Distractions - Chapter 30: Chapter 30

Luke
Jocelyn (because Dad says I have to invite her if I invite Luke and there's no way Luke wouldn't be invited so Jocelyn comes too I guess)
Raphael (that idiot is going to get beat up so bad when he gets here. He deserves it for making Forest miserable for years when she thought he was dead)
Alec L. (Forest's boyfriend!!)
Magnus B. (Forest's boyfriend too!!)
Jace H. (Izzy's brother, Clary's boyfriend, and Forest's overprotective brother from another mother)
Harper created an invite (both a physical copy and a digital copy) and sent them off to everyone who was invited. (She gave Clary the ones to give to Izzy, Jace, Alec, Magnus, and Raphael because she couldn't find an address for them anywhere.) At last, it was time for the party.
"Everest's here!" Clary yelled from the kitchen window. Harper scrambled up from where she sat trying to put lights up under the tree. She gave Luke a thumbs up when she had the camera ready.
"Send her back!" Luke yelled from the grill.
The backdoor opened and Harper hit record. Everest walked out of the backdoor, hand in hand with Izzy. Harper smiled fondly at the happy expression on her sister-in-all-but-blood's face. It was good to see her so happy. It had been a while since she had seen her as happy as she had been in the last few months—breakdowns excluded.
"What's going—" Everest's words trailed off as she took in the backyard.
There were fairy lights strung up in the trees and around the fence, folding tables decorated with rainbow plates and napkins, crisp white sheets draped just right in one corner of the yard to create a blanket fort large enough for at least a dozen people, blankets and pillows filling most of the space. Luke was at the grill, smoking ham, while Jay, Brad, and her mom alternated between prepping food in the kitchen and bringing it out to the tables covered in rainbow covers to prevent bugs from getting into the sure to be delicious meal.
Jace and Clary—who had slipped out from behind Everest and Izzy at some point—leaned against an empty table with smiles on their faces. Gino, Raphael, and Simon were at the edge of the patio and Everest couldn't help but wonder about what they were talking about that wasn't resulting in maiming. Magnus and Alec stood under the tree nearest to the house and suddenly it made sense why Izzy had made Everest change into the cream dress and deep red jacket before they left. Magnus and Alec both had cream or red pieces in their outfits. For Magnus it was his wine red shirt, for Alec it was his cream shirt. She smiled at them, eyes shining and cheeks pink with happiness. Alec smiled back kindly and Magnus blew her a kiss.
Someone just outside of Everest's view cleared their throat and Everest turned, only to freeze. There, standing by the coolers, was Roslyn. Dressed in a light blue suit jacket, black leggings, and a white tank top, the girl—no, she could only be called a young woman now—was smiling.
"You're home?" Everest's voice cracked slightly and she winced.
Roslyn didn't seem to care as she held out her arms. "I'm home now."
Everest didn't waste a second before dashing into her friend's arms and hugging her tightly. They rocked back and forth slightly as they just took in each other's presence.
"I missed you, Lyn," Everest muttered into her friend's light caramel-toned hair.
Roslyn leaned her forehead on Everest's shoulder. "I missed you too, Glitz."
They stayed like that for a few more moments and then separated when they were called to different areas of the yard. Everest walked over to her partners, grateful that she had been able to convince Izzy to let her wear flats as she almost tripped. Alec caught her, chuckling.
"Shush," she pouted. "You're not the one who was made to walk across the Institute with a book on your head."
"Isn't that supposed to help your balance?" Magnus raised an eyebrow.
Everest frowned. "Probably. But it just messed mine up."
"Try not to fall if no one's there to catch you," Alec said jokingly. Everest rolled her eyes and leaned back into his chest. His arms wrapped around her waist, her right hand reaching out for Magnus's, and when she laced her fingers with his, she was comforted by the familiar sound of their rings clinking against each other.
Everest smiled as she looked at the sight around her, all her friends and family together and happy. "Everyone's here," she said softly.
"What do you mean, Cupcake?"
"Everyone's here." She waved her freehand in front of her to reference everyone in the backyard. "All my friends and family are here."
"That's a good thing right?" Magnus gave her an inquisitive look.
"A very good thing." There was a crash off to the side and Everest leaned her head back against Alec's chest in exasperation. "Maybe. My answer might change to a maybe depending on what that was."
Alec's chest fell heavily when he sighed. "I don't think that your dads are too happy with your brother right now."
Everest's eyes slipped closed. "Which brother?" she asked, running through her mental list of siblings (specifically non-blood-related ones). "My level of concern depends on which one they're angry at."
