Authors Note:
So, this is the next installment of "What Is Love?" and I hope you all enjoy it! I know Alec and Magnus don't have a lot going on at the moment but it will get more involved later, but I just didn't know where to take there relationship problems yet! Let me know what you guys think! :)
Chapter Four:
The last couple weeks had been weird for Jace and Clary, not a bad weird, but a different weird. A weird they both weren't used too. They had fallen into a sort of a routine. Clary pretty much stayed after school every day to paint. And on the days that Jace had practice he would go find her and spend 15 minutes talking until he had to leave. Than once Clary was done, she would go out and watch their practice for a little. It had become normal for them, and when Jace had a game he often searched the crowds for Clary. He didn't know why he wanted her there, but he knew that he couldn't stop himself from looking for her hair.
Today was one of the biggest games Idris played all year, and that was because it was their rival school and they had to win. He was nervous, but that was normal. He just wanted the school day to be over so he could quickly check the art room for Clary. For some reason he thought seeing her before the game would help calm the nerves. When the final bell rang he practically ran out of his class and grabbed his things from his locker and headed to the art room. To his surprise it was empty. He sighed and leaned against the doorframe.
"Jace?" He heard and he looked up to see Mrs. Caroli standing there. "What are you doing here?"
"I was trying to find Clary." He said and she smiled and nodded.
"She wasn't in school today." She told him and he got worried. I mean, it's not like Clary has to tell him her life, but something didn't feel right.
"Oh. Okay." Jace said and he left the room. He walked to the locker room in a daze wondering what was wrong with Clary. Was she sick? Was she out of town? Was something wrong? Every scenario ran through his head, but was quickly interrupted by the coach coming in to talk to the team. For now Jace would have to put Clary aside and focus on the game, no matter how much didn't want too.
Clary woke up and got ready for school like she did every day. She got her books ready and went downstairs where she was greeted by her mom. She looked upset, and Clary didn't understand why.
"Clary, we need to talk." Her mom said. Clary nodded and took a seat. "I got a call the other day, and apparently Jonathan is up for a hearing to discuss parole." Her mom said and Clary felt her heart drop. She wanted nothing more than to run out of that house, and never return, but she was frozen in her seat. "Jonathan swears he changes, but they want to hear from you."
"Why me?" Clary asks.
"Because you're the one he…..assaulted. If you go in there and tell them how you really feel, he could get parole taken completely off the table." Her mom said.
"Can I tell them that he's a piece of shit who deserves to rot in hell for what he did to me?" Clary spat and her mom sighed.
"You can say whatever you want Clary, but they want to hear from you." Her mom said.
"Okay, when do I have to talk?" Clary asked.
"We are meeting with our lawyer in an hour. He'll tell us everything we need to know." Her mom said and Clary nodded. This wasn't how she wanted to spend her weekend. She didn't want to relive the worst moment of her life, and the most traumatic thing she'd ever been through. Clary hopped off the stool and made her way upstairs. She locked the door and than went into her bathroom and locked that as well. She grabbed a razor and broke it apart. She grabbed the blade and sliced through the skin that was still heeling. 8 cuts. 4 for the number of years it's been, and 4 for the number of times she's tried to take her own life because of it. She let the blood drip for a few seconds before she started cleaning herself up.
The meeting with the lawyer had been pretty routine. Clary would have to go in front of a judge in three weeks and retell the most horrific thing that ever happened to her, and how she felt about her brother possibly getting out of jail. When Clary got to school on Monday she didn't know how anxious she was to see Jace. They didn't cross paths at all during the day, and all she had was the 15 minutes at the end of the day. She didn't mind it though. She had a free period at the end of the day and she spent that time in the art room painting. Today she felt particularly dark and decided that her painting was going to reflect that. She grabbed the red paint and let her hand create the image.
When Jace started walking towards the art room he didn't know how to feel. He didn't know if Clary would be there, or if she was out again but he had to see. When he got to the room and he saw the vibrant red hair a weight was lifted off his chest that he didn't even know was there. She was so focused that Jace decided to just walk up and sit next to her. As he got closer he saw what she was painting. He sat down next to her but she still didn't stop. She was in a trance and she was on a roll. They sat there in silence for a while until Clary finally put the paintbrush down. Jace noticed that tears were streaming down her face, but he didn't say a word. He reached his hand over and put it on top of hers. They sat there, neither uttering a single word, but that didn't matter. Clary knew that he was comforting her, and Jace knew she didn't want to talk about it. For right now nothing else mattered, but the silent conversation the two were having.
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This was Izzy's first day back since her secret was spread. She had convinced her parents to let her stay home but they told her that she had to go back today. Izzy wasn't looking forward to the day, but she had to get it over with eventually. Izzy kept her head down most of the day. She heard people whispering but she didn't really care. When lunch rolled around she didn't know what to do. She couldn't sit at her normal table, nobody would accept her, but there were no open tables available. She looked through the cafeteria and saw Simon sitting at a table alone reading something. She was already cast out from the top, might as well sit with the only person who actually treated her like a human.
