Alec

“If she wasn’t interested in you from the beginning then she should have said so,” Alec said. “It doesn’t matter that they were friends, it wasn’t right of her to cheat on you.” He felt very strongly about this subject because a few months ago he’d found out that his dad had been cheating on his mom. It had felt like a slap in the face, though he couldn’t imagine what his mom was feeling. “Sure, I guess.” He shrugged a little. Alec shook his head and said, “No, not at all. I just know that you’ll regret drinking that much tomorrow. I know it all hurts, but you can’t hurt yourself like that.”

“I’m not, but I’m glad that you’re not far from here. If you’d like, I can drive you home once my shift is finished.” He probably shouldn’t do that, but he felt protective of the blonde. He understood the taking care of himself thing. “You can let other people take care of you, you know. It’s not so bad. Trust me. It took ages for my sister to open me up again once I’d moved out. Now most of my family is back in my life and I’m glad that she did. You’ll get there eventually.” Alec hoped that he had given him some sort of comfort, but could tell that he was still sad. “Listen, I’ve got to make a couple of more drinks for some guys over there. Though how about you look at the menu again and get yourself something to eat, on the house. I’ll take care of it.” He pushed the full menu toward Jace and hoped that he’d take him up on his offer. “And then I’ll take you home in an hour if you want to leave. Though you don’t have to, I’ll stay here and chat with you all night if you’d like.”

Jace shrugged. “I mean, she was for a while? I thought we were great.” He mumbled, looking at his hands. He chuckled drunkenly, looking up at the other and tilting his head. “I’d rather hurt from this,” he lifted his half empty glass. “Than from my heart.” he replied, finishing the drink and setting it down, staring at the glass for a long minute. He was never, ever going to let himself get close enough to love someone ever again. Fuck love.

Two toned eyes looked up and he tilted his head the other way. “Sure, a ride home won’t be so bad.” he agreed with a shrug. “I don’t really have anyone to take care of me, pal.” he said bitterly. “My parents were killed when I was little. My grandmother took me in, but after losing my dad, she kind of became a workaholic.” He opened his mouth to say he was fine, but he decided free food would be worth it, so he looked over the menu quietly, trying to find something that sounded appealing. He usually loved pizza, but it would only trigger more memories of his ex, so he debated between chili cheese fries and nachos for a long moment while he waited for Alec to return.