Sorry there were no updates for a few weeks, I was on vacation among other things. I was in a writing slump as well, so hopefully taking a break gave me enough fresh ideas. Thanks again for the support on the story.
"Kiss me," She whispered as she pulled him into her embrace. Then, just like that, they were kissing. Her lips pressed against his, neither of them wanted to pull away. Kissing Beatriz felt so right. Wait what, Beatriz? Simon jolted awake. Why was he having a dream about Beatriz? On top of that it was a fairly intimate dream. In the end he chalked it up to teenage hormones.
Simon looked over at the calendar and realized that his birthday was coming up in a week. Was it nearly October 17th already? The days had been flying by ever since he started college. His birthday was on a Thursday this year, so that meant whatever party Clary was planning for him likely wouldn't happen until Friday at the earliest. Well he said party, but it was actually more of a get together between Simon, Clary, Luke, and Jocelyn. The four usually did something fun together like bowling or going to an amusement park. Simon was definitely looking forward to his party this year, he needed to take a step back from all of the drama in his life and relax.
Clary rolled out of her bed and walked into the bathroom to take a shower. She stripped down, walked into the shower, and then turned the water on. Clary was thinking about what happened with Simon the other day, Simon was always timid and afraid to talk to new people but he seemed to be opening up to three of the most popular kids he knew. Clary couldn't help but feel happy about the fact that Simon was growing as a person and making new friends on his own. While Clary still wanted to be his closest friend, she had always wanted him to make more friends.
After finishing her shower, drying off, and changing, Clary headed back into her room. She grabbed her phone and saw that she had a reminder for Simon's birthday. Was his birthday already next week? Clary had lost track of time, she was too focused on school and everything else to pay attention to what the date was. Well, she was going to have to figure something out and fast, she couldn't let Simon down on his big day.
First things first, she called a local cake shop and made an order for a cake to be made on the 17th. The next thing she did was call her mom and told her to bring Luke with her over to their apartment next Thursday. After that, she needed to make a plan for the weekend. A few new rides opened up at Simon's favorite amusement park recently, so that would work for the event. However, who should go with them? Simon and Clary were getting to the age that having a birthday party with your friends parents was humiliating. But if Clary wasn't going to invite his parents, then who should she invite? A light bulb clicked in her head and she realized who she should invite.
When Simon and Clary made it to class they were almost late, like usual. Today everyone was allowed to work in their groups, so Simon moved over to where his group members were. They turned the four desks so that they were facing each other. Simon sat to the left of George, Julie was in front of Simon, and Beatriz was to the left of Julie. "Since we didn't get any work done over the weekend, we actually need to work on this during class. The project is due on Friday, which means we might have to stay after one day and work on it," Julie stated.
Julie continued on but Simon's focus drifted to Beatriz. He took in her long black hair and her soothing smile. It was clear why she was one of the popular kids. She had physical beauty, but on top of that she was also a warm, kind, and intelligent person. Beatriz was the whole package in a sense.
"Simon!" Julie yelled. Simon brought himself back to reality and turned his head towards Julie. "Finally! That's the fourth time I called your name! You should be focusing on the project, not drooling over Beatriz." Simon's cheeks turned bright red, so he had been caught it seemed. As Simon glanced in Beatriz's direction he saw that she was blushing as well. "Are you ready to work now?"
"Yes, now where were we?" Simon asked.
When class ended Simon walked out of the classroom by himself. Clary said she had something to do after class, so he should just leave without her. Simon had made it down the hallway almost at the exit, when someone came up behind him. Before he knew it Izzy had put her hand out and pressed him against the wall. "We need to have a little chat Simon," Izzy declared.
Clary rushed down the hall until she caught up with Beatriz. She put her hand on Beatriz's shoulder as she pleaded, "Hold on!"
Beatriz turned around and said, "Oh Clary, did you need something?"
Clary took a few moments to catch her breath before replying, "Yes, I was wondering if you were busy next weekend or not."
Beatriz pondered her question before responding, "Not that I know of. Why? Did you have something planned?"
"Well, it's Simon's birthday on the 17th so I was wondering if you and your friends wanted to come along to an amusement park with us next weekend. We usually go with my parents, but it's pretty embarrassing to do that at our age," Clary explained.
Beatriz's face lit up as she exclaimed, "We sure can! Why didn't you say that from the start? Anyways I have to head to class, but text me the details and I'll make sure that the three of us make it."
As Beatriz walked away Clary thought to herself that it was weird how excited Beatriz was about Simon's birthday. Maybe popular girls were normally that excited, or maybe she really likes amusement parks? Anyways that wasn't the point, now everything was set in motion. Nothing could go wrong now right?
"A birthday party huh?" Clary heard a voice say behind her. As she turned around she saw that it was none other than Jace. "To think that you didn't even invite me to the party. I'm hurt."
"You know very well why you weren't invited to the party," Clary countered. "If you come along so will Alec and Izzy."
"I know. I know. It was only a joke, don't worry we won't intrude on your fun," Jace promised.
"Thank you for that," Clary stated. "I'll see you later then."
"Um you know what, I'm good. So if you could just let me go," Simon said as he tried to escape from Isabelle. But for some reason she was unnaturally strong and he couldn't escape. To top things off she then put her other hand against the wall on Simon's other side fully trapping him. "Alright I guess there's no way around this is there? What do you want?"
"Nothing much, just curious as to what you're up to these days. I see you have become pretty popular lately," Isabelle retorted.
"I'm not so sure about that," Simon protested. "I just happen to be in a group with popular people."
"Really now? That's interesting, because I saw many interesting posts on a certain someone's timeline that said otherwise," Isabelle stipulated.
Of course she had seen those, why hadn't Simon thought of that. "We just took a little break from working, I was strongly against the break to begin with."
"Is that so, because you look super friendly with Beatriz in these photos," Izzy alleged.
"Honestly, it's none of your business who I talk to anyway. Why don't you just leave me alone?" With that Simon forced his way away from Izzy and walked away. He didn't have time to deal with Isabelle right now. He needed to focus on the project that was due on Friday, then once that was done he could worry about whatever he wanted to.
"Okay guys, clear your schedules for next weekend," Beatriz said.
"Why would I do that?" Julie asked.
"Well, it just so happens to be Simon's birthday next week and Clary invited us. Isn't that great?"
"Alright, who cares? I might be warming up to the idea of him becoming an acquaintance, but it's not like we are friends or anything like that," Julie stated.
"Well I'm down with next weekend," George replied. "I think of Simon as a friend."
"See Julie? That's the spirit, but if you really don't want to go you can just stay home by yourself," Beatriz pointed out.
"Well when you put it that way, it has to be better than doing nothing at home," Julie reasoned.
"So it's settled!" Beatriz exclaimed with glee.