"You could come here," Jace says as we talk on the phone on Saturday.
"To your house?"
"Where else? I could come pick you up. No, actually, I will come pick you up."
"Okay. Are you gonna come right now?"
"Yes. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes."
I get ready for Jace to come pick me up. Oh god, I wonder if I'll meet his parents. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that.
Fifteen minutes later I walk to the front door and am ready to go, but then I remember that I forgot something. I quickly run to my room to get Jace's birthday present. Since we didn't actually get to spend his birthday together like he planned, we could do it today. It was exactly one week ago.
The present is nothing special. It's kind of funny. And I also made him a card out of that drawing I once made where he has long hair and flowers in it. I take the present and the card and then rush out the door. I see that Jace is already waiting for me in his car.
"Hi," he says and kisses my cheek.
"Hi. Happy birthday," I say and hand him the card and the present. He takes them from me and looks confused.
"My birthday was a week ago."
"I know, but we didn't get to spend it together since you fell asleep."
"Thanks. But I don't really deserve these since I stood you up."
"Yes, you do. Just open it." He really does deserve the present. He opens the small present and starts grinning when he sees what it is.
"Alarm clock?"
"Yes. It's so you will never be late again because you fell asleep."
"It's very cute."
"I know," I say and look down at the pink alarm clock with a cute owl on it.
"Does it make some kind of owl noises?" Jace wonders and takes it out of the box. He tries it and it starts quacking like a duck. "What the..?" Jace looks down at the clock horrified.
"I think something went wrong in the factory or something," I say and can't help but laugh a little at Jace's expression. He quickly turns it off. "I have a feeling that you don't like ducks much."
"I really don't," he says and shudders.
"I guess it's more effective then. When you'll wake up to the quacking sound, you'll be out of bed in a second."
"You're right. Thanks," he says and kisses me softly.
Jace drives to his place and it takes about ten minutes to arrive to a much bigger house than mine. I guess it's because more people live in here. I only live with my mom and Jace lives with his brother and I think with his both parents. We have never really talked about our families.
"Who do you live with? I've never remembered to ask," I say when we step out of the car.
"My parents and Jonathan. You?"
"I only live with my mom. I don't see my dad much. He doesn't live very near."
"Did they get a divorce?"
"Yes, I was two, so I don't remember it. Anyway... Are we gonna go inside?"
"Yes." Jace takes my hand and we walk to the front door. We go inside and I immediately notice that someone is yelling upstairs.
"What's that?" I ask and Jace looks just as confused.
"I don't know." He starts leading me upstairs and the male voices are now louder. We stand outside a closed door and I can now hear what they're yelling about.
"You can't just suddenly one day leave without telling me about it!" some familiar voice yells.
"I think that's Sebastian," Jace says and the yelling continues.
"I'm just so sick of this! I can't continue like this anymore!" yells the voice that I recognize as Jonathan.
"You should have at least called me first! To break up with me or something. If that's what you want," Sebastian says more calmly.
"What? Break up?" Jace says and I'm just as shocked right now. Are they together?
"I don't want that, but I feel like I don't have any other choice!" Jonathan yells.
"I think we should go. It's not right to eavesdrop on them like this," I tell Jace who is staring dumbfounded at the closed door.
"You're right." He sighs and starts leading me somewhere, probably to his room. He opens a door and we get inside. It's so clean and too blank and white for my taste. Of course it's good that it's clean, but I think there should be some photos or posters or something like that. But I decide not to say anything about it because I think now is not the time.
We sit down on Jace's bed.
"How have I been so blind? Did I even understand it right? Are they together?" Jace asks.
"I'm as surprised as you are. I had no idea."
"That's why Jonathan has been like that. I think that's why Sebastian felt the need to bully, so they could hide their relationship."
"That's kind of cliché. Where did they get that idea from? From Glee?" Jace starts laughing. "What?"
"I just find it really difficult to imagine that Jonathan, let alone Sebastian, would watch Glee," Jace says between laughs.
"You're right." I can't help but imagine just how ridiculous that would be. The mean bullies of our school would be watching Glee together and singing along.
"You're thinking about it, aren't you?" Jace asks as I accidentally let out a laugh.
"Yes. I bet that's not what they're doing in there right now."
"I don't know if I want to know what they are doing in there right now. I mean, I can't hear any yelling anymore."
"If they really are together and they're not breaking up, does that mean that we have to take Sebastian with us?" I ask and grimace.
