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"Why would anyone want her to work at this place!" squeaked Aline, her voice lined with malice.

Clary turned around wearily, and wasn't surprised to see the bitch squad. Clary was surprised to see Simon, Alec and Jace missing. Strange.

She walked over to their table, and handed them their menus.

"What can I get for you guys today?" Clary asked, her voice showing forced happiness. She then grabbed her order pad and her pen, ready to jot down their orders.

"How about, some ginger ale?" snickered Sebastian. (A/N: yes the insults are corny as fuck deal with it LMAO)

"Ya, and maybe some red velvet cake?" mocked Isabelle.

Maia and Jordan were silent, which made Clary feel uneasy. Yes, they normally didn't take part in taunting her, but they just seemed..off. She jotted down the orders quickly, and she wanted to get over with this quickly.

"Anything else?" Clary asked, her voice still holding on to the fake cheeriness.

"Yes!" piped up Seelie. "How about a new waitress? You know, one that isn't so ugly you want to hurl?"

Clary looked down at the order pad, and for some reason, Seelie's insult made her feel more angry than usual. She glared at her order pad, aware that the squad, except Maia, was laughing at her.

"Run along now," cooed Aline. "Go get the food doggie!"

Clary stumbled to the next table, got their orders, and went to the kitchen to tell the chef.

This was going to be a long, long night.

When her shift at Taki's finished, she biked to Luke's bookshop. Once she stepped inside, she found it had far more customers than usual.

"Clary!" called Luke.

She turned around to see him beaming at her. She went behind the cash register and hugged him.

"Clare, the paintings you made brought more customers! This," he gestured to the people milling about, "is because of you."

She smiled at him, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"Hey," asked Luke softly. "What's wrong Clare-bear?"

She took a deep breath before talking. "I'll tell you after we close the shop. Not when everyone is around."

Luke nodded, but he was worried about her. She was so strong, but one day, she would break.

It was 5:30. Just 40 or so minutes and then Luke would close the shop and help nurse her wounds. He always got angry when he saw them, because he never understood why anyone would hurt an innocent girl.

Clary headed into Luke's office to find her set of spare clothes. She always kept some clothes there, because she would change into them for her shift. She headed into the bathroom inside the office, and changed into a dark teal shirt, but kept her jacket on. She grabbed a pin that had her name on it, and folded her Taki's uniform.

Clary headed to the cash register, gave Luke a thumbs up, and began to file some books back into their places. Occasionally, someone would ask her where some books were, and she was more than happy to help.

As she was arranging some mangas, someone tapped her shoulder.

"Excuse me," asked a timid boy. "Can you tell me where volume 71 of Naruto is?

Clary smiled, which caused the little boy, who looked like he was 9 or 10, to smile.

"Sure thing kiddo." she replied, eagerly. Clary loved manga, and Luke let her borrow some whenever she wanted. She reached up and grabbed the edition he wanted. he took it from her hands eagerly. After they both spent a couple minutes talking about their favorite Naruto moments, the boy reached his hand out.

"Oh, by the way, I'm Max."

Clary shook his hand. "I'm Clary. It was a pleasure talking to you little guy."

Max smiled up at her, and he took a moment to think. "Clary, are you gonna be here every day?"

Clary chuckled. "Yup. Every day from 5:30 to 6:10."

Max took her by surprise, and hugged her, then rushed off. "Clary, you have to meet my brother! Wait right here."

Clary smiled, and nodded. She resumed arranging the mangas, making sure it would be easier to grab off the shelves. She turned around, and found Max dragging Jace over to her.

Immediately, her smile dropped, and she looked at Max, ignoring Jace's glare.

"Clary, this is Jace my brother!" said Max.

"Pleasure to meet you Clary." smirked Jace.

Clary didn't say anything, then spoke to Max. "Well, I'll see you later Max. I have to finish arranging some books. If you need some help, I'm in the mystery section."

She turned around, leaving Max and Jace on their own. Clary looked at her watch. 6:00. Luke made an announcement, telling the shoppers the store was going to close.

While everybody was making their final purchases, Jace gave Max some money to buy his manga's, and then found Clary in the Mystery section.

She turned around, and found Jace looking at her dead in they eye.

"Look Clary, I'm going to give you a warning. Stay away from Simon. Izzy is actually happy with him, and you coming in the middle isn't gonna cut it." threatened Jace.

For some reason, she felt the need to speak up.

"Why me? What did I ever do to you? You, Izzy and Alec did this to me since 4th grade. I don't get it." Clary's voice was low, almost a whisper.

Jace laughed at her mirthlessly. "I enjoy taking advantage of you. You're everything I'm not. You're ugly, I'm gorgeous. You're school smart, I'm people smart. But of course, there's the case of your father. He did something to me I will never forget. And I would take it out on him, but he never shows his sorry ass. So you get the shit he deserves." Jace's face was angry, dangerously so.

Clary whimpered in fear. She saw emotions running through his eyes, and saw one she thought she would never see coming from him.

Regret.

After their "talk", Jace and Max left the store, as did the rest of the customers. Luke closed the shop, and the duo went to his office.

Luke did what he did every night. He went to the bathroom, picked up the medical supplies, and walked back to Clary.

As he was arranging them, Clary went to the bathroom to once again change into her last and final uniform. The Auto Shop shirt. Her shift there started at 6:40, and it lasted till 8.

Luke had a good 15 minutes to bandage her up, and when she walked out of the bathroom, she lifted her shirt, holding it up to the bottom of her nonexistent breasts. He sucked in a breath, and was appalled at what he saw.

There were big, splotches of purple, yellows, and red over her stomach. Her ribs were even more prominent than before, and Luke was brought to tears.

"Hey," whispered Clary. "Don't be sad Luke. This isn't something that can be prevented."

"No." he said angrily. "This isn't your fault, none of it is. I don't know why they left you. Jocelyn, she never called, never bothered contacting me. I just..feel so useless. I'm trying to find her again, and when I do Clare, I will make her sorry for leaving."

They sat in silence for the next 15 minutes, both of them dreaming of better lives.

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