Hey! Sorry it's been a little while, but I wanted to have the next chapter completely written before posting this one. It's kinda long and I ended up cutting/condensing a lot of the actual party. Originally there was quite a bit more partying and antics happening, but in the end it just seemed kinda weird and I wanted to get to better things so I cut it out. Here is the end result. Let me know what you think!
(also super thanks to Ash IWriteNaked for being a wonderful beta and just a generally kickass person. Go check out her stories. They rock.)
also on a completely unrelated note, I got a few tiny succulent plants and a tiny cactus this week and they're so cute and I love them with all my heart. One of the succulents is called like a low-hanging pearl or something so I named it Earl. And the other succulent has these cute tiny leaves so I named him Leaf Erikson. And then I named the cactus Cactus Jack Sparrow. I love tiny plants. They're so cute. (I posted pictures on my twitter. If you want to see my tiny adorable plants then go look up *coffeemugged) (i tried to do an at sign and it wouldn't let me so its an asterisk instead) (there's also a hyerlink on my bio if you want to do that instead bc its easier) (there are so many parentheses).
I can see how overwhelmed Clary is from across the room. She meets my eyes and she seems to calm down just a little bit, throwing me a small smile and a mouthing of the words, "Hey, Jace." I wave back and she resumes her wandering of the room.
It looks like she's trying to introduce herself to everyone in the room, but she's going about it all the wrong way. She's seeking them out and then trying to start full conversations with each of them. She's gotta be quick about this kind of thing, like I am. I went around as quickly as I could and just shared names with each of them.
First was Aline, the Chinese girl with the sleek black hair and the playful brown eyes. She seemed nice enough, and I can tell that Eric seems to be pretty into her by the way his eyes follow her ass as she walks.
Then there was that Elias guy. He was a little bit shorter than me, and he was very obviously flaunting his tattooed wings on his back. I am not quite so keen about the way he keeps eyeing Clary. In fact, my jaw clenches just thinking about it. He'd better back off.
After Elias I met Simon's three bandmates: Kirk, Matt and Eric. They functioned almost as one person, and all complemented each other well. They explained to me that the lead singer, Tyler, was unable to make it, but that they were all a little bit glad. Apparently he has a loud personality and an extreme sense of vanity.
After that I spoke to Lily, who is quite hard to miss seeing as she has the fucking American flag dyed into her hair. Jesus Christ. She also seemed like kind of a bitch, but oh well. Nobody's perfect, I guess.
Then there's Raphael. The guy with all the chicken. I love that guy. He is at least a head and a half shorter than me, but he packs a lot of fun into one little man.
Ugh. There was the tall, leggy blonde named Camille who had backed me up to a wall and tried to whisper something into my ear before I managed to get away from her. She was very annoying, and although I'm not one to hate on girls very often, it was like she was asking for me to. She keeps winking at me and swaying her hips whenever I'm near. Yuck.
There's Catarina, the coffee skinned girl with the bright blue hair. She seems nice, and she has this strange effect on you, where you go to talk to her and it instantly calms you down. Her voice is low and soothing. She would be an excellent narrator for a mystery novel audiobook. I like her.
If my bitch alarm went off for Camille, then the bitch alarm exploded in a shower of sparks and shards of glass when I talked to Maia. She was shallow and moody and very rude. The first thing she said to me was something about how she hated it here, and that she thought Clary was a freak. I then made it clear that I had no interest in talking to her anymore.
Bat is the guy with the huge scar on his cheek. He seems pretty intimidating, too. He stands two or three inches taller than me and he's got a leather jacket on. I can't top that. He said something about being a DJ, which is cool too. He was lusting after Maia though like no one I've ever seen.
Last but not least was the highschooler, Maureen. When asked how she got in here, she said something about overhearing Simon talking to one of his bandmates about the party. She seems a little off-kilter, and laughs just a little too loudly at everything. Her eyes are constantly drifting to Simon and it looks like he's doing everything in his power to avoid her. She's blonde as well, although hers is more of a platinum than a yellow, and slides down her back in stick-straight locks.
