[MalecAU] The Future President

The Truth

Magnus had not been doing much the past few weeks. Truth to be told, he had done nothing at all. Since Alec had broken up with him, every movement felt exhausting, as if he was hung with dozens of bowling balls. He even neglected his work, though Clary was constantly pressing him to get back to the drafting board to avoid losing clients. But Magnus just couldn't bring himself to it and left most of the workload to her. Instead, he sat on his couch, watching horrible chick-flicks, and poked in Chinese takeout food, for which he had no appetite.

In the middle of his self-pitying phase his phone rang. His first impulse was to throw the devilish thing against the wall and stomp on the leftovers until it was crushed into a million tiny pieces. He was so sick of getting rid of his caring friends, assuring them that everything would be fine, that he just needed some time to get over another affair, while deep down he knew that forgetting Alexander Lightwood would not be a question of days. Or weeks or months for that matter. Perhaps the wound Alec had caused to Magnus's heart would never heal. What had started out as a regular flirt had turned into something... well, much deeper. Magnus could clearly imagine spending the rest of his days at Alec's side, enjoying everyday life together, perhaps even start a family. None of his past love's, not even Etta, had awoken that wish.

But this future is already past. As so often before, Magnus's feelings were stronger than his loved one's. He kept falling into this trap over and over again.

Meanwhile, his phone kept ringing penetrantly. Magnus fought his destructive impulses and grabbed the phone with a sigh to decline the call. But when he saw an unknown number, he stopped short, his thumb lingering over the red button. During the past days Magnus had received eight calls from Ragnor, two from Raphael (a record!) 17 from Clary and 191 from Catarina. But this number belonged to none of his friends. Hesitantly he accepted the call, lifted his phone to his ear and asked, "Who dares to disturb?"

"Magnus, why does it take you so long to answer your fucking phone?!" an annoyed female voice asked back. She nearly screamed so Magnus had to bring some distance between his eardrum and the speaker. He already wished to just have trusted his first instinct. Before Magnus had the chance to give a peppery reply, the voice continued, "this is Isabelle. Listen, Alec will give a press conference today, you have to come there, perhaps he will come to his senses when he talks to you."

Right now, Magnus would be glad if Izzy made some sense: "Stop for a sec, Isabelle. I don't understand a word of what you are saying. Why should I go to one of Alec's conferences? You realize that I don't work for him anymore since he broke up with me, don't you?"

Isabelle's roll of her eyes was practically audible through the phone: "It's not about his outfit, Magnus, though his style has definitely worsened without you."

Magnus rubbed his face with his free hand: "Did he go back to black sweater and holey jeans for his appearances?"

"Luckily, it's not that bad, but that's not the point here, anyway! Alec is going to deny everything, and he shouldn't do that. This would go against everything he stands for."

"I don't get it. What's he going to deny?"

"Are you living on Mars? Didn't you hear any news today?"

Carefully, Magnus thought back to when he had last watched something else than mindless trash to numb his aching heart. He didn't like the result of his line of thought. So he replied, "Let's assume I was on a recreational retreat in a monastery in Himalaya during the last few weeks. What did I miss?"

"There was a demonstration against higher rents in New York, the re-opening of Denver's national history museum, Beyoncé gave concert in LA..."

"Alec visited a concert of Beyoncé?" he interrupted her incredulous.