Neeext chapter, guys! Some of you have been asking about my updating schedule. I try and update twice a month. At what point in the month, I'm not sure, I try to do it every second week, but it just depends on, well, life, I guess.
Clary pushed her long hair behind her ear and sighed as she looked around the café. They had a rush just before closing and the place was an absolute mess. Aline came out of the kitchen, screwing up her nose as she looked around and sighed.
"This is gonna take a while," she muttered. Clary grunted her agreement as they took off the uniform jersey that they were required to wear and started cleaning up. Clary liked working at the cafe. On Mondays and Tuesdays they closed at three, and usually it was really quiet and so the closing clean up didn't take long. Today was going to take longer, but the manager and the cook were in the back room which Clary and Aline could talk freely and turn the music up. There was an upbeat song playing, something by Ed Sheeran, and Clary sung the lyrics under her breath as she cleared the tables. Aline had a lot less shame than the red head and was singing loudly and spinning around, letting her hair splay out around her. Clary laughed as the song changed, and the sexy lyrics of Tove Lo's Talking Body started playing through the speakers, and Aline let out a loud 'whoop'. She danced over to where Clary was wiping down a long table and grabbed her arms, whirling her around.
"Come on, Red!" Aline encouraged her, using the nickname that everyone had seemed to adopt from Jace.
"I'm not drunk—I don't dance in public," Clary laughed.
"Girl, you need to loosen up," Aline responded, rolling her eyes as she continued to dance by herself. They finished up within half an hour, and Aline gave Clary a ride to the Lightwoods tattoo parlour in her rusty, blue car. Clary called 'goodbye' over her shoulder as she slammed the door shut and walked into the parlour. She always loved coming here—the walls were covered in brightly coloured photos and drawings and there was a strange combination of scents that somehow just worked; antiseptic and jasmine.
There were a couple of customers in the store, browsing the art work on the walls, but Isabelle wasn't in her usual spot behind the counter. She was standing in the doorframe between the store and the tiny break room. She grinned as Clary approached her, and then turned to look back into the break room where there was an unfamiliar female laugh. Clary paused at the doorway and looked in, blinking when she saw an attractive blonde girl sitting comfortably on the couch next to Jace.
"Hey, babe," Jace greeted her, shooting her his charming smile, his golden eyes dancing. "You're later than you usually are." Clary couldn't help but feel her stomach tighten happily at the fact that he noticed the small things about her schedule.
"Yeah. We had a whole heap of people come in at the last minute," Clary said as she dumped her bag on the ground.
"Hospitality sucks," the blonde girl said, her face scrunched up in a way that was probably meant to be sympathetic, but kind of just came off as condescending. Clary tried to keep her expression impassive as she looked over at the girl. Alec was perched on the stool, his feet hooked underneath him and arms crossed over his chest. Jace and the blonde were on the couch, and the girl had her legs up on the couch, feet resting on Jace's lap. Isabelle clicked that Clary had no idea who the girl was and cleared her throat.
"Oh, Clary, this is our cousin Kaelie. Kaelie, this is Clary," Isabelle made the introductions. The two girls exchanged tight smiles before Jace bumped Kaelie's feet off his lap and got up, coming over to where Clary was standing.
"I missed you," he murmured as he knelt down to give her a quick kiss on the mouth. Clary instantly forgot about the gorgeous blonde and focussed all her attention on the golden haired hunk in front of her. She smiled back at him.
"I missed you too," she replied.
"You wanna head home early? I don't have anyone book in for the rest of the afternoon?"
"What if I decided to get another one, Jay?" Came the silky voice of the blonde and Clary felt her whole body instantly bristle. Jace turned around and put Kaelie back into her line of sight, and it allowed Clary to get another look at her. She was wearing super skinny jeans and a long sleeved shirt, but now that Clary was getting a proper look at her, she could see ink patterns staining her skin on her arms and peeking out from under her collar. When she stood up and stretched, Clary caught a glimpse of a tramp stamp on her lower back and she rolled her eyes.
