Despite him being his usual annoying self, Clary had a really great time on Sunday with Magnus. It was wonderful to catch up and enjoy each other's company. With everything that had happened to her since she'd gotten home from Paris Clary had come to appreciate her friends more and more.

Soon enough Monday came around and Magnus had to go back to work, which meant Clary had an interview to attend.

"What do you feel are your greatest strengths?" the intimidating lady sitting across from her asked.

"Strengths, right," Clary began nervously. "Well I'm punctual and hardworking. I have a pretty wide open schedule since I've only got three classes this coming semester, and it's my last semester."

"That's all very well and good," the lady replied. There was something about her voice that commanded respect, which was not helping Clary to be less nervous. "But what do you feel you, as an individual, can contribute to this business?"

Clary thought about that for a moment. If she was being honest there wasn't a single thing she could contribute, but job interviews were about finding something positive to say, even if you felt like dirt. "As I'm sure you read on my resume, I majored in design," Clary began. "All kinds from computer graphics to textiles." She paused, hoping this would sound as good out loud as it had in her head. "There is a design and art to everything, even the displays in a clothing store. The human eye is simple. It follows certain patterns like clockwork. I have a couple ideas for the displays that might draw in a few extra customers."

The lady smiled at her. "It is usually the manager who arranges the displays," she said. "But I like the initiative."

Clary just smiled, hoping that was a good thing rather making it sound like she wanted to run the place before she was even hired.

After a few easier to answer questions Clary was allowed to leave with the promise of a phone call. She breathed a sigh of relief as she left the room. There was just something so nerve racking about an interview. This wasn't her first job interview, but somehow - no matter how many she did - she was always nervous. Clary had been job hunting since June; it was now August and yet Clary still didn't have a job.

As Clary made her way home, she thought about how it was still strange that home now meant Malec's place. Either way it was definitely where her clothes were, and she so wanted to change out of this fancy pants interview outfit. Both Magnus and Alec were at work today, so the house would be empty unless Paige decided to grace them with her presence. Clary chuckled, but then remembered where she'd be if she wasn't home. Brother. Kissing her brother. Clary made a face.

"Only have yourself to blame," Clary mumbled, with a sigh as she got to the door. Putting the key in the lock Clary realized the door was already unlocked. Cautious, but mostly curious, Clary walked in and instantly needed her eyes washed out.

The sound of the door had startled them. Jon and Paige disentangled from each other to turn and face the door.

"Just Clary," Jon said easily, before turning back to kiss his girlfriend.

"Well who did you think it was?" Paige laughed, swerving out of the way of his kiss to address her friend. "I thought you were gonna be out this morning."

"I had a job interview," Clary said. "But now I want to change. This blouse is itchy."

"Fair enough," Paige laughed.

Clary was grateful to Paige for not continuing their make out session as she made it across the room and down the hall. Once her - or rather Paige's - bedroom door closed behind her, Clary put effort into not thinking about what was happening in the other room.

Once back in comfortable and unimpressive clothes, Clary returned to the living room with her hand shielding her eyes.

"Oh come on," Jon groaned. From the sounds of it he was still sitting on the couch, but Clary couldn't hear any sucking kissing noises. "I'm actually living with the guy you used to make out with, and you can't even look at us?"

"Hey," Clary defended herself, turning to face them. "I never made you look."

"You so would have though," Jon argued. "If you guys hadn't broken up there'd be make out sessions galore for me to witness."

"Yeah well lucky for you we broke up then!" Clary yelled back.

Clary had expected him to start yelling in kind, but he didn't. Instead Jon looked suddenly serious, before he spoke. "My friend and my sister are unhappy," he spoke calmly. "I wouldn't call that lucky."

"Jace isn't unhappy," Clary said slowly. "He's moved on."

"You don't live with the guy," Jon groaned. "Trust me. He's a mess."

"You promise?" Clary sniffed.

"I promise," Jon replied, standing up to wrap his arms around her in a huge brotherly hug she hadn't realized she'd needed until this exact moment.

"Is there anything I can do to help him?" Clary asked, but Jon shook his head. Clary had expected as much.

"There is however something you can do to help me," Paige said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Oh yeah," Clary smiled. "And what's that?"

