"Clarissa Adele, what did I just tell you?" My mother's tone and choice of my full name had me frozen, my fingers reaching for the buttercream icing in the bowl. Snatching it back, I turned around sheepishly to find my mom glaring at me, and my best friend Jace Herondale laughing at me behind her back.
"Sorry mom, you know it's my favorite." I shrugged, and she rolled her eyes, but smiled at me.
"Go help Jace, I think he has more flour in his hair than on the rolling pin." She motioned towards him, and went to carefully guard icing. I hopped on a stool next to him at the counter, flicking his blonde curls and sending a cloud of flour into his and mine's faces.
"Clary! You're messing up my concentration." He said, swatting my hands away as he leaned forward to make sure he was rolling the dough into the right thickness. It was the day after Thanksgiving, but we were already starting to make Christmas cookies, a tradition that Jace and I had started when we first became friends in kindergarten.
I responded by swiping flour across his cheek. His retaliation was to lick his finger and stick it in my ear.
"Jace! That's so gross!" I squealed, rubbing at my ear I looked around to see my mom had removed any possible weapon I could use against him, like more flour, and resorted to grabbing his arm and digging my nails into his upper bicep. Okay, so sometimes we still fight like we're in kindergarten, but after a feel of his incredibly muscled biceps, we most certainly were 18 year olds.
"I ask myself this every year why I let you two do this." My mom groaned, taking a fresh batch of sugar cookies out of the oven. "Take these off to cool, and don't you dare throw them at each other."
"Clary started it." Jace announced, apparently satisfied with his dough rolling and moving on to using the cookie cutter to make cut outs of Christmas themed characters. My nail digging had little effect on him, he was so much stronger than me that he barley noticed.
"I don't know why I've put up with you all these years." I said, carefully moving the cookies to the cooling rack.
"Right back atcha." He looked up and grinned, his signature smile on full display. "But you're stuck with me."
Jace and I started being friends the day he pulled my red curly pigtail braids and called them carrots. Naturally, I pushed him to the ground and kicked him in the ribs. It was worth the timeout and getting recess taken away for a week, since we both had to sit in the classroom with the teachers aide and watch our friends play without us. We bonded over this, as little kids do, and have been inseparable ever since.
In a way, our friendship hasn't changed a bit over the years. We survived high school, and are in the middle of our freshman year of college at Leigh University, which we both commute to. I was studying Art History with a minor in business, he was studying Music Management. Jace is big into music, and was currently trying to find a band to join as a lead singer or guitarist since his high school band broke up when we all left for college.
Our families have become close, and I wouldn't have it any other way. As much as he gets on my nerves, he's still my best friend. People have always claimed we would end up dating, and as much as I've denied it, the idea is still in the back of my head. But I would never let him know that, it would ruin everything.
"Clary, hello?" I was distracted by Jace waving his hand in front of my face, startling me out of my inner monologue. "I know I'm attractive, but if you keep staring at me like that your mom is never going to let me sleep over again." He winked, and I groaned, shoving his arm away and surveying the mess we made in the kitchen. We were now about to ice the cookies, an event that usually ended up with both of us covered in frosting.
"Wouldn't be a problem since we always sleep head to toe." I smiled sweetly at my mother, who was eyeing us suspiciously. She was one of the biggest advocates for the idea that we were secretly in love with each other, and was dying for one of us to admit it.
"I can't sleep head to toe anymore with you, your feet smell so bad I'm scared my hair will smell like them forever." Jace replied, earning him a smear of frosting across his already flour adorned cheek courtesy of me.
When we were younger and Jace slept over because his dad was away on business trips, he always ended up sleeping in my bed. My mom thought it was adorable, but implemented the head to toe rule once we got a little older. Jace was not a fan, and always ended up back with his head by mine, making up some excuse about my feet. To his credit, he always maintained a careful distance from me, which helped my mom feel a little better about having her only daughter sleeping in the same bed with her guy best friend.
We finished frosting our cookies with few incidents, settling into a comfortable silence as my mom cleaned up. Looking around my kitchen as I though of a design for my next snowflake, my eyes landed on the family pictures hung on the wall near the kitchen table.
My parents divorced when I was barely 2 years old. My dad, Valentine, lived with my older brother a few towns over. I stayed with my mom, Jocelyn, but my brother was always closer to my dad, even at a young age. I saw them on holidays, not as often now that Jonathan was close to graduating college since he was two years older than me. The family pictures on the wall had Jonathan and mine's senior pictures, one of me and Jace, and one of my mom and I and Luke, her fiance. None of us as a family together. It made me sad, as my mom never really got over our losing my brother to my father. Whenever I was brave enough to ask her what happened, she claimed her and my dad "fell out of love"; something I was terrified of happening to me.
As a result of our wildly different upbringings, my brother and I were not exactly close. My dad was strict, known for being tough and big responsibility. Jonathan grew up to what I nicely called a stuck up jerk. I inherited my love for art from my mom, and I thrived in her more relaxed parenting style. He claimed I was a wild child destined to graduate with a degree that meant nothing, and I would end up flipping burgers. Any time that we were forced to see each other resulted in huge arguments which drove our parents insane.
Jace noticed me staring at the pictures, and nudged my leg with his to get my attention. "I bet I can make a better snowflake than you." He challenged, wielding his cookie. I smiled, he knew me so well and chose the perfect thing to cheer me up.
"You're on."
