So I had a half sort of idea for this story in my head for some time, just hadn't gotten around to writing it. Then I had a prompt from michellelu78 about a year or so ago to use the song Raincoat by Timeflies, and that kind of started things rolling! Also, obviously there are mentions of unsafe sex, which I don't recommend. Don't usually say this sort of thing, but just throwing it out there. Haha.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the title.

Clarissa Fray had moved to the tiny town of Idris at the beginning of their second to last year of high school. It was strange for people to transfer so late in their schooling, and it was even stranger for people to move to Idris, since it was a tiny town that really didn't have much to offer, and so she had been somewhat of a novelty when she had first gotten there. She had joined the cheerleading squad and she was cute and sunny and reasonably smart, so she got on with a lot of people and ended up friends with quite a few of the popular kids in the school, like Sebastian Verlac and Isabelle Lightwood. She had come from New York, which made her even more fascinating to the people of the small town, and she walked with a confidence that a lot of girls her age hadn't quite mastered.

Jace Herondale had lived in Idris his whole life and he had honestly accepted that this was probably as good as it was going to get. He didn't have any big dreams of leaving the town like a lot of the people in school did. His dad had the largest building companies in the county, and it was a good job, something that he had done a lot in weekends and holidays, so it was just assumed that he would start working for his dad once he left school, get an apprenticeship and then one day take over the business. He wasn't the best in school, probably could be better but he just didn't bother all that much, and while he wanted to get away from the house he lived in with his father and step-mother, he could never actually leave the town itself, where his grandmother and cousins lived.

Their paths crossed frequently, given the small school where everyone knew everyone, and everyone pretty much knew everything about everyone, but it wasn't until a party at Isabelle and Alexander Lightwood's, his cousins, place. It was a few months through the school year, they were currently broken up for the break over the Christmas and New Years period, and there was a New Years party at the Lightwoods. Clary showed up late, and Jace was already pretty drunk, sitting on some bar stools next to Alec and Jordan Kyle, talking about a basketball game that they had watched on the TV earlier that day, when she had come in with Maia Roberts. Jordan lost interest in the conversation almost immediately, eyes on Maia from the moment she walked in, and Alec stopped talking as well, although Jace was pretty sure that it had something more to do with a handsome blonde man who had just come back from the bathroom. He didn't say anything though, Alec had never outright stated that he was into men and Jace was leaving it to him to decide when he was ready to do that.

So Jace's eyes skimmed the room, looking for something to hold his attention, and they landed on Clary, who was coming over to them, half a step behind Maia.

They ended up drinking together, and laughing a lot which was kind of unusual for Jace, and then at the end of the night, around three in the morning of the New Year, they ended up on a couch together in the downstairs den. There were two other people in the room with them, one of them who kept groaning and then leaning over a bowl that Isabelle had found in the kitchen and retching who Jace was pretty sure was named Alana or Alina or something, and then Simon Lewis, a nerdy kid who had been one of the first ones to pass out.

Jace had offered Clary the couch, he remembered that, and he remembered the gleam in her eye as she held up the only blanket that was over the back of it and said that they would have to share. She kicked off the shoes she was wearing and took off the leather jacket that was actually Jace's, that she had ended up with somehow, and then turned off the lights. Jace knew his way around the den easily, his cousins house was like his second home, but he moved slowly, giving her the chance to back out if she wanted to. His head was swimming but his body felt like it was on fire, nerves sparking everywhere as he laid down on the couch, turning his body to the side, curving around Clary's, and she let out this noise that was something like a sigh as she purposefully moved her hips, her ass pressing into his lap.

Neither of them had moved much at first, Clary giggling a few times as there were shouts around the house or yelps as people walked into things as they tried to find somewhere to sleep, and Jace made a disgusted noise as the girl in the corner retched again with a pitiful moan, but other than that, they were both pretty quiet. Clary was the one who made the first move, rolling her hips backwards a little again, as though testing the waters.

She was wearing a dress, and it slid up easily as Jace's hand reached out and slowly traveled up her side, reaching down to start at her knee, and then up over her thighs. Her legs were a little prickly, which Jace found strangely cute, because most girls were so careful about keeping themselves perfectly shaved, and then when his fingers touched the hem of her dress, he stopped again. Clary wiggled her hips backwards, her ass bumping against his cock in his jeans, which was getting harder and harder, and when he didn't take the hint, she let out an annoyed sigh and reached down to pull her own dress up, tugging it from his grip, wiggling around so that she could itch it up underneath her breasts.

Clary was pulsing from the alcohol in her veins and the arousal curling in her stomach, and all she wanted was Jace to reach around and bury his fingers inside her, but for some reason, he was holding back. She hadn't had much to do with him since she had come to this country hick town, but from what she had seen, he was a bit of a man whore, and had no problem with trading in one girl for another, so she didn't know why he kept pulling back.

"I swear to god," she said, speaking low but still sounding loud in the dark, quiet room. "If you don't get me off, I'm going to do it myself, right here."

That jolted Jace into action and his hands moved around, making their way up the inside of her thigh before two of them buried themselves in her without any preamble. Clary's breathing hitched and she let out this squeaky gasp and her hips jerked backwards against him, before she set a steady rhythm of rolling her ass against his erection and thrusting forward to meet his fingers. It was an awkward angle, and honestly, it would have been easier if they just had sex rather than Jace reaching over her and twisting his wrist at a weird angle to finger her, but he wasn't going to push things, and her ass rubbing at him through his jeans felt really good.

He came in his pants, something that he hadn't done since he was fourteen and was making out with Kaelie Whitewillow, and he made Clary come twice.

Alec had shouted at him the next day for the wet patches on the couch, but Jace had just grinned and set about scrubbing them, thinking back to the girl that he had spent the last night with.

Jace had thought that Clary would come up to him when they went back to school the next week, or that she would friend request him on Facebook, but she didn't. So then he went out of his way to look for her on Facebook and couldn't actually find her, which was a bit strange. He tried to find a subtle way of asking Isabelle about him, but she had just laughed and seen right through his excuse.

"She doesn't have a Facebook," Isabelle had told him. Jace blinked and then made a face.

"What the fuck? Who doesn't have a Facebook?" He asked.

"I don't know. Her," Isabelle shrugged as she looked up from where she was painting her nails a glittery purple, not looking bothered by the strange fact. "So—you gonna tell me why you care so much?" Jace just rolled his eyes and then flopped back down on the bean bag that was set up in front of the TV. Isabelle let out a laugh and then kept on painting her nails. There weren't many secrets between them, and it wasn't hard for Isabelle to guess what had happened between Clary and Isabelle.

