#isalyn

“Please pick up, Clary, please pick up, please,” Izzy mumbled into her phone as she assessed herself in her bathroom mirror. Her eye was almost swollen shut after being literally kicked in the face during boxing class, blue and purple hues growing more each minute.

When the phone went to voicemail, she cursed and glanced around her room in a panic. She didn’t have enough makeup in her menial collection to cover the various tones of her injury nor did she have the skill to get her face looking flawless by her brother’s big event that night. She needed her best friend to make her look photo-ready for when she saw Joc– for when she had to attend the event, she corrected. She had to look put together for the party, not for her best friend’s mother whom she definitely didn’t have the biggest, most embarrassing crush on.

She had no other choice but to go to Clary’s and hope that her parents were too busy at the Institute to see her like that. She grabbed her phone and the dress she had specially ordered for the special night before practically sprinting to her best friend’s house. She texted Clary approximately fifteen times on her run, stumbling over random bumps in the sidewalk and having a few close calls with telephone poles, but none of them were responded to.

When she arrived at the house, she climbed up the steps two at a time and knocked wildly on the door, calling Clary’s name as she did.

To her horror, it wasn’t Clary that opened the door, but Jocelyn–the object of her affection and the last person Izzy had wanted to see. She tried to cover her eye with her hand but ended up knocking the corner of her phone directly into a sensitive spot on the bruised skin. She winced and hissed at the pain but froze when Jocelyn reached out to grab her wrist and tug her inside.

“Isabelle, what happened? Did someone hurt you? I can call Luke and–”

“No!” Izzy shouted a bit too quickly and loudly. “I mean, it’s not necessary, Mrs. Morgenstern.”

“You have a black eye the size of a fist and you expect me not to notify anyone?”

“It’s really the size of a foot,” Izzy muttered, mostly to herself even though Jocelyn heard her and sent her an unimpressed gaze.

“Sit down while I grab some ice and then you can tell me what happened,” Jocelyn relented, urging Izzy toward the couch before making her way into the kitchen. When she came back, she had an ice pack wrapped in a towel in her hand. She sat beside Izzy and instead of handing it over, she held Izzy’s chin delicately in her fingers and pressed it to Izzy’s bruised skin exactly how a mother would.

Mother–Clary’s mother–her best friend’s mother.

“It was an accident, really,” Izzy explained when Jocelyn finally settled. “I was in my kickboxing class and I wasn’t paying attention because I was going through the schedule for tonight to make sure everything was perfect and someone got a little too enthusiastic about their sidekick and–”

“Isabelle, slow down. How’s your head?” she asked, leaning in a little to more closely inspect Izzy’s eyes. Izzy hoped she couldn’t see the hearts swirling in them.

“I’m fine, Mrs. Morgenstern–”

“Please, I’ve told you to call me Jocelyn, dear.”

“I– I really am fine. I just needed Clary to try and cover up this stupid bruise tonight so I don’t look like a freaking victim in all of the pictures. Tonight was supposed to be perfect,” Izzy groaned, grabbing the ice pack from Jocelyn’s hand as she fell back into the couch. “I was supposed to look beautiful.”

“Darling, you are beautiful,” Jocelyn reasoned, resting a comforting hand on Izzy’s leg. She tried to control the way her heart leaped into her throat which might have been the only thing keeping the butterflies in her stomach from fluttering out of her mouth.

“Thank you, Mrs. Morg– Jocelyn,” she corrected at the raised eyebrow she received. “Do you think Clary will be back soon?”

Jocelyn shook her head sympathetically. “She rushed off to the Institute early. I was going to ask you if something had happened today because she really didn’t seem like herself.”

“I think she’s nervous for Jace to meet you,” Izzy said with a laugh. “Which I don’t understand, really, but then again, I’ve never had to introduce anyone to my parents.”

