Chapter 11

Jace and Aline broke up a week after Winter Formal.

Isabelle related Aline's side to Clary after Aline's family came over for dinner and Aline spilled her heart out to Isabelle with uncharacteristic emotion.

"Usually Aline's a cold-hearted bitch, but this really hurt her for some reason. I guess they finished that argument, huh?"

"Izzy..."

"Sorry, cold-hearted mean girl. Better?"

Clary rolled her eyes. "Anyway, did she tell you why they broke up?"

"Yeah, she kind of skimmed over that. She focused more on her hurt feelings. But she did say that it was mutual, which confused me because usually only dumped girls cry the way she did."

"Maybe it was a mutually hurtful breakup after a mutually accusatory argument? We heard part of that, at least."

"Yeah. I feel bad for Aline, actually. Probably the only time that's going to happen. I wonder what Jace thought she was hiding...as a matter of fact, I wonder what Jace was hiding. Those two were a disaster waiting to happen."

"Why do you say that?" Clary said curiously.

"Both of them are too high-maintenance. They're both attention seekers. Neither would've gotten what they wanted."

"How do you know so much about this?"

"I watch movies. And I read a lot of romance."

"Right."

"I caught Alec with one of my Jane Austen novels once. He'll deny it if you say so, but he totally stole it from my room."

Clary laughed. "I'm sure Magnus would approve."

"Yes, he would," Isabelle said with an amused expression.

Clary hesitated before saying, "So...how's Simon? I haven't seen him this weekend."

"He's great. I saw him yesterday."

"Oh, really? What did you guys do?"

"No, Clary. It wasn't a date. I just saw him in the neighborhood when I was walking back from Magnus's with Alec."

"Huh. Well, that's cool. Did you break up with Meliorn, then?"

"We were never together. It was just a flirtation, Clary."

Clary raised her eyebrows. "So, are you and Simon just a flirtation?"

Isabelle sighed. "We went over this. I wouldn't toy with Simon like that. He's too good for that kind of treatment-I see that now."

Clary smiled. "Good."

Isabelle laughed. "You're so damn protective, Clary. I hope you'd do the same for me if Simon broke my heart."

"I would. But I don't think Simon would have the guts to break the heart of the girl he's been crushing on since 3rd grade."

Isabelle and Clary laughed together at the thought of Simon breaking anyone's heart.

At the end of Art, Jace had already begun moving fluidly to leave the classroom when he stopped suddenly. Clary glanced up at this sudden deviation from routine and was taken aback to see Aline marching towards her.

At least she doesn't look mad, Clary thought nervously. She could see Jace, rooted to the ground a few feet from the door and watching Aline's progress across the room.

Aline stopped in front of Clary's desk and crossed her arms. "I need to talk to you."

"Okay...now?"

"Yes, if you please," Aline said, her voice sounding as if she were holding back an annoyed tone.

She's never held back before.

"Alright," Clary said uncertainly.

They walked past Jace, whose eyes followed them with uncertainty. Clary stared straight ahead without looking at Jace, vowing to maintain composure.

I will not break down in front of Aline Penhallow. No matter what she does. I can stand up to her.

Aline stalked ahead of Clary, who followed her with apprehension. Finally the other girl stopped walking in front of the music department building.

"Why are we here?" Clary asked, looking around her. She had never been to this part of the school before.

"So no one will see us. Obviously."

"What do you have to say to me that you can't let anyone else know?" Clary suddenly thought back to the night of Winter Formal, to Jace and Aline's argument. What did she have to hide?

Aline clenched her jaw. "I'm trying to help you here. And it's physically painful for me to admit this. So can you just be quiet? I'm nervous as it is."

Clary shut up. It was unusual for Aline to show weakness. I think I'll want to hear this.

"Oh, and promise not to tell anyone."

"I promise," Clary said quickly.

Aline laughed wryly. "You'll tell Isabelle anyway, so I'll just give you permission for that. But no one else. And make sure Isabelle doesn't say a word."

"Yeah, I will. Now get to the point."

Aline glared at Clary. "Fine. Well, you're obviously itching to know why Jace and I broke up. It's all anyone's been gossiping about for the past week. You know more than they do, though."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, don't play innocent with me. You and Isabelle were listening in on our fight." Aline smirked at Clary's expression. "You guys looked really suspicious coming out of the bathroom. And you have a horrible poker face."

"I'll be sure to never play poker, then," Clary said.

Aline continued, "So you heard. And I'm sure you're curious to know what I'm hiding. And what Jace is hiding, for that matter."

When Clary didn't reply, Aline rolled her eyes. "Well, anyway. That's why you're here. I need to tell someone, and you're the one I chose."

"What are you going to tell me? And why me? You've barely spoken to me this year, and you've made it clear that you hate me," Clary challenged.

"I'm going to explain." Aline suddenly looked pale. "Okay, okay. I can do this."

Clary felt a burst of pity for the girl. "Hey, it's ok. It can't be that bad, can it? And I already promised not to tell."

Aline looked at her with an unfathomable expression. She appeared to be on the edge of tears, but under the surface a debilitating fear battled with the need to get something off her chest.

