Hi, guys! Thank you guys so much for the interest! I'm glad it's something you guys want to see more of! Any mistakes are my own, and I'm sorry.
The ride home was awkwardly quiet. Clary clenched her knees together and her arms folded over her chest. The golden haired man was glaring at the windscreen, his knuckles bloodless around the steering wheel and his pink lips twisted in a scowl. She usually liked it when a man took control, but she really wasn't in the mood for some guy who treated her like she was a fifteen year old after their first wine cooler.
"You make a habit of this?" She asked him, trying to figure out exactly what was going on here. She was also feeling a little vulnerable, being a little tipsy and having no idea who she in a car with. They were in town, and pretty near her place. She figured if he started getting weird, she could always just open her door and roll out.
"Spending my nights with stupid girls who think it's 'cool' to get drunk in the middle of the afternoon?" he snapped at her, clearly not in the mood to talk. "No, thank God."
"I'd like to repeat," she snipped at him. "That I'm not drunk."
"Yeah," he snorted, glancing over at her in a derogatory way that she didn't like. "Right." She narrowed her eyes and turned her gaze back to the windscreen.
"Right here," she grunted as they approached her street. The man indicated and pulled down the street, and then pulled into a drive when she pointed at it. He turned the car off and tossed the keys at her, getting out without a word and walking away. Clary frowned and scrambled to get out of her car, her keys in one hand and her bag in the other. "Hey!" She shouted after him, looking to where he was already at the end of the driveway. "Don't you need a ride home?!"
"I'll get someone to pick me up," he said back, looking over his shoulder just long to reply before turning the corner and walking down the street. Clary stared after him, before the drizzle increased to a heavier pace and she locked her doors and ran inside. She turned her nose up in disgust at the grey afternoon outside. They had only moved into the house a month or so ago, and neither her or her mother had ever really lived in a place with a garden that they needed to tend to, so it was overgrown and the grass was growing a little higher than it should have. It looked even more dismal with the rain.
In New York, even when it rained, there was still always colour and bustle.
Here, it just looked depressing, and made her want to watch soppy movies and eat ice cream.
"That you, baby?" Jocelyn Fairchild called from the kitchen, and Clary rolled her eyes as she dropped her bag on the ground.
"No," she replied sassily. "It's the male stripper I ordered to come over and keep us company. He's got some two for one deal when it comes to red heads."
"Don't tempt me," Jocelyn smirked as Clary walked into the room where she was cooking. "It's been a while since I had a good workout." Clary scrunched up her nose and made a choking noise at the back of her throat. Jocelyn laughed and turned back to the frying pan, picking up the wine glass that was next to the stove and taking a sip. "You had a good day at work, baby?"
"Eh," Clary shrugged, her lips in a pursed line. "As much as you'd expect from a place like this."
"I know it's not what you're use to," Jocelyn murmured. "But it's as good as we got right now, okay?"
"I know, mum," Clary told her, trying to keep her expression light. "I'm just going to have a shower, okay?" She reached over to kiss Jocelyn on the cheek. She was about to pull away when Jocelyn caught her chin and looked at her critically.
"How much you had to drink, girl?" Her mother asked.
"Just a few," Clary jerked her chin away. "I'm fine."
"Yeah, yeah," Jocelyn rolled her eyes. "Just keep your head down. We're meant to be avoiding all kinds of trouble. A DUI is trouble."
"I'm fine," Clary repeated before walking down the hallway toward her room. She looked at her reflection in the floor length mirror beside her door and sighed. Her makeup was a little smudged around the corners of her eyes and her lip stick had faded off after the drinks she had had through the day. The uniform for work was either a pair of black pants or a black skirt and a red shirt with the logo, Taki's, across the back. She styled it up a little bit, wearing a high waisted skirt so that her curvy hips and petite waist were emphasized, had a couple of buttons undone so that she showed a hint of cleavage, and wore heels. It was the small things, but it made her feel at least a little bit more like herself.
She stripped out of her clothes, making a face in the mirror as she kicked them into the corner of the room. Even her lingerie was starting to look as boring as this town she was forced to live in now; she had gone with pale blue bra and panties this morning. She never wore underwear that boring. At least a pale blue bra with some cute, patterned underwear, or plain panties with a lacy, push up bra. She growled under her breath and spun on her heel, heading toward the shower.
