BUMPER CHAPTER ( Are you excited? I'm excited!)

Simon and I decided to keep our change of clothes in the car, safe and sound so that we didn't lose them should we need them later on. No one seemed to be on the grounds at this moment, but the house was full of lights and noise. Simon helped me up the gravel path and up the stairs leading to the house. The door was wide open, music blasting into the night. I couldn't quite make out what it was but it was thumping. Simon followed me into the house and I was glad to see that there were no beanbags here. The crowd looked more dispersed than it had at Sebastian's but I think that had more to do with the sheer amount of space this house had. I hadn't encountered one person yet who I recognised. Drinks were lined up everywhere either in bottles or already poured into cups. Simon made a beeline for the table and took two of the cups and drank from both of them. I quickly nipped at his heels.

"Si!" I protested as he turned to face me, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. "What happened to what we've literally just talked about?" Simon smiled sheepishly.

"Liquid courage." He shrugged before reaching for a bottle and pouring me a drink into one of his newly empty cups. I drank it straight off, I needed some liquid luck of my own. The first person I caught sight of was Aline and her little group. She was dressed in a body hugging silver dress that did very little to conserve her modesty. She had thigh high boots on and was strutting around the house like lady of the manor. Thankfully she didn't see me as she snaked her way into another room. I turned around to make a comment to Simon and he was gone. What was it with Simon and parties? Where on earth could he have possibly went in ten seconds?! I checked every corner of the room we were stood in and couldn't find him. Fabulous. I stood at the base of the drinks table and made myself a stiff drink to prepare me for basically walking into this party alone. I drank it quickly before making another one up to carry with me. I came to a crossroads within the house, unsure whether to turn left or right. A cry of 'shots, shots, shots!' rang out from the left so I instantly turned right and weaved my way down a darkened corridor. I pressed myself against the wall as three girls came running down the corridor giggling as 'Rocco' chased them down the hall. I almost shoved my face into the wall just to avoid him recognising me. Thankfully he was fully occupied with his three ladies. I sipped my drink light heartedly as I wandered down the corridor ideally looking for Jordan or Simon, willing to deal with Jace or Sebastian. I'd found myself in what must have been a function room as there were disco lights spinning, people dancing on wooden floors. I couldn't see a thing. I made my way straight across that room and found myself outside on the porch. The front door was in my sights as I made my way back over to it to start again and hopefully find my way back to Simon.

"Lost are we?" I nearly jumped out of my skin as I span on the spot, nearly toppling over in my wedges. Jordan was sitting on the porch railings, leaning against the pillar. I regained my footing, eyeing him narrowly.

"Simon is." I sighed, walking over to the railings, resting my hands on them.

"This Simon character must be Houdini in disguise with the ability to vanish into thin air." He was smiling wickedly as pulled his hipflask from his jacket, swigging from it. He offered it to me and I took a small sip.

"He can't stand still." I shrugged. Jordan hopped down from the railings. He was dressed in tight black jeans with a muscle-fit white t-shirt and his trademark leather jacket over the top.

"I've got something to show you." Jordan smiled, offering me a hand. I took it as he led me back through the door that I'd come from. He crossed the disco room with ease and diverted me down a corridor past couples who were pressed up against walls and tucked into corners. He opened a door and allowed me to walk in first. This room was completely empty apart from the pool table that stood in the middle of it.

"I've very surprised this room is empty." I remarked as Jordan set up the table.

"Why's that?"

"There's plenty of guys here. You'd think someone would be playing."

"There's also plenty of girls here." Jordan smiled. "Lucky for us." He handed me a pool cue. We talked a little, played a little and drank a lot. Jordan seemed dismayed when he realised his hipflask was empty.

"Why don't we just fill it up with something out of a bottle?" I questioned, Jordan waved his hand at me.

"Don't be silly! I've brought my whiskey with me." He smirked. "Wait here, I'll be two seconds." He headed out of the room and I tried my hardest to occupy myself. Alcohol must have brought out my inner rebel because whenever I was left alone under the influence, all I could think about was all the fun things I could get up too. What does a pool table feel like? What would it be like to sit on it? Stand on it? Before I could even get through all the questions I'd built up in my mind, I was climbing onto it. The door opened just as I'd managed to get myself into a kneeling position on it.

"Woah, woah, woah." Someone came running up behind me, moving me from my knees into a sitting position. It was Jace. "I don't even know what question to ask first." He shook his head. He was dressed in dark jeans with a black low cut t-shirt. I just laughed. "Okay, why are you in here by yourself?"

"I'm not by myself." I smiled, running my hands over the green material of the pool table. Jace looked around the room, clearly looking for another person.

"Alright then. Why are you on top of the pool table?"

"I wanted to see how it felt." I shrugged. "It's not that fantastic actually." I grumbled. Jace shook his head at me.

