A/N: And they're all together! What will happen? :D Enjoy!

Chapter 19

(Third Person POV)

"Awkward" was definitely the best way to describe it. What else could capture the tense atmosphere, the strange emotions that began stirring in the four teenagers? They had all been at Magnus's party, of course, but that was with plenty of other people to diffuse the effect of the four being together. Now it was just them, and a bunch of confused restaurant-goers. After everything that had happened between all of them, it was most definitely an awkward situation.

They stayed frozen and gaping for awhile, until a waiter tapped Simon on the arm and said, "Is there a problem, sir?"

"Uh, no. No," Simon stammered. "No problem at all."

"Do you know them?" said the waiter.

Evangeline, too red-faced to talk, nodded and kept hopelessly staring at Jace and Clary. She wondered why they were here, and if they were on a date. If they were… she didn't know what to think about it.

Jace suddenly got to his feet, and strolled over toward the doorway. He didn't know what was prompting him, but he put on a big smile and said, "So you two are finally here! Come on, we've been waiting for you to get here." He grabbed Evangeline's wrist and Simon's shoulder, and started leading them over to his table with Clary. All the while, he didn't understand why exactly he was doing that, but it felt like the right thing to do.

When he saw Clary's surprised mask of a face, he faltered and almost tripped. What was he doing? He was touching Simon's shoulder…

Jace, as if burned, yanked his right hand from Simon's shoulder and took a step back, surveying the scene in confusion. Then he realized that he was holding Evangeline, who was looking at him in breathless surprise, by the wrist. He let her go, too, and looked back at Clary, who was still clearly confused. What was happening?

When Jace had grabbed Simon and Evangeline, it felt normal. That is, until he thought about it and realized what he was doing. But to be honest, even he recognized that he had missed the feel of Evangeline's smooth skin against his hand. But why had he also grabbed Simon? Simon was just laoded with awkward connotations for Jace.

Like Seven Minutes in Heaven, or that one time on Valentine's boat when Simon had essentially given him a vampire hickey and jumped his bones and almost killed him and everything. It had been a different kind of intimate experience than anything else, from what he could remember, anyway. Then again, Simon was draining his blood. Can't get more personal than that.

All of these thoughts went through his head in barely a second. When he went back to processing what was actually going on, he became aware of the fact that the whole restaurant was still looking at them oddly. All the fairies, werewolves, and vampires inside Taki's seemed to be laughing at them for making fools of themselves in public.

Jace hissed under his breath to Simon and Evangeline, "Just come on. Sit with us."

So the three of them sat down at the table with Clary, piling into a booth. Simon instinctively sat with the redhead, which left Jace and Evangeline to sit on the other side. Evangeline took the inner seat, and Jace slid in next to her.

And once they were all together at the table, they were all forced to confront everything that had happened between them. There was no way around it, especially in such close quarters.

But they could try. They all sat in silence for awhile, fiddling with things. Simon was looking very interestedly at Clary's menu, Jace was making towers with the containers of half-and-half, Evangeline was fiddling with the edges of a packet of sugar, and Clary was staring into space. This continued for a couple minutes, that is, until a waiter came to their table to take their drink orders.

"What do you want to drink?" asked the waiter, his orange gossamer wings flapping gently behind him. Evangeline was transfixed, she had always loved fairies.

"I'll take orange pop," said Simon, breaking the awkward tension.

Clary went next. "Can I have coffee?"

Then it was Jace's turn. "Coke for me."

Finally, the waiter turned to Evangeline. "Tea, please."

"Coming right up," said the waiter, walking away.

There was another brief silence, which Simon found unbearable. He hated when that sort of thing happened, since it made him strangely self-conscious. So, he turned to Jace and Clary. "What brings you two here? I didn't know that you were dating again."

"We're not," Clary assured him quickly. "We were just going to talk things out."

Jace nodded in assent. "Yeah, it was all Isabelle's idea."

"Oh," said Simon, somewhat relieved. After all, he was still in love with Clary, and he hated how Jace was such a jerk to her sometimes. "Okay, then. Sorry that we, um, interrupted."

"About that. Since when are you two dating?" wondered Jace, lazily dragging a finger in the air to gesture between Simon and Evangeline.

Evangeline blushed, and explained, "It was a sort of… spur of the moment decision. I think it surprised both of us when Simon asked me out and I accepted."

After she said that, the silence made a reappearance. All of them were just kind of nodding vaguely and not making eye contact. That is, until Jace sighed and spoke up. "I suppose that I should take the opportunity to make some apologies, since we're all here. Clary, I can't tell you how sorry I am that I cheated on you. You know that, don't you?"

Clary's eyes darted to him, and she pursed her lips. "Yes," she said stiffly. "That doesn't change the past, though."

Jace dropped his head a little, crossing his arms on the table. "I know. And that also brings me to my next point." He looked at Evangeline, who was sitting next to him. "I owe you an apology, too. I shouldn't have taken advantage of you like that. I'm sorry."

