Work Text:
The music pulsed through the house, shaking it so loudly that Jace could feel it in his chest. There was no playing around when it came to Los Angeles parties. If your house wasn’t dark enough or had enough drugs, then you were completely out of the party scene. There were plenty of women at the party, which was typical. There was an unspoken rule that for every man invited, three women must be invited as well. That was how you drew a crowd. Nude women and high men are what really brought the party to life, the lights and music just added to the environment. Although Jace typically loved the women and drugs, a flash of red made his mind race, bringing him back to just a few weeks previous.
It was the same atmosphere, flashing lights and loud music, but not in the “safety” of a home. 1 OAK was the most exclusive club in Los Angeles, and Jace had managed to get in. Of course, it was all about the looks there. His chiseled jaw and arrogant smile earned his cut in line, and the $50 he handed the bouncer didn’t hurt. The music was so loud that he could barely hear himself thinking and it was so dark that he could barely see the people dancing. Jace assumed that it made it easier for the dancing girls on stage if they didn’t see that their audience was comprised of middle-aged men and women that were judging their bodies. Jace went straight to the bar and ordered himself an overpriced, mediocre beer, still buzzed from the shots he took before stepping into his uber, then began to stalk the crowd, trying to find a woman to latch on to. There were plenty of options; curvy blondes, skinny brunettes, even a few girls with pink and purple hair and wide hips, but one specifically caught Jace’s eye. She had fiery red hair, and it looked natural. He was never one to stay from the typical LA girl, finding their fried blonde hair beautiful between his fingers when he pulled it, but there was something about the ginger girl that really caught his eye.
The only thing “LA” about her was the girl she was with. She had a beautiful hourglass figure, tan skin, dark hair, and plump lips. The ginger was her exact opposite, being fair, skinny, and naturally pretty. If she were wearing makeup, Jace couldn’t tell in the darkness. He admired her through the crowd, watching her laugh with her friend while they held hands and danced with one another. She wore a skintight black dress with no decorative details, paired with thigh high heeled boots, leaving more to the imagination than Jace desired. He wished he could see those long legs completely bare, as opposed to the small strip of pale skin that showed between the bottom of the dress and the top of the shoes. Her friend, on the other hand, left almost nothing to think about. Her two-piece outfit appeared to be glued onto her skin. It was a gorgeous dusty plum color, the top appearing to be more of a bra than anything, and the skirt only covering below her belly button to the top of her hips. He didn’t care enough to look at the shoes that the red head’s friend was wearing; he didn’t want to take his eyes off of her for too long. Looking at how good they looked, Jace felt underdressed in his black jeans and dark grey v-neck.
It took the rest of his beer for Jace to build up the courage to approach the women. In groups, women were very intimidating, even for Jace, a confident man. He tossed his bottle into the first trash can that he saw, then made a beeline straight for the red head. As soon as he placed his hand on her waist, the girl turned her head and looked at him, then immediately turned to look back at her friend. He wondered what her face looked like, because the tan woman eyed Jace, then raised her eyebrows and kept dancing. Their silent exchange must have been in Jace’s favor, because the girl under his hand continued dancing, not trying to shrug Jace off or get away from him. The three of them danced for a while. While Jace held onto the girl, he let his hands roam from her waist to her hips, occasionally letting his fingers feel the seams of her underwear though the tight cotton of her dress. Many different men tried to approach her gorgeous friend, so in order to ward them off, the darker girl threw her arms around the ginger and danced closer to her. Most of them got the hint immediately, some of them had to be pushed away by the smaller girl. Jace admired how she defended her friend, laughing with them each time that she had to.
Once his buzz began to die down, Jace took a step back. “I’m going to go get another drink, do you girls want anything?” He asked, leaning over and shouting over the music so they could hear him.
“I’m not letting some guy I just met bring me a drink.” The ginger shouted back, a grin on her face. Obviously, she didn’t know Jace at all, so it only made sense that she would want to be handed her drink by the bartender.
“And I’m not staying here by myself!” The other girl added.
