chapter THIRTY.

"Okay, um. . . I never stalked someone I liked and then resorted to taking revealing photographs of them while they weren't looking," said Leo, flashing an accusing glance at Jenny and waiting for her to take a sip of the martini she was holding. He still wasn't aware that it was in fact Blair who'd taken those photos of him as ammunition for ruining Jenny's reputation. Ergo, he still looked at Jenny as if she were some creepily obsessed, fourteen-year-old stalker who needed therapy.

And of course Blair wouldn't have it any other way.

Jenny knew the statement had been directed at her, but since she wasn't the one who'd taken those photos of him she flashed an accusing sneer at Blair in return. The brunette just smiled cluelessly and shrugged her shoulders. No way was she telling Leo the truth.

Ever since Georgie had joined the party, the guys in the room couldn't stop gawking at the two-inch-long cleavage that jutted out of her strapless dress and Kati and Isabel couldn't stop whispering about what a slut the girl was. Everyone was now huddled together on the carpet in a tight circle, their legs crossed and a martini glass set before each one of them.

They were playing a risky game of I Never, a daring little past-time where everyone sat around in a circle and each took turns saying something with 'I Never' in the beginning, such as 'I Never had sex with my best friend's mom.' And then whoever did the mentioned deed had to take a drink from their glass. Whoever emptied their glass first was automatically dubbed the most naughty and disqualified from the game until one person was left standing.

Georgie took a hit from the joint she'd lit several minutes ago and then took a sip from her glass just for the hell of it. Then she looked at Blair, who was sitting beside Leo in the circle. "Your turn, B."

Blair gritted her teeth, trying her best not to fly her martini glass across the circle, at Georgie's flawless face. It was like the whole world had started calling her B as an inside joke or something and was doing whatever they could to drive her insane. She was considering changing her name just for that brief moment, simply because she was growing tired of random people all over the place calling her 'B', the nickname Serena had made up for her in the first place.

"Okay." Blair locked eyes with Georgie and squared her shoulders. Obviously the other brunette had no idea just how much Blair despised her, so the youngest Waldorf sought to correct that: "I never came back from God-knows-where and foolishly expected everything to be just like it was."

Georgie looked confused for a moment but then she shrugged and tipped her head back slightly, taking another sip from her martini glass. "I guess that one was directed at me, right B?" She set the glass back down. Not surprisingly, hers had less liquid in it than everyone else's.

Way to go, Captain Obvious, Blair felt like saying in return.

It was Nate's turn next. He shifted uncomfortably from where he sat. "Uhh, I've never done it in the back seat of a car?" As soon as he'd uttered those words, he wished he hadn't. It must have sounded like he was trying to get Blair all riled up again, since the first time she'd had sex was in the back seat of a car. . . But all he'd really been trying to do was come up with an 'I Never statement' that didn't cause any more conflict between the people in the room.

Oops. Too late.

To Blair's relief, more than half the people in the circle took a big swig of their dirty martinis, making her feel less alone as she did the same. As she tipped her head back and took one step closer to emptying her glass, she flashed Nate a hateful glance. If it weren't for the judgemental eyes of the rest of her peers, she'd kick him in the shin. . . But for now a hateful glance would do.

Now it was Jenny's turn and by the mischevious glint in her eye, the group knew she'd already thought about her I Never statement heavily. "I've never slept with two guys in one week." Her eyes never left Blair's as she spoke and now everyone else was feeling the tension falling upon them yet again. Blair swallowed hard and took a sip of her drink. So did Georgie, Kati, and Isabel.

Kati was next in the circle and she glanced at Isabel from the side of her eye. "I've never had sex with one of the workers at the Three Guys Cafe right on the counter." Everyone in the circle but Kati and Isabel raised an eyebrow awkwardly as the two girls giggled knowingly and clinked glasses with eachother. Their martinis were almost gone as well, but both Kati and Isabel had the exact same amount of liquid in their glasses. Which wasn't so surprising, since they did absolutely everything together.

