CHAPTER 5: DARE DEVIL

The night after Steam, Blair woke in the morning with a pounding headache in a Chuck's room. She could see the dirty girl scout picture, the bar in the corner, and the smell of scotch that had dominated his apartment since 7th grade. She heard breathing and was startled to see Chuck next to her, fully clothed, with his arm around her waist. She vaguely remembered kissing him last night—which didn't feel so horrible, she recalled—him signaling a taxi and saying something about his driver being off for the night, and an amazing smelling person carrying her into an elevator. She guessed that person was Chuck. She took a little sniff of him, and her guess was correct.

"Shit" she thought to herself. There was a brunch for Lily Van Der Woodsen's birthday today, and Serena was coming over beforehand to get ready. She didn't want to completely bail on Chuck, but he probably didn't even remember last night. "He probably thought I was some redhead whore." Blair thought bitterly.

She quietly slipped out of his grasp (Blair was an expert at sneaking in and out, Eleanor & Haroldnever caught her when she did), grabbed her bag, and bolted. She knew she looked kind of funny, putting on her shoes in the elevator with rumpled hair and a cocktail dress that she wore last night, and if Gossip Girl ever caught site of her, she'd be in huge trouble, so she hid in the shadows until the doorman caught her a cab, and within 15 minutes she was in her room, taking a shower to wash last night and all those drinks off of her.

XOXO

In an entirely different situation that Blair, Serena woke up at 9 in the morning in her 1500 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets. She lazily sighed and looked over to her left. She wasn't surprised when nobody was there. After Steam, Nate and Serena had taken Chuck's limo home—oops!—and Nate had dropped her off like a complete gentlemen, even giving her a goodnight kiss.

"Oooh!" she squealed. Serena was so happy. For once, it didn't feel like a guy was chasing her ustto take advantage of her. She felt like she had an actual future relationship with Nate, and it made her incredibly happy.

She walked into her shower. She had to make sure she didn't smell like anything suspicious. Not that she didn't want Blair to know she'd been out last night; she just didn't want questions about who she was with to come up. It wasn't like Blair liked Nate, but Serena could never be sure. Blair had flirted with Nate just as much as she had, and it was probably just for fun, but just in case. Serena had brushed her hair out and changed into a fresh pair of clothes, not caring what she looked like, and hailed a cab over to Blair's. On the way walking out, she giggled at a frazzled Blair look-alike in a pair of shoes exactly like the one her friend had. Everyone was always attempting to do anything to look like their future Queen, it made Serena really proud to be her best friend.

XOXO

Blair was freaking out. Serena had seen her, and got in the cab behind her. She was almost positive she could convince Serena it wasn't her, but the problem was how to get home and changed before her. Thank God that the cab driver was easily bought, he ran every red light for an extra 20 dollars. She was extremely glad that she had grabbed the extra money from Chuck's dresser. He probably left money out for all the girls he bedded. "ALL the girls" Blair thought. She didn't sleep with him, but she had certainly thrown herself at him, and even though it felt great at the time, Blair was humiliated now. Chuck would probably forget that it even happened, or worse, tell the whole NJBC about it and tease her from now until forever.

She got home, and decided to be in the bath when Serena got to her.

"B!" Serena called, "where are youuu?"

"Hey S, I'm in here." Just lay you stuff out on the bed, I'm almost done!"

"Sure thing"

Blair was left alone in her thoughts for just a few more minutes, and she chose to dwell on the fact that Chuck hadn't slept with her. He didn't even try. Was she not irresistible enough? Was she not pretty enough? Or was it that she wasn't as leggy and skinny as Serena? Blair chose the latter option, and decided to solve this problem by throwing up. She vaguely remembered Chuck warning her not to anymore, but hell with it. If Chuck was really a good friend, he'd be with her right now, taking care of her, feeding her breakfast, in her own house.

Oh who was she joking? That wasn't Chuck at all. But Serena was waiting, and she couldn't be bothered by issues with Chuck. At least not now. She wiped her mouth and stepped out of the bathroom to see Serena modeling a green dress in the mirror. After chatting about minions, the Elite, and their crazy mothers, Blair and Serena had settled into a silence. Not the awkward silence when there's nothing to say, but the kind of silence you can only have with best friends, the kind where the silence is comforting. And maybe that's what made them such amazing friends. The fact that they didn't need a conversation every time they hung out, and the fact that Blair knew she was going to interrogate Serena at brunch, because Serena didn't hide secrets particularly well.