"Is it really that hard to believe!?" I screamed at her. My mother, her mouth agape, horror written across her face. "How many goddamned hints did I give you? All those times I asked for your opinion on gay marriage, all of those times I- not to subtly, mind you- changed the subject when you asked about girls! And here you are so... so utterly shocked that you found me with a another man in my bed..." I stopped short, horror settling into my veins. She knew. She knew and she'd tell the school about Magnus. She knew and she'd send me away. It was over. It was all over. "Alec, sweety... please, this is just a phase, I'll work it out with the school so that that boy who talked you into this is expelled..." My eyes widened in panic and I grasped my mother's shoulders. "No.. you can't! His scholarship is all he has, and he has no where to go... Mom don't do this to me!" I knew I was not helping my case, I knew that it was already finished with... "To you? Do this to you? You're the son who has betrayed me! I did not raise you to become a homosexual! I do not approve of the lifestyle you have adopted! And that other boy.. Damn him for making you like this!"
"No one made me like this! Mom.. don't you see? I've always been gay! I was born gay and I am not going to deny who I am because of your so called morals!"
Her slap sent me staggering backwards.
"Get out. Get out before I do something I'll regret. Get out and go to that sick boyfriend of yours. Get out and hope your father doesn't kill you. I can't beleive.. All those years I let you share a room with Jace... and the whole time you've been... It's so disgusting! Get out of my house. Don't speak to my children. Get the hell out."
I stood there dumbfounded, my hand on my throbbing cheekbone, my knees shaking. I could feel the tears pricking at my eyes and a sob building in my chest- I was going to have to leave it all. I couldn't protect Magnus from the fate my mother was about to bring him... I couldn't protect Isabelle from her asshole of a boyfriend... And Jace... oh god, Jace...
"Out" My mother whispered one more time, "I'll give you ten minutes." She turned on her heel and left me standing alone in my bedroom.
I guess I should start from the beginning, shouldn't I?
It all started with a detention. I had stupidly picked fight with some ass who had been hitting on Isabelle. I always was quick to anger when It came to my younger siblings- I'd only been in trouble at school when it involved protecting them. I was sitting in the main office, in a uncomfortable chair just outside the headmasters private study, with nothing to stare at but an ornately framed photograph of the pope. It was times like these when I questioned Catholic education.
I had been sitting there for what seemed like an eternity when Headmaster Morden came up to hand me my detention slip. She said something about how he Headmaster was busy and would let me know when we could have proper meeting about my "uncouth behavior" and then she scuttled away in her precarious high heels. I sighed and took my leave from the office with as little grace as is possible of a Lightwood. I banged knee terribly against the chair, managed to knock over my backpack, and nearly dislodged the pope from his place on the wall. I muttered a hurried sorry to the secretary and made my escape, blushing from embarrassment.
My detention slip informed me that I would be serving my detention in the theater, painting set pieces. I would have most defiantly preferred stacking books in the library or cleaning toilets or something equally unpleasant,, because theater kids usually were to eccentric for me to handle. However, I still reluctantly made my way to the theater, dragging my feet. When I reached the theater doors, some one pushed them open with so much force that I fell backwards. The kid that had knocked me down regarded me with surprise. I also looked him up in down with mild shock.
His hair was a wild array of colors, and it all glittered. His eyes were similarly fantastic- they were yellow and slit like a cats and most certainly the coolest contacts I'd ever seen. He wore thick black eyeliner that complemented his olive skin perfectly, and little black studs in his ears. One look at him and I had to catch my breath and repeat to myself the seemingly endless chanting of "not gay" that came with being raised in an uptight catholic household.
The boy blinked at me a couple times before finally offering me a hand up, which I respectfully declined. "Are you the detention kid?" He said, "We were promised one, but you are one late detention slave." Dentition slave? "Magnus, by the way, Magnus Bane. Anyway, you were meant to be here ten minutes ago. I was going to the office to get you." "I.. I uh, I'm sorry?" I stuttered, intensely confused. "It's totally alright babe. I mean, man, dude... person." He looked away at that, a cute blush gracing his cheeks, and I had to hold my breath. "Okay. So. This way to your indentured servitude..." He gestured for me to follow him into the theater, "So, unless you've been living under a rock, you know we're doing Little Shop of Horrors. And you'll be helping me paint sets, because that's what detention slaves do. It's all very High School Musical"
"High School.. what?"
"Don't tell me you don't know what High School Musical is! And I thought we were going to have a June wedding..."
He blushed a little bit obviously still testing the waters with his casual flirting. Did he... Maybe suspect..? No. He couldn't. I had given no signs at all! I was safe. Magnus was just being an overly eccentric theater kid. Right?