A/N: Hey guys! I would just like to say I am so very sorry for not getting this chapter out to you sooner all sooner. These past few weeks have been absolutely devastating and tragic and I have experienced things I would never wish on my worst enemy. First, I had intense writers block, I got lazy, and by the time I got the chapter out to ButteryHighlights, I was exhausted and spent from my homework and helping around the house. As soon as I got the chapter back I was going to post it but wanted to wait since I was busy but here's where my life took a spin. For ten years my mom and her husband has been fantasizing about building a house, a log home, that would be bigger and different than an average home. When they finished construction in October, recent events caused me to move in with them in the room they built for me so I had all my possessions there. Late Thursday night the house burst into flames and my dream home became my worst nightmare. All six of us made it out, except for our dog, and we are all okay but it can't take away the fact that I have lost everything I owned and they said when they searched my room, even my furniture wasn't there because it was so hot everything in the house practically melted. But, I WILL NOT let this dictate my life and ruin it so no I'm not quitting FanFiction and everything will be back to normal as soon as I can get a new laptop to start writing again. Anyway, this chapter is short but is sort of a filler chapter and the end is sad but just keep an open mind!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instrument or the characters and it makes me sad that I don't. Also, I lost everything I owned but now I get new stuff!
Clary POV:
I tossed my apron on the couch in the back room of the diner and sat in the nearest chair. Today was exhausting and I wanted nothing more than to go home and soak in the bathtub but I couldn't. My mind was working at top speed to process what I saw today. Around noon, Jace walked in with a blonde, long-legged girl that was extremely beautiful and despite our relationship, I was a little jealous. I should have known he would get someone as soon as he could but I just hadn't come to terms with it yet.
This time, I didn't really have to worry about it since I was working kitchen duty and had Raphael to occupy me all day. Aline eventually took their table and kept complaining about them sitting there for so long, taking up space, but I just tuned it all out. Nothing could have bothered me today after seeing Jace happy with someone else, I felt a weight being lifted off of my shoulders knowing I can move on too. I just needed to talk to someone that I haven't been a good friend to recently.
I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and looked up Simon's number on my contact list. When I pressed the call button, I put the phone up to my ear and waited for him to pick up.
"Clary?" He asked into his phone.
"Hey Si," I confirmed.
"I haven't heard from you in forever woman! Where have you been? Isabelle hasn't been telling me much."
"I know I haven't been talking to you but I really want to come over and talk. Do you have any plans?" I asked, hoping he would be free.
"I was planning on going over to Alec and Magnus's place but I can always just tell them I'm not coming."
"No, don't do that. I needed to go over there as well so I'll meet you there?" I asked, grateful that he was going to see Alec and Magnus.
"Absolutely Clary. See you soon." I ended the call and let out a sigh of relief. I may love Izzy for advice and Raphael to keep all my secrets but those three friends meant more to me in making my life not spin out of control than they could ever know.
I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and stood up, grabbing my apron and hanging it on the door to the kitchen and walked into the dining area of Takis. My eyes immediately fell on Raphael at the bar, bending over a plate stacked with pancakes. Aline sauntered over from cleaning a table and rolled her eyes, looking at me.
"You see what he made me do?" She said. "Make me some pancakes he said. It won't take long he said. It wouldn't have taken so long if he only wanted two but fourteen? No, never again." She disclaimed with a scowl. I started giggling as Raphael lifted his head warily with fear evident in his eyes. Aline put her left fist on her hip and pointed her finger at him.
"Yeah you better be afraid because now you owe me and it won't be picking roses from the garden either. You know what's funny about that? There is no garden," Aline said to Raphael. He looked over at me mouthing the word 'help' and I just shook my head.
"You're on your own buddy," I told him. He stared aimlessly and gulped, making me laugh harder.
"Well I'm off to see Magnus, Alec, and Simon. Have fun you two!" I called over my shoulder, running out the door, giving Aline free rein to do with him whatever she wanted. She may only be in her mid-forties and the kindest woman on this earth but she can make you suffer. I'll have to ask Raphael what the punishment was later.
As I walked down the street on the five block journey to the apartment, I spotted Jace sitting on the bench in Central Park with his head bowed down. He reminded me of that time on the playground so many years ago but in switched positions. I wondered if he even remembered that and I wanted to find out so I walked off the sidewalk into the park.
Approaching the bench, I started to rethink asking him before he raised his head and looked at me just like he did a few short hours ago when he left the diner.
"Hey," he said, his golden eyes boring into my green, studying me.
"Hey," I answered hesitantly. "What are you doing here?" He leaned back in the bench and let out a long breath.
"I really don't know. What are you doing here?" I sat down next to him, picking at the bottom of my shirt.
"I was on my way to see Alec, Magnus, and Simon when I saw you sitting here and..." I trailed off.
"And what?" He asked softly.
"And it reminded me of something."
"Of what?" I reluctantly looked over at him. His eyes held a hint of pain but I wasn't sure why. He had everything he needed at the moment. A beautiful son, a set future, and a gorgeous girlfriend so instead of asking him, I just continued on.
