Jace POV
2,000 dollars.
That's how much each of us got from the prize money that we won on Friday night. We all opted for Clary to get a decent amount of the cash, but she just shook her head and left the room. I'm still going to figure out a way to give Clare some of my portion of the money though. Even if I have to stick small amounts in her wallet when she's not looking for the next couple of months, she will get paid.
Today is the glorious day of the Sat; or as normal people would say, Saturday. It has been a whole week since we won the competition at Pandemonium, on accident but anyway, and we are all sitting in Alec's car with envelopes in our laps. Our parents suggested that we put at least half of our winnings in the bank, which Jon fought fiercely back about, so we're on our way back to The Institute from the bank. Jordan and Alec are sat in the front of the SUV, Seb and Jon are being idiots in the middle, and Clary and I are having an intense staring contest in the back.
I start taking out the money from my envelope, never blinking or taking my eyes off of hers, and begin fanning myself with it. She giggles quietly and tries to stop me from distracting her, but I just move the money-fan over to her face and start fanning her with my money. I was really smart about which form I wanted my five-hundred dollars in when we were at the bank; the other fifteen-hundred in my bank account for 'college' or some shit like that. All of the other guys got theirs in twenties or fifties, but no. I'm the smart one, remember?
I made the bank clerk give me five-hundred dollars in five-dollar-bills. I would've gotten all ones, but Clary talked me out of it. She ruins all of my fun; well, most of it anyway.
"Damn you, Herondale!" she hisses, blinking and swatting the money away from her face. I chuckle mock-evilly and grin down at her, placing the large stack of bills back into the envelope.
"I told you that you would never defeat me, lowly peasant. Bow to your king!" I cry, nodding down at her in demand. She just rolls her eyes and scoffs, shaking her head all the way.
"Are we seriously going back to this again? I thought that you were done with the whole 'peasant' thing." She states, leaning back against her seat and staring at me in exasperation. I furrow my brow and tilt my head in confusion.
"What 'peasant' thing?" I inquire, not really understanding what she's implying. Clare just laughs under her breath and leans forward in her seat, so that her mouth is right by Jon's ear; who is sitting in front of her along with Seb.
"Jon, does Jace go to the whole 'you are all lowly peasants and I am your superior' thing whenever he wins at something?" she asks, causing Jon to turn around in his seat and plant his black eyes on me. He smirks and nods, looking back and forth from me to Clary.
"Yup. You do it, like, all the time." And with that, he spins back around in his seat and goes back to being a dipshit with Seb. Fucking traitor. I glare at him and sit back in my seat, turning my gaze to my window. Clary pats my arm gently and sighs, but I keep my eyes on the window stubbornly.
"It's okay, sweetie. We'll just get Elodie and she might be able to help you out, Jay." She whispers into my ear wickedly, her wide grin seeping into her voice. I shudder and shake my head, turning back to her with wide eyes. Not that damned name again!
"No. Please, no. Anything but that, Clare!" I beg her, only causing her grin to widen even further. She fixes her features into those of sympathetic, before speaking.
"Oh, Jay. You know that I have to help you. In fact, I think that I'll call her right now." She makes as if to grab her phone out of her pocket, but I already have it in my hand before she can even touch the small device. I hold it to my chest as if it's my only life-source and glare down at her challengingly.
"Not gonna happen, Clare." I state, moving the phone out of her grasp when she reaches over me to retrieve it. Clary's eyes widen when she sees my hand move lower down my body, towards my pants, and she reluctantly retracts her hand with her eyes still staring at the phone in my hand.
"You wouldn't dare." She practically growls, whimpering slightly when I use my other hand to pull my jeans slightly away from my skin. I move the phone closer to my pants and dare her with my eyes to make a move.
"You wanna bet?" I dead-pan, no matter how cliché it is. She stills for a moment, and then tries to grab the phone from out of my hand. To no avail though. I stuff the small object into my jeans and smirk at her, wiggling around slightly to make my point. She gasps and makes as if to get her phone out of my pants, but rethinks it and scoots back over to her side of the car.
"Asshole. Now I have to buy a new phone." She mumbles under her breath, causing me to laugh and turn back to my window. Oh, Clare…
When we finally arrive at The Institute, we all pile out of the SUV and into the lobby of the apartment building. I throw an arm around Clary's shoulders and grin down at her when she glares up at me, obviously still sulking about me throwing her phone in my pants. I gave it back, don't worry. It's probably just slightly warm now, but she'll get used to it. Maybe… The rest of the guys run ahead of us and grab an elevator, but I make sure to hold Clary back when she makes a move to follow them.