Now after introductions with everyone, I'm free for the rest of the night. I only have to interact with the people I want to. And right now, the first on my mind is Clary.
I am sufficiently drunk.
My tongue feels thick and my tummy feels very warm and I feel like I am radiating energy off of my whole body like the sun baby thing in Teletubbies. I am the Teletubbies sun baby. That is my true identity.
I'm not quite sure how I found myself in the center of the makeshift moshpit in the middle of my living room where my couch and chairs used to be. But I did. The lights are all off and some people took the flashing LED lights off their bicycles and propped them in various spots, making for some kind of strobelight dealio.
Elias is like on my ass. And frankly I am surprised because I did not invite him to be there.
I can see Eric trying to cozy up with Aline over there across the room, even though she does not seem particularly interested. That highschooler chick on the other hand keeps running her hand on Simon's chest like she's trying to wash something out of it. I haven't seen Jordan in a while, but I'm sure he's fine. Camille had been hanging on Jace all night, but only a moment ago she walked out the door looking pissed.
Eric across the room starts to grind harder against a frustrated-looking Aline. Finally, she turns around and smacks her hands against his chest, effectively pushing him away.
"What's wrong baby? You wanna get out of here?" I can barely hear him over the loud music, but I'm pretty sure that's what he says.
She huffs loudly in return, and all the eyes in the room seem to hone in on the altercation. Raphael even turns down the music.
"What's wrong baby?" Eric asks, apparently not noticing the attention they are gathering.
"First of all, I am not your baby!" Aline says to him. She doesn't sound necessarily angry, more just frustrated and mocking. Maybe a little angry.
When she starts again, she is yelling quite exasperatedly. "Second of all, I am a huge lesbian!"
She veers around and locks eyes with Lily, the American-flag-hair girl, and pulls her in for an extremely heated kiss. I cheer loudly, and soon everyone else is too, except for Eric who looks sheepish and embarrassed. The two break apart and smile widely at each other and start dancing together to the music that Bat turns right back up.
Elias's hands trail a path down my waist and over my hips and his mouth moves to my neck. He starts to suck on the angle of skin where my neck meets my shoulder and I can feel his teeth grazing the spot.
Suddenly I am overheated and uncomfortable and I feel like I need air. I turn myself around, red curls fanning out as I do so, and put my hands flat against his chest.
"Nope-ity nope nope nope, Mister," I tell him. Jesus, I have had more to drink than I thought.
His brows knit forward on his forehead and he looks at me for a long moment. "You sure?" he asks. His hips are angled inward at mine and his hands are rested at the curve of my waist.
"I'm sure," I reply, tapping my hands once against his chest for good measure.
He gives me an okay and turns to swim through the mini crowd.
I scan the crowd until my eyes find Jace again, and he's looking right back at me. He's got a warm, lazy smile and his arms look like a very comfortable place to curl up and sleep in. He's still wearing his "Suck It And See" T-shirt and the way he's looking at me kind of makes me want to.
Who am I kidding? It's making me really want to.
I walk over to him and interlace my hands around his neck. He smiles down at me and I smile widely back. "How's it going, 2001: A Jace Odyssey?" I ask him. That was a really terrible pun.
"That was a terrible pun," he echoes my thoughts. But he says it with a shake of laughter in his chest and I am warm and bubbling and so happy and he is here and he's cute and I lean my head on his shoulder.
I can feel him breathe in the scent of my shampoo and I hope it smells okay. It's supposed to smell like strawberries, but I don't know that the scent is coming through.
"How about The Curious Jace of Benjamin Button?" I ask, trying again with the pun.
"I want to answer whatever your question just was," Jace says from his spot tangled in my hair, "but I can't seem to think straight enough to figure out what you said. Your hair just smells like strawberries and you and your arms are around my neck and you're really cute and it's a lot to process."
