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CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

She looks around at all of us for reassurance and we all nod, knowing we would never tell anyone else. Nate and Chuck move to sit down, Nate on the coffee table and Chuck on the chair to the right of me.

Nate still avoids my eye contact as I watch him get comfortable before my eyes go to my left as Serena begins talking. "You all know Georgina Sparks."

"Some of us better than others," Blair says before pointedly looking at Chuck. "It's not like you didn't lose your virginity to her in seventh grade."

"Sixth, actually," Chuck retorts making me grimace at the idea. I'd completely forgotten about that. Chuck carries on, "And I've been avoiding her ever since. Bitch is psycho."

"What about her?" Nate asks Serena as he cuts off Chuck.

Serena takes a moment before she talks again, "Well something happened the night of the Sheperd wedding."

"We're all aware of what happened," Blair adds looking between Nate and Serena. I look down as I realise this is obviously the night that they hooked up.

"No, something else," Serena replies, "Something I've tried to escape, but Georgina won't let me. And now she's blackmailing me."

"Blackmailing you?" I ask with an incredulous tone before I look over at Chuck with a look that says 'we guessed right'.

Chuck raises his eyebrows before he looks again over at Serena, "With what exactly?"

She looks at Nate, "Well it started when Blair thought you and I had too much to drink. She told us to go outside, get some air, sober up. Instead we went into the empty bar and I opened a bottle of champagne and..."

Blair cuts in quickly with a grimace, "We can skip that part, okay?"

Chuck adds, "Go ahead, I'll fill her in later."

I quickly turn around to him with a shocked expression, "You saw?"

Chuck smirks and I grimace even more. He chuckles, "Guess I'll fill you in too."

Serena sighs and carries on, "I left in a hurry. I felt so terrible, so guilty for what I'd just done. I just I had to get out of there."

I look over at Nate who looks at the floor at this moment instead of Serena like the rest.

"Georgina and I had plans to meet up after so I headed straight to her," Serena goes quieter. "Little did I know she had a surprise waiting for me."

She pauses as she tries to put her words together, "I didn't know it at the time but she was taping me. Lucky for me, I was too stuck on what had just happened to be much fun for anyone."

She places her head in her hands, crying as she thinks about whatever has happened. Blair comforts her and puts her hand on her shoulder, reaching forward to console the blonde. I watch from behind, eyebrows furrowed in concern for the poor girl.

"What is it?" Blair asks her as Serena shakes her head muttering that she can't say anything.

"I'm scared," Serena admits in a broken voice and I feel my eyes water up as I stare at her. Words can't describe how heartbreaking it is to watch Serena so upset about something.

My eyes start watering even more as Serena explains what actually happened. The cocaine, the seizure, the overdose. As she describes him having a seizure, I feel a tear roll down my cheek as I watch how broken she is. I wipe it away discreetly, listening to her as she describes calling 911 on Pete's phone after Georgina tried to leave it be.

"Then Georgina told me we had to split up. She said that someone might be looking for us," she says, shaking her head at herself. She sobs, "But I couldn't go. I just couldn't."