Hey guys! First of all I need to apologize for not updating yesterday. I know that I always update on Friday, but I have been really busy and I hadn't had time to finish the chapter. I finished it late last night and I had to get up at 5:30 this morning, so I didn't have time to post it. I'm sorry! *ginormous frowny face*

Secondly... HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS OH MY GOD YOU ALL REVIEWED 52 TIMES! I CANNOT EVEN LIVE!

I've never got 50 reviews before, so I just want to say that this is a really special moment to me, and I'm going to mark it on my calendar so I don't forget. I love you all SOOOOOO FUUUCKING MUCH *BIGGEST HEART THERE HAS EVER BEEN*

Usually I would take this time to mention a few reviewers and respond to them, but I am just so overwhelmed that I can't pick only a few! I literally loved ALL of your reviews so much!

I know a lot of you probably hate me for breaking up the two lovebirds, but... I have to do what I have to do.

And yes, I agree that Val and Camille need to be hit by a bus.

Actually, I will respond to one person. Alisha, you said something about not liking the fact that I used the word 'fag', and I assure you that I did it for a reason. I absolutely HATE that word, and it infuriates me when people use it. I don't even like it as a joke, which is the precise reason I used it. Sometimes characters do or say things that we don't agree with or like, and that was one of those times. I assure you that I NEVER use that word myself. Val used it simply because he's an ass.

To all the people who said that you cried... Oh my god that is like an authors dream. That sounds horrible, but what I mean is that it's really touching to know that I can write something that is emotionally charged enough to bring tears to someone's eyes. Thank you for crying (lol at myself)

Also, thank you guys for all the support you have been giving me. I can't count the number of 'I hope you have a good week' messages that I got, and all the general support you all gave me after I gave that big "review" speech. That means a lot to me. Seriously. It's amazing to know that a lot of you actually CARE about me as a person. That's seriously amazing *heart* I love you guys.

Don't forget that the fastest way to reach me is through tumblr. Send me an ask on there and I will almost always answer it within the hour, no matter what it is about! My account name is tmi-memes

Anyway, I think you've had enough of me blabbing, so here is the chapter! (Better late then never, right?)

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

The rest of the night was a blur, as was the next morning. Alec was barely conscious of any of his actions and before he knew it he was showered and lying in his bed once again. He wished more than anything that he was in Aruba with his family, away from all of this; but then again, when had any of his wishes ever come true?

Alec wasn't really sure what he was supposed to be doing. He couldn't leave his room, god knows what kind of treatment he would be up against, but he also couldn't stay in his room alone. Every second that he was alone his mind was consumed with thoughts of the game or Magnus. Okay, mostly Magnus.

But what could he do about that? He was the one who had ended things and it wasn't like he could just go to Magnus room and say he was just joking about all of it. No, staying in his room was probably best… for now.

School was canceled today because of Thanksgiving Break, so thankfully most of the students would be gone for the weekend. Thinking about Thanksgiving made him think about something... Alec had forgotten that Thanksgiving was yesterday. Actually, come to think of it, he hadn't heard anyone mention it at all. He vaguely remembered a few decorations scattered around the school, but other than that, he couldn't think of anything. How odd.

Alec stayed in bed for another hour, just staring at the ceiling and trying not to think, until he heard a knock at his door. At first he was hesitant to answer it. It could be anyone and he wasn't ready for anyone.

"Alec, it's me." Isabelle said, her voice muffled through the door. It was strange to hear her approach the door in a calm manner, rather than her usual scream-and-barge-in technique.

The door opened before Alec had even sat up, and he was grateful. He didn't think he had the energy to move at all right now.

"Alec, we need to talk." Isabelle said, sitting at the foot of his bed.

"What is there to talk about?" he said, a little harsher than he meant to. "My life is ruined and it's completely my fault."

"First of all, it is not your fault. At all. And second, no, your life is not ruined. Jesus, Alec."

