Is it wrong that there is no part of me that is okay with clinging on to Jace's hand and smiling like he is my personal sun that is not connected to pissing someone off? There really isn't.

First off, walking toward the parking lot, where my and Jon's car is parked, beside Jace's of course, there are about ten to twenty girls that look like they want to start a hair-pulling, eye-clawing fight with me, which is just amazing. I hold back a snort and look at them innocently as I walk past.

Jace notices my slightly elated mood, and asks, "Finally excited about the prospect of dating someone as fine as this, Red?"

I look at him, my smile set firmly on my face. I don't tell him what is running through my head as we approach my car. I don't tell him that I'm smiling because of something that is going to happen in the next ten seconds or so, because of us 'dating'. He takes my silence as a confirmation, and I let him. Technically, I'm not lying.

I see the green paintjob of the car, and then I see Jace's silver one beside it. Then I see the head of blond hair leaning against the trunk of Jace's silver Nissan. My smile falters slightly at the murderous look in Jon's green eyes. I don't know how angry I expected him to be, but this was kind of throwing me off.

Jace faltered as well, and both he and I let go of each other's hands simultaneously. He is clearly more nervous than he let on. This, of course, makes me feel slightly guilty for anticipating this moment so closely for the past period.

"Hey, Jon," I greet cheerfully, already breaking my silent pact with myself to not intervene with the entire affair, and watch the two fight it out. I want to break the ice because I feel bad for Jace…curse my soft heart!

"Shut up, for right now, Clary," Jon snaps at me, his eyes never straying from his best friend.

Jace looks back, his face is set neutrally, but I can tell that he is nervous. This is all because he is doing me a favor, as strange as it may sound.

"I thought that this was all understood," Jon hissed at Jace, "You weren't supposed to mess around with her! Any other girl in the school, Herondale, it isn't as though they're going to tell you no! Then, I don't even hear it from you; I hear it from Maia!"

Jon glowers at Jace as he pushes himself off the trunk of his car, and walks over to both of us very slowly. "I can't believe either of you! Especially you, Clary. You're supposed to be the smart one! You've never even really had a boyfriend, and the first one that you choose, has gone out with more than half the girls in the school!"

"This is coming from the guy that's taken the other half up!" I snap back, unsure of why Jace hasn't spoken up to defend himself. Jon is seriously slandering his character, and it was making even me a bit angry at him. "If you're going to get angry at me for a reason, make it one that you actually have room to talk with!"

Jon looks actually shocked by my outburst, and when I look over to see what Jace is doing that is so important that he can't speak on his own behalf, he is gawking at me as well. Great. So now they think I'm a nut job.

I decide that I don't care about that, and forge on, "Screw you, Jon; I didn't lecture you when you dated Seelie Queen, who's been with enough people statistically to have picked up every STD twice! I don't want to hear it when you decide to go all big brother on me, and start insulting your best friend because he decided that he likes your sister, who happens to be seventeen, just like you!"

"Come on, Jace," I snap, grabbing his wrist, which is stiffened in shock. "You can drive me home."

I don't wait for an answer, suddenly too angry at Jon to even think about explaining the fact that we aren't even really dating to him. I just needed to get out of there before I went mental on him. There was no telling how well that would go. The only thing that I got out of that was that Jon did not trust my ability to make decisions. I am not an idiot, and we are both the same age.

A wave of hurt courses through me as I slam the passenger side door of Jace's car. I barely register Jace getting in, or the car moving. It is a quiet ride out of the parking lot of the school.

"You want to talk about it?" Jace questions me as he pulls on to the main road, pulling away from Alicante Academy.

I lazily look away from the passenger side window and give him a really? look. "Do I look like I want to talk, Herondale?"

"You look as though you're stowed away in my car, and you look as though you're about to explode in my car; and when you explode in my car, it might get messy, and my car might take the brunt of the impact," Jace replies calmly to me. "Are you seeing a pattern here?"

I glare at him, and snap, "Does this pattern have a point, Herondale?"

"Yeah," he replies, "It's called, you talk or you walk."

I gape at him openly, most likely looking like a fish out of water. Jace takes his eyes off the road for a moment, to look at me, and his face is more serious than I've ever seen it.

"I don't mind helping you out, Clary," he says, "but you have just placed my friendship with your brother in a serious predicament, and I want an explanation of why before we go any further."

I am silent for a few moments, wondering if he is serious. That is until he gets to a curve on the road, and slams his foot on the breaks. He pulls over onto the grassy shoulder of the road and parks the car, turning it off. He turns around to look at me, directly in the eyes; his golden pools are unwaveringly serious. I don't think that the expression should work on him, but it suits him quite well, much to my surprise.

