I hope you guys enjoy this. It's my first published story on here, so feel free to critique and such.
Disclaimer-I dont own the Mortal Instruments series or the characters.
The bell rang two minutes after I had finally managed to get some sleep in this hell of a science class. And it really pissed me off. I didn't fall asleep until late last night because I was doing what? Science homework. The tyranny of science teachers just never stopped.
Sighing, I stood and gathered my stuff. My day had been horrible, and, to top it all off, I was heading to Calculus 101. It wasn't as particularly boring as science was, but, trust me, it was no good time either. I was literally only a step from class when my best friend, Kaelie, rounded the corner at the same time.
"Hey, Clary!" She giggled happily. I gave her one look and her smile vanished, "Bad day?"
"Oh, no. I consider my boyfriend breaking up with me, having a total frizz ball for hair, someone stepping on my lunch, and falling asleep in science class a great day." I said sarcastically.
"What happened with him?" She asked, completely ignoring my bitchiness toward her. Whether it was for a good bit of gossip, or genuine concern, I had no idea, but she was listening, so I was going to tell her, "I thought you and Simon… you know…"
"Slept together? Yeah, we did. And it was one of the worst mistakes of my life – "
"Really?" A deep voice interrupted me. I looked at Kaelie nervously, who's eyes were wide with shock. Right then, I knew who it was before I even turned around. Simon. "Because I was thinking all day that it had been a mistake to let you go," He said, some flashes of hurt flickering in his dark eyes, "But I guess it wasn't." I met his gaze coolly, even though I was always scared to look someone in the eyes, I wasn't going to be intimidated. Especially by Simon.
"If letting me go was such a big mistake, you wouldn't have done it in the first place." I said quietly, my voice coming out not as forcefully as I would have liked. Simon glared at me menacingly.
"All right, kids," My calculus teacher said, "Let's get to class." Simon gave me one look up and down, then shook his head regretfully.
"You were a waist of time. Just like everyone told me. I just wished I would have listened." Then he turned and walked away. I kept my face calm when he was there, but when he could no longer see me, my mouth dropped to the floor.
"Clary…" Kaelie said quietly, putting a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off, hanging my head in defeat.
"Come on, Ms. Fray, get inside." My teacher said, ushering me into the room.
I shut my mouth and walked numbly through the door. When I went to take my usual seat in the back corner of the room, some guy was sitting there, hunched over. I cleared my throat as I approached the desk. He didn't look up. I did it again, louder this time, while flicking my hair over my shoulder. Nothing. Then I began to tap my foot on the floor rapidly. Once again, he didn't even acknowledge my existence. It annoyed me to no end.
His golden curls on his head began to move slightly, as if he was bobbing his head up and down. I furrowed my eyebrows. What was he doing? He let out a small noise, like a humming sound. Music? He was listening to music? I tapped his head lightly. He looked up, smiling brightly. My eyes shot down to my feet. He was gorgeous. Not cute. Not hot. Gorgeous. His teeth were perfect – straight, white. His jaw line was strong. His eyes were a bright, curious gold. They were dazzling. He was dazzling.
"Can I help you?" He asked, his voice smooth and deep, like a river.
"Yes, you're kind of in my seat… Would you mind moving?" I tried not to stutter. I was actually quite proud of myself for keeping my voice steady.
"Move? Nah, I like this chair. Sorry." He winked, then continued doing whatever he was doing before.
I tried tapping him again, but, this time, he didn't even look up at me. I sighed, trying to think of another way to get this boy's attention. My eyes then locked onto the wire attached to his headphones and IPod. I grabbed it, then gave it one hard yank, ripping it from his ears. His head snapped up, staring me down with cold, hard eyes. Oh yeah, now I pissed him off.
"What the fuck, ginge?" He shouted. I winced at his stab of harsh humor. I was always a little sensitive about my red hair, but I shrugged it off and smirked at him.
"I asked you nicely." I smiled sweetly.
"Ms. Fray, please take your seat," My teacher said. I took in a deep breath.
"Well, I would, if someone wasn't already sitting in it." I spat, narrowing my eyes at the guy. One of his eyebrows shot up, amusement playing across his perfect face as he smirked at me.
"Then find another seat," Mr. Fontenot said. The blond guy raised his hand and wiggled his fingers at me while mouthing the word 'bye'. I gritted my teeth together, but turned and sat in the seat in behind him.