Evangeline smiled ruefully, and stared straight ahead at Clary. "I can say the same thing to you, Clary. Especially since we're friends now. But even if we weren't, it wasn't right for me to kiss Jace while knowing that you two were together. Can you forgive me?'

Clary thought about it. Usually, she was the type to hold grudges, but she realized that this was one thing to let go. "Yes."

"And can you both forgive me?" asked Jace.

"I don't know. We'll see," said Clary. She was still upset from the cheating, especially since it wasn't the first time that it had happened. That title belonged to Aline.

Jace turned his gaze once more to lock with Evangeline's. "And you?"

"I forgive you," she said quietly, cheeks flushing because of the close proximity. The last time they'd sat together like this had ended in them causing the problems. And staring at Jace's handsome, angular face did nothing to dispel the memory of their kiss, especially the way he'd looked at her so tenderly and lowered his lips to meet hers.

But that was all in the past.

Simon sat up straighter in his seat, and also joined in the apology fest. "I have something to say, too. Clary, I shouldn't have forced my feelings on you that night. It was wrong of me, and even though I knew that you were in an emotionally vulnerable place, I did it anyway. I hope you can accept my apology."

"It's okay," she shrugged, trying to stay nonchalant about such a strange situation. "I took advantage of your feelings and used them to get over my loneliness. We're equally responsible."

Jace was confused, and it showed in the wrinkling of his nose and the furrow in his brow. "Wait, what are you talking about?" He hadn't even noticed that they had been cuddling at the party the night before, he was too absorbed in himself. All this was news to him.

Clary and Simon glanced at each other, panicking slightly. How should they tell him? Should they even tell him in the first place? Clary was giving Simon an imploring look, a sort of, 'You tell him,' which made Simon flail his arms. 'But what do I say?' Clary shrugged, and kept staring at him.

He made a strangled noise and let his head drop into his hands. "Um, Clary came to my house after she found out that you'd, eh, cheated on her, Jace, and we kind of… slept together."

"You what?" clarified Jace, ending in a half-squeak. Out of all the possibilities, he would have never guessed that one. "I mean… I can't say anything against it, but wow. I have to admit, you two have done the impossible. You've surprised me."

"Yeah…" Simon trailed off, his face and ears burning. "That was totally our intention."

All the times he'd imagined sleeping with Clary, he'd never guessed that it would happen like that. It was still as amazing as he'd ever hoped… minus the mutual self-loathing, of course.

Evangeline felt very uncomfortable about this conversation topic. She knew that Clary and Jace had been sexually active, but the whole thing was still embarrassing to her, due to her sheltered upbringing. "Do we have to discuss this now? We're in public…"

As if agreeing that yes, they should indeed stop talking about that, the waiter returned with their drinks and handed them out. Then he took their food orders: coconut pancakes for Clary, macaroni and cheese for Simon, a fancy burger for Jace, and berry crepes for Evangeline.

Once the waiter was out of earshot, Clary opened her mouth and started addressing everyone at the table. "Well, now that our apologies are over, we should probably try to talk about normal things."

"Like what?" mused Jace, taking a sip of his Coke.

"Um," said Clary, thinking. "Have any of you seen any good movies lately?"

Evangeline gave a self-conscious smile and said, "I've actually never been to a movie theater. I've read about them, though, in the young adult books that my maid, Claudine, would get for me. It sounds like a lot of fun, though."

Simon looked at her, surprised. "You've never been to the movies? What did you do with your life?"

"Well, I did a lot of reading. I also played the piano and violin, painted sometimes, helped the gardeners with the roses… Our chef was teaching me to cook, and sometimes I'd help her with baking. Mama and I would occasionally go into town for some shopping. Oh, and I would also work on my embroidery and sewing."

"Wow," said Jace after a long pause. "And here I thought I was the only one with a classical Victorian upbringing."

Evangeline's smile grew nostalgic. "Mama was very traditional sometimes. When I was little, I would beg her to let me learn Shadowhunting, but she always said that it was too dangerous."

"I wasn't raised a Shadowhunter either," said Clary.

"Oh, I know. Isabelle told me."

Clary got an idea. "Well, Evangeline, we need to see a movie together some time. You can't go your whole teenage life without going to the movie theater."

"That sounds like it would be a lot of fun," Evangeline told her honestly, finding her excitement growing. Now she could hardly wait for it.

And the four of them found themselves slipping into easy conversation, talking and laughing with each other as if nothing had ever been wrong. Even Jace and Simon were getting along, slipping in comically uncomfortable jabs at each other about their time in the closet the previous night and finding it refreshing to not be at each other's throats for once.

Maybe the once awkward coincidence was the best thing for the four of them at that moment. Either way, it was a lot of fun for everyone involved.

A/N: And how about that, it all worked out! :D xoxoxo