I own nothing, except my car and my collection of shoes and clothes.
This is not the best chapter in the world but I think my problem in writing might be trying to make everything too perfect I need to accept that this is still very early days, maybe not every line is going to work or I might make a mistake but hopefully with every story, I will get a little better.
I am really trying very hard to make my triangle even but any constructive criticism would be most welcome.
Thanks and I hope you enjoy.
"So I can't believe that you actually agreed to share a limo with Blair and Serena!" Nate Archibald joked with his best friend as they waiting outside the Waldorf penthouse to pick up their childhood friends.
"I didn't expect for her to say yes to another ride in my limo" Chuck smirked as he recalled the fun he had had with Blair in the back of that very limousine.
"It's Blair; she never backs down from a challenge" Nate smiled at his best friend, pleased that they could talk about the girl who almost ruined their friendship in the past so openly.
"She also never misses a chance to torture me" Chuck complained swirling the almost full glass of scotch that he was nursing "I never thought that someone could use Friendship as a tool for destruction but Blair is trying"
"I am sure that Blair doesn't plan to torture you its just something that comes naturally to her anyway you are not the only one being tortured. They say you don't know what you have got until it's gone! Man, I dated her almost my whole life, we break up and she turns into a sex kitten. And Serena oh Serena, the way she and Blair have been going on for the past six months has tortured every male in Manhattan; they are constantly plastered over the tabloids falling out of some bar in barely there dresses. They are definitely girls gone wild, I hear that James Martinez has a book running on how long it takes before they are making out with each other in the courtyard." he only half joked.
Chuck eyed his friend from his seat across the limo, just because he and Blair doing the friend thing didn't mean that Nate was allowed to call her a sex kitten or any other sort of kitten he covered his slight annoyance with one of his trademark salacious comments "Now that I would love to see and since Serena is no longer related to me that's something I would pay to be involved with."
"I know your Dad screwed Lily in the divorce and is living in Brooklyn but I don't think Serena is that desperate for cash… yet."
"Must you mention that whore's name? I've just eaten!" he cried out knocking the entire contents of his glass down his throat.
"Lets forget about our parents for just one night its senior year how many more of these parties are we going to go to, the four of us. It's a shock that we can all be friends with everything that has happened I want to enjoy this." Nate pleaded as he refilled Chuck's glass
"Yeah we are all just great friends. The non judging breakfast club!" he mocked downing the second glass as quickly as the first.
"I know things are weird between you and Serena" Nate ventured softly, it was a very sensitive subject
"Her mother left my father for Rufus Humphrey"
"I know but I am pretty sure that she hates what her mother did as much as you do. I mean she has spent the last 3 months staying at Blair's!" Nate reasoned, the Bass – Van Der Woodsen divorce was the biggest news to hit New York in a long time, Lily was desperate to get a quick divorce and Bart was determined to make sure it was as painful and expensive for her as possible. Serena had escaped most of the scandal and the prospect of living across the river by moving into the Waldorf penthouse as soon as Lily had left Bart. "Look all I'm saying is that all our parents are pretty terrible people lets not tear each other apart over their battles. Try to get on tonight Chuck... for me"
"For you Nathaniel... anything." he slurred the shots of alcohol his best friend was dispensing where just topping up the 3 month long binge he had been on since Christmas, he had never imagined that he would have a family so had found himself ill equipped and unprepared when the one he had gotten broke down so dramatically. "As I have always said I care about three things Nathaniel, money, the pleasures money brings me and you!"
Nate laughed to himself as he eyed his best friend, he didn't know if that had ever been true. Despite what his closest friends might believe, he did have the mental acuity to work out that when Chuck had last made that speech he definitely cared about a certain brunette and since then the list had grown to include at least one blonde pseudo-sibling "Do you think we should go up? Blair is going to be pitching a fit."
