Okay guys! I'm SO SORRY for how long this chapter has taken to update! I got a request on the last chapter to make them longer, so I tried to do that on this one. This one is almost double the length of the usual ones (It's more than 4,000 words, OH MY GOD), so it's your choice on what you want. I can make them longer but you'll have about double the waiting time, or I can make them the usual length and you'll get them every other day or every two days. Let me know what you want.

But also I shouldn't bullshit you guys. I was pretty busy this week. I've been recording and practicing all week and my schedule is getting kind of hectic. To give you some perspective, I finished this chapter at 5:00 in the morning because that was the only time I had. Yeah.

AND HOLD MOTHER OF GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! I asked for ten and you guys gave me more than ten. Wow. I love you all so much, thank you. Seriously, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means SO MUCH to me that you all are reading and enjoying my story.

I've gotten somewhat mixed reviews about whether or not to make a chapter in Magnus's POV, but I think, according to how many people want it, I'm going to make the next one Magnus's POV. To those of you who said you didn't want it, I'm sorry, but I'm going with popular demand on this one. Plus after this chapter I think you'll want a peek inside Magnus's head *wink*

Enough of my blathering! Enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters or the names of specific places or things. Cassandra Clare is the lovely mastermind behind all of this. I'm extremely envious. Ugh.


Alec was so tired of English class at this point. Professor Garroway was a great teacher, he really was, but English was not Alec's strong point. This semester was focusing on grammar, and Alec was seriously considering dropping the class. Alec was used to passing classes with all A's or a few B's, but this class was proving to be more difficult, which was annoying because usually senior year was supposed to be easier than the previous year. Alec had received a D- on his test today, and he was sure he was going to fail out of this class by the end of the semester. And he couldn't do that. This was his senior year for crying out loud! He couldn't afford to fail any classes. Clary leaned over toward Alec's desk while he stared blankly at his test score, a nauseous feeling brewing in the bottom of his stomach.

"Ouch," she said, staring at the grade on his paper.

Alec chewed on his lip nervously. "What did you get?"

Clary hesitated, guilt clouding her features. "One hundred."

"Are you joking?"

"My mom's a writer and she kind of forced me to learn how to write well, so I'm pretty good at this kind of thing. I could help you if you want." Clary offered.

"Of course! That would be amazing!" Alec nearly shouted. "Come to my room after practice."

"Will Jace be there?" she asked. Alec laughed at the obviously disapproval in her voice.

"He does live there, Clary."

Clary groaned. "Fine, just don't tell him I'm going to be there. I'd like to spend the least amount of time possible with that ass."

"He really isn't that bad, I swear." Alec told her with a laugh.

Finally the bell rang, releasing them from this god forsaken class. Alec made sure to avoid eye contact with Magnus, who he knew was behind him, and bolted straight for the door after briefly exchanging goodbyes with Clary. He didn't need to see Magnus outside of working on the project. Sure, he may have wanted to see him, but that was irrelevant. It was to hard to be around Magnus for more than one reason. Isabelle had been texting him quite often throughout school, but he had neglected to read any of them. To be honest, he was still a little miffed at her. Why couldn't she just understand that not everyone wants to parade their lives in the public for the world to see. Okay, maybe just the school as of now, but you never know! Alec knew he couldn't deal with the shit people would give him for it either. He thought about Lightwood Enterprises, and how disappointed his parents would be to have their son end up as a punch line on Saturday Night Live. Their parents had worked for years to build this company, and they had been successful. They had been neck and neck with Warner Bros. for years, and they had finally beat them. His parents ran the most successful production company in the world right now. That's how Jace had managed to stick his foot in the door of acting. Alec doubted he would keep up with it when he had first started, but Jace had proved him wrong so far. Isabelle on the other hand, didn't seem to really even enjoy modeling all that much. Her Chanel shoot had gone well, but Isabelle said she didn't really enjoy it. She was much more interested in the clothes she was wearing than the actual modeling. She said she didn't know what she wanted to do anymore, but Alec was pretty sure he knew what she would do.

