When Alec woke it took him a whole thirty seconds to realize he wasn't in his own bed. Had he slept over at Maia's place? Blinking in the low morning light Alec took in the water stains on the ceiling, and suddenly it all came flooding back to him. His own bed wasn't his any more; it belonged to strangers in official looking uniforms like everything else he'd ever called his own.
This bed was far too uncomfortable for a lie in, so Alec got up. Collecting some clothes out of the garbage bag on the floor, Alec went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. It was a strange feeling knowing in the last few minutes he'd used everything he owned.
Abandoning his sleeping - or possibly pretending to sleep - parents, Alec left the motel and started his walk to school. It took him a moment to get his bearings, what with this motel being nowhere near where his old home had been, but with the help of a few landmarks Alec figured out where to go. The whole thing made him miss his cell phone even more for the sake of it's GPS.
Even without getting more than a little lost, Alec was still late for his first class. He ducked into the back row hoping his teacher wouldn't notice. To his surprise it looked like he'd succeed, until the end of the class when his teacher singled him out.
"Alexander," Mr. Carstairs said gently as people were leaving. "Please stay behind."
It only took about a minute for the classroom to empty, but to Alec it felt like forever. On top of everything else, was he about to get in trouble for being late?
"Some troubling news has reached me," Mr Carstairs began. "Am I wrong in thinking that your parents house was repossessed yesterday?"
"No, you wouldn't be wrong about that," Alec replied, strangely relieved that at least life wasn't adding to his problems by giving him detention.
"I know you are graduating next week, and high school is basically over for you," Mr. Carstairs continued. "But as I've been your Science teacher for the last five years, I do want to help in any way I can."
"Thanks," Alec replied, genuinely grateful. "I'll remember that."
"If you need a place to stay for a little while, or anything, all you have to do is ask and my wife will make up the spare bedroom for you," Mr. Carstairs smiled.
"Mrs. Grey you mean?" Alec inquired.
"Yes," Mr. Carstairs smiled. "But I'm sure if you were sleeping on her couch she'd let you call her Tessa."
"I thought you said you had a spare bedroom?" Alec asked, though he supposed a nice couch would be more comfortable than the motel mattress he could still feel the springs from.
"Metaphorical couch," Mr. Carstairs corrected. He looked up at the clock on the wall behind Alec's head then added, "Shouldn't you be getting to your next class."
"Oh, right," Alec said almost jumping as he ran off towards his locker.
It was strangely wonderful to open it and find that all his school stuff was still there. He'd never been so happy to see his binder, calculator, and textbooks before in his life. This meant he had a pen to his name!
"You are alive!" Alec turned to see his best friend standing there looking very annoyed at him. "Why didn't you answer any of my texts?"
"My phone was confiscated," Alec replied.
"Oh, come on," Maia scoffed. "We are too old for our parents to still be confiscating our phones."
Taking a deep breath Alec turned to explain. "My parents didn't take my phone. In fact, they got their phones taken as well. Their house was repossessed yesterday along with everything in it," Alec said evenly. "I slept in a motel last night."
Maia just started at him for a moment, her mouth slightly open.
"Honestly, I really really don't want to talk about it," Alec sighed. "Can we please talk about you?"
Alec turned away, his muscles tensed as he waited to hear how she would responded.
"I see," Maia said softly. Then her tone changed completely, and she added in her usual voice. "Well, if you'd checked your texts you'd know that Jordan and I broke up again last night."
"How many times is that now?" Alec laughed, relieved she'd changed the topic. It felt so good to laugh.
"Oh, I've lost track," Maia shrugged with a wave of her hand.
"Let's see," Alec smiled, distracting his brain from his own problems to focus on hers. "You two first went out in what, eighth grade?"
"Yep," Maia smiled. "For a whole four weeks."
"Then you got back together over the summer," Alec began counting on his fingers. "And broke up before Christmas."
"Oh, but we got back together for about a week at New Years," Maia piped in.
"I don't even know if that counts," Alec sighed. "Weren't you just worried you'd have no one to kiss on New Years?"
"No," Maia dismissed the idea at once, though Alec knew he was right. "It was the way the timing worked out. Had nothing to do with New Years."
"Ah uh," Alec smirked, giving her a look of great disbelief.
"Anyway," Maia continued. "After that we stayed broken up for a while."
"And by awhile, I think you mean about eight months," Alec replied with a smile.
"No way," Maia scoffed. "It was more like ten."
"And that takes us into what?" Alec mused. "Tenth grade?"
Maia only had time to nod before they reached their next class. Alec sat in the back of Math class, and all but tuned Mr. Morgenstern out as he continued to count the number of times Maia and Jordan had broken up and got back together throughout high school, even going so far as to make a few notes. After all, it wasn't like he really needed to listen. The lessons were just exam review anyway, and Alec didn't have the energy to take any of it in. By the end of the class he had it all worked out. Including their break up last night, the final count was nine. If history was any indication - and Alec's math was right - Maia and Jordan would be back together within five months.
"So in a way, you were doing Math," Maia chuckled at him as they left the classroom.
"Yeah, and you need to stop messing with that poor guy's heart," Alec replied. "Or you'll end up at an even dozen."
"Oh, like you can talk," Maia scoffed as they reached their lockers once more. "Apart from that crush on a straight guy, you never even gave me the name of what high school relationships have you racked up?"
