chapter ELEVEN.

Chuck was awoken rather abruptly to the feel of someone grazing his thigh in that slight, I-know-you-want-this-but-you-need-to-prove-it-to-me sort of way. His dark brown eyes popped open but because of all the steam he could barely make out who it was. He could take a wild guess, though, and assume it was someone s!utty, with nearly-black hair and blood-red lips. And of course when he leaned forward a bit to get a closer look, it was indeed someone who fit that description, to a T.

"Georgie? What the hell are you doing?"

Instead of answering him intelligently, the girl simply giggled, sliding one of her manicured hands upward so that they reached his waist, the part where the towel stopped and Chuck's bare skin began. She dug her fingers underneath the top of the towel and just as she was about to yank the material away, Chuck shoved her hands off him and stood up.

"Seriously, what the f*$&?!"

He rushed over to the console that controlled the entire room and shut it off so that the steam would begin fading away. Of course it was a process that would take forever, but the sooner he shut it off the sooner he'd feel safe from Georgie and her greedy hands. Honestly, was there ever a time when she didn't think about anything other than sex and getting high?

Georgie had had her knees pressed against the floor when she'd startled him awake, so she stood up, ran a hand through her hair, and sat back down on the tiled bench that jutted out of the room's wall. "But I thought you wanted to, Chuck. I mean we were practically dry humping in your father's penthouse when we were playing Twister and we spent the entire day together so--"

"So that means I want to have sex with you?"

"Usually."

Chuck threw his towel off while there was still enough steam in the room to cover his naked body from Georgie's sight. Then he knelt down and grabbed his clothes up off the floor, throwing them back on. "So what, I guess in the two and a half years you've been gone all that's changed is the number of guys you've slept with?" Chuck shook his head with disbelief and wiped the sweat that had gathered earlier off of his brow.

Georgie just shrugged. It looked like she might have smoked a few more joints while he'd been off in dreamland. Her eyes seemed more spaced out and bloodshot and she seemed awfully calm for someone who was currently getting chewed out by the guy she'd been trying to seduce.

"What happened to you, Chuck Bass?" Georgie's eyes lowered into surreptitious little squints as if she was examining him truly for the very first time since her arrival.

He eyed her suspiciously as well, trying to out-do her own look of accusation. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean which girl finally tamed you? You used to be wild and fun and reckless! You never used to give a damn about what the world said. You were always about the hunt; about the surprise. . . You used to be like me. And now you've turned into this little robot.

"You know, I always knew one day some girl would come along and change you. I just never knew it would be at the age of sixteen. And now you're like. . . Well you're like that Nate Archibald! Let's face it, C - you're whipped!" She laughed that childish laugh of hers, now making it apparent that she'd smoked more pot than Chuck had. She looked at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to say something in particular that would make her laugh even more.

"Well it's funny you should mention Nate," Chuck began, without cracking a smile. "Because the girl who 'tamed' me, as you put it, is Blair Waldorf. Nate's ex." And, of course, that did it - that sent Georgie howling with side-splitting, stoner-laughter that echoed all throughout the room, making Chuck want to cover his ears or stuff his towel down her throat or something.

It took Georgie nearly two and a half minutes to quit her incessant cackling, but eventually she stopped, sinking against the tiled wall and allowing her eyelids to close halfway in that all-of-a-sudden-you're-too-high-to-do-anything sort of way.

"That was a good one, C. I mean your best friend's girlfriend? Classic!" He could tell she was still hung up on the topic of relationship-wrecking, but the amount of weed she'd smoked made it nearly impossible for her to be as jumpy and loud as she had been just moments earlier.

"Right," Chuck responded, his eyes weary. He glanced down at his wrist but realized he wasn't wearing a watch. "What time is it anyway?"

Georgie shrugged half-heartedly. "Dunno. You were out for an hour or two, though."

Chuck sighed and then realized that the steam from the room had evaporated completely. He stood up, smoothed out the pair of pants he was wearing, and walked over to the door. "You won't be staying with my father any longer, Georgie. I'll get you a room at The Plaza and you can stay there until you leave for wherever it is that you came from. . . See you."

With a wave of his hand, Chuck stepped back out into the hall and shut the door behind him. Hopefully Georgie wouldn't forget to snap out of it and drown in her own sweat. . . More likely, though, she'd wake up with a bunch of naked men and women in there with her the next day and she'd instigate some kind of freak-orgy with them all.

Yep. Sounds about right.


Hmm. Interesting decision, C. I remember once upon a time when you'd NEVER leave a naked girl who was throwing herself at you alone. . . Well actually you probably would, but only AFTER the sex. Could it be that B's finally changed you for the better?

you know you love me.
xoxo; gossip girl