Isabelle had been in love with clothes since she could differentiate colors. Their mother had signed her up for baby modeling, and that's kind of all she had ever done. She had always loved the fashion side of the modeling industry, and Alec was sure she would find a way to somehow be a part of it. Maybe now it was time for something new.

But the company wasn't the only thing he was worried about ruining. Maryse and Robert Lightwood had always had a certain way of running things in their household, a certain finesse to everything they touched. Alec knew having a gay son was not part of the plan.

And Jace… Jace would be furious. Jace would be disgusted… No, Alec couldn't even think about it. He was an athlete, and athletes weren't gay. It caused too much controversy, too much pain to the player. That's why most of them stayed in the closet until they were forced out of it by ass holes like Perez Hilton. There were some people, people like Neil Patrick Harris, who didn't care what the world thought of them, but that wasn't Alec. He couldn't stand when people talked about him at all, much less talking about how he was a disgusting excuse for a human being.

Alec's crude thoughts were interrupted by Isabelle running into him at full speed, nearly knocking him to the ground. Everyone in the hallway stared at them like they were raving lunatics. Alec turned an embarrassing shade of red and glared at Isabelle.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"You've been ignoring my texts, and I need to talk to you." She stated. Alec was shocked by the level of calm she was displaying after just tackling him like a rugby player.

Alec rolled his eyes. "What do you need?"

"You're friends with that girl Clary, right?"

Alec stared at her in confusion. "Yes…"

"Jace fancies her." Isabelle told him.

"What?"

"Can you make that happen?" she insisted. Alec could feel himself shaking his head back in forth in absolute shock.

"Jace has already burned that bridge. Clary loathes him." he said.

"Well he thinks he can make it work. I think he really likes her. He's being very persistent."

Clary sauntered over to them wearing a bright smile. "Did someone call for me?" she asked. Alec's eyes went wide and he turned to Isabelle for help. Isabelle shook her head and smiled at Clary.

"Not that I know of," Isabelle told her with a falsely sweet smile. "We need to get to English, don't we, Alec?"

"Um- I already-" Isabelle yanked him down the hall before he was able to finish his sentence, leaving an extremely confused Clary standing alone in the hall as the next class ball began to ring.

The rest the of day dragged on at an unbearably slow pace, causing Alec to consider knocking himself unconscious so he wouldn't have to finish out the day. Alec felt an immense amount of relief when the bell rang and it was his lunch hour. He met Clary and Simon outside the cafeteria, and instantly regretted it when he heard what the discussion was about today.

"It's all about which comic you look at, Clary." Simon was saying. "The DC comics have a different storyline than the Marvel comics."

"Then why would they make two movies about the same superhero?" Clary asked.

"Because Spider Man is too awesome to turn down. And because nobody likes Tobey Maguire." Simon responded. Alec choked back a laugh, not wanting to encourage them.

Simon turned to Alec with a determined look in his eyes. "Someday It'll happen, Lightwood."

Alec rolled his eyes, "Sure."

Simon had some kind of deep desire to make Alec laugh at his nerd jokes, and he wasn't giving up. A few days ago Simon had actually gone on a fifteen minute tirade about it. Simon just didn't understand that some people don't read comic books. Or watch a lot of superhero movies.

"Is there anyone sitting here?" a smooth voice asked form behind Alec. Clary's eyes widened but Simon spoke before she could protest.

"Nope, have a seat." he said with a smile.

Alec spun around and came face to face with Magnus Bane. Shit.

Alec could barely hear Simon asking Magnus if he was new to the school, and some other ice breaking questions. He watched Magnus sit down, and smile at Simon kindly. At least he was pretending to care, whether he really did or not. Alec tried to register what Simon was telling Magnus, but he couldn't think through the fuzz that clouded his mind. What was Magnus doing here? And since when did he have lunch this hour?

