HIIIIIIII! Fanfiction would NOT LET ME POST LIKE I NORMALLY DO FOR A FREAKING WEEK, but I'm back and guess what! WE ARE SO CLOSE TO THE TOP PAGE YOU CAN ALMOST TASTE IT (Release your inhibitions. Feel the rain on your skin) (sorry, I had to)! We are literally at 29 and I need to get to 25! WE CAN DO THIS! I'm so happy right now and I watched a movie called Horns! Daniel Radcliffe was in it but guess what! He had an American accent. Let me tell you a thing. That is not, nor will it ever be, in the natural order of things. Daniel is British and that is that.
DISCLAIMER: Yeah yeah you guys know.
"You're up, Little Red." Jace announced as he sauntered into the common room. He flopped on the couch between Seelie and Kaelie, both girls leaning in a little too close for my liking. Let me explain.
Hometown visits had begun this week, conveniently, we all lived in New York, so it wasn't much of a trek, but this year's show went a little different. Instead of having a Fantasy Suite night, Jace would stay the night at our houses along with our families. The point of that was to ensure the safety as Chris put it. Rumor has it that not a season has gone by without things happening at least once in the suites, and it was becoming a concern for the producers that certain… mistakes might happen. Kaelie and Seelie had already gotten their night, and Jace had met their families first.
There was a day in between each visit, so, as always, Jace snuck into my room those nights. He'd complained that it had been horrible, seeing as most of the families' questions had revolved around one thing. Money. He said that he had a guilty conscience about what we were doing, but that quickly disappeared when he saw what Kaelie and Seelie's intentions were. That brought us to today.
I sat on the far side of the couch, my hair tied in a haphazard bun, wearing a pair of sweats and an I love you more than pizza nightshirt from Pink (a.k.a the place with the best sweats and PJ's ever). I barely looked up from my copy of Thirteen Reasons Why at his voice. "Mhmm." I mumbled, trying to hide my tears and shaky voice as I read the last page.
(A/N tiny spoiler but not a big one at all. Just the last lines.)
Two steps behind her, I say her name.
"Skye."
"Oh my Freaking everything, what the, I just, that was, asdfghjkl." The fangirl noises escaped my mouth, and I couldn't stop them, but at that point, I didn't care. Jace, Kaelie, Seelie, and Chris all stared at me with similar what just happened expressions. I ignored them as a few more tears fell, staring at the page like my eyes could magically reveal more writing, because even though it was an absolutely AMAZING ending, I wanted to know more.
"Damn books." I muttered, slamming it shut and dropping it not-so-gently on the ground, then picking it up and apologizing profusely for the abuse. I finally looked up to see everyone still staring at me.
"What?" I swiped at the tear trails on my face, "Never seen a girl finish an amazing book?"
"Aww, does baby need a waambulance?" Surprisingly, the comment didn't come from either of the girls in the room.
"Shut up." I shot Jace a dark look, and he snorted.
"Waa waa, waa waa." He chanted, and I growled under my breath.
"That's it!" I got up from my seat, standing over Jace, and he fell silent, gulping with wide eyes. Before I could do anything, Jace jumped to his feet, shoving passed me.
"Oh no you don't" I yelled, wrapping my arms around his waist and taking us both to the floor. We viciously fought for the top position, scratching, pulling hair, biting, everything was fair game. Finally, I saw my open spot, and attacked the weakness that I had been wanting to this whole time.
"Don't you dare!" Jace warned as he realized what I was about to do.
"You brought this on yourself." I smirked, then attacked his sides with my fingertips. He curled into the fetal position, please of stop it! interrupting his laughter from time to time.
"Uncle!" He finally screamed, and I halted.
"Do you solemnly swear never to tease me about a book again?" I kept my fingers in their threatening position.
"No." Jace replied with a snort.
"Fair enough." I shrugged, satisfied with the amount of suffering I had put him through. I brushed myself off, offering Jace a hand up, which he blatantly ignored. The other three stared at us with varying expressions. Chris and, I'm surprised to say, Kaelie had amusement written on their features. Seelie looked like she'd just eaten a lemon. Scratch that, she looked like she'd eaten about fifteen of them.
"Well if you'll all excuse me," Jace smiled like nothing happened, "I need to go get ready for today. And so do you." Jace raised an eyebrow at me as if to say Hurry up. I groaned.
"It's only 7:30 in the morning!" I whined, "I don't wanna."
