Next chapter!
The pictures came out that evening.
Jace guessed they were lucky, that the wife of a high profile singer had also just had her baby that day and a new movie had also premiered, so they weren't the headline, and while Jace's full name was on there, fortunately, Clary's wasn't. Clary looked as though she was about to have a panic attack when she saw the picture that was taken. The first headline was Youngest Herondale Frolicks With Unknown Lover and underneath was a close up of Jace and Clary kissing, Clary in Jace's arms, and her upper torso looked almost bare from the way that Jace's arm was covering her bra strap. His hand was also obviously near her ass, and Clary's whole body convulsed as Luke scrolled down and saw there were even more photos underneath, of them laughing together and Clary swimming over to him.
"At least they don't have your name," Luke said quietly.
"Are they allowed to publish it? Surely they're not," Jocelyn murmured.
"They are," Jace said with a twist of his mouth. "And generally once a picture is out there, people will start calling in to try and make a quick buck if they recognize someone that isn't named." Jocelyn pursed her lips together and she shot her daughter a concerned look. "I'm sorry," he repeated under his breath, taking in the frustrated expressions on the three's faces.
"It's okay, Jace, we don't blame you," Jocelyn assured him softly, giving him a one armed hug. "We know that it isn't something that you didn't want." Jace twisted his lips as he looked down at Clary, who was pale as she stared at the laptop screen. Luke moved his finger over the mouse pad, pressing the back button and then sighing as he saw that there were at least six other search results that had been published in the past hour about Jace Herondale and his mysterious, red headed lover. Clary moved forward to try and click on the next link, but Luke batted her hands away and purposefully closed the lid of the laptop.
"No," he told her firmly. "You don't need to look at anymore, not right now." Clary flattened her lips in a tight line but didn't argue. "Now, I think that the best course of action here would be—" he cut off when the front door slammed open and there were yells from down the hall.
"Clary! Jocie—you here?!" It was Lydia, and she appeared a moment later with Simon close behind her. She saw Clary on the couch beside Luke and she swarmed in, practically falling over the back of the couch to get her arms around her friend, pressing kisses to her cheek over and over again. "I'm so sorry. They're fucking disgusting vultures. I'll fucking kill them if I ever see them around here again," the fierce protectiveness was clear in her voice as she hugged Clary tightly. Jace watched them for a moment before dropping his eyes to the silver laptop on the coffee table, feeling as though he was intruding just by watching them. Simon was standing behind Lydia, and if Jace was expecting Luke to look furious, he was completely taken aback by the way Simon was looking.
His eyes were narrow and his cheeks were pinched and his lips were bloodless from how hard they were pressed together.
"Did you do this to her for some sort of boost for your, I don't know, ratings or something? For some extra cash?" Simon snapped out and there was a tsk-tsk noise from Jocelyn as she tried to quiet him. "What?!" Simon made a face. "They're only here and harassing her because of him! Even if he didn't call them directly, he's still responsible for them!"
"Si..." Clary said quietly, and Lydia straightened up from where she was hunched over the back of the couch, reaching over and giving Simon a nudge in the side.
"Stop it," Simon snapped at Lydia, moving away from Lydia so that she couldn't nudge him again.
"Simon, don't," Clary said, louder this time, more firmly. "This isn't Jace's fault, leave him alone." Simon didn't look happy about it, but he pursed his lips back together and glared at the floor. Clary swallowed hard and then reached out a hand from where she was sitting beside Luke and over to where Jace was sitting on the arm chair beside her. She rested her hand on his knee, palm upward, and after a moment, Jace put his hand in hers, sliding their fingers together. "It's not his fault that they followed us out there...It was no ones fault but theirs." Simon huffed out another breath, but after sharp looks from both Lydia and Jocelyn, his face softened a little.
"Alright," he muttered. "But I'm still not happy about this."
"You think I am?" Jace couldn't help but ask, his forehead creased in a frown, and Simon bit back whatever reply seemed to jump into his mouth when Clary sent him a pointed glance. Jace felt better with Clary's warm hand in his. Quiet fell over the room until Jace's phone started vibrating in his pocket. "Sorry," he muttered, pulling his hand away from Clary's and taking his phone out of his pocket. "Fuck," he grunted out when he saw the name on the screen and got up. "Hey, mum," he greeted the caller as he walked quickly out of the room so that he had some privacy. He heard Luke say something to Clary as he walked into the hallway and leaned against a door frame that lead to a bathroom.
"Jace," Celine's voice was sympathetic, which meant that she wasn't calling in an angry mood. That was good, because Jace wasn't sure if he could handle that again. "You okay?"
"I guess...Kind of," Jace muttered.