Alec barely even registered the girl that came over and sat next to Magnus. She had long brown hair that was almost as long as Isabelle's, cascading down her back with a slight wave. She was very beautiful, but in a subtle sort of way. She was one of those girls that didn't need anything extra to look beautiful, she just was. He forced himself to concentrate, mentally slapping himself until he could think clearly. He vaguely recognized her from somewhere… soccer. She was the girl who had been with Magnus the other night at the game! Alec tried to plaster a happy look on his face but failed miserably. The girl seemed to pick up on his slowly collapsing facade, and smiled at him warmly.

"Hi, I'm Tessa." She told him, leaning behind Magnus so she could see him.

"Alec," he told her, forcing a smile onto his face.

"I know," she said, her smile still dancing delicately on her lips. Magnus's head snapped toward her quickly, and Alec could tell from the movement of his jaw that he was mouthing something to her, though he couldn't see his face. She raised her eyebrows and half smiled in return, the kind of smile that people had when they were trying not to say 'I told you so'.

Magnus turned back toward Simon, not missing a beat, and responded to whatever Simon had just told him. It probably pertained to Star Wars. Alec tried not to sigh at Simon's nerdiness.

He froze when Magnus leaned his knee against his thigh. He thought about jerking his leg away, but decided against it when he thought about the attention it would draw.

"Have you always had lunch this period?" Clary asked Magnus. "I've never seen you in here before."

"Yeah, me and Tessa always skip." Magnus responded, sharing a knowing smile with Tessa. Alec briefly wondered what they usually did during lunch.

"Oh cool," Clary said. Alec could tell she was trying her best to halt the awkwardness that he was obviously exuding, but he refused to look at her.

Magnus, no matter how much Alec hated to say it, fit into their little lunch group perfectly. Even Tessa, shy and reserved as she was, found a way to fit in. Alec felt a small pang of jealously at the way Tessa and Magnus got on. They obviously had a very close relationship. Alec could feel the love between them in everything they said. Even the way they looked at eachother screamed 'we love each other'. Alec used to feel like that with Isabelle, but recently it hadn't been the same. He rarely ever saw Isabelle now, and even when he did it was only for short amounts of time. He saw Jace more often these days, and that was really strange. Even though he and Jace had shared a room since freshman year, Jace was almost always out partying with his friends or something else that Alec didn't really want to do with him. Jace always invited him though; he was a good brother. Recently things had been changing a little, and now he knew why. It hadn't made since that Jace was staying at his room on the weekends, and Alec was grateful to finally know why.

Jace had never really fancied anyone enough to actually try to put effort into the relationship. He must really like Clary if he was recruiting Isabelle and Alec to help him win her. The thought made Alec smile. Jace had never had a serious girlfriend, and it was about time that he did. It would do him good. Alec's thoughts were interrupted by Magnus jostling his shoulder lightly.

"Are we?' Magnus asked.

"What?" Alec blinked at him in confusion.

"Are we still on for tonight?" Magnus pressed. Alec stared at him blankly, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. "The project?"

"Oh! Yeah, sure." Alec stuttered, trying to ignore how close Magnus's face was to his own. Magnus smiled and got up to leave, pulling Tessa with him as they left. She smiled ruefully and waved at him while Magnus pulled her out of the cafeteria.

"Well that was weird," Clary stated.

"How?" Simon asked. "I thought he was perfectly nice."

"That's what was weird."

Alec remained silent, not wanting to spur the conversation on. Clary was right, Magnus had been acting a little differently than usual. He hadn't made one joke about Alec dating or having sex with him, and that was out of character for Magnus. Alec was glad he hadn't, he just wondered why.

The rest of the day went by slowly, and once Alec finished history class, he was feeling a little nervous. He and Magnus had to turn in the assignment by tomorrow, and they were only about halfway done with it. Thankfully it was Friday, which meant there was no soccer practice today.