It was during the second week back that Jace passed by Clary in the hallway, and she looked up at him with a grin, tossing her red hair over her shoulder as though they were close friends who caught up everyday.

"Hey!" Her voice was so peppy it actually threatened to give Jace a headache, reminding him a lot of Isabelle. He blinked down at her, kind of surprised at her reaction.

"Hey," he began, wondering if maybe he shouldn't be doing this. He was only really looking for some kind of hook up, had a good thing going with Kaelie, and there was also Maia, even if she was fooling around with Jordan at the moment. He wasn't looking for a friend, he had enough of those, and he didn't need any girl friends, that's what he had Isabelle for, since things were uncomplicated with her. "Did you want to hang out sometime?" He asked before he had really thought it through. Clary didn't really look surprised by his question, but she didn't answer straight away, letting out a thoughtful hum and sticking out her lower lip in consideration.

"Doing what?" Clary asked, tilting her head to the side. Jace blinked at that question.

"What?" He asked dumbly.

"You said you want to hang out sometime," Clary repeated back to him, a little slow, to emphasize her words. "What do you want to do while hanging out?" Jace just stared at her, because he really hadn't planned out anything that far. Clary let out another hum and then grinned and did a little bounce, her ponytail swinging, eyes suddenly sparkling. "Wanna go out for ice cream?" She suggested.

"Ice cream?" Jace made a face at her, taken aback. "We're in the middle of winter."

"Ass end of winter, really," Clary corrected him with a shrug, not looking offended by his negative response. "But ice cream works any time of the year." Jace's expression obviously didn't say that he was particularly sold on the idea, and so Clary just shrugged again. "Well, I'm going to go to Sarah's Sundaes after school today, around four o'clock," she told him. "So, I might see you there," and then she was walking off, her hands shoved into the pockets of the purple and black coat that she was wearing.

So Jace had gone.

And they'd actually had ice cream, without any sex afterward.

Clary got some chocolate caramel swirl with sprinkles and wafers while Jace got strawberry and lime.

It was a bit strange, and then she had even offered to help him out with Calculus, because she had seen his test scores, and they were shit. Jace had let out a snort in surprise, and then found himself agreeing. And she had grinned and told him that he could repay her by helping her out with History, since that was one of her worse subjects.

They got together twice more before they actually fooled around again, although they still didn't have sex—they had barely actually kissed, only a couple of close mouthed kisses. Clary laughed a lot when they were together, even when they were fooling around, which Jace had put down the first time because of the alcohol, but apparently it was a common occurrence. She also talked a lot, even when they were half naked, which Jace found a bit overwhelming and he tuned a lot of it out so he could focus on what was happening, but even while doing that, he heard a lot.

She wanted to go back to New York to live after graduating high school.

She had an older brother named Jonathan Fray, but he was still back in New York.

She loved being a cheerleader.

She also loved kids, which made Jace roll his eyes, because that would make sense.

Of course the bouncy, ever-cheerful girl loved kids.

Such a cliché.

But...It was kind of cute.

She'd be good with kids, he could see that already.

Even though he tried not to think about that, because why would he be thinking about that?

"You don't listen very well," Clary said as she wiggled down his thighs, fingers going to his belt, tugging at it.

"I'm paying attention to what you're doing there!" Jace protested, waving a hand to where she was unzipping his jeans now and Clary let out a huff of a laugh.

"Typical male," Clary rolled her eyes, but then she didn't say anything else because her hand wrapped around his cock, pulling it out from his grey briefs and through the gap in his jeans, the soft palm of her hand pressing against the warm skin, fingers curling around him and giving it a few tugs. Then she was leaning forward, the heat of her mouth surrounding him and Jace's eyes rolled back, his body slumping into the pillows behind him. Clary sucked on the head of his cock and moved her hand up and down from the base of his cock, to meet her lips. Her other hand slipped under the hem of his shirt and scratching at his stomach, making his body twitch at the extra attention.

She had the best mouth.

Kaelie gave amazing blow jobs, but Clary was a hundred and fifty percent better.

She sucked and blew as though it was her favourite thing to do in the world, which was why she was so good at it. He was pretty sure that she also had a lot more practice than Kaelie had, although that wasn't something he was going to ask her about—at least not yet, they didn't know each other well enough for that.

After he had finished, and she was wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand, and then she sat up, wiggling herself to the edge of the bed. Jace didn't move for a few minutes, his head still buzzing from his orgasm and his body feeling sluggish, but he followed Clary with his eyes as she ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face, as she stood up.

"Come here," Jace said, before clearing his throat because it was a bit croakier than he intended.

"Why?" Clary asked, raising an eyebrow at him cheekily, as though there was some big mystery as to why he was asking her to come back over to him.

"So I can get you off," Jace made a face at her and Clary let out a laugh and stuck her tongue out.

"Do you wanna go to the quarry?" She asked and his eyebrows pulled together.

"What?"

"Do you wanna go to the quarry?" Clary repeated, tugging at the hem of her dress, tugging it further down her legs, smoothing it out over her stomach. "Smoke some weed?" Jace was surprised, just because he hadn't realized that she smoked. It sort of seemed to go against the whole bubbly thing that she had going on, because he had never really seen her chilled out, but he shrugged anyway, rubbing his hand over his face and then tightened his core to sit up.

"Yeah, sure," he shrugged again. "You got some?"

"Always," the redhead flashed a smile at him and Jace nodded, getting up and tucking himself back into his jeans, doing up the zipper and button. "Come on, we'll take my car." It felt a bit strange, going out with her without the intention of having sex, although that was like the second time that they had come together, when they had gone out for ice cream. And then, he guessed, the next couple of times. They drove out to the quarry, Clary going further up the winding dirt road that Jace usually went, her car bumping around on the unpathed road. Jace generally went to the quarry with Alec and Isabelle, or sometimes with Kaelie, and then other times there were parties up here, although where Clary parked up was quite high up on the rocky edges that surrounded the quarry, not where they generally went.

Clary reached past Jace, into the glove box and pulled out a little silver and purple tin and a lighter, and then grabbed a cardboard flip of papers and a baggie of filters from the side panel of her door and then got out, not bothering to shut the door all the way. And then she walked right over the edge of the cliff face, sitting down with her legs dangling over the edge. Jace followed after her a bit slower, wrinkling up his nose as he looked over the edge of the cliff to the water of the quarry down below.

"Scared of heights?" Clary asked, but it wasn't in a teasing way, just a curious one, as she took out a piece of rolling paper, tucked in a filter tip and then opened up her little tin, where there was finely ground weed.

"No," Jace responded, but he was careful when sitting down beside her, and he didn't put his legs over the edge like she did.

