Chapter 7

I know you probably hate me for making you guys wait for this chapter but I wanted to make sure you guys were still leaving reviews for me. I love seeing what you have to say and it's motivating to keep writing.

After I update this, I am going to try and update the other stories as well but I don't know how much time I have so no promises that they will be up this weekend. Enjoy!

Characters belong to Cassie Clare.

Clary POV

jpack: I can't believe you've never been to Taki's

clarebear: I go to school a couple hours away

jpack: Let me take you there

clarebear: Is that a question or a demand?

jpack: Both? You seem chill enough it should be a nice time

clarebear: I'm kind of only in town until tomorrow morning. I came back with a friend and she has a lot planned for us.

jpack: Excuses excuses

clarebear: Maybe another time?

jpack: fine, but you'll owe me more than a dinner

clarebear: Is that supposed to be a threat or a compliment?

jpack: What kind of guy would I be to threaten a girl before being properly introduced?

clarebear: lol, I have to go, we can talk later

jpack: I can give you my number so we don't have to talk through the app

clarebear: Deal

jpack: 589-630-7856

clarebear: who do I ask for?

jpack: You'll find out when you meet me for dinner

"Are you talking to that mystery guy?" I hear Izzy say from her bed. She's painting her nails an deep shade of blue while sitting on her bed.

"Maybe," I said putting my phone down on her vanity.

"Y'all are cute, I ship it," she said smiling.

"We don't even know him yet," I retorted. I looked in the mirror and saw my hair getting frizzy so I started looking for a pony tail.

"I can already tell it'll be good," she said shrugging it off. "Anyways, we need to talk about what happened."

She swung her legs off the bed indicating she was done painting them. I located a pony tail in the middle drawer and tried to distract myself.

"Alec says that Jace hasn't left his room at all today. He hasn't even come to me yet," she said watching me in the mirror. I focused on braiding my hair back into a single French braid.

The first braid fell out and I sighed when I had to start over. "We can leave tonight if you want, if it makes you uncomfortable to be here," she said in an easy tone.

My hair fell out a second time and I huffed in frustration.

She stood up, careful not to ruin her toes and stood behind me in the mirror. She brushed my hair back and started a new braid. "It's okay, Clare, we don't have to stay for the party. If you want we can just act like the last 24 hours never happened."

"I don't know what I want," I said looking down at my hands.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked carefully pulling strands of hair back. It was kind of soothing to have people play with your hair.

"He kissed me," I said simply hoping it was enough explanation. She nodded in the mirror.

"Did you hate it?" she asked carefully.

"No," I said quietly. "But he only kissed me because I wasn't calming down, not because he wanted too."

"I don't know, Clare," she said tying off the braid at the middle of my back.

"I think we should stay for the party," I said confidently. "At the very least we can have a little bit of fun on this trip."

Her smile widened and I knew I was in trouble.

In the matter of minutes, she had me in a lacy bra with a matching set of underwear and a robe. She said I needed to get used to them while she did my makeup. It was already rounding four in the afternoon so we only really have two hours.

She did my makeup, then her own. She came back and pulled my braid out and replaced it with a bun. I didn't look overdone, I looked perfect. She put blush and eye shadow on my face with mascara, lipstick, and a little bronzer. I still looked like me, I just looked ready to have fun.

Her makeup wasn't overdone like I expected either, she went light for tonight and I was thankful for it. She pulled out a summer dress, a strapless jean material dress with small pockets. I thought she was going to wear it until she handed it to me. It was a really pretty dress, and loosely form fitting to mid-thigh. I looked really good.

She was wearing a purple dress of her own that had sleeves with slits in them to show off her arms. It cuffed at her wrists and flowed to her mid-thigh. It looked incredible on her too.

We could already hear noises coming from down the stairs which meant that people were already here. The music wasn't pounding yet but it was loud enough to be heard. It was only 7 right now but we didn't want to rush.

And Izzy likes to make an entrance.

We looked at ourselves in the mirror and she locked elbows with me. After one last look, we were walking down the stairs. She hesitated a little bit seeing a bunch of people we haven't seen since last year. There were a few people that greeted us right away.

