In The Deep

Chapter 8

After school Clary walked to her locker, taking pretty much all her books with her. She had decided to spend the rest of the day studying. She would have a lot of exams this week and then there would be only one week of school left. She turned around and saw Jace walking to his locker.

"Hey, haven't seen you the whole day." He said, observating and Clary raised her brows.

"And you're telling me this because..?" She mumbled, waiting for him to continue.

"Just thinking out loud, funny we didn't have any classes together. I couldn't keep an eye on you." He said, glancing at her as he opened his locker and Clary snorted.

"Why do you wanna keep an eye on me?" She asked, shifting her weight on one foot and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Any assholes pushed you around during the day?" Jace asked, not answering her question directly, but Clary realized what he was talking about. She let out a frustrated groan.

"Would you just let that go already? I haven't got any death threats. The popular assholes push everyone around." She said and Jace frowned slightly.

"Not me." He observed as he went through his locker.

"Why would they? You're not a freak or a loser, you're good looking and everyone seems to be interested in you. It's not people like you who they call names and push around. It's the weakest and smallest that the predators go after." Clary said, hearing the bitter tone in her own voice. Jace closed his locker and leaned against it, smirking at her.

"You think I'm good looking?" He asked, grinning and Clary rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Really? That's all you heard of that?" She asked and he laughed before shrugging and picking up his bag from the floor, casually throwing the strap on his shoulder.

"I heard the whole thing, but that was a very clever way to tell me that you think I'm good looking." He said smirking and Clary rolled her eyes as she walked past him.

"That definitely wasn't my point and obviously I expanded your already too big ego." She said, not turning around to look at him.

"My ego is too big? What about those assholes you were just ranting about who think they're better than anyone else, huh? At least I'm not one of them." Jace said as he catched up with her, his bag swinging and Clary smiled slightly.

"Okay, true. Thanks." She said and Jace raised his brows.

"For what?" He asked and Clary shrugged, looking up at him quickly.

"For not being one of them, I guess." She said with a smile that turned into a grin quickly.

"My pleasure." Jace said smiling brightly and Clary laughed. They walked outside and she squinted her eyes in the sunlight, watching as Jace walked to his motorcycle.

"Hop on." He said briefly and Clary raised her brows.

"Where exactly are we going? I need to study. You should too, by the way." She pointed out and he shrugged casually.

"Then we're going to study, come on." He said grinning and Clary rolled her eyes as she walked to him, but couldn't help smiling too. He had that affect on her.

"School sucks..." Jace mumbled, probably for the fifteenth time since they had sat down. "Like really, really sucks."

Clary glanced at him. They were sitting around one of the tables in the library and he was sitting in front of her, leaning his jaw on his palm, looking like he would rather do anything else than study.

"Keep saying that, I bet it'll make it better." Clary said as she turned back to her history book and saw Jace turning to look at him.

"How many times do I have to say it? 'Cause as surprising as it is, it's still not better." He said, leaning back on his chair. Pretty much all the people around them were studying or reading in silence and some people glared at him as he spoke.

"Shut up, we're in a library." Clary hissed at him, but he seemed as amused as always as he leaned forward over the table.

"I know where we are, but thank you for making sure I don't forget. You're such a wonderful person." He said, his voice filled with sarcasm and Clary rolled her eyes at him.

"It was your idea to come here and study, so suck it up." She said and Jace bit his lip, frowning slightly and looking like he was trying to memorize something.

"Nope, that's not exactly how I remember it. I think I thought about doing something fun and you were the one who wanted to study." He said and Clary rolled her eyes again, trying her best to hide her amusement.

"But I didn't force you to come here." She said shrugging and turned back to her book, searching for the sentence she had been reading before she was interrupted.

"Technically, yes you did. Since I wanted to spend time with you and you wanted to study." He said and Clary felt a small smile pulling up the corner of her mouth as he said he wanted to spend time with her. She wiped the smile off her face quickly and looked back up at him.

"Well, I'm truly sorry if I'm a boring person, but I don't wanna fail." She just said and Jace nodded like he understood her point, but still opened his mouth again.

"Nobody wants to fail, but we've been here for an hour now." He said and Clary smiled.

"And you haven't been quiet for more than two seconds. Thank you for that observation, though." She said with a sarcastic tone and Jace grinned.

"Being quiet is not my strong side." He said and Clary nodded quickly in agreement.

"Being loud and incredibly annoying obviously is." She observed and he smiled like it was a compliment.

"Exactly! You're a fast learner. I doubt you'll fail." He said so cheerfully that a round of hushes went through the room. "Ah! Those jerks did not just hush me!" He hissed and Clary couldn't help herself as she laughed.

"Let's go, I don't wanna get banned from the library because you can't keep your mouth shut." She said and Jace seemed happy as he shoved his books into his bag.

"What next?" He asked as they walked out of the library and Clary frowned.

"What do you mean 'what next'?"

"I mean what should we do next."

"What do you mean 'what should we do next'?"

"I guess you're not as bright as I thought you were."

Clary punched Jace's shoulder and he scowled at her. "Gosh! Stupid and violent, that's not a good combination." He mumbled, rubbing his arm like he was hurt and she rolled her eyes.

"Maybe you should try and take something seriously for a while." She pointed out, but he just grinned.

"Maybe you should try and not take everything so seriously for a while. Come on!" He said, taking her hand and running down the street, pulling her with him.