Clary didn't go into school the next day. She sent an email to the office, not even bothering to send it from one of her parents email addresses like she did when she was younger and they weren't around. It wasn't as though the school would follow up on it, well over half the school's attendee's were children of parents who weren't around enough to pay attention to when they were or when they weren't at school, muchless get in contact with the office.

Clary wandered into her ensuite and cringed as she saw her reflection in the mirror.

Maybe she would take up Kaelie's offer to see the plastic surgeon.

She had a split in her upper lip, just to the right side, where Lydia's dainty little pink ring had caught. It was crusted over and it looked ugly, although not as ugly as the bluish-purple brusie just uner her right eye. Clary wrinkled her nose, which hurt a little when her skin shifted over her cheek, and then she dropped her eyes from the mirror to start brushing her teeth and carefully washing her face.

She text Jace, to see if he had any plans today, and he replied quickly saying that he didn't have much on, he could come and get her. He didn't ask her why she wasn't at school, just said that he would be there in twenty minutes. Clary tried her best to cover up the bruise with make up, and she put on some dark reddish-brown lipstick, even though she winced as it smoothed over the split in her lip. It was a colder day today, and since Jace was picking her up on his bike, she put on a pair of jeans and a hoodie. Trixie alerted Clary to Jace's arrival, and Clary skipped down the stairs and opened the front door, just as Jace was about to knock.

"Hey, sweet th—what?!" Jace's eyes widened as he took in her face, the easy smirk dropping as he reached forward and pressed a gentle thumb to her jaw, turning her face to the side so that he could get a proper look at her face. "What the fuck happened?" His voice hardened, and Clary wondered what he thought had happened, who he thought had done this.

"It was Lydia," Clary replied with a roll of her eyes, tugging at her chin, pulling away from him. "I found out that her and Jordan were screwing around while we were together, and they're definitely screwing around now." Jace's eyebrow arched upward in surprise, but the anger in his face disappeared and shifted to amused. "I called her a whore and slapped her, and then she decided that she's got the balls to fight back, just not the balls to be honest to my face." Jace snorted and shook his head.

"Did you ice it?" He asked, his eyes still focussing on the brusie at her eye and her mouth.

"Yeah, yesterday after it happened, and then when I got home as well," Clary responded as she stepped around him, getting away from his worrying eyes.

"We're gonna need to give you some lessons," Jace told her as he followed her to where his bike was parked. "So that next time you can throw a better punch."

"I'm sure I can throw a punch just fine!" Clary answered indignantly as she picked up the helmet that she always wore, hooked to the back of Jace's bike. "I just..." she made an unhappy face as she looked down at her hand, curling her fingers toward her palm so that she could see the the perfectly buffed and polished nails, which were painted purple and blue, with sparkly swirls through them. "I didn't want to break a nail," she shrugged and put the helmet on, adjusting it under her chin and then frowning when Jace wasn't moving to pick up his helmet. She frowned over and him and he was staring at her increduously. "What?" She asked.

"How the fuck did I fall for a girl like you?" Jace muttered, shaking his head before reaching past her to grab his helmet and pulled it on. Clary blinked at him, not too sure how to respond to that, but then he was swinging his leg over the side of his bike and so she did the same.

They drove out of her neighbourhood and toward the far side of the city. Clary wasn't sure if they were heading toward his house or to the clubhouse, since they were both in the same direction, but after a few turns, and peeking over Jace's shoulder to see what roads they were going down, she knew that they were to the clubhouse. She wasn't particularly happy about that, but when they parked up, there weren't many bikes there.

"I'm not going to be long," Jace told her as he got off his bike and waited for Clary to do the same. "I need to straighten something out with my dad, and then we can head off," he nodded past Clary. "Maia's here," he noted, and she looked around and saw that there was a car parked up that she often saw on the street where the tattoo parlor was.

That was okay.

She was comfortable around Maia.

Jace took her hand and gave it a gentle tug, and Clary followed after him, into the clubhouse. It was by no means tidy, but it wasn't anywhere near as dirty as Clary had seen, when she had come for the party and one of the other times she'd been there. The other few times she'd been there it was in a similar state, never very tidy but at least reasonably clean. Maia was sitting on one of the couches that Clary had literally watched someone have sex on one time she came through. Jace had thrown something at them and told them to get a room, although it had been more of an off-handed suggestion than an actual order.

"I'll be back in a sec," Jace said, giving her a brief kiss on the temple before letting go of her hand and heading toward the back.

"Clary!" Maia grinned widely and waved her over.

"I'm just gonna go to the bathroom," Clary said, pointing after Jace. Maia nodded and then went back to talking to Will, who Clary remembered was Jace's cousin. Clary walked down the hallway, stepping around a guy who was leaning against the doorframe and leered at her. Jace had already disappeared down the hallway or up the stairs, so Clary quickly headed toward the bathroom. Two people came out of the one of the rooms, and Clary bumped into one of them.

