Jace's POV
We showed up at the bonfire party around 8:00. Though there was a large bonfire outside, most of the people seemed to be inside. The cottage was huge, the lights were off and through the windows you could see strobe lights lighting the place up in red, green, and blue.
Somewhat oddly we were greeted at the door by that guy Izzy knows from Pandemonium, I forget his name. He had on a black shirt and black cargo shorts.
"Hey Meliorn." Izzy chimed as we stood at the door. What? Was this idiot carding people? She didn't sound quite as overly friendly as normal, but still friendly.
"Isabelle!" Meliorn exclaimed. He gave her a big smile and brought her in for a hug, burying his head into the crook of her neck, her hand dropping from Simon's in the process. She returned the hug, but obviously did not reciprocate the same level of interest. Simon crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the display. Meliorn seemed to hold on to her for an awkwardly long time. She patted his back gently.
"I think that's enough Meliorn." Izzy said a little impatiently. He pulled away enough to look at Izzy, she crossed her arms in front of her, but he didn't drop his arms around her.
"You look ravishing as always." He said somewhat seductively. Izzy was smiling, shaking her head, and rolling her eyes. Meliorn put his hand under Izzy's chin, gazing into her eyes. Simon's glare deepened.
"Meliorn-" Izzy started, but was interrupted as Simon cleared his throat loudly. Meliorn kept his arm around Izzy, but dropped his hand from her chin, and glared over at Simon with furrowed eyebrows.
"Can I help you?" Meliorn's voice was cold. Simon tilted his head to the side almost provokingly. I never really looked that closely at this Meliorn guy before. I'd seen him the other night at the Pandemonium, and also when we went to the club last year, but I never really cared to pay that close of attention to what he looked like. I was just happy Izzy knew him and he let us in the club even though we were underage. The way he and Simon seemed to be sizing each other up, it peaked my interest to pay closer attention to him right now. Meliorn was a decent size guy, he was a little taller than me and built more like Jordan, Meliorn could have been a football quarterback. He had these crazy green eyes, as green as a clover, and not a dull clover, like a bright green springtime clover, and they almost glowed. I wondered absentmindedly if they were contacts. Clary's eyes were green, but his looked unnatural. He had jet black hair that came down passed his chin, it was messy, and the way the strobe lights from inside bounced off of it, it looked blue at this moment. He had a very faint scare on his cheek that was only noticeable because it shined when the light hit him just right.
Simon definitely didn't stand a chance against this guy, hell it'd probably be a hard fight for me. At one time I would have laughed at this predicament, thought it would be funny if Meliorn took a swing, but Simon wasn't backing down and I got the sudden urge that I should have his back if this guy started throwing punches. Simon and I had gotten along pretty well over the week. He had kept me posted on Clary earlier in the week, he was going to be moving in with my sister, and that combined with how well things were going between me and Clary, I just didn't seem to feel the hostility towards him I once did. Add into consideration that Simon was standing up for himself right now because he cared that much for Izzy, which I gave him a lot of credit for, and the fact that this guy was twice his size, I just really felt like I should get involved. Of course Alec would probably argue later it was because I love fights and I have a hard time not getting involved. I took a step closer to Simon and put my hand on his shoulder, dropping Clary's hand in the process. I wanted my hands free, just in case.
"Hey we don't want any trouble man. My buddy here is just a little concerned with how you're holding his girl." Meliorn turned his gaze to me and I suddenly realized how close Alec and Jordan had come to stand by us as well. Though Simon may not look intimidating at all, Alec and Jordan could definitely do some damage, and right now it was looking like us four against him, if it came down to it. I vaguely realized I couldn't see Magnus in my peripheral vision, but he was never much of a fighter. After a short hesitation the guy dropped his hands from around Izzy and she took a step back, whether consciously or unconsciously she stepped right back up against Simon. He quickly put his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. She still had her arms crossed.