"Clary."
"No."
"Clary."
"No."
"Clary!"
"Jace!"
"That's it!" Without giving any previous indicating to what he was about to do, Jace threw me over his shoulder.
"Wayland!" I shrieked.
"Fray!" He repeated in a high pitched, mocking tone. I slammed my fists into his back to no avail, finally giving up and slumping down. He opened the unlocked door to my room (Huh, probably not the best idea to leave it open.), and duped me on my bed.
"You have an hour. Look presentable." He instructed.
"But it's just my-"
"No buts." He cut me off with a teasing smile, "I dare you to dress up. It'll freak out everyone, and it'll be worth it just to see their faces." My best friend- fiancee- knew exactly what to say to motivate me, both a blessing and a curse.
"Deal." I gave him a light shove toward the doorway, "Now leave."
—-
I stared at myself in the mirror, surprised at the girl that stared back at me. I had the Grease-looking top on, paired with black skinny jeans, a black leather jacket, and black, stiletto, knee high boots. Needless to say, Isabelle had packed a few… surprises for me in my suitcase. I licked my cherry red lips, the smoky eyeshadow making my green eyes pop, my red hair tumbling down my shoulders in soft waves.
"Clare are you…" Jace trailed off, body half in-half out of the room. He stepped inside fully, taking his sweet time looking me up and down.
"No." He shook his head, "Do you have any idea how your family would react if you came in… that?"
"I thought that was the point." I laughed at Jace's obvious internal panic.
"No." His voice was firm this time, "The point was to surprise them, not to cause my death." I rolled my eyes as jace shifted though my closet, finally pulling out a strapless, yellowish orange top, a black sash around it's middle. "Take off the top, put this one on, and wiped the makeup off. Everything else can stay. Go." He shoved the top into my hands, pointing to the bathroom. I stuck my tongue out, but did what he said.
"Much better." He breathed when I walked out, then he took my hand in his own, and we walked down to the car.
"Oh it's so nice to have my baby back." Jace sighed as he slid into the seat of his car, then started driving.
"Jace-" I was cut off by his, "I can't stop saying how long it's been since-"
"Jace-"
"I just can't believe-"
"JACE!"
"What?" He turned to me, shocked my my outburst. "You don't know where I live." With great effort, I stifled my laughter as Jace pulled over to the side of the road, grumbling about how he wasn't even aloud to drive his own car. I switched spots with him, pulling away and driving yet again. An awkward silence settled over us. With Chris and two cameramen in the backseats, it was safe to say that I felt a little… suffocated.
"Ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall," The tune burst from my mouth out of nowhere, "Ninety nine bottles of beer."
"Take one down, pass it around." Jace joined in.
"Ninety eight bottles of beer on the wall." Chris sang with us.
"Ninety eight bottles of beer on the wall, ninety eight bottles of beer." Now the two cameramen (I think their names were Kade and Luke) were singing too.
"Take one down, pass it around, ninety seven bottles of beer on the wall." Needless to say, the uncomfortable air vanished, and we were entertained for the entire half-hour drive to my house.
—-
We were a well-off family. That was easy to see when we got to my house. It was, well, huge. Not The Institute (Aka "Lightwood Manor") huge, but pretty huge. My mother was a famous artist, and my stepdad, (well, he was my real dad in all the ways that count) Luke, owned one of the most successful publishing companies on the east coast.
"Don't worry," Jace murmured as we exited the car, "It's just the twins and your parents." He said it more to himself than to me. I pulled out my key, not bothering to knock as I opened the door, knowing my family probably wouldn't hear me. You see, all of my friends and my brothers attended NYU, and everyone thought it would be more simple to stay in our houses and not pay for apartments. Our parents probably extremely regretted that decision.
"BOYS!" I heard my mom yell, "HURRY UP THEY'RE COMING SOON." There was a pause then, "JONATHAN CHRISTOPHER FRAY AND SEBASTIAN VERLAC FRAY, YOU ARE GOING TO BE ON NATIONAL TELEVISION. GO PUT ON SHIRTS NOW!"
"But MOM!" The protests arose from both twins at once.
"Boys!" Luke cut them off, "Listen to your mother!" It was clear they were in the kitchen. There was silence until, "JONATHAN GET YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM THOSE COOKIES. THAT MEANS YOU TOO SEBASTIAN."
