𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝒊.𝒗. 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞
━━ 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈

Since the party did not start until midnight, the group had a whole day ahead of them. Jace and Alec said that they were going to train for a while, just in case they needed it, whereas Isabelle and Aria decided to show Simon the faerie circles of Central Park (much to Isabelle's dismay, who was still getting used to having a mundane around). Even though they asked Clary whether she wanted to come with, she claimed that she was too tired and left them alone.

The three of them walked in silence to Central Park, all of them unsure of what to talk about. I mean, what do you talk about with a mundane who understands one out of ten words you say and barely replies because he's scared shitless? In the same way, the two girls could not start gossiping about who Isabelle's latest hook-up was either, at least not with Simon there. It took them over twenty minutes and a thousand questions to get Simon to say more than four words without tripping over them. By the time they got to Central Park, he could almost formulate a whole sentence.

Central Park had always been a favourite of Aria's. As they walked in, she remembered how happy she had been there: her parents used to bring her there when she was very young and, then, she had spent many evenings playing with Isabelle and Alec, hiding among the trees. Years later, Jace had kissed her there for the first time, an innocent kiss that had marked Aria forever. She had spent hours there, walking, reading, with Jace, with Isabelle and, even on rare occasions, with Alec. She could pinpoint all the spots Jace and her had kissed, every single place Isabelle and her had sat down to talk about the boys that walked past them...

It took them some time to reach the faerie circles but, once they reached them, Aria could not keep her eyes away from Simon. He was completely enraptured by the place and everything that happened there, which was nice for a change. Aria had lived in the Shadowhunter environment her whole life and she had barely met any mundanes, at least not ones that she could bring there, so seeing him so excited made her feel warm inside.

Isabelle, who seemed to be warming up to Simon's presence, looked at her with raised eyebrows, making Aria flip her off. Isabelle's motto was 'one devil drives out another' and Aria knew that she was hinting that maybe she should leave the two of them together so that Aria could forget Jace by getting with Simon. Aria, however, was far from thinking about that. Instead, she ignored the girl and joined Simon to explain how the faerie circles worked.

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"Get up!" both Isabelle and Aria yelled as they entered the room where Clary had been sleeping until that moment. She got up so quickly that she hit Isabelle in the head, making Aria laugh out loud.

"Ow! You hit me in the head!"

"Well, nobody told you to lean over me like that," Clary complained, rubbing at her own head. "You practically scared me to death. What do you want, anyway?"

"It's almost midnight." Aria pointed at the window so Clary could see that it was already dark outside. "We've got to leave for the party and you're still not dressed."

"I was just going to wear this," Clary replied, indicating her jeans and T-shirt outfit. "Is that a problem?"

"Is that a problem she says." Isabelle turned to look at Aria, white as a sheet. "Of course it's a problem! No Downworlder would wear those clothes! And it's a party!"

"Yeah, you'll stick out like a sore thumb so casually dressed."

Seeing how Clary had no party clothes with her (and, to be honest, Aria doubted she owned any party clothes at all), the two girls offered to lend her some clothes for that night and that night only. Taking her by the hand in case she wanted to run away, they walked to Aria's room first so she could pick out her own outfit and let Clary choose some clothes for herself, seeing how she was just slightly shorter than Isabelle and, therefore, closer to Clary's height. Once that was sorted, they walked to Isabelle's room, all while hearing Clary's complaints that she would rather wear her own clothes.