Roommates & Soulmates

Ch65: Magnus's Bitterness

November was nearly over, and Christmas was almost upon them. For Magnus, this meant many things, one of which was his one year anniversary with Alec. It wasn't the anniversary itself that he was nervous about, so much as the prospect of going home with Alec for Christmas. A week or so ago, when Izzy had dropped by for a sudden visit, Alec had asked Magnus to come meet his parents over the holiday. The problem was that Magnus hadn't seen his aunt since last Christmas. Sure, he talked to her on the phone from time to time, but it wasn't the same. Would it be too much to ask Alec for them to both visit Magnus's family and his? Plus the idea of meeting all of Alec's family at once, and staying with them for an extended period of time was a little intimidating. Though Magnus wasn't really sure how to talk to Alec about these things, he was sure about Alexander. It was something they had to talk about, and he might not be comfortable bringing it up, but he knew they were okay. It was a wonderful feeling to be secure in your love for another person. Magnus had known relationships security before Alexander, or at least he thought he had. With Alec, there was no little voice in the back of his mind trying to convince him that it would all fall apart.

Lost in his thoughts, Magnus walked out of class. It was getting close to exam time again, and the professors were starting to assign more homework. Magnus was having a hard time believing that in just a few short months, he'd be graduating with a Bachelor's in History. How had the last four years gone by so fast, and how could the same four years also feel like half his life? Next semester was going to be a stressful mess of applying for jobs, and trying to like grow up or something. Magnus wasn't so sure he was on board with this whole graduating thing. But short of purposely flunking out, there wasn't much he could do about it.

It was then that Magnus saw a rather familiar head of blonde hair. She was sitting alone in the corner almost hidden from view. As Magnus walked towards her, he thought idly about how just a year ago he wouldn't have been doing this. Back then, he would have been moving as quickly as possible in the opposite direction at the sight of this particular person, but today it brought a smile to his face. He wasn't bitter, for he had no reason to be. The past was the past, and Alec was his future.

"Oh Magnus," Camille gasped, jumping slightly in surprise and turned to him, her makeup running down her face.

"Why are you crying?" Magnus asked her gently. He knew this woman well enough to know she only hid when she was crying real tears. He'd also seen enough of her fake tears to know the difference. Actually now that he thought about it, this might be the only time he'd ever seen her really crying.

"I'm not," Camile disagreed quickly.

"I see," Magnus replied calmly. "Well, my mistake. The water running down your face must be from the rain." They were of course, indoors, and his sarcasm was very obvious.

"Okay fine, I'm crying," Camille muttered. "Happy?"

"Yes, though it has nothing to do with you crying," Magnus replied. He'd long ago gotten over this woman, and his love for Alec was so different as to make him think he had never loved her the way he thought he had.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Magnus asked gently. They were in a little nook off the main hallway. Two couches lined the walls, outlets for students to plug in laptops were near every surface, and a coffee table was in the center.

"Do you really want to know?" Camille inquired. "Because the last time we saw each other, you ran from me like I am some kind of snake or something."

"Yeah, sorry," Magnus replied easily, sitting on the couch opposite her. "Little bit of boyfriend drama. All settled now though. How is Ralf? Did your jealousy plan work?"

"No," Camille sniffed. "He just finally picked one of the other girls is all that happened."

"Tessa's right isn't she," Magnus whispered with a smile. "You actually love Ralf." It was a strange concept to him, since Magnus hadn't ever felt like Camille had loved him during their relationship, at least not in retrospect.