To Write Love on Our Arms
--
Summary: If I went down in the struggle, would you follow me or would you keep on fighting?
Disclaimer: I don't own Gossip Girl or this super fantastic couple.
--
It was just a day. Just a regular day at school, filled with the groaning and simple despair that came with senior year.
It was just a regular day filled with glares at the underclassmen with the "easy" lives from the seniors bubbling in jealousy, hoping that the school year (and high school) would soon be over and they would smile once more.
Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass were seniors. Elise Wells was a sophomore.
There was a clear line drawn, but there was something much deeper, a story untold.
And it all started with what was in Elise's bookbag.
--
8:00 AM – the Constance Billard Hallway
--
The bell has yet to ring as Blair loads her books into her bag. She has Economics first period.
Chuck Bass sneaks up behind her with a lone rose, dark red and enchanting.
She smiles and takes the rose, smelling it. "Thank you."
He pecks her on the lips. "You're very welcome."
She furrows her brows. "What's the special occasion?"
He smirks. "I just have a feeling about today."
"Is it a good feeling?"
He looks deep in thought for a moment, and then decides on his response. "I'm not really sure."
The bell sounds. Blair mechanically gets ready to rush to class, but then stops.
"That's not the warning bell."
No voice comes over on the intercom to declare a drill. There is silence.
Then there's running. Students are in total panic, rushing into nearby classes, even though no one really knows what is going on, if anything.
The only thing Blair thinks of doing is rushing into Serena's French class, grabbing Chuck by the collar.
Maybe Serena could explain this insanity.
--
8:30 AM – Room 204 (Serena's French class)
--
It's only quiet after a while. Once Blair is convinced that Serena is not coming, she sighs and lays her head back on a bookcase.
This is simply ridiculous. There's nothing going on in the hallways and every student is wasting their life just sitting in a classroom, waiting for something interesting to happen.
The warning bell must have sounded by mistake.
And they haven't fixed it within a half hour? Her subconscious demands realism. She wants to yell at the part of her mind that thinks rationally.
Why can't she just live in denial?
Chuck is just watching her intently, his eyes moving up and down. He's nervous, she knows, but he hides it pretty damn well. Her hand is perfectly placed through his.
Chuck and Blair holding hands.
She knows that something sinister is quietly reaching the surface. Things are about to go sour.
And as soon as she has that solitary thought, the shots fire, and everything changes.
--
8:45 AM
--
There is one scream, one of a young girl, a scream of innocence. Then there's a hard crash.
The sounds are distant, and nowhere near the classroom, but it sets off an increasing panic into actual reverberation.
Isabel, who is at the other corner of the room, shrieks. Kati clamps her hand over her mouth, and things quiet once more.
Blair tightens her hand around Chuck's, hoping that he hears what she is trying to tell him.
I love you. I need you. Don't leave me.
Because they're all in trouble. No one in this classroom, this school, thought that they would die this morning.
But she could almost guarantee that's the only thing that's on their minds at this very moment.
--
9:00 AM
--
"You scared?" He asks randomly, staring into space.
"A bit." She admits, but says no more.
For once, no one is staring at them like they are some experiment gone wrong. In this cruel, insane alternate universe, there is no Gossip Girl, there is no wealth and privilege.
Every student is one in the same. Every single student can be screwed over in a second in this school this morning.
The fact that someone probably got shot hasn't gotten through anyone's thick skulls. Every man for himself.
But she doesn't want to be that way. She's convinced that it's her and Chuck, through anything.
She's convinced that she needs him. And that is everything to her.
--
9:15 AM
--
This is the first time Blair goes through her bag, feeling her black Sharpie marker. And that is when she is struck with the idea.
No one was looking. Even Chuck was in his own world, his face wrinkled with worry.
She removes the cap from the marker and begins writing on the side of the bookcase in perfect handwriting.
Chuck and Blair forever.
And she knows it's cheesy, and completely unrealistic, but it's what she's thinking. And therefore, it was going to happen another way or another.
The thing she didn't account for was him actually reading it.
--
9:30 AM
--
He examines the bookcase, but says nothing. A smile tugs at his lips, but it is covered by severe seriousness.
He doesn't comment on what she's written.
"Give me the marker." That's all he requests.
She hands it to him. And that's when it all began.
She has no idea what he's going to do, but the last thing she expected for him to do was lift her sweater sleeve, and begin writing on her bare skin in permanent marker.
She feels him scribbling something, but doesn't look until his finished, handing the marker back to her with a satisfied look on his face.
She looks at her arm.
I will always love you.
Don't forget about me.
She sighs slightly, taking in the irony that the marks on her arm will definitely not be forgotten, if they ever do come out.
She decides to lift his sleeve and write on his arm, for it is only suitable to write love on their arms in what might be their final minutes.
You are mine, and I am yours, forever and always.
--
9:45 AM
--
Things get worse as the terrifying steps come closer to the Constance hallways, eyes growing wider and panic becoming more evident.
No one notices the permanent marker strewn across their arms, for they are only two teenagers in a room of at least twenty.
The window and door blinds are closed, and the sunlight is completely closed off. Things seem colder, more frigid, as time passes by.
It is then and only then when the tapping of heels in the hallway invades her ears that she remembers that this is the room that conjoins St. Jude's library with Constance's classrooms.
And that the door is right next to her. God, the irony is just pouring out today.
And, either leading to sure death or sure safety, she cracks the door open and crawls through, Chuck following her cautiously.
--
10:00 AM – the St. Jude's Library
--
No one knew whether there was more than one person in the hallways committing these cruel acts. No one knew anything.
But the library was the neutral point between Constance and St. Jude's. It was usually the safe zone, but the place was desolate, eerie.
