Disclaimer- Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare.
Strobe lights and shimmer
I sat in a chair in front of the mirror in my room, my back deliberately turned toward from the vile reflective surface that would show me how I looked while Cali and Olivia hovered above me, making sure that I looked absolutely perfect for Magnus's party. They knew I had no fashion sense when it came to things like dresses and heels, and I knew where to draw the line and admit defeat, so I had willingly submitted myself to their torture called dress-up for the past three hours while they tried to find the perfect outfit for me.
"No highlights." They both declared at the same time, as if they shared one mind and had just decided the same thing. With a sigh, I snapped my fingers to make the magic highlights, previously a nice light green somewhere between lime and mint, disappear so that my hair would be just plain. Boring, in my opinion, but I wasn't in charge at the moment. The second the party was over, I could have orange and blue highlights with pink and yellow tips for all they cared.
With a satisfied nod, Cali stepped away from me and allowed me to turn the chair around, seeing how I looked for the first time since they sat me down. Usually I gave my opinion without looking too much at myself; after all, I'm not vain or a narcissist. But this time all I could do was stare, at loss for words to describe what I was seeing. Cali and Olivia had never really dressed me up before, I suppose.
My long-ish (it fell about four inches past my shoulders, and I considered that long) dark chocolate colored hair was straight, as per usual, with my bangs falling into a part and just barely covering the corners of my midnight blue eyes. But it looked weird not to have any highlights in it. It looked more normal… it made me seem more approachable and less out-of-the-ordinary right off the bat. I kinda liked it. Little touches of makeup, like shimmering white eye-shadow, a rim of black eyeliner, and a thin coat of light pink lip gloss accentuated the features of my heart-shaped face, especially my eyes, the main goal. I could've sworn my pale skin was glowing, which never happened unless I was laughing my head off. Right now, I was frowning, my eyebrows pulled together in mild confusion, my forehead creased slightly in anxiety as I tried to figure out what they'd done to me.
A white halter dress hugged my tiny frame in all the right places, but not too tight that it looked trashy or that you could see anything that shouldn't be seen, with the bottom hem ending just at my first knuckle when my harms hung by my sides, leaving my legs showing while they were usually covered by jeans, seeing as how I had this issue with shorts and skirts, even dresses. However, I wasn't getting out of wearing a dress tonight. Thankfully, Olivia, being the kind-hearted friend she is, had been nice enough to convince Cali to let me wear a cropped dark-wash denim jacket so I wouldn't die of cold. Curse my being a freezebaby. Accessories like strappy, metallic, blood red peep-toe stiletto heels, a chunky silver bracelet with a black rune design, and a blood red beaded bracelet with a rune that would be very helpful in the event I needed to punch someone, since I was forbidden from actually branding myself tonight added little pops of color to the outfit. Three sets of hoop earrings in varying sizes finished off the outfit and made me wonder what the hell had happened to me. I repeat: What the hell happened to me!? I thought I was the one who could work magic!
"You guys," I whined, crossing my arms self-consciously over my stomach and backing away from the mirror in disbelief. That wasn't me I was looking at; it couldn't be. "I can not go to party like this! Do you-"
"Have any idea how many guys will hit on you?" Cali cut me off, stepping up behind me and wrapping her arms around me, almost like a hug, to grab my wrists forcefully and pry my arms away from my torso. She held them by my side, and looked over my shoulder, staring into my eyes through the reflection in the mirror. "Yes, actually, I do. A lot. That's half the point, honey." And then she winked, like she knew something I didn't, and I was instantly confused. Great, confusion on top of self consciousness on top of anger. Joy. Huffing, I bowed my head in defeat after holding her gaze in a glare for a minute, and Cali and Olivia instantly looped their arms through mine, dragging me through the door to the car that was waiting for us down at the entrance of our loft. They'd learned to spring on my moments of willingness before I decided to change my mind.
•••
A familiar mundane song that I'd never liked enough to catch the name of but had been playing on a lot of radio stations and in clubs around New York was distinctly audible as we stood outside of Magnus's building, Orion pressing the buzzer so many times I was surprised he hadn't broken the poor contraption. I had my arms crossed over my chest, currently not because I was self conscious, but because I was freezing. I was standing in the snow, for the angel's sake, wearing a skirt that barely reached the middle of my thigh! My teeth were literally chattering as I glared up at the windows, silently willing Magnus to open the damn door before I froze to death.
Just as I was willing the one with whom I shared a name a slow and painful, cruel and unusual death, the door opened revealing the warlock himself in all of his glitter and eyeliner glory. I had to fight the urge to burst into hysterics at the sight of Magnus, standing in the doorway, positively shimmering with glitter, wearing skin tight faded jeans and a turquoise leather jacket, with strobe and colorful lights flashing behind him and music blaring in the background. He seemed far too much at home right now.
