Isabelle was sat on the couch, bouncing up and down like an excited three year old. It was her first time seeing where I lived; a tiny place which I now rented along with some guy named Kyle who was growing something not-so-legal looking in his room. I was a little worried, before I met him, about living with somebody I didn't know. You always here horror stories about that kind of thing in the media. Luckily, I was usually first person to call 'BS' on media. And Kyle turned out to be a pretty nice guy.

"Can I sleep over?" Izzy asked, jumping up so quick I thought she might knock the couch over. "Angels, Alec. You're so lucky."

"I wouldn't say lucky." I grimaced, looking into the chaos in the kitchen sink. Messy roommate. I think he must have been one of those guys who grew up thinking magical pixies cleared up after him.

It could have been far worse, though. He may have left a path of mess in his wake wherever he went but he wasn't remotely gross-looking. Just so long as nobody with a police badge broke in to ask me about the mysterious plants, I didn't have a problem.

"Our Parents won't be here to bug you all the time," Izzy ranted. "You're, like, completely free now!"

I stifled a laugh.

While she went on and on about freedom and whatever funny ideas she had about what it was like when you didn't have your parents around to fall back on, I'd been spending my whole Saturday morning trying to figure out how to tell her about the new situation with Magnus. I'd already learned all about keeping secrets from my sister and how upset it made her. I didn't want to do it again.

The problem was, I also didn't want her to go completely off the rails. Because she was going to think I was the biggest idiot. I wasn't even sure I was making the right choices, yet. To an outsider, even an informed outsider like Isabelle, it might seem like complete madness.

Maybe next time I saw Magnus I'd advise him to get himself a warning label: 'May cause insanity'.

"While we're on the topic of... My freedom. I have something to tell you." I ventured carefully. I decided against going to sit within hitting distance. Throwing distance was another story.

"Yeah?" Izzy asked, already sensing she would need to get her attitude on and folding her arms in preparation. "What about it?"

"I'mgoingtoseeMagnustomorrow." I said fast enough that my words would blur together.

Unfortunately for me; my sister spoke fluent girl-talk. This gave her the incredible ability to decipher sentences at 100mph. And deliver them at what seemed to be twice that speed when she wanted to.

"Magnus? Alec, no!" She whined. "You're doing so well!"

"Not that well." I admitted. "I saw him on Monday, too."

I had to duck to dodge a projectile handbag. Yeah. She really wasn't happy.

"Alec, he's the worst!" Izzy yelled as she darted around the couch towards me. I bent to pick up her bag for her. "Don't you remember what he did to you?"

My gaze stayed locked on the floor. I was expecting this kind of reaction. In all honesty, half the anger was probably coming from the fact I'd ignored her advice to cut him out of my life.

But I wanted to put what happened before behind me, and Magnus said that was what he wanted too.

Anyway, we were just spending some time together. It wasn't like we were dating again.

"I'm being careful, Izzy." I assured my sister calmly. "You don't think I'm dumb enough to blindly trust him again, do you?"

"He'll break your heart!" Izzy cried, shoving me on the shoulder. "Again!"

I grabbed her leg to help me keep balance. For a second I thought she might give way and topple onto me. When we both stayed upright I stood up and put her bag back into her hands.

"He doesn't have my heart, Izzy."

"That's a lie, and you know it." She sighed before walking back to slump on the couch. She looked exhausted all of a sudden. Completely fed up with arguing with me. To be honest, it made me feel selfish.

There was my sister, worrying about me, because of the choices I was making.

Seeing Magnus again was like skating on ice when you didn't know how thick it was; it could have been nice and steady and completely safe, or it could have been about to shatter at any given moment. And Izzy didn't want to see me drop into the water.

I went over and tugged lightly on a lock of her hair. One of her lips quirked up the way it always did; she tried uselessly to force it back down. When she failed she shoved me again.

"I wish you'd move on, Alec. Seriously. You almost did." Said Isabelle. She leaned her head against my side as I perched on the arm of her seat.

She was right, of course. But people want who they want. Sometimes that's all there is to it. That's what they say, usually, when you start coming out. The encouraging ones, anyway. Sure, they're talking about a whole gender and not a specific person, but the point is still there. We don't always get to pick and choose who we love. It just kind of happens.

Then, no matter how completely stupid it seems, you want to believe in people like Magnus when they ask for another chance.

"I'm just getting to know him again." I told Izzy as I stroked her hair back. "Nothing has to happen."

Nothing would happen, either, if things weren't different this time around. Magnus and I had to walk before we ran. I was worried, before, that I didn't really know him. It was part of the reason I deleted his number.

So that left a chance that even if it did work out - if he decided that one person was enough and that one person was me - I might not like the person he was without the parts of him I couldn't deal with. After all, who was he, really?

I couldn't afford to forget what had happened between us. The person I met before and the person who Magnus had been in the past. Trust like that was the kind of thing that had to be earned. And I couldn't exactly trust him just yet; I wasn't even certain what he was planning. We already knew his idea of what was acceptable was different to mine. Maybe Izzy had every right to be concerned.

"I'll kill him if he hurts you again." She growled.

"What, you're not going to kill me for ignoring your advice?" I joked in an attempt to jar us out of the serious talk. There was only one real way to know what was going to happen and that was to let things play out.

Mood lightened, Izzy looked up at me through her long lashes and grinned. "Nah, I'll let Jace get you later. Stupid."

Thank you for reading, and for all the responses in the last chapter asking me to continue. Sorry for not replying, a lot of you added questions, so I'm trying to make sure they get answered in the story instead of by me blabbering.

So, I'm planning what happens next, at the moment. There's likely to be a break while I do that, but I will be back with more.