👑 It Girl // Gossip Girl

25// Fixer Upper

I'm horrified. I grab Nate's arm and try to yank him back "Nate stop!" I shout. Dan intervenes, once again. He pushes Nate off of Chuck and makes sure Chuck doesn't retaliate.

"You slept with him!" Nate fumed. "No, I didn't." I stated as I stare at him in anger.

He now looks confused "You didn't?" He asks "No." I answer.

"Come on, man. You think I would sleep with her after you told me you love her?" Chuck retorts.

Dan looks shocked as do some of the other people in the crowd. It still shocks me, to hear it out loud. Chuck leaves and I move to chase after him but Nate grabs onto my arm "Lena, don't go" He says.

"Don't." I demand. I give him a cold glare "I thought..." he began.

"I know what you thought and you were wrong, again. Chuck and I aren't sleeping together, we're... it's nothing." I say. I pull my arm out of his grip and walk away.

I quickly catch up with Chuck "Chuck, wait." I call out.

He stops and faces me "Look, no one suspects anything except that we slept together which we know isn't true. The word will get out eventually..." He began to say. "Perhaps now. I can't have people thinking we slept together when we didn't. If people ask then I'm not going to lie, Chuck. I'm tired of lying and I'm tired of watching people I care about get hurt." I interject.

"Fine. Do whatever you want, I don't care. Just leave me alone." He tells me then walks away. "Chuck!" I shout but he ignores my call.

This is bad. It keeps repeating in my head. It's out and I tried to keep it a secret but I failed. Now, Chuck will probably hate me forever and Nate too.

"Hey, you okay?" Dan asks me in a soft tone. He slightly scares me as he just showed up out of nowhere. "You know that question is only asked 99% of the time so the other person could answer fine and that person who asked doesn't really care but just asks so they would feel better about themselves for asking." I reply.

"I take that as a no. Let's go get coffee." Dan says as he wraps his arm around my shoulder. "I could marry you." I say.

"In your dreams and keep it PG, will ya."

The next day, I crashed the night at the Humphrey loft. I avoided home and told the parents that Dan needed help with a drunken Jenny so I stayed the night. I hate lying to them but they trust me too much.

I was woken by Rufus cooking, his pans clashing onto the stove top, His preparation for breakfast, cabinets slamming, and humming. It was humming then full on singing.

I tried to fall back asleep but I couldn't. I sit up and look at Rufus. "Sorry, did I wake you?" He asks. "No, the smell of coffee and bacon was arousing." I answer.

"Okay, good. I was afraid I was making too much noise." Rufus says in relief. "Not at all." I say. I lie to spare the guilt of others. I get up from the couch and sit on an island stool.

Rufus sets a mug in front of me and fills it up with coffee. "Bless you." I say and he chuckles.

He lays out a sugar container and small pitcher in the silhouette of a cow filled with creamer. I prepare my coffee as the other two Humphrey's join us.

"Morning." Dan chirps. "Morning." I say plainly.

"Good morning." Jenny greets. "No, Jen. We don't say good morning just morning because Lena doesn't have good mornings just mornings." Dan tells her.

"Uh, I'm right here." I state. "Shh. I'm talking to Jenny." Dan hushes me. Rufus smiles from behind the counter as he flips over his waffles.

"Banana waffles for the lady and pecans." Rufus says as he slides me a plate of banana pancakes and a bowl of pecans. "Can I live here?" I ask as I sprinkle pecans over my waffles.