Welcome to Seaside

[12]

They eventually settled half in the shade, their legs sticking out into the sun.

Magnus rolled the bullet in between his fingers.

"Who were you texting?" Alec asked, tucking his arms behind his head.

"Jealous?"

"No," Alec said, as if he hadn't even thought about it. Because he hadn't.

"My mother," Magnus said. "She's a frantic mess."

"So Harold broke it off?"

"Three glasses into a Bordeaux Red," Magnus said. "I think he'd hoped she'd be more tolerable drunk." When Alec didn't say anything he added, "She's not."

"Did he say anything about the picture?"

"He stopped by my room before I left," Magnus said. "He said-- and I quote-- 'I expect you'll delete that photo now.'"

"Did you?" Alec asked, looking over at Magnus, who had stopped the obsessive spinning of the bullet.

"Of course not," Magnus said, his eyes dead.

It scared Alec, this dark side that had its way of appearing. Magnus looked back at the water, tracking the waves breaking every few seconds into white foam.

Alec sat up, watching Magnus intently, verging on possessive. He wanted Magnus to look at him, just so his eyes could tell Magnus that this dark side was so out of Magnus' new character.

But his head never turned, his eyes never looked.

"So does this mean you're going back to Brooklyn?" Alec asked.

"I suppose so," Magnus said, glancing over quickly. But his gaze didn't linger.

"Please, sound more depressed," Alec mumbled.

"I just-- there's really nothing else in Brooklyn," Magnus said. "I've got as much of a life there as I do here."

"But I'll be there."

A smile played on Magnus' lips.

"Yeah," he said.

"And there's more homeless people in Brooklyn," Alec pointed out. "I'd say there's less rich people, but I'm not quite sure."

Magnus laughed.

"And you can find reasonably priced clothing," Alec added.

"Nothing I wear is reasonably priced," Magnus said.

"I guess that's true," Alec said.

"I know it's true," Magnus said.

Alec nudged Magnus' arm with his head.

"Are you trying to fight me with your head?" Magnus laughed. "Or get my attention?"

"Attention," Alec breathed, pushing Magnus back into the sand, kissing him with less ferocity than earlier. It was calm and simple; time wasn't an issue. Alec had his fingers twisted in Magnus' hair, which he hadn't bothered to put gel in today. It was only this loose at two in the morning after the day had worn it out.

They didn't hear the footsteps in the sand until the last possible second.

And they were too tangled in each other to react fast enough.

Alec's mother just looked sad. Not disappointed. Not shocked or surprised. Just sad.

"Get up," she said, exhausted. "There's a storm coming."

Magnus pushed Alec off him, for the other boy's sake.

Their eyes went to the western horizon which was clear. Alec was the first to look behind them to the angry grey sky.