Roommates & Soulmates

Magnus's Life

Magnus hadn't heard from any of the jobs he'd applied for. It was the middle of April and he was starting to worry. He'd been living half on student loans, and half on fumes since he'd decided to attend University, and he just couldn't justify continuing to live like that after graduation. If he didn't find a job, he'd have to go back home and live with his aunt. Magnus had nothing against his aunt, but moving back home meant leaving Alec, and Magnus didn't want to do that. He needed to find a job, and he needed to find one now.

"Magnus," his professor called as Magnus's favourite class ended. Students all around him were standing, packing up their books and getting the heck out of there.

"Yes, Mr. P," Magnus asked. His full name was Mr. Pereira, but so few people knew how to pronounce it, that he let the students simply call him Mr. P.

"Something has come to my attention that might interest you," Mr. P said. "I know you are graduating soon, and looking for ways to spruce up your resume."

"I sure am," Magnus replied, grinning. Maybe his luck was changing.

"There is a program at the local museum," Mr. P continued. "That takes in new grads. I believe you work for them over the summers as a tour guide?"

"Yes, that's right," Magnus said.

"So you'd be perfect for this," Mr. P continued. "The job is helping to receive the new shipment from France, and get it ready for display. The artifacts are on loan at the museum as of the beginning of next month, and have to be returned to France at the end of the year."

"That sounds awesome," Magnus exclaimed. His problems were solved! A local job in his field!

"Before you get too excited, I just want you to know that it's unpaid, but as I said, it looks great on a resume, and it is short term and there's no interview needed. They usually recruit through the history grads here."

Magnus's heart sunk. This was not helpful at all. Was it even still legal to get people to work for nothing? This was probably why they only hired over eager grads from the history department. Only history dorks would over look not getting paid in favour of being able to deal with real artifacts. No matter how he looked at it, what Mr. P was talking about was just volunteer work.

"Sorry, but I don't think I can do unpaid right now," Magnus replied, with a heavy heart. Unfortunately, he was a history dork and this sucked.

"Just think about it," Mr. P suggested.

"Sure," Magnus replied, but there was nothing to think about. He couldn't take the job. No matter how interesting it was, or how great it would look on a resume later, Magnus couldn't afford to work for nothing; that was the reality. Reality sucked.

Slowly Magnus made his way out of the classroom trying not to think about what he couldn't have. It had always been his philosophy in life to focus on what he had rather than what he hadn't. Magnus had wonderful friends, adorable cats, a roof over his head, a wonderful aunt, and above all, Alexander, his gorgeous, loving boyfriend. It wasn't like Magnus was losing something by being unable to take the job, not really. Everything was just the same. Nothing had changed. Magnus took a deep breath, and let it go.

He was meeting up with Izzy for another strange shopping excursion. Today Magnus would probably just end up helping her browse again, but that was fine by him. He didn't really need anything, and now wasn't the time to rack up any extra credit card debt anyway.

"What do you think of this?" Izzy asked as she walked out of the changing room wearing a rather elegant tight black dress with silver detailing around the hem.

"Depends, where you are wearing it?" Magnus replied. "It's a nice third date dress." Izzy grinned at him, then her face fell. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Izzy replied, a smile plastered on her face again. There was something different about Izzy lately, but Magnus couldn't quite put his finger on what. He was starting to think it was his own perception of her that changed more than anything.