"Alright," Clary lifted and dropped one shoulder, rolling the joint with nimble fingers, lifting it to her mouth to lick the paper and seal it and then picking up a lighter. She propped the joint in the corner of her mouth and lit the end with a rasp of her thumb against the lighter, breathing in deeply. Jace watched her chest expand on her inhale, and stay that way as she felt the smoke in her lungs. When she exhaled, she did it in the opposite direction of him, and then she took another drag, not passing it to Jace like he expected, not until she had finished her second exhale.

They passed the joint back and forth until it was burnt all the way out, not talking, everything feeling quiet and smooth around them. The sun was beginning to set, but there was still a lot of blue sky, and there were birds singing and darting about in the bushes around them. The breeze was getting a little colder now that they were in evening, but it still wasn't cold, now that they were part way through spring, just enough to raise a few goosebumps. It was good weed, and both of them were feeling the effects not soon after they finished the joint. Jace's limbs felt loose and his fingers were tingling, and Clary slumped backwards so that she was laying on the ground, legs still over the edge, eyes closed and smiling up at the sky.

Jace was about to say something, nearly twenty minutes later, when Clary moved, sitting up. She shuffled back from the edge and her fingers went to the hem of the dress that she was wearing. Jace's eyebrows raised as he saw her pull the dress over her head and tossed it over her shoulder. He appraised what she was wearing, and there was definitely appreciation, because she always had interesting underwear. Today it was a purple and dark blue bralette that criss-crossed over the back and then over her cleavage, and black underwear that were see-through and showed off her pert ass underneath.

"You coming?" Clary asked, turning to face Jace so that he saw her front on, and could see right through the underwear at the apex of her legs.

"Coming where?" Jace looking up at her in confusion. In response, Clary winked at him, and then she spun around and took a few running steps toward the edge of the rocky lip and then jumped. Jace's whole body lurched forward to watch as she jumped over, letting out a loud squeal that bounced off the hills and rocky edges of the quarry. There was a loud splash as she hit the water underneath and Jace couldn't help but squint as he waited for her to come back up.

It took her a good half a minute, and when her head broke through the surface, red hair slicked back against her head and back, and she had swam a good few metres away from where she had landed before looking up at him.

"Come on!" She shouted up at him, her voice echoing off their surroundings.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" Jace shouted back at her, even though he already knew that he was going to jump. "It's going to be freezing!"

"It is!" She screamed back, and then she was ducking back under the water, disappearing from view. Jace felt a weird frustration build up inside him, almost like worry, until he saw her come up again, but by then, he was already getting to his feet and pulling his shirt over his head and then started undoing his belt. Clary rolled over in the water so that she was floating on her back, her red hair splaying out in the water all around her head, her feet kicking lightly in the greenish-blue water. Jace stripped down to his briefs and then felt a whole body shiver run through him from a particularly cool breeze brushed over him.

He had swum in the quarry plenty of times—he had grown up there, and this was one of the most popular swimming spots, other than a pool—and he knew that he would be safe if he jumped off, it was ridiculously deep and there were no rocks or anything in this particular area. And they weren't that high up, even though this was the highest point, but it was only about ten or eleven metres up.

"Fuck it," Jace muttered under his breath, and pushed off the edge of the cliff, letting out a shout as he plunged to the water below. The water was even colder than he expected, given they were still a month away from summer, but he had to admit, it felt nice, given how warm his body felt while he was riding his high. He kicked his legs through the water, and it felt as though his body was moving in slow motion as he glided back to the surface. When he popped back up, Clary had swum back over to him, and she was grinning widely.

They kissed.

They kissed properly.

She circled her arms around his neck, looped one of her legs around his thigh and brought their lips together firmly. Both of their mouths were cold from the water, but they quickly heated up as Clary flicked her tongue over his lips and then between them, tangling together with his own. Jace shouldn't have been surprised by how well she kissed, but he was, and his arms went around her bare waist, holding her against him. At that point, even though they had gotten each other off with their hands and mouths, they still hadn't kissed like this.

Jace didn't realize how much he missed kissing.

Or how much he wanted to kiss her.

Both of them were kicking sporadically to make sure they were floating on the surface, and Clary tugged herself closer to him every now and then to roll their hips together, and she could feel that he was hard between them.

"Let's go over there," Clary nodded over his shoulder, over to where there were flat rocks by the waters edge. They swum over, her arms still twined around his neck so Jace was doing most of the swimming and she was floating along beside him, and they pulled themselves out of the water once they reached side. The rocks were still quite warm from the sun, and Clary shoved Jace down on his back, tugging down his briefs and then pulling down her own underwear, so that she was bare from the waist down. She didn't seem to care that they were in a completely open area and could be seen by anyone as she straddled him.

"Wait—" Jace grabbed her hips just as she was about to lower herself over him. She gave him a frustrated look and waited expectantly. "I don't have a condom."

"Do you usually use them?" She asked and he nodded. "So you're clean then?" He nodded again. "I'm clean, and I'm on the jab, I ain't planning on getting pregnant any time soon—are you okay if we just...Skim over that whole thing?" Jace was surprised but then he just shrugged. "So no other questions or comments? We can just get on with it?" She grinned as he nodded, gripping the base of his cock and taking him inside her heat. "Holy shit," Clary sighed out, arching her back and rolling her hips as she adjusted herself to his size. "I knew you would feel good."

"Fuck yes," Jace rasped out, fingers flexing at her hips, moving her forward and backward as he waited for her to start her up and down motion. After a few beats, she steadied her knees on the rocks of either side of him and started riding him. She was tight and hot and squeezed almost impossibly tight around him, and his whole body felt hot and on edge. Jace helped her, not caring about a stone that was digging into his back, lifting her up and bringing her back down and Clary's sighs became more ragged the closer she got to her orgasm, and when her body started twitching, her back arching, he moved one of his hands to play with her clit, pressing and tugging at the little bundle of nerves before she let out a long whine, her body going lax. "Shit," Jace loved the feeling of her clenching around him, and both hands went back to her hips, thrusting up into her until he orgasmed.

It was the first time he had actually been inside someone without a condom, and her heat and feeling her close around him so intimately without any barrier was one of the best feelings in the world.

She smiled down at him, her green eyes a little blurry as she laid forward, resting her face against his neck, covering her with his body, breathing against his collarbone, and Jace lifted his hand to stroke gently up and down her back.

A month went by and they were in summer and school was almost broken up for the year. It felt weird that it was only one more year and then they would be done with school completely. Alec was worried about their exams because unlike Jace, he had plans to get out of Idris, and he wanted to be an architect, maybe go study in Boston or San Diego, somewhere that just wasn't Idris. Isabelle also wanted to travel, although not to study. Jace was pretty sure she was going to go to France or Italy or somewhere beautiful and foreign and end up with some older man who was more than happy to support her.

