A/N: In honor of my birthday (yay June 23!), I've decided to update this story finally and to post two new stories! You guys should check them out. :) Well, here's the chapter!

Chapter 36

(Clary POV)

I had a busy day. Between helping my mom with the garden and rearranging our living room, I felt like I had no time to myself. I didn't even check my phone until 5:30 or so, at which point I was practically dying to get reconnected to the world. And surely enough, it looked like I had missed out on something.

One new voicemail, it said on the display. Curiously, I held the phone up to my ear and listened to it.

"Clary!" It was Jace, sounding unusually agitated."Uh, get back to me. I have something… important… to talk to you about. So just make sure to return my call, okay? It's nothing too major—well, it could be—but just call me back. Love you. Bye."

What an odd message to receive first thing in the evening. I wondered what it could be that was making him so uncharacteristically awkward. I would have expected that kind of thing from Simon, but not Jace. Whatever it was must have been significant …

I decided to call Jace back, and did so. It rang for an awfully long time, but he finally picked up.

"Cl-Clary," he said breathlessly. "Now isn't exactly a good time." I heard something that sounded awfully like Simon giggling in the background, which made me skeptical.

"Jace, what's going on?"

"Nothing. I can assure you that—nothing—is going on." On the second 'nothing', Jace's voice cracked. And from knowing him for so long, I knew that it only happened in sexual situations.

"Is Simon there with you?" My heartbeat had sped up. What if Jace and Simon were together intimately? That would be so weird… But at the same time, a part of me was strangely excited by the idea (which kind of scared me).

"Um, yeah, actually."

"Hi, Clary!" Simon cut in, his voice too high-pitched and trying too hard to sound normal. "We're just hanging out."

"Yeah, okay," I told them disbelievingly. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Oh, you're not," Jace assured me before clearing his throat. "So, why are you calling?"

I felt like face-palming. Boys could be so dense sometimes… "You left me a voicemail, remember? Something important that you wanted to talk about…?"

I heard him breathe into the phone, and was even more certain that I had indeed interrupted something. "Oh right. Now isn't a good time to talk about that. I'll call you back later, okay? Bye." And before I could say anything, he hung up on me!

I pursed my lips. I didn't appreciate being hung up on and—if my instincts were right, which they probably were—being lied to. And once again, the thought of Jace and Simon together occurred to me. To think that they had hated each other so much when they met, and now were possibly having sex… Something about it thrilled me. They were both so handsome, and picturing them together resulted in a very hot mental image. But where did I fit into the equation? And Simon and Evangeline had seemed pretty serious as of late…

I found myself calling Evangeline. I needed someone to talk this over with, and she was the only other person trapped in the middle like me. Not to mention that I was strangely attracted to her…

"Hello?"

"Hey, Evangeline. It's Clary. Want to hang out tonight?"

Evangeline and I were sitting in my living room, talking. My mom and Luke had gone out for dinner and a movie, so we would have the house to ourselves for awhile, which was a plus because I didn't want my mother eavesdropping on our conversation.

"So… Let me get this straight," I was saying. "You and Simon slept together last night?"

Despite her deep blush, Evangeline nodded and smiled. "Yes. It was everything I could have dreamed it to be and more."

"Hmm." I had to admit, I was surprised that innocent little Evangeline had lost her virginity to Simon, and so quickly at that. Not that I was judging her, because I would never do that. I knew that I shouldn't have been too surprised. Simon was awfully cute, and Evangeline had let me kiss her that one time… "Well, that's great! Congratulations. Simon's a real sweetheart."

A sweetheart who could currently be having sex with Jace…

"Thank you. He really is sweet, isn't he?" She giggled slightly, and I found myself laughing along. Then her expression took on a kind of determination, and she looked imploringly at me. "And this morning, Simon told me about an idea Jace had. Has Jace told you yet?"

Could this mysterious idea have been what he meant by 'something important'? Knowing Jace, it probably was. He was rather one-track-minded like that. "No, he hasn't, actually. I tried to talk to him about it earlier, but he seemed a little… busy."

"Okay." Evangeline took a deep breath. "Do you want me to tell you what it is, or do you want to wait for Jace?"

What were they all planning? "You can tell me," I decided after only a second, my impatience getting the best of me.

"Well… Jace and Simon noticed that the four of us have become rather tangled in a web of romance and confusion lately," she explained in her eloquent Evangeline way.

I nodded, acknowledging that it was true. "I'd say that's accurate."

"And they realized that we all appear to be attracted to one another." She was now looking at me very seriously, and I understood that she had just confessed her interest in me. I gasped slightly at the recognition, especially because I was attracted to her as well. She was very brave in telling me that, too. Evangeline was just full of surprises lately. "That is… They're apparently attracted to both of us and to each other, and I'm at least attracted to you, Clary. I don't know if you feel the same, but… I don't know. I never thought that anything like this was possible for me, but when we kissed, I… I felt something stirring, just like when I kissed Jace and Simon."

Now I was downright shocked. What she was describing, I did feel the same way. I told her so. "Oh, Evangeline, me too." By now, my eyes were brimming with relieved tears.

"Really?" I noticed that Evangeline's beautiful blue eyes were also tearing up, and I felt very tempted to comfort her. So I did. Without thinking, I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers, just as I would do with Jace if he were in her place. There was no real difference when it came down to it, Jace or Simon or Evangeline. I loved all of them in different ways, but felt an undeniable physical attraction at the same time.

And Evangeline was kissing me back, her lips even softer than Simon's. I had never been attracted to any girl besides her, but to me that only made our connection more special.

Eventually, we pulled back and smiled at each other for what seemed like ages but was probably only a couple seconds. "So," I said, suddenly remembering that we hadn't finished our previous conversation.

That made the two of us laugh, still very close to each other. Evangeline was silent for a moment, but then, taking my hands in both of hers, said, "Jace and Simon think that we should all be in a four-way relationship."

I thought it over, but it wasn't a hard decision to make. All of this relationship drama had been causing me angst since it began, and this solution seemed perfect. "That sounds amazing," I said, and kissed her again in celebration.

A four-way relationship. Who would have thought?

A/N: Who indeed? :D xoxo