It was decided that the three of them would go to the bar together. Jace listened to them order, added a two shots to the order, then handed the bartender his card. Once they received the drink and Jace’s card, the group went to find some seating. They sat and chatted about very surface level things; their name, age, where they lived, and so on. They didn’t get far into the conversation when Isabelle, the tan woman, saw one of her friends at the bar.
“Are you good?” She asked Clary, Jace’s interest. Clary nodded and gave her the go ahead to go visit with her friends. Jace noticed that Clary kept her eyes on her friend until she was actually speaking with the other women at the bar.
“So, what do you do?” Clary asked Jace, swirling her dark blue cocktail around in her glass.
“I work for a casting agency.” Jace replied. He wondered if the girl would be interested in a modeling job. She wasn’t their typical look, but she was simply gorgeous. He was sure that someone somewhere would book her. “I get a booking offer from different companies and then find the perfect model for it. We call them, ‘representatives’, though, now that there’s this whole stigma around models.” Jace explained when he noticed that Clary seemed interested. Maybe she did want a job. “What about you?”
“I’m a graduate student!” Clary exclaimed happily. “I design clothes. Isabelle is my friend from New York, she models my clothes. It’s a mutually beneficial thing.”
“Wow, a designer and a model living in Laurel Canyon. How big is your mansion?” Jace joked, earning a small chuckle from the girl. “You’ll have to invite me over sometime!” He added, with a sly wink. Clary’s cheeks turned red, matching her hair under the flashing lights.
They didn’t get to talk much after that, seeing as Isabelle rushed over to their seats and pulled Clary away.
“It was great to meet you!” Clary yelled as she followed her friend.
There were hundreds of ‘Isabelle’s in LA, and more than half of them were models. Jace spent days on Instagram searching for any sign of Clary’s friend, hoping to find some proof that the ginger girl existed. She didn’t seem like the type of girl to be active on social media, so he didn’t bother looking for her until he went through the first 30 ‘Isabelle’ profiles that showed up.
She was the first profile under ‘Clary’. He immediately tapped on her username and looked through her shared pictures, admiring how simple they were. She didn’t have the lighting or exposure that his models did, but she had the same numbers. Online, Clary was even more simple than she appeared to be in person. The only pictures of her were with friends or covered in paint and charcoal and other various art supplies. Jace scrolled down until he saw her sharing a kiss with a man. Of course she was seeing someone, how could she not be taken? Jace swiped out of her profile and tossed his phone to the side.
He never thought he would see Clary again, but there she was, dancing with Isabelle at the same house party he was at. She looked even more gorgeous dressed down. Clary’s curly hair bounced as she did. The fraying holes in her jeans exposed her slender legs, and she grey crop top was flush to her skin. Isabelle wore a similar, if not the same dress, that Clary wore at 1 OAK, but it fit her much differently. Just as Jace did the first time he saw the girls, he downed the remainder of his drink, then made a beeline for them.
“Chase!” Isabelle gasped as soon as she noticed him. Clary turned her head and raised her eyebrows at the sight of Jace, then turned to Isabelle.
“It’s Jace!” She corrected her friend, then added a musical giggle before turning back ot him. “Hey! How do you know Magnus?”
“I work with him.” Jace replied, leaning over to talk with the women as he had done the last time they met. “How about you?”
“He’s my brother’s boyfriend!” Isabelle said happily. She was very drunk. Jace wondered if Clary was just as drunk, or if she was watching over her friend.
When he got closer to her face, he could tell by the smell on her breath and the flush in her cheeks that she was just as drunk.
“Hey, be nice to her, okay?” Isabelle said, pulling Jace’s attention off of Clary by touching his shoulder. “She broke up with her boyfriend today.”
Jace’s heart skip a beat. “That sucks, sorry about that!” Jace said to Clary, trying not to show his amusement. She simply shrugged in reply.
“Wanna go get a drink with me?” She asked him. It was a different environment for the girls, especially considering that they personally knew the person hosting the party. Jace nodded, and the girls separated. Clary handled herself very well while drunk. If Jace wasn’t close to her, he would have never been able to tell.