"I don't know. But if we do, he's not going to call my girlfriend 'a pathetic nobody'." I don't think I can ever get used to Jace calling me his girlfriend.
"Yeah, that wasn't very nice. We don't even know for sure if they actually are together or if they're just really close friends."
"I don't think close friends would yell about breaking up like that. I don't know." Jace tugs at his hair frustrated. "Maybe we should go back to eavesdrop on them, just so we could be sure."
"Fine," I say and we get up from the bed. We quietly walk to the door and don't hear any yelling anymore, not even talking. Jace walks closer to the door and presses his ear against it.
"Do you hear anything?" I whisper.
"No." Jace walks back to me. "This is stupid. This is not how I imagined spending this day with you." He starts leading me back to his room.
"Then what did you plan?"
"Something like this," Jace says and pushes me down onto the bed. He lands half on top of me. Jace starts kissing me and I let out a very girly giggle. I've probably never made that kind of sound before.
Just when the kissing starts getting more heated, we're interrupted by quacking.
"What the..?" Jace says and looks around. It comes from the alarm clock that he placed on his bedside table.
"I think you accidentally set it so it would start quacking at this time," I say and laugh. Jace groans annoyed and rests his head against my shoulder. And the clock still keeps on quacking.
"Can you turn it off? Or throw it against the wall or something?" Jace mumbles against my shoulder.
"Hey! I'm not going throw it. I gave it to you as a present." I reach out and take the clock from the bedside table. I turn it off and the quacking stops. It's now four, so if I leave it like this, Jace will get an early awakening tomorrow. That is if he doesn't check it before he goes to bed. I place it back on the table.
"That's one more reason to hate ducks," Jace mutters and I laugh.
"Why? Because it interrupted your make out session?" Jace lifts his head from my shoulder to look at me.
"Yes. Maybe we could now continue where we left off." His lips come down to mine again and he starts kissing me slowly.
"Maybe we could do something else?" I ask between his slow kisses. He stops kissing me.
"Like what? You don't like this?" he asks and gives me a small kiss.
"Of course I do. But are we just going to spend the whole day kissing?"
"Maybe. I mean, I wouldn't mind." He grins and kisses me again. "But fine. What do you wanna do?"
"I need to come up with something? I thought that was your job."
"I did already come up with something."
"Kissing doesn't count. Neither does eavesdropping on your brother and finding out if he's dating another guy."
"Fineeee. You wanna go downstairs to the living room to watch a movie?"
"Why can't we watch it here?" I ask noticing that he has a TV in here.
"Because the TV in the living room is bigger." I roll my eyes.
"Does it really matter? We would have more privacy in here."
"And why do we need that privacy?" Jace asks and grins.
"Maybe I'll let you kiss me sometimes."
"You'll let me kiss you? Are you saying that you don't like kissing me?"
"Of course I'm not saying that. I'm just teasing you." How could I not like kissing with Jace?
"We can still go downstairs," Jace says and drags me up from the bed. He starts leading me down the stairs. "My parents are not home today and Jonathan is doing who knows what."
We go to the living room and I sit down on the soft white couch. I feel like I could sink into this couch. The TV is in front of it and I have to admit that it is impressive.
"What should we watch?" Jace wonders as he goes through the DVDs on the shelf. "Maybe a horror movie so you can cling onto me when you're scared." He turns his head to smirk at me. I narrow my eyes at him.
"I'm not scared of horror movies," I say stubbornly.
"Is that a challenge?"
"No. Maybe we should watch some movie with a duck in it. Then you would be the one clinging onto me."
"I never said I was scared of them, just that I don't like them."
"No. I think you are scared of them. You just don't want to admit it." I walk to him and start looking if there's any movie with ducks in it.
"We don't have any movies with ducks in it," he says as if reading my mind.
"Are you sure?" I look up at him and I can see that he's lying.
"Yes. This picking up a movie is too hard and it's taking too much time. Maybe we should do what I originally planned," Jace says and looks down at my lips.
"What? Eavesdrop on Jonathan?"
"No. You know that I don't mean that." In no time he has me in his arms and then I find myself lying on the couch with Jace on top of me, without him squishing me with his weight of course.
There we spent the rest of the evening. Kissing and talking. Eventually we end up watching some television and then it's time for me to leave.
"Do you have to go?" Jace asks as he's clinging onto me while we're sitting on the couch.
"I can stay for like ten or fifteen minutes."