"Are you still mad at me?" I ask innocently, jutting out my lower lip and fluttering my lashes dramatically. Her glare doesn't ease up, so I sigh and toss her over my shoulder before starting towards the elevator.
"Jace! Put me down, dammit!" she demands loudly, causing the few people who were talking in the lobby to look over at us in question. I smirk, imagining the bright-red flush that her face most likely adorns right about now, and just continue walking. "Put me down right now, you jackass." She hisses into my ear quietly, her embarrassment apparent in her tone. When I don't make a move to set her down, Clary digs her elbow into my shoulder as I maneuver us into the elevator that the rest of the guys have gotten. Jon watches on with amusement and laughs when Clary hits her head on the side of the metal box because she was struggling around.
"You better be still up there, Clary. You're going to hurt yourself more than usual if you don't." he tells her in between laughing. Clary stills above me and I carefully lower down to the ground, gently holding her around the waist as she stumbles slightly.
"Are you okay, Clare?" I ask, gazing down at her in concern. She reaches a hand up to her head and rubs it slightly, before looking into my eyes and nodding.
"Yeah, my head just hurts a little. No big deal." She states with a small smile, most likely trying to assure me that I didn't hurt her. I still feel guilty though, so I wrap my arms around her small form tightly and bring her to my chest, kissing the top of her head when she winds her own arms around my waist.
"Sorry." I mumble quietly into her ear, enjoying the feeling of her snuggling into my chest. My stomach tightens slightly when I feel her arms tighten around my waist in response and I silently scold myself for feeling emotions for my best-friend. Like, they're not just plain old brotherly-love emotions either. They're full out I-want-you-to-be-with-me-romantically emotions.
I shake my head slightly and rest my chin on top of Clary's head, no matter how far I have to bend down to be able to do it. You just need to call Kaelie and go on a date. You're just lonely and need to go out with your girlfriend for a while. God knows that you haven't been on an actual date for about a month, I try to convince myself. Unsurprisingly though, I don't feel any better. It could be the whole thing with my supposed feelings for Clary, or it could be the whole deal with which I was seriously thinking about breaking up with said 'girlfriend' just last week.
"You guys should just start dating. Like, seriously. You basically already are." Seb's annoying voice penetrates my thoughts, snapping me out of my depressing stupor. I lift my chin from where it was sat on Clary's head and look over at him, only to see a smug smirk on his face as the rest of the guys nod in agreement with his statement.
"Yeah. You guys are, like, really close. Like, Simon and Izzy close." Jordan throws in, his eyes deep in thought as he nods along with the rest of the group. Izzy and Rat-boy are dating? Since when…
I feel Clary stiffen in my arms and bury her face deeper into my chest, so I decide to save her from further embarrassment.
"No, guys. We're just friends." Even though I secretly wish that we weren't, the evil voice in the back of my mind whispers. What? Who said that? (Insert nervous laugh here) "Besides, I already have a girlfriend. Just in case you forgot." I tell them, my tone a little more than bitter when I mention Kaelie. Clary shifts slightly in my arms and for a second I swear that I hear a disappointed sigh, but Jon interrupts me before I can do further investigation.
"Whatever, Jace. Everyone can see the chemistry between you two. You're the only ones who don't." he states, rolling his eyes and leaning up against the wall of the still-moving elevator. Has it always been this slow? I wonder to myself, suddenly eager to be freed from the guys' questions. Telling by the way Clary buries herself even further into my chest; she can't wait to be off of the moving metal box either.
I sigh in frustration and lay my chin back on top of Clary's head, closing my eyes and ignoring the guys' jabs at our relationship until the elevator comes to a stop at our floor. When the 'ding' sounds throughout the small space, I hastily swing Clary up into my arms and make a beeline for my apartment. She giggles breathlessly and clings onto my neck for dear life as I throw open the door after unlocking it, sprint inside of the apartment, and slam the door shut before Alec can catch up to us with his key.
When I make it to my room I carelessly toss Clary onto my bed, shut my door, and then flop down onto my stomach beside her sprawled out form. She scoots over to me until we're both lying on our stomachs and leans her head against my shoulder with a sigh. I look over at her and pick up a piece of her hair, idly twirling it around in my fingers as I study her face intently. She looks exhausted, is my first thought. My second is, she's beautiful, but I ignore that one for the time being.
"Are you okay? You look tired." I say softly, moving my gaze down to the strand of hair that I am still playing with. Her eyes close and she nods slightly, leaning her head more onto my shoulder.
