely seeing her there" – Dan replies calmly, yet the tiny gulp betrays his nerves.
"Humphrey…Humphrey…" – Chuck starts laughing and the sound fills up the room and makes Dan feeling like vomiting. – "You are forgetting things. Let's say I know that her behavior lately is because you affected her somehow." – He nods to him and raises his left eyebrow. – "I don't know what sort of novel or writer crap you're selling to her, but…
"I don't have to explain to you anything!" – Dan interrupts him – "I don't have any interaction with Blair Waldorf whatsoever!" – His voice is firm and it makes Chuck shut up. – "Ok?"
"It would be good for you if it's true" – Chuck walks to the door, slowly passing by him – "And her..." – He adds. – "Because Humphrey, if you are fucking around with Blair, the only one who will end up hurt is going to be her, and you don't want that, right?"
"It's none of my business"- Dan says. Chuck opens the door and before he leaves he looks at Dan one more time
"It was always such a fascinating mystery for me… how were you able to love such a broken and destroyed thing like her. I mean, if I were you I'd have never even look at that…completely mentally abused…I mean who wants to glue things up"
"Don't!" – Dan walks to him and opens the door wider. They are opposite of each other. – "Don't speak of her as if she's a subject!" – Chuck smirks completely satisfied that he managed to provoke him with his words.
"You know it was always easy with you!" – He cackles. – "It's always easy when you know people's weak spots. Thank you Humphrey, I won't take your time anymore."
Dan stays all alone at the door, feeling so brutally and verbally fucked up by Chuck and it makes him sick, even sicker than before, wondering what the hell she saw in this beast.
"Dan" – A whiny voice comes out of Jenny's room. He completely forgot Serena was there. – "Was there a real reason Chuck came over?"
"And what if there was?" – He snaps at her, irritated that she heard everything. – "I don't think I ever convinced you that I got over… her."
"Thanks" – She sniffs. – "It was nice to find out like this. I assume there wasn't anything about Jenny the other night?"
"No." – He sighs and looks away. She leaves the loft immediately.
…..
Later that day, after sunset, Blair sits alone in the penthouse, wearing pajamas and a robe, watching TV and trying to relax and forget about the fiasco that happened in the mountain house.
Ding.
Elevator doors open. Serena walks in, eyes red from crying, black traces of tears and her nose puffy and red. Blair jumps up from the armchair when she sees her. It's not the first time she sees her crying but this time she looks worse and sadder than ever.
"What happened? Serena?" – She walks closer.
"You know what happened!" – She starts crying and screams.
"No, what?" – But Serena already drops her bag on the floor and runs away from Blair, crying like crazy. – "Just stop and tell me?"
"You and Dan!" – She screams and drops down herself on the floor by the stairs, her favorite place to cry.
"What?!" – Blair widens her eyes.
"You and Dan!" – She sniffs.
"Are you insane?
"Chuck came to the loft today and he doesn't come to Brooklyn for nothing!" – She keeps screaming.
Ding.
The elevator doors open again.
"Oh, she found out" – Chuck walks inside calmly. – "So you had the audacity to tell your poor friend that you are sneaking around with her boyfriend"
Ding. The elevator doors open again. Blair stays frozen and baffled from the words that are coming out of Chuck's mouth.
"I'm not Serena's boyfriend" – Dan says calmly.
"Why are you here?" – Serena manages to ask in between swallowing tears. – "You are just proving the point" – She sniffs.
"Yes, Humphrey why are you here?"- Chuck asks and turns to Blair.
"What the hell is wrong with all of you?" – Blair yells. – "What are you doing here?" – She asks Dan with strict voice.
"Let's make things clear, I had no idea that these two were here, so I came to ask what the hell you told your boyfriend that you and I are doing behind his back, because Waldorf I don't want to be connected to your name anyhow"
"I'm not her boyfriend" – Chuck says.
"Fiancé" – Dan corrects himself.
"He's not my fiancé" – Blair snaps. Now Dan is confused and switches his eyes from Chuck to Blair. – "I don't know what are you talking about, and above all why are all of you here, disturbing me?"
It becomes a real chaos in the foyer. Serena screams and cries and talks incoherently, Chuck mumbles words, looking at everybody with disgust, Dan tries to calm things down and Blair can't take it anymore so she covers her ears.
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP" – She yells. – "Just shut up! Serena…Go upstairs wash off your face. Both of you get out of here, I don't have to explain anything to anyone!"
Suddenly the air is clear, Serena walks upstairs and the three of them remain quiet.
"I want to rest. I'm having a very stressful period and I don't want you or anyone else…" – She emphasizes the last word and looks at Dan – "…to disturb me! Is that clear?"
"No" – Chuck adds. – "I checked your phone calls from this weekend" – He glares at her and although she was firm and strong, suddenly her shoulders fall down, she looks at her feet and the fear she always had when Chuck knew things prevails her body again. – "Don't lie to me Blair! I know who you called!" – He passes by Dan and acts as if he's not there. She keeps her hands crossed over her chest, holding the lapel of her robe, a learned habit when Chuck "attacks".
