JACE'S POV
After classes on Tuesday Jace was talking with Alec when Jon came in. Both boys stopped their conversation and looked up at the third member of their group. He had been M.I.A. since Monday afternoon.
"What?" Jon asked when he noticed his friends staring.
"What? Is that all you have to say, young man? We have been worried sick and you have the audacity to say 'what'? I think I may faint." Jace put a hand on his forehead dramatically to further exaggerate his little performance. Jon blinked at him once before turning to Alec.
"Where have you been? You never came home yesterday," Alec said far more calmly than how Jace had been.
Jon shrugged and joined where they sat on the couch. "My friend was having a mini crisis and I had to drive an hour out to meet him."
"And you dare not call us to explain?" Jace said still with the mocking tone.
"My phone was dead," Jon shrugged again.
"I hardly see that as an excuse, for all we knew you were dead!" Jace threw his hands up exaggerated before turning away from Jon with a shake of his head.
"What Jace means to say," Alec said loudly with a pointed look at his blonde friend. "Is what happened to your friend that was so dire you had to meet him immediately?"
"His girlfriend broke up with him." At Jon's reply, Jace and Alec gave him a really? look. "No, you guys don't understand, these two were dating since before I even met either of you and we met when we were like 10. These two were like Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World, alright."
"Ech, I don't understand how people can find 'love' at that age." Jace used air quotes when he said love.
"You say that now but didn't you just have a black eye yesterday?" Jon said.
"Good point," Jace replied. He still had the black eye though, it just turned out that the girl was very good at covering up bruises with makeup. Just moments the day before when he and Alec were going to Isabelle's the shiner had gradually gone away until it looked like it wasn't even there. That answered all their questions about makeup.
"Speaking of," Alec started. "A new design has begun to appear on your skin."
Jace looked down at his arm to see that there was indeed a drawing appearing. Two parallel lines appeared that were quickly followed by two more parallel lines intersecting them to make the pound (#) sign. After that, there was a short pause. Then, in red, an X was drawn in the very middle. Then a blue O.
"Is she- is she playing tic-tac-toe right now?" Jon asked as the three watched Jace's skin curiously.
"Dude I'm rooting for X," Alec said and Jon shook his head.
"No look, O totally has him cornered." Even as he spoke O placed down a final circle and a line was crossed through it. "Ha! I told you."
"Oh, they're playing another game!" Alec pointed at a new pound symbol being created.
"What- what is even happening right now?" Jace asked as his friends continued to stare intently down at his arm. "Is my alleged soulmate serious sitting with someone playing tic-tac-toe on her skin? Do they really have nothing better to do?"
"I don't know but X and O are tied now," Alec said. "Time for the tie-breaker."
CLARY'S POV
"Could you guys really not find any paper?" Clary asked as Magnus and Isabelle played their fourth round of tic-tac-toe on her arm.
"Nope turns out I used it all when we were making those paper swords and shields," Isabelle replied drawing a strategic X.
"I knew that was a bad idea..." Clary shook her head at herself.
"Don't worry biscuit," Magnus said as he drew a neat O. "We're only playing 10 of these."
Clary rolled her eyes as a new game was set up. "What if you both win 5 games?"
"Then we create an 11th," Isabelle replied without looking up.
"And what if that one is a draw?"
"We make a 12th," Magnus shook his head. "Come on Clary keep up, it's obvious."
Clary rolled her eyes but made no move to stop them from drawing on her skin. So far Isabelle had won 1 game, Magnus 2, and there were 2 draws. They started their sixth game.
Clary decided to watch tv while her body was marked by the insane people she called friends. She shook her head as she thought about Simon. He would never randomly start writing on her. And then Clary realized something. She hadn't heard from Simon in almost a week.
Ripping her arm away from Magnus and Isabelle Clary reached forward to grab her phone. There were groans of protest as Isabelle's sharpie made a long streak from where she had been drawing. Clary stood up from the couch and held her phone to her ear. There were only two rings before Simon's familiar voice came up.
"Hey Clare, what's up?"
"I could be asking you the same thing. I thought you were going to think about switching colleges?" Clary saw Magnus give Isabelle a questioning gaze at which Isabelle replied by mouthing Simon.
"Umm?" Simon paused for a full minute. "I tried calling you Friday but you didn't pick up and I knew you wouldn't answer over the weekend so I called Isabelle and told her."
Clary looked back at Isabelle and glared at her as she spoke to Simon. "Really? You spoke to Isabelle, did you now?"
At the sound of her name, Isabelle looked up. When she saw Clary's gaze she grinned sheepishly before scooting behind Magnus to use him as a sort of shield.
"Yeah, so I'm going to go ahead and let her tell you my answer cause I'm sort of bu- OH MY GOD ERIC I TOLD YOU TO BE CAREFUL WITH THAT ITS A COLLECTORS ITEM YOU LITTLE-" Clary ended the call in the middle of Simon's screams.
"Yeesh what was that?" Isabelle asked clearly having heard Simon towards the end.