"Ironic," she muttered and Jace looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. She shook her head and gave him a small smile. "Nothing."
"Okay, well, we're heading off," he slung his arm over Clary's shoulders and nodded down to her bag that was on the ground. She reached down to pick up her bag and shot smiles at both Alec and Isabelle, purposefully overlooking Kaelie. As they turned and left, Clary frowned as she realized she was absolutely fuming. She normally wasn't the type of person who judged someone so quickly and get so worked up, but there was just something about this girl.
Clary looked back over her shoulder as they reached the door at the front of the store and her gaze locked with Kaelie.
The blonde was standing next to Isabelle but paying no attention to her cousin. Her slanted eyes were steadily looking after Jace and Clary.
"Seriously?" Jace sounded pissed, pulling back from where he was pressed up against Clary. They had gotten into the shower almost half an hour ago, and Jace knew they were going to get the run down from Isabelle about using all the hot water when she got home. It had been worth it though; Clary had been washing her hair and there was something undeniably sexy about watching Clary clean herself. She had stood underneath the hot spray, her head tilted back so that her long, red hair spilling against her ivory skin. The water trickling down her body and her full, pink lips had been too much for him, and he had grabbed her hips, backing her into the tiled wall and ravaged her mouth. One thing had led to another and Jace soon had Clary against the wall, off the ground, and was driving into her.
And now she was asking about Kaelie.
"Well, yeah," Clary shrugged, turning off the shower and opening the glass door. "I mean, she seems really comfortable around you." She reached out for a towel and started rubbing vigorously at her hair. "I was just wondering if you guys were ever a thing or whatever." Jace sighed and leaned over her to get a towel for himself.
"Yeah," he finally said as he slung the towel around his waist. "We hooked up a couple of times but we haven't in, like...Two years or so." He shrugged and glanced at her sideways, studying her carefully as she finished wringing out her hair and started drying herself. Clary's face was tactfully composed as she finished drying herself. She hooked her towel over the drying rack and left the bathroom completely naked, walking to their bedroom. Jace followed, leaning against the door frame, grinning as she watched her dress.
"What?" Clary asked, looking up from where she was digging through her underwear drawer.
"Six months ago you would not be this comfortable getting naked around me," he pointed out.
"You complaining?" Clary cocked an eyebrow.
"Fuck no," Jace smirked and came into the room, letting his towel crumble to the ground and wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. All she was wearing was a pair of blue, lacy underwear and she could almost instantly feel him getting aroused against her ass. Clary was about to turn around and initiate round two when there was a sugary voice from the door.
"Now that's cute," Kaelie cooed. Clary let out a squeak as she covered her chest and grabbed a shirt off the ground to try and cover herself. Jace didn't appear as phased as she was, but he still sent the blonde a dirty look as he reached out to grab a pair of briefs from the drawers. Kaelie shrugged and gave them an innocent smile. "What? Nothing I haven't seen before."
"Kaelie," Jace gave her a warning look and she blinked.
"What?" She repeated, pulling off the wide-eyed innocent expression well. "Same for you too, Clary. I got tits and shit, same as you." Clary didn't say anything, pulling on a pair of shorts and crossing her arms self-consciously over her chest. Kaelie looked between them and shrugged. "Okay, well, Isabelle is lighting up a bong if you guys wanted to come out the back."
"Thanks," Jace said. She nodded and disappeared. Jace glanced over at Clary, who had uncrossed her arms and was looking through the drawer for a bra to slip on under her shirt. Jace didn't say anything as he dressed, but caught her hand as she went to brush past him. "Hey," he murmured, easily tugging her into him. "She's harmless."
"Yup," Clary muttered, attempting to pull her hand away but he pulled her back into him.
"I'm serious, Clary," he repeated, looking at her unflinchingly. "It's all you. Me and Kaelie just fooled around for a bit but we're just friends." Clary looked up at him silently for a long moment, her green eyes searching his, before she finally nodded.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," she sighed. "I know I'm acting like a bitch. I'm just pissed off about the Simon thing and tired from work." Jace frowned, his grip loosening around her wrist and reaching up to slip around her shoulders.
