Simon was sure this was a bad idea, so why had he agreed to it? Oh, that's right, loneliness.

Eric had never tried to set him up on a date before though, and to be fair, Simon had only ever had eyes for Clary, so why would he have tried. Either way, the reality of the situation was that Simon was currenting sitting across from an empty chair soon to be occupied by a girl he'd never met. All he knew about this Maia person, was that she was pretty, passionate and sarcastic. Simon was sure Eric had left something out, a catch of some kind like that she had stalked her ex or secretly doesn't shower, but, he really had nothing better to do on a Friday night anyway so he figured why not.

Simon listened for the door. Every time he heard the chime he turned to see who had entered the restaurant. With every old man, young family and couple who entered, Simon became more worried he was going to be stood up. He checked the clock for a countless time. Okay, so she wasn't technically late and maybe his arriving a half hour early hadn't been a good idea. The door chime went off and Simon turned expectantly, only to see a woman clearly three times his age enter the restaurant alone. That couldn't be Maia, right? Simon turned away, hoping with all his might she didn't walk over to his table. Hadn't Eric said Maia was a student at his school? Then Simon remember how University wasn't like high school, people weren't all the same age. Simon had convinced himself this was just his luck, when someone sat down in the seat across from him and it wasn't the woman he'd just seen enter.

This had to be Maia, Simon thought and she was more than pretty, with light-brown skin, curly brown hair and amber eyes. She was wearing casual clothing, which Simon liked. Getting dressed up made him nervous, but what was worse was when she was dressed up and he wasn't. Maia had on a t-shirt with a logo he didn't recognize and her blue jeans hugged her curves.

"I didn't see you come in," Simon said. It was true. She hadn't entered through the main doors that he'd been watching.

"There's a back door," Maia explained.

"Why use that when there's a front door?" Simon continued. Why was he talking about this? Was he stupid! Who cared how she entered the building?

"I came from the other direction," Maia added easily. Well, at least she wasn't laughing at him, Simon thought, though he was about ready to start laughing at himself.

"Oh," Simon said lamely.

"You seem tense?" Maia commented.

"Oh, that's because I am," Simon replied, with a nervous laugh.

"Does eating in public make you tense?" Maia sniggered. Oh yeah, she was definitely laughing at him now.

"Never really been on a date before," Simon confessed.

"Really?" Maia asked. She looked a little shocked and Simon realized what his statement sounded like.

"Fell in love with my best friend when I was a kid," Simon mumbled. "She never loved me back. We just broke up."

"Ah," Maia said. "I know what that's like."

"You do?" Simon asked.

"Well, he wasn't my best friend," Maia corrected. "But I just broke up with someone too." Simon was starting to feel a little bit better. He could feel the tension in his shoulders fade a little.

"One thing in common at least," Simon smiled. "Do you know what you want to eat?" He gestured to the menus in front of them. Maia picked hers up and disappeared behind it. Simon followed suit and quickly decided what he wanted. The waiter arrived moments later to take their drink orders, but they ordered dinner while they were at it.

"I am so glad you aren't indecisive about food," Maia said as the waiter left. "There is nothing worse than watching someone take a half hour to decide what they want."

"That's a half hour longer to wait to eat it," Simon laughed.

"Exactly!" Maia said with enthusiasm. But, Simon couldn't think of anything to say in return and silence fell. The longer neither of them spoke, the harder it was for Simon to find something to say.

"This is strange," Maia broke the silence, to which Simon was grateful. "Blind dates are strange."

"I take it you didn't meet your ex on a blind date?" Simon said, just glad to finally be talking again.

"Nah," Maia said. "Jordan lived on my street when I was a kid."

"But I bet you know way more about how to function on a date than I do," Simon added.

"Once I turned nineteen I started going to clubs," Maia said. "You don't really meet people there with all the loud music, but it can still be fun."

"Never been to a club," Simon said. He was going to add that he'd never even drank alcohol, but decided that with this girl, that wasn't going to win him any points.

"Honestly, I only really went to that first one to show my ex I was over him," Maia said. "He didn't take it well."

"Oh?" Simon inquired.

"Nope," Maia said. "He tried to convince me I was still his, he was kinda rough about it."

"That's horrible," Simon said, but Maia just dismissed his pity with a wave of her hand.

