Conditional Love

Chapter 12

A few weeks have passed since the breakup. Alec allowed himself their four day break to wallow in self pity and get over his heartbreak. Of course, no one needs to know that he isn't over Magnus, and he doesn't think he'll be over him anytime soon. The first four days, Alec barely managed to get out of bed. Once he was required to do so for work, he managed to get up early enough so that he could go for a run which had helped clear his head, as well as worked out some of the knots in his muscles from lack of use during those four days. After the first day of running, Alec made a new routine for himself. This included running, going to the gym, cooking, cleaning, and anything else he could do to keep himself from falling into some semblance of a depression. He also hasn't been back to Kaelie's bar since, what he now calls, 'The Magnus Incident'. It also helps that Alec doesn't get off work until two o'clock in the morning, so he can't go in and drink, even if he wanted to.

These days, Alec doesn't speak to Magnus unless he has to for work reasons, avoiding him the rest of the time. Magnus has tried to approach Alec on multiple occasions, but Alec just can't be around him.

Magnus, unfortunately, has been a constant in Alec's thoughts. Magnus had said that he's going to do everything in his power to earn Alec's trust back, but so far, all he has managed to do was piss Alec off. Over the last few weeks, Magnus has only tried to buy his way back into Alec's life. First are the flowers, which are delivered to Alec's apartment daily. Then there are also the chocolate covered fruits. First it was strawberries, then cherries, then various types of melon. Magnus has also managed to have food delivered from different restaurants. Some had even been from Magnus's dad's place.

The whole thing is making Alec wonder if Magnus even knows him at all. They were together for three months, he really should know by now that Alec doesn't care about materialistic things.

It's not what you can buy, it's the way you choose to act that counts.

Magnus has made no effort to contact Alec at all since he showed up at his house the day after everything had happened. No phone calls, no texts, nothing. Alec also knows that he's not making it easy on Magnus, but he can't help but feel petty about everything. Magnus ruined their relationship all because of the fact that he is too terrified to come out to everyone at work, so Alec is making no effort to speak to him while they are there. Luckily their relationship, or lack thereof, hasn't affected their job performance. They still work great together.

Alec has noticed, though, that even Aline barely speaks with Magnus anymore. This abrupt change in the nature of their friendship is very confusing, so Alec decides to confront her about it one day.

"Hey, Aline?"

"What's up?" Aline glances towards Alec while she's putting her lunch in the breakroom.

"I was just wondering, why are you giving Magnus the cold shoulder? He's your friend too." Alec shuffles his feet as he asks, feeling increasingly uncomfortable about this conversation, but he doesn't want Magnus to lose everyone he's close to.

"He wanted to act like a petulant child, all for the sake of his discretion, now I'm going to act like the petulant child, and make him realize that he's an asshole." Is Aline's response. She closes the refrigerator after putting the container she's holding in there, and the thud of the door closing signals the end of their conversation.

Alec doesn't really agree with Aline's reasoning, but he can't do anything to change her mind. Even Sebastian and Jordan have been acting strange lately. Alec has no idea what the deal is with that, but as shitty as this may seem, he can't bring himself to care enough to ask. They've done nothing wrong, but lately, Alec has given zero fucks about a lot of things that should matter to him. As of right now, it seems like the only thing Alec can do is just exist.