A/N

To all of you lovely and amazing readers who reviewed on the last chapter...THANK YOU!!! Your reviews mean the world to me and are such an amazing motivation!!! :)

and thanks Abby for the beta!! (and for laughing at my "hurtful" dialogue just as I did, lol)

(...and as she turns her head and looks straight into an all too familiar pair of eyes - she knows exactly why she is feeling the way that she is)

He looks great.

There are butterflies doing summersaults inside her chest, and it is making it hard for her to breathe. This is what happens every time she sees his face in the papers – or, like now, comes face to face with him - unprepared or caught off guard. The butterflies flutter just as they always have; but having been drenched in hurt and anger, their fluttering is now nothing but a painful reminder of what they used to be.

Her breath quickens further as Serena calls out for him. He acknowledges his step-sister with a look and walks up to them with a curvaceous brunette on his arm.

His date whispers something – her red painted lips close to his ear - as they walk, earning her a smirk and an encouraging nod in response, before the two of them part and the woman heads in direction of the bar. Her hips that sway seductively in a short, sparkling silver dress as she walks are catching the attention of more than one man in the room; including Chuck.

The swirl in the pit of her stomach that is brought on by his signature smile infuriates her.

How is it that her body doesn't even stand on her side?

He walks up to the two of them - a sudden thickness in the air that even Serena can't escape noticing - as brown eyes lock on brown in an angry staring contest.

"Chuck," Serena greets him nervously, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Sis," He nods, a little warmth in his eyes that goes instantly cold as they shift back to hers. "I see the Ice Queen has returned to court." He snarls ignoring Serena's disapproving look.

"The standards have clearly deteriorated since my last visit…" She retorts without missing a beat, "…apparently they allow just about anything to attend a function these days."

Her remark earns her Serena's upset glare this time. The blonde is obviously at loss for a solution to her best friend and brother's exchange of insults.

"Your date looks vaguely familiar, where could I have possibly seen her before?" She sneers, curling her lip in distaste. "The Hookers 'R' Us catalogue?"

"Surely you would know. By now you must have an annual spread in a publication like that.

"Chuck!" Serena cries out, appalled by the venom in his voice as he replies. "What is wrong with you?"

"Just telling it like it is." He scoffs, "I will talk to you later, sis. I need to go find my date."

As he is leaving Serena looks over to her worriedly, "Shit. B, are you okay?"

"I am fine, why wouldn't I be?" She replies airily "I couldn't care less about what he has to say."

You are such a liar.

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*

He finds himself following her with his eyes as she walks out of the room and out onto the balcony. She is beautiful. He can vaguely remember the time when the realization didn't cause him to cringe, but merely made him feel proud to know that she was all his.

Actually, he remembers it like it was yesterday, but he prefers not to dwell on the issue.

There is something fragile about her appearance tonight - underneath the gorgeous dress, the perfect make-up and the angry remarks - she doesn't look well. There is a hurt in her eyes that he could easily detect earlier, before she had the time to put her defence back up.

Knowing that he is partially to blame makes him feel horrible; this combined with that ever present tightness in his chest when she is around seems to render him unable to keep from kicking her even when she is already down.

He tries to justify his words, to justify hurting her like he knows that he did just minutes ago, tries to convince himself that she deserves it.

She does deserve it, after what she did.

But still, is he really the only one that can tell that she is a mess? Leave it up to the blonde duo to not notice. They might be rich and successful and all that, but god are they thick sometimes.

"Chuck?!"

A hand on his arm brings him out of his thoughts, and he comes back to reality only to find brown eyes looking up at him.

There is a reason to why he normally goes for blondes. They don't often come with brown eyes.

"Chuck? Are you even listening?" His date asks again, clearly upset by the lack of attention on his part.

"Of course" He says even though it is a total lie. He puts on his most charming womanizer smirk before leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. "I need some air. I will be right back."

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*

She is standing with her back to him - shivering a little in her black knee length cocktail dress, even though the warm night air is like a blanket around them - and all of a sudden he doesn't know what he is doing there anymore.

"Stalk me much? Just go away, Bass; your presence isn't wanted here." She sneers, but sounds more tired than angry and it unnerves him.

She hasn't turned around but apparently knows that it is him. They used to be like that, unable to not notice each other's presence.

They used to be a lot of things.

"You didn't exactly seem too bothered with my presence last time, or was that not you throwing yourself at me?" He drawls, thinking about their encounter in Paris.

"You make me sick!" She spits back as she turns around, her voice reeking with disgust. "You deceiving, lying excuse of a human being. I didn't ask you to come and gloat! You…"

Suddenly her outburst is interrupted as her eyes seem to fixate on something behind him, inside of the ballroom. The anger on her face disappearing - only to be replaced with a look that causes something inside of him to snap. He quickly turns around to find out what it is that has caught her attention.

The sight that awaits him leaves him dumbfounded, and letting out a single word that sums up everything that is going through his mind at that second. Because right then and there - all he can think of is how this will affect her.

"Fuck," is all he says with a sigh.

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*

She doesn't know what it was about it that caught her attention in spite of the red veil of anger that was covering her eyes. Maybe it was the sudden silence inside the ballroom or maybe it was the glimpse of a famous gesture.

In the middle of the room - surrounded by all the guests – is Nate and Serena.

Nate is on one knee, looking up at her best friend with such adoration it takes her breath away. Serena is smiling through tears, nodding her head vigorously, clearly at a loss for words.

Her best friend with what used to be her happily ever after - her perfect fairytale.

As Nate gets back up on his feet and the couple kiss, the whole room explodes in applauds and cheers. She can vaguely hear Chuck say something over the ringing noise in her ears and the voice inside her head laughing manically.

Only perfect people deserve a perfect fairytale.

*¨*¨*¨*¨*¨*

The next chapter will probably be up sometime during the week, I have a paper deadline coming up soon (AGAIN! GAAH!) but yeah, first fanfics, then school...right? ;)

And if you've been wondering about "Al" you will have some answers then...

reviews = my eternal love and gratitude ;)