Then, they separated, all of them running around the house, and none of them noticing the entire camera crew, Jace, and I in the foyer. I sighed, then put two fingers in my mouth, blowing hard. A piercing whistle rang out, and everyone stopped dead, staring like deers in headlights.
"THANK GOD!" My mother was the first one to break the silence, rushing over and wrapping me in her arms, "I thought I was going to die. We can't survive another month without you. How in the hell do you keep those boys in line?" I laughed, hugging my mother back, then Luke and the boys jumped in.
"Hey baby sis." Jon ruffled my hair, and I slapped his hand away, glaring.
"You look so adorable." Seb tweaked my nose, but it only took a glare to make them back away. It was easy to see where we had all gotten our looks from. I was almost a carbon copy of my mother, short, red hair, green eyes. My brothers, however, were a mix. They both had our father's white blond hair, tall stature, sharp jawline, and mouth, but they had Mom's nose and cheekbones. It was almost like you'd copied and pasted one twin from the other, their only difference was their eyes. Sebastian had the brownish black eyes of our father, while Jonathan's were a light green like mine.
"Missed ya, kid." Luke had the wise sense not to touch me, remaining in his spot.
"Hi guys." I offered a little wave, not knowing how to act in front of the cameras, "Uh, this is Jace." The guys all shook his hand, saying their names, but Mom pushed aside the offered hand, wrapping Jace in her arms like she had done with me.
"Welcome to our home." She whispered, and he squeezed her back.
"Thank you." He smiled softly as he pulled away.
"Oh!" I exclaimed, tugging the man behind my forward, "This is Chris, by the way."
"Hi!" Chris waved enthusiastically with a smile. "Come on, let me show you guys the house." I put emphasis on the one word, looking pointedly at each member of my family.
"Yeah right." Seb snorted.
"We." Jonathan shot me a look that said you're not leaving us out, "Will show you the house. As in the three of us. You get one, you get all." I mumbled a few curses under my breath, about to twine my fingers with Jace's, but I realized that my family had no idea that we were more than friends now. It was not something I wanted to say on national TV for the first time, because there was no doubt in my mind that Jon and Seb would go into guard dog mode, even though it was Jace. He looked into my eyes, seeming to realize the same thing, and I gave him the slightest, imperceptible shake of my head.
"So this is the living room!" I gestured around for effect, the cameras following my movements. When the cameras spun away, Jon waved his arms slightly to get my attention.
Hold his hand, my brother mouthed, keep up appearances. I shook my head, a smile tipping up the corners of my lips. Without a word, I twined my fingers with Jace's. He looked down at me with a raised eyebrow, but I just shrugged in response. When the cameras turned back toward us, it was easy to see that they not-so-subtly zoomed in on our connected hands.
I rolled my eyes, leading the group into the kitchen, motioning around, naming the room, then onto the next. This took up a good half hour of our time, seeing as Jon and Seb decided to comment on every little thing that happened. For example, "Hold them hands girl" or "Ooooh she's leaning her head on his shoulder. They're totally hooking up." This had gone on for an entire half hour, and it was only the mantra of This will be on National TV that kept me from tackling them. I was sure Jace was thinking the exact same thing.
"Okay, well." My mom clapped her hands together, "Let's all sit down." We made our way to the living room, acting like the cameras weren't there.
"So," Jon started when we all sat down, "you see, we have this tradition in the Fray household."
"Yeah," Seb snorted, "it's called putting the fear of God into every guy who even considers dating our sister."
"The thing is, she's the baby Fray."
"So it's our duty to protect her from anyone who has the potential to hurt her."
"And God knows that you'd kill her when you hurt her."
"When I hurt her." Jace spoke up, even though it was a part of the drill that he had seen a thousand times. That he had participated in a thousand times, but it seemed to affect him 10,000 times more than it ever had before.
"What, exactly, makes you think I'm going to hurt her?" Jace's voice was low and tight, and I wrapped my hand around his bicep, trying to put some sense into him, to tell him that was just a test, but he didn't even glance in my direction.
"You are on a dating show. Dating two other girls, meeting two other families." Seb scoffed, "I mean, that's low. It's worse than cheating on a girl, and you think for one second that you're good enough for my sister? That you won't crush her heart like a bug?"
No, no, no, no! To any other guy, this would be an okay test. Saying things like this was the test, and it worked every time. But not on Jace. I remembered the phrase he used to think was true. To love is to destroy. To be loved is to be destroyed. And Jon and Seb knew that. They had heard him say it a hundred times. I had never been more mad at my brothers in my entire life.