"Hey Pangborn. Blackwell. Verlac. I think we have some uninvited guests." Meliorn called over his shoulder rather loudly. He looked back at us with somewhat of an amused look. My first reaction was that it was way too loud inside for anybody to hear him, my second reaction was that he had just called over three buddies, which meant he evened up the odds, but absentmindedly I was wondering if Verlac was Sebastian Verlac. That would be interesting. Two large guys walked over and stood behind Meliorn, they were bigger than Meliorn, just as tall, but wider, they could have been the two guards protecting the quarterback the way they came up on each side of him. I should have been thinking that this wasn't worth the trouble, but I wasn't going to be intimidated by this dick and his steroid overloaded buddies. All three guys had their arms crossed, as did Alec, Jordan and I. Simon still had an arm around Izzy. There was a temporary pause as we just stared each other down. Of course, how could things get worse?
"Excuse me!" Clary snapped abruptly as she took a step forward with her arms on her hips. All eyes turned to the glaring red head. Her eyes darted between all of us.
"-This isn't happening. You guys aren't going to start fighting each other like Neanderthals. Izzy is dating Simon. End of story." Meliorn seemed to be finding her humorous. Of course having the tiniest person there attempting to put us all in our place was pretty humorous. Clary's eyes focused on Meliorn.
"Now, I'm a good friend of Seelie's, and Kay personally invited us. So we're here, deal with it." Clary snapped. Seelie's voice could be heard shouting from inside the cottage.
"MEL IF YOU START ANYTHING I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" From behind Meliorn I could just make out Seelie's red hair and Sebastian laughing beside her. Pangborn, Blackwell, and Meliorn all turned around. Pangborn and Blackwell both chuckled slightly, but Meliorn just looked agitated. Seelie shot them all deadly glares. Sebastian seemed to be exchanging a look with Pangborn and Blackwell as well. One of them, not sure who was who, leaned slightly closer to Meliorn.
"You're on your own man. Your sister is terrifying, and it looks like Sebastian's on her side." Both the guys stepped around Seelie and walked back into the cottage, Sebastian clapped one of them on the shoulder as he passed them. I could now see that Seelie and Sebastian were actually holding hands, but Sebastian seemed to drop Seelie's hand as soon as I noticed. Seelie started screaming at Meliorn something awful. Sebastian was just chuckling. Seelie turned her gaze to Clary and looked remorseful.
"I am so sorry." Seelie said as she covered the last few steps between them and took Clary in for a big huge. Seelie looked amazing, of course not as good as Clary looked, but Seelie looked just as done up as she did the day before. She was wearing an off white crochet dress, I blame Izzy that I even know what that is. It had a plunging v-neck and small straps that was fitted through the bodice, but flowed from the waist and landed just a couple inches shy of her knees. She had on off-white strappy high heels, and her fire red hair was heavily curled, with part of it pulled up and decorated with small white flowers throughout, and the rest left down in ringlets around her face and along her back. Seelie dropped her arms around Clary and took a step back, looking over her shoulder at Meliorn.
"Clay? Do you remember Mel?" Clary's expression, semi-glare semi-confusion, didn't change, but Mel, as Seelie called him, seemed to break out of his previous scowl and chuckle with a humorous look on his face. He took a couple steps towards Clary as he spoke.
"Clay? Long time no see short stuff." Mel said with a smirk. He reached out and tapped her on the head before removing his hand and she crossed her arms and glared at him.
"I'm not that short." Mel chuckled. I took a couple steps closer to Clary and rested my hand gently on her lower back. I know I know I was being possessive, but I just watched how this guy hugged Izzy, I didn't really want to go round two with him, and I knew I wouldn't keep my cool if it were Clary he had his hands on. He didn't seem to acknowledge my gesture.
"Easy killer. I forgot how quickly you get all wound up." Mel chuckled as she glared. He shook his head.
"You have grown though. You've changed a lot. It's been what, eight years? I don't think I've seen you since my parents divorced. You look good." Her face softened some, but she still had a slight glare. I rubbed her back gently, more to maintain contact with her than to comfort her. Mel glanced in my direction and I gave him an obviously fake smile, but didn't say anything. He looked back at Clary.
