Izzy did some of her best excuse work ever in the weeks leading up to prom. She even enlisted Jace's help, determined that my prom-night story be watertight. We wanted it to be ultra-believable. So that our Mother would have no reason at all to think I was lying about where I'd gone that night.

So I came out.

Jace had mentioned that if I was going to come back giddier than Isabelle - a comment I accepted but didn't really appreciate - then 'I sat around chatting on the bleachers' wasn't going to cut it. We all agreed that meant I should have a fake date.

The thing was, there would be nothing more suspicious than some girl appearing in my life out of nowhere. I had literally never talked about the girls at home. The extent of my interest was 'Jace's new girlfriend is so annoying' and 'I wish Izzy's friends would keep the noise down.'

A guy appearing in my life out of nowhere, on the other hand... Well, it would make sense why he'd been a 'secret' for so long. I had to tell her I liked boys eventually anyway. By my logic if she kicked me out at least I wouldn't need an excuse anymore.

I'm happy to say that I didn't get kicked out. When we sat Mother down to talk about it she'd taken it all surprisingly well. I wondered if maybe she'd softened her judgement on other people's love lives after what happened to hers. I still didn't think she'd approve of me and Magnus, though. Especially not seems she apparently found him attractive.

All in all she'd been really supportive. Admittedly she had insisted that Robert had to know and when she told him he hit the roof and banned me from his house. But I called that a success.

The morning of April 20th we met at Jace's house with Clary and Simon - would you believe it, Jace got his date with the redhead by using my sister to tag-team the couple.

"Alright. The foundation work is already in place." Izzy said, holding a rolled-up 'Ebony' magazine (the one Magnus worked for, come to think of it) with an actress on the cover. My sister had been borderline obsessed with her recently and had even considered bleaching her hair blonde to match. We'd all convinced her against it. "Alec will pick up his boyfriend-"

She pointed the magazine at Simon.

"Raphael." He responded. Every time she'd pointed to one of us we had to be ready to answer.

"Why Raphael?" Clary asked.

"It's the name of some douche from Dumont School's field team. We thought it would be funny." Jace filled his new girlfriend in on the details.

Isabelle cleared her throat and he shut up.

"There are no pictures because..." She pointed to Clary.

"Raphael has Catholic parents who didn't want to take photos of their son with his boyfriend."

"Aaand?"

"And we went right over to see Jace and Clary when we got in. Completely forgot to pass the photographer." I supplied.

"Well aren't you stupid?" Izzy hit me with the magazine.

We carried on like this for a while, until my sister was convinced all of us knew the story inside-out. I would fill her in on what actually happened the next day to see if we could incorporate anything true in.

Until then, we were all 'released'. In other words Izzy was dragging Clary over to our place for a girls' day that the rest of us weren't invited to. I spent the day with Jace and Simon; helping pick up corsages and warning the newer member of our group that if the night wasn't perfect Isabelle would kick his ass in stiletto heels.

Despite my warnings, I liked Simon. He was a nice guy. He seemed like the type who would ask a girl out to watch a movie and actually watch the movie. And he made Izzy laugh and gave her one of his hoodies when it was cold out. She'd yet to return it and probably never would.

I was glad to see she'd found somebody good. I had been worried she'd end up going with somebody who wasn't; he'd ruin her perfect night and she'd end up swearing off men completely.

"Her hair." I said as we all walked away from the florist. "She did it herself and you have to say something nice about it."

"Shower your sister with compliments, I get the picture." Simon joked.

"It's for your own good, man." Jace added with a smirk. He'd known Izzy long enough to know how to stay on her good side.

We were on the way to JJ's. I'd already complained about them making me spend any more time there than I had to but they had the very valid argument that Isabelle's dictator-like behavior the last couple of weeks was half my fault. They were 'all out of favours' for me.

It was practically empty in there. Maia Roberts' scar-faced friend was there without her. A couple hipsters on laptops who were probably writing bad screenplays.

And one older guy. Sat alone in a booth.

"Your type?" Jace nudged me with a grin on his face. I started laughing, which was really dumb because it made him think he was hilarious.

"The funny thing is that you're joking." I managed to say with a semi-straight face. I don't think he really gathered what I meant by that until I walked us over to the booth and took a seat.