"Uh, I'll be back." Jace muttered, but I could hear the broken note to his tone, "I have to go a, yeah."
"Jace!" I shouted after him, but I knew what he needed, and that was time. How much, that was the question. I turned on my brothers instantly, and guilt was written on their features.
"Kitchen. Now." I snarled at them, "And if you cameras follow, I swear I will kill every last one of you." The boys followed me, heads hung low.
"How could you." I whispered, the second I shut the door, tears pooling in my eyes, "How the hell could you do that to Jace?!" My voice rose to a scream. "What the hell is wrong with you?! How could you say that to Jace OF ALL PEOPLE? You know… You know how he is. You know what he thinks of himself…" And then I broke down. Sobs racked my body, and I would've fallen if Jon hadn't caught me.
"We're so sorry sis." Seb whispered, "I thought he'd gotten over that. We didn't mean to hurt him."
"AND YOU DID ALL THIS FOR APPEARANCES ON TELEVISION?!" I screamed.
"No." Jon scratched the back of his neck, "We're really putting him through the test… You'd have to be blind to realize how in love you are with him. We only want to protect you." And then I saw it from Jon and Seb's side. They saw a bout of unrequited love. Their little sister being put in a spot where she had to watch the man that she loved date two other girls, and she wasn't even in the picture. I sighed, pushing away from them.
"I get it." I whispered softly, "But I need to go find him… we're… we'll talk about the whole love idea you're getting in a little bit." I walked out of the kitchen door that led to the backyard, then walked to where I knew Jace would be: by the flower garden. I saw him hunched over on the bench, then silently went and sat beside him.
"I know they didn't mean that." He whispered after a minute, then turned to me with a smile.
"I… Uh… What?" The words tumbled out of my mouth in confusion.
"I would've done the same thing." He nudged my shoulder with his, "I mean, I have done the same thing. I'm not some stupid, irrational, hormonal teen anymore, and I sure as hell am not the little boy who thinks to love is to destroy. It's just… There was too much tension in there. It was gonna end badly. Either I would've punched one of them, or they would've punched me, because we have about the same temper level, and let's just say there was no way that would've ended well."
"You know, this is why I love you." I let out a relieved breath, "Now let's go back inside, Jon and Seb feel really bad, and, as much as I want to let them suffer for this, it's not the right thing to do. Stupid conscience." We both got up from the bench, then linked arms, then we looked at each other at the same time, having the same idea. We both began skipping simultaneously toward the house, but were interrupted about halfway.
"Dude I'm so sorry"
"I don't know what we were thinking" "
We didn't mean it"
"I can't believe I said that."
All of these apologies came out in a jumbled mess from my brothers.
"Stop!" Jace held up a hand, laughing, "Do you honestly think I believed you guys? Remember, I was a part of making this whole 'scaring off' plan."
"Thank everything." Seb grinned, then they did that man hug, pat on the back thing.
"Oh, and Clary," Jon spoke up, and I turned toward him, "the thing I said in the kitchen… That was totally out of line. This whole dating show has my sister radar all messed up. We cool?"
"We cool." I confirmed, then Jon and Seb linked arms with Jace and I, and we all skipped back to the house together. And all was right in the world.
—-
"We're meeting in the living room in an five minutes." Jace informed at about 11 at night.
"I know." I smirked, "You know, passing notes like you're in middle school is not the best way to get information across."
"Well it's not like we could say it out loud, the whole point is to do it without the camera guys knowing." Jace pouted, and I pinched his cheek.
"Is little baby sad?" I mock frowned, "Is it time to call you a waambulance." Jace flinched.
"I should've seen that coming." He shook his head with a smile.
"No shit, sherlock." I snorted, grabbing his hand, "It should be safe now." We opened the door, tiptoeing our way down the stairs. Mom, Luke, Jon, and Seb all sat waiting. They all were on the couch facing two chairs. Jace and I sat down apprehensively.
"Why does this feel like an intervention…?" I trailed off at the serious expressions everyone wore, sharing a slightly terrified look with Jace.
"Because it is." Luke answered casually. "
Listen." My mom grabbed both my and Jace's hands, "You two have been dating for seven years at least. You might not have seen it. You still probably don't see it, but you're in love. More in love than any two people I have seen in a long time. I want you to know this before it's too late. Just please think it over, consider it, even for just a minute." Then, they all stared at us in silence, as if waiting for us to have some big revelation. I shared a glance with Jace, and we communicated in silence.