“You will someday, Izzy,” Jocelyn urged. She patted Izzy’s leg once more before standing up and starting to wander in the direction of Clary’s room. “Anyway, just because Clary isn’t here doesn’t mean we can’t help you fix that eye, now does it?” Izzy’s eyes widened at the thought of Jocelyn being so close to her for that long and she gulped down her nervousness as she answered.

“I can just grab what I need and head to the Institute, I’m sure that Mr. Morgenstern wouldn’t mind me being there early.”

“Trust me, Isabelle,” Jocelyn said as she reentered the living room where Izzy waited anxiously, “I’m the one who taught Clary how to cover up. I can have you looking like perfection in an instant.” Jocelyn sat back down beside Izzy and reached for the ice pack, removing it to inspect the bruise again. “Look at that, the swelling is already going down!”

“That’s… good,” Izzy said hesitantly, too distracted by the way Jocelyn tucked a stray strand of hair that had fallen from her braid out behind her ear for better access.

“Just sit still for me, okay?” Jocelyn requested, grabbing a stick of something out of Clary’s makeup bag. “I’m just going to put a little bit of concealer on the darkest spots to make sure they don’t shine through and then cover with some foundation and powder. Does that sound okay?”

Izzy nodded because she had no idea what any of that really meant and was too focused on staring at Jocelyn’s eyes to say much else. She had never been so close, never been fully able to take in just how beautiful her eyes were. They were green, similarly to Clary’s–obviously–but there was a ring of hazel around them so they were just a smidge darker. Her skin that close up was still practically perfect even with the few wrinkles that had started forming around her eyes and mouth caused by her stunning smile.

She took only a moment to let her eyes dart down to Jocelyn’s lips. She couldn’t risk being caught but more than that, she couldn’t resist seeing them up close so she could better imagine what they might feel like in a kiss. That would never happen, as far as Izzy was concerned, so what could it really hurt to memorize the plumpness of them, the dark pink hue, and the little lines that creased them.

Izzy’s eyes shot back up to Jocelyn’s as she pulled away, saying, “There you are. As beautiful as ever.” Izzy wished she would stop with the compliments before her entire face turned a shade of red even makeup couldn’t cover. “Take a look and tell me what you think!” she said excitedly as she held up a hand mirror.

“It’s like… Wow, Jocelyn, it’s like it was never there,” Izzy said, brushing her fingertips across the still sensitive skin. Jocelyn grabbed her hand away, holding it in her own for a moment longer than Izzy thought she needed to.

“But it is, sweetheart. You have to be careful with it. You really should be icing it but I understand how important this event is,” Jocelyn said as she let go of Izzy’s hand. She was so understanding, so beautiful, so perfect in every way. Izzy found herself leaning forward without realizing it as they gazed at each other, hope thrumming through her veins. “My husband speaks so highly of you, Isabelle.”

Husband, Izzy repeated. Husband–Wife–Mother–Best friend. What the hell was she doing?

She stood up like a shot, knocking the mirror right out of Jocelyn’s hands and tossing the ice pack that had been discarded on her lap straight to the floor. Jocelyn watched her with shocked eyes, standing up and holding her hands out like she was ready to comfort Izzy. One more touch, though, and Izzy was done.

“I really should get going. Your husband is going to wonder where I am and Clary probably needs me to calm her nerves. I– Thank you, Jocelyn,” Izzy said just as she was about to open the door. “You really helped me today.”

“You’re Clary’s best friend, Isabelle. You’re practically a daughter to me,” Jocelyn said with a smile like one sentiment didn’t destroy every positive feeling Izzy had in the last few minutes.

“I’ve got to go. Thanks again!” Izzy shouted, slamming the door behind her as she left. When she heard Jocelyn’s receding footsteps, she leaned back against the door, squeezing her eyes together as she took a deep breath of the fresh air that didn’t smell like Jocelyn’s perfume.

“Uh, you okay, Iz?” Clary’s voice broke her from her mess of a mind.

“You’re the worst, you know that?” Izzy asked rhetorically.

“What did I do?” Izzy ignored her in favor of grabbing her hand and dragging her away.