He had told her that and Isabelle had no problems with his assessment, grinning and sticking out her tongue, saying that that would be her dream life.

Clary had agreed when he had mentioned it to her one weekend, as they were stretched out on her bed watching The Hunger Games, and she said that she thought Isabelle was carved out for living the high life as some sugar baby. Jace had thought about it for a few minutes, then wrinkled up his nose at the idea of his cousin getting it on with some older guy, and so he distracted himself by rolling over and pulling Clary on top of him, kissing her firmly on the mouth.

At the end of year assembly, the cheerleaders put on a presentation. Kaelie was going to be the captain next year, since they would then be seniors and Mandy O'Conner, the current captain, was graduating, which meant Kaelie was pretty much the main attraction of their presentation. She was thrown and tossed and did back flips with incredibly straight legs and precision and Jace would probably had been impressed if he wasn't watching Clary most of the time.

Her hair was up in high pigtails and she was grinning and looking as though she was having the time of her life.

There was just something about her.

She always looked as though she was completely comfortable and utterly content with where she was in every moment.

And Jace couldn't help but feel that way when he was around her.

Maybe it just rubbed off on him.

The summer holidays went faster than all the other holidays that Jace had ever had. The Lightwoods went away for the first few weeks, like they usually did, and Jace spent a lot of time at home, playing playstation, or in his pool with Sebastian and a couple of other guys from his grade at school. Jordan was completely hung up on Maia, although Jace was pretty sure that it was only a matter of time before she told him that she wasn't interested. She had seemed like she was into him to begin with, but lately she had been texting Jace and sending him snapchats in the early hours of the morning with sultry expressions on her face. Jordan knew that there was something between Jace and Maia, and there had been for a while, and he didn't seem to care because he was under the impression that it was over. He hadn't asked Jace about it, though, and Jace hadn't offered any information.

"I want to come on your face," Jace panted out, his whole body tense and so close to the edge.

Clary actually pulled all the way off his cock and looked up at him with a disgusted expression. Jace might have been pissed off at the way she had stopped sucking if this wasn't such a common occurrence. She had a habit of randomly starting conversations with him when they were rolling around in bed or on the floor or in the pool, and he had gotten used to just going along with it, and sometimes he even liked what they talked about, even if the timing was bad.

"You're kidding," she said flatly.

"C'mon," Jace attempted to give her a pout, even though his lips were puffy from how long they had kissed before she had gone down on him. "Please."

"I want to ride your face after," Clary compromised and Jace nodded emphatically. Clary nodded and took him back into her mouth. Her tongue teased at the glans of the head, sucking firmly, the hand that wasn't gripping his ass moving to massage his balls. They were tight and drawn up and it wasn't long before Jace was tugging at her hair, indicating that he was about to come. She pulled off him, bracing her hands on his thighs and looked up at him from under her eyelashes, her lips still pursed from how they had been around her.

She looked like she was right out of a porno, except she was better because she was Clary, and Jace let out a loud moan, jerking his hand around his cock as his come splashed out.

She kept her eyes open the whole time as his come streaked over her face, catching on her lips and in her eyelashes, and then after he had finished and was staring down at her, still breathing hard, she traced her tongue purposefully over her lips, licking up his come.

"Fuck," Jace hissed as his cock twitched, trying to harden again. He leaned forward and sealed their lips together, Clary responding straight away. He had kissed her—and other girls—before, after he had come in their mouths, but this felt different, because he could still feel the sticky strands that she hadn't licked up, and it felt strange, but still good. "Come on," he reached down, putting his hands under her arms to lift her up, which was easy, given how small she was. "I want you on my face."

Clary grinned as they moved over to his bed, and he laid down with his head on his pillow. She pulled off her bikini bottoms and climbed over him, moving up until she was above his shoulders. Jace's hands went to her ass, encouraging her downward, and then his tongue was running up her slit and she let out a loud whimper. His fingers stretched toward the crease of her ass, tugging it apart and a few fingers sliding up and down, pressing against her hole as his lips attached to her clit. Clary groaned, putting her hands against the wall behind the bed to steady herself, her hips jerking back and forth. Jace could feel how wet she was as she coated his lips and chin, and he gathered some of that with his fingers, dipping them between her legs, before sliding back up the crease of her ass and pressing lightly. Clary let out a low moan, her thighs shaking, and she was alternating between thrusting backwards onto his fingers and then forwards on his tongue.

"JaceJaceJaceJace," Clary was repeating like a mantra, her movements becoming even jerkier as she got closer to her orgasm. Jace felt her spill over his face, but he kept pushing his finger in and out of her ass shallowly, and he folded his tongue into a point and pressed into her until he felt her second orgasm wash over her. Clary let out a whimper until her body stopped shaking, and then she lowered herself onto the bed beside him.

"That was hot," Jace commented, staring up the ceiling at the half naked Mila Kunis poster that Sebastian had tacked there when they were younger and he had never taken off.

"If we're gonna do ass stuff, we're gonna need to use actual lube," Clary responded. "Spit isn't lube." Jace couldn't help but let out a laugh at that and turned his head to face her. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was grinning as she turned her head to look at him.

"Alright," he nodded. "Lube."

"Lube," she repeated back with a giggle. They laid there for a few more minutes before she reached for where her phone was on the ground. She looked at the time and then clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "I better go, I've got plans tonight," she said as she sat up and looked around for her bikini bottoms. She found them and pulled them on, correcting the triangles of her bikini top over her breasts and then picked up her dress, tugging it over her head. "Thanks for the swim," she winked at him and he laughed again, since they had spent exactly zero time in his pool, even though that was the reason she had come over.

Or, at least, that was what she had said, even though they had both known that ending up mostly naked with each other was inevitable.

"Oh yeah—I'm going to the movies with Simon and Maia on Saturday. Did you want to come?" Clary asked as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

"Simon and Maia?" Jace raised an eyebrow at her, watching as the hem of her dress lifted and showed off the black and red bottoms of her bikini as she lifted both arms to pull the elastic through her hair, twisting it into a bun. He was feeling pretty satisfied right now, but Clary was gorgeous, and he would always be down for another round, too bad she was leaving. "Are they, like, a thing?"

"I don't know," Clary shrugged. "Maybe."

"Shit," Jace snorted. "She's getting around." Clary's movements completely ceased and the easy going smile on her face dropped.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, and Jae knew straight away that there was something wrong by her tone of voice.

