Okay, so maybe Clary was drawing her neighbor. From a distance. When the girl went to water her plants. And it was also maybe a permanent work in progress, because when she noticed, Clary was staring at the girl for the past ten minutes with a pencil on her hands, awaiting for the next line on the girl's drawing (of her hands, holding a nice water pitch. The image Clary had in mind was of the girl drawn like an angel, pouring water over heavenly plants. Maybe some herbs. There was also some vague sketching of her face, emphasis on sketching.). It wasn't very much a work in progress as much as perpetually unfinished because someone is too gay.
But, on the positive side, she had so far determined why the girl's plants seemed so brown, the flowers that had started as red now withered and dead - she had been watering them too much. How she hadn't determined that cactus couldn't be watered everyday was a mistery to Clary, but hey, it at least gave Clary an excuse to draw her. Or try, at least.
Of course, everything went to hell when the girl caught her watching. Clary blushed as bright as her hair, and waved to her. The girl smiled so bright it could've outshined the sun, and looked at Clary's (living and green) plants.
"Hey there, neighbor!", the girl said, voice carrying over the little space between their balconies. "How come your plants are so nice?"
Clary's throat closed up. The girl with nice hair and hands (she had stared at her for the past three weeks, of course she already had favorite things to look at) kept smiling brightly, so Clary tried to think a decent answer.
"I water them every two days?", it came off as a question, didn't it. The girl kept smiling, as if curious, so Clary decided to keep speaking. "Also, those are cactus, right?"
"Yeah, how did you know?", she asked, and Clary decided that the actual answer of "i googled succulent plants and the pictures of Easter Cactus sort of looked like a healthier version of yours" would be too stalker-ish, so she simply shrugged.
"Lucky guess. You see, uh, these plants don't need to be watered everyday."
The girl seemed to think about it for one moment that lasted a lifetime, and the hit her forehead, realization dawning upon her, aparently.
"Of course! Alec wouldn't give me something I could kill easily. Ugh, how I didn't I think about it before…"
Clary deflated. Obviously, a pretty girl like her wouldn't be either gay or single. She decided that it was time to nurse her broken heart and maybe drown herself in a tub of ice cream. She maybe should also call Simon. They could probably marathon Love Live or something. She was also pretty sure her brother would be up to it, too.
Clary sighed and rose up, closing her notebook, but the girl's voice called her back.
"Wait, wait a minute!", she said, and Clary turned back. She leaned on the rail, and seemed… Interested? "You know a lot about plants, right?"
No, but Clary could always Google things up.
"Sort of?"
"Great! Maybe we could grab something to eat and discuss plants? What do you think about, I don't know, two hours from now? Is it a good time for you?", she asked, smiling playfully.
Clary was officially receiving some very mixed signals.
"Sure?", why did everything that came out of her mouth sounded like a question? Did the girl's (what was her name, anyway?) good looks turn her brain into a puddle?
"Great!", the girl beamed, and once again, Clary was blinded. "I'm Isabelle, but call me Izzy, by the way!"
"Clary.", she answered, and Izzy (the name fitted her) smiled. "So, uh, two hours?"
"Yeah! See you soon!", and with that, Izzy adentered her house. Her neighbor, an asian man who gave lots of parties and had the cutest cat ever, was currently sitting and watching, dressed in boxer shorts and a brightly purple blazer, rose up his wine glass at her, whistling lowly and making her look at him.
(wasn't it like, 4 pm or something? Was he going to have another party today? She better get her soundproof headphones ready, then.)
"Nice moves, red.", he said, and Clary blushed. "Good luck on your gardening date. Plant a kiss on her."
Clary was mortified, so she just blushed brighter and entered her home. She had almost two hours to Google the most things she could about cactus and other plants, it seemed.
