"Ooh! How's this one?" Magnus exclaimed, holding up a ring with a gold band and a big, sparkling pink gem in the center. As Jace looked closer at the gem, he realized it was changing colors, of course Magnus would be attracted to something like this.
"It's a little too er-extravagant for my tastes, plus I think Clary would like something a bit more simple." Jace said, trying not to hurt Magnus' feelings.
"Very well," Magnus didn't seem to care that Jace didn't like his first ring choice, but he did direct his attention to Alec who was sprawled out on one of the chaise lounges in the store. Of course Alec hated shopping but it was for Jace. "Alec, love, you should come try this ring on for me, I think it would look absolutely gorgeous around those talented little fingers of yours." After some moaning and protesting from Alec, Magnus finally got the ring on Alec. Magnus stood staring at him and Alec's face was beet red. "Come on darling, help Jace and I look for a ring."
Magnus then directed his attention back to Jace, "Are you thinking silver or gold? What type of diamond? How many carats?.." Jace tried his best to drown out Magnus until he was done rambling on all of the choices Jace had.
"It doesn't matter, as long as it's perfect," Jace couldn't help but think of what Clary could be doing right now. He felt bad and guilty about lying to her about what he was doing right now, but he obviously couldn't tell her that he was out engagement ring shopping with Magnus and Alec, "But I would prefer silver."
After viewing several different racks of rings and having said no to all of the perfectly fine rings Magnus had shown him and also saying no to some peculiar ones Alec had picked out, Jace started wondering why he was being so stressed and picky over this. I mean— it's just a ring. But that wasn't it, the fact that the ring was for Clary meant it had to be perfect. He stood stiffly, staring down into a lit-up glass case with dozens of rings in it, sadly enough, none of the rings caught Jace's eye.
"How about this one?" Magnus beamed, Jace could sense the hint of annoyance in his voice. But as Jace moved his eyes from the glass case to the ring in Magnus' palm, he became speechless. "That's it. That's the one. It's perfect." Jace could imagine everything- getting down on one knee, her saying yes, kissing, and eventually getting married to the perfect girl, his perfect girl, all from that one look at the ring.
Jace could tell Magnus was relieved as the annoyed tone of his voice was gone "Are you sure?" Magnus handed the ring to Jace and he examined it, it had a silver double band, the bands overlapped each other multiple times, and in the center was a bright, beautiful diamond in the shape of a heart. It really was perfect. "I'm one-hundred percent positive. Magnus can you fetch the cashier?" With that, Magnus nodded and headed toward the backroom of the ring shop, Alec hot on Magnus' heels. He had a feeling that since both of them went back there, it would take a little longer than it would've if Jace had done it himself.
The date he would propose burned in the back of his mind—August fifteenth, which was now only two agonizing days away, at precisely midnight, so he guessed technically it would be August sixteenth which was the exact day Clary would turn eighteen. Just thinking about Clary made his heart ache not being able to be with her as long as he could right now. Jace honestly thought he would die of a broken heart if Clary said no, but he tried to keep those horrid thoughts out of his mind.
"So I hear you're looking to buy a certain, special engagement ring?" Jace turned around to see a middle-aged woman with bright brown eyes and hair the color of ink. He thought she must have been the store owner, "Yes, this is the one I was hoping to buy." He handed her the ring and he knew he couldn't keep the stupid smile off his face.
"Ah, a nice choice you've picked. That's one of the most beautiful rings I have!"
"I know, I can't wait to take it off your hands," Jace smirked as he felt the giddyness all over his body.
The woman proceeded to take the ring and put it into a red, velvety box and handed it to Jace. "Now how would you like to pay?" Jace gave Alec some money and asked him to take care of the payment. Right now Jace wanted to sit down, look at the ring, and think of his hopefully soon to be fiancé.
—–—
Clary had just finished touching up her small amount of makeup, just in case Jace were to come home. He had told her that he was going to go train in the park with Alec, and surprisingly Magnus. But Clary was pretty sure Alec just invited him along. She wanted to go with Jace badly, but he protested and said he needed some "guy-time". Clary understood what he wanted, but she couldn't help but listen to the little part of her that was saying she was being to clingy to Jace. She didn't want to lose him. She didn't even want him to go anywhere. Clary could just cuddle up with him and lay her head on his chest and stay like that all day. She winced as she thought of her physical yearnings too. Clary had practically begged Jace to touch her, to have sex for the first time. He simply waved her off and wouldn't lay a hand on her inappropriately. They hadn't even had a make-out session in what felt like decades–though it was probably still roughly around two or three weeks. She was still a virgin. Even her geeky best friend, Simon, hit a home-run before she did. As soon she thought that it triggered a sleepy looking Simon and Isabelle stumbling out of Izzy's room across the hall.
She walked out into the hall to greet her two friends. As soon as they saw Clary, Izzy turned red. "Might I ask, what exactly has you to finally coming out of bed together at one in the afternoon?"
She looked at Simon, Clary knew that expression. If Simon wasn't a vampire and had the ability to blush, he would be ten times redder then Izzy was.
"Umm-er... I wasn't in bed with Simon! I.. uh..s-simply asked him.. to help me clean out my closet!" Izzy seemed to be having trouble getting out words. Clary looked over at Simon who seemed to have a small amount of hurt flickering in his eyes as he looked at Isabelle.
Clary rolled her eyes and said, "I saved some of the pancakes I made earlier for you guys. Come on I'll heat them up for you."