"I didn't recognize you at all at the club and your name, I forget what it was, but I would have remembered seeing the name Clary Fray." He glanced at me one more time.
"You're not married are you?" He asked hesitantly with furrowed eyebrows. I chuckled lightly.
"No. I'm not married." She shook her head with a smile. I could just imagine her cursing Will in her head, though this time it wasn't his doing. Mel's face softened, he looked too happy, I couldn't help but glare.
"Yet." I said tightly making the T hard. Clary and Mel gave me quick glances, but I kept my fake smile on Mel.
"My mom remarried. I changed my name. I go by Garroway now." Clary shrugged.
"Ok. You guys don't need to stand in the doorway all night. You can catch-up inside." Seelie chimed as she ushered Clary through the door, the rest of us right behind. Seelie and Clary exchanged some light conversation, while Izzy and Seelie exchanged a few glares. Sebastian and I exchanged a few words as well. A couple guys came over to Mel when we got in the door and he seemed to disappear without another word. Seelie directed the girls they could leave their purses upstairs in the spare bedroom if they wanted to, that they shouldn't worry about anything being stolen. Though, with the number of people at the party, I really doubted that Kaelie and Seelie knew everybody. After a somewhat quick exchange we were pointed to the closest bar and informed that there were actually two, and in addition there were a few kegs outside. The girls had already come prepared to leave their purses unattended, they had stripped them down to bare essentials, phones, keys, whatever, and so they were fine with leaving them upstairs. Maia said she needed to use the bathroom anyway and grabbed Clary and Izzy's purses to drop off upstairs.
We were quickly swept into the crowd of people. The house must have been the biggest one in the area by far. Between the huge house and the swarm of bodies, it was like the movie Weekend at Bernie's, except without a dead guy; Magnus loved that movie. As Izzy expected, people were dressed ranging from shorts and bikini tops to done up in dresses and heels. The party was well underway and you could definitely tell the difference between the people that looked like they had recently arrived and those that were already completely wasted. Shortly after we got there Izzy and Simon went their own way, Jordan had gone upstairs with Maia and they hadn't come back yet. Magnus and Alec stayed with Clary and I for a couple drinks, but then they also got separated from us at one point. Clary had already agreed to be a designated driver, she was adamant she didn't want to sleep at Kay's cottage, so after her first frozen Margarita, which she definitely took her time drinking, she didn't drink anything else. Aline had come separately with Ray and we did run into them briefly. Sebastian drove himself and we seemed to bump into him the most frequently. We ran into Izzy, Simon, Maia and Jordan several times throughout the night as well, they were all having a really good time. Clary was eager to find Will and had text him a couple times with my phone. Hers was in her purse upstairs. I would have normally preferred that she had a phone on her, but I made sure she was either glued to my side or in my direct line of sight at all times. There were way too many guys checking her out to leave her unattended for a minute. Except when I went to take a piss, which throughout the evening seemed to become a bit more frequent, then I left her with Alec or Simon or dragged her up the stairs with me and made her wait in the hallway.
The evening was going well. Clary and I danced and visited with a lot of people, a few she had known from way back, but most were frequents to the lake, or regulars from Kaelie's parties, so I actually knew a lot more people than Clary did. Clary seemed to be happy. She was better than she had been the day before. She seemed to be having a good time, and so was I. Alec had made a couple jokes when Clary was in the bathroom that I should enjoy my freedom while I still could, and I did kind of have that in the back of my mind as the night progressed and I indulged in a few of beers. I was feeling pretty good. When we weren't socializing I held Clary in my arms and kissed her lips, her hair, her cheek, or her neck. There was no shortage of displays of affection at this party. The more people drank the more they seemed to find somebody to make out with. Some couples were definitely going overboard and Get a room was heard being shouted from time to time. There were actually eight or nine bedrooms upstairs that were being taken advantage of, and as the night ran on I wanted to tow Clary up to one of those rooms more and more myself.