"Oh, just...I don't know," Jace wished that he was sitting up now, and that he had any article of clothing on, especially with the way that she was looking at him, her nose wrinkled and her eyes narrowing. "Just...She's been with a few guys lately, that's all."

"And what?" The words came out in a snap. "You're fucking me and Kaelie at the same time, Alec is getting it on with Lydia and Jason from the soccer team, even though we both know he only wants to be with Jason. What's the difference?"

"No, I didn't mean—I'm not fucking Kaelie!" Jace finally sat up.

"Oh, come on," Clary rolled her eyes at him and there was colour rising in her cheeks, and not in the normal way. "She blew you in the bathroom at that party the other week, that girl couldn't keep a secret to save her life." Jace's lips parted, but he really had no response to that, because she was right. He was pretty sure that it wouldn't help his situation if he said that he wanted it to be Clary, but she had been dancing with Maia and Sebastian and they were all looking pretty cozy together and so he had gone off the blonde, so he didn't say anything. "You're saying it because she's a girl, and there's this fucking stigma around women owning their sexuality and having fun when it's not hurting anyone." There was something in the way that she was talking that made Jace's stomach clench and his chest feel tight. "It's a fucking misogynistic opinion that honestly should have died back in the seventeen hundreds, and I'm not fucking interested in hearing you preach it."

"I didn't mean it like that!" Jace attempted, but he knew that there wasn't much point. Except now there was a question in his head that he blurted out without being able to stop himself. "Are you saying you're sleeping with someone else?"

"None of your business if I am," Clary shot back as she picked up her keys from his desk.

"Fucking yes it is—we're having sex without condoms!" Jace pointed out, even though that wasn't really the reason. Clary seemed to know that as well, and she shot him a withering look.

"You said that you use condoms with everyone else, and so do I," she responded. "Besides, I get checked regularly, you know, because I'm a responsible person who enjoys exploring my sexuality safely and cleanly, even if this—" she waved her hand between them. "Was maybe a bad idea." Jace gritted his teeth together, but before he could say anything else, she was stalking out of his room, slamming his door behind her.

That really hadn't gone well.

And he really didn't mean anything negative toward her when he had made the comment about Maia. That wasn't the point though, because it had been negative about Maia, and Maia was Clary's friend.

Although he was pretty sure that wasn't the point either.

It was the double standard, the one between males and females.

Jace sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, flopping back down on his bed and closing his eyes.

The next time that Jace saw Clary it was three weeks later at the Lightwoods. Isabelle was throwing a party while her parents and Max were away for the weekend to see some old family friends. Her twin brother was just along for the ride, as per usual, and Jace went over early to hang out with Alec. Sebastian came as well, since it had been a while since they had hung out with him, and they parked their car around the back since they would be staying the night. Jordan would usually come around as well, but he had text Sebastian to say that he wasn't going to be coming.

"Why didn't Jordan come?" Alec asked as he popped the lids off a couple of beers, tossing the caps towards the recycling bin under the counter and then handing them out.

"Crying over Maia," Sebastian answered with a shrug as he lead the way out to the pool.

"I thought things were going well with Maia?" Alec lifted an eyebrow at Sebastian, who just shrugged again.

"Nah, she's dating that Simon guy now. Like, exclusively," Sebastian replied. That would explain why all the suggestive snapchats had stopped, Jace thought to himself, but he didn't say anything. They took off their shirts and sat on the edge of the pool with their feet in the water, sipping on their beers. Sebastian asked Alec about his time away and they talked shit while Jace downed his beer and then got into the water. Sebastian went back inside to get another round of beers and Jace swum back over to Alec. He glanced toward the area where they were to make sure no one was within ear shot, and even then, he kept his voice lowered.

"You still seeing Lydia?" He asked, trying to keep his voice casual, even though it was obvious from the way that he had swum over and was floating close to Alec that it wasn't. His cousins cheeks coloured and he ducked his hair, his dark hair ruffling in the breeze.

"Nah," he shook his head. "Uh..." he looked over his shoulder, toward the house just like Jace had before he continued. "It was Clary, actually—you know Izzy's friend on the cheerleading squad? She said that it wasn't fair to lead Lydia on like that." Jace was surprised for a moment that Alec felt he had to explain who Clary was, but then he realized that he hadn't exactly been open with the relationship that he had with her, and since he didn't go out of his way to be sociable, Alec didn't just assume that he knew who she was. Still. Jace wasn't completely oblivious to people around them. She was the only new student in their grade for two years. "I don't know how she knew, but..." Alec shrugged. "So I told Lydia I wasn't interested anymore, which isn't wrong, although I felt bad...I still want to be her friend and everything, but I think that might be a bit awkward right now."

"Yeah, I get that," Jace nodded. Even though he didn't—he wasn't the same as Alec, he didn't feel things as deeply as him, didn't get attached as easily, which is why it was easy for him to be on talking terms with the girls he was sleeping with, without getting attached. "Good for you," he added.

"Yeah?" Alec actually looked surprised at Jace's response.

"Yeah," Jace nodded.

"I thought you would be all for me carrying on with Lydia and Jason at the same time," his cousin. "Since you do that all the time." Jace arched an eyebrow at his cousin, because he knew what he meant but it really wasn't the same.

"Yeah, but at least I'm into pussy," he retorted. "And at least girls know that there's no chance there's going to be something serious with me," he added. Alec shrugged but then his attention shifted because Sebastian was coming back out. Isabelle was behind him with a few of her cheerleading friends, and from that point on, people started arriving. There were some people that he hadn't seen all summer break, so it was good catching up with them, although Jace's eyes kept going to the sliding door of the house to see if a certain redhead had arrived. He assumed she was coming, although he hadn't asked Isabelle or Alec if she was.

Jace was in the pool and it was full with a lot of people around it when Isabelle pulled herself out of the water and waved. He wasn't paying any attention since Isabelle knew a lot of people and was getting out to greet most of who arrived, but then Sebastian began swimming to the edge as well, so Jace looked toward the house and then he saw Clary. Over the music and the people talking and laughing, he couldn't hear her as she spoke to Isabelle, but he did notice that she was there with another guy. He was tall and pretty good looking, and he looked like he was older than them.

But when Clary tugged her oversized shirt over her head, Jace stopped paying attention completely to the guy with her, because she looked absolutely killer.

She was wearing a black one piece that was laced up from her belly button to her cleavage, there were skinny straps holding them together at the side and the back dipped low, with a couple of straps holding it together.

Clary found his eyes and she narrowed her own just a little, as though considering what she was thinking of him, but then she gave him a small smile and Jace felt this weird sense of relief and he swum after Sebastian to the ladder in the pool. Sebastian was already walking over to them, and the guy that was with Clary smiled and slapped him on the shoulder as though they knew each other.

