Chapter Text
Heart pounding, Izzy ducked under the bar as a glass bottle flew over her head and shattered against the wall. She grinded her teeth, silently cursing whoever had thought it a good idea to start throwing glass around. Now she was the one who’d have to clean it up.
She was just gathering the courage to stand up and try to break up the fight when a skinny, ginger girl scampered behind the counter to join her. Hair askew, she slumped down next to Izzy, breathing hard.
Izzy stared at her. At first, it was in annoyance, but then she looked at the girl properly and realised how beautiful she was. It wasn’t just her perfectly curled hair and bright green eyes. There was something about the way Izzy could see a mischievous smile shining through her surprised expression that captured Izzy’s attention.
Suddenly, the girl turned to her with wide eyes, as if only just realising she had been there the whole time. “Oh, hello!”
“Hell - ”
The two girls flinched as they heard another bottle shatter loudly. Izzy sighed, but the girl turned back to her and said brightly, “I’m Clary,” which wiped any sign of annoyance off her face.
“Isabelle. Nice to meet you, Clary.”
“Did you, uh… see what happened out there?” Clary asked, referring to the feral brawl they were hiding from.
“I was a bit preoccupied, so no, not all of it. Just that the two guys were fine until some girl - ”
Izzy gasped and Clary’s face reddened.
“It was you! You started the fight!”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, I just - ”
“Do you have any idea how long this is going to take me to clean up?”
“Sorry!”
Izzy was about to continue complaining to Clary, when she dared to look her directly in the eyes and melted at her worried expression. She gave a resigned sigh. “It’s okay. There probably would’ve been another one if this one hadn’t started anyway.”
“I really didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Izzy smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry about it.”
They fell silent for a moment, listening as the two guys were dragged outside to continue their argument there. Confident they had left, Izzy stood and held out a hand to help Clary up. Clary happily accepted and soon bounced up to join her.
They glanced around together, both overly aware that neither of them had let go of each other’s hand.
“You know, I think you might need some help, cleaning the place up,” Clary offered.
Izzy squeezed her hand. “That would be very appreciated.”
The girls giggled, and Izzy led Clary to the closet to get the cleaning supplies, putting off the moment she would have to let go of her hand.