This was just something cute and short...Clearly I was craving pizza. You'll be happy to know that after writing this, I had an amazing prawn, bacon and feta pizza. Holy shit. So good. Anyway, on with the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.
Usually Jace Herondale was just the type of guy who wanted a massive beef burger and steak chips, he had never really been into pizza. He had his favourite burger bar where he would go with some of the boys after they finished a basketball game and he was pretty set in his routine. His best friends, Alec Lightwood and Sebastian Verlac, had no problem with his burger bar either, until one night when they were drunk, and Sebastian got it into his head that he wanted pizza. And he didn't want pizza from one of those places that you could ring up and order from and get delivered to their apartment, he wanted a good pizza, piled with toppings. Jace had been pretty annoyed about being dragged out of their apartment, down the street and finding a pizza parlor.
But he wasn't annoyed when they got there.
Behind the counter was the prettiest girl he had ever seen.
She had red hair, green eyes, a cute upturned nose and an adorable habit of biting down on her full, bottom lip.
Jace didn't remember too much about that night—he and Sebastian had both been working their way through a shots of absinthe—but he vividly remembered her.
He didn't remember telling her that she looked like an angel, and that he wanted to cook her breakfast every Sunday and that he wanted to brush her hair, although Alec was more than happy to remind him of that the next morning.
But he did remember seeing her, and he remembered her giggling as they stammered through their order, their words all slurring together, except for Alec, who was just snorting and rolling his eyes at them, the most sober out of the trio.
From that day on, Jace ordered pizza weekly, sometimes twice a week if work was really shitty and he just wanted to see the pretty red head with the wide smile, who's eyes would twinkle when he walked in. He quickly figured out her time table, that she worked the night shift Wednesday through to Sunday and even though she wasn't always behind the counter when he first walked in, she was always the one who took his order.
The first time he went in there after their drunk night in, the girl had blushed so hard her cheeks were almost the same colour as her hair.
The second time he went in, he got her name.
The third time he went in, he found out that she liked painting.
Then he found out that she studying to be a teacher at NYU, she was in her final year, and her brother owned the pizza parlor, so she worked there to help cover her tuition and living costs, and it worked well because she got to pick her hours. He found out that she was two years younger than him, and that she got on well with her mother and step father, that her best friend was studying to be an accountant, and that she was completely in love with Chris Evans. He managed to catch her on a break once as well, and found out that she was a vegetarian, that she had a cat named Severus and her favourite colour was purple.
It was an on going joke at work and among Jace's friends—all of them knowing about his crush on the pizza girl since he was bringing in leftovers at least once a week to work for the past fours months.
Four months.
And he still didn't know what her last name was.
"You're going to ask her out today, right?" Sebastian gave him a pointed look.
"Because you're definitely starting to verge on creepy," Alec raised an eyebrow. "It's been months now, and she must like you, because if she didn't, she would have gotten a restraining order out on you by now."
"Thanks," Jace grumped as he looked toward the entrance way of the pizza parlor.
"We can go in with you if you want," Alec smirked. "If you need back up."
"You know—in case you've forgotten how to ask out a girl," Sebastian added.
"Piss off," Jace pulled the fingers at them.
"Are you guys coming in?" Came a sweet voice from behind them and Jace nearly jumped into the air when he turned and saw Clary standing there, her head tilted to the side and an expectant expression on her face.
"Oh, hey, Clary," Jace shot a look toward his two friends, who were both grinning at him. "Uh—"
"I'm just about to start my shift, if you want me to put your order through," Clary offered. She was wearing her uniform, the black tee shirt with the logo stamped on the back, and a pair of black leggings, but her hair was still loose rather than in it's usual pony tail, and she had a handbag slung over her shoulder. "Or were you getting something more today since your friends are with you?" She looked over his shoulder and shot them a disarming smile. "Hey, guys," she greeted them. "You lot look a whole lot more sober than the first time I saw you."
"And you look just as beautiful as the first time we saw you," Sebastian took a step forward, a suave tone in his voice, and Jace narrowed his eyes and made a mental note to kick his friend's ass the next time they went a few rounds in the boxing ring at the gym.
"Right," Clary laughed and shook her head, obviously not bothered by his flirting. "Well, I need to head in now. Come in when you're ready." Her smile was warm as she passed by Jace and headed into the shop, and Jace instantly glared at both his friends.
"You're an asshole," he hissed at Sebastian.
"And you're a pussy," Sebastian shrugged, still grinning. "Now, hurry up and order your pizza and ask out your girl so that we can get back to my place and watch the game. It starts in twenty minutes." Jace nodded and walked into the parlor. Clary came out from behind the counter, and Jace took in a deep breath as he prepared himself to finally ask her out.
"Hey, what can I get you?" Clary smiled at him, leaning onto the counter with her arms braced against it.
"I was thinking—" Jace broke off as Clary gave him an expectant look. "I was wondering if—" she blinked up at him, waiting for him to continue. "So, I was going to get onion rings on the side this time? Yeah, so if I can three of the pizza of day specials, and onion rings on the side." His friends were never going to let this go. "Yeah, uh, that'd be great." Clary's face fell a little, but she nodded, wrote down the order and rung it up on the till. He paid and then waited for the order to be ready.
"I'll see you next time," Clary told him as he left and he waved as he backed out of the shop with his order. Alec and Sebastian read it on his face the instant he joined them outside that he hadn't asked, and it was all they talked about on the way home. The basketball game was just starting on TV when they got back to their shared apartment, dumping their pizza's down on the table in the lounge and getting beer from the fridge.
"I haven't seen you this freaked out around a girl since Kaelie back in high school," Alec huffed under her breath. "And that was in a bad way—coz she was psycho."
"She clearly likes you, man!" Sebastian muttered. "I can't believe you didn't ask her." They slumped down on the sofa, turned the TV up and flipped open their pizza boxes, all of them freezing as they saw the vivid writing underneath the lids of their boxes.
Didn't know which one was yours, so I'm writing this on all of them. Your friends are right, I don't think you're a stalker. But I do think you should ask me out next time you come in xx
"Shit, she heard us," Jace muttered, his cheeks going red with embarrassment, but he couldn't stop the dopey smile on his face.
"She's got bigger balls than you," Sebastian laughed.
"At least you know she likes you back now," Alec pointed out. "And you can finally ask out the pizza girl instead of just spending all your money on that food so you can spend five minutes with her." Jace rolled his eyes and threw an onion ring at his friend, but he already knew where he was going to be going for dinner tomorrow night.
Let me know what you think :)