Roommates & Soulmates

Ch73: Jace's Wednesday

Jace had survived Christmas rather more intact than he'd expected. Clary's family had been wonderfully welcoming, which might ironically have been why Jace was so nervous the whole time. Where were the threats? Where were the ultimatums? Jace hadn't been prepared for 'happy family' acceptance. Seriously, how lucky was he supposed to get? Not only was Clary his girlfriend, but her family liked him? Really, with his past?

Shooting hoops with Jon had been what had finally calmed Jace's nerves. It was the causal way Jon had interacted with him that had done it, though Jace suspected it had always just been the physical activity itself. Jace always felt less anxious after a workout, though not so much when there was a coach screaming at you the whole time. That had quite the opposite effect. Jace was good at wrestling. He was strong, and had been doing it long enough to know exactly how to get ahead, but he'd decided ages ago that once school was done, and he didn't have to wrestle to keep his scholarship, Jace was so done with this sport. He enjoyed the physical exercise, but it was rather ruined by all the pressure to win. He was sick of spending hours in the gym with a bunch of sweaty guys being hollered at by their coach.

"Jace!" his coach called as practice ended. With a sigh, Jace turned away from the door and back to his coach.

"Hey," Jace replied.

"Good job today," coach said.

"Thanks," Jace replied wondering why he was still here. Surely, the coach hadn't held him back just to praise him; that really wasn't his style. Coach Rivera much preferred the 'telling the team how much they suck' method of instruction.

"I am willing to bet it hasn't escaped your notice that Mason isn't keeping up with everyone else," the coach said. Indeed, it hadn't escaped Jace's notice, but he hardly cared. He didn't say anything however, and Coach Rivera continued. "We are only as strong as our weakness link. Since you are the strongest member of the team, I was wondering if you'd mind helping him."

"Helping him how?" Jace asked, trying to hold back another sigh. His scholarship wasn't dependent on if they won or lost the end of year tournament. This sounded like a one sided favour to him. Jace couldn't benefit from helping Mason, and yet he was expected to put in all that work for something. He didn't know Mason, or really anyone else on the team very well. They all knew him only because he won the most matches.

"Some one on one practice maybe," Coach Rivera said. "Unless you have any better ideas. I just know if we put the effort in, we can do better than last time." Last year Jace had won almost all his individual matches, but the team overall had been third nonetheless. Jace understood why Coach Rivera was invested in improving their weakest members, but he also knew he didn't care. He'd been happy with third place.

"Can I think about it?" Jace asked. He really didn't want the extra work, though he felt guilty for not caring about the team as much as he knew he should. All he could think about was how much time he'd lose training Mason, time he would rather spend with Clary.

"Sure," the coach smiled at him. "Let me know at our next practice, alright?"

"Okay," Jace replied, then he turned and left the gym.

His day was finally over. There was something draining about coming back to classes after the holidays, and trying to get back into a routine. After only one day back at school, and Jace was ready to collapse on his bed and sleep till morning. Entering his apartment, Jace intended to do just that, but his roommate had other ideas. Jace hadn't seen Alec since before the holidays, Alec having arriving back while Jace had been out.

"You will never guess what I learned over the holidays," Alec said by way of greeting the second he saw Jace.

"Perfect," Jace sighed. "No need to try then." And he continued walking straight for his bedroom. He was too tired to make a joke about Alec's lack of a hello.