Hey, pretties :)

Jocelyn wasn't home when Clary got back that night, although Essex woke Clary up that night when she jumped up on the bed and Clary vaguely heard the front door shut so she knew her mum was back, but then Essex settled back down and went to sleep and so did Clary. The next day, Clary had cheerleading practice after school, which was honestly beginning to feel more and more like a drag and was really only made bearable by Kaelie, and then afterwards when she got into her car, she sat there for a long time, staring blankly ahead.

Despite how much she liked Kaelie, her friends words kept replaying in her head.

Internally, it was like she was trying to fight against that, because what the hell was wrong with getting married to some hot billionaire and swanning around the world on a yacht while several nannies raised her children? Apart from the children part—which she really wasn't a big fan of—that was what had always been her future.

That was all she had grown up to aspire to.

That was all she had ever planned on doing with her future!

So now she was trying to figure out why it sat strangely on her shoulders.

Clary turned on her car and backed out of the parking spot without properly looking where she was going. There was an angry toot behind her but she didn't pay attention as she sped out of the school parking lot and onto the road, quickly driving in the direction of the far side of the city. She was never really one to pay attention to road rules and she was going faster than most of the other cars, and she turned the music up on the radio, winding her window all the way down so that her hair was tangling behind her. She had no idea what had pushed her to make this move, but within the next twenty minutes, she was driving into a neighborhood that she had been to twice in the past few weeks—two times more than she had ever been there in her life.

She got out of her car and then processed properly what she was doing and her eyes widened as she looked down.

She had showered after cheerleading practice and then had changed into a pair of leggings and a light pink off the shoulder shirt that was practically see through and showed off the bra she was wearing underneath. It had been because she was planning on just going straight home after practice.

At least her bra was cute, lacy and green, although the dark colour was the reason why it was so obvious through the pink shirt.

Clary shrugged, looking up and down the road before quickly crossing it and heading into the shop on the other side of the road.

The tattoo parlor.

The chimes jingled as she walked through the door and she felt herself cringe a little internally, still finding the chimes extremely tacky, and then took in a deep breath as Maia came through the doorway on the other side of the store.

"Clary!" Maia grinned at her and Clary was surprised that she remembered her name. "Hey, girl. Is it your turn to get a tattoo?" She wiggled her eyebrows, as though it was a joke, but then Clary jerked her head in a quick nod. Maia's eyes widened and then her grin grew. "That's awesome! Magnus is just finishing up with someone now, but if you give me the design, then I can start getting it printed out." She carried on talking as she moved behind the counter but Clary was still glued to the spot that she was in, just inside the front door as she ran through what Maia had just said.

Design.

She had nothing planned.

None of this was planned out!

"Clary?" Maia's voice was gentle and she tipped her head to the side, her gorgeous curls bouncing.

"Yeah?" Clary blinked.

"You...Have a design, right?" Maia prompted and Clary cleared her throat and jerked her head in a small nod.

"Of course," she responded. "It's just...I forgot it. I left it at home." Maia raised an eyebrow. "It's fine, I can draw it again—do you have something that I can draw with?" Maia didn't look as though she believed her, but she shuffled through things on her desk and then handed her a blank piece of water paper and a pencil. Clary walked over to the desk, picking them up and then purposefully walking toward the couch and low table. Maia watched her from behind the desk as Clary picked up the pencil and held it over the piece of paper.

Clary tightened her grip on the pencil before clearing her throat again and beginning to sketch. A picture formed quickly, although Clary drew it twice more, up in the left side corner of the page and then the final one near the body, before she was happy with it, changing a couple of things so that it was like she was picturing her mind. When she was done, she got up and walked back over to the desk, thrusting the piece of paper at Maia.

"You know, you don't have to do this today if you're not ready," Maia told her before looking down at the drawing.

"I'm ready," Clary stated, her words clipped. "Wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be." Maia didn't bother saying anything, just gave her another look and then went through the doorway, to go and scan the drawing and then print it off. A girl and what seemed to be her boyfriend came through the doorway not longer after, the girls forearm wrapped up in a bandage and Magnus was following after them, talking about aftercare details of the tattoo. When he saw Clary, he smiled, and when Maia came out, they smoothly switched jobs, Maia going through the rest of the details of cleaning the tattoo and taking care of payment while Magnus took the printed picture and gestured for Clary to follow him.

"Didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon," Magnus told her as he began cleaning down the seat where Clary would be sitting. She just shrugged, arms crossed over her chest as she waited for him to sanitizing the area and then he picked up the paper and looked at the images that Maia had printed off in several sizes. "Okay. Where did you want it and what size were you think?" Clary was ready for that, given that had been what she was thinking about when she was sketching the flowers.

