A/N at bottom.
Enjoy!
Clary had seen the Hamptons in episodes of Gossip Girl, but a TV screen did not do the place justice. As the Lightwoods' private jet soared through the air, Clary pressed her face up against the window and took in the details with her eyes. The water was a perfect light blue with white sand, with people that Clary could only just make out lying on it. Multi-million dollar houses took up the vicinity with swimming pools and tennis courts.
"This is just the dull part of the area," Isabelle leaned over to Clary as she filed her nails, disinterested in their surroundings. "Wait til you see where we're going to be staying."
"If it's anywhere near this amazing, I'm probably going to feint when we land," Clary gushed.
Jace chuckled from the seat facing her where he sat sprawled, reading a tattered copy of a Charles Dickens book and sipping on a martini.
"Aren't you only sixteen?" Clary asked as she studied the drink in his hand.
"Seventeen," he corrected, "and in the Hamptons, seventeen is the new twenty five."
"Except not as many wrinkles and hotter," Isabelle added.
"Iz, we need to take this child out. She needs a proper party education," Jace said to his sister.
"Trust me, I've got that sorted," the girl smirked and winked, exchanging a devilish look with him.
"I don't know if I should be excited or scared," Clary raised an eyebrow and took a gulp of orange juice.
"I'd be terrified," the boy sitting next to Jace, Sebastian Verlac, grinned at her. He was Jace's plus one and also a junior. A really hot junior.
"No time for feelings," Isabelle stood up from her seat and clapped her hands together. "We're here!"
All of a sudden, Clary felt the quick descent of the plan as it connected with a landing strip that was placed at the back of what looked to be a mansion that could house twenty families. Even from the back, it was more beautiful than any house she had ever seen in her life. As they exited the plane, leaving their luggage to be retrieved by the butler, a two-level infinity pool came into view.
Clary was cut out of her trance when a ringing sounded from Jace's blazer pocket.
"I'll catch up with you girls in a moment," he signaled to Isabelle, Clary and Sebastian before pulling his phone up to his ear. "I thought we agreed no calls through the long weekend, Maia…" his voice faded as they got further away.
"I swear to God if he calls me a girl one more time…" Sebastian grumbled.
"You'll what? Bitch slap him?" Isabelle said.
"No, I'll do something manly, like… punch him."
Isabelle scoffed. "I'd like to see you try, Verlac."
Clary had missed the whole four sentences that had been exchanged in the past twenty seconds. She was off in her own little cloud of thought. "Who's Maia?" she interrupted, making sure she sounded cool and not-too-interested.
"Maia Roberts, she's a sophomore like me and also one of Jace's many flings. Or, was. Apparently she's getting to needy and clingy for my brother's liking," the dark haired girl explained, rolling her eyes as the turned to face the front of the house.
Clary's throat was suddenly dry and scratchy. One of Jace's many flings. She kicked herself inwardly for even caring. She knew that the boy wasn't at all interested, that joking with her was just harmless fun, but as much as she told herself that, she couldn't keep her mind off him. He wasn't like the other boys that she'd spent the past week with in classes. Yes, he was cocky and confident and he acted like the earth revolved around him, but at the same time he didn't talk about money and his parents' jobs the way the other guys did. He was vain and modest at the same time. God Clary, why don't you try making sense for once?
As the oversized French doors flew open to reveal the inside of the mansion, Jace joined the group of three again, but Clary was so blown away by the house that she barely noticed. Two spiral staircases swirled left and right at the back of the foyer, with statues and desks and paints all around. It was simple but sophisticated.
"Are your parents here?" Clary looked around for any signs of cars in the driveway and then figured that if they were here they probably had arrived by private jet too.
"Not yet, they arrive tonight," Isabelle replied as she stepped inside the door dramatically and flung her arms out. "Hello, my beautiful home!" She then turned to Clary and grinned. "Now for the exciting part, choosing our rooms. Jace, I'm assuming you want to be in the left wing as far away from us as possible, as usual?"
