Title: Something New
Rating: PG-13 for themes and language
Characters: In this chapter: Marco, Dylan, Marco's parents, Carlos, Paige, Ellie, Sean, Jay, Towerz, Tom
Pairings: Marco/Dylan, Spinner/Paige, Ellie/Sean, not sure of any others.
Disclaimer: I really don't own a thing, sadly.
Author's Note: God, I'm the worst author on here. I completely forgot I'd be leaving for a week, so this story hasn't been updated in a long time. Please forgive me. I just wanted to point out, as Nick reminded me; Tom has made a huge appearance in almost every Marco/Dylan story lately. If I had known that would be the case, I would have gladly renamed Tom. Because I brought him into the story long before ever seeing "It's Raining Men". In fact, the only reason his name is Tom is because on Degrassi.tv, Dylan's journal states:
to this day we've never really talked about it but whenever my friends come over, especially ones like Tom who are hard to mistake for straight my dad is always nice to them as long as the conversations keeps to neutral territory.
That is the only reason Tom came to life. He wasn't based off It' Raining Men Tom, but was mostly all imagination. When I finally did see Tom on It's Raining Men, however, the show character helped sway my story character. I really wanted to get that off my chest. And actually, if you're interested, Carlos was mentioned on Marco's journal once upon a time.
Alsoalso, Isdule07 asked the smart question of "Where did he get the toothbrush?" I hate when the readers are smarter than the authors. :P Let's just say it appeared out of thin air, eh?
And to end my longest author's note ever, thanks to EVERYONE who read the story - and a double thanks to EVERYONE who reviewed!
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"I am so bored," Sean sighed, once again.
"I know," Ellie replied flatly. "You've said it at least thirty times in the last five minutes. Okay, I get it. You're bored." She put the magazine she was holding down, and looked at Sean. He was lying on the floor, feet propped up on the bed and hands cushioning his head.
"Well, I am." Grunting slightly, he propped himself up on his elbows. "Let's do something."
"Like what? Look outside." She gestured to the window, where rain was beating hard against the pane. "It's pouring. We've already looked at the movies playing. You don't want to see any of them."
"They're chick flicks," he retorted.
Pretending not to notice that he had interrupted her, she went on, "You don't want to play a card game because they're "for little kids". You don't want to go get dinner because you just ate. So what do you want to do?"
Once more, he began to butt in with a whiny comment, but Ellie didn't leave him any room to.
"We watched TV. We got online. So what, Sean? What would make you less bored?"
He found himself a little sheepish now. "I don't know." He reached over and grabbed the magazine Ellie was reading. "Teen People? You've got to be bored too. Where are all of your annoying, angsty, preppy friends tonight?"
Glaring at him, she answered, "My annoying, angsty, preppy friends are at a party."
"Party?" he said, perking up a little bit.
"Slow down. I said a party. Very vaguely. You have no idea of what kind of party it is." She rolled her eyes.
"Well, what kind of party is it?"
"Two words: Paige Michalchuk. She invited all of her friends over."
"How do you know about it?" he inquired, looking at her oddly.
"She didn't invite me," she said cynically, reading his mind. "Marco told me about it. He's going."
"Well, let's go."
Blinking, Ellie was sure she hadn't heard him correctly. "What?"
"I said let's go. To the party." He waved towards the door, as if to tell her they were going to get up and leave. "When have you ever wanted to skip a party?" he continued, when she didn't make any notions to stand.
"You must have not heard me. I said Paige Michalchuk is throwing a party. You know, one of those parties where everyone sits in a circle on the floor and spins a bottle, and everyone else giggles as two people kiss? The kind that only has potato chips and lemonade?" She rolled over on her stomach, and gave him an incredulous look when he seemed unfazed.
"Then lets crash it," he explained, grinning.
"It's an invite only party," she said lamely, when she couldn't think of anything else to say.
"So? Paige invited Marco, Marco invited you. You're inviting me, and I am inviting Jay."
"Sean," Ellie said, thinking what Sean was doing was irrational.
He paid no heed, though, as he snatched the phone and started punching in numbers. Putting the phone up to his ear, he waited for it to ring a few times before Jay answered. "Jay? Yeah, it's me, Sean. Listen, want to crash a party tonight? Yeah. It's at the Michalchuk house." Jay said something to him, and Sean turned away from Ellie as if he didn't want her to hear what he was going to say next. "Yeah, Homochuk and his boyfriend will be there."