I decided to ignore him, which was pretty hard seeing as how he kept stretching and flexing his muscles. Then he took off his black, leather jacket and tightened the muscles in his arms. I could see the muscles clench in his back. It was beyond distracting. Personally, I thought he was doing it on purpose. Especially since he kept tossing his hair, the curls, those golden, blond curls, kept swishing back and forth. Damn it, Clary. Focus. I thought to myself.
I turned my attention back to the board, but then something hit me in the face. I yelped in surprise. Everyone paused in the room, their eyes turning to me. Mr. Fontenot looked at me, scolding.
"Do we have a problem, Ms. Fray?" He asked expectantly.
"No, uh, no sir." I stuttered, my hand gripping the piece of paper the blond guy had pegged me in the face with. I picked it up when Mr. Fontenot continued on his boring rampage of some kind of math problem… I wasn't paying attention. When I unfolded the note, I heard the blond guy's quiet laughter. It read:
Why don't you just stop staring already?
I sucked in a sharp breath, and I'm pretty sure that my face turned bright red too. I looked up to find him smiling at me, well, more like a cocky grin. Then I ripped the note up in half, and then again after that. I crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the trashcan next to us.
"For your information, I do believe that I was staring at the bored, not you." I said quietly, more trying to convince myself than him.
"And for your information, I do believe that you threw that in the wrong trashcan," He pointed to the other corner, "Recycling is over there."
"You two, the board is up here, not over there," Mr. Fontenot said, then paused, seeming as if he remembered something, "Oh, Mr. Wayland! Class, I'm sorry, I forgot about our new student. Mr. Wayland, please come up here and introduce yourself to us."
He stood and walked to the front of the classroom, attracting every girl's attention in that room, even some of the guys. There were plenty of catcalls and other unnecessary attention. And he enjoyed every minute of it.
I officially hated his freaking guts.
o . 0 . ^ . 0 . o
I opened the door to my mother's apartment and closed it behind me, sighing heavily as I dropped my stuff on the floor by my feet.
"Mom, I'm home," I said loudly as I wandered into the kitchen.
"How'd the day go?" I heard her call from her bedroom.
"Fine," I lied quickly. I never told my mom anything. She never even knew when I switched boyfriends. And thinking that, Simon popped right up in my head. His laugh… His smile… Damn it, Clary! You fucked up. You fucked up again.
"Well that's good. Hey, what do you think about this outfit?" She asked, rounding the corner as I popped a couple pretzels in my mouth.
But as I stared at Jocelyn's clothing choice, I almost choked on them. Now, mind you, my mom is forty-six, and she had the nerve to wear hooker clothes? She had on a skintight leopard dress that was shorter than something I would wear – which is not much, being Kaelie always complains about me wearing clothes that make me look like a nun. The heels my mother had on were definitely red, four-inch high Prada pumps. Where did she get the money to buy those? Did she not remember our little financial crisis?
"Too much?" She asked uncertainly.
"Uh, y–" I started to say yes when she looked at me nervously, her face flushed bright pink, "No," I squeaked instead.
"So, you think it's okay?" She twirled in a circle.
"Um, well… What – what are you going to go do, Mom?" I stuttered, trying not to laugh.
"I got a new job at a bar," She smiled proudly.
"Oh, oh, yep. That makes sense." I laughed, shaking my head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, putting her hands on her narrow hips.
"Well, don't be offended, but you look like a street walker." I plopped down on a chair at the kitchen table.
"Aren't you sweet," She rolled her eyes, then crossed the room over to me. She played with my hair gently, "You really should put your hair down. It's just so pretty." She sighed.
"No thanks. It only gets in my way." I laughed.
"Well, we could play with it a little –" She started to say, but I cut her off.
"Bye, Mom." I said, trying to tell her to leave the subject alone without literally shoving her out of the door, which I did do once.
"I have to go now anyway or I'm going to be late on my first day." She chuckled, then kissed my forehead lightly, "I won't be home until late tonight, so order a pizza or something, but stay here. I don't want to be worrying about you all night."
"Kay, Mom." I turned back to my bag of pretzels as she walked out of the door.
Where did she think I was going to go? I wasn't a partying girl. My wildest night consisted of me going over to Simon's house and playing video games with a couple of beers to drink. That just shows how much she trusted me. I still had to love her though. I was all she had. Valentine, her now ex-husband and my father, had left her about six years ago, on my eleventh birthday. She spent weeks in her bedroom, crying her eyes out. Luke, her brother, and I spent forever trying to help her pick up the pieces.
