Tessa looked down at her bandaged arm, a line of wet cloth tightly wrapped around her wound. "Will it scar?" She asked. Truth be told, she kind of wanted a scar. Even though she hadn't stayed in the institute for very long, she felt out of place due to her flawless skin. A show that she never had to fight, or get her hands dirty, and she felt weak for that. Now that she would have a scar, it looks like she's was tough.
"Probably" Natalie answered. She was a new maid that had transferred from a different institute. Tessa didn't know much about her, she didn't make much effort to talk to people, although she wasn't unkind in any way, just shy.
Natalie stood up, dusting her skirts. "You'll be fine, just don't to anything stupid and rest that arm"
Tessa laughed, and thought of her actions with Will. Did that count as stupid? "Easier said than done" she murmured to herself, as Natalie went out of the room. What had she been thinking? And why had Will kissed her like that? Had it meant anything? She was stretching her arm out, testing to see how far it would go, when suddenly a voice came from beside her.
"What happened?" Tessa looked in shock at Jem. His voice was strained, in a way that Tessa had never heard it before.
"What happened to you?"
"Nothing, I just-" he stopped. "What were you doing in the weapons room?" Tessa flared at him, ready to fling into her previous rant about her wanting to learn how to fight, when Jem continued. "Not that your not allowed to be in there, but you don't usually go there, how come you went?"
"Well, I guess I just wanted to learn how to fight, and Gabriel offered to teach me"
"So how did you cut your hand?"
Tessa hesitated. She couldn't tell Jem Will had kissed her, he would think badly of her.
"Just tripped and a dagger cut me" she said, hoping Jem would ask more.
Jem laughed and slowly took her hand, lightly tracing the bandage covering her wound with his long fingers. He didn't know why he did it, but she could feel her shivering at his touch.
"What?" He looked up, into her stormy grey eyes. Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Now your just like one of us" he said.
"One of you?"
"Shadowhunter's have scars all over their bodies, now you have one too" He looked at her wound again, he knew she wasn't telling the truth, but didn't feel like questioning it further. If he needed to know, she would have told him, it wasn't his place to ask.
"So what's your biggest? Scar I mean" Jem looked back. That wasn't a question many asked. He thought about it, before pulling up his shirt, exposing his lower abdomen. She spotted it instantly. A huge ragged scar going from left to right across his stomach. "How?"
"I got sliced by a dagger during a battle with a werewolf." He remembered that day. There was nothing but pain, but he tried not to show it on the outside. Only Will knew the extent of pain he went through, and if he was being honest, Will had probably been in more pain than he had. He had never left his side.
"Oh" was all she said. Without warning he could feel her dainty fingers on his bare chest, tracing the scar the way he had done to her. He fought back a shiver. Her hand still on his chest, she looked up and him, her face so close to his, he could count her individual eyelashes. He was just about to kiss her when he realised. This felt right, in a way that being with Sophie never had. And, if he knew that, he couldn't string Sophie along like he had been. He had to go find her. Suddenly, he got up, pulling his shirt down. He looked at Tessa, but Tessa looked completely normal, as if nothing had happened. So was it just him that had felt something?
"I have to go" he said, fighting back any feelings he had. She nodded, and he left the room, sighing as he shut the door.