Alec rolled his eyes and threw one of his arms over his face. He was in no mood to be talking about anything, especially this.

"But that's not why I came here. I already talked to Jace, and we both think that we need to be on the same page when Mom interrogates us." Isabelle said. Alec could see the hesitancy in Isabelle's eyes and it made him feel bad for snapping at her. She was obviously concerned about him and it wasn't like it was her fault that any of this was happening. The blame was on his shoulders this time.

"Okay," Alec said into his arm. He felt Isabelle tug on his arm and he removed it from his face with a sigh and sat up.

"Okay." Isabelle said, seeming to be testing out that he was stable enough to talk about it. "You left before the fight, didn't you?"

Alec made a face. He could vaguely recall someone mentioning a fight last night, and it would explain Jace's bloody lip last night, but he couldn't remember any specific details. "What fight?"

Isabelle raised her eyebrows. "Jace jumped the fence and started a fight with Brad and Val. Brad ran away, like the little chicken shit that he is, but I think I saw Max running after him…" Isabelle mused. "Jordan and Will were practically ripping Jace's arms off, trying to hold him back."

"What?" Alec squeaked. He didn't love the fact that Jace was fighting people for him, but he could live with it. Knowing that other people that he didn't even know very well had joined in made his stomach churn uncomfortably.

Isabelle ignored him. "After you and Magnus ran off, the whole place kind of went into a frenzy. Everyone there was screaming, especially your coach, and it took like three security guards to break up the fight. Once they broke it up, they were trying to round up everyone involved. That's when we all booked it out of there."

"Did anyone get in trouble?"

"Not yet. The Old Man says that punishments will be 'handed out accordingly' on Tuesday when school is back in session." Isabelle rolled her eyes. "Hodge is such a softy. I doubt he will punish anyone at all."

Alec bit his lip, unsure of whether that was good or not. "Has Mum called again?"

"No," Isabelle said, her eyes growing dark. "This whole thing is just ridiculous."

Alec couldn't agree more. Right now, all he wanted was to lie on his bed and die. Preferably alone, unless it was one of his siblings. He didn't want to think about what had happened and he definitely didn't want to go out to any kind of conference where he would be forced to talk only about what had happened. It was just too much.

"I know this is a lot to handle," Isabelle said, her eyes downcast. "I'm so sorry. I wish I could do something."

"Izzy…"

"No." Isabelle said, her voice growing thick with emotion. "This shouldn't happen to anyone, least of all you. You don't deserve this."

Alec remained silent; he didn't know what he was supposed to say to that. Isabelle hardly ever said things like this, and when she had in the past, Alec had been too drunk to remember what he said in response. The bathroom door cracked open, saving Alec from having to formulate an answer, and Clary's head peaked through.

"Is this a bad time?" she asked, looking concerned.

Isabelle discreetly wiped a tear from her cheek and turned to Clary with a small smile. "No, it's fine."

Clary smiled tightly, obviously aware of what was going on, and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. Alec had assumed that Jace would be coming with her, considering she was coming from Jace's room, but apparently not.

"I'm glad to see you don't have any black eyes this morning." Clary said, looking at Isabelle. "Jace certainly does."

"Why would Isabelle have a black eye?" Alec asked, his eyes darting toward Isabelle.

"Oh, no reason." Isabelle said, blushing a little bit and waving her hand dismissively.

Clary grinned. "She got in a fight with Camille last night. An extremely violent, internet worthy fight."

"Isabelle!" Alec all but shouted.

"Don't you even start, Alec," Isabelle said. "She's the one that played the video! There was no way in hell I was going to let that bitch get away with it."

"She is?" Alec said quietly. He barely even knew Camille. He knew that she was the one who had told Brad about him and Magnus in the first place, but he didn't think that Camille really hated him.

Isabelle nodded. Clary cut in before she could speak. "You should have seen it, Alec. By the time I got in the sound booth, there were hair extensions flying everywhere. It literally took me, Tessa, and Maia to pull them apart!"