It was then she had decided to become an artist. She painted everything that she had built up inside of her. At first, her paintings were kind of dark and scary, but it was the only way she began to finally let people back into her life. She had built up this wall and let no one in it, until a couple of months ago when Luke finally broke through to her. I guess that was why I built up my walls to her, to everyone. I had been shut out so many times, that I just decided everyone else didn't need to see what I really felt.
That was part of the reason Simon broke up with me. He was tired of not knowing what was really going on. When I was around him, I always had a smile on my face, no matter what was happening, so he would know. I didn't want him to know. The last thing I wanted for him was to have a problematic girlfriend who cried about her horrible life every chance she got. That screwed me over. It turns out, that's what he wanted. He was the guy who required that feeling of being able to comfort a damsel in distress, and that just wasn't me. I guess I should have expected it, but even if I had, there was no way to prepare for it. There never is.
Then there was a shrill ringing sound coming from my room. I rolled my eyes, then stood, leaving my bag of pretzels at the table, going to search for my phone.
Once I was in my room, I couldn't find it, though. My eyes scanned the whole area, but turned up with nothing. So I started throwing stuff everywhere. I tossed open my closet door and pulled stuff out, strewing it all over the floor. Yet, I turned up with nothing. I turned to my bed, ripping the sheets and blankets off frantically. I spun on my heel, when that turned up unsuccessful, still searching for the high-pitched trill hidden somewhere in my room. As I tried to take a step toward a pile of dirty clothes on the floor, I tripped over something hard sticking up, letting a string of obscenities fly out of my mouth as I banged my head on the floor. I was just so graceful.
Lying on the floor, a headache threatening to come, while my phone still rang. I groaned, sitting up, when I felt a buzzing in my hand. Looking down, I couldn't help but roll my eyes; my phone was right next to me.
As I looked at the caller ID, part of me hoped it was Simon calling to apologize and take me back. But the other part of me knew it wasn't going to happen. I had been the one that screwed up, not him. Why the hell would he want me back? Oh, right. He didn't. It was Kaelie who was calling, not Simon. I mentally punched myself for thinking of him again as I lifted my phone to my ear.
"Hello?" I said kind of breathlessly.
"Hey, girl," She paused, "It sounds like you just ran a marathon." She laughed.
"Well, sort of." I grimaced, rubbing the back of my head gingerly.
"Uh huh, sure," I could picture her rolling her eyes like she did so often, "What are you doing tonight?"
"Well, being I don't have a boyfriend anymore, nothing," I said, "I still can't believe we broke up." I added ruefully.
"I never would have expected it. No one would have. You guys were, like, the perfect couple," She sighed, "And, plus, you two, like… did it, like, a week ago."
"Yeah, you know, Kaelie, I'd really prefer if you wouldn't bring that up again. Kay, thanks." I snapped.
"Oh, girl. You need to get out." She laughed.
"And go where?" I stood up from the floor and plopped down on the edge of my bed.
"Let's go clubbing!" She said excitedly.
"I don't have any clothes to wear for it. I dress like a nun, remember?" I smirked. I honestly was not in the mood.
"Honey, we're going to party. You need to bounce back from this. So don't try to weasel your way out of this," She paused, "Plus, I know you have got to have some kind of skanky outfit in that closet of yours. Just find something tight and black." She laughed, then the phone clicked and she hung up before I could protest.
I sighed, sitting up on my bed. I knew Kaelie was only trying to cheer me up. She was great at it, but for some reason, it just wasn't working today. I considered blowing her off, my mom had told me to stay home tonight. Besides, all I wanted right now was to curl up on the couch with a gigantic bowl of cookie dough ice cream and watch an F rated horror movie. But what kind of friend would I be if I did that? Not a great one. And, plus, every daughter needed to be a little wild every now and then, despite the consequences.
I ran a hand through my tangled, red hair, and, despite my better thoughts, I decided on being a bad girl tonight. I walked to my closet, pulling out a seriously dangerous dress that would do some major damage. If Simon didn't want me back, fine. But I was not going to spend my time regretting anything, especially Simon. I smile to myself, laughing quietly. If anything was for certain, it would be that I was going to party and get drunk as hell, maybe even laid.
Then Simon would be the one regretting this.
Not me.