"He wasn't always so possessive," Maia said. "He was really sweet at the beginning."

"What changed?" Simon asked.

"I don't know," Maia replied. "But it's your turn. I've given up enough of my dirty laundry."

"I'm not that interesting," Simon replied.

"Well, what happened with your ex?" Maia asked.

"Oh, she fell for someone else," Simon said. "While she was dating me."

"Ouch," Maia sympathized.

"Yeah," Simon said. "But she didn't act on it until about two hours after I broke up with her."

"That sucks," Maia said with feeling.

"About sums it up, yeah," Simon sighed. He felt like talking about their exes wasn't a great topic for a first date, but he couldn't think of a better one and Maia didn't seem to mind. Their drinks arrived. Maia reached forward to take a sip from her soda. Simon did likewise as he tried to think of what to say next.

"I'm glad I listened to that redhead," Maia smiled. "Even if the idea of a blind date made me skeptical."

"Redhead?" Simon whispered. Did Eric have any friends with red hair? Oh god, had this been Clary's idea? Would Eric have gone along with something like this? Simon wasn't sure, though he knew Clary could be very persuasive when she wanted to be.

"Yeah," Maia said. "She and a guy named Eric set us up."

"I think that redhead is my ex," Simon groaned, his head falling into his hands.

"Oh, wow," Maia mouthed then she laughed. "Well, aren't we a pair. A pair with problem exes."

"Does your ex constantly try to make you feel guilty for not wanting to be friends anymore?" Simon whined.

"Nope," Maia said. "He just texts me nonstop and refuses to delete my number from his phone."

"Okay, maybe that's worse," Simon conceded.

"Definitely worse," Maia said. "She had a lot of nice things to say about you." Maia smiled at him.

"Clary," Simon said. "Her name is Clary."

"Well then, Clary seemed nice," Maia said. "I think I know her dad."

"Luke?" Simon asked.

"Yeah," Maia said. "I used to work at his bookstore."

"Small world," Simon smiled, with a shake of his head. "Wait, wouldn't that mean you moved here for school too?"

"Yep," Maia said. "I want to work in management. This school had the best program."

"Yet another person with their life in order," Simon sighed.

"Still don't know what you want to do with your life, huh?" Maia asked.

"Not a clue," Simon said. "And clearly moving across the country with my high school sweetheart didn't work out."

"Ah yes, I could have told you that was a bad plan," Maia replied.

"I know," Simon sighed. "Everyone told me and I didn't listen." Maia giggled at him. "Anyway, enough about exes and crazy friends. Tell me something about you?"

"I like music," Maia said. "Vinyl records are my favourite, but they are hard to find."

"Eric and I were part of a band back home," Simon explained. "But we all kind of broke up after high school with half of us coming here and half staying behind."

"That's too bad," Maia said. "What's the name of your band?"

"The Immortal Instruments," Simon said. "It's made up of Eric, myself and our friends Matt and Kirk."

"Matt and Kirk being the ones who didn't come here for school, right?" Maia surmised.

"Right," Simon confirmed.

"You know, you could always get new band members here," Maia told him. "You could hold auditions or something."

"Maybe," Simon said. He didn't really want to tell her that he'd be leaving after exams. Their food arrived, saving him from having to talk more on the subject and for a while, they ate in silence. It was a comfortable silence, but was later filled with casual conversation about their meal. When they both pushed their plates away, Maia flagged down a waiter to order ice cream for dessert.

"Do you want to share one?" she asked and Simon agreed.

"Are you staying in the University dorms?" Simon asked when the waiter left.

"Yep," Maia said. "It's strange living with a roommate."

"I don't actually have one anymore," Simon replied as he remembered he had Jace to thank for that.

"How did you manage that!" Maia asked laughing.

"My old roommate was drinking underage," Simon said. "With other underage friends. When he was gone, they didn't have anyone to take his place."

"Lucky," Maia grumbled. "My roommate is this little Asian girl named Lily."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Simon said. "My old roommate used to blast music so loud you couldn't hear yourself think."

"She isn't bad per se," Maia continued. "She's just kinda… I don't know. Stand off-ish. She has this blue streak in her hair and goes on and on about her boss like he's a god or something."

"Her boss?" Simon asked.