"Hey, girl," Aline Penhallow called as Clary walked into work the next day. Her head was throbbing a little, and she was wearing a pair of sunglasses that covered half of her face, but the smell of greasy food, as usual, actually made her feel better. Aline laughed as Clary walked directly past her and into the kitchen area.
"Are you hungover?" Simon asked as he emptied a plate of deep fried chips onto a plate and quickly got to making the burger.
"Only a little," Clary made a face at him and reached out to snag a couple of the chips off the plate. She let out an almost lewd sounding moan as she chewed on the crispy potato and Simon laughed. "Oh God," she muttered. "These are good." She tried to grab two more, but Simon slapped her away.
"I'll cook you up some of your own," he told her. "When do you start?" Clary rolled her eyes up to the clock on the wall.
"In about...Two minutes," she said, pouting over at Simon and trying to wind her arm around his and reach the chips.
"Fine," he rolled his eyes. "You have those, and I'll cook more."
"You're a babe," she grinned at him as she picked up the plate. She cleaned the plate up in under a minute, her lips greasy, and she sucked the salt off her fingers. She sighed as she looked up at the clock and saw the big hand ticking closer to her start time. "I should probably start work," she sighed, pulling off her sunglasses and blinking a couple of times as the hard, fluorescent lights hit her eyes.
"Hurry up," Aline called from the front. "I want to go on my break."
"Yeah, yeah," Clary muttered. The staff room was a tiny room attached to the back of the kitchen, and she dumped her hand bag in there before walking back out the front. "Off you go, then," she said as she took her position in front of the register. Aline grinned, and skipped off outside, to have a cigarette.
And so the day began.
The job wasn't horrible, but it definitely wasn't something Clary would choose, if she had a choice. She needed to have a job, to 'fit in' apparently, and this was a normal job in a dead end town. At a diner. Aline's parents ran the place, and they'd been looking for someone to come on as another waitress. They had given her a trial for a week and then been happy to take her on. She had never really had a job, in the legal way, back in town New York, but she knew all about a hard days work, and this was peanuts compared to it.
Plus, she got free food.
"Hi there," Clary greeted the next customer, a pretty, dark haired girl who actually looked like she had a sense of style, unlike most people in this backward town.
"Hey, doll," the girl replied with a half smile. "Is Simon back there?"
"Uh," Clary tilted her head to the side as she looked at the girl with a critical eye. "Yeah," she replied. She turned around and called over her shoulder. "Simon! Someone here for you!" There was a crash and a bang, and then Simon appeared in the doorway, looking dorky in his apron and steamed up glasses, and a wide smile on his face.
"Hey, baby," the girl smiled and walked behind the counter, bypassing Clary and wrapping her arms around Simon's neck. She pushed her lips to his mouth, and despite the pink tinge in Simon's cheeks, he kissed her back, his hands settling on her hips. Clary watched them in blatant surprise, and when they pulled apart, she shot Simon a grin.
"You were right," she stated. "She is pretty far out of your league." Simon laughed and shrugged.
"She's got good taste," he said confidently, and both girls laughed with him.
"Izzy," Isabelle Lightwood said, holding out her hand to Clary.
"Clary," she replied, reaching out to shake her hand firmly.
"You're new to town, right?" Isabelle tilted her head to the side as she looked Clary up and down. The red head didn't mind the way Isabelle was looking at her though, she wasn't looking snarky about it, it was just a general size up, which Clary respected. She was doing the exact same thing back to the other girl.
"Yeah, just the past few weeks," Clary replied.
"Well, there's a party this weekend," Isabelle said. "You should come."
"A party?" Clary pursed her lips and then let out a laugh, clenching her teeth together. "Something tells me that a party in a place like this might not be the kind of party that I'm used to." Isabelle laughed and ran her hand through her hair.
"Yeah, yeah," Isabelle grinned. "We might be a small town, but we border on a couple of bigger towns, and we all party together. There's a pool. It'll be fun." Clary looked at for a few seconds before longer.
"Okay, sounds like a plan."
So this is my last update for the year. I'm taking some time from now until after New Years because I've got five weeks of training at work, plus two 21st's, plus a concert, plus Christmas and New Years—just insanely busy in general! But I love you all so much, and pretty please leave a review, as an early Christmas present to me, and I'll send you a preview, along with lots of my love.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you guys for making my year great, and I hope that my stories have helped you all to escape reality for just a few minutes xxxx
