𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗘

𝘗𝘖𝘐𝘚𝘖𝘕 𝘐𝘝𝘠

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Glancing down at the time shown by her phone screen, Angelique frowned for a second. Where the hell was she? Her mother was supposed to arrive half an hour ago, but she was nowhere to be seen. Any normal child would have texted their parents by now, but not Angelique.

She didn't want the ice queen to think her daughter couldn't handle a mixer by herself.

She had been gone for long enough and as much as she didn't want to go back inside, she had to. The girl stopped right in front of Dan and asked him for another drink. "A whiskey on ice for him and I'll take another glass of tonic water," she asked, waiting for him to prepare the drinks.

"You seem rather nervous. Is everything alright?" Dan asked, grabbing two clean glasses and putting ice cubes in them both. His question made Angelique give him a strange look, so he was quick to add: "I'm Dan Humphrey, we met at—"

"—Blair's party, yes, I know," Angelique pointed out, then grabbed the glass of whiskey he handed her. "I know who you are. And I'm not nervous, it's just.."

Dan waved a dismissive hand, then gave her the glass of tonic water too. "It's fine. Nobody's having a good time, apparently," he bitterly commented.

It was probably meant to be an innocent comment, but it sparked up Angelique's curiosity. "Hm? Did anything happen?" She had been so busy entertaining the lawyer sent by Harvard that she didn't pay attention to anything else.

"Oh, didn't you hear?" He scoffed. "Serena is trying to sabotage Blair by talking to the guy from Yale and Nate looks like he wants to run away from the Dartmouth professor."

When she heard the news, Angelique groaned. "Are they seriously fighting again? Here?" How mature of them. But it would have been a lie if she said she didn't expect this to happen. "Thanks for the heads-up, Dan, but I gotta go."

"It must be nice not having to worry about securing a place at Harvard," he commented under his breath, not intending to be heard at all.

"It is. Sometimes." But she heard him loud and clear. "Other times you start to question yourself, your dreams and your ambitions. Cheers." She lifted the tonic water glass in air, ironically, then left to find the Harvard lawyer.

On the way there, she ran into Serena. She debated on whether to talk to her or not; she already left that man alone for long enough, but she couldn't let her friends ruin today's mixer because of their selfishness.

She put the glasses on a table and grabbed the blonde's arm, pulling her to the side. "Have you lost your mind?" Angelique asked, a hint of frustration in her tone. "Did you bleach your brain too the last time you bleached your hair or what?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Serena defended herself, surprised by the other's attitude.

"Of course you don't." Angelique rolled her eyes, then saw Nate approaching them. Great. "Stop being petty for a few hours, is that too much to ask for? I know she's being impossible, but you're even worse. That's low, even for you."

"Angelique, what are you talking about—"

"I'm talking about Blair and how you're stealing her guest and embarrassing her in front of everyone. When did you start behaving like this? Ugh."

She clicked her tongue, then shifted her attention to Nate, who stopped right next to her. Before he was able to say anything, she interrupted him.

"And you? Don't. Go back inside and pretend you're interested in Dartmouth or step aside and let someone else get the chance to do it. Damn it, it's like you guys don't even want to go to college. Do you even care about anything at all?"

She didn't mean to be this straightforward and rude. She hasn't been acting like herself either, given the fact that her mother literally ditched her. So when she found out her friends did everything else but what they had to do, she snapped.

She didn't even wait for an answer. She took back the glasses and left to find the teacher she abandoned. Before she could reach him, though, she was pulled to a table by Blair. The girl didn't say anything to her, she just climbed on an empty chair and spoke in a loud voice: "May I please have everyone's attention?"

Angelique frowned. It wasn't time for Blair's speech, which could only mean one thing: trouble.

"Welcome again to the Constance Billard—St. Jude's Ivy Week Mixer. I'm Blair Waldorf, chair of the Community Outreach Committee and this is Angelique Evans, vice chair."

She gestured towards Angelique and the girl couldn't help but force a smile when everyone started to clap.

