Jace~

Earlier this morning I had gone over to Clary's place to pick her up––as I always did on a school day. However, my heart had literally plummeted into my gut when I got there: the window was closed. The window that was always open, that I always climbed through, was closed. And, not only that, but the curtains were also drawn, which were just the other day, if I remember correctly, long forgotten, tucked away in an old FedEx box in her closet.

All last night I had been swamped with the foreignness that my best friend was mad at me. I hadn't been able to eat, sleep, or properly think.

With that being said, my study date with Emily hadn't gone as planned; Clary kept popping up in my mind and I just couldn't stop replaying what had been said, what had happened. It got to a point where I just completely ignored Emily––not intentionally––but noticeably enough for her to get angry. She'd eventually called her mother and had her pick her up, telling me before she left, "Uh...Thanks."

At the time, I would've cared more if not for the more important matter at hand: Clary.

When I had woken up, I had been in quite the sour mood. I had blown it with the new principal's daughter, and, the girl that I couldn't go an hour without thinking about and or talking to had declined all of my calls and texts.

And, as I had raced to her house, I had come up with the most reasonable explanation as to why she'd been so angry with me the other day. I had been an idiot. Clary and I always hung out together after school, and there I was, springing the news on her that I had met another girl who, if I wasn't imagining things, Clary had undoubtedly got the impression that I'd much rather hang out with.

I knew Clary better than anyone, better than I knew myself, and it had been foolish of me to forget that.

After leaping from my perch in the tree, I had quickly strided towards the front door, not hesitating to knock as loudly as possible, completely ignorant of the fact that her father was still probably sleeping. I needed to make things right. However, I had stopped my progress abruptly when the surface my fists had been pounding against disappeared. There, standing in his usual jeans, open-toed sandals, and plaid shirt, had been Clary's father.

"Oh, uh, hey Mr. Fray," I had stuttered, in momentary shock that the man had actually gotten up before noon.

"Ah, Jace," he'd breathed, "Clary and I missed you last night at dinner."

Guilt had clawed at my throat as I'd nodded. "Yeah, I'm really sorry...I just had, um, a lot of homework to take care of. I came here to take Clary to school––is she upstairs?"

Mr. Fray had frowned slightly, confusion evident in his older features. "I took her to school about twenty minutes ago. She said she had a project to take care of."

"For the first week of school?" I'd exclaimed in disbelief, now fortifying the knowledge that I'd messed up big time. I had originally thought that I could make it up to her by leaving my place a few minutes early to grab her a Starbucks on the way, but, now...She had been so desperate to avoid me that she'd forced her father to take her instead. Shit.

"Sorry kid," he'd shrugged before quietly shutting the door and leaving me to drown in my mistake.

Find Clary. Find Clary. Find Clary.

I blindly rounded a corner, my destination obvious, but seemingly impossible to get to. I just wanted to get to Clary's locker, but, of course, there had to be people and obstacles everywhere. Laughter filled my ears, but it only made me think of Clary's laugh, loud chatter rattled through me, making me think of her voice. Please forgive me.

Then, with no more than fifty feet to go, someone was blocking my path. My first instinct was to barrel right through them, but, as my mind cleared slightly and my nose filled with a familiar, sweet perfume, I stopped. Emily. She looked breathtaking, her hair now straightened, her makeup more bold, and her smile more confident.

"Hey Jace," she said.

"Hi," I nodded. Though there was a beautiful girl in front of me, I was still set on the task at hand, my mind boggled with distractions.

Suddenly I felt her fingers trail along my neck, igniting a trail of goosebumps on my hot skin. Emily leaned closer, grabbing a fist full of my shirt as she did so, regaining my attention. "I'm sorry I had to leave so soon last night. It's just...you seemed a little...upset."

"Yeah," I managed, attempted to detach her body from mine, struggling not to give in. "Look, Emily, I'm really sorry, but I have something I need to do."

Her blue eyes widened and her bottom lip pursed. Oh God. "What's bothering you, Jace. You can tell me...Maybe I could help."

I shook my head quickly, trying to avert my attention elsewhere so that she'd get the hint. "No––"

"What's wrong?"

I let out a long exhale, knowing that she was going to be very hard to get rid of. But at the same time, it was nice for a girl to care so much about me, it was nice for her to want to be there. I had been a real jerk last night, and yet, here she was, trying to make me feel better. "It's my best friend, she's mad at me. I need to make it up to her."

"Your best friend is a girl?" Emily asked, her eyes flashing.

"Yeah––"

"Why's she mad at you? How could anyone be mad at you?"

