Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instruments or any of its characters.
"Come on, Clary," my best friend Isabelle yelled from her room in our shared apartment. "Will you please go to the fight with me?"
I grimaced at her words and exited my room to meet her in our living room on the couch. "I don't understand why you would want to go watch two guys kick the crap out of each other," I complained.
"Because, little girl, it's hot and we might meet some tough fighter boys in the process." I cringed at her nickname for me. Isabelle was a good six inches taller than me, standing at five feet and nine inches, while I was a short five-three.
"I don't know if I can handle it, Iz. Just go without me or, better yet, take someone else."
"Clary, you're going. I don't care if I have to drag you kicking and screaming. Now, go get dressed because we're leaving in twenty minutes."
I grunted as she pulled me up off the couch and smacked my butt as I walked past. What was I even supposed to wear to watch cage fights anyway? Ripping through my closet, I finally settled on a dark purple, strapless dress that hit just above my knees. I paired it with strappy black wedges that I knew Isabelle would approve of and pulled my bright red hair into a messy bun with a few pieces left out to frame my face. With just a hint of trepidation, I walked out to the living room again to see Isabelle all dolled up as usual and completely blowing me out of the park.
"How the hell do you do that," I asked in frustration. "You look like you just stepped off the runway and I'm over here in my plain dress and shoes looking like I shouldn't even be allowed to breathe the same air as you."
"Oh, quit your complaining, the car is here."
Isabelle led me down the stairs from our apartment to the taxi waiting outside. We slid in the backseat and Isabelle gave the driver the address to the arena we were going to. I don't know what I was expecting, but the arena was packed full of eager spectators. We took our seats, which were a little too close to the cage for my comfort and waited for the festivities to begin. I looked over at Isabelle who was nearly jumping out of her skin and shook my head as I laughed at her behavior.
"Remind me again how you got tickets to this thing and how we're so close."
"I know a guy," she said waving me off.
"Know a guy? As in dating a guy?"
"If you must know, yes, Clarissa. I'm dating a guy. His name is Simon Lewis. He trains in town and I met him a few weeks ago at work."
Isabelle was a photographer for a sports magazine so she was always getting prime tickets to events and games in the area. More often than not, she dragged me along with her claiming I could meet my future husband. I worked as a freelance photographer and specialized in landscape photography, though I had been known to shoot the occasional wedding or family if I was desperate for a job. My job sent me all over the world and I shot the most beautiful places in the world.
I looked at Isabelle with a look of pity for the poor guy she was dating now. I knew how she was. She would string this guy along for a few months, make him fall deeply in love with her and then, at the first sign of something serious, she would cut him loose without a second glance. Sometimes I wondered how we had found each other. We met in a sports photography class in college and immediately became friends. Even now, after four years, I couldn't imagine my life without her. We complimented each other. She pushed me outside my comfort zone, like making me go to a cage fight and I reigned her in just a little, like the time she was convinced she could get me to jump out of a plane. I was all for trying new things, but that was where I drew the line. So, I let her drag me to weird sporting events that I paid no attention to and she let me take her to fine dining restaurants and eat weird foods she would never had tried otherwise.
"Oh, it's starting," she squealed in my ear. "Simon is supposed to be in the third fight."
"How can you be excited to watch your boyfriend fight some guy who wants to hurt him," I asked.
"Like I said, it's hot."
"You are a strange human being."
"Come on, Clary. You haven't had a boyfriend since that jerk Sebastian broke your heart in college and that was three years ago. You need to put yourself out there again and find someone you like spending time with. I'm not saying you need to fall in love or anything, but it might be nice to hang out with someone and have some fun."
I knew she was right. My boyfriend in college, Sebastian, wasn't the greatest guy, but I had known him since I was fifteen and thought he was still the guy I knew in high school who told me I was the most beautiful girl in the world. That all changed when I caught him with another girl at a party three years ago. It completely tore me to shreds and I hadn't been able to open up to a man since. Isabelle had a point. I couldn't keep tagging along with her for the rest of my life. Not all men were like my jackass of an ex-boyfriend. I just needed to put myself out there.
