Disclaimer: Parts of this chapter (and maybe future ones) are taken directly from the episode Pride so I obviously didn't write that and I don't own it. Nor do I own Degrassi, any characters from Degrassi or anything like that.

I want to thank my bestest friend Megan for coming up with the title. What would I do without you?

"I came out to my dad this week." Excited and congratulating murmurs circulated around the room.

"And how did that go Renee?" Asked the leader of the group.

"Better than I expected. I thought he would be a lot more upset…" She continued but Marco stopped listening. He was too distracted by the blond god sitting next to him in the circle. He was leading their support group, having been out of the closet much longer than anyone else in the room. As a matter of fact there was at least one person in the group who hadn't come out at all. Outside of this building only one person knew he was gay. Ironically that person was his girlfriend. Well sort of.

Marco could very happily stare at their group leader, Dylan, all night, but also knew that that wasn't the reason he came. Well, not really. He came to learn to accept who he was so that he could eventually tell everyone else in his life, and hopefully they could learn to accept him too. Knowing that Renee's story about her father could possibly help him when he decided to come out Marco began to listen again only to realize that she was wrapping up her story. He felt guilty that he hadn't listened to her as he should have, which was the point of this support group, and the guilt only increased when Dylan looked at him.As far as Marco could tell, though, Dylan hadn't noticed that he hadn't listened.

"And how was your week Marco?" the blond asked as he did every session.

"As good as can be expected, I guess." The Italian teen had been coming to this group for about five weeks and was just getting used to the fact that he could tell these people anything and everything. "I mean I still can't imagine telling my best friends that I'm gay, let alone my parents. I've been using my best friend to hide that fact and I'm too damn selfish to stop." They all knew about Ellie and, surprisingly none of them judged him for it, which usually made him feel better, but today their lack of judgment did nothing to ease his guilt.

Dylan turned slightly in his chair to face the younger teen next to him. "Marco, no one thinks you're selfish. You're just scared. We all understand; we've been there. You just have something that not everyone else does, you have a friend willing to support you and help you. But I do think it's time for you to stop pretending to be together. She needs the chance to meet other people and be happy, just like you do." With the last couple of words he laid a hand on Marco's knee.

The touch was simple and only intended to comfort him, but it sent his senses haywire, little as he wanted anyone to know he was incredibly attracted to the older man. He hadn't ever dated a guy, so technically he didn't have a type, but he had to assume that if he did, Dylan would be it. He was tall, light skinned (at least compared to Marco's olive tone), had curly blond hair, blue eyes, and was a senior at Degrassi Community School. In addition to all that he was a hockey player, which meant that his muscles were very well defined. Marco reminded himself to breath evenly and willed his heart to return to a normal pace. He realized that Dylan had been waiting for a response but all he could bring himself to do was nod. It was hard to think with that large, strong hand still resting on his knee. He didn't know whether he wanted it gone or to stay.

Seeing Marco's nod Dylan removed his hand and moved on to the next person in the group to ask about their week. Inwardly, Marco sighed in relief. He could breathe again, but that only lasted until his thoughts once again turned to those blue eyes.

After the meeting ended everyone began to file out of the room with Dylan staying behind to clean up a little, like always. Tonight Marco was the last one left in the room with him, which hadn't happened before, but he was grateful for it.

"Hey, Dylan." Marco said softly, "I just wanted to thank you for what you said in group today, and well, every day I guess. I really appreciate it."

"Hey no problem Marco. A few years ago, I was exactly where you are. I had a girlfriend and I was terrified that everyone would hate me when they found out. So I came here and it really helped me. Just remember you have to take it one step at a time. Eventually you'll be ready." They talked for a while longer as Marco helped him clean up. Eventually they stopped talking about issues surrounding being gay and moved on to things that every human experiences. It was nice to feel this open with someone again.

When they got to the parking lot Dylan walked to his car while still talking to Marco. He was unlocking his door when he noticed that there weren't any other cars in the lot. "Hey," he called to Marco, "Do you want a ride home?"

Marco looked around as if to make sure he wasn't talking to someone else. "Uh, sure, that'd be good." He responded making his way to the passenger side of the car.

Both boys got into the car and Dylan said, "So, um, where do you live?" Marco felt embarrassed that he hadn't even considered that Dylan needed to know his address. He apologized softly and told him where to drop him off. Dylan brushed off the apology and began to drive toward his passenger's house.

As they drove they continued to talk about whatever they could think of. "Oh God, I think it's been about six months." Dylan told the younger boy.

"Six months? Why? What happened with your last boyfriend?"

"He and I just wanted different things I guess. He wanted to go out all the time and have fun, while I wanted a real, caring relationship." He answered.

"Oh." Marco said, not knowing how else to respond.

On that note they pulled into Marco's driveway. "Well, here's your house."

"Yeah, um, well thanks for the ride." He paused and looked at Dylan not ready to leave, but knowing that he had to rational reason to stay in the car. "I, uh, I guess I'll see you next week."