I suck in a sharp breath and skip a beat, trying to process that. "Clary?" he asks, after a long few moments of silence. "Shit, did I just ruin it?" Another few beats of unpalatable silence before, "Clary? Please say something."
"You think I'm cute?" They're the only words that can make it past my heavy tongue and thumping heart. If my head wasn't still lying against his shoulder, my lips so close to his ear, the words surely would have been lost in the pounding bass of the music. My voice is squeaky and sounds silly even to my own ears.
Jace laughs and it shakes my head against his shoulder. I lift my head up to look at him. "Yes, Clary," he says. "I think you are very cute. You are like the cutest person in the room." I blush at his words and smile down at my socks. "Especially when you blush and look down at your feet like that."
"Okay, what kind of cute are we talking here, though? Like, little-sister-cute? Or like cute-cute."
"Like, want-to-kiss-cute. No, like, want-to-kiss-until-I-can-no-longer-breathe-cute," Jace continues to smile as he talks.
"Well, I think you're pretty cute yourself, Jace," I tell him as I bite my bottom lip into a smile.
And suddenly, stupidly, I want to show him the drawing I made of him the other day. And then I want to sit on my bed and draw him a million different times and a million different ways until I can finally capture him in all his glory.
"Come here," I say as I take his hand and lead him behind me. "Follow me." I left my sketchbook on my nightstand and I really want him to see it now. I can still feel the effects of the alcohol warming my veins and it's making me very happy. We snake through the kitchen towards the hallway and I snag a bottle of marshmallow flavored vodka on the way. It is almost full and the bottle feels cold in my hand, such a contrast to the warmth of my bones. The door to my room is closed at the end of the hallway, so I put my hand against the handle. I turn around to see Jace looking at me.
"There's something I want to show you," I tell him. He nods at me, and I twist open the door.
I drop the bottle and scream. Loudly. Like louder than I've ever screamed at anything ever in my life I'm pretty sure.
However drunk I was before, I sure sober up quickly, because this is something that I hope to never ever see again for the rest of my life as long as I live.
"Clary?" Jordan yells, from his spot above Maia. She's crouching on her hands and knees and he's hunched behind her and they're naked and they're sweaty and Jordan has several bite marks on his chest and scratches run down Maia's back and this is something that I will never ever unsee and I feel like I'm going to vomit.
"Oh God, Jordan," is all Jace seems to be able to say.
Jordan Kyle is fucking Maia Roberts in my bed. My fucking bed.
I have half a mind to go in there and scream at them and slap the shit out of the both of them. But Jace takes action instead by closing the door and ushering me out of the hallway, then the living room, then the front door.
"Whatever you wanted to show me obviously can wait," Jace says.
"I think I'm going to vomit," I say. "And not from the vodka."
Jace walks me the short few steps over to his front door and opens it wide. I am suddenly aware that this is the first time I'll see Jace's place. And that my knuckles are turning white from the grip I still have on this marshmallow vodka. And that I just saw Jordan fucking Maia from behind in my bed.
Jace ushers me in the door of his flat and turns on the lights. Somehow it is both completely out of left field, and exactly what I was expecting. Everything is very plain. The walls are painted the same coin color that mine were when I first moved in, and his furniture is all white. It makes for a very minimalist, modern look. Quite the opposite of my deep color plaids and yellow painted kitchen.
The simplicity of my surroundings helps calm me down, and though he doesn't have many windows (at least not as many as I do) I can see the steady falling of the rain outside, and the unique white light that it casts down helps calm me down as well.
I slowly walk around the room and take things in. There are a few pictures in frames along one of the shelves installed in the wall. I see a picture of him with Alec and Isabelle in front of the Space Needle that looks pretty recent. There's also a picture of him and Alec looking about a decade younger, in soccer jerseys, the deep blue of them the same color as Alec's eyes. The way the two of them are posed in such a staged manner, and the unusual brightness of the grass they're kneeling on betrays the obvious effort to disguise the fact that this is a professional shot.