"Eric being Eric I suppose." Clary shrugged before full out glaring at Isabelle. "Why didn't you tell me Simon had called you?"
Isabelle hid behind Magnus again. "You got home really late Sunday and I didn't exactly get the chance on Monday and we've both been in class all of today and then Magnus came over and-"
"God of Glitter, Isabelle just tell her what Simon said." Magnus cut her off.
Isabelle straightened up a little and looked Clary in the eye. "He said next week he shall be transferring his credits here."
Clary rolled her eyes. "That's literally all you had to tell me."
"Well," Izzy shrugged. "You looked pretty scary for a minute there."
"When is Clary not scary though?" Magnus asked and Isabelle nodded in agreement as Clary's mouth fell open.
"What? I am not a scary person." Clary crossed her arms and pouted.
"You know, I think I know what would make Clary a little less scary," Isabelle looked over at Magnus with a devilish grin.
"What?" He asked even though he was smiling like he already knew.
Isabelle looked up at Clary still with that grin. "Makeup."
JACE'S POV
Water building up and over a usually strong dam. Stinging the soft tissue behind it as it crept up further and further. Seemingly infinite black holes stared back. Unwilling to give up despite the walls caving in around them. Time was lost, the only known fact was that nothing had ever lasted as long. Rain like tears. Burning wind. The will of a tiger. It all came down to right now...
And then Jon blinked.
"Damn it," The white-haired boy swore at himself for losing yet another staring contest as Jace cheered across from him.
"No one beats the master. For 10 years what have I been telling you?" Jace laughed as he pushed the bill for the dinner they had just eaten towards Jon. "And now you have to pay."
He took it reluctantly. "It was your turn though."
Jace shrugged and leaned back in the booth. "Your fault for challenging me to a staring contest. Although I have to give you props. How long was that?"
Alec checked his watch. "A bit over 8 minutes." The entire time Jon and Jace had been having that staring contest Alec had waited silently and Jace had glanced at him a few times to see that he clearly wanted to murder them both.
"8 minutes, that's a new record for you Jonathon." Jace slapped his friend on the shoulder as the waitress took away the money.
"Not for you though," Jon groaned. "Haven't you lasted like 13 minutes before?"
"14- but that's not the point, my dear friend. The point is, you're improving." Jon rolled his eyes and looked around Taki's as Jace laughed.
"You know it's too bad you didn't last another minute," Alec suddenly said. "You would've been able to distract him with something?"
Jon looked back over. "What do you- Oh my Jesus. Jace you might want to look in a mirror."
Jace cocked an eyebrow at his two friends. While Jon was looking at him with shocked eyes Alec seemed amused.
"Why?" Jace asked slowly. Alec took out his phone and handed it to him with the camera opened. Jace took one look at himself and saw winged eyeliner appearing around his left eye. "Are you fu- I can't- By God- Seriously? For real right now? This girl had such a good track record and now she wants to- I wish I knew how to kill Angels because Raziel would be first on my list."
Throughout Jace's rant, he had handed Alec his phone back, stood up from the booth they were at and begun storming out of Taki's. He didn't even stop after he got outside and started heading towards their dorm building.
"What is this girl doing late on a Tuesday night that involves makeup anyway?" Jace questioned as Alec and Jon caught up with him. "If she thinks she's going out on a date then she's got another thing coming."
"Jace I've never seen you so possessive over someone you don't even know." Alec laughed.
"And Jace just because she's putting on makeup doesn't necessarily mean she's dating," Jon was also laughing. What great friends. "She could have friends like Isabelle who randomly put makeup on people at night."
"Jon is the only one being helpful right now," Jace said as they reached their dorm. The three made their way up to their rooms, Jace not even trying to hide his face from the people walking past them.
"Well actually Jace," Alec said. "I think that if you were to put on a dress right now you'd make a pretty attractive female."
Jace rolled his eyes. "Well obviously, of course, I would, that doesn't even need to be proven. It's a fact and everyone knows it." He turned around to Alec after unlocking their door. "But you're still not helping."
Alec was holding back a laugh. "It's a little hard to help when you look like that."
"Not. Helping." Jace growled as he walked into the dorm. "She better wash this off soon because I am not going to sleep like this."
"But, it doesn't affect you, either way, other than outwardly. It's not like you can smear it." Jon pointed out.
"That's-" Jace paused for a minute thinking about what he said. "Actually a pretty good point. I'm going to sleep."
"You do that lady-face!" Alec called out as Jace was halfway down the hallway. He took a deep breath before shaking away the thoughts of stabbing the raven haired boy in the middle of the night and continuing on to his room.
Hey, my Angels! So I'm going on vacation for several days and I won't be able to update. I know, insane that I won't be posting a new chapter every other day, but I'll try and post once I get home. Anway I hope y'all liked this chapter! The reviews I've been getting make my day, I just love it when you guys love what I write. It's crazy that I even have this many favorites and follows. Oh and I just wanted to let y'all know that it's still going to be a while before anyone figures out that Clace are soulmates. Just a little heads up. Well, please review and I'll update next time I can!
