Gossip Gay

Seven: World War Three

"Serena, calm down-" Dan says, standing too. He is ignored, of course, drowned out by Blair's shouting. 

"Why'd you even bother coming back?!" Blair demands. "Everything was fine without you here, I was fine, things were doing fine, I didn't need either of you anymore. You should've just stayed away at whatever dumpy school you ran away to!"

"Blair, you're making a scene," Chuck starts, but, like Dan, he is ignored.

"Can it, Bass," Blair snaps.

"Stop biting everyone's head off," Serena chides, still fighting to be gentle. 

"Don't tell me what to do!" Blair snarls, grabbing her drink off the table. Of course this is the moment Dan picks to step between the two. And what does he get for his trouble?  A face full of orange juice, which burns his eyes a little more than he expected.

"Blair, what the hell?!" Nate finally jumps in.

Wiping the juice from his eyes, Dan doesn't wait to see what happens next. 

"Come on, Serena," He says, wrapping an arm around her waist. "We're leaving." She nods and follows him out, both clearly shaken.

"Dan, Serena, wait-" Nate calls, releasing Blair. Turning to her, his tone becomes scolding. "You couldn't even try to be pleasant, could you? You just had to prove you were the queen bee, you couldn't leave well enough alone!"

With that, he chases after Dan and Serena.

Angered, Blair turns to Chuck, who regards her with an unamused scowl. "What is it, Waldorf?"

"I want you to find dirt on Dan and Serena, you're going to help me make them pay?" 

"Now why in the hell would I do that?" Chuck replies, tone cool.

"Because if you don't," Blair retorts, her expression icy cold. "Nate will find out about that one night we promised we wouldn't talk about."

Chuck's scowl deepens. Blair has been holding that drunken mistake over his head for months, but he hasn't had the confidence to tell Nate the truth himself yet. He'll have to soon though. He's getting downright sick and tired of being Blair's dog.

"Fine."

"Hey, wait up a second!" 

Dan and Serena are waiting on the sidewalk for the driver to come back when Nate reaches them. Without faltering, Nate stops a few inches from them, handing Dan his handkerchief. 

"Thanks," Dan says, wiping the orange juice from his eyes.

"Don't worry about it," Nate smiles. "But listen, I'm sorry about Blair. I didn't she'd act up like that in front of everyone..."

"We did," Serena says with a shrug. "It's not your fault though, Nate." 

"Still..." Nate said, offering Dan an apologetic smile as he's handed back his handkerchief. 

"It's not that big a deal," Dan says softly. "Its only orange juice, I won't go blind because of it."

Nate nods and smiles at that, about to say something else when the limo pulls up. 

"There's our ride," Serena says. "We should get going."

Nate nods. "I'll go deal with my girlfriend."

With that, they say their goodbyes, and D and S do just as Blair said: run away from their problems.