chapter TWENTYSIX.

Blair gazed warily at the Archibald townhouse that loomed ahead as the bright yellow taxi turned the corner and onto Nate's street. She felt a strange sensation in her stomach, like she had the butterflies or needed to pee or something. "Thank you," she told the cab driver half-heartedly, tossing him a ten and then stepping out of the vehicle before it even came to a complete stop beside the sidewalk. She slammed the door shut, ran a hand carefully through her wavy brown hair and pushed open the small-yet-beautiful front gate, her heels making loud hollow clicks as it met the cobblestone of the short path that led her from the sidewalk to the Archibald's house.

And before she knew it, Blair was standing in front of the tall French doors, wondering whether she should knock, ring, use the intercom system, or simply run away and never look back.

It had been her mother's idea for Blair to come here. Eleanor had insisted that if she were to let her daughter stay in the city until graduation and perhaps even longer, that things with Blair would have to change quite drastically. . . Starting with all her ruined relationships. Eleanor wanted Blair to apologize and cry and grovel - or in her words 'whatever it took' - to make amends. And while Nate was most certainly not the person Blair wanted to see right before dinner, she wanted to stay in the city more than anything and she knew that that request would come with a price. . . After all, the woman wasn't named Eleanor Waldorf for nothing.

So there Blair stood, one gloved hand poised into a fist and raised just a few inches from the door. . . But then she decided to just open it and barge right in instead of giving any of the Archibalds a heads up. That way, if Nate and/or one of the other Archibalds were asleep, all Blair needed to do was sneak back outside, return home, tell her mother that none of them were home, and no one would suspect a thing.

So she stood on the tips of her toes and reached on top one of the unlit lights that adorned the walls just near the enterance. There she found the house key, just like she'd expected. Nate had shown her where it was when they first started going out so that she could let herself in any time and sneak up to his room where they'd share ice cream and watch classic movies. . . This was back when they were young, of course; back when Nate still needed to hide a stool for Blair in a nearby bush so that she could stand on it and would be able to reach the light without falling over or having to leap into the air. She felt her fingertips touch the key and smiled mischeviously.

Then she unlocked the door and crept onto the marble floor of the townhouse. The smell of soap and weed filled her nose almost immediately and Blair rolled her eyes. It was clear Nate's parents weren't home, because usually she could hear them arguing softly up in their bedroom or lecturing Nate for something he had absolutely nothing to do with. . . Therefore, this was the oppurtune time for him to smoke up and forget about his troubles. She sighed. She knew him all too well.

Blair wandered up the steps toward his bedroom and the sound of the shower running pierced her ears, growing louder with each new step she took. Showering right after smoking? Now that didn't seem like him at all. . . Usually he'd go down to the pizza place and order five slices, swallowing each of them in two bites. . . No, for the four years she'd known him to be a smoker, he'd never showered directly after getting high, ever.

Something was amiss.

Taking the last step of the red-carpeted staircase, Blair finally found herself standing right in front of his closed bedroom door. She took a deep breath and smoothed out her skirt, prepared for the worse. The last time she spoke to him things hadn't gone all that well, what with all the yelling and him telling her to stay away for good and all. . .

Blair pushed the door open and as soon as she did so, a high-pitched shriek echoed throughout the townhouse, booming in her ears and making her cringe. She stepped inside and saw Jenny Humphrey scrambling for the blanket and using it to cover herself - but it was too late. Blair had already caught a sight of the fourteen-year-old's bare body and she was not happy.

The door to the adjoining bathroom banged open and Nate barged into the room wearing just a towel around his waist, his golden brown hair in damp waves and shower water glistening off his chest. The sight of him made Blair even more furious and she suddenly had the urge to throw a book at his head and kick Jenny's ass all over again. "What's wrong, Jennifer? I heard you sc--"

Then he noticed Blair folding her arms across her chest, arching an eyebrow and his voice trailed off. He swallowed hard. "Oh. Uhm. . . Blair, this isn't what it looks like."

Blair chuckled that bitter one she was so famous for and she walked over to the bedside table. "Oh really? So you didn't just sleep with the girl who had a hand in ruining my career and stealing all my friends? Oh, and let's not forget the part where she tried to jump me in the courtyard."

Nate looked lost for a second. Jenny hadn't told him that part of the story.

Then Blair flew the blanket off of a humilated Jenny and the young blonde screamed again, folding her arms across her chest protectively. Then she began searching the room with her crystal blue eyes, in desperate need of clothing. Blair scoffed. "Or what, was she just studying naked in your bed?"

He opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off. "Save it, Nate. I've heard it all before."

Both he and Jenny looked flushed and reddish and Blair felt like screaming at the top of her lungs. She'd come to apologize only to find out her ex-boyfriend was sleeping with her worst enemy?! She suddenly felt extremely light-headed and like she needed to sit down, but as she looked around the room she saw that the only decent place to sit was on Nate's bed. And that certainly wasn't going to happen.

"Blair, let me expl--"

"So explain it to me, Nate! Are you trying to screw your way through the phone book or are you just obsessed with stealing all of my friends' virginites?!"

Nate looked taken aback for a second. "And since when is Jenny your friend? You've been pushing her around and manipulating her since day one and now all of a sudden you feel betrayed that we slept together when neither of us are even tied to you anymore?!" He wasn't about to let Blair shout at him until her face turned blue without fighting back. Blair was no saint either.

Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits. She wasn't crying like he'd half-expected her to be whenever she found out, she just looked really, really pissed. "You can't keep it in your pants for more than five seconds, can you Nate? I wasn't giving it to you so you went running to Serena and when you no longer had me or Serena, you scurried on over to the next skanky blonde!"

"Hey!" Jenny sat up in objection, holding Nate's silk bedspread against her chest.

Blair whirled around. "You, shut up! You don't get to speak!" Her nostrils were aflare and Jenny hadn't recalled a time when she'd seen Blair this upset. "Ever since we've met, you've wanted everything of mine: my clothes, Serena, and now Nate. Isn't it getting a little old, you bratty little homewrecker?!"

Jenny sneered. "And so what? Now there's suddenly a home to wreck? As I recall, you and Nate aren't together any longer."

"That's not even the point, Jenny! The point is you being so incredibly obsessed with emulating me in every possible way that you need to follow me in everything I do! In the clothes I wear, the guys I date. . . Pretty soon you'll have your name changed to Waldorf!"

Jenny opened her mouth to shout back a cold-hearted retort but Blair turned her back on them both, traipsing towards the door and slamming it behind her as she exited the room. "You two disgust me!" She called as she ran back downstairs.

Jenny watched her leave and then slumped against the headboard, sighing heavily. She glanced up at Nate who still looked shell-shocked. "Nate, I'm so s--" He turned to go back into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him, hoping Jenny would be gone when he came out. What the young blonde didn't realize was the fact that he'd been thoroughly baked when he'd slept with her and was in no state of mind to instigate a new relationship with a new girl.

This was just a one time thing, and that was that.


Never mind the people I'VE spotted today, where the real scandal's at is who B's spotted. . . Namely, her ex-boyfriend and Little J, both naked and in N's room. How romantic -- NOT.

you know you love me.
xoxo; gossip girl