Hello all! I just wanted to apologize about the last chapter! The beginning of it got posted on accident! So if you read the firstfew paragraphs that were there and it made no sense, the rest of the chapter should be there! My apologies!
Now let's get on with chapter 2!
It's been a few hours at the diner and I'm already exhausted. I pull out my phone to check on the time.2:24. I go to the back to find Magus.
"I'm going to head out and pick up Jacob. I'll be back as soon as I can." My sparkly boss nods.
"I'll see you and my favorite boy soon!" I laugh and head towards the door. The ten blocks to the school are horrible. It's such a hot day in New York. I finally make it. I stand by the steps and see the doors opening. My breath stops. I drop my phoneon the ground, my mouth open and eyes in shock. His eyes go right to me.
"Jace."
I pinch myself to make sure I didn't just imagine him. He's still there. I close my eyes and count to ten. And he's still there. I can't believe this. I'm in complete shock. It's been seven years. Seven years of wondering what I did wrong. Seven years
/of sadness. Seven years of being alone. Seven years of dealing with Jacob by myself. Suddenly my shock turns into anger.
What did I do to him? What did I do that made him so mad to cut me out of his life completely? And when the hell in Gods name is he doing here at my son's school?
And then it hits me.
"What did you say your teacher's name was again?" Jacob swallows his pancakes and takes a second to think.
"I think it's like Mr. Horon.. Mr. Harmon... OOH OHH I KNOW." I motion him to quiet down. "It's Mr. Herondale!"
He'sJacob's teacher. Jace is Jacob's teacher.
The children are all laughing and talking about their first day of school with each other as I start to open the doors. I open the set of double doors to the main entrance of the school. I start to say goodbye to the kids in my class and tell them that
/I'll see themtomorrow. And then I see red.
I see the mess of red curls in the crowd of parents. I do a double take thinking that it must be a mistake. But it's not. I can see her striking green eyes all the way from here.
I'm suddenly pulled away from her as I feel a familiar brush of a hand on my arm.
"Mr. Herondale! Come with me! I want you to meet my momma! I think you guys will like each other because you said that I'm a really good artist and so does she! Please please please!" Jacob said all of this in one breath while jumping up and down
and holding my hand.
I had to think fast. I don't know if I can face her, but I don't think I could say no to Jacob. He is just too cute.
"Of course Jacob! I would love to meet your mom!" He smiles up at me and pulls me along by my hand.
As we get closer and closer to her, I start to regret my decision. How am I supposed to face her? After all those years, how am I supposed to stand in front of her and act like I don't know her?
And then, we're there. I'm standing in front of her. I'm seeing her in person for the first time in seven years.
He was just standing there. And then he started to move towards me. I almost walked away so he wouldn't see me anymore. But then I saw the mess of strawberry blonde curls that was leading him through the crowd. Jacob was taking him towards me.
It felt so long that I waited for them to reach me. And then they were there. He was standing in front of me.
And there was no way from leaving.
We didn't say anything. We just stared. It was Jacob that broke our stares.
"Momma this is my teacher Mr. Herondale. Mr. Herondale this is my momma. Momma, Mr. Herondale said that my drawing was really really really good and that I could be an artist! And you say that too so I thought that you guys should meet because
you both said that and I thought that you guys could be friends and that you guys would like each other!"
He was the one to talk first. "It's nice to meet you Miss-"
"Fray. Miss. Fray. It's nice to meet you to Mr. Herondale. Jacob how was your first day of school?" I said all of this while avoiding eye contact with him.
"It was great momma! I played a lot of games and met knew kids and learned about each other and we got our seats and we picked out an outside reading book! Oh my friends are over there I'm going to go say hi!"
And then we were alone. Just me and Him.
She was beautiful. She was seven years older but she somehow had managed to be even more beautiful now than back then. She was beautiful and she was mad?
"Hi Clar-"
"What are you doing here?" She was very angry. "You left and now seven years later you just coming strolling back into my life unexpectedly. Oh and you just so happened to be my son's teacher?! I don't know what the hell it is that makes you so
special where you think you can just waltz right back into people's lives after abandoning them for seven years! You left me. You left me all alone. You cut me out of your life. So why the hell would you think I'd be so generous and let you
back into mine?"
Her words left me speechless. I couldn't say anything. Damn it say something!
She stared, probably waiting to hear if words were going to come out. But of course, no words came. I couldn't come up with any words to take back her anger and most of all her pain. I could see it in her eyes how much this was hurting her. I
only saw it for a split second. She suddenly had her walls up and they weren't going to come down.
"Well if you're just going to stand there and stare at me, then I think it's time for my son and I to head on home."
"Jacob honey we need to head out now okay? Say goodbye to your friends. Honey you'll see them alltomorrowokay?
Momma's got to get back to work!"
"Okay momma!"
I watched as she took Jacob by the hand and started walking towards the exit. I grab her hand just slightly and she flinches away from me, but she stops walking.
I look at her and say the two words that I should've said seven years ago: "I'm sorry."
All I get back is a quick glance my way. I see a tear trickle down her face. And it's like a reminder. You did this to her. You hurt her. You hurt yourself.
And then she was gone.