As usual, Jace had actually made me carry all of his stuff into my apartment. If he wasn't injured… I stood shyly in the corner as he observed the room. I didn't know why but I suddenly felt a surge of panic. What if he doesn't like it here? No Clary, you don't care, you don't care.
"It's cute," Jace complimented and dropped onto my plush couch.
"Thanks," I ground out and moved his stuff into another corner. Before we had gone to my apartment, Catarina had given us the spare key to her door. It was nice of her but I wouldn't have minded locking Jace outside.
"You play a lot of games?" Jace asked and I turned around and saw that he was eyeing the piles of Xbox games on my coffee table. It had taken me a long, long time to save up to buy an Xbox and it was totally worth it but I suddenly felt shy now as he picked one up.
"Yeah," I simply answered and snatched the game from his hand and put it back on the table.
"It must be a sad world you live in where you play by yourself," Jace commented as he sat up from his position.
"I usually have Simon over to actually play it with him so it's not sad," I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned my weight on my left side of my hip.
"Just bringing that nerd up just makes it sadder," he said lightly and my face heated up in anger. Why this little bastard… "Do you have anything to eat since you kinda set the other one on fire?" he suddenly asked.
"I was gonna make some later and don't think because you're living her now means that you can eat all of my food," I informed him.
"Well, if I knew you were going to starve me to death then I wouldn't have come and stayed with you," he smiled.
"Don't joke around," I scolded.
"If I didn't joke around then there would be no existence of Jace Herondale."
"You act as if that's a bad thing."
"Oh, you wound me so deeply!" Jace cried as he clutched a hand to his heart. I rolled my eyes but just went into my small, but cozy, kitchen and started to set everything out. I grabbed the pasta ingredients, not wanting to use anything that would burn my apartment down.
I heard the TV in the background as Jace flipped through the channels. For some time, this was actually nice… well I never had cooked for anyone but myself and I was decent at it but what if Jace didn't? Well, he would just have to put up with it.
When the pasta was all finished, I grabbed a plate and piled the pasta on it. What I knew if you lived with a guy of any kind, they ate. A lot. So, after I put my pasta on my own plate, I carried the two plates with the forks sticking out from the noodles and sat on the couch. I handed Jace his plate.
"You made spaghetti?" he asked me.
"Do you have a problem with it?" I asked him, already twirling my fork around.
"No, just bringing back memories," he muttered and he grabbed his fork and dug in. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he ate and then he smiled. "You're a pretty good cook, you know," he complimented and shoved more into his mouth.
"You think so?" I asked but didn't look at him.
"Yeah, where'd you learn how to cook?" was he really making small talk with me?
"My mom, I guess. When I was little, I used to help her around the kitchen and stuff," I shortly answered, trying to not have an engaging conversation with him.
"That's nice." We sat in silence for a while till he said, "Why do you even live alone?"
I set my fork down on my unfished plate. My parents were an uneasy topic to talk about. I haven't seen them for a while now that I think about it. "My dad got a new job in London and my mom had just gotten accepted to be a hostess for an art gallery there too. They told me that we were going to move there but I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay here; I didn't want to leave my friends here. My dad and I had an argument about it but it was my mom who convinced him that I was old enough to take care of myself."
I quieted as he took in the information that I told him. Then I continued, "My relationship with my dad isn't the best but he accepted me being here by myself."
"Is he over protective or something?" Jace asked and set his empty plate on the coffee table. Jeez, he ate fast.
"Yeah, he is," I dropped my head. The bad memories coming back to me. My dad was always there for me. As a kid, nobody really wanted to hang out with a small red headed freak so as usual they would tease me and push me around. Then my dad would come and scare them away. He was my hero. But now, he isn't here for me and we rarely talk. And don't get me started on Jonathan…
"It'll get better," Jace reassured.
"And how would you know?" I looked at him now, he was facing me and hid golden eyes blazed.