"Do you need a lift down?" As I was debating it, someone called his name in the hallway. A very familiar voice. Aline wandered into the room and narrowed her eyes at the scene in front of her. Once she'd fully evaluated the scene before turning on the waterworks.

"Jace, I've been looking all over for you." She sniffled as she entered the room. "What are you doing with her?!" I rolled my eyes at her from my perch on the table as Jace looked between us.

"Come on now Aline, there's no need to be mean." Jace went to lead her from the room, her chest was rising and falling.

"You don't know who she is Jace! What she's done to me and what's she's doing to all of you!" She spat. I was intrigued. What on Earth was she talking about?

"Just slow down Aline – what has she done?"

"I went to Jon's during the week and she was there."

"She was at Jon's?" Jace seemed flabbergasted.

"Well no, she was near his street." Aline backtracked. "Jon wasn't there. But when I got home that night he sent me a message telling me to stay away from his house and to stay away from him and I know she has something to do with it. She was near his street!" Any interest Jace had had in this conversation was dwindling.

"You can't blame her just because she was near his street Aline. Come on, let's get you another drink." Jace led her from the room, looking back at me with a 'sorry' on his face. Jordan came back in a few minutes later.

"How did you get up there?" He questioned as he made his way towards the table.

"Magic." I wiggled my fingers in a dramatic fashion. Jordan offered me the hip flask once more and I accepted. "What kept you so long?" I questioned.

"Everyone was making a beeline for the pool. I may or may not have been distracted throwing Seb in." I shook my head at him. "Do you need a hand down?" He offered. I nodded, I'd had enough of sitting on the table. He reached out for me, his hands enveloping my waist as he lifted me down. He placed me delicately on my feet as I smoothed down my kimono. His dreadlocks brushed past my face as he straightened up. Again, I acted before I thought about it.

"Boop." I giggled as I tugged a strand of his hair. He looked at me, amused.

"Boop." He responded, bopping my nose. I squished my eyes together. Jordan grabbed my hand when my eyes were closed and pulled me from the room. I followed along after him as we weaved through the disco room and into the main hallway. It was the first time I'd seen Sebastian. He was dressed in light coloured clothing that seemed to be in the middle of drying out, leaning against the drinks table. His face lit up at the sight of Jordan, confusion striking when he saw me being pulled behind.

"Can I have a word mate?" Sebastian asked, pulling Jordan away. Jordan looked at me as though to say 'stay put'. I swayed on the spot a little, drinking a bit of this and a bit of that. I had every intention of staying put, but then I thought I'd seen Simon heading outside. Brain + alcohol = obviously I followed him out. I found myself wandering down a grass bank towards noise, the Simon I had seen had somehow disappeared. My wedges clearly weren't made for walking down grassy slopes as the ground quickly swallowed me up. I lay on my back on the grass listening to music what must have being played around the pool. As though on que a giant flock of people moved back up towards the main house. I made sure that I was out of the way, walking to where the people had just emerged from. I found myself at the pool, no one else around. It had an entire building to itself. There was a sauna to one side of it. Just how much money did Jace's parents have? The side of the pool was littered with all sorts of items – bras, cups and odd shoes. I pulled my wedges from my feet, dipping my legs up to my knees in the water. The water was warm and made me giggle as it ran between my toes.

"Clary." I heard Jordan scold me. "It's dangerous to be near water by yourself when you're drunk." He sat himself next to me at the poolside, completely out of the water.

"I thought I saw Simon." I admitted, kicking my legs in the water.

"I think I've just been told off." Jordan smirked as he set about trying to roll his trouser legs up.

"Why?" I asked, taking one leg out of the water before submerging it once again.

"Sebastian thinks I'm 'leading you on'." Jordan finally put his legs in the water. I wasn't sure how to respond.

"How insightful of Sebastian." I remarked as Jordan flicked water at me with his foot.

"I think it's just strange for Sebastian. I'm not usually a one for girls. But you're different. I think Sebastian feels threatened." I scoffed.

"You're daft." I was a mixture of embarrassed and confused and not really wanting to get into this conversation. Jordan's foot skirted past mine in the water as I had another one of those rebellious drunken thoughts. I placed my hands on Jordan's back, pushing him forcefully into the water. I don't know how I'd managed it, but he fell straight into the pool, completely submerged. He took a while to surface and when he did, he was on the other side of the pool. He had a devilish look in his eye as he waded through the pool.