"Well, what'dya know?" Cali asked, elbowing me lightly in the side, causing me to flinch away from her slightly. The grin on her face was contagious to me, but wiped Magnus's right off. "He lives! And he owns pants that aren't leather!" I snickered, and Sigma flat out laughed.
Magnus merely rolled his eyes, mumbling something under his breath about Nephilim that was lost in the bass of the dance music. A little louder, obviously meant for us to hear, he added "You're late. The others are already here." Interpreting that as an invitation to come in, even if it wasn't, I pushed past him into the warm loft that was crammed with bodies that were aimlessly moving. They were either walking from here to there, or were dancing to the strong beat that the music provided, but very few people were sitting still. It seemed impossible to stand still. Though, there seemed to be two, I realized as a couch in the middle of the sea of bodies came into view. Jace and Clary.
I snagged Orion's arm as he went to walk past me, and I nodded toward the two. I didn't even have to say my plan to make him grin like the Cheshire cat. He grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the couch without wasting any time, stopping in front of Clary while I was in front of Jace.
"You two are literally sucking all the fun out of the air." he sniffed matter-of-factly, and I giggled. He was an empath, he would know. "So, are you fun suckers just going to suck the fun out of everything all night, or actually enjoy yourselves while you're here?" I wondered how many times he was going to say fun sucker, or variations there of, before Jace got fed up with it. Clary's shoulders were already shaking as she tried to hold in her laughter. Orion noticed, too. He let go of my hand and offered his arm to Clary, grinning like the big dolt he was, until she took his arm and he steered her off to go dance. I just gave Jace a stern look when he opened his mouth to protest the action.
Flopping down on the couch next to him, I prodded him in the side, surprised he didn't grab my wrist before I actually made contact. I knew he was perfectly capable of doing just that. "Don't worry about it," I reassured, smiling at him. "Orion and Cali have this thing going on, so all that's going to go on between him and Clary is dancing." In the split second that his golden eyes weren't guarded, I saw that he was unconvinced, but I didn't try to prove to him that Orion was faithful to Cali. That was their deal; they could defend themselves when the time came. So instead, I went for option two: Distraction.
A small shock went through my hand when I grabbed Jace's, but I brushed the thought off as static electricity or something like that. I got to my feet, and tugged at Jace's hand, sticking out my bottom lip and pouting until he finally sighed and pulled himself to his feet. "So you're going to make me dance with you?" I hit him in the arm for that one, my eyes narrowing into a glare while an arrogant grin spread across his face.
"You know damn well that I can't make you dance with me." My voice trailed off near the end of the sentence as I realized that I technically could make him, if I really wanted to, and I just glared at him again. But then the song changed, and I had reason to glare in the direction of the DJ for playing a slow song as Jace towed me after him to the dance floor where everyone had taken to slow-dancing. Now I was regretting this…
Jace wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest and catching me off guard, making me look up at him like he'd just lost his mind until I remembered the current situation. The blush heating my cheeks made me quickly look away in a false hope that maybe he wouldn't have noticed. Of course he did; he was Jace freaking Wayland, who never missed a detail that was right under his nose. I rested my arms on his shoulders, crossing my wrists loosely behind his neck; a grip he could easily break free of if he really wanted to. I couldn't exactly say the same about his grip on me, but I wasn't complaining like I normally would have.
It took me a while- sense of time was lost on me right now-to realize that we were actually moving in time to the music, along with everyone else around us. I'd been so lost in my own thoughts about, well, nothing, to realize my feet had been moving. 'Pathetic,' I chastised myself.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of red in the lights, and realized that the lights were white. My head swiveled, and I saw Clary with her head on Orion's chest, arms wrapped around his neck while his were wrapped securely around her waist and his chin resting atop her head. I wanted to have one of those girly moments where everyone and everything else stopped and said "awwwww!" or "how cute!"
"Magnus?" I looked at Jace, for a second wondering if the High Warlock of Brooklyn had showed up or if he was talking to me. When my eyes met his which were waiting for me to look at him, I quickly eliminated the first possibility.
"Hmm?" I asked to prompt him when he was silent, even though I was now holding his gaze. The way his eyes delved into mine, like he was trying to figure out what was going on inside my mind, unnerved me a little. My instinct told me to look away, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's like I was thrown into a hypnotic state by the way the strobe lights made the colors in his eyes swirl, and the way the changing colored lights made his hair and skin change colors. That added with the beat of the music pounding in my veins and the feel of his arms around my waist had cast me into a trance that wasn't going to easily be broken.
"Magnus Dakota Blaine!" And then Cali pulled me away from Jace, a little more violently than she probably intended, and started pulling me through the crowd of people. It was amazing how scared I could be of a girl in a royal blue strapless dress and strappy silver heels.
A/N: Mwuhahaha! Oh yes, I threw in a cliify just to annoy people. Review and let me know what you think!