A/N: This story takes place during Season 3 when Dylan and Marco just began to date. Some of the facts have been changed for the purpose of this story. I know in the actual episode Dylan and Marco run into Marco's parents, but for the sake of this story, they don't. Enjoy.

Chapter One: Day Old Hate

Fresh from the zombie picture he'd just seen, his skin still covered in goosebumps, Marco sat across from the most beautiful boy he'd ever laid his Italian eyes on.

"Was it as scary as you thought it was going to be?" Dylan asked, leaning foreword with a giant smile spread over his face.

"No," Marco fanned his eyes down. "Scarier." He looked up and chuckled with his date. His date. He couldn't believe that Dylan Michaelchuck was his date. He had crushed over him for what felt like eons.

"Well, I'm glad you pushed through it." Dylan said sighing after his laughter.

Marco paused and staring up into Dylan's deeper than the ocean blue eyes said, "It was worth it."

Dylan tilted his head to the side, a few stray blonde curls falling into his eyes and smiled a little.

"So, you're not nervous anymore?" He asked Marco.

"No," He spread his hands down the line of his pants. "I think it's safe to say my nerves are gone completely." He bared his teeth.

"Do you want a pop?" Dylan asked more excited than one usually is when offering soda.

"Sure."

"I'll be right back." Dylan let himself out of his chair. "You like Root Beer, right?"

"I love it." Marco simply replied.

"Be right back." Dylan dashed off to the nearby Miss Vanilli's to get them something to drink. Marco just smiled to himself, he couldn't believe this was all happening, it was fast, it was real and most of all, it was with Dylan. He was just stunned by the whole thing.

A small group of girls, three to be exact, one a red head and the other two peroxide blondes wandered by, all three looking him over with impressed looks. Marco couldn't help but blush. Dylan sat down right away and as soon as Marco noticed, he felt embarassed and uneasy. He was gay, he thought to himself, he shouldn't be so flattered by three girls checking him out.

"One for you." Dylan pushed the drink closer to Marco. "And one for me." He began to sip his. He picked up right away on Marco's uncomfortable body langague. "Marco," He leaned closer. "Are you alright?"

Marco wanted to lie to him. Tell him that everything was perfectly alright but, then the light bulb in his head went off. Dylan had been with guys before, he had more experience, he'd been with girls before, too. Maybe, he'd know what this all meant.

"Do you think about girls?"

Dylan tried to dig through that simple question to figure out what Marco was really asking.

"I mean, do you still think about girls?" Marco tried again.

"Yeah, here and there." Dylan shrugged his shoulders. "Why?"

Marco ignored Dylan's question and pressed on with his own inquiry.

"How many relationships with girls did you have before you knew?" He said in a hushed tone.

"I always knew, well, I knew that I was different." Dylan took another sip of root beer and then put his drink down. "Relationships?" His eyes reclined back in his head to think. "I guess two but, I also dated around."

"Do you think about your ex-girlfriends a lot? Like in a more than friends way?"

Dylan started to appear to be uneasy with all the questioning. He felt like Marco should be shining a light in his face.

"I know I'm being nosy, sorry, I'll stop."

"No, it's okay." Dylan shook his head and tried to shake away the feeling that he was being intruded on. "I don't really think about ither of them in a more than friend way, you don't think about Ellie in a more than friend way, right?" Dylan turned the tables.

"No, I guess not." Marco thought out loud.

"Exactly. I mean, I'm still friends with my last girlfriend. I've only been out for ten months. Not even a year." Dylan let Marco know.

"Really?" He was completely surprised. "I thought you'd been out for a while."

"Well, while I was dating Martie, I knew for sure I was and I just figured if I kept being with her and dating her, I'd just stop. Anyways, this one time," This was the first time Dylan could really admit all this and he figured it would help Marco a little bit. "While we were," Dylan cleared his throat. "Making out, she just stopped and asked me, I knew I couldn't hide it anymore but, we dated a little while more then I just knew it was time."