After Simon and Izzy changed out of their pajamas, they met up in the kitchen. Clary had been the one cooking since Robert and Maryse—Alec and Izzy's parents— were in Idris dealing with Clave business, Maryse had usually done the cooking. Isabelle could have cooked for everyone, but they would all probably get food poisoning from Izzy's toxic cooking. Clary's own mother and her soon-to-be-step-dad, Luke, were also in Idris, which meant she had to stay here at the Institute with Jace. She didnt mind that one bit though. Clary handed Simon and Izzy a stack of pancakes and sat down at the dining table.
"Hey Clary, where's the asshole and Alec?" Simon said while shoving a fork full of pancakes into his mouth.
"Well Jace said he was going to the park to train with Alec, he wouldn't let me come. Speaking of, Iz... I need to talk to you about Jace, he's been acting strange lately." As soon as Isabelle heard that, she froze with her fork halfway into her mouth.
Now Isabelle was acting strange. Greeeeaat. Maybe Isabelle knew something. Clary knew she was prepared to die trying to get the info out of Isabelle.
— Izzy POV —
Izzy now knew that Clary knew that she was hiding something from the strange looks she was getting. Jace made her swear on the Angel Raziel that she would keep the proposal a secret. Isabelle only knew because she walked in on Jace and Magnus looking at an engagement ring catalog. Did Clary know somehow? Thousands of frightening questions ran across her mind. She tried to dismiss the thought though, because Izzy hadn't said a word and Jace was so careful and serious about the whole thing that she knew he wouldn't dare give Clary a trace of what's going on.
"Isabelle," Clary said, with one of the scariest yet calmest tones she had ever heard, "We need to talk. Now."
"But what about breakfast and Sim–"
"I'll be fine." Simon obviously knew that he didn't want to mess with Clary when she was like this.
"See? Simon's fine. Now lets go." Clary said practically dragging Isabelle out of her chair, just as Izzy had done to Clary so many times before. Isabelle couldn't help but look at Simon, with absolute horror in her eyes, she had never, ever, seen Clary like this. As Clary was dragging Isabelle away, Izzy locked eyes with Simon and mouthed the words "I'll get you." She knew he saw her, because his eyes widened with even more fear then before.
Clary had dragged Isabelle into Izzy's room which was ultra messy as always. Clothes hung over the nightstand. Nail polish bottles littering the floor, makeup strewn everywhere.
"Isabelle. You wouldn't happen to know what is going on with Jace?" Clary hissed. Isabelle gulped. She didnt want to lie to the person who was as close to a sister as she ever had, but when it's important, sisters lie to each other. Right? "No? Clary why would I know anything that's going with Jace?"
"You seem awfully secretive. Do you realize what I am going through?"
Isabelle thought about all the awful things she could imagine going through. She honestly felt bad. But she did swear on the Angel, so she couldn't tell Clary. "No.., well-yes sort of." Isabelle tried to make the least amount of eye contact as she could possibly manage.
"You know that advice you gave me, Isabelle. On how I could possibly seduce Jace? Yeah. It didn't work. He simply pushed me away. I caved in and begged him. He still pushed me away. I feel like he isn't attracted to me anymore. I hate it. While you're off screwing Simon as much as you possibly can, I've been waking up alone. Jace barely says anything to me-" Clary choked as tears started rolling down her face, "He's always with Magnus and Alec, he doesn't even want me anymore–"
Isabelle cut her off "Clary! You know that isn't true! You don't believe what you just said and you kn–"
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE ANYMORE! I thought you were my friend, my best friend, my sister. I thought you would tell me everything. Now everyone's blocking me out of their life."
"Clary! You know Simon and I are always here! And Jace loves–" Isabelle was getting real tire of Clary cutting her off.
Clary seemed actually amused for a short second. "Yeah, you guys are available for those few short minutes that you aren't going at it like rabbits in your bed. And how many times do I have to tell you? Jace doesn't want to be with me anymore."
"I am not sleeping with Simon!" I screamed, I was sure Simon probably heard it wherever he was in the Institute.
"Oh Isabelle save your breath" Clary hissed making Izzy's hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. "When are you going to stop with the lies? I can see Simons boxers on your dresser."
"Those aren't Si–"
"Of course they are! I don't think you realize how long I've been friends with him, how many late night movies we've watched together. We've grown abnormally comfortable with each other in our underwear. I've seen those before. I know they are Simons."
"Clary I-I'm sor-sorry." I couldn't even breathe. I didn't know why I couldn't keep my cool. I eventually broke down, trying to hold back the tears of being yelled at by my best friend.
"No you're not. You're still lying to me."
"No, I mean, I only lied about Simon. I don't know anything about what's going on with Jace."
"Can you swear that to me on the Angel?" Her voice dropped to a deep, lethal tone.
"Clary I–"
"Can. You. Swear. That. To. Me. On. The. Angel." Clary repeated, enunciating every word very clearly.
"No I'm sorry I can't." I could see the expression on her face as I said that. I felt awful. I just betrayed my sister.
"What the hell are you lying to me about, then!" Clary's voice was raised into a shrill shriek. "Does Jace not love me anymore?! Am I not good enough?! Am I too annoying?! Is he cheating on me?!" Her voice dropped dangerously low. "What the fuck Isabelle Lightwood. I hope stabbing me in the back was worth it."
"CLARY!" I shrieked and ran after her. She had stormed out of my room. I was falling hopelessly behind as Clary sprinted towards the elevator. Simon was behind me running after Clary. I was sure he was eavesdropping and heard everything. The elevator door closed containing Clary inside it. We knew that Clary had a head start on us. It was hopeless for us to try to catch up. But we waited impatiently by the elevator waiting for it to come back down. I wasn't going to lose my best friend.