"I think we should wait down here, you know how I love to get Blair's blood going." Chuck chuckled
"You are a glutton for punishment my man"
"Sometimes the crime is worth the time" Chuck smiled and Nate wondered when the earth had shifted on it's axis, how they had gotten to a stage where his best friend was talking to him like this about the girl he always thought he was going to marry himself.
"I thought you were done with Blair," he stated, his tone shorter than usual, not because he wanted Blair himself but because as much as he loved his boy, Blair wasn't a recent addition to Nate's list of things he cared about. Sometimes she was bumped from the top spot by something new and shiny but she was always there and somehow the thought of Chuck turning her life upside down again made a lump form in his throat.
"I am done with her I just wouldn't mind a trip down memory...limo, what are friends without benefits?" he raised his glass to toast but was left hanging by Nate who suddenly had a very serious expression on his face despite the three bottles of beer had had consumed on the short ride over.
"Like you said to me, if you are done with Blair be done," he said warningly
Chuck obviously didn't hear the warning in his best friends voice as he leaned back and gave his friend the biggest grin Nate had seen since news of Lily's departure had hit gossip girl "I said that because I was having sex with her."
"Man!" was all Nate could manage before the door was ripped open and Blair and Serena tumbled into the car, both sulking, Serena because she had to share a ride with Chuck, and Blair as predicted because the boys hadn't bothered to come up and get them.
Try as he might Chuck was having a ridiculous amount of trouble tearing his eyes away from Blair backside, ever since she had checked her coat and revealed her scandalously sexy outfit. It was so completely different to anything he had ever seen her in even given the last few months of more and more sexy outfits, and he silently thanked god for Serena moving in and the obvious migration of her clothes into Blair's wardrobe. She was wearing a tiny sequined dress that left almost nothing to the imagination and made her legs go on for miles, on anyone else it might have looked cheap, but on Blair, it looked as ever sexy and sophisticated. She had a way of dictating taste in the UES and girls wearing outfits that Blair would have put together herself just 6 months ago looked stuffy and overdressed. What he couldn't get over was how much she looked like the fun, happy 18 year old she was. Blair had never looked young, despite her doe eyes and dimples; she always looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders forcing her to grow up. She was the grown up one and everyone else could be silly because Blair would be there to hold back their hair or pay off who ever needed bribing. He liked this new side of her.
"I'm going to the bar, what's everyone drinking?" Blair asked looking around at the rest of the non judging breakfast club, Serena was checking her phone again, Nate was flashing his million dollar smile in the direction of a couple of girls from Chapin and Chuck was openly checking her out, his eyes slowing ascending up her body until he had locked eyes with her. She could feel the blush rising up her face as the air between them got increasingly thick with sexual tension she licked her lips and saw his eyes dip to watch.
"I'm easy B." Serena replied distractedly too busy looking around the club to notice the intense eye sex that her best friend was in engaging in with her ex-step brother or the way that Nate was sniggering at the double meaning of what she had said.
"Serena who are you looking for?" Blair asked breaking eye contact with Chuck and looking around herself only to see all the usual people she had come to expect at events like this. The host of the party, the daughter of a new money millionaire confectioner, had not had the class to book out the club exclusively but even on a Saturday night the extortionate cover charge and ultra premium liquor meant that the only people around were people they knew. "I don't think your new step brother could deal with either the cover charge or the dress code, it's a surprise your old one did."
"As charming as ever Waldorf, I'll come to the bar with you; I need to assess the choice before making a decision. You know me not easily satisfied with mediocrity" Chuck swarmed as he stood and moved close behind her putting his hand on her waist as he guided her to the bar.
"See mediocre is just the word I would have used to describe Cindy Jacobs" Blair tossed over her shoulder her large smile and twinkling eyes mocking him openly
"Cindy Jacobs?" he asked perplexed for a moment before he remembered, the Blonde with the very discrete belly button boob job, he smiled at the memory and earnt a glare from Blair
"The slut you spent last night with, come on everyone knows Cindy she came back from a summer volunteering at an animal rehabilitation centre in South Africa with breasts like basketballs, as if the world doesn't know that summer volunteering is code for getting work done, either that pregnancy or juvie." Blair rolled her eyes at him
"She asked me if you were coming tonight, before telling me all about your modern day love story, whilst I was trying to eat my sushi. Really Bass, you really should be buying these girls dinner before you show them the "amazing view" from your suite! Are you sure that Dr Sherman hasn't paid you make such vomit worthy stories that I relapse, I know he misses our Wednesday afternoon chats."