"Give me my boyfriend back," Paige grinned. "I wasn't done making out with him yet."

Laughing, Clary replied, "I was gonna go over and see Izzy anyway." Turning to collect her purse, she added. "Have fun guys, but not too much fun."

"I make no promises," Jon called after her, which Clary tried very hard not to think about.

As Clary made her way to Izzy's place she couldn't help thinking about what her brother had said. Jace wasn't happy, yet he'd moved on so quickly. She didn't understand. Then again it was no longer her business what he was doing. All that time while she'd been in Paris when she could have called and asked him how he was but hadn't and now she had no right to check in and wanted to. Was it some cruel twist of fate, or just the fickle nature of her heart?

A short walk later Clary knocked on Izzy's door, and she opened it with a smile on her face.

"Guess what?" Isabelle asked.

"What?" Clary replied as she came inside.

"I got a job!" Izzy squeaked.

"That's great," Clary said. "Where?"

"Alicante Attire," Izzy exclaimed.

Clary's heart sank. "That's where I interviewed this morning," she sighed.

"Oh," Izzy said, with the air of a deflated balloon.

"If it wasn't me I'm glad it was you," Clary smiled, trying to be a supportive friend instead of a jealous one. Or at the very least appear that way on the surface. If life had taught her anything lately it was that pretending to be fine on the outside was a lot easier than actually finding peace on the inside.

"Thanks," Izzy said, looking relieved.

Clary did her best to bury the thoughts her friend's success inspired. School would be over soon. Then what? She was alone, all alone and without even a minimum wage job to call her own. What did her life here really have going for it now anyway? Was there really even a point in her staying after classes ended?

"At least this means we beat Simon," Clary chuckled, trying to keep her thoughts off her face by referencing Izzy's strange job competition.

"Maia wasn't really playing," Izzy grumbled. "And Simon, well, he's getting kinda down about the whole thing. I think he's starting to feel like he's gonna work at Tim Hortans forever."

"He majored in communications right?" Clary inquired. Izzy nodded. "Well has he tried googling 'jobs you can get with a com degree?'"

Izzy laughed. "The problem seems to be job experience," she said. "All the jobs he wants require his degree, plus a certain amount of years experience in the field, but in order to get that experience you first need to get hired which they won't do without experience. It's really quite ridiculous. A catch 22."

"Well that sucks," Clary commented. She looked around, realizing as she spoke who was missing. "Where is Simon anyway?"

"At work," Izzy replied. "Along with Maia and Jordan. They should be home soon though. At least everyone but Maia who is closing tonight."

"Ah I see," Clary replied. "So what should we do while we wait?"

Izzy grinned. "I have an idea," she said.

It was about an hour later when Jordan and Simon arrived home and discovered - to their horror - that the girls were playing their video games without them!

"See, I told you the look on their face would be worth it," Izzy said through her laughter when Simon and Jordan walked in the door.

"We didn't save over any of your games," Clary said, trying to ease the situation. "We just made new ones."

Simon seemed to relax, but Jordan still looked worried. Izzy was not doing a very good job of containing her laughter.

Clary sat back and watched as the three of them squabled. The way Jordan got along with the couple reminded her of the way her brother used to hang out with her and Jace. Like a family. Of course that was back before Paris, before she'd messed it all up again.

Things calmed down soon enough, and then Jordan and Simon were the ones playing the video games while Clary and Izzy watched. Slowly Izzy's head dropped as she laid it on Simon's shoulder. It wasn't obvious she was asleep until her head suddenly fell forward and she was jolted awake.

"Hmm what?" Izzy mumbled as she lifted her head back up. "I wasn't sleeping."

"Then that was a very strange waking noise you were making," Simon said, grinning.

"Simon Lewis you take that back!" Izzy exclaimed at once. "I do not snore."

Simon handed his controller to Jordan, before turning to his girlfriend. "I hate to break it to you, love, but you do."

Just like that Izzy stood up. "I am going to bed," she said in a huff.

"Don't be like that," Simon sighed. "I love your cute little snores."

"Humph," Izzy said as she disappeared down the hall.

"Sometimes when she's angry she's just adorable," Simon chuckled. "That's when I know she isn't really angry, which is good cause if she was actually mad I'd have to go fix it instead of finishing this quest."

