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"What time are you working until today?" Jocelyn asked as she stopped by Clary's doorway. Clary looked into the reflection in the mirror where she was putting on her eyeliner and shrugged.
"I think about four," she replied.
"And are you coming straight home? Or are you going to that bar again?" The sentence sounded a little terse and Clary sighed as she looked back at her reflection to finish off her eye makeup and she turned around to face her mother.
"I'll come straight home," she said as she grabbed her shoes from the corner of the room and kissed her mother on the cheek. "I could even start dinner, since I'm going to be home before you. If, ya know, you're all goods with a frozen pizza." Jocelyn gave her a smirk as she squeezed Clary's arm and nodded. "Okay, have a good day at work, mum."
"Oh, baby?" Jocelyn called out as Clary reached the end of the hallway and was bending down to pat each of her cats one at a time before leaving. "How well do you know Jace?" Clary frowned and looked back over her shoulder.
"I don't," she said nonchalantly. "I just saw him at the bar last night."
"So he's not the guy that you had a date with him the other night?"
"No," Clary scrunched up her nose. "No way."
"Why do you say it like it's such a bad thing?" Jocelyn raised an eyebrow. "He seems like a nice boy, and he's cute too."
"He's fucking hot, mum," Clary corrected her with a half smile. "But that's not the point. He's an asshole." Jocelyn smirked.
"Then maybe he's just the kind of guy to balance out your bitchiness," she fired back and Clary rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, whatever. Love you, mum," she said, her voice sugary before she spun on her heel and headed out the door. She drove to work slowly, tapping her fingers against the wheel of the car to the music coming out of her speakers. Of course Jocelyn now wanted her to take up with the Golden Boy, because he just so happened to be the guy who was helping her with her car and he seemed all gentlemanly bringing her bag back. It wasn't exactly like Jocelyn to push her toward someone—anyone, actually—she had always told Clary to finish her University degree and then get as far away from their life as possible to start fresh.
She guessed that had kind of happened now.
She had just finished her degree before this had all happened, and in a way, they had moved away and started fresh.
Maybe Jocelyn thought that it would make her happier if she started seeing someone.
To be honest, she didn't want to see anyone. Or, if she had the choice to see anyone, it wouldn't be romantically. It would be her brother.
"Clary!" Simon greeted her as she walked in the front door, a grin on his face. "Missed you yesterday."
"I definitely didn't miss this place," Clary grinned at him as she walked behind the counter and into the kitchen area. Aline was serving a customer but she shot Clary a smile by way of 'hello' before going back to the couple in front of her. Clary pulled off her jacket and hooked it behind the door going into the staff room and then raised her eyebrows when she saw a sealed box with her name scrawled over it sitting on the staff room table. "Hey, Simon?" She took a step out of the staff room and looked over at the fry cook. "What's this?"
"I don't know," Simon shrugged. "It was here when I got here." Clary felt a sense of dread dawn over her and she swallowed hard as she looked back at the box.
To any normal person, the box was exactly what it looked like. A box.
Unfortunately, when Clary was nine, she had opened a box that looked a whole lot like this one that had shown up outside the front door of them.
Inside had been a severed finger and a bunch of photos of a man that Clary knew as Uncle Ben being tortured. Her father had ripped the box away from her, and had disappeared for almost a week after that. When he returned, he had Uncle Ben, but Clary had never really been able to look at him the same again.
"Why don't you open it?" Simon asked, suddenly appearing behind Clary and jolting her forward with shock. His eyebrows shot up as he looked her up and down, clearly taken aback by the frightened look on her face, the color drained. "What's wrong?" He asked her, frowning.
"I, uh," Clary rubbed her hand over her face and tried to force a smile. "Nothing. I'm just tired." That seemed to reassure Simon and he let out a laugh.
"You just had a day off," he shook his head before turning back to head toward the stove. "Good luck." Clary nodded at him before looking back at the box. She could just leave it, but then her co-workers would ask her why she didn't open it because it was human nature; you get a package, you open it as soon as you can.
It couldn't be her father, or any of his men.
Surely.
Clary took in a deep breath and walked over to the box, hooking her fingers in the cello-tape and ripping it up. Her frown deepened and her chin jerked up in surprise.
"What the fuck?" She muttered as she reached into the box and pulled out the shiny, plastic tiara, complete with a couple of pretty pink diamantes. There was a scrap of paper attached, with scratchy handwriting that had to belong to a male. She squinted to read it, and then let out a laugh in disbelief.
Always preferred this one over that Frozen shit. Didn't get the hype around it.
Eugene is the man, plain and simple.
Underneath the tiara was a DVD, one of her favorite movies. Tangled.
"You got a movie? Who got you a Disney movie?" Aline appeared in the doorway her and reached over to snatch the DVD from her. "I love this one!"