"I wasn't going to tell him about that, Clary." Isabelle said, glaring at her. "But, whatever. What's done is done. Hopefully that bitch will think twice before crossing any Lightwoods again."

"Isabelle, you shouldn't have tried to fight with her." Alec said, his face getting red.

Isabelle rolled her eyes but didn't say anything else. She patted the bed, inviting Clary to sit down with them, and scooted closer to Alec.

Clary sat on the opposite side of the bed as Isabelle, looking back and forth between both of them as if she was some kind of mediator. "Almost everyone left for the weekend." she said, pausing. Her tone was growing rather serious. "But I think you should know that Brad didn't leave. He's been waiting downstairs for the past couple of hours. I think he's waiting for you to come down so he can talk to you."

"Damn it. Jace already sent that bastard packing once this morning." Isabelle grumbled.

Alec's head snapped toward her, his eyes wide. "What do you mean?"

"He was waiting outside your door this morning." Isabelle said, her eyes narrowing. "He said he needed to talk to you. Yeah, right. As if we would let him talk to you after what he did."

Alec bit his lip. Why would Brad want to talk to him? He had to know that Alec wouldn't want to talk to him after all of this…

Something wasn't adding up. Alec couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was, but he knew there was something.

"Yeah, well he had better stay far away if he wants to keep all of his limbs." Clary said, her eyes narrowing to match Isabelle's.

"DAMN STRAIGHT." Jace yelled from his bedroom. Alec couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course Jace was listening.

Alec had to stop himself from smiling. It was nice to know that his family was standing by his side, whether or not he necessarily agreed with all the fighting they were getting into on his behalf. He knew the light tones they were all adopting were attempts to get him to feel better, and it was almost working.

Almost.

After a few hours, Isabelle left to go find Simon for some reason Alec didn't really pay attention to. He had been trying to keep his spirits up, at least on the outside, but he could only pretend he was fine for so long.

"Alec," Clary said quietly after Isabelle had left. "Why isn't Magnus here?"

Alec looked up at her with wide eyes, forgetting about everything other than Magnus Bane. "What do you mean?"

Clary frowned at him. "He wasn't here last night and he hasn't been here today."

Alec bit his lip, trying his hardest to keep the memories from the previous night out of his mind. He couldn't think about that right now. He couldn't. "I just… it's not—" he cut himself off, choking on his words. "I don't know how to talk about this."

"Telling me what happened would be a good start." Clary said kindly. She reached out and took his hand, holding it gently. "I'll just listen, okay? I won't say anything until you're done."

Alec chewed on his bottom lip. "I broke up with him."

Clary's eyes shot open as wide as Alec had ever seen them, but she remained silent, staying true to her word.

"He came in here, after the game… I don't know, I panicked. I told him that it was over, and I let him leave. He walked right out the door… and I didn't stop him." Alec said, his voice cracking.

For a moment Clary was silent, just staring at him with something Alec could only imagine as understanding—which was amazing, considering he didn't even understand it himself.

"Why didn't you stop him?" Clary asked quietly.

"I… I couldn't. I don't know why." Alec said, the last bit of happiness left in him deflating.

"Do you love him?" Clary asked. Alec nodded miserably. "Then it will work out."

Alec stared at her for a moment and was surprised when she pulled him into a hug.

"He's never going to forgive me." Alec said when Clary released him. "He's had so many people break his trust, Clary."

"Just talk to him. Explain why you did it. He'll understand." Clary said with a smile.

Alec wanted to believe her, he really did, but Clary didn't know Magnus. Clary didn't know how his entire life had been changed for the worst by people who had claimed they loved him and then turned on him. Clary didn't know how hard it was for Magnus to let people in.

Alec knew. Alec knew what it took to make Magnus trust someone. Even before Alec had broken up with him, Alec knew that Magnus didn't fully trust him and now Alec didn't think he ever would.

