Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.
After our lunch, Jace and I are heading back to the group and just as we get to the general area where they are…"Clary!" Jace's attempts to warm me are futile. I get water dumped over my head. I turn around to see Izzy and Magnus holding the bucket and they grin sheepishly at me. I keep my face expressionless and I head over to the towel to take off my sunglasses and cover up. I place my sandals down on the towel and turn to look for Izzy and Magnus. I know that they are hiding from me, but all I see is Jace. He's staring at me and this is different than earlier.
"When I saw you earlier, I was kinda holding back since you were still my best friend…but now that you're not…" he smirks at me and I shiver. I'm going to say that it's from the ocean breeze, but that might not be the entire truth. The breeze was a hot one anyway. "Now the real question is: why are you all wet?"
"Izzy and Magnus thought it'd be funny to dump water on me," I tell him and he laughs. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to go teach Izzy and Magnus that they don't want to mess with me," I say and turn to see them coming at me with water again. I stand with my arms crossed, waiting for them to look up and notice me staring at them. When they do look up, they both freeze in their tracks. I raise one eyebrow and their eyes widen. I see Alec coming behind Magnus with another bucket of water and I keep Iz and Mags occupied. I send them a deadly smirk and then Alec dumps the water on Magnus.
Magnus gasps and whirls around to see Alec running into the ocean, laughing. Magnus runs after him and I make a mental note to thank Alec later. I look back at Izzy and see that she's also run into the water. She gives me the 'come at me' hand motion and I run into the water after her. We are on a sand bank, so it makes life easier on me, being 6 inches shorter than her.
I get in front of her and she splashes water in my face. I spit seawater out of my mouth and take the bucket, now full of water, from behind my back and I throw it on her. I run back out of the water and throw the bucket to Jace who catches it easily. I see Simon standing next to him and look to my left to see Magnus and Alec still playing around in the water. I turn around just as Izzy gets to me and I duck under her arms as she tries to grab me. I laugh and run deeper into the water.
When I stop running, the water is at my hips and I turn around to face Izzy. I may have long legs (according to my mother) but Izzy has longer legs because of her height on me. She catches up fast and tries to dive at me so I fall in the water with her. I narrowly miss her and turn to face the ocean. She stands up and laughs as she spits the salty water out of her mouth. I laugh at her attempts to get me in the water and I see a wave coming right behind her. This is a bigger one than what we had a couple minutes ago, so I realize that high tide is starting. Izzy seems oblivious to the wave behind her so I use this to my advantage. I purposefully miss when trying to swipe her legs out from under her and she decides to try.
At the perfect moment, she tries to swipe my legs out from under me and I purposefully fall. Under the water, I miss the wave. When come up for air, I see another wave behind me. That wave is already peaking, so I try my best to body surf in. I somewhat succeed and on the beach, I see Izzy sitting down, coughing. She has sand covering her hair and I laugh. She looks up at me and glares. I try to keep an expressionless face, but I fail and start to crack a smile. She does too and we both start laughing.
I look up just as Jace and Simon run over and Jace looks worried until he sees that I'm laughing. I am on my hands and knees so I could see how he'd be worried. I look up at Simon and see that his face is absolutely pale. I am still laughing with Izzy so she hasn't realized her hair yet. Jace looks me over and sends me the 'why are you laughing so hard' look. I know that Izzy is laughing because of what happened, but I am laughing because of her hair. I nod my head over to Izzy and Jace looks at her.
His eyes widen and then he starts laughing. Simon still looks pale and Izzy looks up to notice him while Jace and I are still laughing. "What's wrong Simon?" I hear Izzy ask and before he can respond, I tell Izzy, "I'm going to go upstairs and shower." I look up at the sky and see that the sun is starting to go down and I want a shower before Izzy steals all the hot water. "It's getting kinda late, so…" I trail off and then tell Izzy, "You might want to go in the ocean and go underwater."
