Author's note: Oh my, I'm so sorry for not posting a note or anything in the last chapter. I was fairly drunk and didn't think it was wise to try and type, so I just posted what I already wrote! Anywho, thank you all for the reviews, I'm glad this had such positive feedback. There have been a few questions about length and my updating, so I will try and clear it up. I'm thinking it will be pretty long, maybe 30 or 40 chapters. As for updating, I literally don't have a schedule. I just do it when I feel like writing. Well, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 4: Falling Away From Me

Alec Lightwood was miserable. He was currently in a dark corner of the room, trying to stay away from the pulsing lights and grinding bodies. When they first arrived here, Izzy and Jace ditched Alec to go drink and talk to their new friends, making him immediately regret coming with them. When a drunk girl came over to him, trying to get him to kiss her, he decided it would be best to go outside and get some air.

Once he stepped out in the cold night air, he sighed and pulled out a cigarrette. He felt like he was having a midlife crisis even though he was only 18; he always took care of his siblings, making him grow up fast. This never really bothered him, but nights like tonight made him remember that he couldn't ever just let go like they did. He had to take care of them and raise Max, because if he didn't, who would? His siblings didn't have to deal with the things he did, and while he was extremely grateful for it, he was also jealous. He lit up the cigarrette, drawing in a breath and letting it out, feeling slightly more relaxed.

"Well, hello stranger," a velvety voice said. Alec turned around to see the boy from his Calc class standing behind him, holding an unlit cigarette between his teeth. Alec blushed and took a moment to form a coherent thought by taking another drag from his. "Hello," he said quietly. The boy smiled and stepped closer to Alec. "What's your name, cutie?" Alec felt his cheeks burning and he coughed, covering his face with the sleeve of his sweater. "I-uh. Um. I'm Alec. Yeah. Alec," he sputtered. "Are you British? Your accent is sexy," the stranger said, eyeing Alec, " I'm Magnus Bane." God, even his name was exotic. Why was he talking to Alec? He was like Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show: all sex and glam in a pair of leather pants. Alec was a stick in the mud, he didn't ever do anything. He lived to take care of his family. He didn't even feel like he had an identity, his life had no worth.

Magnus looked at Alec knowingly. "Something is wrong. I can tell. Well, we aren't strangers anymore Alec, you can spill your guts to me if you'd like," he said. The words themselves were joking, but his tone conveyed understanding. Alec looked at Magnus for a while. His eyes had so much emotion behind them that he felt he could tell him anything. "I feel like I don't have anything going for me. I spend my life taking care of my siblings, that's all I am. A mother hen. I've never done anything for myself. I've never drank, I don't even like parties. I just come so that Jace and Izzy don't get hurt. I've never just done something because I wanted to, and I guess being here makes me think about it," he said, looking from his shoes to Magnus. Magnus looked him in the eyes and smiled. "What do you want to do?" Alec chuckled at this, throwing his hands in the air. "I don't even know, that's the thing! I want to drink and eat a whole carton of ice cream and get my lip pierced and just be a freaking teenager instead of a 40 year old woman with three kids!" Alec was blushing, he didn't mean to tell Magnus all of his woes, but Magnus just looked amused and like he understood him. "Well, Alec, I propose you do one of those things. I'll even take you," his eyes lit up," Do you have proper paperwork?"

Alec couldn't believe he was doing this. After making sure that Izzy and Jace were okay to stay at the party for a few hours, him and Magnus rode off in his car to Alec's house so that he could get his birth certificate. He came back out of the house with the document in hand until Magnus took it from him. As Alec was driving, Magnus was reading his birth certificate. "Well, hello Mr. Liar-liar-pants-on-fire. You said your name is Alec. It states here that your name is Alexander Gideon Lightwood," he said smirking. Alec never told anyone his name was Alexander. Only his parents called him that, and Alec hated the way it sounded in their mouth. Magnus, on the other hand, said it like he was saying the name of a deity. Alec smiled at him, " Well, no one calls me that. Alec is my nickname." Alec could see Magnus smiling at him from the corner of his eye. "Well, I'm not everyone."

He had Magnus's hand in a death grip. He was sitting in a chair with his eyes squeezed shut with a clamp on his lower lip. The peircer told him to take a deep breath and shoved in the needle, then followed it through with a silver barbell. Magnus was laughing," You can open your eyes now, Alexander." Alec felt a shiver run down his spine when Magnus said his name, and he peeked through his lashes at the mirror in front of him. The lip stud actually looked really good on him, so Alec smiled at Magnus and paid the piercer.

They ended up at a park right beside Ragnor's house, swinging and laughing. Alec had never felt more alive than now with Magnus, and that scared him. He didn't want to be hurt anymore, and Magnus was just so beautiful and pefect that Alec didn't understand why he was speaking to him.

"Let's play 20 questions," Magnus said, raking a hand through his glittery spikes. Alec mumbled an okay at him. "What's something I would be surprised to know about you?" Alec thought for a bit. "I'm a vegitarian?" it came out as a question and Magnus indeed did look slightly shocked. His eyes glazed over with a look of pain slightly before going back to normal. Alec just decided to ask a question instead of bringing it up. "Favorite book?" And it went on like that for hours, them speaking and laughing.

When Alec finally walked away from the park to go home with Iz and Jace, he didn't realize he left behind a battered old notebook that held his secrets at the park and a boy who wanted to solve the puzzle.

Well, I hope you liked it.