"Hey if you say it's all good bro, I'll believe ya," Jordan said, looking dubious about the whole thing.

Clary was glad they weren't going to stop. She enjoyed watching the guys play video games, more than actually playing them. Especially the games with story arches and intriguing mysteries.

Maia arrived about a half hour later and when she got home Jordan decided it was time for him to go to bed too. He'd been yawning for a while, but it seemed he'd been waiting for his girlfriend to get home before calling it a night.

"Can't blame him really," Clary said once Jordan was out of sight. "Sleeping is always better with company."

"Ah yes I remember," Simon smiled, with an air of nostalgia. "You never did like sleeping alone."

"Haven't done much of it either," Clary sighed. "Not since moving out of my parents place that is."

"Which both of us did right out of high school if I recall correctly," Simon replied. "But in Paris you must have slept alone that whole year."

"I did," Clary said. "But somehow it didn't feel the same. Nothing really felt the same there. I guess maybe that was the problem."

Clary paused for a moment before realizing Simon was exactly the person she needed to talk to about what was nagged at her.

"Can I ask you something?" Clary began.

"Haven't you already?" Simon smiled.

"You know what I mean," Clary said, giving him a look for being silly when she wanted to be serious.

"If you don't want a silly reply don't ask silly questions," Simon stated. "You can always ask me anything. You know that."

"Right," Clary said, still feeling a bit awkward about the topic she needed to talk about. "Jon says Jace isn't happy about our break up. Which was a relief at first but then it got me thinking. If he's sad then why did he do it?"

"Well that's easy," Simon replied calmly. Clary turned, stunned by his casual answer. "Don't forget you are talking to the only other person on the planet to break up with you, Clary. I probably know exactly how Jace feels, or at least I did once." He paused to laugh a little. "Kinda hard to remember the actual emotion now, but I do recall the thoughts it created." He paused moving closer to her. "I broke up with you because it hurt more to be with you than to be without you."

"And you think Jace did it for the same reason?" Clary replied, unshed tears in her eyes.

"Yeah," Simon said kindly. "I mean in my case you didn't love me back plain and simple. With you guys it's a lot more complicated, but as far as I can tell it boils down to the same thing: reducing hurt."

"We managed to stay friends though," Clary said hopefully. "Do you think one day Jace will be ready to be my friend?"

A gentle smile spread over Simon's face as he answered, "Yeah I think in time he'll want nothing more."

Clary took great comfort in those words. As his friend she'd at least have him in her life. Even if she knew she didn't deserve to be forgiven, she wanted it more than anything else in the world. And if he forgave her then maybe one day she could feel what it was to be wrapped in his arms once more.

Sorry sorry sorry for the very slow update. I was going so strong there for a while and then got lazy again. Plus my editor is still crazy busy and it feels so wrong to be updating without her. Hopefully she'll be free again soon. Also I renovated my kitchen and binge watched the flash, plus back to school has meant I've been studying which is time consuming and boring.

Guest Review:
G1U2E3S4T:Wish there was more chapters to this! I think it's impressive you have managed to keep updating the story after all this time, so keep it up! Definitely update when you can ..

My Reply:
Aww thanks! And there will be more chapters don't you worry. :) OF all my stories to request more chapters on this one has the most already. LOL.

Yeah sometimes I can't even believe how long this one is, but even so I can't seem to end it. Might be writing this one till I'm old and grey though I hope not.
Update when I can is usually my motto. I don't really have a schedule cause I suck at sticking to them but I always update when I have something written and I usually write fairly fast. :)

(UPDATE: Back Edited by Connie Brown)

(UPDATE: Back edited by CoffeandLiterature)

Sneak Peek Chapter 170

"So while I lay here, what are your plans for today?" Annika asked.

"Hanging out with Will," Jace shrugged.

"Who is?" she inquired.

"Family," Jace answered. "Though kinda distantly. His uncle's my dad, not that I ever met the guy or anything."

"Sorry," Annika said sitting up. "That sucks." Jace just shrugged. His daddy issues were here nor there.

"What about you?" Jace asked, as he was getting dressed to leave. "Plans today?"

"I think I have work later," she said. "I should probably check my phone."

"Might be a good idea," Jace chuckled.