DISCLAIMER: 200% sure I am not Cassie.
Chapter Four: He's A Prat
From the get-go I knew this was hard to hold
Like a crash the whole thing spun out of control
Oh, on a wire
We were dancing
Two kids, no consequences
Pull the trigger without thinking
There's only one way down this road
—All Time Low, "Time Bomb"
A fist banged on her door, rattling its hinges as it threatened to burst loose, the noise mixing with the steady sound of rain pattering on the rooftop. Inside the well-barricaded room, Clarissa bolted upright. Her gaze shot to the clock with the cracked face and barely-on-time ebony hands.
"Open the door, will you?" came the snappish tone on the outside of the door. She scowled at it, but swung her legs over the bedside and wrenched the door open. To her astonishment, Jonathan stood on the threshold, tapping his foot impatiently.
He arched a sardonic eyebrow at her. "And she awakens at last."
"What do you want?"
"Just to talk." Jonathan leaned arrogantly against the doorframe, his dark eyes blinking at Clarissa. Suspicion rose inside of her as he crossed the threshold of her room and closed the door with an inaudible click. "Clarissa, about Father's punishment—"
"What about it?" Clarissa interrupted swiftly, a frown appearing on her mouth. "Have you come to gloat? Or to get me in more trouble with Father? Out with it already."
He was silent for a minute. She defiantly crossed her arms together, glowering angrily at her brother until he spoke. "I didn't tell Father about you being in the weapons room," he said at last.
Clarissa was taken aback. She stumbled away from him, her foot catching briefly on the long tail of her dress. "What— what do you mean?"
"I mean," Jonathan repeated with a rising intensity, "that I didn't turn you in. I told Father nothing about it, not hind nor tail."
"But— you—" stammered Clarissa helplessly, her mind twisting itself into knots for an answer. "No. No. Father specifically told me, he told me that you saw me at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning."
"I didn't—"
"Yes, you did," Clarissa argued stubbornly as her voice rose in volume. "You're just like the rest of our family: a lying, cheating, manipulative little—"
Jonathan took her shoulders and shook her. "Shut up, Clarissa! Do you want to wake the entire manor? Because you're two words away from that!"
"No, I don't," she hissed quietly at him. "I'm not stupid, Jonathan. I was clever enough to gain entrance to the weapons room. If I'd been a tiny bit cleverer, I could've gotten myself a stele before I was forcibly dragged out of the room."
He released her shoulders, breathing a heavy sigh out of his nose. "If you think you're not stupid, then why won't you listen to me?"
The set of her body stiffened; her mouth becoming a firm line. "I know you. I know what you're like."
"Do you really think so lowly of me?" A faint note of sadness tinged his tone.
Their eyes connected; black and green. Clarissa stared at him unflinchingly until he looked away. "Yes. Yes, I do."
"Clarissa, you have to listen to me," Jonathan insisted. "I wasn't even at the manor during 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning. I was at the library."
Clarissa froze. Jonathan's voice sounded like it was coming towards her through water, wavering and unintelligible.
"Father, I have something to ask you."
"I arranged it at dinner with Father the night before."
"I'm going to the library tomorrow."
"For what?" Glasses thudded the table, forks and spoons clinked in a strange sort of rhythm.
"I told him that I was going to do some research."
"See," he said casually, leaning back in his chair, fingers wrapped around the stem of a wineglass, "I'm going to do some research. For the cause."
Clarissa stared impassively at him before he cut her a warning look. Cause? What cause?
"He accepted. Told me to be on my merry way."
"Excellent." Father's lips curved into a cold smile.
"Oh, God," Clarissa breathed out in a jagged gasp. Jonathan didn't do it. He was innocent. "Oh, my God."
"Do you remember now?"
Her head bobbed up and down jerkily. "Then why did Father. . ."
Jonathan hesitated before striding over to the door and placing an ear to it. When he was satisfied with the lack of noises he heard, he walked back over to a pale Clarissa. "I've been thinking," he murmured slowly, "that we were raised apart for a reason. Me, you, Lily. At first, I couldn't figure out why. And then it hit me. Ever since we've been halved back together, Father is always encouraging enmity between you and Lily and me."
"Oh," realized Clarissa. "The fighting, the antagonizing comments, the. . . everything. It occurred to me once, but I decided I was imagining things that weren't there."
Jonathan frowned. "That's what I thought at first. But something wasn't right in the way Father seems to live for conflict. But why would he encourage so much conflict between us? It doesn't make sense."
