Jace wasn't able to sleep at all that night, after hearing about Isabelle's professed love for him through her door, something he shouldn't have heard and wants to kill himself for hearing. So instead he resorted to staring out his bedroom window all night listening to the sound of cars passing by the highway and watching the sun slowly come up.

He knew he'd look horrible the next day- and he sure did. His hair was wildly unkempt and his eyes had dark circles underneath them. Also, he was starving like mad and considered going to Taki's for breakfast, then decided against it. Later on he found himself doing what his instinct had always told him to do whenever he let it go wild under his control. He decided to go to Clary's. No, he just didn't decide to go to Clary's. He decided to go to Clary's so he could tell the truth about Izzy.

It was the only thing he figured was worth doing, something that would probably get matters out of his own hands (or at least have someone to share the burden of knowing with) and what better person to tell it to than his own girlfriend, right? And despite Clary not being a normal girl as he'd deduced, he figured Clary had an inkling of whatever weird stuff it was that girls were made of.

As he got dressed and got his phone out to let Clary know beforehand, he stopped in his tracks. Clary is Simon's best friend. He knew that no matter how much Clary loved him, he really can't let her decide between her best friend and her boyfriend. Simon, the Daylighter who was in love with... Isabelle. Isabelle, who (as crazy and awful as it sounds) was in love with him. He didn't need a full minute to know where this was headed to, if he decided to tell Clary about it. Simon would want to kill him.

That was assuming Simon didn't already know about this. Jace thought not, since if he did then he probably should be expecting an ambush from him right about now.

And he wouldn't be able to kill him back. He still had the Mark of Cain on him.

He sat back down on the bed, feeling depressed, wondering how on earth had he gotten himself in such a tight situation. He was a Shadowhunter, for God's sake. He needn't worry about this kind of thing. This was precisely the only kind of thing mundane teenagers worried about. While he, on the other hand, had killing demons and saving the world on his shoulders.

He weighed his options. He can't tell Clary about this. Obviously not Alec, who probably hates him now more than he'd like to admit. First off he'd almost let Isabelle die in the hands of the Greater Demon, and now Isabelle was moping because of him. Such a great parabatai he was. In short, he had no one to confide into, and it would have been okay had it not been Isabelle he were dealing with. He groaned in frustration.

A stronger need got the better of him and he decided to go down to the kitchen for breakfast, knowing that Maryse left something edible in the fridge. She always did. He walked out of his bedroom and into the hallway, passing by Isabelle's room as he went, trying as hard as he could to prevent himself from knocking. But almost as if she had read his mind, her doorknob turned and she got out, and Jace was staring at a shell-shocked Isabelle.

They stared at each other for a moment. Time itself had slowed down, and Jace, despite himself, felt uncomfortable. He tried on the best careless-looking face he could muster and smiled at her.

"Hey, Iz. I was just on my way down for breakfast. You hungry?" he hoped his voice was as nonchalant as it sounded in his head. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Uh, yeah, actually. I was just on my way down too," she replied, carefully not meeting his gaze. Jace hated the moment.

"Alright. Let's get to it then," he said, turning and walking ahead of Iz and not looking back, wincing inwardly.

Breakfast was torture. Neither of them spoke. Jace had tried staring her down through his tomato soup, hoping some sort of revelation would just occur right then so he could stop worrying about it. Isabelle on the other hand was determined not to look up at him. Carefully putting his spoon down, Jace decided to break the silence and go for an obvious attack.

"So, is Simon treating you well?" he asked in a cool voice, watching her intently. He watched as Isabelle, startled, looked up at him, a feigned look of curiosity in her eyes.

"Why do you ask? I mean," she blinked fast, "...why so random?"

"Just making sure I have no reason to kill him," he said rather menacingly, the way he always had.

She tried to brush this off by snickering. And she thought she was so clever.

"You don't have to. I mean, I broke up with him," she said, looking up at him, trying to match his stare-down.

Jace tried to act surprised. So she had already made her move. Of course. He wondered if she had already told Simon about him, too? This was getting dangerous.

In the most I-don't-give-a-shit way possible, he asked, "Why?" and got an impatient look from Isabelle in return. That, or she was nervous.

"Some reason you don't need to know about," she said, and with a smirk added, "Why are you suddenly so interested anyway? It's not like this has got anything to do with you in the first place," and returned to her pancakes.

Jace mumbled more to himself, but loud enough for her to hear, "Hasn't it."

Isabelle had her eyebrows raised, and Jace thought that this was it, wasn't it, he was past the point of no return.

"What?" was she said, probably hoping it sounded dubious.

"The last time I checked, Jace, the world didn't revolve around you and your arrogant ass," she continued in a haughty tone.

"Now if you're going to continue wasting my time, I might as well go up and get back to training," she finally snapped, again probably hoping for a quick escape, but Jace wasn't going to let her get away that easily.

"I heard you and Alec talking," he said as Isabelle stood up to leave.

"Last night. I heard you say something. About me. Care to talk about that, Isabelle?" he asked, and Isabelle had already frozen in place, her eyes widening.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," she said as she turned away from him to take her plate to the counter. At that Jace actually laughed, shaking his head. He had thought better of Isabelle.

"I think you do," he pressed on, standing up himself. Isabelle turned back around to face him.

"Don't even bother denying it, Iz. I've been living with you since I was 12. You think you can fool mundanes that easily, and probably that Daylighter as well, but you can't fool me. Why, after all this time?"

Isabelle had resorted to looking down on the ground once again. He thought she was going to storm off like she always did, and this time she did, after she had looked up and her eyes were shining with tears. Jace was taken aback. The strongest girl he knew was crying in front of him, and before he could say a word, she had walked past him and out of the kitchen.

OOC: here's the situation so far:

Alec, Simon, and Jace know about Isabelle's feelings. Clary doesn't know about Jace in particular, but she knows Iz left Si for someone else (kind of awkward if she finds out it was her bf but more on that later). Simon has no idea that Jace knows, in fact no one but Iz has, and the last time we've seen him Si is plotting his 'revenge'. Jace has probably figured it out by now, that Si knows, but he has no idea what to do. Does he tell Clary or confront Simon? Iz wouldn't budge and has decided to distance herself from it all.

Still trying to figure out how to go on from here. With Si's Mark he's pretty much unstoppable on his own, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve ;)