Chapter 1.

They were walking down the street, he never thought to look at the road sign before crossing the street but he was pretty sure it sounded something like Strawberry or something like that. Usually it never really mattered, they had been coming to the same coffee shop for two years now. I was trying to start a conversation with her but she was zoned out in her own thoughts and imagination.

"Hey Clary," he asked.

"Hhmm?"

"Whatcha thinking about in that head of yours?" that snapped her out of her reverie.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, what did you say?"

I repeated the question and she looked at me debatably, like she couldn't figure out whether she could tell me or not. So I spoke again. This time I tried the gentle boyfriend voice; not that I was her boyfriend. I had been trying to keep it together when other guys flirted with her or tried to hook up with her, but even when I didn't hold it together she just figured that it was because I'm her best friend and ' that's just what best friends do '. I was friend-zoned.

"You can tell me Clary, you know I'd support you on anything right?"

"Yes, but Simon this isn't the type of thing that you can support or fix for me to make it all better," she said with a bit of irritation. Simon took that as a cue to find a new subject, but he wasn't quite ready to drop the topic. He wanted to at least know.

"Clary I can at least try. I want to make you happy and if that thought bubble of yours is going to put you down then we need to find a solution the problem. Please let me help, I wanna see you smile again."

Simon knew he was crossing that uncomfortable boundary she liked to put up around sensitive subjects.

"Alright, fine, take a shot," she said with a tight, quivering voice, "My mom is having financial issues and my stepdad, Luke , is thinking about leaving her and filing a divorce but the problem is that if he does leave us then we can't hold up the money. Once the divorce is filed my mom loses almost all of the money, we won't be able to support ourselves, Simon, do you see the issue now!" she screamed the last line at me with teary up eyes. I felt horrible asking but I needed to know. Finally the tears came. We were standing in the middle of the sidewalk creating a traffic issue, but I didn't care. All I could think about was how hurt she was.

Before I know it, I turned her to face me and hugged her fiercely not letting her go. She gasped in surprise but was still crying with swollen puffy eyes. I held her again and this time she just cried into my gray t-shirt. After about twenty minutes of us standing like that we started to walk again. She used my jacket to wipe the salty tears off her cheeks.

Before I knew it we had made it to the coffee shop. I wasn't ready to go in but by the expression on her face neither was she. Her face showed pure fear and she hesitated before pointing back behind me towards the door.

I turned not seeing what it was she saw but I couldn't deny that it was something bad. Really, really, bad.