Magnus' POV

Magnus' head was throbbing. He knew it was probably because he cried all night long, but that knowledge wasn't doing anything to help his mood, which was foul. Tessa had spent the night in his room, and he had been grateful for her presence at the time; AT THE TIME, being the part Tessa seemed to be missing. He loved Tessa, he really did, but the last thing he wanted to talk about right now was Alec and that seemed to be the one subject she was persistent on talking about. Magnus was trying his hardest to ignore Tessa, he really was, but it was extremely hard when she was refusing to leave his room.

"And you have to put into account the fact that he was in no state to be making important decisions. We all saw the look in his eyes before he ran off the field. He looked crazy. He had to have been feeling—"

"Tessa, please." Magnus begged, not moving from his position on the bed. He hadn't moved once since he got back to his room last night, and he wasn't planning on it.

Tessa continued as if he hadn't spoken. "—horrible about everything. If you would just talk to him, I'm sure you could have this all sorted out in no time."

"Tessa," Magnus groaned, louder than before. Tessa blinked in surprise, seeming to notice Magnus for the first time in the past few minutes. "You have to stop talking."

Tessa frowned, looking more concerned than offended at Magnus' words. "And you have to go talk to Alec."

"I'm not going to talk to him. He doesn't want to see me." Magnus said miserably.

"He loves you, of course he wants to see you. He probably needs you now more than ever."

Magnus could feel a knife slicing through his heart. He clenched his teeth to keep the tears at bay, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He hadn't explained what happened to Tessa, and he didn't want to; not yet, anyway.

Magnus saw Tessa's eyes cloud with worry when she saw his expression. She slowly got up from her seat at the end of his bed and crawled up toward him, lying down next to him, her head on his pillow.

She didn't say anything, but Magnus knew that her mind was positively swimming with questions. She just knew him well enough to know when she should ask and when she should be quite.

They stayed like that, just lying next to each other in silence, for a few minutes. Finally, Magnus calmed down and took a deep breath, steadying himself for what he was about to say.

"He doesn't."

"He doesn't what?" Tessa inquired.

"He doesn't love me." The realization hit Magnus just as hard as it had the first time. "I thought he was different. I thought when he said it, he meant it. I really did."

Tessa was silent for a long time before she answered. "How do you know he didn't?"

"I told him. I told him I loved him, and all he did was send me away. It didn't mean anything to him." Magnus said, allowing tears to fall freely down his face.

"There has to be an explanation…" Tessa whispered. From the sound of it, she didn't think there was one either.

"I hate this!" Magnus seethed, tears still streaming down his face. He sat up quickly, making Tessa jump slightly. "This always happens. Every time I get close to someone, something pulls us apart. It's inevitable!"

"It's not inevitable. You just haven't found the right person."

"That's bullshit, Tessa. Don't waste your time hoping and praying that something will work out, because nothing ever does. You know it as well as I do. These things don't last." Magnus said, his voice cracking.

"I know. I know they don't last but… I have to hope, Magnus. If we don't have hope, what do we have?"

"Nothing." Magnus said, his body dropping. "We have nothing."

Tessa got up off the bed, and grabbed her phone, sending a quick text before returning to her place on the bed. "We're spending the weekend at home."

Magnus nodded, not trusting his ability to form a coherent sentence, and fell back down onto the bed. He couldn't tell if it was minutes or hours later that Tessa was tugging at his arm lightly, urging him to get up.

"Are we going right now?" he croaked.

"Right now." Tessa said. "Will is coming too."

Magnus didn't care enough to argue. Will had been both Tessa and Magnus' friend for two years now, and he knew when to stay out of something. He knew most of Magnus' story, and all of Tessa's, and it was safe to say he was one of the few people that Magnus trusted in this world besides Tessa. He would have like to put Alec in that category, but apparently he couldn't.

Magnus slipped a coat on and followed Tessa down the stairs and out into the cold numbly. He was grateful that it was Thanksgiving weekend so there weren't any students around to see him. Hopefully they would forget about the little 'tape' by the time next week rolled around.