"I'm not sure how I didn't see that one coming." He was laughing as he brushed his dreadlocks back. My breath caught in my throat as Jordan wrapped his hand around my ankle. He tugged at it lightly, making my fingers grip onto the poolside tightly. His other hand grabbed my other ankle. "I'm going to give 2 options. Option 1, you can lower yourself into the pool. Option 2, I'm going to throw you in the pool. Either way, you're coming in this pool!" I burst into laughter. Jordan's hands moved from my ankles to halfway up my calf. He tugged again threateningly. "Five, four…" His hands were just above my knees. "Three, two…" He didn't even get to one. His hands sprang from the water wrapping around my lower back and pulling me onto his hip under the water before dunking my head. I pushed myself back up to the surface. Unlike Jordan I couldn't reach the bottom of the pool normally, I had to kick my legs lightly to stay afloat. We laughed in sync as Jordan splashed me. He pulled his hipflask out from his soaking shirt and offered it to me. I swam closer to him, wrapping my legs around one of his legs just to help me stay afloat. We shared the last of the hipflask as the door to the pool opened.

"Well, this is a strange sight." Jace commented as he entered the room. He was followed by Aline who looked over the moon to see me there with Jordan. Her arm was wrapped up in the back of Jace's t-shirt as though she didn't want him to leave her sights. "Speaking of weird sights, I think I've just seen your friend 'Simon' is it? Yeah, I think I've just seen him leaving." My mind instantly jumped to my spare clothes that were in the back of Simon's car and then to why the hell is Simon driving a car drunk? I hopped out of the pool quickly and out of the door. The grass outside stuck to my feet as I scaled the bank looking for Simon's car. I caught sight of him climbing into his car as I got to the top of the hill. I waved my hands to get him to stop – he couldn't possibly drive a car after drinking. I was quite surprised to see his mother at the wheel of the car. I ducked, my spare clothes suddenly not as appealing. She seemed to be giving him what for, and I wasn't sure what exactly had went on. Surely someone would inform me later. Jordan was shouting behind me as he tried to cross the embankment.

"Why the rush?" He asked.

"My clothes are in that car." I pointed as Simon's car drove out of Jace's estate. "Buggar."

"We'll sort you out." Jordan assured me as he headed over to his bike. He looked through his stuff, he picked out a t-shirt for himself and passed one to me as he pulled out a pair of fresh jeans. "Sorry, I don't have any jeans that'll fit you." He laughed, handing me a towel that he had. I wrapped the towel around my waist, drying myself off best I could. Ultimately, I was going to have to keep wearing most of what I had on anyway. I left Jordan by his bike as I went on a hunt for a bathroom so that I could sort myself out. I promised Jordan I'd meet him back at the bike in ten minutes. I found a bathroom near the cinema room from earlier in the week. I managed to get my bodysuit practically dried using some weird heated towel rack in the bathroom. My hair had grown to mammoth proportions but I was too drunk to care. Just as I was drying my denim shorts on the heater, I could hear Jace and Aline talking on the other side. I heard 'Jon's' name and immediately pressed my ear to the door. They didn't seem to be talking particularly quiet.

"Jace, I'm telling you she knows something about it!" Aline was protesting.

"Aline, what could she possibly know about it? Have you seen her and Jordan, they're all over each other! She's not going to be Jon's surprise girlfriend." Jace was laughing.

"It's not funny Jace! There's something fishy going on! I know there is!" She must have stormed down the corridor as her footsteps faded into the distance. I jumped back from the door in surprise when Jace entered the bathroom. He looked just as surprised to see me there.

"You brought a swimming costume?" He asked, eyebrows raised as he closed the door behind him. I looked down at myself, immediately flushing.

"It's a bodysuit!" I defended it as I tried to cover myself. I backed my way over to the heater to try and reclaim my denim shorts and ended up burning my arse on the heater. I jumped forward, startled. Jace was pissing himself laughing. "It's not bloody funny." I grumbled, sitting myself down on the edge of the bath in an attempt to cool it down. He was still laughing at me, propping himself up against the sink.

"It's hilarious. Do you want to know something else hilarious? Aline is adamant, I mean 100% certain that there's something going on with you and Jon." He was laughing but I could tell he was doing his typical Jace behaviour of trying to pry.

"She said the same to me. She bumped into me on my way home one day. I'm assuming I must live near him because she was pretty annoyed about it." I told him.

"She's a little crazy. And you're on her radar. So I'd keep an eye out for her. She has a habit of making people's lives difficult." I took his advice seriously. I'd be definitely keeping an eye out. I couldn't be dealing with any Aline-caused stress. I deemed it enough time since I'd burnt my bum and decided to check on my shorts. I ran my hands over them and they were completely dry. Jace was watching me amused as I shoved one leg in, followed by the other. "Then again, you seem to be capable enough of making your life difficult all by yourself…" Jace commented. I shot him a look as I buttoned my shorts up. I gave myself a shake to adjust my clothes.

"I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself out of trouble, thank you." I smiled, as I hunted for where I'd put my kimono down.