"Yeah, I just didn't get any sleep last night. I kept having nightmares." She murmurs, her head slowly sliding off of my shoulder as she talks. I chuckle slightly and gather her into my arms, rolling over so that her head is positioned on my chest.
"Why do you keep having nightmares? Why didn't you come get me?" I ask gently, running a hand through her hair distractedly. She snuggles into the crook of my neck and sighs.
"Just stupid things. Y'know, kittens getting eaten by Jon. Me getting eaten by Jon. Jon getting eaten by Jon. The list goes on and on." She whispers, sounding truly frightened and I have to bite my lip and inhale a deep breath to keep myself from bursting out laughing. What the- … Why is she dreaming about Jon consuming things?
"O-okay…" I trail off as my chest vibrates with silent laughter that I just can't seem to hold back. Clary lifts her head up slightly from my chest and glares at me, though amusement hints in her deep-green eyes.
"It's not funny, Mr. I-had-nightmares-about-carnivorous-ducks-until-last-year!" she snaps, trying and failing to scowl up at me as I burst out laughing. After my mind registers what she said though, all amusement leaves my system and I stare down at her with wide eyes.
"That's not even remotely funny, Clare. They ate each other!" I exclaim quietly, my eyes going cloudy with memories of cannibalistic birds. I shudder and pull her closer, pretending not to notice her soft giggling as I block out the horrible images of the beasts of the yellow and feathered.
Eventually, we settle down and find ourselves drifting off into a peaceful sleep; both completely content with being in each other's arms.
Sometime later, I am being shaken awake and out of my serene rest. I blink my eyes groggily open and come face to face with dark-blue eyes and black hair. Alec, my mind registers immediately. I glance down to my chest, where a slight weight is laid, and smile softly at Clary's sleeping form, before moving my gaze back up to Alec. I mouth 'What?' up to him through a yawn, not wanting to wake Clary up.
"Kaelie's on the phone. Apparently, it's 'urgent'. Whatever that means…" he whispers, mumbling the last part to himself and nodding towards the door. I bite my lip and look back down at Clary's peaceful face reluctantly, before sighing and gently laying her down onto my pillows as I get up from the bed. Alec starts towards the door, leaving me to follow after him tiredly. As I go, I glance out of my window and notice that the sun is just starting to set. So it's around 4:00 or 5:00…
I stretch my hands up above my head as I walk down the hall and towards the kitchen, still following Alec. When I enter, he pushes the phone into my hand and exits the room grumpily. He needs to get laid… I look down at the phone, and then after a moment of debating whether or not I should answer it, I sigh and lift the device up to my ear. The phone is Maryse's antique landline, so I hand to move the cord around a couple of times so that it doesn't try to kill me while I'm talking.
"Hello." I state plainly, after I have delayed the inevitable long enough by screwing around with the phone-cord. A high-pitched screech sounds in the background, causing me to move the pone away from my ear with a wince, before Kaelie's annoying voice sounds through the relatively small device. Has she always been this annoying, or is it just me…
"Jacey! I've missed you!" she exclaims, causing me to grimace and clear my throat before speaking.
"Yeah me too, Kay…" I trail off, hoping that she'll start talking. When she doesn't, I sigh and lean against the counter with my head tilted back in agitation. "So, you called…" I trail off again, practically telling her to speak now or I'm going to hang up. She seems to get the point, because she giggles and another screech blares into my ears from the background.
"Sorry, that's just Aline. Shut up. I'm on the phone with Jacey, Ali!" her voice fades slightly, as if she's moved away from the phone and is talking to someone else while still talking to me. Since when did she start calling me 'Jacey'? That's almost worse than 'Jay'. Almost… I roll my eyes as she continues to talk to 'Ali', whoever that is. Wait, doesn't Seb have a cousin named 'Aline'-
"You're taking me out on a date at 7:00. Dinner and a movie. Yay! See you in a couple of hours, Jacey!" Kaelie tells me, successfully bringing my out of my thoughts. I open my mouth to protest that I have plans tonight, hopefully with Clary, but don't get the chance. The dial tone beeps at me and I am just left there to stare dumbly down at the phone in my hand. But I don't want to go on a date with you tonight…
With a sigh and a silent curse, I slam the phone down onto the jack and start towards my room. Maybe spending a couple of hours with Clary will help calm my temper down, just so that I don't explode later tonight and get my shirt ruined with mascara. That stuff's disgusting with a capitol 'D'.