"Wait here," Tessa said suddenly, pointing to a bench. "I have to go get Will."

"Can't we just meet him in the parking garage?" Magnus whined.

"If he was in there, yes." Tessa said with a sigh. Magnus had to stop himself from groaning. Will was worse with directions than any other human being on this planet, Magnus was sure of it.

He sat down without another word, waving his hand to inform Tessa that he didn't mind. He didn't really want to prance around campus looking for Will anyway. Especially not with the chance that he could run into Alec.

Alec. The name alone sent daggers at his heart. It was all Magnus could do not to break down right there on that bench. Alec was gone. Alec was no longer his.

Magnus heard footsteps coming closer and closer, interrupting his painful thoughts, and he braced himself for the onslaught of harassment he was sure to receive. He was surprised when he heard something else entirely.

"Don't walk away from me!" he heard male voice shout.

There were two people, a man and a woman, standing twenty feet away from Magnus. He squinted to see who they were, and his jaw dropped.

Brad and Camille.

"I told you, I don't want to talk about this right now. I have a family dinner to get to." Camille snapped at him.

"Not before you explain to me what the hell you were thinking with that video!" Brad shouted.

"You should be thanking me, Brad. I did you a fucking favor with that video."

"How in god's name do you figure that?" Brad demanded. "Alec probably thinks it was me, and he's never going to speak to me again!"

"That's the favor, idiot." Camille quipped.

Brad was quivering, and Magnus didn't think it was from the cold. "You completely fucked him over, Camille. You destroyed any chances he had with the scouts and you fucking OUTED HIM in front of the entire world!"

"Don't be dramatic."

"Don't be dramatic? You made a video of him and Magnus practically having sex at a club and put it on the big screen at the State championship game! What, did you just forget that his parents own a multi-million dollar company and that his entire family is frequently in the spotlight because of it? This is going to be on the front page of every magazine, Camille."

Camille's face lost all color, but her expression remained hard. "I doubt everyone there even knew it was him."

"You made the caption 'Alec's night OUT', Camille! EVERYONE KNOWS IT WAS HIM!"

"Okay! I'm sorry! Just go and tell him it was me!" She shouted, her voice wavering.

"I tried, but his family won't let me talk to him. They're practically standing guard." Brad seethed. "And it's not surprising, considering what you did!"

"Don't act like this is all my fault!" Camille hissed. "You knew I was going to do something."

"I thought you were going to make stupid commentary or something, not fuck up his entire life!"

"Why the hell do you even care? He's barely even talked to you in weeks!"

Brad's chest was heaving, and Magnus wasn't sure if he should get up and run away, or stay in place and hope to god that they didn't see him.

"Because I love him!" Brad shouted, his face turning red.

"There's your first problem." Camille fumed. "Forget about him, Brad. You can't help him, and he doesn't want you to."

"Fuck you, Camille." Brad said, staring her straight in the eyes.

Camille's expression softened. "I know you're mad right now, but eventually you'll see that I did this for you."

Camille leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before walked toward the parking garage quickly without looking back.

Magnus stared after her with his mouth agape, unsure of what he was supposed to do. He stayed as still as he possibly could while Brad trudged away, looking more upset than Magnus had ever seen him.

Magnus tried to process what just happened, but ended up just as confused as he had been before the conversation. Why would Camille do this to Alec when she knew that Brad wouldn't want her to? It didn't make sense.

Magnus was still trying to make sense of it all when Tessa walked back up to his bench, her arm linked in Will's.

"Alright, are we ready to go… Magnus?" she said, her expression changing quickly from happy and carefree to immensely concerned.

Magnus looked up at her slowly, his mouth still hanging open and his eyes wide. "You will never believe what I just saw."

Okay, I know it's not as long as usual, but I figured you guys would rather have a short one than wait a few more days for a longer one. Let me know what you think about it in the reviews! I love you guys, as always!

-Hannah