She looks at me curiously and I point to her hair. She reaches up and touches her hair. Her eyes go wide and she gasps as she gets up and runs into the water with Simon on her heels. Jace and I start laughing again and we head back to our little beach set up so we can put it all away. "Did you see her face," Jace laughs out. I nod as I laugh and start to pick up the towels. Jace puts the umbrella down and we compose our selves momentarily, but the moment we look at each other again, we start laughing.
We head upstairs just as Izzy gets out of the water and when we're almost at the top I hear Izzy shout, "I will get revenge Fray!" It's hard to look over your shoulder when you have two towels on you and even harder when you are carrying up an umbrella. Yes it's in a case, but it's big and clunky so when Jace tried to turn he really couldn't. "Just keep going, Fray," he says and half smiles up at me.
"Of course, Wayland," I say and he laughs.
We walk up the last couple of stairs and when we reach the top of the stairs, I shake out the towels and fold them on top of a lounge chair. Jace put the umbrella down next to the doors and walks around the right side of the house. I follow him and he turns on the hose. We take turns rinsing the sand off of each other and when Jace shuts the hose off, a cool breeze goes through the side of the house, chilling us instantly. "Good Lord its cold," Jace says as we come down the steps on the side of the house and I open the doors. I nod my head and we stand in silence for a few minutes while we air dry.
"Well, I'm dry so I'm going to head upstairs and shower," I tell him as I step off the towel on the floor. He catches my arm and turns me to look at him. "If you shower upstairs, then where am I going to shower?"
"Jace, waiting won't kill you," I tell him and he smirks.
"You sure about that Fray?" He looks at me and raises one eyebrow.
"Yes, Wayland. I'm sure," I look up at him as I say this and he looks like he does not believe me. Before he can open his mouth to say something, I run up the stairs and into the casita. I hear him on my heels and when I open the door to the casita, I shut the door and lock it. I quickly get my clothes out of the closet and head into the bathroom. I put my clothes on the counter and head back into the main part of the casita. I open the top of the door and see Jace standing there with his arms crossed. "What," I ask.
"You play dirty," he accuses.
"Jace, you should know this…we've been best friends for 13 years. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take a shower." With that I run into the bathroom and lock the door behind me. I know he can get in the casita, but I locked the bathroom so he couldn't steal my clothes or my towel like he does when he loses the bathroom game.
I try my best to shower quickly and when I get out of the shower, I grab my towel from the towel rack and decide to take mercy on Jace and not dry my hair now. I grab the blow dryer and my clothes and open the door, only to see Jace standing right in front of me. "Jeez Jace," I say as I tighten my hold on the towel, "You scared the crap out of me."
He laughs and says, "Good, you were in there forever!"
"Jace I was only in there for 10 minutes. If you want me to be in there longer, I could always go dry my hair in there," I start backing up into the bathroom again and he grabs my arm.
"That won't be necessary," he pulls me towards him and then steps to my left. I move to my right and he goes in the bathroom. I laugh to myself as I hear him lock the door behind me and then I hear the shower start up. I plug the hair dryer into an outlet in between the doors to the bathroom and the closet and start to dry my hair. I look at the clock on my nightstand and see that it's around 5:30. The others should be up for dinner soon. That's when a horrible thought crosses my mind. Izzy may like to cook, but she's the worst cook ever!
I finish drying my hair as quickly as I can and run into the closet to throw on some clothes. I put my pajamas back in the closet (I know Izzy wouldn't be happy if I came to dinner in pajamas) and throw on some shorts, a black tank top, a blue flannel shirt, and my grey converse. I quickly put my hair up in a messy bun and practically fly out the door. I slam the door to the casita and the front door in my hurry to get in the kitchen.
