FIC: Friends First
Author's note: I'm seriously on a GG kick. I had a bit of a hard time with Chuck and Blair here - I didn't want to have them reunite like nothing had happened, and yet I wanted some acknowledgement that things weren't the same since the night Blair told him off.
The minute he came back to school, she knew. Whispers, gasps, mutters. All around. In the street. Everywhere she didn’t look.
FRIENDS FIRST
The minute he came back to school, she knew. Whispers, gasps, mutters. All around. In the street. Everywhere she didn’t look. Because Blair had read Gossip Girl’s latest, and Blair had pulled out the big guns (Shakespeare) in hopes of distracting herself sufficiently. She wanted to look, felt the prickle of more than mere curiosity begging her to look just once in the back of her mind, but if there was something Blair Waldorf was good at, it was her steadfastness. And her darn stubbornness. There would be no veering from the path she’d written for herself. She just couldn’t take any more disappointments.
Her cronies tittered around her, craning their necks over the metal railing of the school grounds to get a better look at the scene just a few feet below. Blair had a sudden, bitter thought that she was sitting exactly where Jenny had dumped ice cream on her hair last year.
She almost looked down in alarm, but kept her eyes firmly trained to the page she wasn’t even reading anymore.
Keep your head up, Chuck. Don’t let them get to you.
She heard his dull footsteps on the stone stairs, imagined his customary curled lip - snarl or smirk, take your pick - with the impeccable sweep of dark hair and not a care in the world.
Except the image was instantly broken by his hollow “I’m sorry” echoing back in her ears from the night he’d nearly… God knew what he might have done, up on that roof.
Blair looked. Helpless against the sick quickening of her heart, her eyes locked onto him. Hunched shoulders, hard eyes, harsher features than she remembered in the past few weeks. He’d lost weight but he hadn’t lost his snarl. Had perhaps even perfected it further. Students in the courtyard gave him wider berth than they ever had before, barely glancing at him as he made his way into school.
Without anyone.
#
“What’s he doing back?”
“Didn’t he get kicked out?”
“He looks like shit.”
“Someone’s trying to study here,” Blair snapped through her teeth as she attempted to eat lunch and prevent Yale from choosing someone else down their list. It was horrible enough that Serena had originally bested her, but they’d have to pry the acceptance letter out of her cold dead fingers.
Still, all the studying and careful planning-not-to-care in the world couldn’t prevent her gut from slamming into her throat at their chatter. Sneaking a glance over her textbook and salad bowl, Blair watched Chuck through her lashes as he walked stiffly by the cafeteria windows.
Blair jumped out of her seat without warning, slipping her book into her bag. “I gotta go,” she threw over her shoulder to Iz and Kati who gaped after her. Yeah, dashing off without so much as an explanation wasn’t exactly her style.
“Chuck,” she called after him when she finally caught up to him outside near the front steps.
He slowed down, but didn’t turn around. He did turn his head when she was right beside him. So he wasn’t ignoring her. “Hi,” he muttered. And she hadn’t even expected his verbal acknowledgment.
“Hi,” she replied just as softly, and offered him a small sheepish smile. “Leaving so soon?”
His eyes flicked back to the school grounds. “Lunch,” he explained quietly, and then met her gaze again as they rounded the corner. Quiet relief and gratitude poured out of his warm gaze, but he didn’t need to say anything. Unspoken, the words meant so much more.
She nodded slightly at him.
Friends first.
The minute he came back to school, she knew. Whispers, gasps, mutters. All around. In the street. Everywhere she didn’t look.
FRIENDS FIRST
The minute he came back to school, she knew. Whispers, gasps, mutters. All around. In the street. Everywhere she didn’t look. Because Blair had read Gossip Girl’s latest, and Blair had pulled out the big guns (Shakespeare) in hopes of distracting herself sufficiently. She wanted to look, felt the prickle of more than mere curiosity begging her to look just once in the back of her mind, but if there was something Blair Waldorf was good at, it was her steadfastness. And her darn stubbornness. There would be no veering from the path she’d written for herself. She just couldn’t take any more disappointments.
Her cronies tittered around her, craning their necks over the metal railing of the school grounds to get a better look at the scene just a few feet below. Blair had a sudden, bitter thought that she was sitting exactly where Jenny had dumped ice cream on her hair last year.
She almost looked down in alarm, but kept her eyes firmly trained to the page she wasn’t even reading anymore.
Keep your head up, Chuck. Don’t let them get to you.
She heard his dull footsteps on the stone stairs, imagined his customary curled lip - snarl or smirk, take your pick - with the impeccable sweep of dark hair and not a care in the world.
Except the image was instantly broken by his hollow “I’m sorry” echoing back in her ears from the night he’d nearly… God knew what he might have done, up on that roof.
Blair looked. Helpless against the sick quickening of her heart, her eyes locked onto him. Hunched shoulders, hard eyes, harsher features than she remembered in the past few weeks. He’d lost weight but he hadn’t lost his snarl. Had perhaps even perfected it further. Students in the courtyard gave him wider berth than they ever had before, barely glancing at him as he made his way into school.
Without anyone.
#
“What’s he doing back?”
“Didn’t he get kicked out?”
“He looks like shit.”
“Someone’s trying to study here,” Blair snapped through her teeth as she attempted to eat lunch and prevent Yale from choosing someone else down their list. It was horrible enough that Serena had originally bested her, but they’d have to pry the acceptance letter out of her cold dead fingers.
Still, all the studying and careful planning-not-to-care in the world couldn’t prevent her gut from slamming into her throat at their chatter. Sneaking a glance over her textbook and salad bowl, Blair watched Chuck through her lashes as he walked stiffly by the cafeteria windows.
Blair jumped out of her seat without warning, slipping her book into her bag. “I gotta go,” she threw over her shoulder to Iz and Kati who gaped after her. Yeah, dashing off without so much as an explanation wasn’t exactly her style.
“Chuck,” she called after him when she finally caught up to him outside near the front steps.
He slowed down, but didn’t turn around. He did turn his head when she was right beside him. So he wasn’t ignoring her. “Hi,” he muttered. And she hadn’t even expected his verbal acknowledgment.
“Hi,” she replied just as softly, and offered him a small sheepish smile. “Leaving so soon?”
His eyes flicked back to the school grounds. “Lunch,” he explained quietly, and then met her gaze again as they rounded the corner. Quiet relief and gratitude poured out of his warm gaze, but he didn’t need to say anything. Unspoken, the words meant so much more.
She nodded slightly at him.
Friends first.