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It’s a cold winter. And Alex is too aware that it’s because Mason isn’t here with her.
She walks down the bustling streets, the Christmas lights strung upon the lamp posts as far as the eye can see. Couple season is upon her, she thought she had it locked down this year but it is another one alone. Alex walks into a coffee shop, trying to shake off her mopey state as she goes to the counter to order.
Pulling out her chair, Alex stares out the window. She takes a secret delight in how moody and poetic she feels, she pensively stares outside. The sky is gray and the people outside the window seem to all walk in pairs. Mother and child, husband and wife. Then there’s Alex, all alone.
Alex replays the breakup in her head once again. It’s been a month and it still won’t leave her mind. Her stomach sinks when Mason’s words come to life. ‘You see me as a monster,’ . He said with tears in his eyes.
Alex frowns around her drink. That’s not true at all. How could he even say that to her? She’s not, er, monster racist.
Alex leans back into her chair. Unless. Alex picks at a hangnail, shaking her head. It’s not that she’s, um. She is not prejudiced towards monsters. Or, monster-people. The fact that Mason and other people like him are called monsters by the Wizarding Council is the fucked up part! Alex supposes that it’s hard to view monsters as normal people because well, they’re called monsters first of all. Hard to view someone as the opposite of what they’re called.
A person, Alex? She puts her head in her hands.
Alex remembers opening the book her father gave her called ‘Monsters & Other Mythical Creatures’. The book was covered in red leather and gold print, luxurious in her hands. She never read it, of course, but liked to look at the pictures and diagrams.
She remembers tracing the lines of a detailed sketch of a half merman. Below, cursive scrawl explained that captivity had destroyed their mating capabilities. It was the last documentation of a merman, all the way back in the 1500s.
The merman looked like any boy she’d see on the street, except for the tail that was sketched behind him. He lounged on the rocks, wet skin glinting in the illustration like whale blubber. Alex tore off that page and kept it for herself, thirteen years old. She had stored it in her secret box behind her bookshelves, he was really cute to look at.
Alex looks in the window, at her own reflection. She’s a human girl— looks like one at least. But she’s not actually, she’s something else right now. A wizard, not a mortal like one would assume. She scans her face, her pale skin and dark eyes. Is she a monster too? But she looks normal ; there’s no proof to the outside world of her Wizarding capabilities. Mason, the cucuys, all change into their forms. That is the difference between her and them.
Alex creates this defense in her head, but she knows deep down she’s not being fully honest. Mason may be able to transform into a beastly form, but just like how Alex is always a Wizard, Alex knows that Mason is always a wolf. Even if it is kept inside for most of the month. And is there much difference between a wizard and wolf?
Except for the fact that he’s more likely to get thrown in jail by the monster hunters? Alex frets.
Alex doesn’t understand why the monster hunters are cracking down so hard on magical creatures. Mason is harmless, except when he’s chasing after dogs in the park for the tennis ball. In his human form, that is. She can’t take him to the park anymore , she wrinkles her nose.
She sighs, hating how judgemental she is. This is the reason why they broke up. She couldn’t accept him, because he really is a monster in Alex’s eyes.
A freak.
Alex doesn’t fully understand. What makes Mason and Juliet a monster, and wizards like Alex not monsters per the guidelines? She doesn’t know why the classification of which magical being is a monster and which isn’t got started in the first place. The Monster Hunter Council has such a large directory of monsters that are on the Banned List. There’s more species listed as monsters than otherwise.
Alex frowns, taking a sip of her Frappuccino. She bets Justin knows, she rolls her eyes. Know it all.
She runs a hand anxiously over her wand tucked in her boot. She’s a wizard, for now. She might go back to being a mortal one day. Alex looks away from her reflection, the thoughts of the breakup still in her head. It feels like there’s unfinished business between Mason and her. They haven’t said everything that needs to be said.
Alex crosses her arms. She wants to seek Mason out, but is scared of what he’ll say when she does.
Alex narrowly dodges a bike rider on the sidewalk, huffing. They make bike lanes for a reason , people. She’s never scared of confrontation, thrives on it in a way that most people don’t.
But Alex is too afraid to talk to Mason. And she hates it.