"I didn't know you cared" Chuck retorted motioning to the barman for two shots of scotch, he liked Blair best when she was drinking his favourite tipple it seemed to bring out her naughty side. He didn't think that good single malt could be improved upon in terms of taste that was until he tasted it on her lips. The memory of running his tongue around her mouth, tasting scotch, her and sometimes even a little of himself made his trousers feel tight and his pulse feel rapid
"We are friends Chuck, remember." Blair looked up at him her eyes meeting his the picture of innocence as she picked up the tumbler the barman had just filled and rubbed the crystal against her glossy bottom lip before taking a tentative sip. In an instant Chuck remembered how much of a bitch Blair could be and how much of an idiot he was for agreeing to, scratch that suggesting this whole friend thing "When you start sticking it to a girl who is about a week away from the "syph" going to her brain with it makes me worried"
"About that friend thing, Blair...." he begun pushing this own tumbler away suddenly feeling very sober as he attempted to correct his mistakes but he stopped when he realised that Blair wasn't listening, she was looking over his shoulder with her death glare on.
"That little slut" she seethed with an annoyance he hadn't seen since Jenny Humphrey was having her heyday.
"What? Cindy?" he asked wondering what could get under the skin of Blair 2.0, since they had gotten back to school and agreed on the terms of their friendship he hadn't seen her riled up at all. He didn't know if it was because she was genuinely more relaxed or because the idea of a relaxed Blair was so scary that most people just acquiesced to her requests without her having to resort to violence.
"Serena!" she screeched, "she has invited some guy she met in an Irish pub in Brooklyn!"
"Serena, a guy and Brooklyn, I think I might have heard this one before" Chuck dead paned
"That's not the worst of it, he brought his little friend along" pouted Blair as she held her head in her hands
"His friend?" he asked not sure if he wanted to know the answer at all.
"I had a drinking competition with a barman the prize was a date, I lost." She admitted
"Blair Waldorf, what or who has gotten into you, drinking competitions, dates with barmen, sexy little sequined mini dresses and not a headband insight?" he smiled at her with a mixture of lust and admiration and for a second they were both sent back in time, back to before Victrola when Chuck was her wing-man and she his. They would plot and conspire and he would try to corrupt her; both of them naively believing that he would never be able to.
"Blair Waldorf grew up" she sniped shaking away the memory that his smile evoked before grabbing his abandoned glass of scotch and tipping the contents down her throat, she looked up at his shocked expression "sorry were you drinking that?"
"Whoa there, if you don't want to go on a date with him then don't" he reasoned before wiggling his eyebrows and making a playful suggestion "want me to play at being your boyfriend?"
"My boyfriend? How would you sleeping with the next blonde slut that passes help me out of this situation" she joked but neither of them were laughing, this wasn't 2 years ago, and the blonde joke wasn't at Nate's expense anymore, it was at his, that changed everything.
"Look I'll put my arm around you, whisper some sweet nothings," he suggested moving closer to her than he had dared the whole time they had been apart as if to prove his point
"Maybe slip out to the limo for a little limo sex," she questioned raising her eyebrow, challenging him.
"You wish"
"No" she said with a knowing smirk "you wish"
"Do we always have to have this argument?" He looked into her eyes but dropped his gaze as soon as he got a glimpse of the pain behind the smirk
"Bass! He is coming over just do your thing," she whispered hopping onto her bar stool which was quite a feat considering how short her dress was and acting incredibly interested in the exact setting on Chuck's diamond cuff links.