It was just around 10:00 and we were outside by the bonfire. We had been inside most of the night, but it was pretty hot in the cottage. The evening air was refreshingly, and it was finally cool enough to be comfortable. It was oddly dark outside, though stars lit up the night sky and the moon was out, smoke hung low in the air from an evening full of fireworks and left a haze. Though earlier you could see fireworks here and there through the windows in the cottage, now it was quiet. We stood a few feet from the large bonfire and watched as the flames danced and leaped, and we listened to the wood crackle and snap. Though there were several people outside, it was relatively quiet. You could hear the water from the lake gently lap against the water's edge, the summer peep frogs, and an occasional hooting owl, but the people outside were relatively quiet. The cottage, 100 feet away or so, was far enough that you could only hear the music faintly.
I had my arms wrapped tightly around Clary's waist, her back against my chest. She had taken off her heels when we came outside and they lay on the ground beside us. I had brought all of her hair around to her left side, fully exposing her neck on her right side. I kissed along her shoulder and up her neck. It was probably one of the few times I didn't have a drink in my hand all night, and now I could hold on to her tightly. I was basking in the moment, just enjoying being with Clary. I had been thinking on and off how I was going to propose, but I just hadn't decided yet. I wanted to do in a way that was memorable, and I wanted it to be a surprise, but something she'd really like. I brought my lips to her ear and kissed just behind it, and then I spoke softly.
"Lets do something fun tomorrow night. It's Fourth of July. You want to go out to a fancy dinner, or take a boat ride up around the lake to see the fireworks, or-" She cut me off.
"No." She said plainly, but just as softly as I had spoken. The evening was so peaceful it seemed out of place to speak much above a whisper. I furrowed my eyebrows slightly.
"Why not?"
"Jace,stop spending money on me. You let me buy you one coffee on Monday and you haven't let me pay for anything since. I don't want you to keep wasting money on me." She was shaking her head, but I just chuckled. She had no idea how much money I just spent on her. I had to concentrate though. I had already had a few beers. I was no where near drunk, but I didn't want to slip up and say anything that might make her suspicious.
"First of all. I don't consider it wasting, I consider it…investing." I kissed her shoulder.
"Investing?" She asked skeptically. I nodded.
"Of course. Like you told Raphael, I'm your future, which means you're my future. So spending money on you is just investing in my future." She chuckled. I smiled to myself as I kissed the crook of her neck. That sounded like a good answer.
"I did say that didn't I?" I smirked.
"Um Hum. So, I'm actually being very selfish if you think about it." I kissed higher up her neck and she leaned her head away exposing her neck further. She shook her head slightly and took a small exasperated breath. I continued to pepper her neck with soft kisses as she spoke.
"Knowing you, you probably are being self-centered somehow that I'm just not seeing at the moment, but why don't we just lay off the big spending. Everybody will be home, I'm sure we can see the fireworks from the cottage. Izzy got a couple bottles of Champaign-" I cut her off. Spending the evening with the gang wasn't happening. I wanted something romantic. Something memorable.
"Or, I could kick everybody out of the cottage and we could have the place to ourselves, make a fire in the fireplace-" She shook her head as she cut me off.
"I'm not kicking everybody out of the cottage Jace. " I kissed her shoulder as I smirked. Yeah that one would have been hard anyway, at least not without telling them why.
"Ok. How about we go for a moonlit horseback ride and find a cozy place along the lake to sit and watch the fireworks alone. We could bring a blanket and a bottle of Champaign." I tried to make my voice as tempting as possible. She had been so into horseback riding lately this did sound like a really romantic idea. I kissed her cheek and squeezed her tighter.
"Maybe. I don't see why you don't want to just spend Fourth of July with everybody else." I shrugged, I wanted to act nonchalant. Not raise too much suspicion.
"We can spend the day with them, I just thought it'd be nice to spend some time just the two of us in the evening. We haven't spent that much time alone." I kept my voice as sweet and tempting as I could. I brought my lips back to her neck and continued to kiss her gently.