"Zero," Alec replied, even though she already knew the answer.
"Exactly," Maia huffed, but she was smiling. This was far from the first time he'd gotten the third degree for being chronically single.
"Yeah, yeah," Alec waved his hand dismissively. "I'll see you after gym class." Closing up his locker Alec headed towards the front of the school and into the gym.
In his gym clothes, Alec walked out onto the circuit where he spotted Jace in the corner and waved.
"Did you forget to charge your phone again?" Jace asked the moment he was within ear shot.
"Long story," Alec replied. He really didn't want to get into this again, especially not with Jace.
"No worries," Jace shrugged. "Wasn't that important anyway. I was just super bored last night."
"I think the last few weeks of high school are just like that," Alec replied. "We've done the grad ceremony, and finished the curriculum, so it's just review and exams left."
"And gym it seems," Jace sighed as Mr. Herondale gave them the signal to start running.
Despite the fact that Alec hated circuit he rather liked their teacher, and that wasn't just because Mr. Herondale looked like an older version of Alec. Despite his bad sarcasm and often cranky mood, Mr. Herondale was a fair teacher and genuinely seemed to love his subject.
Mr. Herondale's whistle blew again, and everyone had to stop running and pick a station. Alec and Jace ended up lifting weights for the minute before the running started again.
Usually only the first twenty minutes of gym were dedicated to circuit, and today was no different. When the running torment finally ended, Mr. Herondale had them all play dodgeball, also known as the gym teacher equivalent of watching a movie.
"I think the best solution is just to close the school till exams," Jace was whining as they changed out of their gym clothes. There had been a time when Alec would have found this very distracting, but he'd gotten over his crush on Jace years ago. Even if the after effects of it were that Alec still had a nagging desire to impress Jace, or at the very least, not embarrass himself around Jace.
"Do you want to go to Principle Graymark and tell him that, or should I?" Alec laughed.
"Don't give me ideas," Jace grumbled as they dragged their feet to their last class of the day.
This was one of the few classes Alec didn't have any of his friends in since either Jace nor Maia had taken Art classes once they were optional. It wasn't so much that Alec had a great interest in art, or a great talent for it for that matter, but rather that he enjoyed the time spent doing the activity itself. There was something therapeutic, or even meditative in putting pencil to canvas.
Like always, art class seemed to fly on gilded wings as Alec sketched. Today his drawings all seemed to include a dark presences or twisted form of reality. Ms. Fairchild - as she liked to be refered to as since her divorce - glanced over at his work a few times during class, but didn't directly comment on the nature of them.
And then school was over…
Alec suddenly felt vulnerable again, as if the days school had formed some sort of protective layer between the events of yesterday and himself. Tomorrow Alec would be able to return to school for much of the day, but what was he to do between now and then? Should he go back to that motel? He hadn't seen Izzy at school today, so did that mean he should go to Simon's place and check on her? There was always the option of returning to Mr. Carstairs office and taking him up on that metaphorical couch. Or should he ask Maia or Jace if he could stay over tonight? He very much doubted his parents previous sleepover rules mattered anymore.
While his mind wondered Alec had somehow made from Art Class it to his school locker. Placed his books back inside, Alec simply stared at them.
"I know you don't want to talk about it," a soft familiar voice spoke on his left. "But, I think you should."
"Can I sleep at your place tonight?" Alec whispered.
"Of course," Maia replied. He could hear the smile in her voice, though he hadn't turned to face her. He stayed very still, unwilling to turn and engage with her. Alec liked the safety of the school. Apart from a few moments, school today had been the same as it had always been. Here he'd been able to forget the state of his life, pretend it had never happened. But now that he was faced with leaving this place that fantasy was shattered.
"Come on, I think mom's making meatloaf," Maia said trying to encourage him.
"Ew," Alec whined. "Why does she do that so often anyway?" Maia shrugged, and it was then that Alec realized he'd turned without thinking about it to express his dislike of the dinner choices. An automatic smile formed on his face as Alec took a moment to appreciate how lucky he was to have a friend like Maia who always knew exactly what to say.
"I think it's some kind of parent rule," Maia continued as if this were serious business. "Having children must have somehow cause people to want to cook meatloaf."
"Somehow I doubt there have been any double blind studies on that," Alec replied with a half-hearted laugh.
"I don't know," Maia countered. "It's a big world. Who knows what people have studied."
"I'm going out on a limb here in saying that anything meatloaf and reproduction have in common is nothing but a coincidence."
They were walking out of the school doors now while Alec tried to remind himself that he'd get to come back tomorrow. He had to focus on this moment in time, only if he was to get through the next.
What do you think so far? Please leave me a review and tell me what you think! Thanks for taking the time to read my new story. :)
Sneak Peek Chapter 03
As he sat in Math class Alec tried very hard not to add. He didn't want to count the days until he wasn't supposed to be here anymore. He didn't want to think about what would happen next week when his exams were over and adulthood hit him square in the face. For there would be no putting it off to go to college as he'd expected. Until two days ago his whole life had been laid out before him, a neat little path with many guarantees of support and structure, but now that path was shattered and all Alec could see of his future was emptiness. No matter how he tried the image wouldn't form in his mind. Alec couldn't picture tomorrow. He could imagine what he might want it to look like, but he couldn't see that future with his own face. A stranger held this imaginary life that no longer mixed with his own.