When I'm about to open the door to my room, I see Alec coming out of his in my peripheral and turn around to face him. He looks at me curiously and raises an eyebrow, leaning casually against the doorframe of his door. I bite my lip and blow out a frustrated breath, before thrusting a hand into my hair and deciding to just get it over with.
"Do you think that I could borrow your car later? Kaelie just informed me that we're going on a 'date' at 7:00." I manage to spit out, sounding less than enthused about our 'date'. He stares at me for a moment, before breathing out a disbelieving chuckle as he shakes his head at me.
"You're still with that skan- I mean, 'lovely lady'? Damn, I really thought you and Clary were a thing-" he cuts himself off, noticing my glare, and clears his throat before continuing. "But yeah. Yeah you can use my car. I don't have a social-life anyways…" he mumbles the last part under his breath, disappearing into his room briefly to retrieve his keys. He tosses them to me when he reappears and I catch them easily. "Just don't scratch her. She's my child." He warns me teasingly, before walking in the direction of the kitchen and whistling the 'Tate Langdon whistling song' under his breath as he goes. That kid really needs to get laid… but good song either way…
"Thanks, wonderful brother!" I call after him, hearing his amused chuckle as I enter my room and close the door quietly.
I turn towards my bed and smile at the sight in front of me. Clary is curled up into a ball on top of my comforter and has her hair covering her entire face. I chuckle quietly and make my way over to the bed, sinking down onto the vacant side of it when I get there. I brush the strands of hair off of her face lightly and smile gently down at her when she starts to stir. Her eyes flutter open and she stretches like a kitten as she sits up in my bed.
"Morning." She states, voice groggy and eyes slightly glassy from yawning. I shake my head slightly at her and point to the alarm-clock that sits on my bedside-table.
"More like 'Goodnight'. It's 5:00 at night, Clare." I tell her amusedly, causing her eyes to grow wide. She leaps off of the bed, suddenly wide awake, and starts towards the balcony.
"Shit! I have to go!" she exclaims, pulling open the doors and turning back to me with a smile. "Dad promised pizza tonight." She tells me, excitement clearly visible in her eyes. I furrow my brows at her and stand from the bed, tilting my head to the side in confusion.
"Why does that mean you have to leave, again?" I ask, gazing at her thoughtfully. She grins and shrugs.
"It doesn't, really. I just like hiding Jon's box before he gets any." She tells me. I laugh under my breath and shake my head at her in amusement. I should've known.
You see, Jon and Clary each get their own boxes of pizza whenever their family has pizza. Apparently, they got into a full-on war once because of the last piece of pizza and practically ruined their mom's dishes, so now their parents just buy them each their own box. All's good now, especially for me. Usually, Clary can't eat her entire box, so I end up helping her. Out of the kindness of my heart, of course.
"Well, have fun with that. Bye." I say, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice as I say it. Now I'll have to suffer through Kaelie's endless chatter by myself; all because my best-friend will be indulged in another man. A man named Stuffed–Crust. Damn him.
"I can come over later and we can have a Saw marathon." Clary suggests, noticing my disappointment despite my efforts to keep it concealed. I'll never be able to hide anything from her. Never have, never will. I almost nod vigorously, but then I remember my 'date'. I sigh and smile sadly down at her.
"It would have to be really late. I have a 'date' at 7:00." I tell her, feeling satisfaction bubble up within me when her eyes show disappointment. She bites her lip in thought, and then, after a moment, her eyes brighten up again and she smiles up at me widely.
"Okay. I'll come over after your date and we can have a marathon." She says, causing me to smile down at her from the contagiousness of her smile. "But wait. There's more." She starts after a slight pause, resembling a sale's rep. "I'll text you during your 'date' and keep you entertained. I know that you secretly hate almost everything that your girlfriend spews out of her pie-hole." A devilish glint is in her eyes as she says this, and I can't help but laugh at her childlike excitement about texting me during my date. She looks like she's going to enjoy this more than I'll ever know…
I shrug and nod.
"Okay. Whatever you want, Clare." And with that and one final goodbye, she disappears through the balcony and most likely sprints towards her pizza. And Clary doesn't do running. Like, ever. I chuckle again and flop onto my bed, face up. This'll be interesting…
Hi, guys! There you go. Enjoy!
Cassandra Clare owns all, except for my stuff. :D
I love the Tate Langdon whistling song! I don't actually know what it's called, so… yeah.
Reviews! Thank you so very much for telling me what you think about my story! It makes me so, so, so, so happy! :D
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