Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Mortal Instruments. The series and characters all belong to Cassandra Clare.
My last lesson finishes and I make my way to where I said I would meet Jace. He isn't there yet so I just stand there and wait for him. I can't help how nervous I feel, but try to ignore my nerves as I see him approaching with a group of friends. When he breaks away from them to walk toward me, they all give him wierd looks, but carry on to where they were going anyway. He smiles when he gets to me.
"Hi." he says. "Are you ready to go?"
I nod in reply and we walk outside and into the parking lot. I follow Jace until we come up to the familiar looking Mercedes. We both get in and then he starts up the engine, driving to his house. We are in the car for about 15 minutes, not really talking to eachother until we drive up in front of a castle of a house. It's even bigger than Izzy's... It's huge!
Jace doesn't notice my amazement and gets out of the car, coming over to my side and opening the door, waiting for me to get out. When I do, he locks the car and walks up the mile long front path and up to the double front doors. He opens them to reveal huge grand hallway with high ceilings. The walls are covered in photos of Jace, and who I would assume to be his parents. The pictures are so huge and their frames so magnificent, that I can't help but stop to look at them. Jace hasn't noticed my stopping and carries on ahead.
The first set of pictures are portraits of his parents. His mother is tall and elegant, with shining blue eyes and raven black hair. She is beautiful. When I look at his father, I can tell who Jace takes after. The man in the picture towers over the woman. He has blonde hair, much like Jace's and has an athletic build. He too, is handsome. However, neither one of his parents share his golden eyes.
Moving on, I find a series of pictures of Jace, and soon notice that as the hallway goes on, Jace becomes older in each of the pictures. About halfway, I discover a picture of him. He must be about 10 years old and is in power rangers pyjamas, doing a superhero pose with chocolate ice cream all around his mouth. It's crazy to think of him like this. The picture makes me erupt into a fit of laughter. I am laughing so hard, I'm finding it difficult to breathe. And then out of nowhere, Jace is there in front of me and looking extremely confused.
"What?" he asks, completely baffled. The look on his face is so funny, that all I can do in reply is laugh harder.
"What are you laughing at?" He asks again.
"I...that.." I say out of breath, pointing to where the photo is. He turns around and when he notices what I'm pointing at, he stands in front of it immediately to cover it, and his face starts to turn the lightest shade of pink. My laughter dies into giggles. Jace grabs my arm and pulls me further down the hallway. I still have a smile on my face and while we walk I say
"You shouldn't be embarrassed."
"I wasn't embarrassed." he says defensively. That's Jace, forever defending his pride.
"If you say so." I reply. A smirk on my face.
By now, we have reached a door which Jace opens, and then he goes into the room. I follow him inside. The room is very simple and not very colourful. There is a king size bed in the middle of the room, between a chest of draws and a tall wardrobe. There is a desk opposite the bed. The room is a mix of black and white. For some reason, it's not how I expected his room to be. It seems too...plain. I don't question it though, just go and sit down on the desk chair. He follows suit, sitting on the bed. We sit there for a while, me looking around the room and him looking at me.
"Soo..." he says.
"Soo..."I reply.
"Where should We start?" he asks. I think for a moment.
"Umm, we're about half way through. Right?" he nods and I continue.
"Then... We should start on the topic about envoronmental impacts. Ok?" he nods again, and I can't help but notice how quiet he's being, so try to find out why.
"You're being really quiet. You're not mad at me about laughing at the picture of you.. Are you? 'Cause if it's that y-"
"It's not that." he interrupts, and then looks away from me.
"Then what is it?" I ask. He looks back at me.
"It's just...you confuse so much." he says. He's telling me that I confuse him? What the fuck?
"I confuse you?" I ask, my voice dripping with disbelief.
"Yeah, you're always changing your mind about everything." he says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm sorry, I'm having trouble processing what it is that youre trying to tell me. I change my mind about everything? Says you." I say.
