i want it all - gg

𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙥𝙞𝙚

Scarlett Van der Woodsen stared up at the sheer white cloth that covered the top of her princess-like four-poster bed, her thick blonde hair spilled out onto her blue silk pillow like some likeness of Botticelli's Venus. She had been lying there for quite some time, watching as the soft breeze that wafted in from the window rippled against the light fabric.

It was unlike Scarlett to wake up before or even when she was supposed to, but this morning she had a lot more on her mind than usual. The weekend following Cotillion, she'd spent uncharacteristically away from her friends. She'd gone book-shopping with her dad and movie marathoning with her brother, and now it was time to go back to school.

Ooh. Sounds fun, S.

"Scarlett?" Her mother's voice trilled. Scarlett turned to see Serena dressed for work at the actor's agency she owned. Her mother, who seemed not to have aged, wore a pinstripe trouser suit and blood-red Loubotins, her eyebrow raised. "You're awake?"

Scarlett smiled, sitting up and letting her thick locks tumble around her narrow, bare shoulders.

"Don't sound so surprised," she said, lazily swinging a long leg over the side of the bed and getting up.

Her mother chuckled, shutting the door on her way out. "Breakfast in five!" she called back. "Hey Sal, your sister's awake," she heard her mom say to her brother out in the hall as she headed to her wardrobe.

"Scarlett's awake?" Sal gasped loudly. Scarlett rolled her eyes.

The blonde examined herself in the floor length mirror of her walk-in closet. Her dirty-blonde hair had grown a lot over the last few months, and almost reached down to her butt, which was barely covered by her baby-blue lace-trimmed Cosabella slip nightgown.

Oh to be sixteen and irresistable. To members of both sexes, at that.

"Am I a lesbian?" She asked her reflection. Her chiselled face stayed stony and unmoving. Clearly she wasn't the person to ask. Scarlett sighed, lazily kicking off her Ugg slippers and pulling on a thick pair of grey Falke cable-knit knee-length socks.

"Am I a lesbian?" She asked herself again once she was dressed in her full (yet somewhat adapted) Constance Billard uniform.

Better figure it out soon, too, because I know someone else that'll be asking the same question.

xoxo

Gabriel lazily tied his St. Jude's tie and fluffed up his famous floppy brown hair, before heading downstairs. His rooms occupied the entire top floor of his family's East 75th street townhouse, and Gabriel had his very own buzzer to his area. When it was just him and his father, which was usually since he moved back, the house felt empty and huge, like he and his dad were on different sides of the world, not much different than when he was in France, really.

He woke up feeling fresh, and determined, with a brand new mentality. He was going to stop moping around and fix things with Hadley, once and for all. He'd decided that she was the only girl he'd ever love, and it was probably in his best interests to get her to stop hating her as a first step.

That's my boy!

This morning, the oddly unfamilliar sound of chatter wafted through the air with the scent of bacon frying as Gabriel descended to the kitchen. There was laughter, and the voice of a woman.

Gabriel stood in the doorway to the kitchen, waiting for his father to notice him. Nate was at the hob, cooking bacon and eggs, something Gabriel was sure he'd never seen his dad do before. Beside him was a small, thin woman who he had his arm around.

She giggled at something he said and turned around, suddenly meeting Gabriel's eye. She was pretty, pale and freckled, and clearly a lot younger than his father, maybe in her early thirties. Her hair was shoulder length and wavy, a sort of dirty blonde colour, and her pale cheeks and lips were blushed a natural but intense red colour. She was wearing one of his father's white t-shirts.

"So, how do you like your eggs, huh? Sunny side up?" Nate asked from the cooker.

"Uh, Nathaniel," She trailed off, putting her hand on his arm. Nate turned around, and his eyes widened slightly.

"Oh, hey, son," his dad said quickly. "This is, erm, America."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. Quirky.

That's one word to describe it.

"Hey Gabriel, I've heard so much about you," America said awkwardly, smiling and blinking her big blue eyes.

"I'd love to say the same," Gabriel responded with a smile. "But this is the fist time Nathaniel's mentioned you."

Unless asked what country he resides in, of course.

Nate shot him a warning glance. Gabriel wondered how long his dad had been stashing this girlfriend in secret.

"I'll go and get dressed," America smiled nervously. "It was nice meeting you, Gabriel."

Was it?

"Likewise," Gabriel said with the same bitchy tone he'd seen on Hadley when she spoke to him lately.

"What was that?" Nate asked him in a hushed whisper once America had gone.

"What was what?" Gabriel feigned ignorance as he grabbed one of the remaining ready made Nutella pancakes in the Archibald's near barren fridge.

"I get you might be pissed at me for not telling you sooner, but I was waiting for the right time, okay," his dad said.

"What, did you think I just wasn't going to come down to breakfast this morning or something?"

"You usually get up later," Nate said.

Him and a certain blonde have that in common. Perhaps it's something about Friday's gossip that gets the teens up and ready to exchange whispers about the weekend's debauchery on the Monday after.

Gabriel shrugged, taking a bite out of his pancake nonchalantly. "Look, for the record, I don't really care if you have your fuckbuddy over, just give me some warning next time," he said cooly, heading towards the door.

"Wait, Gabriel, we need to have a proper conversation about this," Nate protested.

"Nah, we don't," Gabriel dismissed him, slinging on his red wool Balenciaga bomber jacket.

"Right, well, America's family, the Jeppson's, are having a party tomorrow night, and I want you to come," Nate said firmly.

"No offense, dad, but no way," Gabriel said, letting himself out the front door before his father could protest any further.

I missed the Gabriel that gave no shits. Angst gets oh-so yawn after a while. I wonder what epiphany's caused this sudden change of heart.

Out of the first floor's window, America waved with a weak smile, and Gabriel saluted her back with a false grin.

Good to be back, baby.