A/N: And I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus! I've been pretty engrossed in my other story, so I've sadly been neglecting this one...But I think this chapter gets the ball rolling for a lot more action and drama! Hope you enjoy, and remember to please review! P.S. - The song I used is called "What's A Man To Do," but I think we all know whose POV it's about...

Chapter 10: What's A Man To Do

I'd be a liar if I told you
That I didn't see it coming
Be more of a liar if I said
Hey I didn't want it to be something
You deserve much better
For the love that you have shared
I know you won't believe it

- "What's A Man To Do" Usher

"Chuck?" Chuck didn't respond to Nate's call. Instead, he swirled his scotch around in his hand until the amber liquid looked like it had rings. He knew Nate would find him eventually. He was annoyingly persistent when he wanted to be. "Oh! There you are. Guess you didn't hear me." He was also incredibly oblivious and believed the best of everyone almost all of the time.

"Guess not." Chuck shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "Welcome home, by the way. I'm sure you've already had more dumped on you today than the whole of your trip to London." He felt the bed shift as Nate sat down next to him.

"Not so much that I don't want to hear about your problems."

"How do you know I have problems?"

"Well, you're drinking a glass of scotch alone in your bedroom in pajamas when you're supposed to be at the opening of a club you invested in."

"So now's when you choose to get observant." Nate grinned; Chuck glared. After a moment, Nate's smile slipped as he debated between bringing up Blair and delaying his night out or immediately forcing Chuck to get ready and think of anything but her. "Why do you look like that?"

"This how my face looks, Chuck," Nate teased him, exaggerating his frown and furrowed brows.

"Make it stop," Chuck whined, smacking a pillow over Nate's head. It hit with a rewarding thunk.

"Okay, okay." Nate's face morphed into one of playfulness, but it masked serious concern. "Let's talk about your face."

"What's wrong with my face?"

"Dude, you have five o'clock shadow. And your eyes are all… red and puffy. Also, you need to take a shower. Oh, and you smell a little bit."

"Don't hold back," Chuck muttered, running a hand through his hair. It was greasy. He did need to shower.

Nate cast Chuck a sarcastic smile as he made his final inspection. "Yeah, I think that's it. Otherwise, you look fantastic, my friend."

"Thank you so very much, Nathaniel." Chuck snatched a towel off the rack in the bathroom and shut the door.

"How long are you going to be?" Nate called through the door. "We need to get there really soon! No ridiculous girly primping!"

"These things take time, Nathaniel," Chuck berated him just as loudly and twice as sardonically. "You may not mind looking like you just rolled out of bed, but I enjoy looking professional and classy."

"You sound like Blair," Nate mumbled to himself, picking a stray dark hair that was no doubt hers off of his dress shirt.

"What?" Chuck yelled. "Didn't catch that."

"Nothing, princess."

Gossip Girl: It's nearly opening time, and neither our fair Queen B nor the dark King of The Empire has been sighted. After their not-so-private fallout last night, I can't say I blame them. There's only so much public humiliation royalty can stand. You know you love me.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" Serena looked around the penthouse, poking her head in Chuck's bedroom when she didn't spot him on the couch or by the bar.

Gossip Girl: C has finally made his appearance, arriving with a certain Golden Boy by his side. Welcome back, N. Miss me? You know you love me.

"Basshole!" Serena screeched, borrowing one of Blair's favorite nicknames to use for Chuck. He was supposed to be going with her, but apparently texting to tell her the change in plans had been out of the question. She checked her phone in annoyance. Oh, wait. She did have an unread message from Chuck.

Chuck: Hey sis – sorry to tell you this so late, but Nate's back, and I'm going to go to the club with him. See you there?

Serena shook her head. Well, he had told her quite late, but she supposed this misunderstanding was on her. Glancing at her phone one last time, she noticed another unopened text.

Dan: Hi Serena. I know you're probably really busy, but I was hoping you could maybe hang out with me at Insomniac tonight. I'm sure you're going, and to be honest, that's the main reason I am. You are the only person who can make me feel somewhat comfortable at these things… See you tonight?

Two nearly identical questions – "See you there?" and "See you tonight?" – that elicited two completely different emotions. Chuck's excited and pleased her. If his text was any indication, then he was in good spirits and would be fun to spend time with tonight, and Serena had been worried that he would be moping about Blair the entire time, feeling guilty that he was the reason she couldn't be there. Dan's, however, confused her and made her stomach churn. But she couldn't decide if that was because she was excited to seem him or because she was dreading it. She had seen the Gossip Girl blast about his breakup with Vanessa, and it seemed too soon for him to be coming back to her. Not that she would mind seeing Dan begging for her on his hands and knees. But she knew that it's not what his reaction would be. He would expect her to embrace and kiss him like it was what she had been waiting for all along, like he was the answer to her question. And while there was a time when she would have, all of the back and forth she and Dan had gone through over the years made her weary of the possibility. Was it possible to love someone and hate them at the same time? Or maybe it wasn't him she hated at all. Maybe she hated herself when she was with him.

And then there was Nate – sweet, caring, devoted Nate, who had been her friend for as long as she could remember. And she'd ruined it, blown it to pieces, like she did everything she cared about. She chided herself for thinking the words, because as they played on repeat in her head, they sounded exactly like Chuck in Paris.

