chapter SIX.

Chuck took another puff of the joint he'd rolled last night and then tossed it absentmindedly into the streets as he rounded the corner to his father's penthouse where Lily van der Woodsen would probably be loitering in as well. At least for now. And as much as he thought the lady was attractive and had etiquette and all that, he simply couldn't bring himself to like her as much as he did before she decided to get hitched with his father.

Maybe it was the way she just seemed like another facet in which Bart could ignore his son with, but deep down Chuck knew it was more. . . It was like Lily hadn't really chosen to marry his dad, the situation had merely fallen into her lap and she'd taken hold of it as benefit to her family.

Whatever the reason, Chuck knew he had to keep an eye on her.

Pushing through the glass front doors of the gargangtuan building, Chuck strode toward the elevator without even having to look up. Instead, he kept his dark brown eyes on the marble floor below his feet as he walked. The heavy elevator doors slid open and Chuck slipped inside, pressing the button for the top floor while his eyes remained glued to the freshly-buffed ground.

As soon as the elevator doors opened up, he was met with a breath-taking bear hug from his father. Chuck rolled his eyes as he got the wind squeezed out of him. Of course, Bart Bass was only doing this to keep up with appearances, trying to be a 'gentleman' in front of Lily and. . . Georgie?

Finally, Bart ended his incessant hugging and Chuck was allowed to walk across the room to where the girl sat, her long, pale legs crossed at the ankles as she looked up at him with those soulful brown eyes of hers. Why, yes, it was indeed Georgie Spark, little miss Snow White herself. . . Her friends used to call her that because, not only did she star in the school play Snow White in the fourth grade, but her skin had always been kept so smooth and pale as if on purpose while her hair was dark in contrast and her lips were constantly painted a fierce red.

"Can you believe we found her on our plane heading back to the city?" called Bart from the living room couch as he sipped at a crystal tumbler of scotch. "It's been ages, so I thought the least we could do was invite her over for a few days. After all, you guys used to be such good friends. You remember, don't you Charles?"

Oh, yes. He remembered.

Chuck's lips curled into a smile, quite involuntarily, as he looked down at her. He remembered the time they'd played doctor together and he'd insisted on taking off all his clothes and despite the fact that they were eight years old, Georgie hadn't given him the slightest inkling to put them back on. He remembered the time when they'd gone skinny dipping together in the Hamptons at the age of thirteen, where they'd both finally decided to give away their virginities: to each other. And finally, he remembered watching her board a plane at JFK a year later as she left for Conneticut. For some reason, Georgie hadn't told anyone she was leaving besides Chuck, and things had never really been the same since her disappearance.

"So what were you doing in France?" Chuck questioned, figuring that's where she'd been most recently, since that was where Bart and Lily had gone for their honeymoon. Behind Chuck, the two adults had already begun carrying on in their own conversation.

Georgie scoffed, kicking off the Marc Jacobs heels she'd been wearing and swinging her smooth legs up so that they were pressed against her chest. "Well the word my parents put on the street is that I decided to leave Constance and went straight to boarding school in Lyon, where I've supposedly been staying up until now. But the real story is, they sent me to rehab in the fall of eigth grade, up in Conneticut. I was only in France for a day, to do some last-minute shopping before coming back to the city. That's when your parents found me."

Chuck nodded slowly, silently dismissing the way she'd included Lily into the whole 'his parents' equation. Despite the fact that Georgie had once seemed like the basic good-girl of their clan (at least to everyone's parents,) all of the kids knew she was pretty much the most wild of them all. In seventh grade, she and Serena had snuck into a nightclub downtown called Effect, where they'd danced on tables and kicked off everyone else's shotglasses while doing so. And during the following summer, Georgie had picked up the habit of shoplifting from Henri Bendel. . .

It didn't really come as a surprise to Chuck that the reason she'd gone MIA so suddenly was because she'd been sent to rehab. But now he was just wondering what drugs she did. E? Marijuana? Vicoden?

Georgie took note of the silence that befell them both, so she suggestively patted the cushion right beside her. Chuck looked down at her a bit hesitantly. A few weeks ago, yes, he'd jump at the chance to sit next to one of the hottest girls on the Upper East Side, especially one as wild and mysterious (and easy) as Georgie. . . But he couldn't stop the vivid mental images of Blair as they flooded through his mind, no matter how much he wanted to.

Swallowing hard, he finally cracked a smile and slid into the seat beside hers, letting one arm fall upon the back of the couch and (coincidentally) around the nape of her neck.

Sure, Chuck was still wildly hung up on Blair Waldorf, but what he desperately needed right now was a distraction. And let's face it, Georgie Spark was a damn good one.


Well, well, C. I guess you're not as in love as you had us all believing. Let's just hope B doesn't find out about this when she comes back tomorrow. Word is, she's not as over you as you are of her... And one former Queen B can only handle so much drama before she cracks.

you know you love me.
xoxo; gossip girl