*All the characters from The Mortal Instruments belong to Cassandra Clare and her incredible mind. Nothing will ever be owned by the author of this story. ;)*
Musical Preferences:
Fascination Street- The Cure
Start the Shooting- A Day to Remember
She is Love- Parachutes
Fair warning: Time has past. Not much, but it has. :)
Chapter Eight
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she did that again. And again. She would have done it once more had it not been for someone nudging her arm accompanied by a loud squeal.
"Clary! Well, darling, I haven't seen you in ages!" the woman squealed. Clary put on a fake smile on her face as she hugged the woman rather awkwardly due to the bulge in her stomach. Uncle Luke may be old, but he still had the charm going. Clary tried not to gag at the thought of him with the twenty-year old in front of her.
"Maia . . . it's nice seeing you." Clary tried not choke at the tight hold the woman had on her.
Maia let her go and started dragging Clary inside the restaurant . "Well, what are you doing out here? The party's inside! Your grandmother is waiting!"
Clary wanted to be anywhere but there at the time.
Maia led her through the various tables and waitresses until they go tot the restaurant's private lounge. Clary tried not to roll her eyes at the predictability of her family.
Grandmother Amelia's birthday was always the biggest feast of the year.
"Everyone," Maia started, "Is already here. We were all just waiting for you!" Maia exclaimed as she went in before her. Clary laughed uneasily at Maia's enthusiasm; she was still trying to win the Morgenstern family over.
With a defeated sigh, she went in and saw everybody already seated and yapping about business or Amelia. It was always about those two things. In between the sea of blondes and brunettes, Clary found the only other redhead in the room, her dad sitting right next to her. Jocelyn saw her and smiled sympathetically towards her. She was as happy to be here as Clary was.
"Darling!" Clary heard from beside her. Plastering the fakest, and hopefully convincing, smile on her face, she turned to greet her grandmother.
"Hey, grandma," she said through clenched teeth. "Happy birthday!" she tried to exclaim as she hugged her and gave her the small gift bag containing her favorite—and super expensive—perfume.
"Oh, you shouldn't have, Clary. Your presence is enough," she said peaking at the bag and grinning softly as she noticed what was on the bag. Sure, Amelia, she thought sourly, I bring no gift and I won't live it down until your next birthday.
"It was nothing, really," she said modestly. Truth was, it was something. Clary got lucky she found the perfume a tad bit less expensive on eBay.
And Amelia would never find that receipt. Ever.
"Oh, darling. Thank you. You look gorgeous!" she exclaimed looking at Clary's intentionally classy outfit. She wouldn't be caught dead wearing something comfortable in the presence of Mrs. Forever-Young. Clary wasn't even sure if that was her Amelia's face at all. All the Botox was taking a toll on her face. "Your aunt, Amatis, is here, too! Sit down so we can eat."
Sure enough, Amatis was sitting there with The Hulk—her boyfriend, Jake—sitting next to her. She was always away, but like everyone, she knew better than to miss these events. Clary had nicknamed Jake "The Hulk" when he and Amatis first started going out, back when Clary was still in high school and they had just graduated. Amatis was, after all, just four years older than Clary.
Jocelyn and Clary didn't want to be mean, but Amatis was a petite woman, an inch or two taller than Clary. Jake, though, towered over her almost a foot and was—in better words—obese. He wasn't much good looking, either. They had always thought them as a funny-looking couple, all in all. Next to each other, they looked like a "10" or a "01". Depended on the way you saw them.
Not quite fond of them, she exchanged pleasantries with them before she went to greet the rest of the family. It didn't go without notice that Luke was not there with Maia. She shrugged it off and finished her hello's. When she got to the chair beside her mom and Jonathan, she sat down with a huff.
"Hey, hey, sis. Show happiness. Just three and a half more hours and we're free until next year," Jonathan murmured to her. Clary rolled her eyes and punched his arm playfully.
"Now, Clary. Still fighting with your brother?" Clary fought the urge to scowl as she turned around to meet the cold blue eyes of none other but Luke Morgenstern.
"Yes," Clary responded curtly. "You still fight with your brothers and sisters, as far as I'm concerned. What am I? Just twenty years younger. I think I can still fight with John." Clary felt a pinch on her knee from her mother's side, but she ignored it. She was currently busy in a glaring match with her uncle.
"Fair enough. Clary, you look beautiful than ever. I hope you're doing well." He nodded at her before his eyes flickered to Jocelyn's, John's, and Valentine's. "Jocelyn, Valentine, Jonathan . . . it's good to see you, too." He walked towards Maia without another word. Clary rolled her eyes and sat back on her chair. Their encounter had gone unnoticed by everyone else.
"Clary," Jocelyn began, "Why did you—"
"Mom, please," Clary interrupted her. "He's always trying to pick out a fight with me."