Ellie, however, did hear and she shoved Sean's shoulder. "You guys are not going to say anything," she warned.
Brushing her off, Sean turned back to his phone conversation. "Yeah, we'll meet you there in half an hour. Yeah, bring Towerz. Okay." He hung up the phone and beamed at his girlfriend.
"What, you guys too "gangster" to say goodbye?" she teased him, grinning.
Narrowing his eyes and scoffing, he said simply, "No."
"Look, if the party gets too out of hand we're leaving."
"Yeah yeah yeah." There was a sudden knock on Ellie's door, ultimately ending the conversation. Standing up, Ellie gave her boyfriend a skeptical look and then stood and opened the door. To her slight dismay, her father was standing there, smiling brightly.
"Uh… hey Dad," Ellie said tensely.
"Hello honey." He kissed her forehead slightly, and then looked around the room. His smile turned into a stern frown as his eyes landed on Sean. "Hello Sean."
"Hi Mr. Nash."
"Sean, I'd like to talk to you," her father said, crossing the room and sitting in a chair across from Sean. Sensing the seriousness in his voice, he too sat upright and looked emotionless.
"About what?" Sean said, trying to put on a falsely polite tone, while arching an eyebrow.
"About you sneaking into my house at about fourteen hundred hours - that's two AM," he noted, when Sean looked confused, "waking up my baby girl, taking her outside, and not coming back for some time afterwards."
Sean gulped. "Well, see… I - I was just trying to do something nice…" Mr. Nash's eyes were missing the usual twinkle, and Sean thought nervously about the weapons he was sure to have with him. His eyes briefly darted to the doorway. Should he try to make a run for it?
Mr. Nash stared at him hard, as if trying to crack him. And he was extremely close to succeeding, judging by the way that Sean was fidgeting around. "Do you know what could have happened to you guys, being alone in the dark?"
"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just…"
"Do you know what I would have done if something had happened to my daughter?" he went on, paying no heed to Sean's nervous ramblings.
"I can guess…" Sean mumbled. Ellie was actually sort of enjoying this; she'd never seen her boyfriend so nervous and vulnerable.
"Well, it won't happen again, right?"
"No. No. Of course not." He shook his head vigorously.
"Good." He now cracked a slight smile, and put his hand on his shoulder. "You would regret hurting my baby. Next time, make sure her father knows where she's going."
Sean nodded, and Mr. Nash began to leave when Sean blurted out, "Wait!"
"Yes?" Ellie's dad asked, raising an eyebrow. Ellie too looked at him curiously.
Sean smirked before going on, "Do I have your permission to escort your lovely daughter to a party tonight?" He was obviously trying his hardest to be charming and witty at the same time.
Mr. Nash laughed loudly before responding. "Will it be chaperoned?"
"Uh…" He only hesitated for a second. "Definitely." This might not have been a lie, but he was never sure and it couldn't hurt to assume, right?
"Well…" He considered it for a second, and it was only when Ellie gave him a look that he gave in. "Okay, okay. But have her home by ten?"
"Dad!" Ellie said.
"Fine. 1 AM and not a second later. Got it?"
"Got it," Sean grinned.
Mr. Nash laughed again. "You're a good kid, Sean." He paused seriously. "Don't change that, okay?" Still smiling, he left the room.
"Well…" Sean said, and the two were silent for a few seconds. He grinned finally. "Ready to go?"
-----
Marco opened the front door to the Michalchuk house, and was surprised to see how crowded the room was. Loud music was thumping, people were dancing, some were making out on the couch, and others were madly eating pizza slices. He turned to his boyfriend, who looked almost as astonished as he did. "I thought this was invite-only," Marco said, raising his voice over the blaring music.
"Yeah," Dylan replied, hardly audible, "me too." He let out a little grunt as some guys he didn't recognized shoved past him and disappeared into the crowd.
"Let's go find Paige," the younger one suggested, and received a nod in return. For mainly security reasons, Dylan grabbed Marco's hand and they began wading through the clumps of people, being griped at every few seconds for knocking into someone. Finally, though, they caught sight of Paige dumping bags of potato chips into bowls, which seemed to vanish every time she finished.
"Paige!" Dylan nearly yelled, and she looked up. "Who is everyone? Why are they all here?"
"What?!" she yelled back, not able to hear her brother.
"I said why is everyone here!" he shouted in a much louder tone.
"I don't know! I only invited a few people and then suddenly everyone started showing up! It was impossible to keep them out!"