"I don't hate you, Clary. I wasn't in love with Jace- and I'm not the girl you think I am. I wanted Jace as arm candy, to be my boyfriend, but not because he was hot. Well, partly that, but he wasn't my target because he was the hottest boy that I wanted a piece of. I needed him. With Jace, I could keep myself at the top. If I went too long without a boyfriend, people would start to talk. They would say-horrible things. And I was scared. I couldn't let anything like that happen. When you're at the top, people will do anything to bring you down. You're under constant scrutiny. And your friends-they're not friends. They're competition.

"But having a boyfriend changes that. And when I saw Jace, I knew I could use him to shield me. The problem was, he was talking to you. That's why I acted that way before. I wanted to scare you off. But I couldn't force Jace to change his feelings. So I waited. And I saw a change in him. At first, he only looked at you. Then, he seemed to totally ignore you, but I would catch him staring at you when he thought you weren't looking. He was holding himself back from you. And then I knew I could have him. He wanted a distraction-I would give it to him."

Aline took a breath. "You know what happened next. While Sebastian was asking you, I had already introduced myself to Jace. He didn't even know who I was. But I made sure we were near you, so he would be jealous and ask me to make himself forget about you and Sebastian together. And he did exactly as I thought he would. So now I had my boyfriend, and I was safe."

She looked down at her feet. "We only kissed once. It was after the dance, and I had been trying to occupy his attention as much as I could. But he still saw you and Sebastian kiss. And then he kissed me. It didn't last long, though. Neither of us were really into it. He knew he was using me for a diversion. But I hoped he didn't know I was using him as one, too."

Aline looked straight at Clary. "It all fell apart at Winter Formal. He hadn't been the most attentive boyfriend, but at first I didn't care. After a few weeks, though, it seemed like I couldn't keep him. And I needed the appearance to stay strong that we were together, happily. That there was a mutual attraction. And at the dance, he left me alone. I was so angry and scared. I confronted him and accused him of what I already knew-that he didn't care enough for me to try to be a good boyfriend. I didn't expect him to accuse me right back. I didn't know that he knew. I would have left him for someone else if I had known."

Clary couldn't contain herself at this. "You would have left him? He should have left you if you didn't care about him enough to stay with him. What are you even talking about, anyway? What did he know?"

Aline glanced at Clary, then looked away. Her expression in that fleeting moment of eye contact was complete fear. "I think you know. Think about it. Please don't make me say it."

Clary thought hard about what Aline had just told her. "I think I do know. But it's better if you say it. You shouldn't be so scared, Aline. You'll feel better if you say it, I think."

Aline snorted. "What do you know about this?" But her voice broke.

Clary glared at Aline. "You've admitted everything about you except the special part. You've just told me how conniving and manipulative you are. Why don't you tell me the one thing that would let me respect you?"

Aline met her gaze. Surprisingly, she didn't look away. "Fine. Fine, Clary. This is my secret: Jace isn't my type." She was silent for a moment, then added, "I don't think any guy is my type."

Clary breathed out. "There you go. See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Shut up," Aline retorted.

"How is this supposed to help me, anyway?" Clary asked. "Now I just have to keep your secret. That's not exactly an improvement."

Aline stared. "Don't you see? Jace doesn't like me. He likes you."

"Me? But he hasn't talked to me for months."

"I don't know why he's trying to suppress his feelings and use other girls to distract himself from you, but it's true. He's been fixated on you since the first day of school. I've been watching him, remember?" Aline pushed off from the wall and turned to leave. "Remember, no telling anyone. This information is for you only. And probably Isabelle. See you later, Clary." She dusted her skirt off and walked quickly away.

Clary leaned against the wall in shock.

Aline's lesbian! And Jace and her were only together for an image. And Jace actually likes me? Clary didn't know whether to believe Aline. But she realized that Aline would never risk a fake rumor like that circulating and certainly wouldn't start it herself.

I won't tell anyone. Except Isabelle. Clary laughed wryly to herself, remembering Aline's knowing gaze as she reminded Clary that Isabelle would know about it, no matter what promises Clary made. She knows me really well.

Clary's stomach grumbled. Half of lunch had passed already. Isabelle and Simon would be wondering where she was. She began walking towards the quad, still partly in a daze from the overload of information that had just been dumped on her.

As she weaved her way between the tables, she bumped into someone walking quickly towards her. "Oh, sorry," she apologized quickly, and made to go around the person. But whoever it was grabbed her shoulders and stopped her.

"Clary? Are you alright?" Jace asked. Clary's heart thumped, and she looked up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a little bump, it didn't even hurt." She tried to leave again, but his strength prevented her from walking away.

"Did Aline-I mean, what did she want?" Jace's face was concerned, and Clary wanted to tell him, but he suddenly composed himself into indifference.

"He was holding himself back from you," Aline's voice echoed in her mind. Clary steeled herself, and looked back at the now cold golden eyes.

"Why do you care? She's not your girlfriend. And neither am I, and never will be, so you don't need to know." Clary pushed past Jace's suddenly limp arms and left Jace standing in shock behind her.

Thank you for reading and please review!

~Sami