"Seriously, Clare, either agree to my terms, or get the hell out my car," he says. He doesn't sound angry, and even though there is an obscenity in the sentence, it doesn't even sound rude.

I bite my lip and actually consider walking, just to be stubborn, but quickly decide that today is not the day that I feel like walking seven miles with a twenty pound book-bag to a house where I know an angry brother is waiting for me. The thought of having Jace as my backup sounds a bit more appealing.

"Fine," I say, "I'll talk, but just so you know, threatening to make me walk is not a very boyfriend-like thing to do."

Jace's serious calm expression crumples slightly, to show a weak smile underneath, It isn't as though calling me by my surname is a very girlfriend-like thing to do either, you know, but I'll make it up to you, however," his weak smile turns into a smirk, "It's time for our first date!"

I blink dumbly at him. "What?"

The only thing that I can think of as Jace leads me into Java Jones is that I am already starting to like his idea of dates. I didn't even know he knew that I liked coffee.

He tells me to go and sit down and that he will order our drinks. I try to tell him how I like mine, but he just rolls his eyes, and informs me that he is aware of how I drink my coffee. I am unsure of how he is aware of my coffee drinking habits, and am wondering if he has me confused with one of his many different actual ex-girlfriends as he sits down in the booth across from me at the back corner of the shop.

"That didn't take you very long," I observe, taking the cup that he hands out to me.

"Magnus is working today, and he is magic with the coffee makers," Jace informs me, "Plus, since you drink yours black, it really doesn't take long to make."

I blink and raise my eyebrows. Someone had been paying attention. I fight back a smile, and wonder why he has brought me in here. I have a feeling that it isn't just to be sweet, though I will give him props for going the extra mile.

I do not push the subject, however. I simply take a sip of my coffee, wincing as it scalds my tongue. There is no telling how long we sit in silence, but it is not completely unawkward, so I am glad when Jace finally decides to break it.

"I brought you here because I still want that explanation about what happened after school," Jace informs me. "I figured that you probably didn't want to talk about it at your house anywhere near Jonathan. I know that you love coffee, so I figured that maybe you'd feel better about the situation if we came here to talk."

"That's very thoughtful of you." I compliment him. I don't bother hiding the small smile that forms on my face at the kindness of his gesture. It means a lot, actually.

Of course, however, my smile quickly disappears under the Jace's expectant gaze. I look down at the shiny white table top as I think of how to correctly justify what I pulled in the parking lot.

"I felt offended," I say finally, my eyes trailing across the table and up his body until I meet his eyes again. "Jon was out of line. He was insulting both of us, when he had no room to. He doesn't trust my judgment, and I think that's where I kind of drew the line. Jon has done too many questionable things with his love-life to be questioning mine." I frown slightly at Jace and say, "When he was insulting you, why weren't you defending yourself. He didn't have any right talking to you like that."

Jace just smiles at me, shaking his head, "I guess I was just shocked, there wasn't a reason."

I notice the way that he won't look me directly in the eyes, and I'm certain that he is lying to me. I don't push him, however. I just smile weakly back, and say, "So, is that really bad reason a good enough reason for you to help me?"

Jace snorts, "I love screwing with Jon, of course it's a good enough reason."

I smile at him, and he grins back.

"You do understand, though," Jace warns me, "that no one is going to be able to find out that we aren't pretending."

My eyes widen at this bit of news. I had planned on telling Isabelle either that night or the next morning. "Why not?"

"If you want the word to get back to Jon, you go ahead and tell my sister," Jace says, apparently reading my mind.

I scowl at him, unsure if I actually have a right to be mad at him for knowing what I am thinking, but I really don't care. I am going to be mad anyways, and he is going to deal with it!

"Just so you know, Clarissa," Jace murmurs, his hand reaches over and grasps mine, making me flinch, and snatch mine away from the unexpected contact. He smirks, but there was a flash of something in his eyes that is gone before I can tell what it is. "You're going to have to work on your reaction to me if you want to make this at all believable."

"I can act," I snap.

Jace rolls his eyes and takes a large mouthful out of his cup. "Of course you can," he replied dryly. "It would help my ego, however if you didn't have to resist the temptation to flinch every time that I grab your hand."

I honestly don't feel like working on my PDA skills at a coffee shop. I don't know how much more I feel like dealing with my brother, but I know that I need to before I leave him simmering for too long. "Come on," I say. "We can work on that aspect later. Right now, we need to go and see Jon."

Okay, so this is was the first encounter with the older twin brother when he was out of hitting distance to Jace's beautiful face…lol. I promise, you guys are just going to love it when they get to Clary's house! It's going to be priceless! Also, you all are just so freaking awesome! I normally don't update this fast, but how can I not with 30 reviews to just 2 chapters? Oh, and lol, does anyone have any specific requests for how they practice their PDA skills?