Magnus looked surprised to see me. No wonder, he knew my work schedule by now. He put his phone away in his pocket as soon as I approached.

"Still not dressing better on your days off, Darling?" Magnus commented. I poked my tongue out at him and didn't even care that it was childish. "You should wear your prom suit out tonight."

"Only if you switch off your mobile." I wagered. It was worth a shot if only to have his full attention for the first time in weeks.

"Deal."

Jace and Simon had caught up to speed by now and headed over. Simon looked uncomfortable and went to get his coffee. Jace looked like he was stunned. It was like that day on the track where he'd fallen down all over again.

"These are the guys who had to suffer Izzy's tyranny to make me an alibi." I explained for Magnus' benefit. "Jace, here's the reason my sister hit you with a rolled up Ebony."

Magnus chuckled before he let out an exaggerated sigh. "Such is the fate of my art."

Jace didn't exactly seem eager to sit down with us. I frowned. He didn't have to act so weird; usually he always had something to say. I didn't like that he was being so quiet.

Magnus had trouble dealing with quiet people in general. I remembered back when I wasn't so good at talking to him and he felt compelled to coax words out of me. My friend was no exception to this rule.

"Are you the one who compared me to a forty-two year old?" Magnus inquired, frowning jokingly. I laughed; I'd almost forgotten about Jace saying that.

"Yup, that's me. When he told me about you I thought Alec had lost his mind." Jace seemed to be recovering. That was good. There was really no reason for him to start acting like a freak; even Izzy hadn't found it that odd.

"And what do you think now?" Magnus asked him, smirk on his face to rival Jace's.

Suddenly the mood had changed; I couldn't say how. Just that everything seemed so much more serious.

"I haven't decided." Jace said.

Jace and Simon had left me at the coffee shop and gone home go get ready. It surprised me how happy I was to see Jace go. Another time I'd ask him what his problem was; he was so rude. Not rude in a funny-Jace-way, either. Just plain unpleasant.

When I got home I had bigger things to worry about, though. Robert was waiting on the front porch. His presence made me feel on-edge and territorial. What was worse was the disgusted way he looked at me.

Didn't he know that he was the one with the problem and not me? Apparently not. He practically sneered when I passed him.

"If you came to meet Raphael you're out of luck. I'm picking him up." I lied. I guess I didn't need to say anything at all but I really wanted to get to him. I was so used to our lie by then, anyway.

"I came to see Isabelle off." Said Robert. He narrowed his eyes at me. Scrutinizing. "And to see Max."

"Oh, not for me then? I'm completely crushed." I deadpanned. If Robert thought I cared that he wanted out of my life he had another thing coming. I'd been telling him to get lost since day one of the break-up. The only thing that did suck was that I couldn't be there to keep an eye on my siblings anymore.

On a positive note; Izzy was becoming pretty disillusioned with the idea of Robert as a good guy.

Inside the house, which I'd hastily closed the door to before Robert could follow me, I found Mother cleaning the prime picture-taking spots in the house ready for when the girls came downstairs. She looked just as excited as her daughter had been. Max, on the other hand, looked incredibly bored.

"Are you going to get dressed up too?" He whined. Funny how just a couple weeks ago I would have forgot all about changing my clothes and take him out to kick a ball around and get muddy. I felt like a bad brother for not having the time.

"Sorry Max. I'll make it up to you."

"It's just one night. Alec plays with you all the time." I heard Isabelle in the doorway before I saw her.

When I saw her I could hardly speak.

I don't know if you've ever had the experience of seeing your baby sister in a gown for the first time. The first time she looks like a Princess since she was tiny and playing dress-up games. Well, the world stops turning for a moment. You're proud of her and you don't know why.

"You look beautiful Izzy." I smiled. Max's face was the very picture of surprised.

"You look like you slept in your clothes." Izzy replied. "Get upstairs and change right now!"

And she was back to being normal little sister in a fancy dress. That lasted. I shook my head and went to my room, regretting that I'd agreed to wear the suit.

Just a quick note, I only just noticed that when I double-check spelling in Chrome it's correcting my English to American. So if you're seeing words like 'realise' one minute and 'realize' another, then I'm sorry for being all over the place. I'll pay more attention to what I'm changing in future.

Thank you for reading, everybody! Next up is "Cliché".