TNT by ACDC rang through the speakers of the arena and our eyes shot to the tunnel where Simon was exiting toward the cage with all of the people who would be standing in his corner flanking his sides. Isabelle jumped up and started cheering for him as he made his way toward us. Simon's face was stoic and I could tell he was trying to remain focused, but when he saw Isabelle, a smile broke out on his face before he quickly regained focus and entered the octagon. He ran around the cage once before ending up in his corner and bouncing around, shaking out his arms and legs as his song ended and his opponents began to play.
Once the other fighter was in the cage and the introductions had been made, the referee called the two fighters into the center. "Alright, this is a no holds barred fight," he explained. "We've been over the rules touch gloves and get back to your corners." Simon touched gloves with the other man and backtracked to his corner. The referee pointed at Simon. "Are you ready?" Simon nodded and the referee pointed at the other fighter. "Are you ready?" Another nod and he clapped his hands together giving them the signal to start the fight. "Let's get in on! Let's go!"
Simon and his opponent bounced to the center of the octagon and circled each other before Simon threw the first punch. The other man ducked and came up to connect a right hook directly to Simon's temple, which rocked him a little bit before he regained his footing and raised his hands again.
"Holy shit," Isabelle shrieked as she slumped down in her seat and covered her eyes. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah, I was almost sure he was going to be out," I yelled down at her. Surprisingly, in the last couple of fights, I had gotten into it. I was suddenly yelling at the fighters and cheering them on, despite the amount of blood that spattered the mat. I realized that it really was a discipline that these men had to perfect. It wasn't just a bunch of guys throwing punches hoping to hurt one another.
"You were right. I don't know why I was excited. I don't want to see him get hurt." She yelped as Simon got rocked again by an uppercut to his jaw. Simon fell to the ground and the other man fell on top of him raining punches and elbows to the side of his head until the referee finally stepped in to stop the fight. "Dammit. I don't know if I can handle watching him get beat up like that all the time. I thought he was supposed to be good. This fight was supposed to give him a shot at the title."
"I don't really know anything about the sport, Iz, but maybe he was just off tonight. You know better than anyone that it sometimes happens to best athletes. Are you planning on seeing him tonight?"
"Yeah, we were supposed to go out and celebrate later, but now I don't know. He did give me this pass that will let me back to the staging area."
"Then, go to him. I'll be fine. I can find a way back home, so don't worry about me." She threw her arms around me before getting up to leave.
"Thanks, Clary and I'm sorry I dragged you along with me. I know you don't necessarily like sports."
I waved her off. "Don't worry about it. I actually had fun."
She ran down the aisle and headed for a door that said "Fighters and Staff Only." I sat back in my seat ready to watch the rest of the fights for the night. I was quickly learning the rules and what most of the moves were called because I was seated so close to the corners and could hear coaches and training partners yelling at the fighters. When it was announced that the last fight of the night was about to begin, I sat up straighter in my seat.
The first fighter exited the tunnel and made his way to the cage. He got situated and his song ended, just like all the other fighters that night. Then, the reigning champion's song started to play and my eyes darted to the tall man walking toward the cage. He was mouthing the words to Dammit by Blink 182 as he bobbed his head to the beat. The man had to be at least a foot taller than me and he had hair that looked like it had baked to a golden crisp in the sun. When he removed his shirt for inspection before he entered the cage, I saw that he had several tattoos on his chest, back and arms. He looked strong with his muscular physique and he shook hands and hugged every member of his crew before climbing the steps to the octagon. The crowd erupted in cheers when he waved his arms around from his corner. The announcer came to the center of the octagon and began rattling of statistics about the challenger. Finally, he pointed toward the golden boy's corner.
"Introducing second," the announcer yelled. "Fighting out of the red corner. This man is a mixed martial artist with a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He is fighting out of Los Angeles California and has a record of ten wins and zero losses. The undisputed middleweight champion of the world, Jace 'The Angel' Herondale!"
A/N: Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know if you'd like me to continue! :)