#groundopenwide

“Simon. Breathe. Have a drink. People are late sometimes.” With that, Maia went to serve another customer.

Trying to keep himself calm, Simon sipped at his drink, looking around nervously, waiting to see his date walk through the door. Ten minutes passed, and then twenty. Aiden hadn’t arrived. With a dejected sigh, Simon pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “You’re an idiot, Lewis. Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

“I think you need something stronger.”

Simon looked up to see the pretty boy with the golden hair he’d noticed sitting in the corner with a group of friends. “Excuse me?”

“You’ve been looking nervous for the last half hour. You need something stronger than that.” He flicked at the glass between Simon’s hands. He waved at Maia and she walked over to him with a smirk.

“Herondale. I should’ve known.” She wiped the counter in front of her and then set the bar rag down.

“Two tequila shots. His shot’s on me.” Jace jerked his thumb towards Simon.

“You okay?” She looked at Simon with a gentle expression, putting her hand over his.

“I can’t believe this. I mean, I can; I knew he wouldn’t show up. I should’ve just stayed home. I wanted to catch up on Voltron anyway. I could’ve been having the time of my young life not getting stood up.”

“On second thought, bring us four shots.” The boy, Herondale, Maia had called him, held up four fingers and then sat down next to Simon. “Your date didn’t show?”

Simon looked down at his hands.

“Hey, it happens, buddy. Here.” He took two of the shots Maia brought over and slid them towards Simon, moving his rum and Coke away. “Come on, chop chop.”

Simon downed them both then made a face. “God, this is horrible.”

“The forgetting is nice, though.” Herondale held out his hand. “I’m Jace.”

“Lewis. Simon Lewis.”

Jace rolled his eyes, but there was nothing but kindness in his expression. “Take it from someone who’s been through it all. It’ll feel better tomorrow.”

“Well, at least that’ll balance out the puking.”

Maia brought by two more shots for each of them. “On the house.”

Simon downed them easier this time, and merely gritted his teeth at the burn. “I think I’m getting the hang of this.”

Jace was about to respond when a hand on Simon’s shoulder pulled his attention away. “Simon, oh my god, I didn’t know you were meeting your date here!”

Clary. She was looking at him expectantly, eyebrows raised.

“Um—”

“Jace Herondale. Nice to meet you.” Jace was leaning around Simon, hand outstretched towards her.

“Hi, I’m Clary, Simon’s friend.” She gave him a warm smile, then diverted her attention back to Simon. “You didn’t tell me how gorgeous he is.”

“Yeah, I, uh, I didn’t know how it would go so I didn’t want to get carried away.” Simon gulped and looked at Jace, pleading for help.

In response, he tossed his arm over Simon’s shoulder, rubbing his thumb against his upper arm. “He doesn’t give himself enough credit. Do you?” Jace looked down at him lovingly, and Simon was frozen in place, trapped by those beautiful blue and brown eyes. Something so extraordinary was fitting for someone like Jace.

Simon laughed nervously and looked back at Clary. “What, um, what are you doing here, Fray? I thought you were going to dinner with Luke and Jocelyn?”

“Luke had to work late, so he said he would meet me here and then we’d go pick up my mom. I’m sorry, I didn’t know you’d be here. I don’t want to intrude on your date.”

“Actually, we were just about to go see a movie,” Jace interjected, tugging at Simon playfully. “Let’s go, we don’t want to be late.”

Simon stood up in a daze, plastered to Jace’s side. “Yeah, don’t want to be late,” he echoed.

“Oh, okay. Well then I’ll see you tomorrow, Simon. Tell me everything.” She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, then sat down, starting up a conversation with Maia.

“Come on, cutie,” Jace teased, leading them out of the bar.

“Um, thank you. Seriously. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I’d have to tell her I got stood up, and then she would have tried way too hard to talk about my feelings and stuff—”

“You can make it up to me by getting us pizza on you.” Jace put his hands in the pockets of his jacket, braced against the autumn breeze.

“Yeah, yeah of course! It’s the least I can do, right?”

They walked silently for a few blocks, shoulders nearly three feet from touching.

“So, you’re into dudes?” Jace ran a hand through his hair, letting it fall back over his forehead.

“I’m into…everyone, I guess. I’m a lone pan-da.” Simon looked over at Jace with an enormous, toothy grin, waiting for him to smile back, and who was Jace to refuse? It was endearing.

