i want it all ( gg next gen )

𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙪𝙗𝙚

Hadley stepped uniformly in time with the stiff waltz that was playing, her hand on her escort's shoulder as they danced. She watched her cousin Delilah giggle as she tripped over an also giggling Sal's feet when they danced. Even her crazy coke-Head cousin was having a better time than her. 

If only she knew where her brother was now, then maybe she'd feel a little better. 

Agonisingly enough, one of the people she couldn't spot in the room was Gabriel and his redheaded gremlin of a date. 

As she and Monty danced, Hadley imagined herself in one of those old films her mom loved. She'd be trapped in a loveless marriage dancing at her own wedding reception, wallowing in her misery. Scarlett was nowhere to be seen, and neither was her new stupid punk wannabe friend. 

The song finally finished, and Hadley stepped away from Monty hastily. "Excuse me, I need to... powder my nose," she said, scuttling off, her Manolo's clicking against the dance floor. 

"Move," Hadley grunted as she pushed past a ninth grader, heading for the ladies room. 

She stood in front of the gold rimmed mirror and stared at her reflection. She looked exquisite, obviously, but she felt like she was going to retch. Monty was tall and gorgeous, with piercing blue eyes and a cute dimple on his chin, and her dress was magnificent, but Cotillion still felt like a disaster. And what's more, she was probably going to have to miss the father-daughter dance because her dad was off doing business in Dubai or Brazil or wherever he was.

The brunette rushed to the stall and locked the door behind her, holding her glossy hair back as she tried to throw up. Anything to get that tight feeling of butterflies out of her stomach. She flushed the toilet and sighed as she watched her vomit go down the drain. Giggles flooded into the bathroom as Hadley sat on the floor of her stall, rinsing her mouth out with the small bottle of vodka she kept in her purse. 

Recognising the familiar manic laugh of her cousin Delilah, Hadley peeped under the stall. There she was, fumbling around in her bubblegum pink Fendi terrycloth clutch with Sal watching over her. Hadley could see their smiling faces in the mirror as Delilah pulled out the crucifix that she usually wore around her neck and began to twist the top. Hadley's mouth dropped open, and she instinctively reached for her phone, snapping a photo as her cousin revealed the snow white powder that she kept hidden in the cross. 

The girl lifted it up to her nose on the little spoon thingy attached to the top and took a hearty sniff, before passing it to Sal. 

"Your go now," she grinned giddily. 

So she really wasn't clean. 

Clean my ass. Not like that. 

Hadley took a few more pictures, before slipping her phone back in her silver Miu Miu clutch. 

Do I sense a cousin on cousin betrayal about to happen? Juicy.

xoxo 

Henry Bass' head was swirling as he walked down the stairs, his mouth still open in shock. The rapid tapping of heels approached behind him, and Scarlett's hand clamped down on his shoulder. 

"Henry, wait," she said, her big blue eyes glassy with confused tears.

Usually Scarlett's such a carefree drunk. 

She looked up at him, waiting for him to say something or shrug her hand off his shoulder, but realised it was her who was meant to speak. Meant to say something in explanation of what had just happened both truthfully she didn't know herself.

"It was just a joke," she said. "You're not seriously mad?"

"See you around, Scarlett," Henry said after a moment, walking away. 

Aw, I was kind of rooting for them.

xoxo 

Opal Meyer was an okay kisser, but Gabriel had found over the past year or so that kissing girls that weren't Hadley Waldorf-Bass was somewhat anticlimactic. With them, there wasn't the risk that there was with her. Kissing other girls was a rather conflicting thing, because all he could think about was kissing Hadley, which made him a potent combination of sad and horny, making it simultaneously slightly unbearable but hard to stop. 

Boo-hoo, you whore. 

Gabriel shrugged off his red-headed date and leaned back against the back of the loveseat they were sitting on in the lobby right outside the hall.  Opal smiled smugly as she dabbed at her red lipstick and straightened the top of her dress. She couldn't wait to tell her friends at Marymount about this, they'd all be so jealous. 

Opal leaned over so that her small, heart-shaped lips were almost rested against Gabriel's ear. "I'm gonna go freshen up," she whispered, planting a red lipstick kiss on his defined jaw and teetering off to the ladies room. 

The world is frowning at you, Opal Meyer. 

Gabriel sighed and massaged his temples, glad that she was finally gone. 

You didn't seem to be so excited to get rid of her when your tongue was down her throat, Archibald. 

The familiar twinkling strings of the Blue Danube poured out from the hall, giving Gabriel shivers as he sat there. 

Anything to do with the fact that it's Hadley's favourite waltz? 

He remembered when his mom used to live with them, and taught the Upper East Side girls ballet every Thursday. He remembered Hadley, aged nine, dragging Scarlett up the stairs of the Archibald's town house. Scarlett was tall and gangly already, her long, thick blond hair down to her waist and her pointy knees bruised from clumsy falls. She didn't much like ballet, and preferred running around Central Park with her brother or drawing in her bedroom, but Hadley wouldn't go alone. Hadley was smaller than her friend, with her chestnut hair cropped in a wavy bob and pinned back with silver Tiffany's berets. She had a missing front tooth and big crystalline blue eyes that were often clouded by a frown. 

Gabriel's lovely Italian mother, who Hadley coveted, would answer the door in her big pink tortoiseshell Jackie O. sunglasses and Chloé cashmere turtleneck poncho. 

The ballet lessons mostly consisted of the girls and a few others learning positions and small routines in the living room, and every Thursday Hadley would insist upon dancing to The Blue Danube. Gabriel would tip toe down the stairs and sit there, watching her intently as she and Scarlett twirled around to the music. If she ever caught him looking, Hadley would shoot Gabriel a fierce glare, or throw her ballet shoe at him, and he would retreat upstairs, lying down in his sailboat bed and listening to the gentle hum of violins with his eyes closed.

Not much has changed, huh. She's still pretending to hate him. 

Gabriel got up from the loveseat in the lobby, tingling with the bittersweet déja-vu he felt every time he heard that song, and leaned against the door to the hall, watching the couples dance. There she was, across the room, dancing with Monty Baizen. 

Hadley's ability to dance had never been anything special, but it was the way you could see that she loved the music when she danced that made it so entrancing to watch. She caught his eye from where she was dancing, and shot him the same glare she had when they were nine years old in his living room, but instead of shrinking off, Gabriel smiled back at her. 

As if for the very first time.