Jace looked out the window as the telephone poles flew by. It had been so nice to be at home again with his mother's wonderful cooking, but Jace was surprised how glad he was to be going back to school. It had been too long since he'd seen Clary, though he knew this was a foolish way to think since seeing or not seeing the girl you wanted who also happened to have a boyfriend hardly mattered. Jace had missed Alec as well. It was strange, but Jace was actually worried about Alec since he hadn't texted once over the holidays.
"Jace?" Sebastian's voice tried to bring Jace's mind back to the present. "Jaaace."
"Yeah," Jace said absently.
"Stop thinking about that damn girl!" Sebastian said. "Please! This is starting to get ridiculous." Jace sighed. He was being ridiculous and he knew it. Clary barely knew he existed, let alone the effect she'd had on him.
"I can't help it," Jace whined.
"You know, the holidays are the most time I've spent with you lately," Sebastian complained.
"I know," Jace said. "Sorry, I've been busy."
"Yeah, with that girl," Sebastian grumbled. "Which at least makes a little sense, but the queer, really?"
"Alec's my friend," Jace said. "Please don't call him that," Sebastian stared at him, obviously shocked, and Jace realized this was the first time he had objected to any vulgar word Sebastian used.
"I just mean," Jace backtracked quickly from the look on his friends face. "I know you don't mean to be rude, but some people don't like being called that."
"Huh," Sebastian scoffed but he gave Jace a strange looked that Jace couldn't place. Sebastian didn't say anything else, so Jace turned to look out the window again. The thin layer of snow the covered everything in sight looked like sugar icing, the kind that would rest atop a freshly frosted cake. Jace zoned out as he makde note of the cars that went by. There was a bright yellow car that caught Jace's attention because of the particular way it stood out against the white and green of the passing trees. Of course, once Jace spotted a red car, his mind jumped to Clary's red hair. He groaned and laid his head on the side of his seat, closing his eyes.
Alec's plan had been to have Jace show Clary he'd changed, to show her he cared, but even helping out that stupid boyfriend of hers hadn't placed him on Clary's radar. In fact, Jace suspected Clary noticed Alec more just for friend-dumping Magnus.
Jace's thoughts of Clary kept his mind going round in circles until the bus stopped at the school. Jace grabbed his rucksack and left the bus, with Sebastian right behind him.
"Classes don't start till Monday," Sebastian said with a grin. "You wanna hit the bar?"
"I really don't," Jace replied, hoping Sebastian would leave it at that, but Sebastian whirled to face him, annoyed.
"At this rate I will have to find a new wingman," Sebastian accused him. "You always turn me down."
"Why is that all you ever want to do?" Jace asked, his voice rising. They were barely standing on the campus ground, having stopped on the sprawling front lawn of the university.
"Cause that's what we do," Sebastian said as if stating a foregone conclusion, like that the sky was blue.
"Well it's not what I do anymore, okay," Jace said with a sigh, all his anger spent. He hated fighting with Sebastian.
"No, not okay,' Sebastian said. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with my best friend?" And with that he turned and headed toward the dorms at a brisk pace, without even a backward glance.
Jace now felt even worse than he had on the bus. Trudging through the thin layer of snow, Jace headed to his dorm. Thanks to Clary, he couldn't go back to his old life, and thanks to his old life he wasn't appealing to Clary… oh that and the boyfriend. Minor detail. Jace laughed to himself at how foolish his one way affection was. Even if she was single he wouldn't have a hope in hell.
What did that leave him with? Wrestling? Classes? Abstinence? Friends? Sebastian had been Jace's only friend for as long as he could remember. Then there was Alec. Jace was pretty sure he had a friend in Alec, despite their friendship being so new, but Jace had known Sebastian all his life. You don't give up on a friend like that without a fight. Sebastian probably just needed to cool off.
Jace opened the door to his dorm room and was about to turn to collapse on his bed when he did a double take. There were two people in Alec's bed.
"Shhh!" Magnus whispered. "Alec's sleeping."
"What the heck?" Jace said shaking his head and rubbing his eyes as if that would dispel the illusion.
"Shhh!" Magnus said again more urgently.
Jace didn't reply, but merely stared at the impossible sight before him. He thought Magnus didn't like Alec, at least not romantically. Jace and Alec had bonded in the first place over their mutually destructive, one-way romantic interest problems and yet here Alec was sleeping with his head in Magnus's lap!
"Magnus?" Alec mumbled, stirring.
"See," Magnus said glaring at Jace. "You woke him up."
"Oh, uh hi, Jace," Alec said going slightly pink in the face. Then he turned to Magnus with affection in his eyes. "How long was I asleep?"
