CPOV
I sluggishly made my way to the hall, my fingers rubbing at my eyelids, when a hand snaked around my waist. Startled, I pulled back to see Sebastian's cheery grin.
"Ugh. It's way too early for cheeriness." I grumbled, my palm pushing his face away from mine effectively. He gave a throaty chuckle before leading me the rest of the way into the hall.
"Hey, there's Iz. Who's the kid next to her?" He questioned. I looked up, following his line of sight, noting a boy with glasses.
"Don't know, but let's go find out," I said, yanking his arm to start moving. "Hey Iz." I smiled, sitting down across from her, Sebastian taking position next to me.
"Clary! Oh this is Simon! Simon, this is Clary," she pointed to me, "and that's Sebastian," her finger moving in his direction. I gave him a smile and nod, as Iz launched into how they met. "I would have introduced you to him earlier, but you all disappeared that night. You know, when we went to that club. I was sitting there sipping on my juice, when I spot Simon sitting across from me." Her eyes had this dreamy, faraway look, and I couldn't help but snort, earning me a pointed look.
"It's nice to finally put a face to your name," Simon spoke. "Iz has been filling me in on who's cool, and who's not." He laughed.
"I hope I'm one of the 'cool ones.'" I joked, joining in on the laughter. We continued with our light banter, and I learnt that Simon was a contemporary dancer. I was talking animatedly with Simon about his dancing history, when Iz suddenly went quiet. Her eyes focused on something behind me, a slight scowl on her face. Confused, I slowly turned my head to see what caused that reaction. What I saw was nothing to be expected.
"Jace?" I offered, too stunned to say anything else. There he stood, nervously shifting from one foot to another. The bundle of flowers held in his hand didn't go amiss.
"Uhm, hey Clary," he began quietly. "Look, I'm really sorry for everything. The way I've acted and all that," he said with a slight frown on his face. "But I really do want you to take me up on that offer…" My mind shifted to that morning he asked me out.
"Wh-a-a-t?" I stuttered. Darn my incoherency right now.
"Please say yes..." He said, stuffing the flowers in my face.
"I was meaning to talk to you about everything when I had the chance – " I started as I took the flowers from his hands.
"Then what better time than on our date?" He interjected. "Say yes, or you leave me with no choice." He grinned cockily then. I raised my eyebrows in challenge, placing the flowers on the table and getting out of my seat to stand before him, my arms crossed in front of my chest. Jace reached behind me to grab my chair, and his closeness took me off guard for a moment. He flashed me another dimply and impish grin, before pulling the chair in front of him. Going to stand on it, my hand flew to my mouth.
"Could I please have everyone's attention?" He bellowed. Every conversation within the hall died, as pair upon pair of eyes, glanced this way. "Great. Well, my name is Jace for all of you who don't know, and this pretty little lady down here," he waved towards me, "is Clary. Now I need your help to convince her to say yes to go out on a date with me." I glanced around warily, as soft murmuring went around the place. Girls seemed to shoot daggers at me, while the boys grinned at the situation. I could hear a slight gasp from the table behind me, and it didn't take a genius to guess that it was Iz.
Suddenly, an eruption of cheers sounded from all the males within the hall, and I couldn't help the embarrassment from colouring my cheeks. Wolf whistles joined in on the cheering, and I felt my face get much hotter. I looked back to Jace, who was now smiling down at me, his eyes filled with mischief.
"Jace!" I hissed. "What are you doing?" It sounded like a whine.
He didn't back down, and I couldn't help the scowl on my face, before I yelled.
"Fine!" I huffed, my arms coming up to show my exasperation. "Yes." I added meekly.
"She said yes!" He shouted, and further cheers came from the males, however, I could almost hear hissing and 'hmphs' coming from the females. I held back a groan as he came down from the chair, a triumphant smile on his face.
"This Friday. 6:00pm. No buts. I'll come get you." With that, he strode away, and everyone returned to their own conversations. I stood stock still for a while, not yet daring to look at my friends at the table behind me.
"What just happened?" Iz asked. I spun around, shrugging as a response.
"I really don't know." I shook my head, and went to sit down again.
"I thought Aline and Jace were together." Iz looked at me perplexed.
"Yeah, so did I. But they both told me that they really were just friends. They said that they never denied the dating rumour for convenience." Iz pondered for a moment, and shrugged at my explanation.
"Well, it looks like my brother is quite keen on you, then." She winked at me. I had all but forgotten about Sebastian, when I felt him tense up beside me. I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye, and noted that he was grimacing. He looked upset.
"You okay?" I whispered to him.
"Dandy." Was his response, before he got up to leave the table. I stared at his retreating form with disbelief.
"I think someone's a little jealous." Iz said in a sing-song manner. I rolled my eyes at her.
"We're just friends."
She just gave me a knowing smile, and returned her attention to Simon. I sat in silence for the rest of the morning, pushing the gnawing feeling that Iz was right.
Really appreciating all the reviews and notifications of people liking this story, so thanks very much! I'll see you next time for Jace and Clary's date! ;)
The idea for this chapter is all thanks to Angel-Gone-Bad, so props to her!