How much time do I have? I walk over to the balcony and I get sidetracked by the view of Catalina and at the height of this balcony, I can see over the neighbors' roof to the other side of the beach. I stop looking at the gorgeous view and walk over to the railing and look down. I see them all packing up and I run back inside. I make a plan for dinner in my head and I start searching the cabinet for the ingredients. I place everything I need on the counter next to me and when I turn back to shut the door I nearly run into Jace. "Whoa there," he grabs my arm to steady me and smirks, "What's with all the rushing?"
"Well, I decided to make Spaghetti for dinner to avoid the possibility of Izzy making dinner," I tell him as I turn to walk over to the fridge. I don't hear any comment from him and turn to look at him before I open the fridge. I notice the still damp wavy hair and I see the wet spots on his dark blue shirt from his hair. He's in black jeans and when I look back up at his face I see that it's pale. "What can I do to help you," he asks hurriedly. He's had Izzy cooking before and if you've had it once, you definitely don't want it again. Just as I'm about to tell him what he can do, Magnus pokes his head around the wall and Alec stands next to him. They are both still in their swim shorts and Magnus asks, "What are you doing?"
"Well, Magnus," I start, "To avoid the inevitable food poisoning from Izzy making us dinner, I decided to help us all out and make dinner instead."
"You are a life saver," Alec says before grabbing Magnus and pulling him around the corner and back up the stairs. I turn to Jace and tell him what he can do to help, "You start on the pasta and meatballs, I'll start on the sauce." I see him open his mouth to say something and I stop him right there, "And before you complain about me giving you two jobs while I have one, let me just tell you that it takes longer and you have to pay more attention to the sauce. "
~.o.O.o.~
"Ooh, what smells so good?" I hear Izzy ask as she comes up the stairs. Then I hear Jace mumble so only I can hear, "Not your cooking." I try to stifle my laughter and play it off as a cough when Izzy walks in. "Oh, Clary," I look up at her, "I was going to make dinner tonight…oh well, I'll do it tomorrow." She then walks out to the balcony and sits in a chair. Simon walk in a couple seconds later and when he smells the food, he turns to see who's in the kitchen and mouths 'thank you' to Jace and I. I smile at him and then he heads out to sit next to Izzy.
Just as I finish the sauce, Alec and Magnus come down stairs. "Hey, come and get your food. It's ready," I tell them and get myself a bowl. I look to my right and see Jace do the same thing. I smile at him and he winks. I fill my bowl with pasta and place two meatballs on top of the pasta. I grab the sauce and pour some on my pasta. I see Jace has done the same thing and I laugh to myself. Just as Jace and I head outside on the balcony, Magnus and Alec (who told Izzy and Simon about the food) with Izzy and Simon on their heels pass us and head into the kitchen. I sit at the white marble round-table so I'm facing the sunset. Jace sits to my right and looks behind him before whispering in my ear, "What were you laughing about?"
I smile and say, "Our bowls are exactly the same, Jace." He looks from his bowl to mine and laughs. "You were right Fray. They are the same," he whispers in my ear again and we begin eating. Izzy, Simon, Alec, and Magnus all come outside with big bowls of pasta and Izzy sits to my left with Simon next to her. Alec sits on the other side of Jace and Magnus sits next to Alec. Alec. "Hey Alec, thanks for dumping the water on Magnus earlier," I laugh, "You really helped me." He smiles sheepishly and looks back down at his food.
"Oh, look at the sunset," I hear Izzy squeal and then I look up. The sky has turned purple because of the clouds that have appeared recently. The sunlight that spans across the sky in between the ocean and the clouds is a gorgeous orangey-pink that's more pink than orange. The ocean has also turned purple with a single streak of pink reflecting from the sky.
We all forget the food on the table and we stand up. Magnus leans on the rails with Alec leaning on him and Izzy does the same as Magnus. Simon wraps his arm around Izzy's waist and leans on the railing. Jace and I part ourselves away from the couples and give them space. I lean on the railing, my body angled towards the beautiful sunset. Jace wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses the side of my head. I smile and lean into him as he squeezes my shoulder. Things are great right now…