"'I guess I can't help thinking that if I'd known the truth, I wouldn't have met Jace the way I did. I wouldn't have fallen in love with him.'
Simon was silent for a moment. 'I don't think I've ever heard you say that before.'"
– Cassandra Clare, City of Glass
I had never slept with a boy before. No, IH and I didn't have sex that night, but we lay curled up together all night. He woke up around two, a little surprised to find me wrapped around his chest. For a long time, he played with my hair as he craned his neck to watch me trace patterns over his chest. When I started shivering, one of his clones lay a blanket over the two of us. Frankly, it freaked me out a little. And when I was still cold after that, the clone lay down on the other side of me and started spooning me. That freaked me out even more. Eventually, IH and I wound up in my bed, he still on his back and me still on my side, arm around his stomach as we slipped into a dreamless sleep once again.
The next day at school, I couldn't keep the big goofy grin off my face every time I thought of the steady rise and fall of his chest or the perfect way he fiddled with my hair. I remembered the plethora of hearts I traced into his chest, wondering whether he knew what I was tracing or whether he thought it was just random patterns.
Oh, right. Yeah. School. As it turned out, we still had school the next day. The principal sent out an email and everything. Despite the destroyed hallway, the rest of the school was perfectly fine. Fire fighters had cleared out the ash and the bodies and if you didn't look too closely at the bashed-in lockers or the scorch marks on the ceilings and walls, the school almost looked like it normally did. Except for one thing. Walking down that hallway felt like taking a nice stroll through a graveyard.
"Someone got laid last night," Dresden squinted at my overly cheerful face. On any other day, his presence alone would turn my smile into a scowl, but not today. Nothing could bring me down.
"Shut up Dresden," I sang and skipped out of English. Unfortunately, because life hates me, I had several classes with Dresden including English, biology, and math. The only good thing about math was that Lila shared my class. She was just coming from history where, shocker, Brady wasn't there. Apparently he was sick and would have to take a few days off. Stupid evil bastard.
"Dresden is too hot for his own good," Lila pouted, settling into her chair as we stared at Dresden who sat on the other side of the classroom with Ciaran, some guy named Kyle, and a few others in their group.
I sighed, annoyed, and said, "he's an asshole, Lila."
"Yeah. A hot asshole."
"You don't like him do you?" I knew my face was contorting in disgust, and of course, Ciaran and Dresden chose that moment to look at me, my face puckered like I ate a bug with my tongue lolling out of my mouth as I sported the double chin. Dresden smirked and made a joke to Kyle who then high-fived him (asshole), but Ciaran just chuckled, rolled his eyes, and looked away. When neither of them were looking, I stuck out my tongue.
"God no," Lila pursed her lips. "Besides Gold asked me on a date, and-"
"WHAT?" I screeched, earning the attention of Dresden again, but not Ciaran this time, thank God. To me, Ciaran would always be more attractive than Dresden, who kind of looked like a hot evil twin. They were both hot, with their wavy, mussed black hair and startling blue eyes. My stomach twisted as I thought of IH and despite the conversation we were having, I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. Unfortunately, Dresden thought I was grinning at him; his lips parted in disgust and he pretended to gag. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Lila. What were we talking about again?
"I said yes, but I don't know..." Oh right. Gold. Ahh... Touchy topic. Back before the whole fire thing happened, Gold had said something along the lines of "if we get out of this..." which frankly tipped me off that he might like me. Now I wasn't so sure. Gold was a sweet guy and we could talk for hours, but there were only so many questions you could ask in the question game. I knew if we ever dated, we'd run out of topics quicker than I'd like to admit.
"Lila, that's SO GREAT!" I fangirled, over the moon for my best friend. Gold was adorable and they could fly around together and fight crime and be the world's cutest super couple. I decided to tell Lila all of this.
"GOLD IS SO ADORABLE AND YOU CAN FLY AROUND TOGETHER AND FIGHT CRIME AND BE THE WORLD'S CUTEST SUPER COUPLE!"
"I guess..." NONONONONONONO.