When Alec reached his room, the door was open again, but this time it wasn't Isabelle. Jace and Clary sat on his bed looking at each other with wide eyes.

"What's going on?" Alec asked them, using the calmest tone he could muster.

"Nothing," Jace said quickly. "We were just working on our project."

"In my room?"

"Well, my room can get overcrowded."

Alec stared at Clary, looking for a better explanation. Her face was a bright shade of red, and she was looking down at the floor guiltily. If Alec didn't know better, he would think they had been… No, there's no way. Clary didn't like Jace. She might even hate him, if Alec wasn't always trying to make him sound better. No, no there was no way.

"With two people?" Alec finally asked.

"Well, I came to see you, originally." Clary said quietly. "But you weren't here so Jace let me in."

"Alright," Alec said, giving up on finding out why they were acting so weird.

"I was just leaving anyway," Clary said to no one in particular. Alec thought he could sense a bit of hurt behind her words, but she was gone before he could ask about it properly.

Jace sighed and slid off the bed with a thump. He closed the door to Alec's room and turned round slowly, a sly smile lighting up his face. Alec sat down in his desk chair and stared at Jace. "What?"

"We weren't studying." Jace told him.

"I guessed as much," Alec said with a laugh. "What were you up to then?"

"I told her I fancy her. And I kissed her." The smile on Jace's face was growing with each word.

Alec felt his jaw drop and his eyes grew wide. "What?"

"I think she likes me!" Jace shouted victoriously.

"Wow," was all Alec could say. He had honestly not seen this one coming. He had really thought Clary hated Jace.

"I'm going to go and tell Isabelle!" Jace said as he raced out of the room. Alec stared after him in awe, wondering where the real Jace had gone. Jace collided with Magnus as he swung the door open and darted down the hall, barely muttering an apology.

"What's he so excited about?" Magnus asked, not bothering with a greeting.

"He's off to see Isabelle." Alec responded, his palms beginning to sweat the way they always did when Magnus was around. Magnus nodded and moved toward the bed and sat down, pulling his own laptop out of his bag. That was odd; Magnus never brought his laptop. Alec hadn't even known if he owned one or not. Alec didn't really know anything about him. Sure, they'd been working on this project for a few weeks now, but it wasn't like they had ever gone into detail about their lives. It was almost like they were both trying to keep the topic light.

"I wrote this last night," Magnus said, passing the laptop over to Alec. Alec moved hesitantly onto the bed so he could see the laptop better. There were ten pages written, completing the writing they had to do. After that, all they had to do was set up the slide show, which wouldn't take long.

"I know you're really busy with soccer," Magnus explained, "so I thought I'd just get it out of the way." The words rolled off his tongue in a slightly self conscious manner. Alec stared at him in confusion. Most people would have just gotten angry at him for being too busy to write it well, whereas Magnus had just written it for him.

"You didn't have to do that," Alec told him, scrolling through the finished, and quite well written, pages.

"Tessa helped me, don't worry about it."

Alec glanced at him in confusion. Why Tessa?

"She's a writer," Magnus offered as if he had read Alec's mind.

Alec felt his entire body flood with guilt and he could barely even look at Magnus. They had been working on this project for weeks and he had barely done anything. Magnus ought to be yelling at him for not getting his work done in time, not doing it for him. He tried to come up with an adequate apology, but was interrupted before he could manage it.

"Alec, stop it. It's fine. You don't need to apologize."

Alec looked at him dubiously as he pointed to the sidebar in the document.

"Come on, let's work on the power points."

Alec sat still for a moment staring at Magnus. "Thank you," he said after a moment. He tried not to get distracted by the beautiful eyes that stared back at him, but his efforts were fruitless. Magnus had the kind of face that you almost couldn't avoid staring at. He was beautiful in the most exquisite way possible. It was like he had been crafted personally by Aphrodite herself. Alec tried to to drag his thoughts back to the project. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his head, and looked back at Magnus, who was staring at him with an unfathomable expression. Magnus looked extremely conflicted, like he was fighting himself deep within his thoughts.