There were a few more people to go before it got back to Blair and by the time it did there was mostly just drops left in everyone's glasses. Jenny's glass was the fullest since she was new to this world, but even so she'd still managed to gulp it down so that there was less than half the amount of alcohol than there had been when the game first started.

Blair knew what she needed to say to get the little amount of martini that was left in Georgie's glass down to nothing. "I've never tried to seduce someone in a steam room by getting naked in front of them and then trying to pull their towel off while they were sleeping like the slut I am." She raised her glass as if she were making a toast and a few people in the circle grinned. Ouch. They all knew about Georgie's attempted tryst with Chuck the day prior, so no one needed to be clued in on who Blair was talking about.

Georgie nibbled on her lower lip and shifted uncomfortably on the carpet. She could feel the eyes of everyone in the room boring into her and this was the first time in her life Blair had ever seen the biggest whore in town - a.k.a. Georgie Spark - blush. She took one final sip of her drink, finishing it off, and then stood up, smoothing out her white dress. She actually looked like she was about to cry. . . And needless to say, it looked like Blair was about to laugh.

"This was fun," said Georgie, running a hand through her long dark hair and turning towards the door. Her voice cracked. "We should really do it again some time." She needed to get out of there pronto, because not once in her life had she ever allowed someone to see her cry - let alone an entire room rull of drunken gossips that would no doubt laugh in her face.

Blair extended an arm upward and waved enthusiastically as Georgie shut the door behind her. "Bye-bye!" she called with a zealous grin on her face. Kati and Isabel snickered in unison while Nate flashed Blair a scolding glance, as if he wanted to yell at her for being so mean.

"That was awesome, Blair!" Kati praised the brunette, finishing off her martini.

Isabel nodded in agreement. "Totally. You showed her."

Blair's dark brown eyes slid over to her former followers, Kati Farkas and Isabel Coates, a faint look of surprise plastered over her features. Was she finally getting her throne back? She flashed them a little smile and finished off her drink as well, tossing her wavy brown locks over one shoulder just for dramatic effect. "Thanks you guys." In the movie that was her life, this was the moment where she began her quick ascent back to the top of the social ladder, somehow snagging a boyfriend and a best friend along the way. . . And soon would come her happily ever after.

"And by the way, we thought it was totally lame what you're mom said about your shoes," Kati went on. The way she'd said 'we' - referring to both her and Isabel - proved to the group once and for all that they indeed shared one narrow-sighted mind. "I thought those were really cute."

The grin on Blair's face shifted - quite unnoticably, to the rest of the group - into that successful, controlling smile she was once so famous for back when she ruled Constance. "You think?" She glanced back at the strappy pair of abandoned heels she'd tossed into the corner earlier. "You can have them if you want. I've got another pair in black anyway." She raised a dismissive hand into the air as if to say Take them away before I change my mind and Kati rushed over to the corner of the room, kicking off her shoes excitedly and trading them for the ones Blair'd been wearing.

"So what are you doing tomorrow?" asked Isabel, slightly jealous that Kati had been able to snag Blair's shoes simply because she'd commented on them first. "Because Kati and I were thinking about making appointments at Arden's during fourth period. We have photography that time anyway, so it should be pretty easy to ditch."

A triumphant sheen twinkled in Blair's dark brown eyes, one which only an envious Jenny noticed from across the circle. The young blonde could barely contain herself as Kati and Isabel stumbled over eachother to please Blair yet again. "That sounds perfect," Blair told Isabel, meeting Jenny's crystal blue eyes for just a brief moment to insinuate: The battle's over. I won.


And indeed she did. Little J should have known better than to get caught up in this messy little game of cat and mouse. We Upper East Siders know how to deal with this sort of drama so well because we were BORN here. . . But no matter how much you dress up a dog in cute designer sweaters, it will still be a DOG. You can take that one to your grave, Little J.

you know you love me.
xoxo; gossip girl