Thanks for all the nice reviews! It's my first time trying to do a story like this, usually I'm more on the serious side… I actually kind of like this style! Keep commenting!

2

JPOV

Hm. Maybe if you look at it this way… that's it. This sucks. I stared at the canvas in front of me. Aline, one of my fellow teachers, had asked me to paint something for the teacher art auction. I painted all I could think of.

It was a dark room, only one spotlight. It shone on the one thing that wouldn't get out of my mind. A certain pale redhead. In the painting, she was in the center, and she wore the same green dress. I hadn't done her justice. Her smile was slightly crooked, her eyes laughing to little, her body too short, her legs too thin. I noticed in the painting, behind all the black figures dancing, there was a little ribbon of blonde hair and a golden eye. Damn it. I'd accidentally drawn myself into the painting. I started to get more black, but I heard footsteps, little clicking heels.

"And who, may I ask, is that?" A high, bell toned voice asked. I turned around to see Aline, looking intently at the painting. "She's beautiful." I couldn't even smile.

"She's horrible." Aline was confused. I quickly corrected myself. "I mean the painting, not the girl. The girl is amazing." Aline smiled.

"What? A girl that doesn't like the sexy Mr. Wayland?" I couldn't help but laugh at this. "It's true. Almost every teacher loves you. Well, at least the girls. Though I think Mr. Walters was checking you out the other day…" I laughed again. Aline knew just how to make me feel better. A dark-haired man walked in with a palette full of midnight blue and light tan paint. He saw Aline and kissed her on the cheek.

"Hello to you too," Aline said with a little laugh.

"What, no kiss for me?" I asked. All of us laughed. It had been ages since I had joked with anyone.

"Something's changed," Raphael said. Aline crossed her arms, smiling.

"I agree, Raphael. Something's off about him." I shook my head.

"Magnus dragged me off to a club in the dead of night and forced me to have fun. Which I didn't." Had I gotten better at lying? Aline looked at my painting again.

"Is… is that you in the back?" She asked. I groaned.

"I'm trying to black it out, if you don't mind. I didn't even notice I'd drawn it." She took the canvas with one quick move.

"I like it. It's going in the auction this way." I chased after her, I knew I was faster, but she ran faster than me today. It was a surprise to me. She left the room and closed the door, making me run right into it. I felt my nose crack in an unnatural way.

"Damn it, Ally!" I yelled. She opened the door the door, dropping the dry canvas and sitting down next to me.

"Oh, you poor baby," she said, touching my nose gingerly. Raphael had collapsed in laughter. I shot him an angry look, then a sarcastic one.

"Aw, thanks Ally, you're the best, I love you." Aline looked content with this answer, but Raphael looked like the guy from Saw without the mask.

"Will… kill… you… Jace…" he said in between angry paces, getting closer to me. I was glad he didn't have any weapons at the moment. Aline giggled.

"When I asked for guys to fight over me, I didn't mean my best friend and my boyfriend," she said. I tried to laugh, but my nose started throbbing.

"Can we go to the hospital now?" I asked Aline. She nodded, letting me get up and follow her. Raphael dropped his palette onto the table and followed, wiping his hands on his pants. I looked at my hands, they were covered in dry paint streaks. One of them was bright, bright green. I couldn't help but smile. Maybe my painting wasn't so bad. Aline was carrying it to her car. Once we reached, she shoved it in the trunk, then let us all get in.

"Ow. Ow. Ow!" The doctor kept poking my nose with a little stick. "I think we've established the fact that it hurts!" The doctor gave me a look.

"Whatever." I just stared at him, dumbstruck. Whatever? My nose was broken and all he could say was whatever? "You'll just need to bandage it for a while until it heals." Aline stroked my arm.

"I'm going to bedazzle whatever they put on your nose," she said. I felt the need to slap myself on the forehead. That's what my best friend had to say?

"Aline," Raphael said with a light smile, "you aren't stroking his arm, you're stroking his ego." He then looked at me. "I mean, your ego seems to heal pretty fast, so why not your face, angel boy?" I shook my head.

"I have the best friends in the world," I said to myself. Aline hugged me.