“Me too,” Jace admitted, gauging Simon’s reaction, which was simply a warm smile.

“Two lone pan-das!”

Jace suddenly stopped, looking at Simon with one eyebrow raised, disappearing beneath his hair. “Are you drunk?”

“Am I? I don’t know. I feel great, though! Warm inside, you know? Like the first time I drank champagne after my bar mitzvah. Clary snuck it out for me.”

“Clary. How long have you two known each other?”

“Since kindergarten. She saved my life,” Simon added offhandedly, grinning.

“A five year old saved your life?” Jace asked skeptically. Try as he might, a smile was imminent.

“Yeah, I had an allergic reaction and she ran for help. The rest is history.” Simon smiled, looking at the ground, deep in thought. “Her family is family to me too. They’re a second home.”

“It must be nice to have all of that love in your life.”

Simon glanced over at Jace, worried at the tense set of his jaw. “What about your family?”

“I was orphaned when I was a little kid. I got adopted into another family, and they’ve been good to me. I got two brothers and a sister out of it too.”

“But it’s not the same?”

Jace pursed his lips and looked away. “Come on, this way.”

*          *          *          *

“All right, tell me everything.” Clary held out Simon’s biscotti and coffee.

He took them and followed her as they walked through the city. “It was…great. He showed up late which had me worried at first. But when he showed up, it didn’t really even matter anymore.” Simon admittedly felt guilty, lying to his best friend, but he was in too deep to set the lie right. And hanging out with Jace was date-ish. “We went to the movie and then went to get pizza.” It’s still a half truth, Simon reminded himself, trying to stave off the shame.

“Just your style! That’s great!” Clary’s enthusiasm twisted the knife a bit. “He’s just your type too, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Simon admitted, taking a bite of his biscotti.

Clary laughed, squeezing Simon’s arm affectionately. “I think you’re thinking too much, Simon. You like him, he sounds great, and you guys had an amazing time.”

Simon made a noncommittal sound.

“Hey.” She stopped him in his tracks. “Don’t make me do the Dracula stare.”

Simon laughed, nudging his shoulder against hers as they parted ways for their classes.

That night, Clary called to suggest they go to the bowling alley. “And bring Jace!”

Simon choked on his own spit, taking off his glasses to rub at his watering eyes. “What?”

“Invite Jace! Come on, you know you want to.”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Let me call him and I’ll let you know.” After Simon hung up, he tossed his phone between his hands. He didn’t have Jace’s number, so this could go one of two ways. He could call Maia and she if she knew his number, since she seemed to be friends with him, or he could lie and tell Clary that he was unavailable. The latter seemed best.

When he arrived at the bowling alley, Clary was waiting for him at the counter, checking her phone. “Hey, Fray.” He gave her a hug and shrugged out of his coat.

“Hey, where’s Jace?” She seemed disappointed.

Oh man, Simon thought, I’ve really stuck my foot in it this time. “He said he was busy tonight, but he told me to say thanks for the invitation.”

“Next time, then. Make sure he’s free!” She poked him insistently.

After they had their shoes and lane, they went to pick out a ball. Simon was aimlessly walking up and down the rows, testing some as he went, when he bumped into someone. “Oh, hey, sorry.”

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this, Lewis.”

Simon looked up and immediately felt his face get got. “J-Jace. What are you doing here?”

“It’s bowling night with my siblings.” Jace looked highly amused and Simon was trying his best not to get distracted by how pretty he looked with that smile on his face. “What are you doing?”

“Clary and I… She asked me to invite you to come with us and I didn’t have your number and I didn’t want to drag you into this any more than you already are so I just told her you were busy.”

Jace just looked at him for a moment. “Well that’s interesting.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned in closer. “What do you suggest we do about this?”

“Um…um? We could just pretend like we never saw each other?”

“Is that what you’d prefer, Simon?” It was intentioned as a joke, but there was an edge of something else, something vulnerable.

“Let’s go tell Clary we happened to run into each other,” Simon decided.

“So now we’re telling the truth?”

“About this? Yes. About you being my fake date? Absolutely not.”

“I don’t think she’d care, Simon.”

“Well we’re in too deep now, Jace!” Simon exclaimed with exasperation. “Come on.” He tugged Jace by the wrist over to the lane he had with Clary. “Hey, look who I found.”