"Today I saw a picture of us that Isabelle had concealed from me and it was of us when we were five. It was the day we met and I had forgotten all about it until I saw the picture." He put his chin in his hands and his eyebrows creased in thought. I didn't want to give a hint of anything so I could see if he really did remember. After a long pause, his eyes started to widen with recognition.
"I remember that day. You looked desolate and alone so I decided I would be your friend by making you feel like someone was there for you. I didn't know why but I really wanted to see you smile and when I did, I felt like I had the world in my hands." He looked at me and smiled for a moment before he started laughing.
"What's so funny?" I asked him, making him laugh harder. "What is so funny?" I asked again, starting to smile myself at his senseless laughter.
"Remember that time you slid down the slide and fell face first into the dirt? You screamed the whole way down and kept screaming when you hit the ground. I don't think you even knew you hit the ground until I pulled you up," He started laughing again, clutching at him stomach.
"Really? You don't remember you lost control of your bike and fell in the pond screaming that you were downing even if it was only three feet?" I countered, laughing at the memory. "Not to mention the fact that there was a frog in the pond and you kept screaming that it was going to eat you."
"That was pretty funny," he said after we both stopped laughing and caught our breath.
"Yeah, it was. I miss it all the time," I said longingly.
"What?"
"My childhood. My dad, Jonathan, the days where everything was rainbows and unicorns." He smiled.
"Yeah, I miss my parents and my childhood too." My heart ached for him when he mentioned his parents. He rarely ever talked about them except with me and I was the only one that knew the whole story.
"I wish I would have been able to meet them," I said quietly, putting my hand on his shoulder, stroking his shoulder with my thumb. His eyes looked up into mine.
"They would have loved you. I know they would have," he told me, continuing to hold my eyes. He started leaning towards me and I towards him. My heart started racing in my chest so loud in my ears that I was sure it would make me go deaf. We were breathing the same air and our lips about to press together when someone interrupted us.
"Jace? What are you doing?" We immediately pulled apart and looked at the blonde I saw earlier. Something was different about her this time, almost as if she saw a ghost. Noticing her disgruntled appearance, Jace jumped off the bench and looked at me in disgust.
"What the hell Clary?" He asked and went over to the girl.
"Camille, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to-"
"It's okay, baby. I forgive you," she said while pulling him to her, smirking in my direction. Camille? Sounds like a whore. I couldn't shake the feeling that something felt off so when I started to stand up and defend myself, Jace cut me off before I could get a word out.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" He snapped, wrapping his arm around Camille, pulling her to him while his eyes bore daggers into mine. I just nodded my head and quickly walked out of the park, not able to get to Alec's apartment quick enough.
By the time I reached the apartment, my breath was ragged and my cheeks flustered from the run here. I tried as hard as I could to push Jace out of my mind but it was becoming harder the more I tried. I bent over and rested my hands on my knees to catch my breath. Why did he have to be so cruel? He was the one about to kiss me! Camille was just his escape and he went to her without batting an eye in my direction and in doing so, I felt abandoned and alone.
Both of them are cruel and persuasive and that makes them all the more threatening to me. They're the perfect match for each other. But as I replayed the moment over in my head once more, I couldn't keep Camille's worried face out of my mind. She was obviously hurt but there was something else behind her expression that spoke volumes of fear.
Shaking my head to wipe away all thoughts of Jace, I walked into the building and took the elevator. As soon as I arrived at the door to the apartment, I knocked twice. Within seconds, the door swung open to reveal a grinning Simon.
"Clary!" He shouted while developing me into a hug.
"Simon, you're squishing me," I told him but he didn't seem to hear me. "Simon! I'm only five foot two! You're going to suffocate me!" I shouted. He instantly let go of me and chuckled.
"Sorry short stack. It's been a while." I scowled at the nickname.
"Why must you always call me that?" I asked him.
"It fits you." He walked away without looking back, expecting me to follow so I did. The living room floor was littered with empty cans, bags of chips, most likely stale, and take out boxes.
"When was the party?" I asked Magnus who was currently sprawled out on the couch.
"Darling, don't kid yourself. I may be gay but I have to eat sometimes and even though I'm the female in this relationship, I don't clean. That's Allie's job."
"Well it sure looks spotless in here," I told him.
"You know it," Alec said from the chair in the corner. The only place left was on the love seat next to Simon so I sat down and got comfortable before clearing my throat.
"As you all may have noticed, Jace is back so a lot of things have changed." Everyone's eyes on me encouraged me to move on. "I just need to come clean to you all about my side of the story so you can know what's really going on." I looked at all of them in the eyes before I told them what has been happening these last few weeks, starting with the day Jace and Sebastian showed up at the diner. They never once looked away and kept their eyes trained on me and expressions blank as they processed all the information I was telling them.
"So what you're saying is," Alec spoke after I finished. "You want to have Jace in your life but you can't trust him?" I nodded my head.
"Let me say something Clary," Simon said. "I think it is a little strange that Jace accepted Kevin so fast which makes me believe he's only using Kevin to get to you." It took me a moment to think about what he just said. Was he really just acting like he wanted to be with his only son?