"I know," she said with a laugh, not hearing the sarcasm in my voice. Raphael, on the other hand, laughed. The doctor came back with some white bandages. He started putting them on my nose. They were tight, but it felt a little better.

"You'll be alright in a few weeks. You seem to heal very fast." He didn't say anything after that, just left. We left, too.

"Come on," Aline said. "We've got to get ready for the auction. Did you sign your art yet?" I shook my head.

"And I don't want to." She shrugged.

"Alright, then we're got another anonymous."

"Who's the other one?" I asked her. She smiled.

"Mine," she said proudly. Raphael smiled just a little.

"It's a panda, Aline. I don't think it's that anonymous coming from the teacher who has the thousands of panda pictures in her room." She shoved him, but he didn't move. She was far too tiny to make him move at all. He put am arm around her and she just let him. Why couldn't my life be that easy? Oh, right. Three reasons. One, my gay friend's boyfriend. Two, my gay friend. Three, my terribly beautiful sister figure. Why couldn't they all just stop trying to get me to date again? I'd do it when I was ready to.

Maybe I was ready to. An image for Clary flowered in my mind. Lips like rosy flower petals. Eyes that were ever laughing. A smile that I would die to see just once more. Skin as delicate and fragile as porcelain. Hair like thousands of little laces scattered across her china doll face, as red as an apple. I'd look at her all day if I could. But I couldn't, I reminded myself. I'd probably never see her again.

"Jace?" Aline said, waving a hand in front of my face. I snapped out of my trance like state and looked down at the short Asian woman in front of me. Aline was very beautiful, but not as beautiful as Clary. I don't think anyone could be as beautiful as Clary.

"What?" I asked. Aline pointed to the car. "Oh, right." I got in, and she started to drive. My eyes were on Aline as she spoke and laughed, but my mind was on Clary.

CPOV

"Who painted this?" I asked as I walked around the teacher's painting auction. I went every year to see what Simon had painted. He taught math at the high school. I always blamed him when a student was failing for giving them too much homework. Simon's painting had been of his class; everyone sleeping or writing in their books or throwing paper. I had quite liked it.

What I was staring at right now, though, was even more beautiful. It was under the name 'anonymous' and it was a painting of me at the club yesterday. My hair was scattered along the nape of my neck and my eyes were so green it almost hurt with the intensity of them. My smile was more beautiful than my actual smile, dangerously fun, as was my expression. My skin was a nicer shade than it really was. I was well proportioned in the painting, unlike in real life. In real life, I had no ass and too much chest. I real life, I had dull, mossy eyes. In real life, my skin was pale as snow. In real life, my hair was unruly and tangled all the time. And then I saw the person in the back of the painting. Jace.

"So you're the girl," a very pretty Asian woman said with a smile. "I was wondering who he painted." I pointed to the painting.

"Did Jace do this?" She nodded. I was so shocked. I didn't know he painted. And why was I the center of the painting? He did himself no justice. "Wow." That was all I could manage. I touched the painting, just to make sure it was real. I touched Jace's face in the background, wondering why he hadn't drawn a little more of himself into it. I noticed Jace walking around, looking at some of the paintings. I smiled and walked over to him.

TPV (Third Person's View)

The man walked over to the painting of the beautiful redheaded woman. He smiled very lightly and put a bid down. $3,000.

"Wow," a small Asian woman said. She was shocked at the bid. "You must really want this painting." Sebastian looked up at her, smiling almost darkly.

"You could say that. It'll be a gift." He looked over to the redheaded woman. He then noticed that she was talking to a light haired, curly blonde man with golden eyes. His smile slowly faded. He would get her back, no matter what it took. Her eyes scanned over the crowd, then met his. She was startled at first, then led the blonde man out of the room, saying something to him. Her eyes were still fixed on Sebastian. He smiled a little more darkly at her. She walked out, almost scared. Sebastian looked back at the woman in front of him. She was short, but very good looking. A dark haired man walked over to her and took her by the waist, leading her away as she laughed. Sebastian looked back at the painting. He noticed a little sliver of blonde hair and a golden eyes hidden behind the black of the crowd. That man, whoever he was, wasn't getting in the way of his Clary. She would be his again. No matter what the price.