Marco could relate to that. He had done the exact same thing with Ellie.

"I know what you mean." Marco mumbled.

"You know, it's getting late, I should drive you home." Dylan stood up, drink in hand. Hesitantly, Marco follow suit. All in all, this hadn't been a half bad date. They even made plans in the car to go out for coffee after Dylan's hockey game on Friday. Marco couldn't wait.

"When are you going to give me some details?" Resting her sunglasses on her head, Paige pestered her brother.

"About what?" He teased her while holding the door to The Dot open for her.

"Stop it, Dylan." She playfully slapped him in the chest. "I've gotta know."

"Hey, Mom just told me to pick up pizza for you and Hazel, she said nothing about having to spill my life out for you." He laughed, as they wandered over to the till.

The waitress had her head buried down, staring at the open till, counting a few bills and cursing under her breath.

"Excuse me." Paige said in her tone that could command a thousand armies. Dylan and her just watched the waitress struggle. Paige cleared her throat and as if on cue, the girl looked up.

"Oh my gosh!" Paige almost shouted. Dylan couldn't believe it, he stood up straight and took a few steps back. His eyes were as big as dinner plates. "Martie!" Paige squealed. The two girls had always gotten along when Dylan and her were dating and Paige had really missed hanging out with her.

"Paige," The girl smiled equally as happy. "Dylan," She looked up with a sigh at her ex-boyfriend. They had only talked via instant message lately. "What are you two doing here?"

"Pizza." Was all Dylan could say. "Sorry," He shook his head. "How have you been?" He wandered foreward to meet her halfway for a hug but, when Martie walked out from behind the counter all Paige and Dylan could fixate was on Martie's new and huge belly. Martie extended her arms for a hug but, Dylan couldn't take his eyes off her new figure. Her stomach was peeking out from beneath the green and red polo, which was Martie's uniform.

"You're pregnant?" Paige couldn't believe it.

"Did that new boyfriend of yours do this to you?" Dylan went into protective friend mode. "Where is he? He better be helping you?"

"Actually, an old boyfriend of mine is responsible for this." Martie mumbled - almost whispered, softly.

Dylan thought about it for a second. As far as he knew after himself, she dated some guy named Mathieu but, he hadn't heard much about him in the last few e-mails she sent him. Then he pieced it all together in his mind and couldn't believe it. For the first time in his almost eighteen year life, he felt breakable.

"Dylan's the father?" This time Paige did shout. Martie only nodded, still looking up at Dylan for a reaction.

"Paige, go wait in the car." Dylan nudged his sister. This was way too juicy for Paige to resist, she just wandered towards the door, so she was still within eavesdropping distance.

"I did plan on telling you." Martie played with the split ends of her high brunette pony tail.

"When...on the kids eighteenth birthday?" Dylan raised his voice.

"No, it's just scary, Dylan. I mean, you've been dating guys, I knew this would only confuse you more. Plus, I didn't expect for this to come along. I was frazzled."

"How far along," He looked around at the spectale they were causing and the few Pizza Hut customers who were looking on. He got right close to Martie, one more step and his chest would be brushing against her tummer. "How far along are you, Martie?" He whispered.

She took a moment and then, satdning up on her toes, she whispered into his ear.

"Seven months?!" He stepped back and exclaimed. "You're seven months and you didn't tell me?"

Paige gasped along with two ladies sitting at the booth next to her.

"I'm sorry, Dylan, that's all I can think to say, I know it isn't good enough."

"You're damn right." Dylan shot.

"Can we talk about this later? I mean, when you've had a chance to digest it and in a different location?" Martie offered almost desperately.

"Yeah," Dylan nodded his head trying to find the reality in this moment. "Call me when you're shifts done. I gotta get out of here." Silently, he stormed out of the pizza resturant. Martie made her way behind the till again, running her hands down her head and then on the sides of her stomach.

Paige carefully appraoched the counter again.