Simon was reading some comic book when he saw someone put their stuff down. When he looked up he was surprised to see Izzy but he smiled at her and she smiled back.
"Is anyone sitting here?" She asked and Simon shook his head. She sat down and took a deep breath.
"Long day?" Simon asked and she nodded.
"Just a lot of stares and whispers." Izzy said and Simon nodded. "Do you always eat alone?"
"On the rare occasion Clary joins me, but mostly it's just me." Simon said and Izzy looked away and saw her old 'friends' pointing and laughing.
"Is Clary your girlfriend?" Izzy asked after a moment, and secretly she was hoping that she wasn't, but she didn't know why. Simon simply laughed and shook his had.
"Clary is like my sister. I've known her since first grade." Simon said and Izzy made a mental note. Izzy heard another noise and looked over and saw Aline making fun of her. She rolled her eyes and put her head down. "You okay?" Simon asked.
"Just Aline being a bitch." Izzy said, and Simon looked over at that table. "I can only imagine what's she saying about me now."
"Probably something along the lines of you committing social suicide by sitting with me." Simon said and Izzy's eyes widened. "I know what they say about me. I'm not an idiot."
"So you always knew what they thought of you?" Izzy asks and Simon nods.
"I get that I'm not the most popular guy in this school. Far from it actually, and I know that you all think that I'm like the biggest loser in this school, but at the end of the day I really don't care."
"How do you deal with it?" Izzy asks.
"I just ignore it. I guarantee I won't see 3/4 ths of these people after we graduate. I'll be off at Yale, or Harvard getting my degree in engineering and making a load of money one day. What petty people in high school think of me really doesn't matter." Simon said and in that moment Izzy realized that everything she thought she knew was completely wrong. She realized that the people she should be friends with were the people she looked down on for so long. Simon held her while she cried after she was a total bitch to him, and he's letting her sit with him because he knows she has no one else, and he's the first person who makes Izzy actually laugh, and feel like she's a normal girl. He isn't flirting to get her to sleep with him, and he is actually looking in her eyes while she speaks instead of at her chest. Izzy didn't know how important Simon was going to be to her, but she knew there was something about him that was different, and she liked it. "What about you? What are your plans after high school?"
"I'm not really sure." Izzy said honestly.
"Well, what are you interested in?" Simon asked.
"I like fashion, and making clothes." Izzy says. "Not many people know this but I make a lot of my own stuff."
"Really?" Simon asked with a smile on my face.
"Yea, but when they ask me where I get it from I just say I can't remember." Izzy confessed.
"Why is that?" Simon asks.
"Because than people know me, and they start to wonder who the real Isabelle Lightwood is and I'm just not willing to give them that opportunity." Izzy says and Simon nods. "Like this dress I'm wearing, I made it myself." I said and Simon started inspecting the dress she was wearing.
"It's a great dress. You look beautiful in it." Simon said and Izzy blushed, something Izzy doesn't normally do, but guys never called her beautiful. Hot, sexy, smoking, anything really that they thought she wanted to hear, but never beautiful, but it sounded right coming out of Simon's mouth. When the bell rang Simon got up and grabbed his books along with Izzy's. He smiled and continued walking, Izzy got up and followed. Simon walked Izzy to her next class, he handed her her books, smiled and walked away. That was the last time Izzy saw him that day, but she couldn't get the smile off her face no matter how many times she heard a negative thing about her. She was happy, truly happy for the first time in a long time, and it was all because of Simon.
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Alec and Magnus had barely seen each other lately. Classes were getting harder, and the work was getting more intense, and it kept them rather busy, which they both seemed to appreciate. It had been a dark cloud over both of their heads since Magnus walked out, but Magnus needed to put his happiness and his reasons before Alec, and as painful as that was, it's the way it had to be.
In the meantime Magnus let Ragnor set him up with a friend of his. Magnus was nervous, not because he was going out on a date but because he was scared that he would never be able to get over how he felt for Alec. Magnus has never been so hung up on a guy before and it scared him, but the only way to get over something is to move on and that's what Magnus was doing. When Magnus got to the restaurant he saw a blonde boy that Ragnor had described. He walked over and took a seat.
"Magnus?" The boy said and Magnus nodded.
"Yes. You must be Noah." Magnus said and the boy nodded. Magnus had a type, and Noah certainly wasn't his type, but he knew Ragnor meant well so he would try his hardest to make this date work.
The date lasted for about 2 hours and Noah was a great guy. He was a good conversation holder, and he made some great jokes, and Magnus found himself enjoying his company. But he couldn't get the blue eyed boy out of his mind, and he couldn't stop comparing the two. He wanted to move on but no matter what he did Alec was always in his mind, and that worried Magnus more than he would ever admit.