"Have you heard from your father?" Celine asked.
"I heard from his assistant. She sent me an email, pretty much just saying to keep my head down low and try not to attract any more press," Jace rolled his eyes. "As if that's not what I've been doing for the past—I dunno, how many years?"
"He's just trying to help," Celine attempted to smooth things over.
"You mean she's trying to help, because that email definitely wasn't from him," Jace replied with a roll of his eyes. Celine didn't say anything for a moment.
"What about your friend? She's the one that you've been messaging for a while now, right? How's she doing? This can't have been easy for her," Celine's voice was soft.
"Yeah, it kind of threw her through a loop—both of us, really. I have no idea how they found us here, but I'm really worried that they're going to come back. I mean—the place where they saw us? It's just down the road from her house. If they find that out, then they might come back and harass her and her family and I don't know what the hell I'm going to do if that happens, because I don't want her to—"
"Jace!" Celine interrupted him sharply, just to get his attention. "Jace, sweetheart, take a breath." It was the same advice that he had given to Clary just a few hours ago and he took a moment to follow it for himself. "Look, they didn't know what her name was. I've had a few of my contacts get in contact with the magazines who published the articles, and they've got no idea who she is. You've mentioned that the girls parents own the vineyard right? If they knew who she was, then they would be looking into the vineyard and they would have an idea of who she was, and they would have published it. But my sources say that it's not even on the radar." Jace was surprised that his mother had taken those steps without him asking and he blinked.
"Uh...Thank you—thank you," he said to her. "That means a lot."
"It's okay, Jace," Celine said. "I know that she means a lot to you, and I don't think for a second that either of you had anything to do with the paparazzi showing up." Jace frowned.
"Either of us?" He asked.
"Yes, well, your father thought that it was something that your friend had set up," Celine told him carefully, as though she knew that it was going to rub him the wrong way.
"He thought that Clary did this?!" Jace snapped, feeling the anger that he had been trying to tamp down for the past few hours, beginning to whirl up again. "What the hell?!"
"Jace, Jace, it's okay," Celine quickly assured him. "I told him it wasn't her."
"Damn right it wasn't her," Jace growled. "You should have seen her face when she realized who it was. Someone completely violated her privacy and sold those fucking photos to whoever put in a good price, and now they're all over the internet. Her parents have seen those photos! If they find out who she is, and her name gets published, then the people who she does work for are going to see them! She didn't want this!" Celine was quiet on the other end of the phone and Jace frowned. "Are you there?"
"I'm here," Celine said airily. "I was just waiting for you to be done because you're not saying anything that I don't already know, or, at least, assumed." Jace sighed, knowing that he sounded like an ungrateful asshole after what his mother had done. He pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers and shook his head.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"I know," Celine murmured. "Your father's not too good at seeing the good in people, remember? But I've told him it wasn't her and he's backed off."
"I guess at least you talked to him, I just got the assistant," Jace mumbled. Celine was quiet for a moment before continuing.
"Honey? I know those photos were crap, but...You looked the happiest I've seen you in a long time," she said to him. "I know that we're all taught very early in this business that not everything is the way as it seems, especially photos, which are only a split second of a story. But you were laughing, and you looked happy with her." Jace swallowed hard as he remembered the minutes before they had seen the flash of the camera. Celine was right, but it felt as though that was all ages ago now. "Alright, look—I was thinking. Your father has a movie premiere tomorrow night in New York, and maybe it'll be a good idea for you to come back. It'll give us a chance to see each other as a family again, and it'll give your friend a bit of a break, let her regroup." Jace had already been thinking that. He was meant to be heading back in the next day or so anyway, although if he was going to make it back to New York in time to get ready for a premiere, he was going to leave reasonably early in the morning, especially if he had to get his stuff from the house in Malibu. "Jace?"
"Yeah," Jace answered. "Yeah, I'll think about it."
"Alright," Celine concluded. "I love you, Jace."
"I love you too, mum," Jace replied before taking his phone away from his ear and ending the call. After what had happened this afternoon, he didn't even know if Clary wanted him to stick around tonight. She would probably be happy to see him go now, which hurt more than he cared to admit.
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter :) Here's my top 10 on Spotify, as usual;
1) Kissing Other People - Lennon Stella. 2) Mikrokosmos - BTS. 3) Walls - Louis Tomlinson. 4) No Time To Die - Billie Eilish. 5) Euphoria - BTS. 6) I Need U - BTS. 7) Is It Just Me? - Emily Burns. 8) Homesick - Dua Lipa. 9) 8TEEN - Khalid. 10) Bad - The Cab.
I'm feeling shit and watching Sound of Music. Hope your day is going better than mine x