"Hey," Jace greeted Clary as he reached them, picking up a towel from the fence around the pool and drying his face.

"Hey," she smiled at him, and Jace noted the way that Isabelle glanced at him in interest, but he didn't look at his cousin. "Uh, Jace, this is Jonathan. Jonathan, this is Jace." So the guy with her was her brother, the one who was living in New York. They didn't look the same at all, except for their eyes, which is why he hadn't thought that when they had first walked in.

"Ah," Jonathan's smile was tighter in the corners and it didn't quite meet his eyes. "You're the famous Jace." Now Isabelle looked even more surprised, and Sebastian did as well, but neither of them said anything. "Are you coming to the movies with us next week?" Jonathan continued and Jace's eyebrows raised as his attention shifted back to Clary.

"What movie?" He asked.

"We're The Millers," Sebastian spoke up, which surprised Jace, and he was pretty sure it was showing all over his face. "For Clary's birthday." Jace had never seen Clary and Sebastian interact before, but with the way he was saying this, it seemed as though they had discussed it before, and Jonathan seemed familiar with him as well.

"Yeah, sure," Jace nodded, trying to play off how confused he was with Clary and Sebastian.

And how...Strange he felt about that.

"Perfect, well," Clary clapped her hands together, actually looking a little uncomfortable, which was a first. "Where are the drinks, Izzy?"

Jace didn't have much to do with Clary that night, just because she was with her brother and Isabelle for a lot of the evening, and Maia and Simon came in later and were in the little group with them. Sebastian was with Jace and Alec a lot of the time as well, so at least Jace knew that Clary wasn't off somewhere with Sebastian, but then he tried to reign that in, because it wasn't as though he had any say or any right over who Clary had anything to do with. He wanted to talk to Sebastian about Clary, and ask what was going on with them, but he didn't really know how to approach it, and after he had moved from beers to whiskey, he was really past having any kind of conversation with anyone.

"Hey, Jace?" Clary came up to him near the end of the evening, although Jace wasn't sure what time because he was pretty sure he had actually passed out at some point and then been woken up when Alec came in and pulled him off the couch in the lounge.

"Yeah?" Jace blinked at her, trying to make her into more than just a blurry image in front of him.

"You good? You need any water or anything?" Clary asked, tilting her head to the side, and her hair was tumbling all over the place, it was this big red blur around her face, and Jace reached out to touch it. "Do you need something to eat? Or drink? Jace?"

"No," Jace finally spoke and he reached out and tugged at her hair. It was soft, and he twisted it around his finger, staring as the strands tightening around his hand as he pulled. Clary blinked at him and Jace was trying to figure out what to say to her to make her stay, because she was crouching next to him and she kept looking toward the door as though she was going to leave. "I like you," he said, and the words sounded fine in his head, but his lips were sticking together and his tongue felt as though it wasn't forming the sentence right. "I like you," he repeated. "A lot. I like you a lot."

But it didn't work, because she was still pulling away, and it looked like she was frowning. Jace wasn't sure what else he was meant to say, but then Isabelle was coming into the lounge where he was sitting on the couch and she was talking in a low voice and ushering him up the stairs to a bedroom.

Jace woke up the next morning and was mortified by what he had said to Clary.

Especially since she hadn't said anything back.

He knew that people got sloppy when they were drunk and said random shit, but it just felt different when it was him because he didn't do that, and he also had never really liked a girl. The words had just come out with him fully processing them, and when he woke up and the memory had come crashing back while he was doubled over the toilet in the bathroom opposite Alec's room and then his whole body seized up and he was throwing up again.

She text him, and he didn't reply.

She rang him a couple of days later, and he didn't reply.

Isabelle was the one who came by before she was going to meet Clary and her brother and some of their friends for Clary's birthday, to go to that movie they had talked about, and Jace said that he wasn't going. Isabelle had looked confused and asked him what was going on, but Jace had just replied that he didn't want to talk about it. Isabelle hadn't looked happy at all, and there was a minute there when she crossed her arms and pulled her eyebrows together and Jace thought that maybe she wouldn't leave until she got the full story out of him, but then she threw up her hands in annoyance and stalked back to her car.

Jace wasn't good when it came to letting people get close.

Hell, other than his cousins, his best friends were Jordan and Sebastian, and he hadn't told Jordan that the girl he liked had actually been messaging Jace up until a couple of weeks ago, and he didn't even know if Sebastian had a thing for the girl that Jace was sleeping with.

Or had been sleeping with.

He wasn't sure anymore.

But the point was, he wasn't even particularly close with his friends, and he was fine with that. It wasn't like he had a problem with any of them, it was just that he didn't like talking about things that drew people close together, like his emotions and feelings and pretty much anything that required deep thought.

He didn't think it was anyone's fault, it was just the way he was.

It just meant that he felt awkward and strange about the way he blurted out to Clary—several times—that he liked her.

Jace didn't see Clary until school went back. She had called him once the night of the movies and when he hadn't answered, she didn't leave a voice message and she didn't try calling him again. He had seen a couple of pictures of her go up on Isabelle and Sebastian's Facebook pages, but other than that, he had no idea what she had gotten up to. When they went to the first assembly for school, he tried to look casual as he had skimmed the crowds for her, and it hadn't been hard to find her, standing with Kaelie, Maia and Isabelle, but as soon as their eyes connected, she just arched an eyebrow at him and then looked away.

And it didn't get better.

Jace tried to act as though it didn't matter, as though that half a year that they had been fooling around didn't matter, as though the fact that he had feelings for the first girl in his life didn't matter.

Stephen Herondale had Jace working a lot more at his business. Stephen didn't usually spend lots of time on the work sites throughout the district, that was what his foremen were for, however now that Jace was in his last year of high school, and next year he would be working full time with the company, so he was taking him out a lot onto the job sites. Jace didn't mind the work, he liked being busy, although with the amount of work that they were getting in school since it was the senior year was making it difficult to keep up with both. It wasn't as though he was going to go off to university or anything, not like Alec or Isabelle or Jordan, so he didn't need to get perfect grades, but he still wanted to pass.

Plus there was the fact that Clary was around, even though they weren't really talking.

They had a couple of classes together, and they even got paired up together in Chemistry. None of it required pairing up outside of school, just in their study classes, and she was always polite, but it was obvious that she didn't want to talk about anything other than science. Jace had tried to ask her about her holidays and what she had done, but she just shrugged and said that they were fine and then moved back to talk about their project.