"I lost the only thing I cared about. They can have everything else."

Without the people she cared about, Serena had nothing, unlike Chuck, who had hotels and a business. What did she have? Columbia? Like that was going to last. If she was being honest with herself, she expected to last two years there at best. Ivy League schools just weren't her scene. But the real problem was that she had no career, no future planned out, no idea what she even wanted to do. She just wanted to freeze time, grab onto Blair, Chuck, Nate, and Dan and stay young and free with them forever. Her mother thought she was growing up, and she supposed she was, but that didn't mean she liked it. And she didn't feel grown up on the inside, not really. She was proving that now, with all her flip-flopping between Nate and Dan. Was she eternally cursed to love two people, to live with a heart divided between the pair? It was bound to split open eventually, and she was scared that by then she wouldn't have either of them left to stitch it back together.

Gossip Girl: S is single and ready to mingle, glittering in her silver Versace stunner. They say it takes two to tango, but I have a feeling S is up for a trio tonight. But will N and D agree that there's room for two in her heart? You know you love me.

"Serena?" Dan was nearly shouting into his phone and no doubt attracting various stares from the fellow partygoers. "Hello?"

"Dan! Dan, I'm here! Where are you?" Serena let out a giggle, and Dan realized she was drunk. The slurring of her words, the way she was laughing… He slid his hand up his forehead and rubbed his temples. Of all the nights…

"I'm in the back left corner of the club."

"Of course you are, Lonely Boy!" She giggled again. "Want some company?" Dan sighed. He did love Serena, but there were times when he wished that she would tone down the partying a little. Sure, standing in the corner was embarrassing, but so was getting smashed, dancing on tables (the video blast had already gone out), and saying and doing things you'll regret in the morning.

"Yeah, why not? I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be with right now." And it was true. Even if Serena was drunk.

"Okay! Be right there!" He heard a few muffled words and thought about hanging up, but then, he realized it was Chuck speaking and decided it was worth listening to when he heard his name brought up.

"You're going to hang out with Humphrey? Are you serious, Serena?" Dan grimaced. Clearly Chuck hadn't stopped despising him. The feeling was mutual, but still. Dan didn't enjoy being disliked by anyone, even if that "anyone" included Satan himself and his equally devilish female counterpart, Blair Waldorf. Despite Dan's sympathies toward Blair with the numerous betrayals by Chuck, he still didn't understand why Serena wanted to be friends with someone like her. He admired Serena's social butterfly abilities, the ease with which she could float through every kind of group in the social pyramid, but that didn't mean she needed to. He much preferred the Brooklyn soil the Blair Waldorfs of the world spat on to any land in the Upper East Side, and he wished that Serena agreed. But the Upper East Side was too deep in her blood for her to ever consider leaving that life behind completely.

"Yes, Chucky, I am, and I would 'preciate it if you'd just butt outta my business!" Oh, God. She was worse than he thought.

"No, Serena, I won't, and I'll tell you why. First of all, you're drunk out of your mind. Second, you told me earlier that you didn't know what to say to Dan, and then proceeded to do shots of tequila like you were on spring break in Cancun. And finally, Nate has been miserable all night and avoiding you like the plague, and even though he desperately wants to talk to you, he won't, because you owe it to him to apologize first."

"Chuck, you're such a buzz kill. Did you know that?"

"Well, one of us has to think straight. It was you in Paris, and now it's my turn."

Dan hung up his phone and took up rubbing his temples some more. What did Chuck mean when he said that Serena didn't know what to say to him? And what was going on between Serena and Nate? Did she even want Dan back?

"Dan!" Serena threw her arms around his neck and he was soon suffocating in a mess of tangled gold locks. "Chucky told me not to come over here, but I did anyway, 'cause I'm a bad girl." She laughed and released him.

"Serena, is there something I need to know about you and Nate?" Dan questioned her cautiously.

"Me and Nate? No." She shook her head vigorously.

"Okay, then." Dan was at a loss for words. He had a whole speech planned out, but it had been prepared for a more sober Serena. Maybe it would have worked for a tipsy Serena, but definitely not a drunk one. He hadn't ever figured out how to deal with her when she was like this; never having been a part of the party scene himself, he was largely inexperienced in the conduct of drunken revelers.

"Well, Dan? Aren't you going to take me home with you?"

"Wha – what?" Had he heard that right, or was he imagining things?

"To Brooklyn! You still live there, right?"

"Ye – yes." And now he had a stutter to go with her slur. Perfect.

"You still want me, don't ya?" She ran a tan hand down his suit jacket.

"Uh-huh."

"Then, let's go!" She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of Insomniac. He was too caught up to notice the two glowers coming from across the room as she did – a signature Bass glare that indicated hell was about to freeze over, and another, less common but still unsettling, look from a pair of blue eyes that were slowly hardening and darkening into sapphires.

Gossip Girl: Looks like S has made her choice, and Lonely Boy won't be so lonely tonight. Poor N. Good thing he's never in short supply of girls ready to take him home. But can a full bed fill a heart just as easily? You know you love me.

My heart is in two different places
I got you in my life and I wanna do right
But it's hard to let it go
When my love has two different faces
And I can't break ties cause they both look right

Until next time – xoxo