Famous: A Malec AU Fanfiction

Chapter 28

Suddenly, Alec was a lot more aware of all the cameras focused on him. He could feel the glare of their lenses, and the lights of the entire room seemed to burn him. Meliorn, Isabelle's now ex-boyfriend, mercifully, wasn't there. Things could've gotten awkward if he was.

Then, of course, there was the issue of Ms. Queen being the one to interview him. Alec could remember all those years where Shadowhunter Gossip had pinned against her, trying to get issues printed before the Seelie Court could, trying to find out the latest gossip before their leading competitor could.

He could feel from the very way she stared at him, her painted lips pulled back into a fake smile, the hatred that she harbored inside of her. Her eyes were emotionless, her smile never meeting her eyes. Her face looked drawn and pale to Alec, and even though she was the one interviewing him, she stared him down like he was a disgusting bug she wanted to crush under her foot. Alec wished, not for the first time in this event, that Isabelle was here. If she had been the one in his position, she would've glared back with the same cooled temper Ms. Queen was giving him right now.

Alec couldn't guess how old this woman was, her sleek, bright red hair and her pale skin made her seem completely ageless. It was as if time would never be able to lay a hand on her.

He could go through this, he could make it through this without panicking on national TV. Alec tried to calm himself, and not to think of all the eyes that must've been on him right then. He could be himself, because that was what everyone wanted to see.

The questions started, and they felt like bullets Ms. Queen was aiming straight at him. Alec could dodge them.

At the third question, a query about his own, personal, favorite movie, Alec's hands started to relax. They had been curled into tight, white fists at his side when he first started, but now they relaxed over his lap. He was even able to smile a little now.

"I've seen a lot of amazing movies," he told Ms. Queen sincerely, "but I have to say, one of my favorites might be Billowing Dust. I actually had the chance to work with Ms. Rebecca Lewis, and she is an even more amazing person in real life than the characters she had played."

Ms. Queen nodded a little too attentively, and Alec wondered if she was silently cursing him in her mind.

"You seem to know a lot of female actresses," she offered carefully.

"Cecily Herondale is one of my best friends," Alec continued on, and he was startled at how calm and relaxed his own voice sounded, "along with Rebecca of course. I've had the pleasure of meeting a lot of other great actresses as well who just have the best personality."

"And what about female fashion designers?"

Alec blinked slightly at the question, and his interviewer saw this as a chance to continue on, to pounce.

"As in say, Camille Belcourt?"

"She's one of Magnus's friends," Alec chose his words carefully, "and she was a designer for a movie I was in. I personally don't know her so well, but she seems like an interesting, curious person."

"Did you know that Magnus Bane, your famous lover," Ms. Queen continued on, and Alec felt something chill inside of him suddenly, "was once Camille's lover? I mean, obviously, they broke up before the charming actor met you, but there have been rumors of them sneaking around behind your back. Anything you would like to comment on that?"

For a moment, Alec couldn't breathe. He thought the world was going to fade out around him, to leave him in nothing but darkness. A merciless claw gripped around his heart, so tightly that he thought it might've stopped beating. All he could do was stare into Ms. Queen's cold, cold eyes, her eyes laughing at him with no friendly warmth. There was nothing but amusement at his struggle, no offer of help at all.