Yikes. My internet has been down for quite a few days (I don't know how I survived!) cutting off my access to the ability to post any chapters.
But, more importantly, we've reached 100 followers! (In case you can't tell, I'm pretty excited!) Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone.
Wheeee (Guest): Hope you enjoy!
hellen (Guest): Sorry it took so long, I'm hoping you catch this update!
brightdarknessx: You'll find out very shortly; in this chapter, in fact. Thank YOU for the reviews and reading!
Amilee Rose (Guest): One of them will, so you got what you wanted! I think one of the dates from Jace's POV in more detail sounds like a great idea!
Guest: I hope he can, too.
Guest: Hopefully!
Guest: I think it gets better, but that's up for you to decide!
: He didn't know the whole time, but the way he found hasn't been disclosed yet. The act of them being together (I think the direct from quote is "You mean the act of being together- as- as a couple.") Meaning, Clary challenged Jace by saying she was able to pretend that she liked him (even though we know it wasn't fake) and that he wouldn't be able to do it as well as she did. Jace gets annoyed at the implication and pushes back, basically saying that they should settle it once and for all with a competition to see who can fake it for longer without having people suspect. Hope I cleared things up a little!
anglewithashotgun: Thank you!
Sunway: I hope they will! Do you reckon you'd be able to forgive someone if they did that to you? And thank you!
Meeeeeee (Guest): Your reviews are freaking hilarious. And thanks so much! (And really, I wouldn't mind reading a four page rant).
Clary was numb coming away from the argument. She felt icy, as though the blood in her veins had frozen and moved sluggishly through her veins. As she sat through her remaining classes, mechanically taking notes and sitting silently, she couldn't help the one thought that dominated the rest.
I have to win.
After school, she met Jonathan in the student parking lot, getting in the car as soon as it was unlocked and staring stonily out the front windshield.
"What's up with you?" Jonathan asked as he hurled his backpack onto the back seat with a noisy thump and started the car.
"Nothing." Clary muttered.
Jonathan glanced in the rear-vision mirror as he reversed, seemingly taking his focus off his sister. "All right, I'll bite. What's he done this time?"
Clary spluttered. "Who?" She forced out, knowing full well whom he was talking about. Jon was much more insightful than she gave him credit for.
He took his eyes off the road for a second to give her a look, one that said nice try and tell me in a single expression. Clary sighed and relented. "I had a fight with Jace." She said, struggling to creep her voice neutral.
"Is that all?" Jonathan sounded almost relieved. "I was worried it was something serious."
She crossed her arms and stared out the window. If that was what he wanted to think, she wasn't going to tip him off that it was serious.
After a few moments of quiet, she could practically hear the cogs in his mind clicking and rolling under his fair hair. "Jace was acting like more of a cocky bastard after lunch today."
Clary stiffened.
"You didn't happen to fight with him during lunch, did you?"
She didn't confirm or negate the question, but it didn't matter. He was already moving on. "What did he say in drama? It was something like 'I don't even need to take this class. I'll get enough real life experience over the next few weeks'. Strange. Clary," Jonathan sounded suspicious. "How serious was this fight?"
"It wasn't that serious, really. He was acting like an idiot." She lied, hoping he wouldn't question her on the tremble of her shoulders or the tightness of her jaw.
They pulled into their driveway, Clary pushing her door open almost before Jonathan stopped the car. "Hey." He called after her. "Whatever he did, he'll make up for it. He won't just leave you upset like this."
That would be all good and well if he'd been the one doing the hurting, she thought.
Arms encircled her waist from behind. Soap and sunshine drifted around the entryway of her house, making a path to her nose, and she inhaled the scent. "Guess who." A voice murmured in her ear, his lips brushing against the top of it.
Clary tapped her chin as if in deep thought. "I don't know." She said, leaning back into him. "Who might it be?"
She could feel the wry smile take over Jace's face. "Your one and only, the best boyfriend in the world, the school sex god. Any of those is good."
Clary felt her heart skip a beat. Your boyfriend. Somehow, it seemed all of the tension in the air between them had been erased, wiping clean their relationship for a fresh start. "What about 'the most modest person in the world'?" She teased. "I think that has a good ring to it."
His lips pressed against her neck, making her shiver. "Mm, I still think 'sex god' is better."
Clary laughed, turning in the circle of his arms to face him. She dropped a quick kiss on his mouth, not wanting to be late for school, but Jace was clearly unhappy with the chasteness. She shook her head. "Come on, we have to go."
"Such responsibility. How would I get to school on time without you?"
She laughed. "Izzy would be on your back, telling you to hurry up."
He unlocked her front door and opened it for her as he made a face. "I love you." He said, all traces of joking gone from his voice.
"I love you, too." She whispered.
Clary's alarm went off, so she started patting around her bedside table for the snooze button.
She groaned. She distinctly remembered moving her clock to the other side of the room so she wouldn't be able to hit the snooze.
Jonathan's voice echoed from the kitchen. "Turn that thing off!"
Yeah, yeah. Clary rolled over, shoving her pillow over her head. Maybe she'd get to see Jace today, exchange one of those dream kisses for real.