"Just long enough to help with that jet lag I think," Mangus said. Alec tried to sit up but almost fell out of the bed. Jace exercised extreme self-control by not laughing. Though the shock at seeing them all snuggled up like a couple was helping him keep his laughter in check quite effectively.
"This bed is too small," Alec complained.
"You know," Magnus said slyly. "My bed is bigger."
Alec blushed even more; Jace really didn't want to be here anymore, but this was his dorm!
Then a thought occurred to him; this was what it was like to be on the other side of such an intimate moment. Jace remembered just four months ago when Alec had walked in on him and that woman with short black hair. At the time he'd thought Alec had overreacted, but right now he was starting to realize Alec had actually been rather civil given the circumstances.
Alec mumbled something and Magnus smiled at him with a surreal expression; suddenly Jace was so jealous of them he couldn't think straight! Magnus stoked Alec's cheek and Jace thought, how dare they be happy!
"No pressure darling," Magnus winked at Alec. "Just a fact. How you manage to sleep on a twin I don't know."
"For one person a twin bed is a normal sized bed," Alec argued. Jace was started to think they had forgotten he was there.
"Hello!" Jace yelled and they both stopped making googly eyes at each other and turned to face him.
"Sorry, Jace!" Alec said but he was grinning. "Though in all fairness I did owe you." He laughed and the sound was too full of happiness for Jace's liking.
"Sock on the door next time," Jace said trying to be a little less of a hypocrite.
"Oh please," Magnus scoffed. "Cuddling fully clothed does not require a warning."
Jace growled as he turned to his side of the room and set down his rucksack.
"Maybe you should go," Alec said. "But I'll see you later."
"You better," Magnus replied kindly. "Or I shall hunt you down." Jace heard kissing noises and resolutely stared at the opposite wall. When the smooching noises finally ended he heard the door open and close, then decided it was safe to turn around.
"So," Jace said trying not to sound bitter. "You clearly had an interesting holiday."
"Yeah," Alec said blushing again. Jace had never seen Alec blush so deeply before. He was positively tickled pink.
"Turns out Magnus wants me the way I want him," Alec said. "Isn't it grand!" Alec was all but spinning in circles for joy and Jace suddenly felt like he was very far away.
"Then why wait two months to tell you?" Jace grumbled.
"He was scared," Alec said. "People keep breaking his heart, but I shall not!" He laughed and the sound reminded Jace of a bird freed from a cage, which made him, if anything, more sour.
"Fantastic," Jace said with as much sarcasm as he could muster.
"What's wrong?" Alec asked. "Did something happen over the holidays?"
"I-" Jace didn't want to tell Alec he couldn't be happy for him. He didn't want to admit to his jealousy. "Just missed Clary is all."
"You know," Alec said with a glint in his eye Jace had to attribute to requited love. "I think you should just go for it!"
"What are you talking about?" Jace sighed.
"Clary, of course," Alec said. "Show her how you feel and sweep her off her feet!" Alec made a grand sweeping gesture with his arm then fell gradually onto his bed like sleeping freaking beauty. Jace was just about to be even more annoyed when a hopeful thought occurred to him.
"I just caught you snuggling with Clary's best friend," Jace said. "Is there something you know that I don't?"
"Nope," Alec said. "I just think you will regret it if you don't try. She's all you talk about you know." That, Jace was well aware of. That was the reason Sebastian was mad at him.
"Thanks for the reminder," Jace growled.
"Whoa, what's with the hostility?" Alec asked.
"Nothing," Jace said. "Go explore Magnus's bed. I am sure you would rather be there than here with me."
"You know what," Alec shot back. "Maybe I will. See you later Jace." And Alec left. Just like that, Alec walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. Jace could imagine only too well Alec running down the hall to catch up with Magnus, the two of them embracing before Alec told Magnus all about his bitter, single, jerk of a roommate who had yelled at him.
Jace felt beyond pathetic. No wonder he had no friends. He couldn't even be happy that his friend was happy. Jace got out his phone and texted Sebastian.
'You still want to go to the bar tonight?' Jace texted.
'Yes!' was the quick reply.
A few hours later, Jace met up with Sebastian and together they headed to the bar. Jace still wasn't in the mood for this, but it would make Sebastian happy at least. Jace had already failed one of his friends today, he really didn't want to fail them both.
"What changed your mind?" Sebastian asked as they reached their destination.
"I've been a bad wingman lately," Jace replied rather than give a true answer.