They obviously went to the same group of parties and he saw her dancing with Maia and Sebastian and Kaelie and Isabelle, and she always looked happy and excited and everything that had attracted him to her in the first place. He tried to squash that down and focus on other things, on other people, but when he was in a corner making out with Kaelie, he would hear Clary's laugh over the music. He would be flirting with a South African exchange student and he would catch a flash of Clary's hair out of the corner of his eye.

It was ridiculous.

He was a bit of a mess.

She was cheerleading every weekend at the games, whether it was football or lacrosse or basketball, and Jace would go and used the excuse that he was supporting Isabelle, but she just rolled her eyes because she knew it was a lie. He didn't really know why he went, because it wasn't as though Clary even spared him a glance, so he was just twisting the knife in his stomach even more.

Isabelle knew that something had happened between the two of them, and she asked about it on maybe a weekly basis. The fact that she kept on asking made it obvious to Jace that Clary hadn't said anything either, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was a good thing because the least people knew about his shit, the better. But it was a bad thing, because then it made it feel as though Clary just didn't care about what happened between them, she didn't care enough to talk about it.

It felt as though this school year was the fastest one that Jace had experienced. Everything was in fast forward, and it sucked, because while Jace had no problem with the fact that he was going to work full time and it was going to be longer hours and he wouldn't have as much free time as he did now, it was more that Alec and Isabelle were already applying for colleges and they would be gone as quickly as they could. Isabelle was going to be leaving the week after they graduated to go on a trip to Paris with one of her friends that lived a few towns over, and Alec wasn't going to be too far behind.

And Clary would be leaving.

Jace wasn't sure of her plans, exactly, but she had said more than a few times that her plans were to go back to New York after finishing high school, and Jace didn't doubt that she would do what she said. She was that type of person, she went after what she wanted.

Prom was just around the corner and Kaelie had been dropping hints that she wanted Jace to ask her, but he really wasn't into the whole thing. He was going to go, but he didn't want to go with a date. He'd heard from Jordan that Sebastian wanted to ask Clary, but he didn't talk about it with Sebastian. Maia and Simon were going to go together, so he assumed that they were still going strong. Isabelle was going with Duncan Armstrong, a guy from the lacrosse team, and Jordan was going with Gretel Monroe, a girl from his History class. Alec and Jace were both going solo and they were fine with that.

Graduation was only two weeks after prom, and part of Jace wanted to reach out to Clary and talk to her about last year and everything between them.

But what if she had already moved on?

He hadn't heard that she was dating anyone, but it wasn't like she had a Facebook and so he couldn't exactly check her relationship status. If most people in their school were dating someone, it was easy to tell, they would be hanging around with them at lunch times and before and after school, but even though Clary had always been incredibly open and fun and sweet, she was also discreet. No one had known what was going on between Jace and Clary for those few months, even though girls usually talked about that shit, Jace was guessing that Clary didn't run her mouth like most of her friends, because nothing had gotten back to him.

So he was a little nervous when he was on his way over to his cousins place in his tux because a bunch of them were meeting up there to take a limo to the prom together. His actual mother had called that morning, not the step bitch, and had said that she wanted photos of him in his tux, and he had said that he would have some from Maryse Lightwood's place. She had hummed and hawed about it as though she actually had a say in the matter even though she had been gone since Jace was nine, and had then said as long as she got one of him by himself, then she was happy with it. He knew that Clary would be at the Lightwoods, and he flexed his fingers around the steering wheel as his mind went into overdrive thinking about what it was going to be like if she had a date.

And what she would be wearing.

And if she even cared that he was going to be there.

He parked his car alongside Sebastian's when he got to the Lightwoods, and there were a few other cars already there. He could hear laughing and talking inside, and he walked in slowly, taking the side door so that he would come in to the back of the lounge rather than be thrown into the spotlight coming through the front door.

Isabelle was the first one he saw, in a black dress that had no back and see through sides that pressed her breasts skyward and that dropped to her ankles and showed off her long legs with splits in the sides. She grinned widely at him, blowing a kiss before twirling around so that he could see the whole dress. His eyes moved to Alec, Sebastian and Jordan, all of them looking good in their tuxes, and then he saw Clary.

She was wearing a red dress that was short at the front and then dipped down on an angle so that it was long at the back, the short part right up her thighs so her thin legs were showing and the simple red heels that she was wearing. The top half was all lace, right around her body, and she was wearing a red bra, but it looked as though it was all made of red lace and maybe skin coloured material as well, because it was hard to tell the difference between the the dress and the bra. Her hair was out, although braided away from her face, falling down her back in waves. Her eyes were smokey and her lips were painted a bright red.

She looked beautiful.

She looked incredible.

"Might want to pick your jaw up off the ground," Alec murmured under his breath and Jace rolled his eyes, although pressed his lips together. He hadn't even told Alec about what had happened between, but maybe he wasn't keeping his attraction to her as under wraps as he hoped.

There were too many pictures taken for Jace to keep count.

Maryse was the designated photographer, and she was taking pictures of everyone there in a group, and then there were couples, and then there were the girls, and then there were the boys, and there were different poses, and Jace had never fake smiled so much in his life. They were about to leave with Isabelle insisted on Jace and Clary getting a photo together. Almost everyone was already outside since the limo had arrived, and it was just Isabelle, her date and Clary and Jace that were left inside with Maryse.

"Yes, you guys need to take a photo," Isabelle stated, and the way that she was pursing her lips together and tilting her head and narrowing her eyes, Jace knew that there was no way that they were getting out of this. Clary shot him a small smile that was nowhere near the same as the ones she used to give him or even the ones that she had been flashing people just ten minutes ago, and she moved to stand next to him.

They took one, which Isabelle said was terrible because they were both so stiff.

They took a second one, which Isabelle said was still terrible and she rearranged them, Clary standing in front of Jace, his hand resting on her hip and then her head tipped to the side a little.

Jace didn't see the third photo that was taken, but Maryse said she would send it to him.

The limo ride to the venue was loud and crowded and there was a lot of champagne that was thrown around. The venue was at a race track and the after party that they were going to was at a hotel that a bunch of the seniors parents had gotten together and hired out two floors just for them.

The bonus of living in a smaller district with rich parents was that they knew almost everyone, and so a lot of people turned the other way at the fact that there were going to be about fifty underage teenagers at nice hotel getting drunk and high.

The prom was nice enough, Jace guessed, but this had never been something that he had been excited about. Several people were passing around a flask, Sebastian was one of them and so Jace got several swigs of the vodka inside, and then it was all just a mess of people dancing and taking selfies and eating average food and laughing and bad music. Jace sat down for most of the evening, at a big table that Isabelle and her friends had managed to grab for all of them right near the beginning, sitting with Sebastian and Alec. Except then Sebastian got up and danced with Kaelie and then Clary and then there was a whole lot of them that all danced together, and then Alec was pulled to his feet by Isabelle yanking on one arm and Maia on the other and Jace was at the table by himself.

