born lucky ( nate archibald )

𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙣𝙙

𝙨𝙚𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧, 𝙨𝙤𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧...

"You're not seriously considering this?" Blair Waldorf looked up from her issue of vogue with a perfectly plucked eyebrow raised at her best friend.

"Come on, B, it will be fun," Serena gushed, flopping back onto Blair's bed. "We can get drunk on Martinis in the hot tub and aprés-ski with all the cute Swiss guys back at the hotel."

Blair rolled her eyes. "You're such a slut," she giggled, kicking Serena. "And besides, I refuse to spend Christmas in a hotel, even if it is fun watching your mom's boyfriend try to teach Lily to snowboard."

"What if Nate came?" Serena stuck her head up so Blair was forced to meet her eye over the tops of their magazines.

Blair frowned. "He'll be in Conneticut with the Van der Bilts." Nate wasn't her boyfriend, at least not yet. In Blair's eyes, they were on the cusp of sealing the deal, she just needed to make sure all of his attention was on her.

"Well, my mom was thinking of asking the Captain if they wanted to come away with us for Christmas," Serena smiled slyly. She wasn't obsessed with the idea of spending the holidays third wheeling two her best friends, but if it meant she and her brother didn't have to spend Christmas alone with her mom and her new boyfriend Klaus, she would be able to manage it.

Sure you don't have the hots for B's soon-to-be boyfriend, do you S?

Blair rolled her eyes again, feigning disinterest. After the summer they'd had, she and Nate were a sure thing. Still, it didn't hurt to stay a little mysterious.

As if she isn't dying to gush all about her crush to her BFF... if only S wasn't trying so desperately to hide hers. 

"Please, Anne would never go for that," Blair insisted. "And besides, we all spent Spring Break skiing in Italy together, I dont think the muscles in my calves can survive another one."

Serena was about to protest, when both of their phones went off simultaneously. A Gossip Girl blast.

"Bart Bass has a new model on his arm?" Blair read off of her phone, wrinkling her nose at Serena. "Since when did Gossip Girl report on every floozy he steps out with."

Her blue eyes still stuck to the screen, Serena's mouth dropped open as she looked up at Blair.

"What?" The brunette demanded, looking back at her phone again. "No way," she gasped.

"Right," Serena said. "It's not just any model."

"Adele Chevrolet," Blair observed, scanning the image of the blonde thirty-nine-year-old, tennis-toned, ex Victoria's Secret angel.

"That's Mia DiSantis's mom," Serena said, remembering the girl who had popped up a few times over the summer. "Does this mean she'll move to New York?"

Blair pursed her lips. There was one thing she didn't need when she was trying to finally make things official with Nate, and that was a gorgeous French-Italian girl waltzing into her world and sweeping him away.

She had been fun to get drunk with in the bars of Courmayeur, and skinny dip in the hot tub after dinner, but there was no way she was worming her way into Blair's life. Serena was hot enough competition as it was.

Serena bit her lip, flopping back onto the silk sheets. The idea of Nate ditching his two best friends and loosing his virginity to some Italian girl was almost too painful for her to bare, even if it meant he and Blair would eventually do it anyway.

"There's no way we're letting her get Nate, right?" Blair blurted out, even though she'd never actually confessed her feelings for him out loud to Serena. Sure, it had always been obvious that she'd had a crush on him since they could walk, but up until now it had been purely that, a schoolgirl crush that they never talked about.

A schoolgirl crush that her best friend Serena shared. Again, kept quiet.

Serena nodded. "No way, he's way too good for her."

"Because, you know... I would kinda hate it if he did date somebody else," Blair admitted, a childish smirk forming on her lips.

Serena felt a lump grow in her throat as she realised what Blair was going to say. No, no, no! She wanted to scream. I love him, and he loves me! But she couldn't, and she knew that when Blair said it first, her chance would be gone forever.

Don't worry, you'll get your turn, S...

"I really like him, S," Blair gushed, her cheeks turning pink. "Like, more than just a crush. I know I'm always acting all bitchy around him and stuff, but it's because I really like... love him. I think I always have, really." She sighed, like a weight had lifted off her chest.

Always the actress, Serena felt her face break into a huge, false grin as a giant weight sunk over her own chest. "I knew it, B, you two are totally gonna get married," she said, despite the sting in her heart.

"I know, right!" Blair grinned. She was so glad Serena was actually being supportive. A part of her had always worried that Serena might like Nate herself, but she was wrong. God, she was so lucky to have such a good best friend.

So darn lucky!

"We've just gotta get rid of this bitch first," Blair grinned devilishly. "Then I can start planning the wedding."

xoxo

𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙖𝙣.

"Mia, what are you doing here?" Noemi asked as she rubbed her eyes, staring up at her from his bed. "We're meant to be catching a flight tomorrow morning."

"I'm not going," Mia said firmly, sitting down at the foot of her little sister's bed. She looked up at her with huge hazel eyes, red and puffy from crying. "I don't want to leave."

"It's Manhattan, it's not exactly a jail sentence," Noemi sighed, checking her watch. It was two in the morning, and she was actually excited to move to New York.

Mia glared at her. "I was just beginning to settle, and now mom decides to ship us off to another continent because a billionaire has given her the slightest bit of attention?"

Noemi flopped back onto her pillow and sighed. She was tired of her sister's melodrama, and just wanted a good night's sleep before a trans-Atlantic flight. Frankly, she didn't care who her mother decided to date, especially if it meant he got to live in a hotel with room service all the time.

"I mean, has the ink on their divorce papers even dried?" She complained, flopping back onto the bed and staring up at the ceiling. "Papà must be devastated."

"He didn't seem that devastated." Noemi said. "Especially not after she threw his whole collection of watches off the balcony."

"True," Mia mumbled, biting one of her nails nervously.

"Look, it's gonna be fine," Noemi said. "We spent our childhoods between here, New York and Monte Carlo, it's not like another move wasn't coming one way or another."

Mia said nothing as she stared up at the lampshade, soaking in her twelve-year-old sister's wisdom.

"I would have thought you'd want to get away by now," her sister said. "Especially with everything going on with the girls at school."

"I don't care what the girls at school say about me," Mia said. "But just because I'm moving ponds doesn't mean there won't still be piranhas. I've met Blair and Serena and trust me, they bite."

I guess we'll have to wait and see if our new girl bites back...