Hello again. I know I promised a chapter per day, but life got in the way and I couldn't update yesterday, so in order to fix that I'm adding two chapters just for today. Tomorrow we'll go back to our regular posting system :D we still have six chapters to go.

Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 5

Alec was at home and although they were having a very crowded Thanksgiving dinner with a lot of family and friends, he felt alone. Watching his siblings all happy with their respective significant others had left him a bit melancholic. And not because he was not happy about them, he loved to see Jace and Izzy so happy, but the whole situation made him feel excluded. First, because Alec had thought that studying and making a career was everything he had always wanted, but now that he was actually doing that, he didn't feel like he'd thought he would be feeling. For some reason he felt as if there was something missing. As if what he had at the moment just weren't enough. And second, because every time he saw them and tried to picture himself with someone by his side the only face that popped into his mind was, well, the face of a person he'd rather not even mention.

"Why?" He muttered under his breath as he made his way to his room. He had claimed to have a terrible headache and told his parents that he would go to lay for some time before the rest of their guests arrived. But the truth was that he just needed some place to think and clear his head, and his room seemed like the right place to do so.

He didn't understand why he couldn't stop thinking about his roommate. He hated him with all his heart, so he really couldn't fathom why his brain was trying to sabotage him. It was as if some part of him were trying to boycott the oath he had taken a long ago to hate Magnus until the end of time.

"I'm just projecting," Alec told to himself, "he is the only person of the same sex with whom I've had some sort of more than friends interaction. Yes, that's it. He comes to my mind because I don't know any better." He said, trying to convince himself.

He knew that what he had just said was not entirely true. Magnus had been perhaps the first guy to have ever flirted with him, but he was not the only one. There was a guy in Alec's English class who seemed very friendly with him. Alec might not have much experience, but he was not stupid. He knew this guy liked him. The problem was that while this guy was cute and all, for some reason that Alec didn't want to think too much about, he had never looked at him twice.

"Alec, can I come in?" A sweet voice said, interrupting his train of thought. It was Max, Alec's little brother. He was poking his head through the door.

"Of course, Max. Do you need something?" Alec asked, sitting cross-legged on his bed.

Max shook his head. "No, I just wanted to...I don't know, talk to you or something before the rest of the guests arrive."

Alec smiled. "Then, let's talk. By the way, I loved the book you sent me. I already bought the sequel."

"You did?"

"Of course! I take that you have read it?"

Max nodded frantically. "Not just the sequel, but all of them!"

"Then you'll have to wait until I get to the last book. I don't want you to spoil me the story."

"I won't!" Max said excitedly. "But you have to hurry, I want to talk to you about something that happens in book three!"

"I will, Max, I promise. When I come home again for Christmas I will have read all the books."

"Promise?"

"Promise…now tell me, what do you wanna talk about?"

"Nothing important," Max said, "it's just that everywhere is so crowded, and Jace and Izzy won't let me stay where they are. I wanted to talk with Clary and Simon about manga, and show them my new comic book, but Jace said I had to wait for another day."

Alec smiled sympathetically at his little brother. Apparently, he was not the only one who felt excluded in that house.

"I'm glad you didn't bring your boyfriend." Max said, exhaling with relief.

"I-I do not have a boyfriend." Alec said, not quite understanding why his brother had assumed he had one in the first place.

"But Izzy said…"

"What did Izzy say exactly?" Alec asked alarmed. If that sister of his had been spreading lies as he supposed she had been doing, then he was going to have a very serious conversation with her first thing in the morning.

"Nothing specific, but the other day when she and Jace were helping me move some boxes, Izzy got a text and when Jace asked who it was, she said, 'It's Alec complaining about his boyfriend again.' So I thought you already had one."

Alec rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna kill her…" He muttered under his breath.

"Was she lying?"

"Well, yes, but she did it because she was making fun of me, Max. I was complaining about my roommate and because Izzy is, well, Izzy, she probably thought it was funny to say that he was my boyfriend, but he is not and as I said, I do not have a boyfriend."

"Why not?"

"Well, because I haven't found someone I like that way."

Max seemed to meditate that new information for some seconds. "So you were complaining about your roommate. Why were you complaining about him? Isn't your roommate your friend?"

"Good Lord, no." Alec immediately said.

"Why not?"

"Because we are very different, complete opposites."

"You and Jace are complete opposites and you are friends. Best friends."

"It's different…"

"How so?"

"It just is." Alec said. He wasn't sure if he had the right answer for that question.

Max didn't say anything and just asked, "do you have many friends in your new school?"

"Not really." Alec confessed a little embarrassed. He was not very skilled at socializing. He was more like an hermit.

"Why?"

Alec sighed. That was the thing with little brothers, they asked too many questions. "Because it's hard to have many friends when you have so much work to do. Having friends takes time and I don't have much time."

"But you have friends, right?" Max inquired.

"Yes, I have some friends."

"Good, because I don't want you to be alone."

"I like being alone."

"No, you don't." Max said sure of himself. "You think you like being alone, but you don't. I saw you before. You were watching Simon and Izzy, and you looked sad. At first I thought it was because you were missing your boyfriend, but since you don't have one, then that can't be the reason. I know you like Simon, I mean, you find him irritating most of the time, but you think he's good for Iz, so it's not that you are jealous like Jace usually is. You were just longing to have what Izzy has, and that made you sad. You don't like being alone."

Alec was a bit taken aback with Max's ability to read him so easily. His little brother was not mistaken, Alec had actually longed for what his sister now had, and that had made him feel sad. His brother was perhaps the smartest eight year old he had ever known.

"How old are you again?" Alec asked playfully. "No, seriously, when did you get so smart?"

"I've always been smart." Max said a bit offended.

"Of course...my apologies. It's just that well, I thought no one noticed that sort of things."

"You're very easy to read." Max confessed. He was looking at Alec with wise eyes and Alec felt a bit intimidated; it was as if his little brother could see far beyond his soul.

"You think?" He asked tentatively.

Max nodded.

"I guess, I'll have to work on that."

"Don't…" Max said, standing up from the bed to leave, "it's your best quality."

"It is?"

"Yes." Max said. He was already on his way out of the room.

"Why?" Alec asked intrigued.

"It just is." Max said, closing the door behind him, and leaving Alec wondering what the hell all that had meant.