"So?" – Dan asks loud. – "What about that?"
"I don't remember I addressed you" – Chuck still glares at Blair and she still has her eyes fixed on the floor.
"Well I'm addressing you." – Dan raises his voice.
"Dan, can you please go?" – Her voice is sad and she knows she sounds like a scared little girl.
"No, I can't. I'm involved and really want to hear what the problem with you calling me, was."
"You want to hear, huh?" – Chuck's eyes are meeting his, the rage getting even more visible. – "Well, this is going to be a long night" – He walks to the bar table and opens a crystal bottle, drinks fast and empties it to the half. – "Your precious muse, that you see as an innocent and angelic, which happens to be utterly damaged and miserable, refused my marriage proposal." – He drags few more long sips from the bottle and finally empties it.
"Chuck, stop it and leave, right now!" – Blair says, knowing what might happen after him finishing a full bottle of Scotch.
"No, no. He wants to hear it, so why not. As I told you Humphrey… I might…or let's say I'm true with this" – He pulls the sleeve of her robe as if she's a tatter, and the move is so disturbingly annoying and disrespectful it makes her cry.
"Hey" – Dan pulls him back by the shoulder and he drops her sleeve.
"Let's say I'm done with Blair's schizophrenia and her idealistic dreams of something that can't happen between me and her" – The alcohol already takes over him and he leans above her as she tries to push him away. – "I am not your prince charming, can't you deal with that? Can't you accept it? I'm sorry that most of the time I'm a scum bag who was left behind his own fucking mother, I'm sorry I don't know anything about your stupid books and movies and… the hell I'm not sorry… there is no ideal match, there are no soul mates, the thing you imagined in your head doesn't exits" – His voice echoes in the room. He staggers and turns around to Dan. – "So let's say I'm giving up on this broken piece of soul and you… can have it, because I'm willing to give you my left behinds" – Dan keeps his cold manner during Chuck's drunk speech, trying his best not to kill him while he speaks into her face. – "You can even brag about it, Chuck Bass's leftovers!"
And then the heavy punch cracks his lip open, he drops down, another one comes right after the first one into his nose and his face is completely red from blood. The shirt and the bow tie are covered with his blood.
"I told you not to talk of her as if she's a thing!" – Dan repeats again that day.
In any other case Blair would scream and yell and even send him away. She just stands aside, astonished from what she saw, Chuck's bloody face, the fact that he is on the floor, tasting his own blood and what had remained of his dignity, Dan's bloody fist and his shallow breathing and eyes that are looking at Chuck with such disgust and disdain, something she never thought Dan was able to produce out of his warm eyes.
Nobody helps Chuck to get up. He barely manages to do it himself and walk to the elevator, presses the elevator button, leaves bloody prints over it and goes without words. Only then they become aware of each other.
"Thank you" – She whispers. He keeps his eyes on the floor.
"Where's Chuck?" - Serena comes back down stairs, her face is clean but still puffy and red from crying. Nobody answers her; they stand on their spots like statues. – "Is that so…?" – She nods like this is the biggest confirmation to her doubts. – "Thank you, both of you" – She says, picking up her bag and nervously walks to the elevator. Ding. She's gone.
"Why?" – He finally manages to find strength to look at her, not necessary to tell her that he asks about her refusing Chuck's proposal.
"I don't know…"
He walks inside the elevator.
"I hope you won't change your mind..." – His eyes with a small trace of worry, are looking at her, and all she can do is fix her gaze on is his mole below his right eye.
"No…" – She puts her hand on the elevator door.
"Did it have something to do with that phone call?"
"It happened before." – She says. – "After you yelled at me…spoke your mind out…I'm really disturbed and I rethink everything" – She lowers her eyes on his lips, still holding the elevator door.
"It wasn't futile then…" – His lips spread in a small smile. – "It doesn't matter if we won't be friends after this… I guess we won't, but… Blair, I'm glad you won't go to this… to him... coming home drunk, throwing insults at you." – As he says the words two tears are rolling down on the sides of her face, but there are no grimaces and she seems calm. She wants to say something, anything, but instead she bites her lips and lets the doors close.
There are two options – she either will have to keep acting cold and as if he doesn't exist after what he did to Chuck and deal with her dreams of him every night or…
It's almost midnight when she knocks on the loft door. He opens shortly after her quiet knock. It's visible that she's a mess, she cried and not just that day he can tell, and she looks skinnier just in a week after he saw her the last time at NYU. She wears long black coat, her hair simply combed down, loose curls here and there, and it's longer than he remembers, almost to the middle of her back, maybe a bit longer.
He opens his mouth to say any word that would come to his mind but he's mute, there's no voice.
"I just…" – She holds her gloved hands together – "…want to thank you, really thank you." – He stares at her without a blink and she walks to him, tall in her high heels, almost as tall as him, puts her arms around his shoulders and mumbles something in his neck, but he can't really hear what. Till he realizes what is happening and till he puts his arms around her too (and he does, for a tiny second they are hugging) she steps back, her eyes are pretty red and teary, she wipes one tear that comes closer to her mouth with her hand and in a blink she's gone.
tbc