"Ok then." he says. "Give me an example of when I have kept 'changing my mind'." I don't think that he is aware of what he has just dropped himself into.
"Well, for starters, you embarrass me in front of everyone, oh, and then you try to kiss me. Then after that you practically tell me that you're embarrassed to be seen with me, then you try to beat up some guy after I started crying." I take a deep breath after saying this, it feels good to finally get all of this off of my chest.
"I thought we already went over th-" he says, getting up from the bed and approaching me, but i interrupt him, thinking of something else.
"Oh, and I almost forgot, I saw you sucking face with Aline even after you told me what a bitch she was and how disgusted you were at the thought of being her boyfriend."
He walks even closer to me, sighing.
"Seriously? I ca-" and then he stops, a smirk creeping up on his face. This makes me nervous. And then he says
"Are you...jealous?" Fuck.
"I... no, no. Of course I'm not. Why would I be jealous of you and Aline. Pft." I hope that was convincing enough. Was it?
The smirk on his face grows into a grin.
Nope.
He starts walking toward me again, and I keep walking backward until he has me backed up against a wall. Shit.
I put my hands out so that he can't get any closer, but, you know what he does? He grabs my hands and puts them down to my side, leaning extremely closely and whispering in my ear. My breath quickens when he says
"You shouldn't be embarrassed" I pull my hands free, pushing him away from me.
"I'm not." I say, my voice sounding unsteady. He smirks.
"Whatever you say."
For about an hour after this, we do the project, things mostly returning to how they should be with the exception of a few weird glances from Jace, which make me feel really quite uncomfortable, until Jace comes out with the worst question possible.
"So, what did the guy do to you anyway? I knocked him out before he could answer me." I shift in my seat, not looking at him.
"Nothing." I mutter.
"Then, why were you crying?" he asks. And all of the sudden, memories start flooding back to me. The chasing, the yelling, the hitting, the bruises, the cuts, the pain. All of these feelings hit me all at once and I feel a tear roll down my cheek, followed by a couple more. I wipe at them vigorously in hopes that Jace won't notice, but before I know it, he is kneeling at my side.
"Hey, it's ok." he whispers soothingly. I just nod in response, trying to turn away from him but he doesn't let me.
"What is it?" he asks. I shake my head, he can't know about my dad, no one can.
"Wait...is it something I did?" he asks, sounding worried. I just shake my head again, covering my face with my hands, I probably look extremely ugly right now.
He tries to pry my hands from my face, but I don't let him.
"Clary..." he says.
"It's ok, look at me." he says, and I take my hands away. He smiles timidly at me, brushing my hair out of my face.
"That's better." he whispers.
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong now?" I sigh.
"I don't really want to talk about it." I say, my voice wavering.
"Will you be ok?" I nod but he still looks very concerned.
"I'm ok, really. Can we just carry on with the project?" I ask, really wanting this moment to end.
He nods, still looking unconvinced but I take no notice, turning back to the desk to carry on writing.
After about another half an hour, I stand up from my seat, realising that I should probably get home as it's getting late. I look over to Jace.
"I should probably get going." he looks up, nodding.
"Do you want a lift?" he asks, standing up.
I shake my head. "No, I'd rather walk, but thanks for the offer." I smile.
"Ok." he says, gesturing for me to leave the room. "I'll see you out."
I make my way out of the room and down the two massive flights of stairs, before walking down the hallway again and toward the front door, aware of Jace's presence behind me. When I get to the doors, I open one and turn to Jace to see him standing in front of me. He looks me in the eyes.
"Are you sure that you'll be ok?" he asks me again. I sigh.
"Yes." i say.
"Promise?" he asks and I smile reassuringly.
"I promise." I say. And in a moment of boldness, I reach out and wrap my arms around him in a hug.
"Thankyou." I whisper, before turning and rushing out of the door, leaving a stunned Jace staring after me.
That was chapter 11, I hope you like it. Please review, review, review. I will update as soon as I can. Thanks for reading.
-RealReality :D