"It's a long story––but I can't talk to you right now. I'll see you late––"

Emily giggled to my surprise, abruptly wrapping me in her lean arms and pulling me closer. "It's so nice to see a guy who cares so much."

"Emily––"

She leaned away slightly, grinning up at me. "I'll leave you alone so that you can fix things with your little friend––though I'm sure you didn't anything wrong––if you make it up to me tonight."

I raised a questionable brow. By agreeing to hang out with Emily tonight, it would totally defeat the purpose of my whole plan; how was I supposed to make Clary forgive me if I was just going to ditch her once again for the same reason? "I'm really sorry, I'd love to hang out with you, but I can't."

"Yes you can," she countered, laughing as if I had actually told her 'yes'.

"No, I really can't. Clary––"

She grasped me firmly, forcing us to stand chest to chest. "If she's really your best friend, then she'll understand. Tell her you're sorry, and then be done with it. You're a big boy, you can do whatever you want."

Our position was most agitating, her minty breath mingling with my own, her hooded eyes locked with mine, our hearts beating surely against the other. What made this girl so extraordinary? Why is it that I wanted to listen to her? My best friend was mad at me, and I was determined to get to her, and yet, I couldn't help but become sidetracked. Why? Was Emily really capable of changing me? However, if the answer was yes to any of my questions about her, why did it, deep down, not feel right?

"Okay," I told her, hesitating a little. "Deal."

"Meet me by my locker after school," she winked, inclining forward until her lips lightly brushed against mine. I felt a pleasant shudder run along my spine and I smiled at her genuinely. "There's a a whole lot more where that came from."

Our fingers intertwined, our hands slowly lowering from out chests as Emily persisted to make slow steps backwards. "I promise that you won't be disappointed," she whispered before fully turning away and strutting into the sea of fervent students. I stayed put until I could no longer see her, in a seemingly unbreakable trance.

As soon as I spotted Clary, I felt a fire erupt within me. Someone was standing next do her. And that Someone was Sebastian Verlac.

I immediately paled and stopped dead in my tracks. Was that why she'd been so upset? Oh my God, I was a bigger idiot that I'd originally thought. Before I had met Emily the other day, I had been worried sick about Sebastian making a move on Clary, and, at the end of the day, I had totally forgotten to ask her if anything had happened between them. Had he hurt her? Why the hell was he standing next to her now?

The closer I got, the more conversation of theirs I was able to hear:

"...I said, leave me alone," Clary snapped," in the process of unloading a couple books from her locker.

"Oh come on, don't be like that," Sebastian pressed, his hand reaching for her, slowly leaving a trail along her arm before she jumped away from him, seemingly angry. "I forgive you for the other day," he told her, earning a scoff in return.

"Take the hint," she deciphered, "I don't want anything to do with you. There are other poor girls out there that would be more than happy to take you up on your offer, but I'm not one of them."

Sebastian suddenly straightened up his stance, his demeanor no longer calm in collected, his expression emitting his anger. Before I knew what was happening, he was snatching up Clary's dainty elbow in his massive hand––in comparison to her––and forcing her to look at him, slamming her locker shut.

"Okay, listen here––"

"If you have any logic whatsoever in that head of yours, I'd leave her the hell alone," I growled at the other boy, now within reaching distance of them. To see him treat Clary so poorly, even if he hadn't initiated anything too major, was enough to make me want to rip him apart, limb from limb.

Sebastian sighed, leaning into Clary slightly and bowing his head before pushing himself off of the wall next to her to face me. I watched intently as his hold on her disappeared, shooting him a lethal glare afterwards. "Listen you asshole, if ever so much as see you looking at her again, I'll––"

"I'm really not interested in hearing anymore of your pathetic threats, Herondale," Sebastian sneered.

"Leave Clary alone. I mean it."

"You know," he drawled out, knowing just what to say to put me on even more edge, "I would, but...I really don't want to. You see, your little friend here is a challenge, a nice change compared to all the other girls that just fall at my feet. I know Clary is dying to do the same, and until she does, I can't leave her alone."

I heard Clary scoff and caught a glimpse of her rolling her eyes.

"So...You're just going to 'win her over' by stalking her?" I deadpanned, trying not to let my anger show through and inevitably failing miserably.

He chose to ignore me and turned to Clary. "Save me a seat tomorrow in college algebra, doll-face." After tossing her a wink, he strided into me, making sure that our shoulders would hit, and continued on down the hall.

The two of us kind of just stood there for a few moments, both trying to grasp what had just happened. "Clary," I began, "you need to tell me if Sebastian––"

"Don't worry about him," she said, "he's just trying to get a rise out of you."

"That may be, but I also think he wants to...take advant––"

She held her hands up and her eyes widened. "No. Don't say anything."

