"Are you sure about this?" Simon asked as he used his finger to push his glasses back up his nose.
"Yes I'm positive, don't be a wuss!" I replied giving him a poke in the back to make sure he keeps walking.
"But they're so hot, and we're so… not," he whispered to me as we got closer.
"Gee, thanks Si, I don't know why you're worrying so much they're our friends, we see each other everyday" I say as I keep pushing him towards the table in the corner.
"But that's different, its outside of school, and people can't see us," he whispers, again.
"Simon, just admit you don't want to talk to Izzy without prepping before you talk to her," knowing that normally he won't talk to Izzy without planning out their conversation beforehand.
"Clary… I really don't think…" Simon starts to say,
"Hey, Izzy, we were wondering if we could sit with you guys?" I interrupt Simon, leaning around him to face Isabelle Lightwood, the most popular girl in school, and also Simon's dream girl.
"Yeah, of course Clary,… You alright Simon? You look kind of sick…" Izzy said, glancing over at Simon nervously.
For as long as I can remember, Simon has dreamt about one day asking Isabelle to be his girlfriend, ever since that first day in kindergarten when she helped look after him after her brothers pushed him into the sand face first. Speaking of her brothers…
"Hey Clare, why are you sat over here, where's the nerd herd?" Says a voice from right behind me.
"Eric decided to give up our seats to the new girls," Simon huffed, turning back to his conversation with Isabelle. Cuties. They're so oblivious that they like each other, but everyone around them can see it.
"Couldn't you have squeezed in somewhere? Not that I'm not happy to see you, of course" Jace says as he pulls his chair in between Simon and I, seeing me glaring at him.
"Do you mind you doofus? I wanted to talk to Si and Izzy," I growl at Jace, not in the mood for his arrogance, cute arrogance, but arrogance nonetheless.
"Yes I do mind, I want to talk to you not rat boy over there." He smirked as he tried to lean over and kiss me on the cheek.
"Not so fast Romeo," I quickly ducked my head back to avoid him, and laughed as he kissed thin air.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand, This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand, To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss." He whispers back as he grabs my hand.
"Alright, what do you want? You only quote Shakespeare when you want something from me Herondale." I reply, pulling my hand back.
"You wound me Fray, do you really think so little of me?" He replies clutching his chest.
"He wants help with his Art final Clary," Alec calls over, clearly listening in on our conversation, and when I glance around I realise everyone at the table is looking at us.
They're so obvious it hurts, you tell one person you might have a crush on your best friend of thirteen years, and suddenly everyone knows. I wouldn't mind, but Jace clearly doesn't like me back.
"Of course you do Herondale, but what do I get in return?" I say, joking, knowing I'd help him hide a body if he asked me to. Not that he has, but I would.
See, the thing about Jace and I is that we've been friends for basically our whole lives, our fathers were best friends after all, before Jace's dad died, but we don't tend to hang out much during school other than in classes we have together, mainly because most of his friends are part of the football team, and most of my friends are part of the mathletes team. However, out of school we all spend pretty much all of our time together as we live in the same apartment block, which we call the 'institute'.
"The pleasure of my company of course," Jace replied.
"God, that would make me want to do it less," Simon snorted.
"No one asked you rat boy," Jace retorted.
"Sure, I'll help you, but you guys have to stop arguing you're giving me a headache," I said just to get them to be quiet.
"Thanks Fray, I owe you one," Jace said softly bumping his shoulder into mine, I felt my face flush at the contact. Jeez Louise Clary could you be anymore obvious?
"You owe me at least 107 I do believe Herondale," I joked as I carried on eating my food.
"You wish Fray," he said as he winked at me.
"If you guys could stop flirting, we're trying to make plans for tonight," Izzy butted in.
"We were not flirting," I quickly replied, my face hot, turning towards the rest of the group. Izzy just gave me a look and then started to explain the plans for tonight, we must have missed a lot of the conversation, as they'd already decided everything. We were going over to the Lightwood's (also Jace's as the Lightwoods took him in after his father died); and we were having a games night, in which I would crush them all obviously.
"So is 7 alright with everyone?" Izzy said as the bell went for next period. Everyone muttered their agreement and we went off in our different directions. Just as I got to the door of my next class I heard someone calling my name after me, I turned round and was suddenly face to face with Jace.
"Hey, if you're not busy after school, would you mind if I showed you something?" he said quietly suddenly looking shy.
"Um yeah sure, I'll meet you by your car?" I asked, slightly confused.
"Yeah that sounds good," he replied and started turning away before turning back and leaning in, "by the way," he whispered, "we were totally flirting," he quickly kissed my cheek and was running off down the hallway just as the final bell went.
I was waiting outside Jace's car, unsure of what had happened only two hours ago when he appeared almost out of nowhere with a goofy grin on his face and a bunch of yellow daisies in his hand.
He extended his hand out, "for you," he said, without even registering what was happening I took them, and just kind of stared at him like he'd grown a second head.
"Um," was all I could think to say,
"Well come on, get in the car we need to hurry up if we want to be back in time for the games night," he said ushering me into the passenger seat and closing my door for me.
He got into the drivers seat and plugged in his phone and after a few seconds American Pie started playing, I looked up confused,
"You hate this song," I said,
"Yes, but you, for some reason, love it." He said simply.
"Um, you're going to have to explain what's happening because I'm at a loss here," I replied.
"We are going somewhere, listening to terrible music and then we're spending the evening with our friends," he shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Right, ok, where are we going?" I said, still trying to figure out what was going on.
"You'll find out when we get there," he said winking at me, and again I felt my face flush. Just as it got to the chorus of American Pie I stopped worrying and just started singing along as loudly as I could. After a few more songs he was pulling into a car park, near a beach that looked fairly familiar but I couldn't place it.
He ran round to my door and opened it for me, before taking my extremely sweaty hand in his and we walked slowly down towards the sea, talking as we walked, about twenty minutes later he stopped walking and just faced the sea.
"You know something Clary?"
"Yeah?"
"I've been trying to find the courage to do this for about two years, and before that I've been dreaming about this," he said softly, glancing sideways at me, our fingers still intertwined.
"To do what?" I asked.
"To tell you something, to be more precise."
"Tell me what?" I said, getting weirdly nervous, even though I wasn't the one saying something.
"I'm completely in love with you," he said turning towards me.
"You're what?" I choked out.
"I'm in love with you," he said simply, a smile slowly spreading across his face, "wow that feels amazing to finally say,"
"You're, but, you, what?" I said, not being able to breathe,
"I'm. In. Love. With. You." He said fully facing me now, intertwining my other hand with his.
"I love you too," I said, finally being capable of full sentences.
"You do?" he sounded surprised.
"You thought I didn't?"
"I wasn't sure, but we're going to college next year and I figured it was now or never,"
"Now or never," I echoed, a warmth spreading through my entire body.
Then he let go of one of my hands and we started walking along the beach almost like nothing had happened except that both of us had the biggest smiles on our faces and I felt him keep looking at me.
Suddenly I remembered where we were. We came here a few years ago with everyone, we were playing truth or dare and I had my first kiss… which was with Jace.
"I take it from the redness of your face, you remember where we are?" he asked.
"Yeah," I replied, glancing down at my converse clad feet. I felt a finger beneath my chin and suddenly I was looking into Jace's eyes.
"Good," he whispered and then his lips were on mine.