"Here," Clary held up her left hand and rubbed the fingers of the other hand down the side beside her thumb.

"Ah, and that's why you made it quite thin?" Magnus asked with a grin and then shook his head. "Seriously, if you're ever looking for some part time work, just hit me up. I'm not a bad artist, and neither is Maia, but if people want custom tattoo's, we always have to get them to get the design elsewhere. I can only do rough sketches that need to be tidied up." Clary didn't know what what to say to that—no one had offered her a job before—so she just shrugged again. "Well, Maia probably didn't ask for your ID, since we saw you here before and we know you're the same age as your friend, but we still need you to the sign the waiver. I'll just go get that, then we'll press the image on and go from there."

By the time Clary was sat down in the chair in the middle of the room, she could feel nerves swirling in her stomach. She was pretty sure that if she wasn't as stubborn as she was and if she wasn't as proud as she was, she would have got off the chair and walked out of the room.

But she didn't.

Magnus pressed the image onto her skin twice, once at an angle that Clary didn't like so much, and so she had shaken her head, because this tattoo business wasn't something that she had ever thought she was going to get mixed up in, and if she was going to do this, then she was going to get it damn perfect.

When Clary was happy, Magnus settled onto the stool next to her and began the tattoo process.

The first buzz gave her a bit of a jolt, and she was glad that he had done just a quick tester so she knew what to expect, but when he settled in and began doing the design properly, she was surprised when it didn't actually hurt that much. It felt like a strong vibration that was shuddering through her body, and when he began going over a few spots quite a few times, there was a bit of a stinging sensation, but other than that, it was fine.

It didn't take long, just over half an hour which was because of the smaller details that Clary had drawn in and the shading, and when he was done, he pulled back so she could look at it properly.

The tattoo was all in black ink, not colour like Kaelie's had been, although there were some places on the petals that were shaded lightly, so not completely black. There were three gladiolus flowers, splayed out prettily on the side of her hand, with a couple of leaves that she had drawn in as well. She had completely blanked with the pencil in her hand and she couldn't believe that she hadn't thought about what the actual tattoo was going to be when she was driving over. A few cheesy ones came to mind, a bird, the word freedom in linked letters, a love heart. She was relieved that her birth month flower had come to mind; the gladiolus.

Clary couldn't help but smile and wiggle.

She really liked it.

She had thought that maybe she would regret it as soon as it was over, but she actually really didn't.

"Alright," Magnus took off the gloves that he was wearing, tossing them toward the bin and then washing his hands quickly in the sink. "I'll wipe it down, wrap it up, and then go out to Maia to buy some product to put on later, okay?" Clary nodded, not saying anything but feeling a little disappointed when Magnus wrapped it up and the delicate flowers were covered by white cloth.

"Thank you," Clary murmured to him, giving him a small smile before heading through the doorway into the front room of the parlor. She walked over to the desk where Maia was standing and pulled her phone out of her pocket, her credit cards in the phone case, when there was movement behind her. Maia looked up with a smirk and Clary frowned as she turned around.

Jace.

Looking unsurprisingly beautiful, wearing a leather jacket and jeans that probably weren't meant to have that distressed, tight look about them, they had just molded to fit him over time and showed off his strong thighs and, Clary didn't doubt, if he turned around, they would show his ass.

"It's on the house," Jace told her, reaching out and gripping the wrist that wasn't bandaged. "Come for a ride with me."

"No," Clary's automatic response was, the word coming out of her mouth before she could stop it. Jace's smile grew, a gleam in his eyes.

"Come on," Jace tightened his hand around her wrist and gave it a tug. "Let's go for a ride." The way he stated the words, sort of friendly but firmness underlying, Clary didn't argue. She just followed after him, letting him lead the way.

Alright! So, what do we think? Let me know, leave a review :)

I thought I'd just give you the top ten from my Spotify again, I got some good feedback from you guys last time! Feel free to give me music recommendations either in the reviews or by message! I always find time to listen given how much time I'm listening to my phone through the day.

1) You Should Be Sad - Halsey. 2) Wrong Direction - Hailee Steinfield. 3) Walls - Louis Tomlinson. 4) See You Again - Carrie Underwood. 5) The Bones - Maren Morris and Hozier. 6) Hey Angel - One Direction. 7) Blood - In This Moment. 8) 3AM - Halsey. 9) Radio - Lana Del Rey. 10) She - Harry Styles.

Much love x