Going back to school after Thanksgiving break is such a tease. Grumbling to myself as I got in my car Monday morning, I was shivering from the cold. The drive to campus seemed extra long and traffic-y, so I was in a mood by the time I arrived to my 10 am business class. Jace was there, saving me a seat as I rushed in and came prepared for my Monday morning blues with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Due to our different majors, this was one of the only classes we had together.
"Have I ever told you how amazing you are?" I sighed, as the hot chocolate seemed to go straight my bloodstream.
"Nope, I don't believe you have." Jace grinned, running a hand through his blonde curls. I think I heard the girl behind us sigh. Peeking behind me, I noticed her staring dreamily at Jace, practically drooling. Rolling my eyes, I straightened up in my seat while the professor came in and started setting up for the lecture.
Sure, Jace was downright hot. He was 6 feet 2 inches of tan skin, muscles, golden eyes, and blonde curls that were always falling into his eyes. Worse, he knew it. Even worse, other girls really knew it. He wasn't exactly a relationship kind of guy, but enjoyed the attention from women. I constantly teased him about it, but lately it was becoming less funny for me and more depressing. I was not as fortunate in the looks department, or with guys. While my hair had thankfully darkened a bit from the "carrot sticks" red of kindergarten, my curls are just as out of control and in no hurry to be tamed. I am a measly 5 foot 3, and my eyes are a plain green.
"Do you want to meet up and get lunch with Izzy and Alec?" I asked, as we were leaving the lecture hall an hour and a half later. My question was met with silence. Confused, I whirled around to see Jace stopped at the door to the lecture hall talking to the blonde girl that had sat behind us in class. I watched as she giggled and tossed her hair, typing something into his phone.
Forcing myself not to turn on my heel and leave him, I counted the seconds as he came walking back over to me, looking slightly flustered.
"What was that about?" I asked, my heart squeezing as I waited for his answer.
"Uh, her name is Kaelie and she wanted to gab coffee and study sometime." He said, pocketing his phone without giving it a second glance.
Not having a nice response to that, I settled for a neutral nod and continued walking. As we walked outside, a gust of cold wind had me shivering as it sent my curls flying around my face. Jace laughed, throwing his arm around me and holding me to his side as we walked in an attempt to keep me warm.
"I'm going to die alone." Isabelle announced, as she flopped down next to me at the table we were at in the student union. "All alone, with no one but my cat. Actually, even Church will probably find someone." She sighed dramatically, her big brown eyes looking up at me pleadingly.
"Izzy, what happened?" I asked, knowing I was getting myself into a long winded story about her most recent relationship ending. Izzy was a fan of the dating scene in college, and had no problem getting guys. She was gorgeous, her body made you feel self conscious the second she walked into the room. She had raven hair town to her waist, tan olive skin, and deep brown eyes.
"So I was seeing this amazing guy, Meliorn from my weather class. But he keeps wanting more from me, and saying that I wasn't taking our "relationship" seriously." She rolled her eyes, emphasizing the quotations around 'relationship.' I struggled to keep the smile off my face, but she narrowed her eyes at me, seeing right through me. "Don't you laugh at me. It's not my fault every guy I meet has a problem with me not wanting to take things seriously. I'm only 18!"
"Yeah, you are. So stop dating guys." Her brother, Alec appeared next to us. He sat down, brushing his hair out of his eyes, the same color as his sister. However, instead of her brown eyes, he had mesmerizing blue eyes that would make any girl swoon. While Isabelle was extroverted, loud, and talkative, Alec was the complete opposite. He was usually quiet, content to listen to us and of course, talk to his boyfriend of one year, Magnus Bane.
"Where's Magnus?" I asked, looking around for Alec's glittery boyfriend. And I mean that literally. Magnus was a fashion design student whose favorite medium was glitter, and usually left a trail of it in his wake.
"Busy planning our one year anniversary party combined with some holiday Christmas party or something. I'm dreading it." Alec said glumly, wringing his hands together. "Oh by the way, I'm supposed to invite you guys."
Isabelle looked at her brother as if she couldn't quite understand him. "That has to be the worst invitation ever. I can't believe you don't want a party! It's a perfect excuse to drink and get dressed up." Alec shrugged, sipping his drink. Izzy wisely changed the subject, as I knew she was getting to strangle her brother. "Anyway, I was in the middle of talking about Meliorn." She said his name scathingly.
"What did Melon do this time?" Jace asked, sitting down next to me. I giggled at his intentional name change, as Jace was slightly protective of his cousin and did not approve of nearly every guy she brought around.
"Meliorn," Isabelled emphasized, glaring at Jace. "And I are broken up. At least until next semester. Or maybe New Years, it would be fun to kiss him at midnight."
"You could kiss Simon." I suggested, smirking as she ignored that jab. Simon was another member of our group, but he went to college upstate for accounting. He also had the biggest crush on Isabelle, but she was the only one who didn't know this. I was making it my personal mission to get them together this break, but Izzy was being very difficult.
"When are everyone's finals done?" I asked, stealing some of Jace's fries. He pushed them closer to me, instead of guarding them as he usually did. I must have scared him with my bad mood this morning.
"Next week, thank god." Izzy said, running a hand through her long hair. "I've never been so happy for something to be over. College is crazy."
"It just gets worse." Alec spoke up between bites of his burger. He was a year older than us, and rarely let us forget it. This also happened to be a pet peeve of Izzy's, and I watched her eyes flash with annoyance.
"Anyway." I changed the subject, feeling as if this was leading to another sibling argument. "When is the party?"