At some point, the two ended up outside, laying down in the lawn. Magnus had a very nice LA house, which was common, but not typically affordable. Especially with a lawn. Usually, people lived in expensive apartments. If you wanted a house, you’d have to move to Studio City or a neighboring town, as opposed to Hollywood. They both balanced their drinks on their stomach, keeping it in place with fingers that barely touched the plastic that contained their drinks.
“How does Isabelle drink so much but still stay slim?” Jace asked, his filter being deteriorated by the alcohol in his blood.
“Her boyfriend gives her coke. She only does it sometimes, though, she’s not like an addict or anything.” Clary replied.
Drugs were not uncommon in their industry, but Jace couldn’t help and wonder if Clary participated. Not like he had much room to judge, he had done plenty of drugs before, and just like Isabelle, it was only so often.
“What about you? Any drugs?” Jace asked before he could stop himself.
“Sometimes I smoke weed. But it’s usually just caffeine and alcohol for me, I’m too busy for drugs.” Clary replied, turning her head to look at Jace. She looked so pretty against the dry, yet abnormally green grass. “I did shrooms once in college, and it helped me pass my painting class.”
“Acid is crazy. Its like shrooms on crack. I’ve never done crack, though.” Jace commented, then followed up with clarification. There were some acceptable drugs, and crack was not one of them.
They continued to talk, finally being able to use their normal voices instead of having to scream over music. It was nice to hear Clary’s laugh, and the more drunk Jace got, the more comfortable he got. It appeared that Clary was the same way.
She told him about how she was born in the Hamptons, but when her father started doing meth, her mother moved her and her brother to New York. That was where she met her life-long friend, Isabelle. She moved with the Lightwood siblings to California when they were 18 so Clary could attend UCLA and major in design and media arts.
Jace told Clary about how he came from old money but didn’t want to be associated with his family and their problems, so he began modeling while in high school. Eventually, he made his way up the food chain until he was finally known in the industry for more than his body. It went without saying that he still used his looks to his advantage, but that was neither here nor there.
Eventually, Jace wanted a refill, so they made their way back inside. When they entered the house, the first thing they saw was Isabelle and another girl of similar build, standing on the table and dancing around. Clary giggled and reached into the front pocket of her jeans, pulled out her wallet, and fished out a bill. She examined it, noticed that it was a five-dollar bill, then tossed it at the girls. Finding the same amusement as her, Jace plucked the first piece of cash he could get out of his pocket, that being a single, then tossed it at the girls as well. This encouraged more people to open their wallets for the drunk dancing.
Clary followed Jace into the kitchen and watched him pour the drink. Jace noticed out of the corner of his eye, then took a big swallow of the straight tequila he had in his cup, then began to make his move. His hands cradled Clary’s face as he leaned down to press his lips to her. She gladly returned his enthusiasm, kissing his roughly and letting her hands slide up his arms. They kissed deeper and deeper, allowing one another’s tongues to explore the other’s mouth, and letting their teeth crash into one another. This continued for what felt like both the entire night, but also only two seconds before Clary pulled away.
“All I really wanna do is fuck.” She warned him. Jace understood, seeing as Isabelle mentioned that she just broke up with her boyfriend.
“Likewise.” Jace said quietly, then engaged in another kiss with her.
The next morning, Jace woke up before Clary, but only by a few minutes. She was still naked under the blankets, her hair flowing on Jace’s bedsheets like flames. He only got to admire her for a few minutes, taking in the way his thin sheets draped over her body, before her stirred awake to the sound of her phone going off. Clary flashed him an award-winning smile before holding the sheet to her chest and reaching over for her phone. Her jaw dropped immediately.
“What?” Jace asked, looking at the shock on Clary’s face. Without speaking, Clary turned her phone so Jace could see the screen. He looked at the text thread that she had with Isabelle, then focused on the picture. It appeared to be Clary sitting on a blonde man’s shoulders in a very patchy field with hundreds of people crowding the background. Her long hair was pinned half up, and she was clad in typical festival attire. Her face was covered in sparkles and a smile. Jace admired the picture, then looked down to see the man she was with, only to find himself just as shocked.
The message under the picture said, “Is this Chase??”