"All is forgiven," Sebastian said with a grin. They took a seat at the bar together and Sebastian started checking out the room. "Oh! How about the redhead in the corner?"
Jace looked and sure enough there was a woman with red hair in corner sipping a long island iced tea. Though, if he was honest, he couldn't really call her hair red. It had too much brown in it to be truly red. Clary's hair was bright, fire red.
"No," Jace said firmly. He tried to look around for someone Sebastian would like enough to allow him to simply sit and sulk while Sebastian was off enjoying himself. "What about the blonde on the other side of the bar?"
"Tonight we are focusing on you," Sebastian said. "Cause buddy, you need it. You look miserable."
"I am," Jace said. "But trust me, sex with a stranger is not going to help."
"That's just because it's been a while," Sebastian replied, totally not listening to Jace.
"No, really," Jace tried again. "I came out tonight for you, not me."
Sebastian's shoulders slumped and he turned to face Jace.
"Is this still only about the redhead with the boyfriend?" Sebastian asked.
"No," Jace confessed. "It's also… Alec."
"Really!" Sebastian whined. "I thought we covered this already."
"He's happy," Jace explained. "And I realized something. We started being friends because we were both miserable." Jace paused trying to get himself to admit what he had yet to say out loud. "What if all we had in common was our mutually failed love life?"
"That was definitely all you had in common," Sebastian said. "Unless you suddenly want to suck my cock?"
"Eww!" Jace said hitting his friend lightly across the shoulder.
"That's more like it," Sebastian laughed. "Now, will you please help me pick out your date for the evening?"
Jace played along with Sebastian's plans, letting Sebastian pair him up with a rather lovely brunette with red highlights while he went off with the blonde Jace has suggested earlier, for the singular reason that her clothes just screamed 'daddy issues.'
"So," the brunette said. "I live around the corner." There was nothing remotely interesting about this girl. With Trinity, Jace had seen more intelligence in her eyes than lust, but this girl was looking at Jace like a slab of meat and nothing more.
"I'm not in the mood tonight," Jace said.
"Oh, come on," the girl continued. "You're friend said-"
"My friend lied," Jace said. The girl seemed to have no regards for personal space and moved very close to him, running her finger over his bicep.
"Aren't you at least a little tempted," she whispered. Jace was amazed how uninterested in her he was. There was nothing but lust in her eyes. Jace remembered the looks on Alec and Magnus's faces when he'd caught them…. cuddling. They hadn't even been doing anything! Not that Jace had the slightest clue how that worked, nor did he want to know, but the affection in their gaze had been new to him. He'd never seen two people look at each other like that. His mother had never introduced him to a boyfriend who elicited that look in her eyes and Sebastian had certainly never looked at a woman like that. The only thing he could compare it to was how he looked at Clary.
And suddenly, Jace missed Clary more than ever before. He wanted her to look at him the way Magnus looked at Alec.
Jace pulled away from the horny brunette, paid for his drink and left. Sebastian would think he left with the girl and that was fine by him.
Sorry for the slow update guys! I did a major re-thinking of plot layout and chapter order! You were all right when you mentioned my lack of Clace! I was favouring Malec cause I usually write Malec. This is the first Clace or Tessa plot I have ever done but my 3rd major Malec story. I also have Malec one-shots and my new Malec story 'Elusive Love' that I am currently updating... so yeah... obviously I have a bias. Sorry!
Thanks for reminding me to stay true to this story and keep the plots equal. After all this whole story was inspired by me thinking 'hmmmm how could I really mess with Clace... oh I know Jace is a player and Clary's with Simon.' No really that was basically the whole idea that started this story. Then I just kept writing and before I knew it... other plots showed up. :)
Oh and I am SO GLAD I kept this story M rated now. What the hell was I thinking? lol. Definitely needs to be rated M. I did alot of future chapter planning this week so that's why I uploaded so few chapters. I may have a rather intense scene planned but I will put a warning at the top of the chapter if and when it shows up. My beta and my other writers friends have mixed feeling about this scene I have planned so we shall see how it plays out. Either way M rated... good.
Sneak Peek Chapter 23
"Magnus hasn't texted me," Clary told Simon. They had just gotten on the plane and Clary was reminded, when turning off her phone, of her lack of messages.
"I'm sure he's fine," Simon replied.
"He didn't seem fine during exams," Clary said. "He seemed numb."
"Maybe the holidays helped bring feeling back into his limbs?" Simon suggested.
"I hope so," Clary said with a sigh as she laid her head on her boyfriend's shoulder. Simon's hand found hers and he held it while they listened to the pre-flight instructions. It was a short flight but it was so much better than taking the bus.