He began to turn away, but the older man's voice stopped him, "Marco." He said reaching for the teen's hand and grabbing it. His heart began to beat faster with anticipation.

"Yeah?"

He looked like he was going to say one thing but then settled on, "Remember what I said in group. You deserve happiness."

The Italian gave a small smile and said, "Thanks." before leaving the car and walking to his house. He closed his door with the small smile still there. He began to really consider what Dylan said about letting Ellie meet people and be happy. Tomorrow the two of them were going to the beach with some other friends; he would talk to her tomorrow. He would stop holding her back. He had to, for both their sakes.

"Look, I don't know why you hate Paige." Marco said to Ellie as they walked down the street.

"Because she's pure evil." The redhead replied as if that fact were the most obvious thing in the world.

"She's very sweet actually. And don't worry about today, okay? You're my guest." He tried to convince her, but she wasn't buying it. She just continued to walk ahead of him.

The Goth with a snide remark from Paige, which only contradicted Marco's claim that she was sweet. Marco handed the beach things he had brought with him to people sitting in the back two rows of the Michalchuk family van. Spinner asked the teen where he wanted to sit and, not wanting to disrupt those already seated, he opted to sit in the front. He ran around the rear of the car and to the passenger seat. He could have sworn that his heart stopped for a moment when he saw the driver.

"Oh, uh, Marco. Meet my brother Dylan. Our chauffer for the day." Dylan. Dylan Michalchuk. Support group Dylan. How had he not known that the Dylan who had been helping him and Paige's brother were one in the same? It took all the strength and willpower Marco had not to freeze in the middle of sitting when his dark eyes met blue ones. Instead he just nodded calmly toward him and buckled his seat belt. Dylan smiled and said hi, but gave no indication that he had met him previously.

There was excited chatter among all the teens in the car with the exception of Ellie, since none of these people were really her friends, and Marco, who was way too distracted by the boy next to him. Marco would never claim to have any talent when it came to seeing the future, but he knew that this one day would be very, very interesting.

Hours later as Marco, Spinner and Jimmy were attacking each other with water guns the Italian couldn't help but look over to the blond hockey player sitting with his younger sister and her friend. He really was something to look at. At one point he wasn't the only one looking at him either.

"That is so wrong." Spinner said as Dylan hooted at some men jogging by them.

"Why? He's gay. It's what they do." Jimmy told his close-minded friend.

"Yeah, but it's gross. Touching another guy, kissing ..."

"You were all over Marco just a second ago."

"Ha ha ha, that's funny." Spinner said sarcastically before continuing to squirt him.

The conversation just made Marco begin to doubt what he had decided the morning before. Later, though, when they were all sitting around together, winding down after a game of volleyball and an all out war with their water guns, he looked at Dylan and received an encouraging look from the older boy which spurred him on. He got up from his seat and walked over to his best friend and, as far as his friends knew, girlfriend.

She was strumming her guitar lightly surprisingly enjoying her time at the beach, even if she was really only friends with one of the others there. Marco sat down, tapped her shoulder and said, so that only she could hear, "We need to talk."

"Now?" She responded quietly.

Marco nodded and stood up. Ellie put down her guitar and followed him away from the group. His friends saw them walking away together and assumed they were going to do some boyfriend/girlfriend stuff, when in reality Ellie had no idea what was going on, and Marco was wondering how he was going to break up with someone he hadn't really been dating in the first place.

When they reached a spot on the rocks over looking the water Ellie's curiosity won out. "What's going on Marco? What do you need to talk about?"

"Ellie, I think it's time you and I stop pretending to be something we're not." Marco said deciding to be direct.

"Well, duh Marco." She couldn't believe this was all he wanted to talk about. This was practically nothing. Unless… "Wait, Marco, are you considering coming out?" She asked getting excited.

"I don't know Ellie. I hadn't really thought much past that first sentence." He replied nervously.

"What brought on this sudden revelation?" She asked suspiciously.

"Well I was at that gay support group last night and the leader said something to me that really hit home. He said that I should give you the chance to meet new people and be happy, and that I was hiding behind you. I agree. You and I were only meant to be friends and we can't keep telling people otherwise."

Ellie sighed. For a while she had still held onto the hope that he was wrong. That he did like girls, but eventually even she could tell that theirs was a relationship closer to that of a brother and sister than a boyfriend and girlfriend. "I'm glad you're figuring this out Marco. It's a big step, a good one. But what do we tell those guys?"

It was Marco's turn to sigh. That had never even occurred to him. "Ugh, I don't know. Maybe we could just go up there and announce that we had broken up, but we were still totally okay or something."

"Oh come on, like they'd believe that. They'd probably think I did something or I was still in love with you or something." She sighed, "Well, let's go get this over with then."

"Okay, I am not trying to avoid this, but I would rather just sit here by myself for a while. It's pretty nice." Ellie nodded and made her way back up the slope toward the group of her not quite friends.