"Every year, our schools choose to support one local institution that we feel benefits our community." A devilish smirk started to grow noticeably on Blair's lips, strengthening Angelique's bad feeling. "This year, our schools have chosen to honor the Ostroff Center."

The what?

For a really short moment, confusion was spread all over Angelique's face. Ostroff Center? That wasn't the institution they discussed about. It wasn't even on the list, so what was Blair doing? Then, her eyes met Serena's and she finally understood.

This was another cat fight.

She was forced to clap, just as everyone else, and she wiped the confused look from her face. She couldn't afford to let Blair drag her down because of their stupid, egoistical fight.

"This semester, our choice is a very personal one because the center has helped one of our own." While Blair went on with her speech, Serena moved closer to her brother and wrapped an arm around him. "It's because of their excellence program which aids young addicts and alcoholics that a student here with us today is clean and sober. At least for now."

Blair Waldorf, what the hell are you talking about? Angelique asked herself. This was so embarrassing.

"Can I please have Serena van der Woodsen join me on stage?"

The announcement was a shock to everyone, Angelique and her clique included.

𝚂𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙸𝚟𝚢 𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚐𝚞𝚎 𝙼𝚒𝚡𝚎𝚛: 𝚂 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙱'𝚜 𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍. 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎. 𝙱𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛.

Angelique watched the blonde as she made her way to the front, her stomach tossing and turning. Were her friends really going to destroy this mixer because they couldn't separate personal matters from things that will actually matter in the future? Whatever they decided, she was not going to stand by and watch it. This was not her fight.

𝙷𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚣𝚒𝚙 𝚌𝚘𝚍𝚎𝚜. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎. 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔. 𝙱𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 "𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚞𝚐 𝚊𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚝" 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚎 𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚢.

"Mr. Davies, I'm sorry for the long wait," she apologized, finally offering the drink she owed to him. "Unfortunately, my mom is not going to make it today, but I wanted to ask you about that case you had a few years ago.."

"How was the mixer?" Mrs. Evans asked, as she happened to cross by the entrance right when Angelique walked through the door.

"Oh, so now you care?" The girl scoffed, not even able to look in her mother's direction. She knew how much this stupid mixer meant to her, but she chose to be absent. Every other student had at least one of their parents by their side, but not Angelique Evans. Her father was god-knows-where and her mother was too busy with her own career to even care about her daughter's future.

"What is that supposed to mean? Of course I care."

"Then you should have been there, Mom. Or should I call you Attorney Evans?" Her tone was bitter and her words were sharp as blades.

"Angelique, watch your—"

"You know what?" She interrupted her. "I can't wait for my graduation speech. You know, that moment when top students talk about what they're grateful for? I'll be sure to thank myself for not putting up with this family's shit and for staying sane for seventeen fucking years!"

"Angelique Renée Evans, stop right now!"

Her eyes started to tear up, but she was still holding her ground. "Oh, now that I told you this, you're probably not going to show up there either, are you? I mean, there's no prize for you to take, so why would you even bother?"

"You better thank me for teaching you how to survive in a world full of monsters," her mother growled.

"You mean monsters like you?!"

"Yes, Angelique! Just like me!" She snapped. "You were born in the elite world, in which people won't hesitate to skin each other alive! So if you will survive, know that it's only because of me!"

"Oh, I will survive. Just look at me, Mother. And look carefully," Angelique threatened, "because I'm going to come for you and I'm going to ruin everything you tried so hard to build and rebuild it myself! On my terms!"

Angelique opened back the front door and climbed down the few steps in a hurry.

"Where do you think to you're going?!" Her mother opened the door right after she closed it and yelled.

"To hell!"

That wasn't exactly the most fitting term to call Chuck's place, but it wasn't far from the truth either.

Buzz. Buzz.

Nate's phone has been ringing for two minutes and he didn't look like he was going to wake up and pick it up anytime soon, so Chuck felt needed to throw a pillow at him as a gentle nudge.

"Nate!"

"What?" He murmured, slowly opening his eyes. The moment he realized his phone was buzzing, he rose into a sitting position and reached out for it. "Hello? Yeah, I'll be right there."

