Beyond The Fence

Chapter 16:

The restaurant was a cacophony of loud chitter-chatter, of the clinking of glasses against one another. In a distance, Clary could see a man slapping his hand on the table in front of him, laughing in a very ungentlemanly manner. She let her eyes drift to the restaurant's large mullioned windows, the embroidered curtains; soaking herself in the loud ambient music. It was a pretty fancy place, with square shaped mahogany tables, menus present under glass tops and waiters moving all around the place, dressed smartly in black and white.

She could've said she was enjoying herself, till her eyes landed on a familiar figure, his wide eyes shooting daggers at her.
"Oh look, there's Austin," Jason said, pointing over to where he was sitting. Clary followed Jason to the table, praying that Austin wouldn't murder her.

"What are you doing here?" Austin yelled at Clary, standing up from his seat. The sudden outburst caught the attention of many people, their heads moving from Clary to Austin, their eyes gleaming with the excitement of some drama. As if realising he had caught so much of the unneeded attention, Austin sat back down on his seat, his furiously gleaming eyes still directed at Clary.

"What are you doing here?" Austin repeated, his voice dropped to a whisper, which sent chills up Clary's spine. She felt a lump form in her throat, finding herself unable to answer. What was she doing here?

For the first time in forever, she found herself grateful for being with Jason. She glanced at him, signalling him to answer for her. Surprisingly enough, he did.

"Look, Austin. You can't just keep Mikayla caged. If you want her to make this district feel like home, you need to let her out of the-"

"How did she get here?" Austin interrupted, his smouldering eyes never leaving Clary.

"She came with m-"

"Why?"

Austin's voice was so low, so raspy; it sounded like it travelled via vocal chords made of sandpaper. Clary resisted the urge to shudder, surprised that she hadn't melted under the weight of his gaze.

"Because she wanted to! Give her a break, Austin. I know your dad thinks all of this is wrong, but I expect you to understand."

"What does my dad have to do with any of this? And where's Nelson?"

"Nelson? Who is that?" It was only now that Stephanie had broken her silence, which Clary found surprising since the girl seemed like a fan of useless, incessant talk. However, all she had been doing was sitting in quiet, observing.
From the horror on Austin's face at what he had just said, Clary felt their little secret was going to be blown up, but Austin seemed to recover quickly from his shock.

"T-that was a slip. I meant, X-xanthos."

Stephanie looked at Austin for a moment, her eyes narrowed, before bringing her hands together and saying:

"Anywho, now that we've all greeted each other-"

"I'm not done, Steph," Austin interrupted.

"We're here for dinner. You guys can carry out this argument some other time. Don't spoil my food, for me."

Widening her eyes, Clary stared at Stephanie in awe. She couldn't quite bring herself to believe that anyone could talk with such authority in their voice when having a conversation with Austin, but Stephanie seemed to have shut the young boy right up.

Letting out a deep breath and fixing his gaze on Clary, Austin said:

"So, Mikayla. What is that you want to do?"
Beside her, Clary could hear Jason mutter about what a fun night it was going to be.

****
A/N: So, you're probably wondering why the recent updates have been lousy and short. I'm so sorry but I've had a hell of a week. I'll be rewriting the chapters as soon as this week is over. I just wanted to be able to put something up. Sorry to disappoint and thank you for reading! <3