"Yeah, uh, it's a good one," Clary quickly got it back of her and shoved it into the box. Aline raised her eyebrows but shrugged.
"Alright, babes, well I've been on since six, so it's your turn to take over!"
Jace licked his lower lip and tried to control the whoosh of breath that he released from his lungs. He had cooked dinner for himself and Kaelie when he had gotten home from work, and then she had dragged him into the lounge and onto the couch, turning on the TV to some show that she was obsessed him. It was full of fake tans and white trash accents and Jace was bored within the first couple of minutes, but he let her keep it going while his mind wandered.
Clary.
What the hell was he doing with her?
She pissed him off.
But he had no idea why.
It had something to do with that way she looked at him as though she could see right through him, and she really wasn't interested in what she saw. The first time they saw each other, there had been a flicker of appreciation, but he just saw her as what she looked like at face value.
A spoilt little rich girl.
Kind of like Kaelie.
His mother had been killed by a drunk driver, and it made him irrationally angry every time he saw someone coming out of the bar in town and stumble toward their car. He barely ever got drunk himself, and when he was the designated driver, he always drove stone cold sober, he didn't even have a beer or two, though he knew he would be perfectly okay. Not that he had anything against people drinking in general—he loved it when Izzy got drunk, and same with Alec. They were hilarious. And Kaelie always got adventurous when she was drunk, so that was a plus as well.
And then the second time he saw her, he had just had one of his multiple run ins with Sebastian at the car yard. He had been telling their father that he wanted more responsibility around the place, that he wanted a managers position, just like Jace. Except he didn't want any of the duties that came with the role. They ended up in a shouting match that resulted in Jace storming out of the place and finding himself at the supermarket. When he was stressed out, he cooked. That's what calmed him down. Clary had come bouncing over to him in the car park, all hesitant smiles and offers of coffee, and he had shut her down.
Things had just sort of spiraled down from there, and he had realized that he made quite a big mistake in writing her off, because she was definitely not the kind of girl he had first thought she was.
"Are you paying attention?" Kaelie asked, stretching out and looking up at Jace. He forced a smile and nodded, running his fingers through her hair as he tried to concentrate on the TV. But his head just kept drifting back to the kiss in the alley behind the bar, and just the way that his skin had buzzed when he was sitting close to her in his lounge. And how every nerve ending in his body felt like it was bursting to life when he had caught a glimpse of her changing in the lingerie shop and when she had been in the gym, using the punching bag.
Jace let his fingers move from Kaelie's hair and down her back, reaching the curve of her ass and sliding underneath the shirt that she was wearing. Kaelie responded the way he hoped she would, turning over so that she was on her side and pushing herself up on her elbow to reach for his mouth.
The kiss was a little sloppy and awkward from the angle, but then, when Jace thought about it—which he really shouldn't be doing, because he was making out with a beautiful girl—all kisses with Kaelie were kind of...Off. She either used too much tongue, or not enough, and it felt nothing like when he had been kissing Clary. In fact, he had kissed a lot of girls—a lot—and none of them had felt as good as when he had been kissing Clary.
She had the perfect give and take, letting him invade her mouth before she was pushing back and trying to control the kiss, and then allowing him to take over again.
"Baby?" Kaelie pulled away from him and frowned.
"What's wrong?" Jace asked, acting clueless, even though he knew exactly what was wrong. He definitely wasn't giving her his full attention and girls knew things like that. Even ones like Kaelie. She raised an eyebrow at him and he gave her a soothing smile, reaching down to kiss her again. She shifted onto his lap and rocked herself back and forth. By the time she was stripping out of her skirt and lowering herself on his cock, he had managed to push thoughts of the red head out of his mind.
Mostly.
Okay, okay, sooooo the songs this time aaaare ; Reforget and The Other, by Lauv. I found these about two weeks ago and I've just been listening to them non-stop ever since. I'm completely head over fucking heels for them. Then there's Soldier by Samantha Jade, Don't Let Me Down by Chainsmokers and Lover, Fighter by SVRCINA. Those last three have all been on repeat every time I get in my car, completely in love with them.
Let me know what songs you guys are addicted to at the moment! Please, please, please! I love your suggestions.
Another thing; I find it really, really, really hard to find fics that I enjoy and keep my attention. I haven't actually read any Clace, other than stories I've been previously following, in a few months, I've become totally obsessed with the Teen Wolf fandom and, of course, Captain America. But I came across one called Picking a God by IosoIUno and it's ah-mah-zing. Check it out. Also if you guys have any good story recommendations, let me know.
Aaaaand, please let me know what you guys thought of the chapter :) Your reviews make me ridiculously happy and they're what keep me writing. And for every signed in review I'll send out a preview xx