"Actually, I was thinking that maybe I could stay in the right wing with you and Clary, if that's okay with Sebastian."
The other boy shrugged.
"Why?" Isabelle scrunched up her nose in confusion. "You hate sleeping within one hundred meters of me. You say I snore. Which I don't, by the way," she added, directing it towards Sebastian, who Clary suspected she had a little crush on from the lovey eyes she'd been sending him all morning.
"Is it so unbelievable that I want to be close to my sister?" Jace feigned a hurt expression and put two hands over his heart.
The other three all responded at once. "Yes."
∞§∞
The four of them had spent the rest of the day unpacking and lounging around by the pool, sipping pina coladas and talking about anything and everything. More than half the time, Clary would just sit back and laugh as the other three talked. It was hard to join in when she couldn't relate to what they said about holidaying in Tahiti and complaining about their drivers. When it had come time for dinner, they had sat at in the grand, formal dining room as the cooks had sent in tray after tray of dinners and desserts. At some stage, Robert and Maryse Lightwood had joined. They'd been friendlier and more down to earth than Clary had expected, asking her questions about her classes and art instead of digging in about her past. The girl assumed that Isabelle had mentioned the whole scholarship situation to them sometime in the past week. It was a happy change to listening to the amazing world travels that the other teenagers had had and how much money was deposited into their bank accounts each birthday. If she hadn't been around the other students enough to know that they weren't all this kind, she may enjoy boarding at Abbotsleigh a lot more. Now, she walked up the spiral staircase that led to her bedroom. Isabelle was showering and Jace was god knows where, probably on the phone to another one of his 'flings'.
Clary stood at the top of the stairs where the hallway split into three and sighed. "Great, I can't even find my own way back to my bedroom."
Footsteps jumped up the stairs behind her and she turned to see Sebastian running towards her.
"Hey Clary," he greeted, coming to stop in front of her.
"Hi," she smiled back, feeling relieved as he started to lead the way back to their rooms.
As the walked, they talked. It was small-minded conversation and Clary was only half paying attention. Finally Clary recognized the dark brown oak door with carvings that connected to her own bedroom and stopped in front of it. Luckily the door was closed, or Sebastian would have been able to see the lacy underwear and other clothes that were sprawled all across her bed. She turned to him and gave a quick smile, reaching to open the door behind her before his hands came to rest on the walls on both sides of her head.
"You know, I saw you on the first day." His face was only a few inches away from hers and his eyes locked on her, making it impossible for her to look away.
"Really?" she whispered, her voice trembling. She could see exactly where this was going and she saw no way of getting out.
"I've been watching you all week, and when Jace said that you were coming to the Hamptons, I couldn't believe my luck. Being with you for an entire weekend… alone…" he pulled back a strand of her red hair and twirled it around his finger, never averting his eyes.
Clary closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. Their bodies were so close that if she moved at all they would collide. "But we aren't really alone, are we?" she said. "I mean, Isabelle's in the shower."
"Downstairs in the other side of the building," he said into her ear as his mouth came down to place a kiss on her neck.
Clary's skin burned where he touched her. "But Jace… Jace is…"
"I took care of that," he pulled back to give her a sly grin. "He's going to be busy with the young maid for at least another twenty minutes, which is plenty of time."
"Sebastian, no," she ignored the sick feeling in her stomach of the mention of Jace with another girl and pushed a hand onto the dark haired boy's chest. "I don't want to."
"Come on, Clary. You don't need to lie. No one's around," he muttered.
And suddenly, their lips crashed together and Sebastian's hand was around the girl's back, pushing her stomach towards him so that every part of their body that could be touching was. With his other hand, he secured a firm grip on the back of her head to push her mouth onto his, sliding his tongue in and tracing the back of her spine roughly.