Aline Penhollow, we kept in touch with from high school.

Helen Blackthorn, we didn't know but is apparently her girlfriend.

Magnus Bane, Alec's boyfriend who we love and adore.

My eyes landed on another person.

"Izzy," I said throwing her a playful grin. "You invited Jordan?"

"Nice to see you," he said putting an arm around me and winking at Izzy.

She playfully slapped him in the chest and we laughed together. He removed his arm from my shoulders but stayed with us.

"What's up with Jace tonight?" he asked Izzy quietly.

"You know Jace?" I ask super confused.

"From football," he elaborated. "Our schools used to play each other, we went to some of the same parties."

"That makes a lot of sense," Izzy says this time. "We didn't go to a lot of parties towards the end of high school because of people being stupid." People being stupid, she means Jace and his marri men.

"So," Jordan says, I just noticed he was holding a drink in his hand. I don't understand. "Why's he all mopey and whatever? Jace Herondale doesn't turn down a party so it's gotta be something good."

"Beats me," Izzy says a little too fast. "If you figure it out let me know."

She was trying to get him to leave us alone now and I'm glad he picked up on it.

"Will do," he says leaving us both with a peck on our cheeks.

"It's okay, Clare," she says quietly pushing us against the wall, out of the way of people. "He's only like that because he feels sorry for himself. Let him feel something besides his normal ego for a while."

I nodded back and she announced she was going to go find drinks. I really don't feel like being drunk but it couldn't hurt in the long run.

Shot after shot I stopped feeling like I couldn't breathe and started feeling more invincible. I know it's just the effect of the numerous shots of vodka and something mixed, it was good at least. We've been dancing for hours but that was the plan in the first place – to let loose.

It didn't hit me until I saw Jace dancing more than inappropriately with a blonde chick across the room. I offered whoever I ended up dancing with a short smile and 'thanks for the dance' before trying to find Izzy. I only looked for a few seconds but she's not here. I saw Alec making out with Magnus on the couch, but to get to him, I'd have to walk in front of Jace and the blonde.

I felt the panic in the back of my throat start to build and I said, "fuck it."

I tried to be as quick as I could, going around the back wall so Jace couldn't see me right away. I rounded the corner and tapped on Alec's shoulder.

"Can I help you, biscuit, we're busy," Magnus said mildly annoyed. Alec caught my eye and nodded.

"I'll be a sec," he offered, pushing Magnus from his lap to the couch.

We rounded the corner again and he stood in front of me. "What's up?"

"I," I said trying to look around, "can't find," to no avail, she's not here, "Izzy."

"You're breathing super heavy, are you okay?" he said more seriously this time.

"I think I need a break," I said choppy and fast. He took my hand and dragged me up the stairs.

He opened Izzy's room and found a couple making out on her bed. "Shit," he said slamming the door closed again. "Uh," he said going further down the hallway. He opened the guest bedroom and found another couple going at it a little too hard. "Fuck," he offered again. "My door has a lock on it," he grunted.

He unlocked his bedroom door and opened the door for me. "You'll be safe here, I'll lock the door behind myself," he said pulling a water bottle from his minifridge. "You can unlock it from the inside too if you need to leave, but the bathroom is through there." I followed his finger to the adjacent wall and found a door cracked open. "You can take a shower, try and calm down, sober up a little bit, towels are under the sink."

"Thank you," I said a little choppy again. "We're leaving as soon as you can find Izzy. She was supposed to stay sober so she could drive us back to campus. I can't stay here another night."

"Magnus and I are sober," he says rubbing his hands on his face. "We didn't want to drink," he elaborated. "I'll go find Iz, you shower and change, get right before you spend some time on the road. If she's not sober, we'll take you guys and the car back."

"Thank you, Alec," I said kind of shamefully.

"It won't be like this forever," he said sweetly. "But I can't believe he chose to dance with Kaelie like that right in front of us." He sounded frustrated with a grin on his face but he still left to go find Izzy. I heard the lock click and decided he was right, I need a shower.