Magnus & Alec

Chapter 4

Magnus' POV

He got home that afternoon before his dad, which was good because he wasn't in the mood to be lectured on how he dresses. It had been a nightmare last time...

Magnus had spent so much time thinking about what tit would be like to finally come home- he thought they'd throw him a glitter parade.

But when Magnus walked in the house, it was like he wasn't actually there.

His dad just glanced at him, then when straight back to doing whatever the princes oh hell do. His mom came and hugged him and asked him how he was, but there's only so much you can say to not make it awkward or get angry.

His mom carried the bedazzled duffel bag with Magnus, stuff into a bedroom just off the living room and Magnus followed her. The room was tiny, just big enough for a bed, dresser and desk all crammed next to each other.

'I know you're used to big places, but you'll have to readjust,' his mom said softly.

There wasn't room in this room to readjust. (Which Magnus decided not to mention.) he went to bed as soon as he could so he wouldn't have to go back out into the living room.

When he woke up in the middle of the night, he had to crawl off his bed and slide between it and the desk, and he didn't even know where the bathroom was.

He found it. There were only four rooms in the house, and the bathroom just barely counted. It was attached to the kitchen - like literally attached,  without a door. This house was designed by cavemen, Magnus thought. Somebody, probably  his mom, had hung a pink sheet between the refrigerator and the toilet.

When he got home from school, Magnus let himself in with his new key. They house was impossibly more depressing in daylight - dingy and bare - but at least Magnus had the place, and his mom, to himself.

'How was school?' his mom asked.

'Fine,' Magnus said.

'Did you have a good first day?'

'Sure. I mean, yeah, it was just school.'

'Will you have a lot of catching up to do?'

'I don't think so'

His mom wiped her hands on the back of her jeans and tucked her hair behind her ears, and Magnus was struck for the totem-thousandth time, by how beautiful she was,

When Magnus was a little boy, he'd thought his mom looked like a queen, like the star if some mundane fairy tale.

Not a princess - princesses are just pretty. Magnus' mother was beautiful. She was tall and slim, with broad shoulders and an elegant waist. All of her bones seemed more purposeful than other people's. Like they weren't there just to hold her up, they were there to make a point.

She had a sharp chin, strong nose, and high cheekbones. You'd look and Magnus' mom and thing she must be carved into a statue of gold somewhere in Greece or Rome...

'I have something to show you,' his mom said, 'but I didn't want to do it in front of your father. Here, come on.'

Magnus followed his mom into his bedroom. His mom opened the closet and took out a stack of towels and a laundry basket full of underwear and socks.'I couldn't bring all your things when we moved,' she said, 'Obviously we don't have as much room here as we had in the old house...' She reached into the closet and pulled out a black plastic garbage bag. 'But I packed as much as I could.'

She handed Magnus the bag and said, 'I'm sorry about the rest.'

Magnus assumed that Asmodeus threw all his stuff in the trash a year ago, ten seconds after he'd kicked him out. He took the bag in his arms. 'It's okay,' he said. 'Thanks.'

His mom reached out and touched Magnus' shoulder just for a second. 'We'll eat dinner around 5,' she said, 'I like to have everything settled before Asmodeus comes home.'

Magnus opened the bag as soon as his mom left the room. He wanted to see what was still his...

The first thing he recognised was the makeup. They were loose in the bag and have used, but still designer. It had been years since Magnus had used them, but he was still happy to see them. He laid them out neatly in one of the desk drawers.

Under the makeup were books, a dozen or sí that her mother must have grabbed at random; she wouldn't have known which ones were Magnus' favourites. Magnus was glad to see The Book Of White and The Grey Book. It sucked that A Tale Of Two Cities had made the cut.

There was a bunch more papers in the bag. He'd had a file cabinet in his old room, and it looked like his mom had grabbed most of the folders. Magnus tried to get everything into a neat stack, all report cards and school pictures and letters from friends.

He wondered where the rest if the stuff from the old house had ended up. Not just his stuff, but everybody's. Like the furniture and the toys, and all of his mom's plants and paintings. Maybe it was packed somewhere. Maybe his mom was just hoping the caveman house was just temporary.

At the bottom of the black trash bag was a box. His heart jumped a little when he saw it. The box itself was nothing special, just something he had found around the house a long time ago; it was what was inside that made him happy.

Magnus opened it carefully. Nothing had been touched. There was his stationary, his pens and ink along with the paper and envelopes, stained with age. There was a stack of promotional cards from the mall that smelled like expensive cologne. And there was his Walkman. Untouched. Un-batteried, too, but nevertheless, there. And where there was a Walkman, there was a possibility of music.

Magnus let his head fall over the box. It smelled like calligraphy ink. He sighed.

There wasn't anything to do with his recovered belongings, so he placed them all back carefully into the bag and right at the back of his desk drawer. He climbed onto his bunk and found an old cat napping there. 'Shoo,' Magnus said, shoving him. The cat leaped onto the floor and out the bedroom door.

special mention to my friend Sarah who made me update this chapter! Go read her story, it's called I like you... alot

its amazing!

Tiana