"Where the hell could you possibly have to be right now?" Chuck asked, groaning in frustration that his morning sleep was ruined.

"I'm late for a run with my dad."

Chuck scoffed. "Oh, and here I was, thinking all three of us will grab a cup of coffee downstairs later."

Nate confusedly watched his friend's smirk grow, then asked: "All three of us? I might be tired, but I'm not seeing things. It's just me and you here, so I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about you, me.." He made a dramatic pause. "And Angelique, of course!"

"Angelique's here?" Now that was unexpected.

Chuck nodded. "Mhm. She called me last night. She wanted to sleep with me, but I told her you were coming over, so she asked me to get her another room." After the suspicious glare he got from Nate, he was quick to add: "Sleep on the couch, relax. It's not like it's the first time she crashed on my couch."

Nate grabbed his shirt and rose to his feet, then put it on. "Did she tell you why she didn't go home?"

"Do you tell me why you don't want to go home every time you randomly decide to sleep on my couch again?"

"Good point." He shrugged. "Why didn't you tell me she was here?"

"Because, my friend, you were drunk as hell and she was already angry, I didn't want you to bother her even more."

Nate was doing his best to stay awake while he ran up to his father and the Dartmouth teacher, making sure to keep a considerable distance from them.

This was the last place in which he wanted to be, but it wasn't like he had much of a choice.

Food poisoning. What a stupid excuse.

Not so far away, somebody else was out for a run, trying to focus on the pain she felt in her legs, particularly in her calves, rather than the pain she felt in her heart.

Sunglasses and headphones on, Angelique tried her best to disconnect from everything and just breathe. The music in her ears was loud enough so that she wouldn't hear her thoughts, because the silence was overwhelming and everything that was going through her mind right now gave her a headache.

When he noticed her, Nate stopped for a while and stared. The first thing his eyes laid on was what the girl was wearing—a sports bra, a pair of biker shorts and a sports jacket that clearly didn't belong to her that was tied around her waist. Then, he saw the frown on her face and he reminded of what Chuck told him.

Then, he took a deep breath and jogged in her direction, struggling a little to catch up to her. She had her headphones plugged in, so Nate had to run in front of her to get her attention.

"Hello, stranger," he greeted her as soon as he saw her pulling her earphones out. He expected her to change her attitude after seeing him, but she seemed just as grumpy as before.

"Nate, what are you doing here?"

"Same thing as you, Angel. I'm running." And stating the obvious, apparently. "What's up with you? You look a little down today."

She waved a dismissive hand. "Nothing, I'm fine."

"Come on, you know that's not true." He was struggling a little to keep up with her pace, she was clearly running to get her mind off something. "I'm concerned."

"About what?" Angelique scoffed.

"About you." He reached his hand out to her, grabbing her waist to slow her down a little. "Talk to me, Angel."

"Seriously, Nate, I'm fine—"

"Miss Evans, good morning!" Nate's father greeted her. They stopped right in front of the two teenagers, but Nate and Angelique were a little too busy to notice that sooner.

"Mr. Archibald, hello. Good morning," she replied to him, then looked at the other man and greeted him as well. "Sir."

"I assume she's your son's lovely girlfriend you told me about?" The Darmouth rep asked. "It's good to finally meet you, Miss..?"

"I'm, uh—" Angelique shook his hand firmly. "I'm afraid I'm not the girl you've heard so much about. Angelique Evans, heir of the E & E Law firm." Then, she took Nate's hand off her and smiled politely. "If you'll excuse me, I have to finish my lap."

This conversation would have been too much for her right now. If she could usually chat about nonsense like this, the brunette didn't have the energy to do so this morning, so after excusing herself, she let the three males alone and jogged down the road.

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i felt like last chapter was more like a filler chapter, so i wanted to update the story one more time this week. on this chapter, we learn a little more about angelique's family and we get to see a glimpse of angelique's true ambitions. could it be the fear of showing vulnerability that causes the inconsistency of her behavior in these last chapters ? what do you think ?