Should we tell them?
Right now probably isn't the best time. There will be screaming involved.
So act like we're thinking over it and wait as long as humanly possible to tell them?
Pretty much yeah.
"Well we can't think it over with you all staring at us." I grumbled, "We need this thing called time."
"So you'll think about it?" Seb asked hopefully.
"We will." Jace fake relented, and they all shared a triumphant look.
"Well that's pretty much all we needed to say, so night." Luke got up, Jon and Seb following, and they left the room, but Mom still sat staring at us.
"It's about time." She smiled, "Took you long enough, I mean, seven years. Geez, Jace."
"Uh Mom?" Jace raised an eyebrow in confusion, "What are you talking about."
"You finally popped the question!" A mischievous smile played on her lips, "That 'necklace' isn't fooling me."
"I.. uh… we didn't… um… what?" Jace and I spit out in a confused jumble.
"Oh!" Mom snapped her fingers, "If it wasn't Jace, then it was Raphael! I know you were dating him when you went on the show."
"WHAT?!" The problem with Jace was that he tended to react before he really thought things through, "What do you mean dating him?" Jace's voice was absolutely lethal, so bad that I actually took a step back.
"Jace." I snapped, "Why the hell would I do that? How could you even think that of me?"
"You aren't denying it." He growled, and hurt sliced through me, but then I looked into his eyes. I looked into his eyes and I saw that little boy who thought he was destroying me.
"Jace," my voice was soft this time, soothing, "Why would I do something like that?"
"Because I'm not good enough for you." He said in a broken whisper, "I lied earlier. What Jon and Seb said today killed me. How could it not? They're right. I've used so many girls, I mean, I broke the heart of literally every girl in Idris High. Right now, I'm on a dating show. I'm dating two other women. All I'll do is destroy you. All I'm doing is destroying you."
"Don't you dare say that." I walked close enough to Jace that our noses almost touched, then I tipped his chin up so his eyes met mine, "You may have done stuff to other girls, but that's your past. You never did anything like that to me. You were my night in shining armor. You scared off all the bad guys, even punched a few.
"You have been there for me every second of my life, through the crap, through the amazing times, and all of it in between. You are the light to my darkness, the sunshine to my night, the corn top to my carrot top. The guy is always the one to propose so dammit, so I didn't get to say this. You are the love of my life, and nothing will ever change that." I pressed my lips softly to his, and when I moved back, he pulled me close again, this time pressing his lips to my forehead. No words were needed as we stood there together, lost in our own world.
"So, about that not engaged thing…" Mom smirked, her phone held high in all it's video recording glory.
Jace and I glanced at each other, "So, we kinda have something to tell you…"
"I CALLED IT!" I heard hushed yells, "You both owe me 50 bucks!"
"Shut up they're gonna hear us!"
"Luke, move I can't see."
"Unless you can see through doors, you won't be able to anyways."
"Both of you be quiet!"
"It got silent in there."
"What's going on?"
"Do you think they're making out?"
"Do I have to go get my shotgun?"
"LUKE, let them have their moment!"
I marched over to the door, pulling it open, and my brothers and stepdad fell face first into the carpet.
"Do you have something to say for yourselves?" I raised an eyebrow at the three.
"I won a hundred bucks off these two." Luke offered a sheepish smile. "Sit down on the couch." Jace ordered, then we assumed our earlier positions, Jace and I on the chairs with the others facing us.
"I'm guessing you want to know how this all happe-"
"YES!" They chorused, cutting me off.
Of course Jace couldn't be unaffected by that I mean c'mon, extremely damaged self esteem behind a cocky exterior is Jace's thing and I LITERALLY JUST REALIZED HOW I'M GOING TO END THIS STORY AND I HOPE YOU'RE ALL GONNA LOVE IT! But we're not quite there yet! Sorta close but not quite! I hope you loved this and LET ME REMIND YOU ABOUT A THING CALLED THE ONESHOT COMPETITION! IT IS COMING TO A CLOSE VERY SOON, AND WE STILL NEED MORE TO GET TO THAT JACE'S POV! So long my faithfuls! Until next time!
PS What's your top 5 book list (it can be books or series)? I need some suggestions for books to read!
-Shadowhunter5801