When Times Get Rough
Prologue
"Well, this is it," Marco said, walking back into his house, Dylan at his side. "The moment of truth."
"Calm down, Marco," Dylan said, looping an arm around his waist. "It's just university. Even if you don't get into mine, nothing's going to change."
Marco smiled at the sudden reassurance. "Well, I'm not getting my hopes up." They were inside now, in the kitchen. Marco's mom was cooking pasta sauce over the stove. Mr. Del Rossi was at the kitchen table reading the morning paper. Dylan smiled and nodded to Marco's dad and hugged Marco's mom tightly.
"How are you, Mrs. Del Rossi?" Dylan asked. "Sauce coming along well?"
Marco's mother smiled and laughed. "Very well, thank you, Dylan." She turned to Marco. "What's that in your hand?"
"Oh, this?" Marco bit his lip. "It's the acceptance or rejection letter from Dylan's university. I applied a month or so ago," Marco explained. "But you know what?" He put the letter on the kitchen counter. "I'm not going to open it. Not yet, anyway."
There was silence in the kitchen. Mr. Del Rossi had looked up from his paper. Mrs. Del Rossi's stirring spoon was hovering over the pot, and Dylan had scrunched up his eyebrows, staring at Marco curiously.
Then everyone lunged for the letter.
It turned out to be Dylan who'd gotten it, since he had been nearest, and he held it high over Marco's head, teasingly. Marco was taking great care to restrain himself from jumping to get it and risk looking like an idiot.
"You know you want to know if you're in or not," Dylan said, leaning down to peck Marco lightly on the cheek, the envelope coming within an inch of Marco's fingers before Dylan stood up fully again.
"Just open it, damnit," Marco said impatiently. He smiled widely though, moving close to Dylan and wrapping his arms around his waist. "Please?"
"Please is right," Mr. Del Rossi said, eyeing their embrace with mild amusement. "Save the affection for some place else."
Marco closed his eyes in annoyance. He hated when his father got like this. He was usually fairly okay, despite the fact that Marco being gay was not something that he was completely ready to accept, but every time Marco thought he was going to get better, he had to go around ruin it all with his comments. Marco squeezed Dylan's waist and in response, Dylan pushed Marco's hair behind his ear. It would have been the perfect moment to kiss him, but Marco refrained.
"All right, let's get this over with," Marco said. "Just do it, so I can officially know I'm too big of an idiot to get into uni."
"Stop being so hard on yourself," Dylan said. He slipped his forefinger under the slit of the envelope. "Ready?" he asked Marco, casually putting an arm around him.
Marco smiled up at him. "Ready."
Author's Notes: That's just the prologue, and yes, it's meant to be very short and really, quite pointless. I hope it's enough to keep you reading though, and the next chapter should be up shortly. Reviews (both good & bad) are welcome, though if you've come to chew out my writing, I'd highly suggest taking it elsewhere as I really don't care.