It had been days since Clary had seen Jace and Aline in the hallway, three days exactly. Jace was avoiding Clary, that much was clear. He hadn't even come around the house since he left on Sunday. Clary had asked Jon if they got in a fight and when Jon said no, the flood of emotion made her throat tight. Why didn't he want to see her?

Clary was walking toward her art room once more, where she was allowed to go for gym class now thanks to her lasting concussion, and prayed she'd see Jace again. Even a glimpse of his golden hair would be enough to soothe the craving to see him. It wasn't that she knew how she felt about him, because she didn't, but she figured a kiss isn't always innocent, right? So there must have been a reason for him to kiss her, and if she could just see him and talk to him maybe she could figure it out. But also, she simply missed his presence. Having Jace around made hanging out with Jon more bearable, like they were all friends instead of Jon being Clary's annoying older brother.

Disappointed at not seeing Jace, Clary dipped her head as she walked into the art room. She had just finished her last project, a Picasso style portrait of a celebrity, and so she was able to draw whatever she pleased. Settling down at a desk, she took out her sketch pad and pencils, put on her headphones, and just let the pencil go on its own accord. She hadn't been paying attention to what the swoops and curves of the pencil had been drawing, and so when she finished, she was surprised to see a drawing of Jace as an angel.

"Oh, would you look at that? Is that Jace, Clary?" Aline's voice came from next to her. Ripping out her headphones, Clary turned and covered her drawing with her body as best as she could.

"Mind your own business, Penhallow." Clary spat. She was sick, as she always was, of Aline critiquing her art. Aline's mother, Jia, was a curator at a local art museum, and so Aline was always bragging about how she inherited the good "eye for artwork" as she called it.

"How is Jace doing? Last I talked to him he seemed…distraught. Maybe I'll offer him a pick me up." She smirked at the redhead.

"Be my guest, though from what I saw on Monday, he's not interested in you." Clary was proud of her own comeback, at least.

"Hmph." Aline turned and walked away with a red face and fists clenched. Clary smirked for a moment, and then when the bell rang she sighed in happiness. Well, almost happiness. Gym was her last class of the day so now, she was free to enjoy her three day weekend. Bouncing out of her seat, she packed up her art supplies and ran out of the room to her locker. She stopped short though when she got a good look of the locker itself. Standing against it, was Jace.

Clary's heart stuttered in her chest. He looked handsome, as always, with his golden hair and tanned skin and beautiful eyes, but his face held the distraught look that Aline had been talking about earlier. His eyes, though still the color of warm metal, looked lifeless and hard, as if he was trying to keep something or someone out of his thoughts.

"Jace?" she called, stepping closer to the lockers.

"Hi." He replied without looking at her.

"What are you doing at my locker?" Hope rose in Clary's chest. Maybe he would actually talk to her.

"I'm waiting for Jon." Oh, of course. The lockers were alphabetical and so Jon's locker was next to Clary's.

"Oh. Are you coming over? It's been a few days." Clary was trying her best to catch his eyes, wanting so badly for gold to meet green.

"Yea, Jon and I have some friends coming to hang out with us. He's giving me a ride over." With that, the hope in her chest deflated. If it was more than just Jace coming over, there was no way that she'd be able to get to talk to him.

"Okay." She said quietly. With that, she opened her locker and slowly put her books back, grabbing what she needed for homework. Jon came to their lockers then and was talking loudly to Jace, the both of them laughing as Jon packed up his own bag.

"Clary, you coming?" Jon had slammed his locker shut and was waiting a few feet away. Startled, Clary grabbed her bag, shut her locker, and jogged over to where Jace and Jon stood.

"Yea, let's go."

The ride home was loud, as usual, and so Clary put in her headphones and stared out the window. The Morgentstern/Fray household was, quite frankly, a mansion set on multiple acres of land. It was far away from the school, about a twenty minute drive without any traffic.

Suddenly, Jon turned the music down. Clary was about to take out her headphones when she heard her brother speak.

"Hey man, what's up with you lately? You haven't been around for a few days and you've been ignoring me." She turned off her music but kept her headphones in. She felt Jace's eyes look at her in the side mirror and she made sure to keep still and pretend to be distracted by her music and scenery.

"It's nothing, just girl trouble." Jace kept his voice low, but Clary could still make out the words.

"With who? When did it start?" Jon was pushing Jace.

"Just someone from the party over the weekend." Jace wouldn't look at Jon, Clary noticed. Wouldn't look anywhere other than his hands.

"Oh, well let's get you cheered up today then huh?" Jon clapped Jace's shoulder and then they were pulling into the driveway.

As soon as Jon's car was off, the two boys were out of it and running towards the house. Clary trudged behind them slowly wishing she could ignore the odd feeling in her stomach. Had Jace been talking about her, or was there another girl at the party? Did she take him away from someone else? She had known Jace for a long time, almost her whole life, why would he start to like her now? No, Clary decided, it must have been a different girl at the party.

The rest of the guys were pulling in as Clary walked onto the front porch. She turned and saw Jordan, Alec, Gideon, Gabriel, Will, and Jem, all getting out of the two cars that had pulled up. They were an odd bunch, Jordan being dark skinned and with light eyes, but tall and handsome; Alec was reserved and shy, but unique and independent. Gideon and Gabriel were opposites, brothers about a year apart from one another. Gideon was tall, lanky, and dirty blonde, with striking hazel eyes. Gabriel was also tall, but well-muscled and brown hair and a bit more of an attitude. Will happened to be Jace's cousin, though didn't resemble him at all. Where Jace was all golden hair and fair eyelashes and molten gold eyes, Will had dark hair that curled slightly and the most piercing blue eyes Clary had ever seen. Jem was Clary's favorite. Sometimes she would start to draw him when he came over. He was handsome, but very thin and all angles where there might be soft curves on the other boys. Jem's hair was grey, and so were his eyes, but his eyelashes were dark and long, and his eyes themselves were slightly angular and almond shaped.

"Little Red! What's up!?" Will called as he got out of his car. Clary felt blood start to burn in her ears as she turned to look at the dark haired Herondale.

"Hi Will." Clary grumbled. Though she liked Will enough, he wasn't her favorite Herondale. Her favorite, however, wasn't talking to her at the moment.

"You ready for tonight? It's going to be epic!" Jordan clapped Will on the back as they walked up the wide driveway towards the porch where Clary stood.

"Why, what's going on tonight?" Clary asked.

"Your brother failed to invite us to the party last week and so tonight he is making it up to us." Gideon smirked. Clary paled. That meant alcohol and loud music and video games. Jace would never talk to her now.

Or maybe, this is exactly how he needed to be to talk to her.