Clarissa's mind spun as another piece fell into place. "No, it does," she muttered lowly. "Why would Father try so hard to keep Lily and I, especially, but all of us away from the weapons? Why doesn't he let us read certain books in the Morgenstern Manor Library? Why is there so many places in this house we can't go? And then I understood, Jonathan. He's— he's hiding something. He's been distracting us. . . with ourselves."
There was a split second of quiet where Jonathan inhaled sharply. "We have to tell—"
A fist thundered against the door. "CLARISSA MORGENSTERN!"
Jace hated Mondays with a fervor.
Why did I let Alec guilt me into coming to school again? he grumbled to himself as he roughly yanked on a jacket. Hell, why did I even talk to Alec? I must be an imbecilic sod. He stomped down the creaky stairs.
"Ready to go, Jace?" Alec hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder, his eyes bright. Car keys clinked and clacked in his pocket.
Jace's gaze shot to the front window of the house. Through the glass panes, he could see a tall, slender girl with dark red hair in a braid walking down the street and avoiding misshapen puddles of rainwater.
"Jace?"
"I—what?" His attention snapped back to Alec, who was eyeing him suspiciously with a hard look on his face.
"I said, Jace, are you ready to go?"
"Er. . ." Is the girl outside Lily or Clarissa? Jace stared at her once again before deciding it was Lily, because Clarissa was very short with hair that was more carroty than Lily's. Then where are Clarissa and their brother? "I—I'm going to walk to school today, I think."
The other boy cocked his dark head at Jace, eyebrows furrowing in puzzlement. "You're not going to try and make a run for it?"
"What—no! I just wanted to. . . get some fresh air," Jace lied quickly. Outside, Lily had dropped a red notebook and was frowning distinctly at it. Alec scrutinized Jace thoroughly before stepping back uncertainly.
"Well," he muttered warily, "have a good walk. Stay out of trouble, all right?"
Jace nodded mechanically, waiting until he heard the rumble of the car starting and the telltale screech as it pulled out of the garage. He opened the front door and poked his head out to watch the car slide down the rained-upon streets before going out and locking it.
Lily was halfway down the street when Jace caught up to her. "Lily! Oi, Lily, wait up!"
She turned around. "I could hear you from all the way down the street, you know. Was that your brother that just left?"
Jace was tempted to ask how she even managed to hear him from that far away but held his tongue. She probably won't tell me anyways. "Where's your siblings?"
There was a delicate pause before Lily answered carefully, "Jonathan is busy. Clarissa is. . . ill. Bad virus. She's plenty happy to miss school in the first place."
There was a strange, stiff undertone that darted through her words, as if she was dissecting everything she said before it came out of her mouth. It was a mystery. And a lie.
"Oh." Jace let the issue go; Lily obviously wasn't going to give any more insight into the situation. The Morgensterns and their secrets, he thought furiously, what are they bloody hiding?
When school finally ended, Jace sprinted out of the building, not waiting for Alec to stride out from it and unlock the car fifteen minutes later. He ran the entire way home, only stopping at the house to drop his books in the doorway before heading into the forest behind his house.
Even wrapped in a cloak of pre-stormy weather and gray skies, the forest was still beautiful. The trees, which had once been leafy and green, had their leaves morphed to fiery hues like scarlet and sunset orange and soft yellow as they drifted slowly yet surely towards the earthy ground. It was quiet and peaceful, and without all the chaos of other people, Jace could feel the set in his shoulders beginning to relax. Twenty minutes passed soundlessly before he could tell he wanted something to do.
Clary?
Yes, Jace? She sounded tired. Exhausted, like something had run her into the ground
I'm sort of bored.
Are you at school? Exasperation coursed through her voice and a small smile rose up on Jace's mouth.
No, I just got out.
Ugh, be happy you're at least allowed to leave your damn house, she grumbled. My father said I can't go to school or anywhere at all today because he wants to 'discuss something.'
Sounds more exciting than what I'm doing, Jace thought at her as he went farther into the forest, watching trees pass by but not paying attention to where he was going.
Except he's a prat. A real prat. And his high-and-mighty attitude is really wearing on me. I mean, you can only go so long hearing your pretentious father, for sod's sake, ramble on about wealth and houses and how you need to act and whatnot.
Keep talking to me then, okay? A sudden surge of anger took flight in Jace. Didn't Clary's father know he couldn't control her? The first thing Jace learned about Clary was that her nature was reckless, rebellious, and easy to provoke. No one should even bother messing with her because she would serve it right back at them.
You're the only thing keeping me sane over here, idiot, she shot back teasingly. Urgh, now Father's blabbering about my posture. . . and my clothing, apparently. How annoying.
He's a dick, Clary. Don't listen to him.
She sighed. I wish I didn't have to.