"We spend every night the two of us alone Jace." She said bluntly. I smirked against the crook of her neck between kisses. She kind of had me there. The time before we fell asleep, when I just held her in my arms, that was right up there with one of my favorite parts of the day, except it was all too brief. I was so peaceful with Clary in my arms I fell right to sleep lately. I kissed behind her ear.
"But we just sleep. I thought we could do something romantic." I whispered. There was a slight pause.
"You want to spend some romantic time alone?" She asked just as quietly. She almost sounded like she was smiling. I nodded. I felt like I might have finally persuaded her.
"Is that so horrible?" I whispered quietly in her ear. She stirred in my arms. I loosened my hold on her as she turned around to face me. She was smiling as she reached up on her tip toes, her body pressed against mine, and brought her lips to mine. She parted my lips with hers and caressed my tongue, but all too briefly. As I started to tighten my arms around her, and my hands rushed to her hair, she was already ceasing the kiss. I looked into her sparkling eyes. She looked so affectionate right now, so happy, which made me thrilled. She leaned in close, her lips just an inch or so away from mine, but as I tried to capture them she pulled away slightly. Her face looked playful now.
"Maybe…we can spend some…romantic time alone…tonight…when we get back." She said in a rather sexy voice. She brought her lips to mine and her fingers twirled in my hair, I didn't even register what she was saying as my hand rushed to the back of her neck as I parted her lips with mine. She wasn't rushing away from me this time. I hadn't even thought about romantic time alone as romantic time alone. I was just trying to think of a way to get her alone to propose to her. Now my hormones were quickly shifting from jubilant proposal planning, to down right horny. I smirked as I talked against Clary's lips.
"There are lots of rooms upstairs." I said heavily. She leaned away from me and I let her, just far enough that I could see her glaring at me.
"Don't even think about it Jace…Absolutely not…Those rooms are dirty…and…I…Do you think…You have no idea…and the new sheets!" She sounded so flustered. Had there not been shadows across her face, I bet her cheeks would look nice and rosy. My eyebrows shot up and I looked at her skeptically. All I could focus on was the new sheets. Why bother making a big deal about new sheets?…Unless…the sheets were a strategic decision.
"This is starting to sound premeditated my love." She was still glaring at me.
"So what!" She snapped again. She looked feisty now, not all sweet and affectionate like she did a minute ago, but feisty Clary is really hot. She was also suggesting way too strongly that she had planned for some romantic time alone tonight, which even if that didn't mean sex, it sounded like it meant a lot more than falling asleep. It was probably only 10:30 now, but I was definitely ready to get the hell out of here.
"Let's go." I gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"What?" She somewhat mumbled as she dropped her glare and looked more confused. I dropped my arms from around her, but left one draped over her shoulder.
"I'm ready to leave. Aren't you?" I smirked as I gave her a sideways look and I reached down and picked up her heels. She didn't have time to reply before we both turned to the sound of Will's voice.
"Clary finally!" Will said with a big smile on his face as he walked over. Even though my arm was around Clary's shoulder, Will wrapped his arms around her waist and hefted her clear off the ground. He smelled strong of booze.
"Will. You're drunk put me down." She scolded as she whacked his chest with her hand and let out with a small laugh. He set her back down with a laugh of his own. Had I not been feeling pretty good myself, and had I not actually liked Will, I probably would have gotten rather pissed off at him.
"Hey Jace!" Will clapped his hand to my shoulder, he sounded oddly affectionate. I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Will." I nodded once.
"Where's Jem?" I questioned. Will shrugged as his face fall, some of the excitement gone.
"I talked to him about a half hour ago. He said he and Jessie had something to do and they'd be late. I don't know if he's just dragging his feet. He'll probably text me later to say he got tied up and couldn't come. Parties aren't really his thing." I nodded. Clary smiled a huge smile at Will.