"Good."
"You didn't get enough of me yet?" I ask. Though I haven't even gotten enough of Jace yet.
"Of course not." Then he looks like he remembers something and start frowning. "Jonathan hasn't come out of his room tonight and I haven't heard the front door indicating that Sebastian has left."
"Maybe he has left but we just didn't notice it."
"I'm going to need to talk to him. Or not. I think I'm just going to let him talk to me when he's ready. It wouldn't be very nice if I'd just go to him and inquire if he's dating Sebastian."
"Or you can just let things go how they do and... I don't know. If he continues being too sad and if it gets worse, then I think you need to talk with him."
"Okay. I think that's a good idea. This just keeps getting more and more complicated. Why do I always feel like I have to solve all the problems?"
"Maybe because you feel like you need to take care of the people you care about?" I ask. I decided to not say 'the people you love' like he said yesterday.
"You're right. And I care about you and I have taken a good care of you, right?"
"Yes. I'm pretty happy now."
"Pretty happy? What can I do to make you really happy?"
"I don't know. Take me home now?"
"How is that going to make you happy?"
"Because I'm tired."
"Fine. I'll take you home," Jace says and pouts.
"I could stay the night if it would make you happy, but I don't think my mom would like that much." She would probably give me 'the talk'. That would be awful and very awkward.
"I know that. I'll take you home." Jace stands up and pulls me up from the couch too.
Jace is holding my hand as we walk towards his car. It's already midnight and his golden hair is shining in the moonlight. I'd love to paint him like this. Jace notices me staring at him and we stop and stand in front of his car.
"What?" he asks.
"Nothing. You look just so beautiful."
"Shouldn't I be the one saying that to you?"
"No. And why couldn't I say it?"
"I don't know. Usually women are beautiful and men are handsome."
"Well, I don't think like that. I think you're beautiful." Jace grins.
"Thanks. So are you."
"Thank you. Now lets go."
Jace drives me home and I'm very reluctant to get out of the car. We spent many hours together today, so it's sad to just leave suddenly. Jace is holding my hand and it seems like he doesn't want me to leave either. This is ridiculous. We're going to see each other in school on Monday.
"Are you sure I couldn't sneak into your room without your mother noticing?" Jace asks.
"I'm pretty sure that's not possible. And if you sneak into my room while I'm sleeping, I'll... I don't know. I'll probably scream and kick you out of my room."
"You'll push me out of the window?"
"Probably yes."
"I better not do it then. Do you need to go now?"
"No, I thought we could maybe spend the night in your car in front of my house," I say sarcastically and Jace laughs.
"That sounds nice."
"Okay, now I really need to go, before my mom comes out of the house to see what's going on." I give Jace a kiss and open the door. We say our goodbyes and I get out of the car. I go inside the house and then hear Jace driving away.
I'm so happy and careless that when I go to bed, I fall asleep immediately. But about four hours later I wake up to my phone vibrating on the bedside table. I grin because I know exactly who it is. And I'm right as I see the message from 'your guardian angel'.
Nice. You didn't put that damn thing off. You did that on purpose, didn't you? I nearly had a heart attack when I woke up to the quacking sound.
I can't help but start laughing and I need to bury my face to my pillow so I won't wake up mom. It takes me a moment to stop laughing. I just can't help but imagine Jace waking up alarmed to a quacking. I then start writing him back.
What?! No! I didn't do that!
I have to fight the urge to start laughing again.
Yeah, I'm sure you didn't... You didn't think to turn it off, so it wouldn't wake me up at four in the morning? (I'm sorry if I'm sounding mad, I'm not really mad at you)
Sometimes I feel like Jace is too nice, but I actually like how sweet he is with me. I'd be pretty mad if he'd do the same thing to me.
I'm glad that you're not mad at me. I hope you can go back to sleep.
He texts me back almost right away.
If I can't, can I sneak into your room?
No, you can't. Go back to sleep Jace.
Fine. Good night. Or more like good morning, since it is early morning.
I can almost hear Jace muttering those words. He has to be even a bit mad that the alarm clock woke him up.
Good morning, I write back and go back to sleep.
If anyone is wondering, in this story Clary's parents are Jocelyn and Luke. And Jace and Jonathan's parents are Celine and Valentine.
And I honestly don't know when I'll end this story. It's probably good that I'll never again even try to say how many chapters there'll be, because I never know for sure. So I'll just write and let you all know when it's the end :)