I look at my brother expectantly, not even glancing at Jace. Jon casts me a sheepish smile and rubs the back of his neck as his cheeks tinge a reddish color that I probably would have made fun of if I was not so angry. "Well, Jon," I snap at him, tapping my foot on the ground and placing my hands on my hips as I glare at him, "I don't have all day! Are you going to tell me why Jace was acting like a jackass, or are you done defending him?"

"Sebastian's g—"

I whirl around and look at Jace angrily. "I don't recall talking to you, Herondale!" I snap at him. He takes half a step back, his eyes wide. He holds his arms up in front of him almost as thought he was surrendering. I look away from him and back over to my brother who is looking at Jace helplessly.

"I didn't want to have to tell anyone about this, let alone her," Jon whined. "Can't he tell you?"

"You're acting like a three year old, Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern!" I snap at him. "Now, you can either tell me what you wanted to say, or just leave me alone!"

Jon scowls at me and says, "I'm not the one acting like a child, Clarissa Adele Morgenstern! You cut Jace off before he could even speak and he was about to tell you why he was acting the way he was!"

I frown at my brother. I am not acting like a child! But fine, if Jon thinks that way, I can prove him wrong. I turn and look at Jace, ignoring the part of me that wants to run away and cry in a corner miserably. I frown at him, hoping to deter him from looking at me too closely, if he does, I'm sure that he'll be able to see the cracks. "What gives you the right to talk to people like that?" I snap at him demandingly.

"Sebastian has a crush on Jon and despite the fact that Jon has told him that he's not interested, he keeps pursuing him," he said. His voice was carefully controlled. He didn't look mad, upset, put out, or even sad. He didn't look anything.

"Seb's gay?" I ask, too surprised to even sound angry anymore. "If he's gay, then why did he…why does he…?" I inhaled sharply as I looked over at Jonathan. Everything was starting to pull back in together and make sense. I figure that part of me should be angry, but the uncomfortable look on Jon's face was enough to send me over the edge. I start laughing. My giggles are so uncontrollable that I double over on myself and lean against Jon for support. "So Sebastian was you admirer?"I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly as I try and overcome my fit of giggles. I wipe a stray tear that had fallen out of my eye and look up at Jon. "You're friends with Magnus! He's like the most openly gay person I've ever met. Why are you so uncomfortable with Sebastian?"

"Magnus doesn't like me," Jon cried. "It isn't the same! I'm not used to another dude looking at me the same way that I've seen Jace look at you for ye—" he cut himself off, his eyes widening slightly as he realized what he said. I feel my elation die slightly, and who I was standing with caught back up with me.

"I need to get to class," I say quietly. I walk past them with my head bowed slightly. I only look back up when I'm seated at my lab station. I can still see Jon and Jace out in the door way. From the looks on their faces as they are talking to each other, I am willing to bet that they are arguing. It was a first for me…I'd never seen the friends seriously argue. Not even when I told Jon that we were dating. Jon had gotten mad, but Jace hadn't fought back. Now they both seemed to be actively participating. Both boys were shaking their heads, their frowns intensifying, and even though they thought that I didn't see them, I could tell that their eyes were flickering to me.

I saw Jace mouth something to Jon that looked a lot like forget it, before he turned and walked away from the classroom and into the rapidly thinning crowd of people, leaving Jon standing beside the door to my class. Jon looks inside to me and shrugs helplessly, as though I am supposed to know what the hell that was all about, before he turned and walked away.

Chemistry and my free period seemed to fly by at an unusually fast pace, and before I know it, lunch is here. I never really thought that I would be happy to be eating toxic waste that the schools experiment on before allowing us to get near it, but I am happy to not be in a class. I'm sitting at a table in the large cafeteria in between Izzy and Simon. I'm sure that both of them would have rather of been sitting by each other, but neither of them will admit it. I guess it's in the friend code somewhere. Jon is nowhere to be seen and neither is Jace. Normally I would either have been worried or indifferent depending on the day, but today I am a mix of emotions. I'm relieved that I don't have to see Jace, but I'm also guilty because I feel relieved, because I'm pretty sure that under the relief there's a thick layer of worry. I groan and let my head thump on the table, narrowly missing the foam try that I had pushed in the middle five minutes after poking at it.

"I'm going out on a limb here," I hear Simon's sarcastic voice from my left, "and saying that there's something wrong with her."

"That's very astute of you, I don't know if I would have ever of figured that out" I hear Izzy tell him dryly before I feel a hand running softly through my hair. Judging from the fact that I don't feel like a dog, I'm pretty sure that Simon is not the one attempting to comfort me. "Clary," Isabelle says, "is there something that you would like to talk about?"

"I don't know," I groan. Forcing myself to lift my head up again. I look at Izzy tiredly. "I still kind of hate you for making me come today."

"You'll thank me later," she assures me. "Show no weakness! We can even find you a new boyfriend. I'm sure that I can get you one by the end of lunch if you want!"

"I don' think—"

"That's a great idea!" Simon chips in, cutting me off. "What about Sebastian? You guys seemed to hit it off pretty well, if I do say so myself."

I snort feebly and shake my head. "I don't think I'm Sebastian's type."

"That's nonsense," Izzy says, waving her hand. "You're everyone's type! I mean look at you, you're beautiful, smart, witty, and funny. What's not to love?"

"I'm serious," I say. "Simon might have more luck with him than I would. I know Jonathan would have more luck."

Isabelle was silent for a moment before she started grinning. "You mean that we all play for the same team?"

"I'm still here!" Simon cries. "I happen to play for a very different team than you guys!"

"Yeah," I say, rolling my eyes. "Team Isabelle."

I feel a tingling sensation on the back of my neck, and it is almost as though someone is watching me. I look up and around, and am startled to see Jace and Jon walking toward us. My brother has a grin on his face while Jace looks uneasy. I frown at them as they sit down at their normal spots on the other side of us. "Where were you?"

"Talking," my brother says mysteriously.

"That specifies what you were doing," I inform him. "You can talk anywhere."

Jon rolls his eyes at me and says. "Don't be such a smart ass."

"Clary," I hear a tentative voice call out. I frown as I realize that it's Jace.

"What?" I ask, clenching my hands into a fist as I look up at him. Jace is looking at me, his eyes so full of sadness and vulnerability that I want to rush over and hold him. I want to protect him from whatever is making him look like this. Of course, there is another part of me that is terrified of that instinctive urge and wants nothing more than to run the other way and hide. I just sit there and look at him.

"Can I talk to you?" he looks at me pleadingly. I want to talk to him, I really do, but I know that I can't, not right now.

"No," I say, looking down at the table and shaking my head. "Don't make me do this right now, Jace."

He doesn't say anything else, and I am glad. I don't know what I would have said in retaliation. I'm not sure that I would have said anything, because if he kept looking at me like that, I wouldn't have been able to refuse him anything.

"I think I need to get some fresh air," I mutter, pushing my chair back and grabbing my tray as I stand up. I throw my lunch in the trash and force myself not to run as I walk out of the side door of the cafeteria and into the courtyard. I have to stay away from Jace. If I don't, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

So! The Sebastian mystery is over! You all wanted him to be a bad guy, and I was like "Nah!" when I was planning the fic. I want him harmless! What do you think Jon and Jace were arguing about outside of the Chemistry classroom that was bad enough to make Jace skip? What do you think Jon and Jace were doing when they weren't at lunch? What were they talking about? We're coming up to our dramatic close in a couple more chapters, so get ready for a bumpy ride! :)