"Well here's something that will cheer you up. I've already talked to Tessa!" Will's whole face lit up. Clary updated Will on her conversation with Tessa. Apparently she was one of the girls Clary had introduced me to, but I didn't really remember everybody we had met over the course of the night. All of a sudden, the fire started sparking and popping excessively. Clary and Will both stopped talking as we all turned to look at the fire. We could hear Magnus and Alec laughing.
"What was that?" Clary snapped. Alec and Magnus waltz over to us.
"Magic Darling." Magnus said with a chuckle. Alec shook his head.
"Powdered aluminum. A small handful really makes a bonfire spark. Sugar would have given a similar effect, but not nearly as drastic." Clary was looking at Alec like he was crazy. Alec shrugged.
"Learned it in boy scouts." Alec said softly. I shook my head. Alec really got into boy scouts when we were younger, he learned all sorts of odd things. I just liked that they let me set fires. We all ended up visiting. Magnus was catching up with Will, and Clary expanded on her conversation regarding Tessa. Alec and I just visited on the side. Clary wanted to go inside and see if her and Will could find Tessa, but I wasn't that interested in hanging out in that hot house right now. My previous excitement with the idea of getting back to the cottage with Clary had quickly faded with the realization that that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Before I knew it we were all heading inside. Alec and I were heading to the bar for another drink. Magnus was still visiting with Will, so he decided to go with Clary and Will to go look for Tessa. Magnus said he'd stay with Clary, and we all agreed to meet back outside by the bonfire a little later.
Besides venturing inside a few times to get beers, Alec and I stayed put by the bonfire and talked. On one of the excursions in the cottage for beer, I heard some guy's voice saying that's him, the blonde, that's that girl's husband. I never saw who said it, but I couldn't help but laugh, I was pretty sure they were talking about me. I was thanking Will silently in my head. I loved the way guys reacted when they thought Clary was married; like she was wrapped in caution tape, and had a big sign on her that said not available. I had no problem at all with people calling me Clary's husband, because if all went according to plan, soon enough I would be.
Alec and I talked and drank as the evening went on. He harassed me a little about my intentions to propose to Clary the following night, but overall he was really happy for me. He even said I was welcome to have her live with us, but I really hadn't thought about it. I told him Clary and I would probably just look for a place together, an apartment to call our own. It sounded really amazing, our place, with our bedroom, that we slept in together every night. I tried to harass him about his hair, but he told me he did it for me; that it was the only thing he could think of to guarantee the girls would stay at the mall another hour, and apparently now I owe him big. We joked about how Magnus found out I was going to propose. I was just in their bedroom with Alec, I had wanted to show him the ring, or more correctly he was dying to see it. Neither of us thought to lock the door, when suddenly Magnus walked in; surprisingly he locked the door behind him, almost seemed an instinctive reaction. Magnus zeroed in on the jewelry size gift box immediately and practically demanded to know what I had in the box. I didn't say anything, I just handed him the box. He opened it and threw his hand to his mouth with a gasp and looked at me with an incredibly surprised look. Then, when I smirked at him, his eyes filled up with tears, and he just started crying. Of course after that initial reaction, he just had to try the ring on, though it only fit partway down his pinky finger. He stared at the ring on his finger and went on and on how excited he was and how he couldn't wait to help plan the wedding, apparently he feels he has extraordinary taste. Then when Clary knocked on the door we all panicked. Magnus took the ring off and practically threw it at me and ran to the door. I barely had it back in the box and held behind my back before he was opening the door up. Of course when we actually saw it was Clary, I couldn't just stand there with the box behind my back, so before we knew it he was picking her up and spinning her around. Alec and I quickly hid the box in a bureau drawer while her back was to us. It was all pretty crazy. Magnus and Alec knew I wasn't quite ready for everybody to know I planned to propose to Clary. I didn't want there to be any chance of somebody slipping up, so until I actually proposed, nobody else was going to find out. Alec and I moved off the big topic and reminisced about when we were younger, when I came to live with the Lightwoods, and funny things that we had done over the years.