It was nearly midnight, which meant that the prom would be coming to an end soon, and that was when the DJ put on a slow song, which Jace was pretty sure was by Whitney Houston. He was still alone at the table when Clary came over to him, a tentative smile on her face.

"I love this song," she said to him quietly, standing in front of him. Jace tried to listen to the words of the song to make out which one it was, but it was all just white noise, completely drowned out by the sound of his heart thudding in his ears now that she was standing there. Clary extended her hand out to him, palm upward, the silver bracelets on her wrist jangling and catching in the lights above them. "Dance with me?" Jace blinked and looked down at her hand.

He looked at for what felt like an hour but what he hoped was only a few seconds.

"I don't really dance," he finally said and Clary's expression faltered. He didn't want her to stop smiling and he hated that he was the cause of it. "Did you want to sit down?" He asked. Clary glanced at the chair beside him for a moment before shaking her head, and she was still smiling at him, but it was a bit sadder.

"No. I'm not missing the last dance of my prom," she replied, and then she stretched out her hand for a second time, but not quite as high or far as the first time, wiggling her fingers invitingly. "You sure you don't want to dance?" Jace knew that she was giving him another chance, but he was already shaking his head before he could really process it. Clary swallowed hard and shrugged, and then she was turning around and walking back to the dance floor, where most of the students were. Jace watched her link her arm through Maia's, and then they were moving through the crowds of their classmates and Jace couldn't see them anymore.

The after party at the hotel went until the morning, although Jace didn't drink as much as he thought he would. Unlike Alec, who was an absolute mess, and Isabelle ended up spending most of her time looking after him, insisting that she was fine and Jace should have fun.

Jace wasn't sure what time he stumbled back to the room that his dad had footed the bill for, but the sun was starting to rise. He had lost his tie somewhere and he was pretty sure that his tuxedo jacket was still in Alec's room, which was next door, although he didn't know where he had taken off his shoes. He was unbuttoning his shirt when the door opened, and he turned around and Clary was standing there.

Her lipstick was almost totally smudged off, and she had her hair tied up in a ponytail now, the braids sloppy and half undone on the sides of her head, and her feet were bare, she was holding her shoes in one hand and her red, matching clutch in the other.

She had black nail polish on her toe nails, and it looked a little glittery.

It was cute.

"Hey," Jace said uncertainly from where he was standing in front of the double doors he had just opened onto the balcony.

"Hey," Clary nodded at him. She walked toward him, and he noted that she looked a little tired, her eyes drooping a bit and her eye make up smeared, and he thought that this was probably the first time he had seen her not full of life and vibrating with energy. She walked until she was standing right in front of him, and Jace swallowed audibly. He hadn't noticed it under the terrible lighting at the prom or in the limo before, but she had glittery stuff dusted over her cheeks.

It was sweet.

"Hey," Jace said again and Clary let out a giggle, and he could help but feel his heart swell at that.

He hadn't realized how much he had missed that.

He had tried not to think about it.

"Hey," she returned. Jace exhaled before lifting his hand to cup her cheek. She closed her eyes and tilted her head into his hand. Her skin felt smooth under his hand, and he stroked his thumb over the apple of her cheek. He wasn't sure what was happening between them right now, but he knew that if he had the ability to freeze time, he would do that in this moment right now.

The sun was warm on his back, and the breeze was gentle through his unbuttoned shirt, and Clary's head was resting against his palm and she looked content and happy.

They undressed each other slowly, and once they were naked, Jace picked her up easily. She was soft and supple against him and their mouths came together in a gentle kiss, their tongues in Clary's mouth, Jace's teeth pressing against her upper lip. The hand that wasn't supporting her weight traced down her back and this felt so completely different from every other time that they were together. It wasn't rushed and it didn't even feel like it was totally sexually charged, which was weird, since they were actually having sex, but it just felt so different.

It felt different from every other time that he had had sex with anyone.

There was this strange, heavy weight in Jace's stomach as his fingers trailed up and down her back, feeling the goosebumps rise on her skin, and the way that the sun was beginning to shine through the doors, over his shoulders, was watching her hair, making it look soft and glow and Jace pressed his hands to either side of her face, kissing her again. Her hair was as soft as it looked and she rested her hands on his hips, holding him there in front of her, nails digging into his skin.

Jace didn't want it to end as he moved so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed and Clary was sitting on his lap, her knees pressed against his hips, rolling her hips down onto him as her arms tightened around his neck. She adjusted the angle of her face, shifting the kiss, and Jace's fingers gripped her lower back, travelling lower, to her ass, and Clary took that as a hint to lift up and sink down on him.

It felt incredible to be inside her again.

Jace hadn't even processed that it had been almost a year and she was the last person he had had sex with. There had been other girls he had fooled around with, but not actually had sex with any of them.

Clary's heat around him made Jace shake and Clary's breathing hitched as he thrust up into her. He felt her orgasm, her walls tight around, but he managed to hold off his own orgasm until she came again and then it felt like his breath was knocked out of him because she started pushing herself down on him harder. Their mouths were bumping together, hardly in a kiss, more just touching so that another part of their bodies were connected, and Jace groaned into Clary's mouth when he came inside her.

Jace fell asleep curved around Clary, with the sun coming in through the window, but he woke up in the bed alone with Alec banging on the door, telling him it was check out time.

The last two weeks of what was technically their school time was all studying and exams and Jace knew that final exams were important to Clary and so he didn't went to screw things up for her. Unlike him, she actually wanted to go off to college and so she had to do well. He barely saw her around, since school was broken up for the seniors and so they were only there for last minute study groups, which Jace wasn't interested in. The step bitch insisted that he at least make an effort, and she had whined about it to Stephen, and so Stephen had told him that he had to go to some of the study groups. He went to one, and it was apparently one of the only ones that Clary had actually missed, and so he had spent the whole time on his phone.

The night of their graduation ceremony, there were a ton of parties going on around town, as well as just out of town, since there were two other graduations that had happened in schools that were in a few towns over. Jace went to a couple of them with Isabelle and Alec, offering to be their sober driver since he wanted a clear head when he spoke with Clary. Except she wasn't at any of the parties that he went to, and when he ran into some of her other friends, they said that they hadn't seen her.

So it was nearly eleven o'clock in the evening when he showed up at her place, and her mother answered the door with an unhappy expression.

And then she told him that Clary had left for New York with her brother straight after her graduation.

Let me know what you think x