"Also, the day Jace shows up, Raphael finally grows a pair and asks you out. Why do it then and not sooner or later?" Magnus asks.
"I think Izzy is right on a lot of things. She just wants you to open your eyes and make your own opinion, not one that's been presented for you," Alec said. My mind instantly went on overdrive, realizing my thoughts really have been caught up on Jace that I didn't take things into consideration. This is why I'm grateful I came here tonight.
"You guys are right, I didn't think things through." Magnus and Alec nodded their head in approval.
"Clary, you need to give Jace a chance to explain himself to you. I think you both deserve that much. Talk through everything with him and find out his true intentions instead of pushing him away. I know I wasn't there to see you two together all those years ago but what I know now leads me to believe that you two need each other more than ever now than you did then. You're both so broken that you need a lifeline so you're grabbing onto other people for support," Simon spoke with honesty.
"I have been around for quite some time, enough to know that if Raphael truly loves you like he says he does, he wouldn't have waited until now. You gave him an open opportunity to have you as his girlfriend but with Jace just showing up, he should have turned it down and just been a friend. To me that seems like he's only being selfish to have something that Jace can't now that he's back in the picture."
I looked at the ground and thought things through to myself. It didn't occur to me that I was so blind to everything around me. I never even gave Jace a chance and seeing him with Camille broke my heart so did he feel the same way with me and Raphael?
"Thank you," I spoke to everyone in the room, meeting each person's eyes. I stood up from my seat on the couch and stifled a yawn. "I think I need to be getting home but I really want you guys to start coming around again." They all agreed in unison as I walked out of the building, finally satisfied.
I didn't want to go home just yet so I walked around for some time before ending up at the ice cream shop. I was about to walk inside when a voice yelled out to me.
"Mommy! Mommy!" I whirled around to see Kevin running up to me, ice cream painted on his face. I quickly lifted him up in my arms.
"Kevin, I didn't expect to see you here." He buried his head in the crook of my neck, wrapping his arms around me as far as they could go.
"I miss you mommy," he said.
"You'll be back tomorrow sweetheart," I told him. He just lifted his head up and nodded. His face brightened up almost instantly, forgetting his sadness.
"I got to eat a superman ice cream! It was so good but it melted and made my hands all sticky." He lifted up his hands, opening and closing his hands over and over again as they stuck together a little each time.
"Wow, that sounds like fun," I laughed as I reached to get a napkin from a nearby empty table. I tried to wipe his face off but ended up getting the napkin stuck to his face.
"Mommy, I'm a sticky mess!" He giggled excitedly. I couldn't help but laugh at the red and blue ice cream along with the napkin that inhabited his face.
"Looks like you'll need a bath, mister," I told him. He frowned slightly before his golden eyes lit up again.
"Kelsey, look at my napkin! It's stuck to my face," he giggled again. I looked up to see Carson and his parents standing behind us.
"Hey Clary," Kelsey said kindly. "Don't worry about Kevin, we'll clean him up. Unless you want to take him home? It's up to you."
"No mommy don't make Kevin go home! I want him to stay!" Carson spoke unhappily. I just shook my head.
"I think Kevin should just stay with you all tonight since they seem to be having fun."
"Yeah!" The boys said in unison. Kelsey and I just laughed.
"Alright then, come on Kevin we need to get going," Kelsey held out her hand for Kevin to take while he walked over.
"Bye, mommy!" He yelled over his shoulder. I sat down on the bench and watched them get into the car, wondering what it would be like to be married and settled down. As I was thinking about this, my worst nightmare displayed before me.
It happened so fast that I didn't see it coming. No one saw it coming. The black SUV was going so fast as it rammed into the car, the car started to roll. I screamed but couldn't hear it over the pounding in my chest and the sound of the screeching tires echoing in my ears.
There was not a single coherent thought forming in my head as I was inert, motionless, and not in control of my own body. People all around me made calls to 911 and tried to get me to stand since they saw me with Kevin just moments before, but I couldn't move.
The last thing I remembered was an EMT pulling out my son from the car, bloody and limp, before everything went black.
A/N: Keep an open mind here I don't like sad endings so don't give up hope! I'll try to post as soon as I can but with the way things look right now, it could be a few weeks. I will not give up on this story so don't think I have abandoned it because it makes me mad when I read something unfinished. I love you all so much and thank you for reading this story! Don't worry about how all of the crap in my life affecting my writing because I've come to terms with it and moved on. It's the buying everything back that sucks because I have to write down EVERYTHING that was in my room which included over a hundred books at least. Yeah, I read a lot of books.
Greygirl2358: I don't think I will ever forget reading your review and what you said about "Sebastard" but I will keep in mind not to ever read a review and put on mascara at the same time because when you laugh, it kind of messes up and ends up all over your face. Those flashbacks were quite creative if I could say so myself and that sounded conceited but when you write about Jace, it becomes your personality.
I'll get the chapter done as fast as possible and we will see some possible flashbacks in the next one! Until next time….