And immediately, Blair knew she had made the wrong choice. She and Chuck would stick out like a sore thumb.
Life or death is the option. There is no in-between, no hesitance.
And at this point, they weren't the ones making the choice.
Whoever was in the hallway, whoever was in the position of instilling complete fear through the school, they were making the choice.
Everything was all the more terrifying, all the more life-altering.
In a few minutes, Blair and Chuck probably wouldn't even have lives.
--
10:15 am
--
There is no shock when they hear footsteps entering the library. Clicking heels, the same ones from the Constance hallway.
They both knew they had to face the person. So they both rose at the same time, turning to see the face.
Elise Wells.
Blair closed her eyes for a moment. Not Elise. Elise was innocent, charming, adorable.
She opened them again.
This Elise, she looked monstrous. Her hair was a mess, out of its perfect bun. Her mascara was running, and her uniform was disheveled.
Elise Wells. Constance Billard sophomore. Currently holding an entire school hostage. Possible murderer. Holding a gun in front of Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass's faces.
"Elise." Blair says softly, her voice cracking and going in different octaves. "Why?"
Elise is crying, her tears black from the amount of makeup she's wearing.
"I just…" Elise shakes her head. "I wanted them to like me."
"Elise Wells." Penelope mocks. "A sophomore, yet to get laid."
"Not pretty enough, not smart enough." Hazel interferes. "Not good enough."
"But you're...You're a good person." Blair offers, knowing that she is inches away from death, inches away from safety.
"Not anymore." Elise hardens, her eyes bloodshot and terrifying.
"What do you want?" Elise's voice interferes with the dark night.
"Penelope said you were willing to offer a good time." The lacrosse player's breath smells of hard liquor. He's trying to lift her shirt.
"Do you charge?"
"I didn't do anything wrong!" Elise screams, her eyes tearing into Blair's. "I tried so hard. I just…I wanted them to see me as more than that adorable girl with the stupid hats."
"Leave me alone." She pushes away from the lacrosse player.
"She said you were going to give me a good time." He grabs her.
"I didn't agree to that."
"Doesn't matter." He spits in her face. "You're going to give me one anyway."
"I didn't want to use the gun this morning." She admitted, her tears falling down harder now. "I was only going to carry it in my bookbag…I just wanted to know I had the option…"
And suddenly Blair understood. Elise never meant to use the gun against anyone. She was going to use it for herself.
Someone slammed Elise's locker and grabbed her arm.
"Want to have some fun before class?"
"Let go of me." Elise demands, slinging her bookbag on her shoulder.
"Make me."
She took the gun out on impulse. The pervert's eyes grew wide and his calls warned the entire hallway, starting the entire mess, and unknowingly ending everything.
A girl with so much promise, so much innocence, so much integrity, had been reduced to this because of vicious rumors. Blair knew the feeling well.
"Did you hurt someone, Elise?"
Elise doesn't answer, but Blair knows.
"You're never going to fuck with me again." Elise says bitterly. "Never again."
Penelope raises her hands up in surrender, but once Elise pulls the trigger, Penelope is gone and a new Elise emerges.
"I didn't mean to." Elise says innocently. "Believe me, I didn't wake up this morning and want this!"
"I know, E." Blair says quietly. "It's okay." She tries to reach out to the younger girl, but she backs away.
Blair smiles devilishly, Chuck behind her as revenge sets into play.
Elise was an indirect attack, but important all the same.
So in the courtyard one morning, as Elise was walking down the steps, Blair put out her heel and the girl tumbled, her uniform skirt tearing and her underwear bared for all the school to see.
"No, it's not." Elise raises the gun again. "You were on their side."
"No, I wasn't." Blair defends herself. She wasn't. She just wanted to be…She wanted to be the girl the girls like Elise looked upon as their role model.
But in this one moment, on this one day, during this particular morning, trying to be Elise Wells' role model only promised you death.
Someone was going die in that library.
"Wait." Chuck's voice finally intrudes. "If you want to kill Blair…Kill me too."
Blair snaps her eyes shut and opens them again. This cannot be real.
Wake up, wake up! She demands of herself, hot tears falling down her cheeks.
Elise shakes her head. "No, you guys…you're meant for each other. I wouldn't mess that up." She's calm, but shaky. Something is about to go horribly wrong.
She raises the gun to her head.
"Elise, no!" Blair yells. "You're going to be okay…Everything is going to be fine!"
"It's too late." Elise declares. "Too much has happened."
Blair knows that she's right, knows that there are a million reasons for Elise to take her own life, but somehow, it doesn't seem right.
"Please don't." Blair pleads with her one last time.
Elise gives her one smile, one innocent smile without maliciousness, and then it turns into a thin line again.
"I'm sorry." She pulls the trigger, and everything in the world is gone for a moment.
She's dead before she hits the ground, her arms outstretched and the gun rolling onto the floor.
Blair rushes to the ground to somehow console the body of the young girl. Chuck kneels next to her, kissing her forehead.
Certain parts of Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass died that morning. Their innocence, their love for it, and perhaps, they broke out of the bubble that protected them from this cruelty.
It's the first time Blair sees the black ink scrawled on Elise's arm. There are only four simple words, but they say everything and explain everything. They are the untold story.
Love. Want. Need. Me.
--
Author's Note: I know this was EXTREMELY depressing, but not everything ends happily, I guess.
I haven't written anything happy in a while, I know. It's just what mood I'm currently in when it comes to writing.
Review, please! I really want to know what you think about this one, considering it's a sharp turn from anything I've ever done. It's an odd change of pace, but I did like this, even though it was a pretty heavy theme. Thanks, Cass