Watching Over You

Chapter 3

•Recap:
When she opens it, I am struck speechless. The boy who walks in is as familiar to me as my own reflection.

"Will." I breath in surprise
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everybody stares at me for the longest time. Izzy breaks the silence.

"Briella, this is my brother Alec."

I quickly regain my composure. " "Hello, Alec." I say

"Um..Hi." He looks back at Izzy. "So are you guys coming to the party tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I asked Clary and Jace already. They said they'd be there."

"Okay. Well I'm going to head over there now. I'll see you guys tomorrow night." He says before leaving.

Izzy hands me some black skinny jeans and a grey top along with a sleep shorts set.

"Will that do for now?" She asks me.

Clary snorts. "Better than what you gave me the first time."

Izzy smacks Clary's arm playfully.

"Thank you." I say.

Clary's phone goes off. She looks at it.

"Its Jace. He wants me to meet him in the greenhouse. Do you mind showing Briella a room?" She asks Izzy.

"Yeah. Go on little lovebird. Spread your wings and fly." Izzy says.

Clary looks at her. "Simon rubbed off on you."

"What can I say? I-."

"Nothing. Don't say anything until the Izzy I know is back." Clary says. They both laugh and hug. Izzy starts crying.

"Shhh. I know you miss him, Izzy. Why don't you schedule a visit?" Clary says soothingly.

"I'm scared that he won't remember anything." She says quietly.

Clary takes Izzy by the shoulders. "You're his girlfriend. He'll remember you. I'll talk to Maryse about a visit to Idris."

Isabelle nods her head while Clary's phone goes off again.

"Can he be any more impatient?"

Well, his last name is Herondale.

"I'll see you later Izzy. You too Briella. I might come check on you later, if that's okay with you."

"That would be wonderful." I say

She smiles at me before leaving. I look at Isabelle, who has wiped all of her tears off and managed to have her makeup still looking perfect.

"Can I ask you a question?" I say

"Of course. What is it?"

"Who's Simon? I mean, I understand that he's your boyfriend, but what's he like as a person?." Hopefully this will make her feel better. Talking or thinking about people's personalities always made me happy when I was missing someone.

Especially after Will died.

As I expected, she grins and gestures for me to sit on her bed.
"He's such a dork. When I first met him, he came into the kitchen with Clary and Jace while I was cooking some soup. Jace was talking about how nobody would want any soup and Simon said 'I want some soup'. I can't cook to save my life- don't tell anybody I just admitted that to you- so I could tell he was trying to hit on me...."

The next two and a half hours go by with tales of vampires, demons, evil brothers, and most of all, Isabelle's obvious love for Simon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wake up to dim early morning light shining in through the windows. I get up and look in the mirror. My blonde hair is a messy bun at the back of my head.

I go to the bathroom and take a shower. When I get out, I put on the black jeans and grey shirt Isabelle have me last night. Actually, Isabelle gave me a lot of stuff last night: a hair brush, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, a tooth brush, tooth paste...

After we talked about Simon for hours on end, she went through her stuff and found things she didn't need or hadn't used. After that, she took me to a room five doors down from hers and told me to make myself comfortable.

While I'm making my bed, there's a knock at my door. When I open it, Clary is standing there with a sketchpad in her hands.

"Clary! Its great to see you!" I say sincerely.

"Yeah. I meant to come by and check on you last night, but I got kind of busy. I was in the library drawing and decided to come say good morning."

"You draw?"

She smiles. "Yeah... Would you like to see?"

"Yes, I'd love to."

She comes in and sits on my bed. I sit beside her and she hands me her sketchpad.

"I usually don't let people look in it. It's like a diary, but instead of words, it's all pictures."

"Oh! You dont have to let me look."

"I want you too. Go ahead."

I open it up. On the first page is a picture of a curly haired boy a comic book in his hand, his head thrown back in laughter.

"It all has a sort of sequence to it." She tells me. "That's Simon. When I first found out that I was a Shadowhunter, he was the only normal thing I had left to hold on to."

"My mom was kidnapped, my step dad- who was then a good friend- said he didn't want anything to do with me... In the end, I found out that he was just trying to protect me, but at the time, I felt like everything I thought I knew about the world was being taken away from me."

I turn to the next picture. Its Isabelle and her brother, Alec in gear. They're back to back with seraph blades in their hands. I look at Clary, waiting for her to explain this picture. This part of her life that she's sharing with me.

"When I finally excepted that I was Nephilim, Izzy and Alec were there to help me get used to it. Izzy and Alec turned out to be my best friends."

I turn to the next picture. The paper is split into two sections, but on both sides is Jace. The Jace in the first section is blurred and distorted. Barely visible. The Jace in the second section is drawn clearly. He has a smile on his face, exposing his chipped tooth. The love rune is drawn all over this side. I look at Clary.

"When I first met Jace, he had this wall up that he wasn't willing to put down for anybody. The man that raised him had taught him that to love is to destroy and to be loved is to be the one destroyed."

"I fell in love with him only to then be told that he was my brother. For a while, none of us knew exactly who he was. Eventually, he started opening up to me more and more. Then, we found out that he is really a Herondale. After a while I began to understand him completely. That's why this one over here is clear and not distorted. He knew who he was, he let down his wall and our love grew stronger."

I close the sketchpad, almost on tears.

"That's beautiful. And these are amazing."

Without knowing why, I give Clary a hug. She hugs me back tightly.

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Clary."

"No problem." She let's go of me and stands up. "Now, how about some breakfast?"

-12/19
Ari