Measure Of Love

Chapter 14: Huge Mess

There was a knock on Clary's door and she looked up from her sketch.

"Come in." She said and Jace opened the door.

"For you." He threw his phone on her bed and she frowned as she picked it up but he had already left.

"Hello?" Clary said to the phone.

"Hi, it's Marcus." The familiar voice said.

"Wow, hi, uh.. What's up?" Clary asked. Well, this was surprising.

"I'm so sorry I haven't called or anything." He said. So, it wasn't because of her or Jace? "I arrived home and it was raining like crazy and my phone got wet and broke and of course I lost everyone's numbers. I went through all my parents' contacts and they didn't have you but they had Jace so I tried to reach you through him which I first thought would be incredibly awkward which it probably was a bit but he actually apologized to me, I didn't know he could do that. Anyway, I got you."

She laughed. "You know you speak incredibly fast, right?" Jace had said he would apologize but she had thought that would just be a way to make her stop whining and leave his room.

"I know." He said with a laugh.

"But it's okay, I get it. Sorry about your phone." She said. "And I'm glad Jace was civil, things are working out between us too. I'm happy you could reach me though, even though it was a bit of a struggle."

"Yeah, me too." He said. "What if I give you my number and you can call me on yours?"

She laughed. "Right. Okay." He gave her the number and she wrote it down on her sketchbook quickly. "I'll call you soon. Bye."

"Talk soon. Bye." He said and they hung up.

Clary got up and walked over to Jace's room, this time knocking before going in. "Hi. Your phone." She handed it to him and he put it on the table without saying anything. "Thanks. For being nice to him."

He gave her a half smile. "No problem."

"I'm sure he appreciated it." She said and he laughed.

"I'm also sure he knew it wasn't for him." He replied and sat down on the edge of his bed, looking kinda restless.

She couldn't help smiling a bit about the fact he would do that for her. "Anyway, thank you. I really appreciate it." She said and sat down next to him, taking his hand. "You know, you were right." She said, looking down as she studied his hand in both of hers.

"About what?" He asked. "I mean a lot of things probably but which one are you talking about?"

"Ha-ha, you're so funny." She said with a sarcastic tone. "About the fact that you haven't changed. You're right. I kinda threw all the blame on you because I was angry and upset about it. Honestly, we've both changed, our relationship has changed. I mean God knows we're not 13 and 15 anymore, a lot of stuff is different. But you haven't changed like I accused you of, really, that was rude. You're a great guy, Jace."

He let out a short, bitter laugh and shook his head lightly. "I wouldn't say that. But thank you."

"I would." She said with a smile and held his hand tightly.

"You're amazing." He said quietly, looking at her carefully with his glowing eyes. He hadn't looked at her like that in a long time. Like anything could happen and he wouldn't notice because all his attention and focus was on her.

"Don't change the subject." She just said grinning and he smiled but rolled his eyes briefly. She leaned her lips against his shoulder and he softly kissed her forehead. She looked up quickly, her lips almost brushing his but neither of them pulled away. She took in a shuddering breath and looked down at his lips because she was too scared to meet his gaze when her heart was already pounding like crazy. It was so close. So close. His lips were so close. Almost touching hers. She wanted to close the last small gap separating them but neither of them moved to do it or pull away either. She kept looking down, not knowing if he was trying to meet her eyes or looking down too. She was still gripping his hand and wondering if he could feel or hear her pulse that was pounding in her own ears.