Wait.
Jace had found out, she was trying to win a bet, and none of those kisses could ever be real.
What a lovely shock of reality to wake up to.
Clary arrived at school in a foul mood. The sky split open as she was walking, emptying buckets of water onto her previously dry clothes. Sopping wet, she trekked through the halls to her locker, rerouting through the halls to avoid Jace's even though it meant walking for an extra ten minutes.
To her surprise and annoyance, the very person she was trying to evade was standing in front of her locker. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. Pasting a huge smile on her face, she flung her arms around Jace.
He stumbled slightly but returned her embrace without hesitation. His grin looked as fake as her own. "I'm going to let you get away with hugging me while you're soaking, but only because I love you."
Clary retracted her arms after a few seconds. "Aw, I love you, too, boo."
His sharp gaze burrowed into her back and she could practically feel him raising his eyebrows at the endearment. Spinning around, she put a hand on his arm, ignoring the flex of his muscles under her fingers. He grinned.
So he was trying to throw her off her game. Fantastic.
If she didn't win this, she would never get an opportunity to make things right with him. Even though a tiny corner of her heart believed that there was a chance for them, her brain squashed the false hope.
Lying up in bed last night, she'd gone over it all in her mind. For at least an hour, she switched places with Jace; he had made a deal with a girl to break her heart to save himself.
Clary wouldn't have forgiven him. She didn't blame him for acting the way he did. But she couldn't stop cursing herself for not saying the right thing to Sebastian in the first place. As in, screw you; I don't care what people think.
I wouldn't break his heart for all the money in the world.
She sucked in a huge breath until it felt like her chest might break open. There was a solution to all this. Not a solution that would make Jace forgive her, or a solution that would ease her guilt, but a solution that might show him how sorry she was.
Jace was still standing in front of her, a questioning gaze fixed on her face. "I might see you later." She said, slamming her locker door and hoping to all that was holy that this would work.
Clary pushed through the halls with determined energy. A new, pulsing anger had filled her head, but it was directed at Sebastian.
Just as she was about to give up and find him later, she caught the characteristic smirk out of the corner of her eye.
"Sebastian," she yelled over the din of the corridor. "The deal's off. I don't care what you do with that photo."
His face showed pure shock for about three seconds. This wasn't what he expected me to do, she realized with satisfaction. He thought I was too weak to throw it in his face and walk away.
"You don't get it, do you? You thought that I was an easy way to Jace and that's all I was. You didn't think about me as a person, as someone who might feel something after spending all that time with someone."
He schooled his features into what was obviously meant to be an intimidating glare and opened his mouth to speak, but Clary cut him off, vindicated. "Just because you don't have any feelings other than hate doesn't mean other people are the same. In fact, I would go as far to say that no one is as heartless as you, dickhead. You thought you could mess with people's lives? You thought you could play with us like we were some stupid game, easy to pack up with no consequences and a smile on your face?" She took a step forward. "I don't think I need to tell you that you were wrong."
Clary turned on her heel and spoke over her shoulder, succumbing to a childish urge. "Basically, you suck."
Isabelle stood nearby, grinning. "You are my hero." She said, slinging an arm around Clary's shoulders and squeezing. "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen anyone do."
She shrugged, jostling Izzy's arm. "I pretty much told Sebastian to piss off, which is just going to annoy him. It actually might have been quite stupid."
Isabelle shook her head. "You're not downgrading what you just did. It was awesome, and now the whole school loves you."
Clary glanced around. Some of the girls were throwing her smiles, guys looking at her with new respect. She'd gone from being invisible to a blip on the high school radar. "Yeah, but I don't really care." Now that the anger had departed her, all that was left was an empty tiredness. "I don't feel great." She said to Izzy. "I'm going to the nurse to see if she'll send me home."
"I'll come with you." She said straight away.
Clary laughed. "Okay, but don't blame me if you're late to class."
"Never!" She said dramatically, throwing her arm out and nearly catching a freshman in the chest.
"Good job." Clary said to her. "Scaring innocent freshman before they've even done anything to you is not the correct behaviour, missy."
Isabelle protested. "He was the one who got in the way of my arm!"
A real laugh escaped Clary's mouth. "I doubt he could've avoided your flying arm, but if that's how you want to think of it, whatever."
Her grin faded as she caught sight of Jace. "I'll be back in a second." She mumbled to Izzy.
"Jace." She said a little sadly. He turned in surprise, looking confused. "Where did you hurry off to?" He asked.
"It doesn't matter." She watched his face crease in puzzlement. "I came to tell you you're out of acting."
He didn't say anything, just stood there, watching her carefully.
"I told Sebastian I wouldn't do it, okay? So now he'll put the photo up online, and I'll be humiliated, but at least you're getting away unhurt. I understand if you don't want to talk to me, but I'm not orchestrating it so we'll never have to see each other. And you don't have to listen to my explanation."
His voice was harsh. "You're backing out."
Clary nodded, spinning in the opposite direction and bolting before he could see the tears welling in her eyes.
So the all bets are off. Will Jace forgive her? Will Clary forgive herself?
Let me know!