"Oh my gosh! You like someone else, don't you?" I groaned and resisted the urge to slam my head into the table. Luckily Mr Rye was busy trying to fix the interactive whiteboard (which Dresden had dismantled as a prank) so he was a little preoccupied and we could have our conversation without fear of him overhearing.
"How'd you guess?" Lila moaned, burying her head in her hands.
"Lila, I've known you since first grade. Mask or no mask, I can read your expressions anywhere."
"Fine... I like... Don't kill me, but I like..." She took a deep breath and stuffed her head back in her arms and mumbled a name.
"What?" I had to put my ear right up against her just to halfway make out what she was saying. "Gin? You like gin? I do, too, but I was kind of thinking of the boy you like, not the drink."
Lila glared at me. "That's not funny, Annie." She stuck out her tongue. "And I like Finn."
"Oh," my face broke out into my thousandth grin that day as I hugged my best friend. "LILA THAT IS SO GREAT!" Side note. Finn's this guy Lila saved just over a year ago, before the world knew about the whole super thing. They've been friends ever since; she still drops in on him as the Claw every now and again, but he doesn't know her secret identity. It's so freaking cute. "Love triangle alert!" I sang.
"Will you shut up?" Lila hissed, eyes darting around. Dresden was still watching us, but he looked more zoned out than like he was listening.
"What would be your ship name? Okay wait... Finn plus Claw equals Flaw? Oh... Maybe that's not so good."
"Annie-"
"Clinn? No, ew."
"Annie-"
"Maybe I can try Lila with Finn?"
"Annie, please don't-"
"Linn? Fila? Okay this isn't working. What's his last name?"
"Blade, but Annie-"
"GOT IT. CLADE. Or wait, if I'm using his last name, I should use your last name. Ideas?"
Lila finally gave in. "Blarker? Parade?"
I gasped, and shouted, "YES!" So loud, even Ciaran turned to look, watching curiously.
"Wait, seriously? You want our ship name to be Parade?"
"It's either that or Flaw."
"Annie!"
"Sorry," I blushed, "but it's kind of really cute. Like, you both have your flaws, but you're a couple anyway."
"We're not even dating," Lila moaned.
"Not with that attitude, you're not," I muttered. "Correction. You're not dating yet. Besides, you're a freaking superhero! Of course he'll date you!"
"I don't want him to date me just because I'm a super..."
"So meet him as Lila, wait until he falls deeply in love with you and then tell him you're secretly the Claw after all! You'll live happily ever after and name your first born Annie (or Andrew if it's a boy) and-"
"But what about Gold?" Lila cocked an eyebrow. Shit. Hadn't thought about that.
"Just leave Gold to me," I grinned mischievously. My plan: tell Gold I found out about his date with the Claw and then portray her as a gross, messy slob. It was a brilliant plan.
✩ Lodestone ✩
"Any progress?" The voice I'd learned to loath over the past twenty-four hours echoed in the chambers and I gripped my ears, crying out as the next wave washed over me.
"I'm working on it," H2O gritted her teeth, her temples soaked from sweat. I cried out, my throat already raw from doing the same thing all night: screaming in pain. I could literally feel my body's water pulsing and churning in my blood stream, like spiders crawling under my skin. I squirmed and wriggled, not only in pain, but in discomfort. Ever since I was little, I had been terrified of spiders. Now, as I cried, pressing my palms in my eyes, it was mostly because of the feeling they were inside of me. "Almost... There..." H2O panted.
A loud crack resounded in the underground stone prison and I screamed as I fell to my knees, massaging my snapped jaw. Blood poured out one ear as I tenderly felt the torn tendons connecting my jaw to the rest of my skull. The bitch had dislocated my freaking jaw!
"Keep trying," Obsidian Black growled at H2O. She bit her lip but nodded anyway. In the dark, it was impossible to see anything other than the determined look in her eyes as she wiped all emotion from her face and said, "get up. We're going again."
✩✩✩
50 points goes to whoever can figure out what H2O is trying to do... ;)
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