"Because I just do," his voice was low and I looked away fast. After a moment of silence, Jace announced, "I'm gonna go shower."
"It the last door in the hallway," I told him as I gathered the dirty plates.
As I washed the dishes, I heard the shower running. When I finished, I walked to my room and got my clothes ready for my shower. I sat on my bed and started to think. With Jace living with me, it's gonna be impossible to move around the room. What if Simon comes over and sees him? Panic started to flood my mind. What about Isabelle? Oh, no. Isabelle. What if she comes over one day and sees him here? I know she likes him and all but would she be upset with me?
With my mind racing, I didn't hear the shower being turned off and the door to my room being open. I looked up and my eyes widened. Standing in the doorway was a naked Jace with a towel wrapped around his hips. I could see the V of his hips and the toned muscles of his arms and chest. The water droplets dripping down his chest to his abs… I screamed.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled as I covered my eyes with my hands.
"What? Don't tell me that you don't like this?" he gestured to his body a bit sexually and I threw my pillow at him. I picked up my stuff and quickly walked to the bathroom. I shut the door with a band. I gave out a breath and shook my head.
"Who the hell does he think he is, just barging into my room like that?" I muttered as I took off my clothes and hopped into the shower. The hot water pelting my skin felt good with the tense muscle. As I enjoyed the water spraying on my body, I heard a faint noise in the background. I turned my head and listened again. There was a noise. Was someone in here?
I pulled the shower curtain a bit and covered my body, so only my neck and head showed. When I looked out, the person was Jace, who was still in the towel, rummaging through the drawers and cabinets.
"What are you doing in here!" I screamed at him.
"Just looking for some wraps and ointment," he said casually. Was he serious right now? "You should get that door fixed, you might not know, but someone could come in here and maybe peek at you while you're showering."
"Get out!"
"There's no need to yell," he held up the ointment and wraps, "I found what I need anyway." And then he left, closing the door. Just when I was gonna go back to my shower, the door opened again and his head appeared. "Nice undies by the way."
"OUT!" I yelled at him and the door closed once more. I closed the curtain and leaned back against the shower wall.
Please don't tell that just happened.
Just when I thought that it couldn't get any worse, it did. When I had gotten out the shower and dressed in my Pj's, I walked into my room and saw that my bed wasn't a bed anymore. He had taken the mattresses out and lay the two of them on the ground.
"What the hell did you do to my bed?" my voice dripped with venom.
"I saw that it wasn't fair that you would sleep in a nice and cozy bed so I readjusted it," Jace was lying on the one closest to the door, shirtless.
"What's wrong with sleeping on the couch?" I snapped at him.
"Then how are we going to bond?" he asked innocently.
I clenched my fist and gave out a breath through my nose. "You know what, just forget it," I said and turned off the light and made my way towards my mattress. I saw that my fluffy pillows and my blanket was on it, along with my small collection of plush toys from my favorite anime shows. I looked over at Jace's and saw that he took the plain pillows and blanket and nothing else. Was it easy for him to not cuddle something to go to sleep?
As I lay down, I took one of my dolls and held it to my chest and buried my head into my pillows. The room was quiet except for our breathing.
"Sorry for barging into the shower," I heard Jace say after a while. I turned around and looked at him. "It was rude of me to do that and it's not even my place to do that." Was he apologizing? Jace Herondale was apologizing to me.
"Just don't do that again, okay," my voice was soft and thick with weariness. I yawned.
"Go to sleep, Clary," he didn't give the answer that I wanted but somehow I knew that he wasn't gonna do it again.
"Good night, Jace," I whispered and my eyes closed. I wasn't expecting him to say it back but I gave a little smile when I heard him whispered, "Good night, Clary."
Hey, sorry for the late update but exams are coming up and also international day. It's a lot guys and it's hard but winter break is coming in two weeks and do you know what that means? MORE UPDATES! Also on my exam days they let us out early so you guys might get an update too. But I'll still try with the weekly updates but i hope you liked this and see you later.
