"You don't have to stay with me" Clary said hesitantly.
"Yes" I said "I do."
Jace turned a corner, and I didn't need eyes to know we were in a kitchen. The smell of tomato soup and…fish, I think, flooded my nostrils. I would have made a smart remark had I not been worried I was about to gag. I looked up, and standing in the middle of chopped tomatoes, herbs and chunks of grated cheese was the sexiest girl I had ever seen. She had long black hair that hung in curtains around her face. Her eyes were a dark brown, everything about her was dark. She had the kind of presence of a girl who knew she was sexy. And used it.
I was lost in my head, which coincidentally featured a lot of this sexy girl in less clothing, when I heard the word 'mundie.' I looked up and she was staring right at me. Or through me. She looked at me as though I was a fly. Something she'd like to ignore but couldn't. A mildly irritating inconvenience in her kitchen. If you could call it a kitchen. I am pretty sure The Health Department of New York would have a lot to say about it.
I gathered up the courage to smile at her, but it was pretty futile. Her eyes seemed only to see Jace behind me, as though I was an invisible wall she was looking through.
I was really beginning to despise the word 'mundie'.
I tried to speak but my voice sounded oddly husky. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I am Simon."
The girl didn't even bother to catch my name. In fact, she spoke over me. "JACE WAYLAND" she snapped. "Explain yourself".
The girl was waving her spoon in the air and bits of the soup were dripping on the floor. The soup had a pungent acrid smell. There was definitely fish in it I confirmed, as I spied a massive fish staring at me with glassy eyes from the counter on the other side of the room.
Jace and the girl were bickering like typical siblings. I caught her name, 'Isabelle' in the rapid conversation. Isabelle, I thought. What a beautiful name.
She was beautiful, I thought. Underneath the sexy aura, there was an easy beauty to her. If she smiled, I thought, she would probably appear a beautiful princess as opposed to a seductive serial heart breaker. I liked the image of her as a beautiful princess, a damsel in distress. And I, Simon Lewis, who had rescued Princess Peach numerous times in Mario, at twice the speed of Eric, felt I could be her prince.
The only problem was I had a pretty fair idea that Isabelle wasn't the beautiful princess type. No, it seemed much more likely that she was a seductive serial heart breaker. I was beginning to think a few minutes alone with her in Pandemonium would be worth the heartbreak.
Gradually I noticed Isabelle's spoon was now pointed at me, and although her gaze was uninterested, it still made the blood vessels in my cheek widen, and I felt the hot blood rise to my cheeks.
I also begun to realize that I was staring agape at her. I shut my mouth hastily.
I tuned my ears in to the conversation but they didn't appear to be talking about me, at least not anymore. They were discussing the cat. Church. Who calls a cat Church, I thought absently? Then Jace made a snide remark about Isabelle's cooking, and although it wasn't untrue, I felt a strange surge of anger within me.
"What did you say?" Isabelle said, her voice capable of freezing the devil's dwelling.
"I said I'm going to look for a snack to eat" Jace replied easily.
"That's what I thought you said" she said coolly. She turned her back to her cooking. I stared at her, open mouth once again. What WAS that. Now I smelt peanuts and…and…garlic. Maybe the soup was to ward off vampires? Yes. Isabelle was probably very caring underneath all that rock hard exterior.
I dropped my eyes from her face. She was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans. Something told me she had bought them that way, I doubted anything that girl owned would be faded. She was wearing a tight, powder blue tank top, one that shoved off every curve of her body…
"Do you want any soup" Isabelle called. Suddenly I noticed Clary and Jace were leaving. I blinked hastily. I felt as though I was in a daze.
"No one wants any soup" Jace snapped rudely.
"I want some soup" I said adamantly. There. Who was Jace to go around acting like an asshole all the time? And to Isabelle? What guy on the planet would treat her like that. She deserved to be treated like a queen just for existing.
"No you don't" Jace snickered, "You just want to sleep with Isabelle."
I opened and closed my mouth, I was trying to speak but it was as though Jace's words were a vacuum that had sucked the air from my lungs. "That...that's not true" I stuttered appalled.
I was vaguely aware of Clary chastising Jace but my attention was focused on Isabelle, who was smirking. Looking at her finally giving me a second of her day, smirking at me, my insides suddenly felt as though they had turned to jelly and I was hoping somebody could catch me before I fell. No pun intended.
"Simon…?" Clarys voice rang out.
"I am gonna stay here" I mumbled, transfixed my Isabelle's gaze, the girl was still smirking at me.
"Fine" Clary snapped.
I began to feel guilty. I hadn't meant to make Clary angry. She always, and would always, come first.
But then she turned on her heel and stalked off with the arrogant, blonde, asshole, leaving me and Isabelle alone. Isabelle pushed the soup over to me her expression eager and welcoming for a change, her eyes betrayed a soft underlining to her character behind the batting lashes, and I decided that maybe I should start letting another girl come first.