"Raphael," Magnus laughed.
The young woman sighed and lifted her head, deep purples, reds, and oranges filling the edges of her vision as her hair fell in her face. "Oh no."
"Was that a sarcastic 'oh no' or a concerned 'oh no?'" Alec asked.
"Not sure."
Everest unwrapped herself from her boyfriends and walked closer to where Brad and Jay were lecturing Raphael.
"...making us all think you were dead," Jay was saying.
Everest facepalmed. "They're calling him out for the situation with Ms. Kidnapper."
Alec and Magnus laughed beside her.
"Uhh, guys?" Everest called out. They all turned to her. "Maybe now isn't the time to lecture Phae? With it not being a lecture-worthy moment right now?"
Raphael's expression, which had turned smug, fell again when Everest began to speak again.
"I'm all for you lecturing Raphael, so long as I'm there to see it, but can you lecture him later?"
Jay and Brad shared a long look that only parents had and then nodded. Brad turned to Raphael.
"We're going to have a talk later, understand?" He nodded and then Brad's gaze swept over the other guests. "Roslyn, we're going to have a talk about timing and when it is and isn't appropriate to tell people that your psychotic parents are stalking you so you have to leave. Specifically how you should tell people before you're in Ireland. Luke, we're going to have a talk about priorities and such. Simon and Clary, we'll have a talk about not leaving your sister in a bookstore for two days without going back for her."
Clary and Simon started protesting. "We couldn't find her!" Clary sputtered. "We thought she went home!"
"It was a bookstore," Jay deadpanned. "In what world would she have gone home?"
Everest's boyfriends gave her amusedly confused looks, but she just shot them a grin.
"Izzy, Jace, Alec, Magnus, and Gino, you guys are fine as far as we know. But if you do something that's not fine, looking at you Alec and Magnus, we will be having a talk." Jay gave the two a stern, highly parental look. "And Jocelyn, we really need to have a talk about parenting, secrets, not dating insane psychotic men, parenting, and not disappearing for weeks without warning. Got it?"
Years ago, Everest's mom would have been offended by the way she was being spoken to. But now? Jocelyn Fairchild just smiled and nodded. That was character development if Everest had ever seen it.
Brad and Jay gave the group one last parental look before Brad grinned and said, "Alright, enough with the parent lectures. Go have fun."
Those who had not been issued a warning about a forthcoming lecture laughed maniacally as the others pouted. (And oh what a sight it was to see Raphael Santiago, Luke Garroway, Jocelyn Fairchild, Roslyn Henry, Clary Fairchild, and Simon Lewis all pouting.) Everyone dispersed and Everest was pulled into a conversation with Jace and Gino about how to improve the glitter bombs.
Over the course of the next four hours, Everest spent time with everyone at the party. She played Capri sun pong (which was the minor appropriate version of beer pong), lost a game of water tag, won a glitter battle, ate a lot of cake, drank a lot of Ginger Ale, and laughed so hard she cried. By the end of the party, she had given up on changing clothes when she got glitter all over herself and had a Capri sun dumped on her by Jace when she knocked him into the drink cooler. She was sticky, covered in glitter, and grinning as she ate cake with a spoon. She was really channeling one of her OCs at that moment; she loved it.
As the party died down and some people left while others fell asleep somewhere inside, Everest laid with Magnus and Alec outside, under the fairy lights in the trees. All of their legs were tangled and they were wrapped around each other so much that you could hardly tell where one person started and another ended. Alec twirled her hair around his fingers, Magnus traced designs on her stomach, and Everest tapped a mindless rhythm on Alec's chest while also kicking at Magnus's feet. (She wasn't entirely sure why she was kicking at his feet, but Magnus wasn't complaining and for whatever reason doing so made her brain very happy with the stimulation, so she kept kicking at his feet.)
"Did you have fun tonight?" Magnus murmured.
She hummed. "Yeah, it was fun."
"Good, I'm glad."
Alec's hand that wasn't twirling her hair moved from the ground to rest across her waist, just below where Magnus was tracing patterns. They all moved closer together, if that was possible, and Everest managed to grab the bottled water by her head. She managed to twist off the cap just fine, but when she tried to take a sip of the water it seemed that she had forgotten how gravity works. The water completely missed her mouth and spilled everywhere. Everest stared down at her lap in disbelief and scoffed in disgruntled amusement. On either side of her, Alec and Magnus laughed. She pouted.
"I hate gravity."
They laughed harder.