hatred // malec

josh is acting strange

magnus slid through his front door as silently as possible. he tried to contain his happiness and excitement, because he knew that his father would quickly question him about it.

if he was home that was.

'dad? you here?"
no reply. must be out doing something.

magnus took himself up to his room. he set his phone down and searched through his playlist. usually, he went out to the park to practise, but he decided that if his dad wasn't home, why not do it there?

eventually he just decided to hit shuffle and moved to the centre of his room. closing his eyes made him feel more relaxed and free, more able to get in tune with the music.

this was magnus's happy place. he took in a deep breath, and started to move.

-------------

alec knocked on the door of his best friend's house. it was answered by his little sister, sophie. she was the cutest little girl, and always grinned when she saw alec.
"hey soph! look at you, you've got gaps in your teeth! you're gonna have big girl teeth soon, aren't you?!"
sophie nodded enthusiastically. "yes! and mommy says i'll get treats for being so brave!"
alec ruffled her hair and knelt down to hug her. josh came down to see the commotion then.
"hey alec! come on in, i was just getting sophie ready for bed. i have strict instructions from my mom to have her in bed by eight thirty. she was allowed to stay up later tonight, weren't you soph?"
she giggled and nodded. alec sat down in the main room whilst josh sorted out his sister.
around ten minutes passed before josh came in. "sorry, she just really wanted to see you again but i told her you'll see her soon. how are you?"

alec sighed. "well, ever since what you told me about jonathan, i've been feeling pretty anxious."
"oh yeah. sorry man. i didn't know what to do, if i'm honest. i'm surprised he even spoke to me."
josh was the only person outside of his family who knew what truly went down between jonathan and the lightwoods to make them hate each other so much. alec trusted him, and trusted that he would never tell anyone.

"i'm sorry that piece of shit is trying to talk to you again, by the way," josh said, softly.
changing the subject, alec randomly blurted out "how's you and caitlin?"

if alec had a good eye, he'd say he could almost see josh's face drop. "she's great," he said," i love her so much. but, there's something missing."
"oh?"
"yeah. i'm not quite sure what though. like, our dates are great, she's a great kisser, our conversations are still great. there's just," josh said, pausing and lowering his tone," something missing," he finished, in almost a whisper.

alec put his hand on josh's back and rubbed.
"it's okay. maybe you should talk it out with her, you know? maybe she'll realise there's something missing too and you guys can work to achieve that."
josh looked up to make eye contact with alec. there was something he really wanted to tell him. the words were in the edge of his mouth, but they weren't coming out.
"oh sorry can i just use the bathroom real quick?" alec asked.
josh sighed. not gonna tell him tonight, i guess. "sure."
"okay thanks. i'll be right back."

---------

josh sat in silence, waiting for alec to return. his phone buzzed.

Jonathan M.: Is Bitch Boy with you? Tell him what I told you. I want him at my house tomorrow.

he ignored the text. in fact, he didn't just ignore it. josh blocked jonathan and hoped he wouldn't get beaten for it.
he couldn't do this to alec.
he couldn't force him to meet up with this monstrous person.
josh loved alec too much for that.

alec walked into the room just as his own phone buzzed. josh saw a glimpse of the screen before alec lifted his phone to reply. as far as he could see, it said this:

magnus 💞💖💓💞💓💖💞: hey. thanks so much for today. i love you babe. ❤️❤️

oh. so he was dating magnus. it wasn't much of a surprise, but josh still couldn't help his mind wandering...
"hey man! i'm back. wanna watch a movie?"
josh ignored the iffy feeling in the pit of his stomach and grinned. "hell yeah! how 'bout something scary? like a true, proper horror?"
alec smirked.
"only if you don't scream like a child. remember the time when we-"
"SHUT UP. WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THAT."
"okay dude. you're on."

---------

isabelle came home to an oddly quiet house.
or at least, at first it was quiet. she could hear someone chatting to someone. being the nosy person she was, she decided to investigate.

the noise was coming from jace's room. and it sounded like he was talking to clary.
the perfect time to barge in.
"HONEY I'M- oh, oh okay."
jace's eyes widened.
"izzy! haha, we were just, um, jace was just helping me with some-"
"no. no no no. you don't need to explain, it's fine. i'll just...leave."
clary's face had turned almost the same colour as her hair. "just give me two minutes to get changed!"
"you mean to put clothes on?"

izzy didn't have time to hear her response and went to sit in their main room. simon had been lovely on their date. a little nervous, but it made him so cute. she took this opportunity of peace to text him and thank him for the great time. usually, she would've taken boys home for fun, but something about simon made her feel different. izzy couldn't quite tell how she felt at the moment, but she knew she deeply cared for him.

she texted her brother as well.
ur gay lol: ALEC WHERE TF ARE U I JUST WALKED IN ON JACE AND CLARY
from ur gay lol: HAHAHA SORRY I'M WATCHING A MOVIE WITH JOSH XOXOXOXOXXOX LOVE U SO MUCH BABY SIS
ur gay lol: are u fucking kidding me oh my god bYe

"hey," came clary's soft voice. she was clearly still embarrassed. "how did your date go?"
"really well actually! simon's just as sweet as i thought he was. nervous, but adorable. i saw yours went well?"

just then jace wandered out of the bedroom.
"do NOT mention a WORD of what happened here to alec. he will literally crucify me."
"too late for that, big bro. don't fear; he just laughed at me."

"speaking of alec, where is he? i'd really like to talk to him," clary asked, looking at izzy.
"he's at josh's. not sure when he'll be back though."
"oh okay. if i'm gone before he comes back, tell him i want to talk to him."

isabelle gave her friend a knowing nod.
she hoped alec wouldn't be an asshole to her.

--------

magnus took his time alone to start his drawing again. he had lied when he told alec he was awful at drawing- he wanted to surprise alec with this for his birthday.
but as he was drawing, he couldn't stop his mind from wandering.

there was still so much he didn't know about alec. like, why did he hate jonathan morgenstern? what happened with his dad? why was he so secretive?
truth be told, magnus was terrified. now that he had alec, he didn't want to lose him. but at the same time, their relationship was never gonna work if neither of them knew anything about the other. alec had no idea what happened to magnus's mum, and he also had no idea about just how shitty his father was.

knock knock.
someone was at the door. magnus pushed away his thoughts for the moment and answered the door to a bewildered looking tessa.
"tess? what's wrong?"
"can i come in? boy drama. very big boy drama."
magnus grinned.
a perfect distraction.
the two plunked down on magnus's bed and tessa immediately zoned out for a few seconds. clearly whatever had happened had seriously made her think.

"what have you gotten yourself into now?"
"well, uh. willandjembothaskedmeoutatthesametime."
"wait?! seriously?! oh my god YES!!!"
tessa despaired. "no magnus! not yes! i can't decide, and either choice i make is gonna hurt someone!"
"tess-tess. it's will and jem. nothing and no one could ever make them resent each other. in fact i'm honestly surprised they're not a thing."
tessa laughed. "true, true. but i need your help to make the decision."

"well, honey, you came to the right guy."