"I found you," Donny whispered into her ear, he had sneaked up behind her which would have shocked her if she hadn't spent the last few seconds practising pretending not to notice him "guess I did want that date bad enough"
"It's not Friday" she threw over her shoulder at Donny trying to ignore the spark of electricity that shot through her body when he spoke into her ear at the same time as ignoring the effect that the obvious jealously on Chuck's face was having on the butterflies which were making a reappearance in her stomach.
"I'm eager what can I say?" he quipped sneakily spinning the bar stool that she was perched on so that they would be face to face
"As much as I would love to be your consolation prize.... Danny" she smiled managing to make him feel ten feet tall and two inches high all at the same time, "I am actually here with my boyfriend"
He eyed her suspiciously and the guy who was standing behind her giving him the evil eye. This guy definitely wasn't defending her in a brotherly way but he was loath to believe that he was her boyfriend, it didn't make sense, Blair wouldn't have agreed to a date if she had a boyfriend and if she did, it certainly wouldn't be this guy with his turquoise suit and ridiculous bowtie "Consolation prize? I have no idea what you are talking about Darlin'"
"she is not your Darling' so why don't you run along" Chuck dismissed the intruder with a wave of his fingers Chuck was getting increasingly annoyed with this guy, flirting with Blair, touching her seat, calling her darling, someone needed to take this guy down a peg or two. He had been moments away from suggesting that Blair come up to the roof with him, he wanted to talk to her, to find out if he was the only one who couldn't get the other out of his head.
"I mean your consolation prize because your buddy got to the "Gorgeous Blonde" before you could." Blair clarified her voice dripping with distain
"Serena is gorgeous but blondes are overrated, I am much more of a fan of Chocolate Curls and fire engine red lips me self." he charmed with a smile on his face, a smile that didn't quite reach his deep blue eyes, which looked annoyed. Blair was used to igniting many feelings in men, in everyone, anger, admiration, lust and loathing but never annoyance. "But if you are that childish that you are still competing with your bessie mate maybe I best stick clear of high school girls."
"Do they pull you aside in Brooklyn and give you some self important right to judge other people?" she slid off her stool and started poking him in the chest to punctuate her words "Who do you think you are?"
"I'm Donny O'Reilly." he replied with a smile and for a second she thought she misheard because the way he was looking at her and the smoothness of his voice was making her think of someone who was definitely not Donny O'Reilly. her head all of a sudden felt dizzy the effects of her two quickly swallowed scotches on a stomach which was empty of anything other than a couple of anti depressants washed down with a glass of champagne started to hit her and she stumbled slightly. Luckily, despite being overwhelmed by just how amazing she looked when she was annoyed Donny was able to quickly grab her waist to stop her from falling and pull her closer to him. She looked up at her saviour, he was gorgeous and she knew there was something special about him. She decided to follow Serena's advice for one in her life and take a chance on a boy from the wrong side of the tracks; it's not as if she could ever develop feelings for someone like Donny O'Reilly! So why not have some fun in the city before she goes to New Haven.
"And I'm Chuck Bass so get your hands off her." the voice barely registered with Donny who was completely in awe of how right it felt to be holding this girl, Blair from Manhattan, it's all he knew, the only information that she offered whilst she was on his turf. Now on her home ground he could see that there was much more to Blair than just some girl from Manhattan. The thought of the princess in his arms both thrilled and scared him, she was the epitome of everything that drew him to New York and everything that made me want to go running back to the green, green grass of home.
He looked down at the beautiful girl in his arms, she had spunk there was something special about her. he decided to take his grandfather's advice for the first time in his life and leave his judgemental side aside and go with his gut, so this guy "Chuck" clearly had the hots for her, and she was bitchy and immature but she was also smart and funny and an O'Reilly never backs down from a bet. He smiled down at Blair who was surprisingly looking up at him with something other than complete hatred and then turned to the boy in blue "Well Chucky boy could you do us a favour and guard Blair's drink because she is coming to dance with me."