Get earplugs, he suggested.
Ugh! You're absolutely no help at all, Jace. But—oh, wait—my torture has come to an end! What is this? Father has actually stopped talking?!
Finally.
I know, right. . . Do you think I should go back to my room or somewhere else?
Jace grinned. Hell, go somewhere else.
Exactly what I was going to do, Clary agreed steadfastly. It's getting tiring of doing what Father says; I feel like a puppet on strings. 'Do this, do that, obey everything I say.' I'm sick of it. Know the feeling?
Yeah. Nothing as extreme as your dad, but, still, I can sympathize. Jace stared at his feet as they kept moving deeper into the autumn-colored woods. And then, he wasn't quite sure how it happened, but he was on his back, bracken and mud on his jacket. He looked up, startled like a deer in headlights, and there was the other Morgenstern girl across from him. Clarissa.
"Oh, bloody hell," she announced, her bright green eyes connecting with his, "I'm really sorry! Honestly, I got a bit sidetracked and, well. . ."
Jace stared at her. Mud was congealing along the hem of her ridiculous dress. Her shoeless feet were covered in dirt. Her red curls were oddly windswept. There's something. . . No. Nothing.
"Look, you're a real prat, but it's not like I ran into you on purpose, okay?"
Jace bolted upright, picking himself up from the ground. It felt as though he had just shook himself out of a long sleep. "It's fine. I wasn't looking where I was going either because. . . never mind. At least I can tell Alec the truth about how much I dislike his muddy jacket."
Clarissa's smile fractured the smallest bit as if there were fault lines in it and something had triggered a small-scale earthquake. "You have a brother?"
"Didn't I just say that?" He stared at her. What is her problem?
"God, just confirming it." The fractures in Clarissa had vanished, smoothed over by paint. The whole thing was gone so quickly that Jace felt like he'd went and imagined the entire thing.
A familiar silence fell between them. Jace's attention turned back to the girl in his head.
Where'd you run off to?
The weirwood behind my house. Awfully convenient for escaping angry fathers, see.
He laughed faintly, then caught himself before it became too loud. When there was no question of, "What are you laughing at?" from Clarissa, he slipped back into his mind. You're lucky you have a weirwood—I just have a regular old forest. Not to insult the forest or anything.
Either way, you've got solace, Clary pointed out.
Yeah. Except there's this weird redheaded girl sitting next to me who keeps shooting me side-glowers-
A jarring feeling hit Jace. The trees before him swirled into an enormous, warped picture as his vision blurred. Confusion and hurt hit him in one big, muddled epiphany, except they weren't his feelings—not exactly his. It felt like he couldn't breathe; as though everything in his body stopped for an eternity before it sped up to the speed of light. His breathing quickened, his heart pounded like a jackhammer in his chest, and then he knew exactly who Clarissa Morgenstern was, because he had known her, spoke to her, laughed with her, thought of her for his entire life—
Everything came down to two simple words that flew out of him as he gripped her by the shoulders: "You're Clary?"
Oh shit, a cliffhanger.
Yes, I did that on purpose. Sorry. Completely necessary though :) And this is a shorter than normal chapter for me, so I'm sorry about that. The next one should be pretty long (hopefully)!
BUT GUYS THEY ACTUALLY MET! *squeals* Yes, I know I'm the one writing this story, but screw that, I'm excited anyways!
I would've updated faster, but Thanksgiving happened. . . So yeah. Happy late Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate it!
Enormous, gigantic thank you to all the readers, reviewers, favoriters, and followers! You lot make IFTP go 'round :)
lindsayhonaker:I'm glad you like the idea! I thought it would be slightly entertaining to have them both be thinking, 'Oh, he's a jerk' and 'Ugh, she's weird' when they're actually the other's best friend and don't realize they're talking about each other. Thanks for reviewing :)
kay xxxx: Sorry the update took. . . what, twenty days? Urgh. Aside from my spectacularly crappy updating time, what do you think of Chp. 4? Thanks for the review!
lemonofweirdness:Thank you :) I hope you keep enjoying it as it progresses! Also, thanks for reviewing!
Alexa:Wow, thank you so much! I'm flattered that you think so! Well, Jace and Clary meet in this chapter, and no, I can safely confirm to anyone who's curious about Jonathan and his weird canon relationship with Clary that it is DEFINITELY not happening in Falling to Pieces. Ew. I can't think of writing something like that haha. I can't say anything else about Izzy and Max besides the fact that they were killed because spoilers :P Also, about COTF, the update is coming soon! The chapter I'm working on is the Clarill chapter, so all the Clarill shippers out there are getting their wish :) Thanks for the awesome review!