"Sebastian," she mumbled against his lips as loud as she could. "Sebastian, stop."
"No."
He pushed his hand up her top, lifting it up to her chest, touching her bare stomach, her bra. It sent goose bumps all over her skin. As his fingers slid around to her bra clasp on her back, all the pressure and hold that Sebastian had had on Clary disappeared. He wasn't touching her anymore. He wasn't anywhere near her. Before she could even process what was going on in front of her, she heard the sound of a fist connecting with a nose, a crunching sound, and then Clary's eyes cleared enough that she could see what was happening. Jace stood in front of her with his back facing her, towering over Sebastian who lay crumpled on the floor on his side, he hands now clutching his nose as blood oozed from it.
"What the hell, man?" he exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Don't you dare 'what the hell, man?' me. You disgust me," Jace sneered as he lifted his foot back and sent it forward to connect with Sebastian's stomach.
"Jace, stop!" Clary cried, jumping forward and wrapping her tiny hands around his arm. He pushed her touch away. She could see the burning fury in his eyes.
"Like you don't want to tap that too," Sebastian said through coughs. "She's fucking hot, dude."
Jace bent down to the boys level, crouching on his knees, and looked him square in the eye. "If you ever lay another hand on her, I swear to God I'll cut them off myself," he hissed in a deadly tone that made Clary's veins run cold. "Do… you… understand?"
Sebastian nodded as his eyes widened in fear.
"Are you sure you don't need me to prove how serious I am?"
"No! No, I get it, okay? You can have her."
With that, Jace's foot landed on Sebastian's hand and another shattering sound rung in Clary's ears. "I'm sorry?"
After his suffering cries had quietened down to sobs, Sebastian spoke. "I promise I'll never go near her again."
"That's what I thought."
And with that, Jace straightened himself back up, turning to Clary. "Are you okay?"
Clary nodded, even though she had tears streaming down her face and her whole body was trembling. "Please just get me out of here. I can't look at him."
"Come on, come on," he whispered in a soothing voice, placing a hand on the small of her back. It wasn't like when Sebastian had done it, though. It was light and gentle and comforting.
She didn't argue as the walked past her bedroom door and halfway down the hallway before entering another bedroom. It was clean and white and not a thing was out of place or crooked. If not for the suitcase at the end of the king sized bed, you wouldn't know anyone was staying in it. Jace led her over to the bed and helped her as she lifted herself up onto it without question, pushing her body under the blankets and resting her head back onto the pillow.
"I'll be on the chair," Jace gestured to the bedside rocking chair with a blanket draped over it. "I'm not going anywhere, okay?"
"Don't be ridiculous. It's your bedroom," Clary said, patting the mattress behind her. "You can sleep in here."
"Are you sure?" Even though he was supposed to sound cautious and careful, there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable. The chair's perfectly fine."
Clary sighed. "Jace, I'm tired and I just want to go to sleep. Don't make me argue with you." Who knew Jace had a gentlemanly side? She thought happily.
Jace nodded stiffly and walked to the other side of the bed where he lay down, pulling the covers over him too and resting his head back. He lay on the very far side, as far away from Clary as possible, almost falling off. The girl sighed once again and ever so slowly, crawled over towards him so that her body was on its side and touching his arm. She lifted an arm up and rested it over his torso, her fingers curling around his other shoulder.
"Goodnight, Jace," she whispered.
"Goodnight, Clary," he murmured into her hair as his body became less rigid, enough so that he pulled his arm around Clary's tiny body and rested his chin on the top of her head.
"Thank you. For being there."
He didn't reply, but when it seemed that he thought Clary was asleep due to her heavy, steady breathing and stillness, he kissed the top of her forehead before shutting his eyes and falling into a deep slumber.
Ta da! So it's 1am in Australia and I stayed up to write this just for you guys, so pretty please review and let's try to get to 40 before the next chapter? Love you all :)
Xx
xPerfectImperfectionsx
