Searching For Love

Chapter 24

I walked into school on Monday morning, giddy to see Will. After going to the beach, I had zapped us back to his car, and we had stayed the night at his family's lake house -- no we didn't do anything bad, before you ask. We had stayed up until four in the morning, playing "Call of Duty". Will was obsessed with it, and kept getting frustrated when I kept asking him stupid questions about the game. It was cute.

I was snapped out of my thoughts, as I walked up to my locker, and greeted Clary, Cecily, and Isabelle.

"Hey." I spoke casually.

"Hey." Isabelle grinned dangerously. "How was your day with Will?"

"You know about that?" I asked.

"We all knew." Cecily smirked, looking just like her brother. "Do I even want to know what you two did?"

I rolled my eyes, amused. "We didn't do anything bad, Cecy. We just hung out."

"Sure you did." Clary teased, chuckling.

"So are you two dating then?" Isabelle asked.

I was about to say something, when someone put their arm around my waist. I looked to my right to see Will beside me.

"Nah, Tess isn't really about dating, aren't you?" He smirked at me.

I hit him in the chest, amused, and he chuckled. The three girls watched us, looking proud.

"Sure." I rolled my eyes, amused.

All the other boys then walked up to us, and everyone started to talk. I opened my locker to grab my books, and then closed it, and accidentally caught my finger in the lock as I was closing it. I quickly pulled my fingers away, shouting in pain.

"Oh my god, you were so loud." Isabelle said.

Will smirked. "That isn't the only time she's loud."

My eyes almost flew out of my head, as everyone started laughing at Will's comment.

"Ugh, you're disgusting,Will." Cecily looked dismayed. "Are you okay, Tessa?"

"I'm fine." I mumbled, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Aww, I was just teasing, baby. Please forgive me." Will pouted at me.

I only sighed and shook my head at him. "Why are you the way that you are?"

"That's what I say to Jace." Alec muttered, and Jace chuckled, smirking.

"Because I love you." Will smirked, and then kissed my cheek.

I blushed slightly, and the girls looked as if they were dying. The bell rang then, and I walked to English with Cecily and Will. We all took a seat in our desks.

"What's the date?" Cecily asked.

"November 8th." I replied casually.

Both Will and Cecily froze, their eyes going wide. They both seemed numb for a moment, and their eyes locked together.

"Are you guys okay?" I raised my eyebrows.

They both seemed to snap out of it, looking away from each other.

"Fine." Will mumbled.

I felt confused, but didn't press them. Will was silent all throughout English, and for the rest of the morning. At lunch, Jace was also a bit quieter than usual, and curiosity was eating away at me.

"Are you three okay?" Clary asked.

Cecily gave her a small smile. "Yeah we're fine."

Clary looked doubtful, but didn't pry. The rest of the day passed by quickly, and soon I was home sitting in my living room with Jem. He had surprised me again, and I was so happy to see him.

"How have you been?" I asked casually.

"Good. I've been missing you." He chuckled. "What about you?"

I sighed slightly. "I've been okay."

"Ah." Jem said. "You still haven't made your decision to stay here or not."

I smiled despite myself. "You know me too well."

"I do." He mused, but then became serious. "Whatever you decide, I'll support you, Tessa."

"Thank you, Jem." I said, looking away from him. "I just -- I have no idea what I want. I mean, I want to be with him, but I don't know if it's worth giving everything up."

"Well, it depends on how much you love him." Jem said thoughtfully.

"I love him a lot." I admitted. "But I'm just scared."

"Does your family know?" He asked.

"Only my mother does. I haven't told my father or Nate." I replied.

"What did she say?"

"She was fully supporting of me staying here to be with Will. I just don't know." I sighed.

"Well, enough of that. Let's do something fun." Jem grinned.

"Like what?" I questioned, smiling.

Half an hour later, Jem and I were standing in my kitchen, flour and sugar was on everything.

"I told you it was a bad idea to bake a cake." I laughed.

"Hey! We were doing pretty good until you measured out too much flour and then poured the rest on my head." Jem laughed.

"Why didn't we just use magic?" I chuckled, amused.

"Because that isn't as fun!" He exclaimed.

I huffed. "Okay, okay, let's just start again. How much sugar do we need?"

"One and a half cups." Jem read out.

Eventually, we managed to put the cake in the oven, and soon it was ready to eat. It was actually good which surprised me greatly. Jem and I sat on my front porch eating the cake -- after we had iced it, of course.

"We actually did it." I said.

"Barely." Jem chuckled.

"I'm proud of us." I laughed. "I think this is the first time we've ever baked something together."

"Friendship goals." Jem grinned at me.

I laughed loudly. "Please don't ever say that again."

He laughed and so did I. I leaned my head on his shoulder, and sighed.

"I miss being around you all the time."
I said.

"I miss being around you, too." He spoke softly.

We both then sat in silence, and I cherished out time together. I don't know how I would live without Jem if I decided to stay here with Will. You can't stay with him, a voice said in my head. Maybe it was right. Maybe I would be giving up too much.

Maybe I didn't love him enough.