"Are you sure it's not the other way around?" asked Valentine with a smile. Clary rolled her eyes at him.
"Does it really matter? He did, after all, make one of my best friends into my aunt," she replied as she looked over at Maia. She was happily conversing with one of Clary's aunts.
The awkward silence that continued was soon broken by Jonathan as he draped an around behind her chair. "Oh, lighten up, Clare. You know that the cool thing about it is that you see her all the time."
Clary laughed humorlessly. "Nuh, uh. I avoid her to not talk to Luke. But, whatever."
About thirty minutes later, and while she was eating, her phone rang in her purse. Foregoing Amelia's disapproving glance, she got it out and excused herself to take the "business call".
Once she was outside and nowhere close to the restrooms, Clary answered her phone.
"Hey, babe." Clary tried not to roll her eyes as a smirk formed on her face.
"Jace . . ." she scolded playfully. His rich laughter followed.
"Clary, I meant. How are you?" Clary rolled her eyes and checked if anyone was listening before responding.
"Terrible," she responded dragging the word out.
"Oh, really?" he asked sounding incredulous. "And why is that?"
"I really hate my family." She sighed and leaned against the wall. "I wouldn't have come if it wasn't a mandatory meeting."
"You make it sound like business." Clary shook her head. If he only knew . . .
"It is, basically. You come to bribe the boss with the best gift. If it suffices her needs, you're safe from a whole year of constant pleading and small favors."
"Favors?" he asked with curiosity. Clary almost laughed as she looked around to see if any one was looking for her.
"You want examples? Okay, well, once my dad got my grandmother this really nice watch. I mean, I would have worn it, and I don't like wearing watches. So, my grandmother sees this beautiful watch and she hates it. It's too 'plain'." Clary rolled her eyes as she remembered. "My dad got calls at midnight at least five times a month to go and flip her mattress because she couldn't sleep."
Jace laughed from the other side of the line. "That's ridiculous! Your grandmother must be crazy!"
"Oh, she is. I have a billion of stories that explain her insanity. Like, right at this moment, I'm losing favoritism because I got out of the lounge to talk to you. I hope you feel your guilt eating at you conscience when I have to go over to change her light bulb at six in the morning."
"Of course not," he responded, "because I'm about to save you from your horrible family reunion of hell."
Clary rolled her eyes. "Sure, uh huh. That's not happening. Not while she-demon is alive."
"Stay an hour at least. Then say that this call was for a teacher in-service meeting about a new grading system. The meeting is actually real, just not until a few months. You won't be completely lying."
Clary began grinning. Amelia would never make her miss something from work. "You are a genius. Go to my place in an hour. Key's in the pot of flowers next to the door."
"I'll be there. See you soon, babe," he drawled. Clary couldn't even find it in herself to correct him. She loved when he called her that.
"See you."
w.^.w
"You like her a lot," he observed with a sly smirk once Jace had hung up. Jace rolled his eyes and looked at Camille.
"Why did you tell him, again?" he asked her impatiently. Camille rolled her eyes.
"Because I needed to tell someone and Magnus is my best friend, too. I trust him completely and he would never say a thing." Magnus nodded to show that her words were true.
"I don't like it, but you are my boss. It would be pretty stupid of me to blabber to Aline about your affairs. I don't like her, anyways."
Nobody does, Jace thought sourly.
"Why are you even doing this, Cam? You have never, ever, encouraged me and I have understood. But . . . You want Clary and me to be together. I just don't understand why." Camille looked at him hard. Her green eyes traveled down his body and then up to his face again.
"Let me ask you this, Jace," she began. "Did I ever like Courtney?"
Jace crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. "No."
"Samantha?"
He shook his head again.
"Josie?"
"No . . ."
"Ashley?"
Head shake.
"Kaelie?"
Jace laughed. "Hells no."
"Taylor?"
Jace frowned. "Didn't you like her a little—?"
"No. Natalie?"
Jace smirked. "Nope."
Camille rolled her eyes. "That's less than ten percent of the woman you've fucked. See? Now, if you ask me if I like Aline I'll say no, too."
Jace raised an eyebrow as he felt a "but" coming. "But . . . ?"
"But," Camille sighed, "Clary is different. I like her a lot. Even before I met her and you told me about her she was perfect for you. You should see yourself. You are happier than you've ever been."
"It's true," Magnus interfered. "You are nicer to the employees—and I'm talking about myself. Also . . . You've had the same PA for the past three weeks without fucking her. You've been dating Clary for two weeks now." He sat back. "She's good for you."
Jace couldn't help but think of Magnus's words as he drove to Clary's. They had been calling and texting each other constantly since their first date and had gone on another date. He knew it was fast, but it just felt right with Clary. Everything felt right.
