Magnus was dodging me. I text him like five times and left him three messages; each more (but not very) threatening than the last. He could not attend prom. There was no way I could even begin to explain that to my parents.

"I'm sure he just wanted to know when you'd be busy." Izzy drawled. I'd been watching her fuss with her hair all day long; our family funds weren't impressive and buying a new dress had pretty much cleaned her out. She'd have to be able to do her hair, nails and makeup herself. "I can't believe you have a boyfriend who works in a studio and you can't call in a favour from a stylist."

"Yeah, I'm sure Mother wouldn't ask any questions about that." I threw one of Izzy's purple pillows at her. The bed I laid on was covered in them.

My sister used to re-decorate her room all the time when Robert lived with us. Her room was probably an inch smaller in diameter than it was when we moved in, with all the layers of paint. The shortest amount of time I'd seen between changes was five days when she started dating this eco-warrior and threw out everything to make room for second-hand furniture. At the end of those days it didn't work out so she went and got all the things she'd thrown out back.

The longest I'd seen her go without redecorating was since the divorce. Izzy had completely gone off purple but was stuck with it. She could just about get away with saving to add the occasional piece to her wardrobe, let alone redesign a whole room.

On the plus side the general finances were getting better. Mother had been promoted so most of the money Izzy and I made went towards 'extras' now, we weren't responsible for feeding the family anymore. Which was good because Isabelle couldn't be held responsible for feeding the cat, much less a group of people.

Groups of people... And I was back to worrying about what Magnus was up to.

"Screw it. I'm calling him again." I had him on speed dial so I didn't even have to look when I raised the phone to my ear.

"Mother might overhear..." Isabelle sang warningly.

"I'll be quiet." I shushed her.

"No you won't." She threw the pillow back at me and returned to the mountain of bobby pins she was attempting to arrange on her head. Because it just isn't a special occasion if a girl doesn't have a whole bunch of metal prongs sticking into her skull. Honestly. The effort that girls go to when their hair looks just as nice down; I'll never understand.

I made a note to self to ask Jace how he felt about bobby pins. It seemed like all the elaborate arrangements would just get in the way.

I heard music playing downstairs and it didn't seem like our Mother's taste at all. Odd. But I didn't find it that weird until my phone stopped dialing out and the music stopped. I got up and headed onto the landing to hear better when I dialed again.

There was the music.

Magnus' ringtone.

I ran back in to Isabelle, shaking. My heart was working overtime and about to break my rib-cage. "Izzy. Magnus is downstairs."

"What do you mean downstairs?" She peeled her eyes from the mirror to give me a skeptic look. Because you know: that's very helpful when you're freaking out.

"You two might as well come down here." Came the small voice from my mobile. Not Magnus but Mother. It was official: he was downstairs, talking to my Mother.

If a whiter shade of pale than I already was existed then that was the colour I'd just turned. Even Izzy's eyes were bugging out of her head. She gave me a signal to hang up but I was too stunned. She took the phone and did it herself.

Try as I might I just could not relax with Magnus sat at the dinner table with us. Remember how we were in the museum? When I said it was unsettling in a good way? This was unsettling in a 'by-the-angel-why-won't-the-ground-swallow-me-whol e?' way.

Some explanation might be due here, though.

Magnus, who was currently wearing a blazer and glasses that weren't even prescription, had decided that my Mother was in fact right about wanting to meet my 'History Tutor'. He'd turned up to my house under the premise that it was 'irresponsible' not to meet with the parents of a – and you can imagine how much I loved hearing this part – 'child in his care'.

And there I had thought he had a busy schedule.

"We really can't thank you enough, Mr Bane." My Mother flattered as she handed a dish to him. She'd situated herself right beside Magnus, with me and Max across from them and Isabelle at the head of the table. Izzy kept giving me little confused glances like she wanted to know how I'd managed not to explode or blurt out something incriminating.

"Not at all. Alexander is a smart boy." That brought up the total number of times he'd used the word 'boy' to nine and I had a funny feeling he was going to try breaking double digits. My knuckles were palling with my fingers wrapped tightly around my cutlery.

Of course my Mother didn't see that. She was quite busy staring at Magnus like she wanted him to throw her on the table.

Uncomfortable, much?

"I suppose you've visited my ex-husband too?"

Way to stretch the 'ex' part. "Classy." I muttered without thinking. Oops.

Everybody at the table looked at me; I looked at my sister hoping for excuse-inspiration.

"Izzy…" Would totally have this covered up by now… "Asked me what I thought of her prom makeup. I just remembered the word I was looking for."

Okay, that was a good save for me. Any other time Isabelle would have high-fived me for something like that. Now she grinned knowingly. Just like Magnus was.

"Aww. Thank you." She said, placing her hand to her chest like she was touched about winning an award. She should have been a drama student. Max just shrugged and said he couldn't tell the difference. To tell the truth neither could I.

We hadn't gotten though it yet; the topic was soon back on track with Magnus resting one elbow on the table and leaning in pretty damn intimately. "From what your son has told me, speaking to that man isn't worth anybody's time."

"He talks to you about that?" Mother looked awestruck. I didn't know what bothered me more. That she was trying to flirt with the guy I was seeing or that he was going along with it like nothing was wrong. He knew she'd been hurt recently.

"Boys of that age do need a male presence to talk to, I think. My Father was-"

"Alec, didn't you say you had an essay to show Mr Bane?" Isabelle piped up before he could say any more. I have the best sister. She wasn't always helpful but when she was she was awesome.

I was going to make sure she got whatever colour paint and cushions she wanted next pay-day.

Hearing about the schoolwork Mother was pretty quick to dismiss us upstairs. I was all too happy to get out of there and was halfway up by the time Magnus even left the room.

I think he was intentionally dawdling, looking at the framed photos all over the place. I felt my face heat when I realised how many pictures of me as a kid were actually on display.

Me at eight, leaning over new-born Max on our Mother's lap (one of the many pictures from that day where Robert was holding the camera instead of sitting with his family), me teaching Izzy to ice-skate on Lake Lyn when I was twelve. I grabbed Magnus' arm and physically dragged him past the one from my first birthday before he got a chance to look.

We paused before entering my room.

First, I was trying to remember what kind of state I'd left it in. And if there were anymore juvenile embarrassments in there. I wasn't like Isabelle, I hadn't really done anything with my room the whole time I'd been in there aside from throwing out toys and putting up posters as I got older.

Secondly, Magnus was about to come into my room. That was a nerve-wracking event in itself.

Thanks to everybody. The next chapter is 'Grown Up' and basically the second half of this one.

I just want to put it out there - because there was mention of a bedroom and this is FanFiction dot Net after all - that I don't write explicit scenes. I'm going to switch the rating of this fic to M because I may choose to mention or gloss-over some mature things (because teenage guys like Alec do think about that stuff) but please don't expect me to go into detail. I'm sorry if this disappoints you and happy if you're cool with that.

Thanks again for reading!