"Says the girl who kissed Sebastian. Says the girl who has Jordan Kyle wrapped around her finger. Says the girl who just got changed in front of me." I looked at him open-mouthed.

"I'm not a slut." I grumbled, unimpressed by his implications. Jace looked taken aback.

"I didn't call you a slut! I'm just saying, we're all competitive guys. Well Jordan not so much but Jordan very rarely puts himself in this situation." I laughed at what Jace was implying.

"Don't be so stupid." I laughed, finally finding my kimono. I went to leave the room but Jace held a hand up to stop me exiting.

"I'm not being stupid." He said calmly as he looked down at me. "I'm just making you aware of the situation. Gentleman that I am."

"Very kind of you. I think you're confusing me with someone else though." I skirted under his arm, heading towards the door. He beat me over to it, pressing his hand against it. I turned to face him, looking up at him confused.

"Will you just take the damned compliment?" His lips brushed past my hairline before he walked out into the hall. My head was a mess and I needed some more alcohol to be able to deal with this. What had he even meant? I had zero clue. I popped my head outside and Jordan wasn't stood with his bike. But then again, I hadn't been just ten minutes. Part of me felt nervous about staying here tonight, now that Simon had left. I had to find Jordan. I set about on a hunt for Jordan and it didn't take long to find him. He had made his way into the kitchen and was mixing drinks.

"Hello again! I thought I'd lost you!" He smiled.

"Not quite!" I laughed, sampling one of his drinks.

"I've got something else to show you." He held out his hand. I grabbed it once more allowing him to lead me out of a small door in the kitchen. "Jace thinks this door is locked." He laughed, shutting the door behind us. I was intrigued. If this was one of the rooms Jace locked up, I was intrigued to see what was behind it. It led to another swimming pool, this time indoors and it had a slide. A. Slide.

"You couldn't have shown me this before I got dried, huh?" I joked.

"I had to try my luck with the lock first." He said wickedly. "Now, before I forget, there's something I need to do for you." He trailed off. He offered me a sip from his hipflask before taking a little sip himself. I could see in his eyes what he was going to do and I jumped out of the way.

"Don't throw me in!" I shrieked, darting out of the way. "Not yet!" Jordan looked at me intrigued. He looked at me even more suspiciously when I tried to wiggle out of my shorts. "Don't look at me like that, do you know how long these things take to dry?" He was sneaking up behind me ready to throw me in the pool. I'd just say managed to throw my shorts out of the way when Jordan grabbed me. He picked me up with ease and threw me into the water. This pool was even deeper than the one outside.

"You know what else this pool has? A wave function." Jordan seemed pleased with himself.

"Do not turn that on! I'll drown!" I laughed, having to already swim to stay afloat. Jordan was walking around the pool, looking at me in amusement. I'd stumbled across one of my rebellious ideas again. I wanted to go on the slide. I swam over to the steps and climbed out of the water. I skipped on over to the slide and started trying to scale it. The water proved difficult, making the steps somewhat slippery. Jordan was behind me, holding the base of my back as I scaled the steps.

"Uh Clary, dare I ask what happened to your uh – the top of your leg?" He mused as I sat myself at the top of the slide.

"I burnt it on a radiator trying to dry my shorts." I admitted before I tried to go down the slide. I kept getting stuck as the slide was completely dry. Jordan was quick to the task wetting the slide for me. I slid down it with ease and splashed back into the pool. "It's no fun when I'm in by myself." I groaned, floating on my back. Jordan grumbled and I could see him out of the corner of my eye stripping his t-shirt and jeans off. He finished his hipflask off before jumping into the pool. I tried not to keep my eyes trained in on him for too long. He swam over to me and I expected him to stop but he just kept coming towards me. I floated further backwards until I bumped into the poolside but he was still coming towards me. His body crashed against mine. I placed my hands on the sides of the pool behind me as Jordan wrapped his arms around my waist. There was no way I could keep myself afloat with him this close to me so I was forced to tangle my legs up with his to keep myself up. His lips found mine as his hands played with the material of my bodysuit, making butterflies tingle in my stomach and chest. His teeth nibbled against my bottom lip lightly as his hands found their way to my back and up to my hair. I moved my hands from the poolside behind me, playing with Jordan's dreadlocks. He stepped back from the poolside, my legs now wrapped around him. He kissed me once more lightly before propelling me up in the air, splashing me back down in the water. I giggled as he repeated his motion. I pressed my hands against his shoulders, forcing his head under the water for a few moments.

"Room for a couple of little ones?" A voice rang out, as we both turned to face the doorway.

Thank you for reading my stories. The response I've had for this story is really overwhelming! New update will be coming tomorrow & if you're lucky I may just give you guys another bumper chapter.

All of my love,

Until the next time!

~Sapph