Equilibrium - Alec Lightwood. (ON HOLD)

Chapter Twenty Eight

Simon's POV

I wanted to go back to the Institute. I felt like absolute crap. Everything was hypersensitive, and being around Jace made me want to throw myself in front of a train, and I knew that being around my sister would make me feel infinitely better, but I couldn't. 

Not yet. 

I had told Clary I would help her, and I wasn't going to break my word, despite how badly I wanted to leave. 

"Keep up, mundane." Said annoyance demanded, and I screwed up my face at the sound of his voice. It was like nails down a bloody chalkboard. 

"Would you stop calling me that? I have a name." I quipped back, making no effort to fall into step with him. 

"Well, learning it would mean I care, so, no." He retorted, and I scoffed at his blatant dislike of me. I knew why he did, and I had kept it to myself, but he was really pushing it. 

"Yeah, and God forbid you care about anyone but yourself." I bit back, knowing I really shouldn't engage with him, but my nerves were wired, and I couldn't seem to stop. 

"I care about a bunch of people. Just don't care about you." He answered with a casual shrug as if it were cool to be so dismissive. 

He wanted to be a dick? Fine, two could play at that game. 

"Me, or what... What's it called, your... your parabatais?" I asked with false confusion, and just like that, Jace spun around and pointed his finger towards me. 

"Whoa, watch your mouth. You don't know a thing about me and Alec. We clear?" He barked, a look of anger dancing across that pretty face of his. 

"Twenty bucks says he'll leave you hanging tonight," I said antagonistically, offering him a smug grin as I passed by him, but he was quickly at my side. 

"Not a chance." The Shadowhunter replied with conviction, but I couldn't help but egg him on a little more. 

"Really? 'Come, fetch, roll over.' You know, 'lie down.' You treat him like a lap dog," I explained, and while I was deliberately trying to annoy him, it wasn't that far from the truth. I watched him interact with Alec and Izzy during this whole ordeal, and it wasn't always the nicest. 

I would never dream of treating Amara like that. I would rather cut off a limb than speak to her in such a degrading manner. 

"Guess it takes one to know one." Jace spat back, interrupting my train of thought. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" I frowned, pulling my attention back to the argument. 

"It means you're like a yippy dog nipping at Clary's heels." He explained, and I felt my anger reignite with a vengeance. 

"I don't nip. And she's my best friend." I tried to brush it off, but Jace had latched onto the point and was set on driving it home. 

"That's all she's ever gonna be. Have you seriously not figured that out yet?" He taunted and stiffened, hating that he had noticed my affections for Clary and using it against me. 

"Look, I don't want Clary as anything more than a best friend." Even as the words left my mouth, I knew that he wouldn't believe me because I didn't believe myself. 

God, I really wish Amara was with me. There was no way that Jace would get away with half of the shit he had said because she would've shut him down so hard it'd make his head spin. 

"Right." Jace mocked.

"And I'll have you know that there are tons of women who have more-than-a-friend feelings for me." I pushed on, trying to dig my way out of the hole I'd fallen into.