"Don't ask," Maia grumbled. "I am not even sure if she loves him or just looks up to him."

"Where does she work?" Simon inquired conversationally.

"Some retail store," Maia said. "Her boss's name is Raphael… I think."

"You can't choose your roommates," Simon remarked.

"Would be nice if you could though," Maia replied as the waiter reappeared with dessert. They both grabbed a spoon and the frozen treat vanished in moments. When the check came, Simon was about it pay when Maia said they should split it. He agreed, though he wasn't sure if this would somehow turn their date into a less date-like get together.

When everything was settled, Maia stood up and waited for Simon to join her. He followed Maia out the front door and onto the street.

"You are walking me home," Maia said, firmly, but she was smiling.

"We both live in dorms," Simon reminded her.

"Okay so we can walk each other home," Maia replied. Simon was starting to get nervous. Would Maia expect a kiss when they got to her dorm room? He'd only ever kissed Clary before.

They'd met at a restaurant not far from the university, so Simon didn't have long to freak out. However, he did manage to keenly observe every rock on the ground like they were the most interesting and exquisite things he had ever seen as they walked, as well as his shockingly dirty shoelaces. They entered the dorm building and walked up the stairs while Simon continued to stare at the floor, observing the rather plain floor tiles.

"This is me," Maia said, stopping in front of a dorm room.

"I'm a floor up," Simon said, turning to face her. He had no idea what to do. He felt rather like a fish out of water.

"Enough is enough," Maia said with a sigh, then moved forward to kiss him. It was a quick kiss, and a slightly awkward one. When they pulled apart, Simon couldn't quite read the expression on her face.

"Listen, Simon," Maia said. "I don't have a lot of friends at this school yet and it's rare I meet someone I can so easily talk to."

Simon knew just as well as she did, what their kiss had revealed. They had no chemistry. Simon had dated a woman who wasn't attracted him for over a year; he knew what no chemisty felt like and he wasn't willing to do that again. He could tell what she really wanted to say and decided to beat her to it. "Do you want to just be friends?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Maia said, clearly relieved Simon didn't take it as an insult. Maybe it was too early for him to start dating.

"Great," Simon said. They exchanged phone numbers and agreed to be each other's shoulder to lean on when their crazy exes were annoying. There was also a possible exchange of music libraries discussed.

As Simon walked away, he had to confess he was a little disappointed, but it could have been worse. At least, he had made a new friend, and a rather cool one at that.

Feeling lazy, Simon decided to take the elevator. Sure, it was only one flight of steps, but it wasn't like it was hurting anything, right? Simon had expected the elevator to be empty, but to his surprise the doors opened to reveal a rather striking woman.

She had pale skin and bright red lip gloss. Her hair and eyes were dark brown and her clothes looked like they had just walked off a runway. She was in a red, skin tight dress, with two inch heels and a small, clearly decorative, black jacket that ended just under her bust line. Oh, dear. Was Simon staring?

He turned away as he pressed the button for the floor above, suddenly wishing he'd taken the stairs. The woman was looking him up and down like some sort of window shop display. Simon couldn't help but feel objectified.

There was a sudden thud. The lights went out and the elevator stopped dead.


Hehe cliffhanger. Man, I seem to love those! What do you guys think of Maia in this story? The last time I added Maia to a fanfic she was extremely out of character so I am going for more canon Maia here.

Also... I wanted to share with you today my failure. So I have been trying to complete an original story for a while now with no success. And I think I have finally put my finger on the problem! With fanfic, the canon is like a framework or a guide, but with originals, your options are limitless. My ideas shift around, far too unstructured to form a complete story arch. It's strange to me that it's a lack of restrictions that is holding me back. How does that make any sense I ask you? I mean you'd think it would be the other way around right? But no.

Updates might be slow for the next week or so... life's been crazy, but then I might get some time off so updates could be faster. This is why I don't have an update schedule. I'd be too impatience to update faster when I can and to disappointment when I miss a deadline. My update schedule is just as fast as I write them. :)

Also OMG 220 follows! Wow! Thanks so much guys!


Sneak Peek Chapter 46

"I'm bored," she whined as her phone died. She really needed to remember to charge the stupid thing at night.

"There isn't much to do," the boy said. She turned her attention to him.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Simon," he replied.