When she got back to where they were all gathered she sat back down on that certain bench, picked up her guitar and began to strum it again. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her. All of them were curious about why two people left and only one returned.

Paige was the first to speak up, "Uh, Ellie, where's Marco."

Ellie looked up and stopped strumming for a moment. She tried to look at least a little upset, but in reality she was actually a pretty glad that this had finally happened. "Well we had a talk and we both decided that it was time for us to break up." She continued to strum her guitar, "We felt more like siblings than boyfriend and girlfriend anyway."

None was left without surprise on their face. Some hid it better than others, and not all of them were surprised for the same reason though. Spinner was surprised he hadn't seen it coming, Paige was surprised that she had been wrong about them being made for each other and Dylan really hadn't expected them to 'break up' during the beach trip. For a few minutes they were all lost in their own thoughts about the news, but then Spinner and Paige began to argue pointlessly, Jimmy and Hazel got into some kind of conversation, and Ellie just kept on playing her guitar. Seeing that everyone was thus distracted Dylan took the opportunity to go join Marco.

Sneaking away was easy; climbing down the rocks was easy, figuring out what to say to Marco? Not so easy.

"How'd they take it?" Marco asked surprising Dylan. He didn't even know the younger boy had heard him climbing down to where he was sitting.

"Uh, well, they were all a little shocked, but they'll get over it." Marco snorted slightly but didn't say anything. "You know Marco, I'm really proud of the progress you've made." Dylan commented.

"Thanks." The younger boy answered.

"Now all we need to do is get you to come out."

Marco's head spun around to look at Dylan so quickly he was afraid for a moment it was going to keep going. "What? There is no way I'm ready for that!" He stood up to be a little closer to Dylan, though the blond was still a good deal taller than him.

"Marco, you need to do it sooner or later. And I think sooner would be best for everyone."

"Why? Why would that be best?" He was yelling now, but he wasn't concerned about anyone hearing, they were very, very secluded.

Dylan took a hand and ran it through his blond curls with a frustrated puff. "Because, Marco, one day you're going to be somewhere with someone and you are going to want to just wrap your arms around them and kiss them, or they'll want to kiss you, or both, but it won't happen because you'll be too afraid of someone seeing."

It may not have seemed like much had happened or enough had been said, but it was enough to make both teens worked up. Because of this Marco spoke without a second thought, "Yeah, like it's not already happening."

Dylan was prepared to yell something back at him, but then realized what Marco had just said and stopped himself. He gave the shorter boy a confused look and said, "What?"

By this point Marco was too far in and too frustrated to care about anything, so he grabbed the front of Dylan's shirt in both hands, pulling him down and laying a firm kiss on surprised lips. It only took a moment for Dylan to respond, because he knew that he had wanted this just as much as Marco, but he hadn't wanted to push it. The taller boy quickly wrapped his arms around Marco's thin waist and lifted him off the ground with ease, making the kiss much easier for him to get into since now they were about level. Each could feel the other's passion building, but neither wanted to take it too far. Slowly, the kiss came to an end and Dylan reluctantly set the younger boy back on the ground, but didn't let him go.

"What does this make us Marco? I mean, I don't know if I can be just friends with you, but I'm also not sure if you ready to be with me." Dylan said after a few moments.

"Dylan, I want to be with you, I really do, but I'm just not prepared to tell everyone that I'm gay."

"Why Marco, what's stopping you?" He asked looking down into the boy's eyes.

"I just- I just know that people are going to treat me differently because of it, and there are people out there who will hate me for it." He paused and Dylan began to say something, but Marco cut him off. "I know I shouldn't care about other people, as long as I'm happy, but right now I'm just not sure I could handle it. They would probably break me down. I just need some time to prepare myself for that so it doesn't hurt as much. In the meantime though, I don't want to not be with you, but I can't ask you to sneak around it just wouldn't be fair."

"Then don't ask." Dylan told him. Marco nodded slightly and looked toward his feet, "I'll offer." Once again Marco looked at him quickly with surprise clear on his face. "Marco, as much as you want to be with me, I want to be with you. If that means I have to wait a little while to announce it to the world, I can do that, just don't make me wait too long, okay? I might burst if you try that." Marco laughed and hugged the older man as a simple way of saying thank you. They stayed like that for a couple more minutes, arms wrapped around each other, just silently watching the water. Eventually though, they did return to the group. No one hooted as they would have done had Marco come back with Ellie, no one had reason too, as far as they knew. Only Ellie suspected a thing because only Ellie knew the truth.

A/N: Okay, so I don't really think this is my best work, but I hope you enjoy it. I just had this idea rolling around in my head about what might have happened if he knew Dylan and Dylan knew he was gay. And I've always been very intrigued by the whole secret relationship thing, so those thoughts resulted in this story. I have not stopped An Answered Prayer and I will probably still have a new one-shot for Series come out here and there.