"Uh, the pizzas, please." She smiled that shining smile of hers.

"Right, sorry." Martie wandered to the back and only a minute later she resurfaced holding two medium boxes of pizza. "24.95." Marite typed in on the till. Paige handed her a twenty dollar bill and a five. Martie opened the till up and arranged the money it's in rightful slot and then pklaced a dime in Paige's open palm.

"I'm excited to be an aunt." She said, holding the pizza's in her arms.

"Good." Martie grinned, weakly. "See you." She waved Paige away.

Marco had tried to talk to Dylan the next day, it was the day of their second date and Marco could barely contain himself. He wanted to explode, sing a Bollywood musical song in front of the entire school, he was ecstatic. He scampered over to Dylan down the hall but, Dylan averted his eyes away and headed straight for his locker.

"Hey," Marco rested against the locker next to it. "I've been trying to find you all day." He mentioned casually. Dylan didn't say a word. "Are we still on for tonight?" Marco pressed on, rocking back and fourth on his heels. He recieved no answer from Dylan. "I've been looking foreword to it." Marco continued on like the eager beaver he was. Dylan slammed his locker shut, still not adjusting to his new truth. Worried, Marco rolled up his sleeves and swallowed around the lump in throat. Dylan just wanted to yell right at Marco what was going on but, the moment his blue eyes melted into Marco's dark brown pupils, he couldn't bring himself to.

"I'll have to take a raincheck for tonight." Dylan said almost under his breath and then left Marco by his locker, completely let down and shattered.

Sipping their hot chocalates, Hazel and Paige watched Dylan's hockey game from the wooden stands, their butts freezing. Spinner, Craig and Jimmy watched as if they were hypnotized on the bench behind the girls. Paige's parents were on the floor, mingling with their hockey friends. Dylan was playing his roughest game, missing open goals and not concentrating on what he usually would. The puck was continuously being stolen from him.

"What's going on with Dylan?" Hazel snooped.

"I don't know." Paige told a flat out lie. She knew but, she felt too much sympathy towards her big brother to tell Hazel. Hazel would just blab it all over North America.

"Paige," Spinner tapped Paige on the shoulder but, never took his eyes off the rink. "What's wrong with your brother? He's bombing tonight."

"Geez, Spin have some consideration." Paige scoffed at all three boys leaving them muddled. "I'll be right back." Paige told Hazel before getting up and walking down the stands. She dropped her empty styrofoam cup off into the waste can and wandered to the canteen where Marco stood ordering himself something.

"Hey." She said in a somber tone while approaching him from behind.

"Hey Paige." Marco assumed that Paige knew about Dylan blowing him off earlier. He just rushed back around and paid for his cocoa.

"How you doing?" She asked, walking away to the front doors that had small windows in them to see onto the ice.

"Honestly?" Marco questioned but, didn't wait for Paige's answer. "I'm hurt. Why'd your brother cancel our date tonight?"

"Something came up." Was all Paige could think to say.

"What? Why couldn't he reschedule? We had plans."

"It's sticky, Marco, really. He's got stuff going on."

"What kind of stuff? I had a date with him two nights ago and things were great, at least I thought we had a good time."

"You did." Paige assured him, skimming his arm with her fingers. "He did, I promise, look, I want to tell you, I do. It's just -"

"Sticky." Marco repeated Paige's previous word and sipped his boiling drink, burning his tongue in the process. "Just tell me. Please, Paige." Marco was dying to know. He wanted to hear what excuse Paige had for her big brother.

"I can't -"

"Because you know it would kill me."

"It's not that, Marco," Paige sighed, exasperated. "Come with me." She pulled him away from the doors and outside. "It's like this -" Paige began to explain to Marco in a small voice.

Chapter two coming up. This is my first Dylan and Marco story, so let me know what you guys think.

Suggestions, comments, anything is appreciated.

Chapter two coming up.

Day Old Hate - Dallas Green