"You still haven't heard from him?" Jace asked, looking concerned.
"Nah," Clary shrugged, trying to look unaffected. "But it's whatever. He's probably really busy."
"You could always text him again, or give him a call," Jace suggested but Clary shook her head.
"Let's just go out the back," she said. Jace shot her one last look but she gave him a reassuring kiss and led the way out. She didn't want to make a big deal about it but Simon always called or text her back. It had been two full days since he had left and it was just plain weird that he hadn't contacted he. She shook her head to clear her thoughts as she walked outside and joined Alec, Isabelle and Kaelie. She was disappointed that Magnus wasn't there, but he was an assistant manager at a gay strip club down town and usually worked nights. Alec was already cutting the weed and Kaelie and Isabelle were drinking vodka straight from the bottle. Clary hadn't been ready to drink that night—she had an early shift the next morning and she never functioned well before nine in the morning if she had a night of drinking.
"Yay!" Kaelie's voice struck a chord of annoyance in Clary almost immediately. She tried to keep her expression neutral as she sat down on a lawn chair next to Alec—as far away from the blonde as possible. Jace shoved her to the side so he could share the seat with her and held out both of his hands to Alec. The other man handed him a lighter and the now prepared bong.
"So what have you been up to lately?" Isabelle asked, turning to face her cousin.
"Oh, not much," Kaelie shrugged. "Just been crashing with some friends but I'm over them and I thought I'd check in with my cuzzies." She sent a mouth-watering smile across at the couple on the lawn chair. "And Jace, of course. You always said you were going to move here permanently."
"Yeah, and he finally did. Because of Clary," Isabelle grinned across at the two. "Because he's always been so madly in love with her." Clary flushed slightly but Jace just laughed and nudged her in the side.
"It's sickening, really," Alec added, although there was a half smile on his face, which softened his words. He reached out to pluck the bong and lighter from Jace and lit it up, taking in a deep breath. But we like her more than him, so we'll keep her around." Clary glanced in surprise at Alec, but he was too focussed on inhaling the toxic smoke to notice. Alec didn't talk much, and he had never said much to her and Clary had always assumed that he didn't have much of an opinion of her. It was nice to know he liked her.
It was especially nice for it to be said out loud and get an almost disgusted expression from Kaelie.
The night wasn't actually so bad.
Clary avoided the bottle of vodka that was being passed around but helped herself to several hits of the bong and she was feeling relaxed and sleepy. She was leaning heavily on Jace and he had his hand slightly under her shirt and it was hot against her back. Alec had pretty much zoned out of all talk, completely absorbed by whatever dirty text Magnus was sending his way. Isabelle and Kaelie were mainly carrying the conversation, and Jace and Clary occasionally chipped in.
"You wanna head inside?" Jace murmured, his mouth so close to her ear that his breath warmed and prickled her sensitive skin. His fingers had inched upward and were playing with her bra strap. The apex of her legs was beginning to tingle as his fingers moved around to massage her breasts lightly. She wasn't embarrassed—partly because of the marijuana and partly because no one was paying any attention to them.
"Sounds good," Clary mumbled back. They stood up, interrupting Kaelie's story of how she had spent the summer on some rich, married guys yacht.
"We're heading inside," Jace said, his hand dropping to Clary's hip.
"You want company?" Kaelie raised an eyebrow cheekily, although her gaze was solely on Jace, not sparing a glance at Clary. Isabelle was too drunk to notice and jabbed Kaelie in the side playfully.
"We have already corrupted Clary enough—she was once the innocent amount us!"
"She's not so innocent anymore," Jace wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Clay blushed. Kaelie shot her a look finally at Clary and her nose was turned upwards slightly.
"Well you guys have fun," she said, not sounding like she meant it at all. Clary didn't care though, and Jace didn't either, tightening his arm around her waist and hurrying her inside. Before they had even reached the bedroom, they were ripping at each others clothes.
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