"Alec..."

Alec felt his heart skip a beat when Magnus said his name. No, stop. You can't think like this, Alec told himself adamantly. It was hard enough having to be around Magnus without feeling this way. Alec looked away from Magnus, trying to calm himself. He could hear Magnus's quiet breathing, feel his eyes boring into the back of his head. Knowing Magnus was only inches away from him didn't help either. His heart was beating furiously in his chest when he looked back at Magnus.

"What?" He said quietly.

Magnus hesitated for a moment, chewing on the inside of his cheek. The tension in the room was almost touchable. Magnus pulled his leg up so he was sitting crossed legged on the bed across from Alec.

"I just..." Magnus trailed off without finishing, a certain determination blazing behind his eyes.

Suddenly, he reached out to Alec, clasping the side of his face firmly but gently, and pulled him close. Their lips collided with surprising sweetness, shaking Alec to his core. His eyes flew open so wide he that wondered how they hadn't fallen out of their sockets. Magnus kissed him timidly, his mouth hardly moving at all. His hand moved carefully to Alec's hair, gripping it gently. Alec couldn't believe what was happening.

Magnus was kissing him and he was kissing him back.

He was kissing Magnus back.

Suddenly Alec's mind snapped back to reality and he jerked his head back. Magnus, with his hand still in Alec's hair, didn't let him move further than a few inches back.

"What are you doing?" Alec demanded. He could feel his face burning while Magnus stared at him in confusion.

"What?"

"You can't- I'm not-" Alec sputtered, unable to finish a sentence. His head was spinning faster than he knew was possible, thoughts hurling through his brain at a record speed. He tried to put together a coherent sentence but couldn't manage it.

"Not what? Gay?" Magnus responded forcefully, releasing him. "Judging from the amount of times I've caught you staring at my ass, you're either gay or curious. And from what I've heard, curious doesn't seem to fit."

"What you've heard?" Alec choked.

"Don't pretend you don't know people talk about you."

"They don't. They talk about Jace, or maybe Isabelle." Alec ran his hand through his hair nervously. What was Magnus saying? Were people starting to suspect the truth? Alec couldn't even imagine it.

"You're not as invisible as you'd like to think." Magnus told him. There was an edge to his voice that made Alec's stomach drop.

"It's not about that!" Alec shouted, his shaky voice giving away his fear.

"Then what?" Magnus asked.

"I can't do this- I won't."

"Don't pull that shit, Alec." Magnus said, pulling himself off the bed. "Being scared isn't the same as being incapable."

"You don't get it." Alec told him, searching for a way to explain what he was trying to say. When he thought about coming out publicly he felt like he was facing an army on his own. There was no chance it would go well.

"I don't get it?" Magnus asked quietly. The expression on his face was absolutely killer.

Alec felt himself shrink away from Magnus without thinking. Magnus clenched his jaw and walked calmly out the door, slamming it behind himself in fury. The door and everything around it shook, as if it was trembling in response to Magnus's anger. Alec sat on the bed for a moment, his body completely still in shock wondering what he said that had upset Magnus so much.

There was too much at risk, too much pain in the cards to try it. Magnus was stunning and funny and mysterious... Everything about him made Alec want more. But he couldn't do that. He couldn't go there. There were too many people to let down, too many people that would hate him. Some people would accept him, or maybe not give a shit either way, but Alec couldn't make himself focus on them. All he could think about was the hate and disappointment he would be on the receiving end of. Even Magnus Bane, in all his glittery glory, wasn't worth all of that... was he?


So how did you all like it? PLEASE REVIEW and let me know what you thought about this chapter. oh and don't forget to answer the questions I asked in the first A/N! Thanks!