"Watch it," came a snipping voice, and Clary looked up and saw the girl was Isabelle. Clary would usually snap back, but there was something about Isabelle that genuinely kind of scared her. The guy that she was with was pretty intimidating as well. His hair was white blonde and he had a few scars on his neck and he had tattoo's up and down his arms and even one curling up around his ear and edging at his face. She hadn't seen him before, but he had the same tattoo that Clary had seen on almost all of the Reapers Sons members. It was on his bicep, wheras Jace's was inked onto his back. Clary swallowed hard as his hard eyes landed on her, and she continued moving forward, pushing open the bathroom door.

Once Clary was finished and had washed her hands multiple times, she opened the door and began moving back down the hallway toward the main room when she stopped at a rough voice, tinged with a British accent. She was at the doorway, the door partially opened, and if anyone looked her way, they would see her standing there.

"So that was the Morgenstern slut, right?" It was saying and Clary's whole body jerked at the words, feeling as though ice had been dumped over her.

"Seb," Maia's voice sounded further away, so she must still be on the other side of the room while 'Seb' was closer. Clary wondered if that was the guy who was with Isabelle. "Now is not the time." Clary couldn't help but feel that comment directly in her gut. Maia wasn't defending her, or sticking up for her.

"She's not a slut," came a voice that Clary couldn't quite pinpoint, but the only other people who had been in the room was Will and the guy she didn't really know, so maybe it was Will.

"What? You're on their side now?" Sebastian's voice was hard.

"Seb," came a softer voice. Isabelle's.

"What?!" He sounded angry now. "Their whole family is the same! They're cunts, just like her. Out of everyone here, you shouldn't be defending her, Iz."

"I'm not defending her!" Isabelle protested. "I just think that maybe, maybe she's not so bad—look, she's right down the hall. She's going to hear you, and then Jace—"

"Guys," Maia was standing up now, and she was looking directly at Clary. Clary's lips parted, not sure what she was meant to say, not sure if she could actually say anything, given how dry her throat was and have fast her heart was beating. She felt as though she was going to be sick, her stomach twisting into knots, and then she felt warmth at her back.

"Clary?" Jace's voice was questioning, obviously only just walking up and having no idea what was going on.

Just like Clary.

She had no idea what the fuck was going on.

"I'm sorry you heard that," Will spoke up, and Clary's eyes flicked to him, and she vaguely noted that he looked a little ashamed.

"What happened?" Jace stepped forward, forcing Clary to step forward as well. He put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze and that was when Clary's body finally jolted into action.

"Get off me," Clary hissed out, jerking her shoulder away from Jace. Her face was burning with embarassment, hot and red, despite how cold her whole body felt right now, and she walked jerkily across the clubhouse room.

"Clary!" Jace called out after her, and she could hear his heavy boots falling onto the wooden floor.

"No, Clary," Maia got up from the couch, an apologetic and guilty look on her face as she reached out for Clary's hand. Maia's fingers brushed over the back of her hand and Clary snatched her hand back as though it burned her, and Maia actually had the audicity to look hurt, but she didn't try again. Clary threw open the door and when she stepped out, the started running.

"Clary!" Jace yelled again, but he sounded further away, and Clary didn't pause, continuing to run, eyes forward. She ran out of the compound and onto the street. It was an industrial area, and she knew most of these businesses had the affiliation with the Reapers. She kept on running, not caring about the sweat on her face or the fact her shoes were going to be torn up beyond repair. She had run several blocks before she spotted a taxi. She hailed it down and threw herself inside, refusing to look back to see if Jace had followed her.

Hi guys :) I've had some emails and messages asking for some more recommendations and things, so I thought I'd put that in here. If you're not interested, feel free to skip out here because I'm not addressing anything else to do with the story from here on :) I know a lot of people are stuck indoors and at home right now, I'm working from home a lot now as well, so I thought I'd give my usual music and movies and also some Youtubers, and...I hope you guys find some entertainment from them? And please don't hesitate to recommend some to me :)

1) Airplane Mode - Limbo. 2) why are you here - Machine Gun Kelly. 3) National Anthem - Lana Del Rey. 4) Rainbow - Kacey Musgraves. 5) Forever (Stripped Version) - Fletcher. 6) Daddy Issues - The Neighbourhood. 7) moonchild - RM. 8) Your Eyes Tell - BTS. 9) The Search - NF. 10) Keep You Mine - NOTD.

My favourite comfort movie at the moment is Penguin Highway, and I've been watching a lot of X-Files. Haha. On Youtube I've been watching quite a bit from Kendall Rae and Bailey Sarian, who do, like, true crime stories. I also really like watching Cruel World Happy Mind, she does deep dives into MLM's and online scams and stuff and I find that all really interesting. Dylan Is In Trouble is great for movie reviews and he has a sense of humor a lot like my husband, so I run it a lot in the background. Haha. He also has an old channel with music reviews which I really enjoy working through. Then there's is Kristina Maione, who does a variety of commentary videos, her most recent one is about Mia Khalifa, and like how she presents stuff. Then last ones are ItzKeisha and dangelowallace also have sort of commentary videos, both super interesting and researched and good points of view and ways of speaking.

So. Yeah. I have heaps more but I don't want to ramble. Please try and look after yourselves. Your heart, your brains, your souls. Everything is a bit scary and...Not good. I don't know what else to say...Much love xx