"Magnus!" I yelled after my friend as he bolted through the brush back towards the school.

I jumped to my feet and glanced down at Camille, who was looking shocked. When she realized I was looking at her, she smirked and shrugged her shoulders. A familiar heat ran through my veins as the anger settled in. She played me. Just like everyone else. With a disgruntled groan of hatred I took off after Magnus.

"Magnus!" I yelled again, "Stop! Please! I can explain!"

My friend got a hefty head-start, but I was faster than him. Even then, by the time I could almost reach him the school was looming upon us. We burst onto the main quad before I caught his sleeve and forced him to stop running. Seeing his face – a mix of sadness, betrayal and anger – crushed me inside. "Please, Magnus, I…"

"Save it!" Magnus burst, "Let me guess, you can explain? It wasn't your fault?"

"Yes!" I yelled, "That's exactly right!"

"As if I'm going to believe that for real," Magnus spat, "I know you, Jace. You're an idiot if you think I've been oblivious to your relationship with Camille."

"What? We don't have a relationship. I've barely been able to re-connect with you and the boys since I've been back!"

"Yeah, because you've been an absolute prick since you've gotten back!" He yelled, "And forget about a chance to be forgiven by me."

"Please, Magnus… Don't be like this." I pleaded.

Magnus chuckled, folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "Just forget it. You can have Camille. It's only fitting that the slut of the school ends up with the infamous man-whore."

"Man-whore…?" I echoed, confused at Magnus's bitter words, "Since when -?"

"You're oblivious, aren't you?" Manus snapped, "You seriously have no clue about the rumours going around about you?"

I stared at Magnus, a little shocked, "I – I didn't think…"

"Of course not," Magnus said harshly, "You don't think about anything. And now you've lost probably one of the best friends you've ever had the pleasure of having."

Magnus stalked off. I stayed where I was, shocked and confused and Magnus' mood and words. He seemed so… bitchy.

"Jace?" Someone said from behind me.

I turned to see Jordan and John standing at the front of a crowd of at least 10 unfamiliar people. Judging from their faces, I thought it was pretty safe to assume that they had all heard the entire argument. "Guys…"

Jordan asked, "What happened between you two?"

"I…" I tried to form a comprehensible sentence, but I couldn't think of anything that would seem legitimate.

John's face seemed to pull together in understanding. He turned to Jordan and quietly asked him to clear away the lingering crowd. He walked up to me and clapped me on the shoulder. "Why don't we go for a drive?"

John's car wasn't anything special. It was an out-dated model, was cramped and stunk like dirty socks and fast food. Still, to me it was a million times more comfortable than Valentine's car.

We decided to skip out on the rest of the school day, not caring about whether or not we would get in trouble. I doubted with all of the drama about Kaelie going on that the principal would care too much if I wagged a few classes. I don't think I could've handled being stuck in a classroom with thirty different pairs of eyes trained on me.

We drove to nowhere in particular, just putting road behind us until we were as far as we could get from the school. I told John everything that happened, from Kaelie to Camille to Magnus. He listened patiently and I was grateful to unload all of my troubles, even though I knew it wasn't fair on him.

"Shit, man," he said when I had fallen silent, "You just can't catch a break, can you?"

I laughed dryly at his statement, but didn't say anything in return.

"Look," John continued, "I'll talk to Magnus, but no promises, ok? He can be a stubborn asshole sometimes. He really knows how to unleash his inner bitch."

"You've got that much right," I replied, thinking back to his sassy tone earlier.

"But about this Kaelie thing," John said quietly, "You can't blame yourself. You've got enough crap to worry about without this guilt stuff. She was a psychotic bitch who was so obsessed with you that she couldn't handle it when you rejected her."

Surprisingly, his words actually lightened the dead weight that had been pulling at my shoulders since this morning when I had gotten the news about Kaelie. I never had an older brother, but I imagine that if I had one, he would be exactly like John. After a long silence, I said, "Thanks, John. You've really kept me from admitting myself to the loony- bin this year."

John laughed and replied, "That's my job, mate. As your friend, and football captain. Speaking of which, you better have your sorry ass sorted out before the game next week."

I sunk lower into my seat. "Don't remind me."

John tore his eyes away from the road to glance at me for a moment. "I thought you were excited for it."

"Yeah, I guess. I really want to beat the crap out of Seb." I said in reply.

"Yeah of course!" John cheered enthusiastically, "We'll teach that sorry punk what's what!"

I couldn't help but laugh at him. "That's one way to say it."

"You got a problem with my pep talks?" John sneered playfully.

"Nope," I said innocently, "They're perfectly peppy."

We both laughed for a while, bagging out ourselves and Seb. Once the banter had died down, the sun was starting to set and we changed our course for home. John said he would drop me at home, so soon we were pulling up in Valentine's drive way.

Before I had a chance to get out of the car, John asked, "What's really bugging you about this game? You don't seem all too intimidated about Seb."

"I dunno," I answered, "But I'm really nervous, man. I didn't leave things on a very good note back at Washington."

"Is this about a girl?" John inquired.

I averted my eyes, but replied, "I think so."

We sat in silence for a while. John finally spoke up and declared, "It's not like Jace the man-whore to be stressed out about some girl! I'm sure she's totally into you, dude."

"Man-whore? Seriously?"

"What?" John joked, "If Magnus gets to call you that, so do I!"

"Whatever…"

"I'm serious," John said suddenly, "About the girl part anyway. You'll work it out at the game. Trust me."

"What if I don't?" I asked, insecure.

"Well, there's always the after-party that I'm throwing!" John said enthusiastically, "And if you don't work things out with her then, I will personally kick your ass."

On that high note, I got out of the car laughing. "Thanks dude. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

I watched John's car speed off down the street before I forced myself to walk up to the house. As I opened the door I was prepared for Valentine to be waiting to eagerly make my life miserable. I was pleasantly surprised to see the lounge room and kitchen empty. I tip-toed up to my room, but was stopped by a small shape huddled in the hallway.

"Cece?" I whispered.

Cece whipped her head around to look at me, then put her finger to her lips and motioned me to come forward. I quietly approached her and kneeled down next to her. She was huddled just outside of Valentine's room and was pressing her ear against the wood of the door. She motioned for me to do that same. Carefully, I did. It sounded like Valentine was on the phone.

"Yes, I told you already," he was saying, "I want you to postpone switching off her life support… Yes, I am her husband… I'm aware of the bills…"

I backed away from the door and retreated into my room. At least Valentine was upholding his end of the bargain and keeping my mum alive. As soon as she woke up, I was going to get out of this hell-house, and make sure Cece came with us. This news gave me a little bit of hope after my disastrous day.

Now it was time for me to put all of my energy into preparing for the game against Seb and Clary's school.

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