He parked and made his way up to her door, finding the flower pot that had the key to her home. Bending down, he looked for the key until his hand was caked with dirt. He opened the door and left to wash his hands on her bathroom after leaving the key back in its place.
He made his way to the living room and saw the corner of something square sticking out from in between the couch and the cushion. Grabbing it, he realized it was a photo album. He grinned as he sat down and began flipping through the pages.
He was almost halfway through the album when he felt her watching him. He hadn't even heard the door opening and closing. Without looking up he commented on the album.
"You are so adorable," he said actually meaning it. He had never seen such a cute five year old before. Clary was always smiling on the pictures and making cute faces or biting her bottom lip. As creepy as he sure sounded, Clary was so fucking sexy!
"Why are you invading my privacy?" she asked in a stern voice, but when he looked up, he could see her fighting a smirk.
"I'm not. Something is left in the living room so people can look at it," he responded nonchalantly looking at little Clary in a swimsuit close to the beach.
"That," she pointed to the album, "was under the couch's cushion. How did you find it?"
"I was flipping the cushion," he said remembering his talk about Clary's crazy grandmother. "It was too hard until I noticed why." He grinned at her and she rolled her eyes and sat next to him. "Nice clothes, by the way."
And he wasn't kidding. Clary was wearing tight gray pants that flared at her knees, giving her the illusion of height. The heels also helped in that department. She wore a red camisole under a black blazer that accentuated her chest perfectly. She looked gorgeous, but it was just not like her.
She huffed as her heels flew from her hand and hit the floor hard. "I hate having to dress up for events I don't enjoy."
Jace looked up from a princess Clary in Halloween and regarded the present Clary with curiosity. "Why do you, then?"
She sighed. "You know the bullshit that everybody feeds each other? The 'I don't give a living fuck what people think of me'?" Jace nodded. "It's that—bullshit." She frowned and looked down at the album. "Everybody cares. Maybe not with certain people, but yes with others. I hate people that make you feel lesser than you are when you know that you are better." She shrugged. "Clothing is a conformist way of proving a point."
"Why dress up for people you hate, though?" Jace asked and pulled her to him by the waist.
She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. "Whenever I think of it, I get confused. Then I get frustrated, so I end up not thinking of my answer to that at all. What I know is that it's better than dressing like shit for people you don't like."
"You have proven your point." He caught her chin and tilted her face, giving her a soft, slow kiss. He could feel her smiling against his lips. Kissing her was so sweet, nice. He felt like it was just him and her and not tongues and lips and teeth clacking and dancing together. Breaking away with a chaste kiss, he rested his forehead against hers as she looked at him with dancing green eyes.
"Hey," she whispered breathless.
He smiled at the simple word. "Hey," he said back and watched her grin.
Matching her grin, they went back to looking at Clary's pictures. Her blushing . . . him laughing. She told him stories of every series of pictures and he listened and treasured every single one for unknown reasons.
By late evening, they had gone through the album twice and now were just sitting on the couch together, silent and lost in thought. Jace felt as if he had nothing to worry about. There was just something in him that told him everything would be okay. His arm around Clary felt right. Her head nuzzled into his neck felt common. There were no words needed, where with other people there were. Looking down at her, he put a stray lock of her hair behind her ear and she looked up and smiled at the sudden movement. Jace immediately knew how he felt.
He felt at home.
At home.
Home . . . ? Damn! he thought.
His eyes widened as he looked over at her owl clock, finally noticing the time. He had to go home, to Aline. He sighed angrily at himself for getting carried away.
Clary sat up with a frown and he smiled sadly at her. "I've gotta go," he told her and she nodded, her eyes trying to hide sadness. He kissed her deeply and then got off the couch, thinking that it wasn't enough, but that it would have to do.
She walked him to the door, and he noticed that they were taking small steps towards the door, prolonging their time together. He looked down at her as he opened the door, hesitating. She noticed this and smiled while pushing him out the door. "I understand," she said.
But she didn't. And once she caught him she would never understand.
Jace took the back of her neck roughly and brought her lips to hers, wanting to taste her once more before leaving. She smiled as they broke away and pushed him the rest of the way out.
He grinned at the closed door and walked down to his car, but once inside—as the understanding that he hadn't even remembered Aline at all during his time with Clary—made him forget about firing the engine.
He was fucked.
No, no.
He was more than fucked.
The story is actually taking off from here. A lot of you already want them to fuck again. xD I find that so amusing.
It's late again. What a surprise. I've been moving these last two weeks and no internet and computers disconnected. -.- Disaster, in a few words.
I hope you guys enjoyed because, god, I enjoyed writing this. You guys don't have any idea.
BlondeHairBlueEyes14, SportyNo1, camibandlover, and 07XReflectional: I just want to thank you four for reminding me of how lucky I am to have you in my life. I am so, so blessed.
It would mean the world if you reviewed. :) Please?
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