I smiled down at her, "You're so innocent."

"And you're so corrupt."

My laughter filled the space between us and I gently lifted her chin with my hand, forcing her eyes to meet mine dead on. "I'm so sorry about yesterday. I'm such an idiot."

Clary offered up a tiny grin––not her real one––and shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"Cla––"

"Don't worry about it. I was just in a bad mood and...Things just weren't going my way." Was she lying? She sounded sincere, but I could also tell that there was more behind her words, that she was definitely hiding something.

"You should've told me about Sebastian."

"Why?"

I scoffed. "Because he's a ticking time bomb and I don't want to see you get hurt. The guy's bad news, Clary, and he's...well he's just very unpredictable."

"He won't hurt me."

The thing was, though, that I knew that he would hurt her. If she continued to refuse him, I knew that he'd explode and possibly end up hitting or doing something worse to her. But Clary didn't understand that. She always saw the good in others, no matter how scary they could truly be.

Clary was so pure and down to earth that I didn't ever want to have to think about someone ruining that for her. I'll say it again and probably a thousand times more, my best friend is just a goodhearted, loving, passionate, and brilliant person that deserves the world. I won't let anyone get in the way because, one day, I know that she'll do something great, and she'll need her unmatchable spirit to do so.

"And about Emily––" I started, before getting abruptly cut off.

"You don't have to explain anything, Jace," Clary said softly. "I'm happy that she seems to make you happy...And, as your best friend, that's all that I could ever hope for."

Without giving it a second thought, I pulled her into a bone crushing hug, not taking into account how small she really was. "Can't...Breath!" she stifled no more than a few seconds later.

I laughed slightly before pulling away. "You are amazing, did you know that?"

"Yeah, I may have heard it once or twice."

"Modest are we?" I teased, dragging her into my side so that my arm could fit comfortably around her shoulders. "Thanks for being so understanding, but...don't ever ignore me like that again. When I saw that you had your window shut I nearly had a heart attack, and it didn't help that you denied all of my calls and texts."

I felt her shrug. "It must've been on silent?"

"I'm sure."

Clary~

Jace had been on my mind all last night, causing me to toss and turn, boggling my mind. I was literally at war with myself, a part of me battling guilt, and the other part drowning in the hurt that came with Jace finding someone that he genuinely seems to like. All of the years of liking him, of seeing him date girls that he never cared about, of getting my hopes up, were all coming to a tragic end.

I wanted to hate him.

But I still loved him more than anything.

I wanted to be mad at him.

But, wasn't I supposed to be his best friend?

Why should my feelings for him have to change anything?

If he really felt the same way about me, then...he would've made a move by now. It was heartbreaking, more so every time I replayed that simple truth inside my head, but I couldn't be me without him in my life. I couldn't be happy. We were best friends, and, even if my feelings for him probably wouldn't ever go away, I was going to have to try to hide my selfish wants if we were going to continue to be as close as we are.

And so, I lied to him. I lied when I told him that nothing was wrong, that he shouldn't worry, that I was okay with him being with Emily.

He was happy and that was all that mattered.

I was just going to have to deal with it.

I looked up from my book upon the loud crash no more than a foot away. A beautiful girl with glossy brown hair and big, blue eyes stood on the other side of the table, looking down at me with an unreadable expression. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Oh, no. That's fine," I smiled.

She shot me a tight-lipped one in return and her eyes narrowed. There was an air about her that I didn't like. I watched as she hastily opened up her textbook and started to write sloppy notes in her composition, making me flinch every time her pen hit paper. "Are, um, are you all right?" I asked carefully.

She immediately slammed her notebook shut and slid the books in front of her to the side, leaning across the table on her forearms. "So, you're Clary?"

"Yes-s. Who are you?"

She scoffed. "Oh please. You may fool others into thinking you're sweet and innocent, but not me."

"Excuse me?" I felt my eyes widen as my jaw opened slightly. Who the hell was this girl? "I don't understand."

"Of course you don't," she sneered. "Look, as long as you stay out of my way, we won't have a problem."

"A proble––? Stay out of your way? What did I ever do to you? I don't even think that we know each other––"

She abruptly stood up and gathered her belongings, meeting my confound gaze with a harsh glare. "If you know what's best for you, and you want to stay pretty, then I suggest you do as I say." And, with that, she sent me a wink. "Until next time."

Only when her heels no longer clacked inside my ears was I able to breath again.

So sorry for the long wait! I hope this chapter was okay––I know it wasn't very exciting, but just you wait until next chapter. I'm actually pretty excited for you guys to read it.

Please review and tell me what you guys think will happen next(:

Until next time, peace.

Will edit soon!