After their friendship broke up, both Magnus and Alec try to deal with the new situation.
One disappears from New York without saying goodbye, while the other retreats to his room.
Both just want to forget.
Alec was just so stubborn and only wanted to be left alone, he was of course aware that he couldn't stay in his room forever, but it was just so insanely hard and nothing seemed to make sense anymore.
Magnus was no longer here, he had lost his best friend.
The first person who actually managed to lure Alec out of the house was Raphael. Raphael, who had witnessed the events of the prom first hand and had stood by Alec.
If it hadn't been for Raphael, Alec wouldn't even have known how to get home.
Everything that had happened after Magnus had left was a blur to Alec, he hadn't had much to drink that night but his brain seemed to be trying to save him from some pain.
Raphael wasn't much of a talker, but after Magnus had just slipped away like that, Raphael knew he absolutely had to talk to Alec. It was clear to him that Alec must be devastated after Magnus' Facebook post and therefore needed the support of his friends very urgently.
Raphael had actually expected Alec to protest, he was so stubborn, but after Izzy called him and told him Raphael was downstairs waiting for him, he was down at the door in seconds.
Shortly afterwards, the two found themselves in one of their favourite diners. Taki's was one of the hottest diners and it was often hard to get a free table there, unless of course you were a friend of the owner's daughter.
Fortunately, they belonged to Maia's circle of friends and so they were actually always guaranteed a free table.
When they were seated at the table and the waitress had taken their order, Raphael got straight to the point, he was not known for beating around the bush and in his opinion it also made no sense at all.
"Alec, I saw Magnus' post, I can hardly imagine how you must feel. Have you even spoken to Magnus since the prom?"
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Alec couldn't look him in the eye, or even react in any way, the pain that the sight of that post had caused him was too deep.
But try as he might, he could not stop the tears that had gathered at the edges of his eyes from flowing down his cheeks.
"Hey, cheer up. I know you won't believe it now, probably not for a long time, but it will get better. Come on, let's enjoy dinner and talk about Harvard, or I'll tell you about my plans and then you can tell me how stupid I am for even trying to follow in Tom Ford's footsteps."
This elicited a small smile from Alec and Raphael was relieved that he had managed to give his friend, at least a little, comfort.
Afterwards, they sat together in the diner and talked, seemingly carefree, one could almost have thought that everything that had happened since the night of their prom had only been a dream.
After Raphael told him that he was going to Parsons School of Design to study fashion design, Alec couldn't hold on any longer.
Everyone he knew was pursuing their dreams, except him.