There's a picture of him and Izzy tickling each other under a banner that reads "Happy 16th". Whose 16th birthday it is, I'm not sure. But the scene is adorable all the same. Both of them are practically giddy looking and Jace's eyes are bright and playful in the light of the camera's flash. Then there a few of him with a boy who is gangly and awkward and has unruly black hair and big glasses. There are three pictures of him with this kid (who I can only assume is Max) spaced pretty far apart date-wise. One when Max appears to be about seven, then another about ten or eleven, and one which I assume is present day, and Max couldn't be any older than sixteen.
"That's Max," Jace says from above my shoulder, confirming my guess.
I turn around and smile up at his face, which smiles down at me in return. His grin just continues to grow until it takes up so much of his face that it must hurt. But it is so genuine and warm and friendly that it spreads like a contagion. My tummy lights up with the dancing wings of butterflies, all different colors and sizes and I bite my tongue in my wide smile in an effort to quell them somehow.
"Did you know, Miss Clary Fray," Jace begins, and puts his arms to either side of me against the wall, caging me in like a bird. "I happen to like you. Very much. I want to just sweep you off your tiny sock feet and kiss you every time I see you." There is no hope of quelling the butterflies anymore, and they are exploding in my gut like tiny fireworks.
"Well, Lightwood. It's not like you can just waltz in and steal my heart. I mean, I have a multitude of suitors already. I'm afraid you'll have to pick a number," I tease him.
"Okay," Jace says. "I'll pick a number." He reaches up into the air and pretends to draw a little number slip like he's at the ice cream shop. He inspects his invisible number, then holds it out to me as though there's something there I'm supposed to see. "I got 69."
I scoff and swat at his chest playfully. "Are you in seventh grade?" I ask him. "Pick a new one."
He makes a whole show of drawing another number and then holds it out for me again. "This must be broken, because now I got 420."
"It's not broken," I assure him, "it's just that you took so long picking the second number three hundred fifty new hot men vying for my attention showed up and got in line ahead of you." He smiles widely and breathes for a long moment. He puts more of his weight into his arms and leans up on his toes to bend in towards me.
"I very much want to kiss you, Clary Fray," Jace says, inching closer to me as he does. He hovers against my caged-in form and smiles.
"I very much want to kiss you too, Jace Lightwood," I tell him in a breathy voice. He leans in just a little bit closer, and just as my tummy coils in anticipation and the cool air of his breath hits my lower lip, the sound of clapping thunder echoes off the walls. He flies away from me as it does and I let my head fall.
"What, Jace? Afraid of a little thunder?" I tease as I look up. But I wish I hadn't said it, because what meets my eyes is in fact a very scared Jace. His skin is as white as a sheet and a sheen of sweat covers his forehead. His eyes are wide and his pupils are huge, swallowing up all the gold of his irises. He looks small and alone and vulnerable.
His head nods slightly and his eyes dart around. His breathing seems irregular and he keeps clenching and unclenching his fists.
Jace is afraid of thunder.
I hope you guys enjoy seeing a little scared Jace as much as I do, considering he's usually portrayed as the macho, fearless, tough, man type.
Let me know what you think of scared Jace, as well as drunk(ish) Clary. I tried not to make it too over the top, because I find that can be inaccurate a lot of the time, but I'd love to hear what you thought of it.
More coming probably Saturday or Sunday, but if I get extra reviews, I may be inclined to post it a little early (or a lot early depending on how quickly you guys review!).
(Also two MAJOR bombs are dropped in the next chapter if that works as extra incentive).
Review question: what do you think the two "bombs" are going to be? (One of them is fairly obvious. Actually I guess they're both fairly obvious when you think about it, but I don't know. I want to see what you guys think.)
-katethewriter