At some point in the evening Simon and Izzy came by and we visited with them for a while. They seemed to be feeling pretty good. Izzy said she was looking for her shoes, she couldn't remember when she had taken them off, and she seemed to be laughing at everything. Simon seemed to be stumbling over his feet a bit, and laughing almost as much as she was. We also saw Aline and Ray briefly just before they were going to leave. They didn't seem drunk at all. I hadn't seen Ray since Panera Bread, so we talked a little, cleared the air. Ray's arm was around Aline's waist and she was leaning with her head against his chest as they talked to us. They seemed really happy. As the evening went on I would have gotten concerned that Clary was gone so long had she not been with Magnus, but Alec told me not to worry. Magnus wouldn't leave Clary's side and they had probably just got caught up talking.
Clary finally came back outside with Magnus just after midnight. She looked flustered and irritated. She said she and Magnus had been looking for us for over an hour and they had come out to look for us twice earlier. They must have passed us when we went in to grab a beer. What are the odds? Magnus didn't seem too concerned, but he had definitely had a few to drink. I tried to offer her my beer to calm her down, but she just knocked it on the ground. Magnus had said he sent both Alec and I text messages, and even tried to call Alec, but when Alec checked his phone he realized he had inadvertently turned the sound off completely when he had meant to turn the phone on vibrate. I knew I wouldn't have noticed a text, but I knew my phone was on vibrate, so I would have gotten a call. I decided to check my phone, and I saw one text from Magnus about a half hour ago, and one recent text from Will. Will's message said he hoped Clary found me and that he hadn't heard from Jem, but he wanted me to tell Clary he had just sent Jem a text. Oh well, couldn't do anything about those missed messages now.
All and all, Clary was here now and everything else just didn't seem like that big of a deal to me. I pulled her into my arms, with some resistance, and apologized profusely for worrying her. It took a little sweet talking and a puppy dog face, but she melted into my arms giggling and telling me I was drunk off my ass. I was definitely feeling it. I had probably drunk about seven beers at this point, and I was pretty hammered. Not fall down drunk, but I was good. It was probably time to call it a night, at least stop drinking, but we could stay and hang out for a little while more. I didn't want to stay here all night, I still had Clary's little voice in the back of my head reminding me she mentioned some possible romantic time alone later. I pressed my lips against Clary's, silencing her giggles, and kissed her passionately.
Clary pulled away with an agitated look and turned to Magnus and Alec. I wasn't sure what had upset her, but I heard Magnus muttering about how much he'd like a cigarette right about now, although he had supposedly quit smoking at the same time Alec did, just over a year ago. Clary started lecturing Magnus about smoking and telling him he should know more than anybody else how hard it was for Alec to quit and that Magnus shouldn't even be thinking about smoking let alone talking about it. Magnus clarified that he still indulged in one on occasion, like when he drank. Everything is good for you in moderation he said. Though I don't think that really applies to smoking. Magnus and Alec started talking about smoking, because apparently Alec wasn't aware Magnus was indulging in occasional cigarettes either, but the more they talked about it, the better it sounded. Not that I was much of a smoker. I like a random swisher sweet sometimes when I drink, but I have had a cigarette a time or two as well, not a big fan.
Of course, like moths to a flame, when Sebastian walked over to the bonfire smoking, we flocked to him. He was smoking cigarettes, but happened to have swisher sweets on him too. Alec and Magnus each took a cigarette, but I took a swisher. Before I knew it we were all smoking and bullshiting. Clary seemed pretty irate when she announced she was pissed about the smoking and was going back inside. A small part of me thought it should have bothered me more, but as she yelled see you later Jace over her shoulder, it really didn't seem like a big deal. I'd find her later or she'd find me. Alec, Magnus, Sebastian and I waltzed over to the keg outside and all filled a cup with some random beer. I had been sticking to bottles all night, at least than you know exactly what you're drinking, but at this point I really didn't care anymore.
Weekend at Bernie's (1989) (Andrew McCarthy & Jonathan Silverman)
As always thanks for the reviews!