Clary turned around to look at Simon with a smile but when she saw Jace, her eyes went wide. “Woah, Jace! Hey! I thought you were busy tonight?”

“Yeah, it’s bowling night with my brothers and sister. Small world.” He winked at Simon then craned his neck to look over at the lane a few down from them. “There they are.” He waved at them until the tallest boy noticed them and grabbed the other two.

“Oh, you don’t have to interrupt your game for us—”

“Alec, Izzy! This is Simon, my date the other night.”

The tall boy with the dark hair, Alec, was smirking in a way that convinced Simon he knew what was going on, even if he said nothing. The girl, Izzy, was very forward about being in on the secret, laughing and holding her hand out. “He’s cute.”

Simon shook her hand nervously.

“This is Max, my youngest brother.” Jace had his hands on the shoulders of a young boy who looked at Simon with confusion.

“A date? I didn’t know you had a date.”

“I don’t tell you everything.” Jace ruffled his hair playfully.

“And who is this?” Izzy purred, moving closer to Clary.

“Clary Fray. Hi.” She smiled brightly at all of them.

“Izzy, or Isabelle.” Izzy looped her arm through Clary’s and guided them over to the chairs. Alec grabbed Max and took him over to the food stand. Simon and Jace were alone again.

“I think that went well, don’t you?” Jace leaned against the table, smirking at Simon.

“That’s—I’m just—We got lucky!”

“Are you ashamed of me?” Jace gasped.

“No, no of course not. You’re gorgeous but—”

“Aww,” Jace teased, leaning in closer. “You think I’m gorgeous.”

“So what? It’s not like we’re actually dating or—”

“What happens if I ask you to get a drink with me sometime? Is that a date? Or just bros being bros?”

“What?” Simon was completely taken aback by such an offer from someone like Jace. He didn’t seem the type to like the geeky, socially awkward guys.

“Let me buy you a drink sometime. A real date. Then you won’t have to lie to your friend, and I get five dollars each from Alec and Izzy.”

“I—What? You placed bets on me?”

“I was the one who believed you didn’t need the feather to fly, Dumbo. Remember that. Alec and Izzy were the ones who doubted.”

“You’re actually asking me out? Not a joke?”

Jace raised an eyebrow at him. “Wow, you really do doubt yourself, don’t you? Don’t make me regret this.” He rolled his eyes playfully.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll get a drink with you. Sure. Cool. When?”

“How about Friday night? Hunter’s Moon at nine.”

“Sure, yeah. I’ll be there.”

“And Simon?”

“Yeah?”

“If you wanted my number, all you had to do was ask.” He grabbed Simon’s hand and pulled out a sharpie from his back pocket, scrawling his number on the underside of Simon’s forearm.

By the time Friday came around, Simon had sufficiently worried himself into a panic attack. He couldn’t tell anyone why because then they would know the truth about the fake date and getting stood up. None of those were highlights on Simon’s list of experiences.

Clary thought it was just his nerves; that he was really into this guy and that was making him lose his mind. “He likes you, Simon, don’t worry. He wouldn’t have asked you out again if he didn’t. You’re just being paranoid.” She smoothed out his shirt one last time before smiling up at him. “Izzy told me Jace is really into you. That he couldn’t wait to ask you out again. Now, go. Have a good time.”

Simon decided to take the bus instead of walking, so he was again early to his date. Maia smiled at him as soon as he walked in.

“What can I get you? More shots?”

“No, just a beer please.”

“Make that two.” Jace dropped down onto the stool next to Simon’s and winked at him. “How’s it going?”

“Good. Yeah, good, you know. Not much—good, yeah.”

Jace smiled, shaking his head. His hair fell into his eyes slowly, some falling across his nose. “Me too.”

“Clary told me that Izzy said you were really into me and couldn’t wait to ask me out again.” Simon smiled shyly at Jace, guarding himself.

“My sister is good at a lot of things, but she hasn’t quite mastered keeping her nose out of other people’s business.”

“Yeah?” There was a hopeful look on Simon’s face.

“It’ll drive you crazy.” When Maia set down their drinks, Jace tapped his against Simon’s before taking a swig.

“So is this, like, for real?”

Suddenly, Jace grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him. Simon was shocked, but the feeling was better than anything he could remember. Jace’s lips were soft, for one, and his soft blond hair was tickling Simon’s cheek. The hands holding Simon’s face were rough and strong, and the touch sent what felt like a spark of electricity down his spine.