Dylan, tired of straining his voice, fumbled over to the machine from which the music was playing, and turned the volume down a great amount.
"Hey!" somebody yelled. "Turn that back up!"
Ignoring the complainers, he went back to his boyfriend and sister. "That's better." Just then, he looked over at the door and groaned. "Paige, please tell me you didn't invite… them."
She too craned her neck to look at the doorway to see a bunch of people entering. "I didn't!" she said honestly. At this point, Marco stood on his tiptoes and glanced over the heads of the crowd. To his horror, he saw Jay and his gang walking in, or rather waddling like tough guys, and carrying cases of beer over their shoulders.
"I thought we agreed!" Dylan said to Paige, pointing at her accusingly. "No alcohol!"
"I didn't tell them to bring it! And besides, chill out. It's not like you haven't been drunk before." Dylan's face paled slightly, and Marco curiously looked at him.
"Well - I swear, if I catch you drinking…" he warned his little sister, but it was a bit feeble.
"Same goes to you," she shot back, smirking.
Marco was still watching the door, and to his surprise, Ellie came into the room right after Sean did. He hadn't expected her to show up - especially right after Jay, Towerz, and their friends. "There's Ellie," Marco said to Dylan. "Let's go say hi." He nodded, so they began, once again, charging through the hordes of teens.
"Hey," Marco said to Ellie, and she smiled at him. "I didn't know you were coming," he went on.
"Yeah, I - I thought I'd stop in… is that okay?" she asked, glancing at Jay, who was already opening a can of beer.
"Yeah, of course! I'm glad you came." He grinned at her, but the grin faded when he caught sight of his boyfriend, who was shooting daggers with his eyes at the company. Jay just then realized Marco and Dylan were standing there, and he smirked.
"Well if it isn't Homochuk and his boyfriend," Jay sneered, grinning.
"Shut up Jay," Dylan shot at him.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you faggots should watch their mouths?" he laughed, pinching Dylan's cheek mockingly. Dylan hurriedly knocked the hand away. "Oh, and he's even got a damn temper."
"You blow your father with that mouth, Jay?" Dylan snapped, and Jay's hardened face grew scarily furious.
"What did you just say to me?" he said in a gravelly voice.
"You heard me."
"You mother fu -" he started to lunge at Dylan, but Sean, after Ellie cast him an alarming look, grabbed his shoulders. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Cameron? Don't tell me you're a queer now too."
"Drop it, Jay," Sean said, not letting go.
"Drop it?" he repeated incredulously. "Drop it? Fag insults me in front of my face and you want me to drop it? What's the matter with you? You going gay on me or something?"
"No, I'm not going gay," he said, as though the idea repulsed him a bit. "He's not worth it, man."
"Yeah, right. You're just defending him because you're whipped by that vampire girlfriend of yours."
"Watch it, man! I mean it!" Sean said loudly.
Jay opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly a blonde girl in a tight belly shirt appeared next to them. "Jay, are we gonna get drunk and have sex already or what?" He closed his mouth, looking contemplative, and then finally turned to the girl.
"Yeah, let's go." He took out two beers, gave one to her, and then handed the rest of the pack to Towerz. He started to walk off with her, then stopped suddenly, and looked at Dylan. "This isn't over, Homochuk." Finally, he left.
Marco looked at Dylan. "He's such a dick," Dylan said, shaking his head.
"Yeah," said a voice from behind them. "But that was one damn good comeback."
The two whirled around, only to see Ty, who had spoken, Jeff, Brad, and Scott beaming at them. "When did you guys get here?" Dylan asked them, raising an eyebrow.
"During your little rendezvous with Hobart there," Brad answered.
"But we were ready to protect our little Dyllie if anything got out of hand," Jeff added with a smirk.
"Funny," Dylan said dryly.
"Hey, man," Ty said to Towerz, who was being his usual strong but silent self. "Can we borrow these?" And without waiting for a reply, "Thanks." He yanked the case of beers out his hands and started passing them out to his friends. After handing one to Dylan, he looked at Marco. "Want one?"
He contemplated drinking one, but his mother's lecturing voice filled his head and he said, "Nah." Dylan, however, had already opened his and was sipping it.
"Ellie?" Ty asked, remembering her name from the lunch they had shared.
"No thanks."
"What about you, Vanilla Ice?" he went on, referring to Sean. He got a glare in return, and Sean moodily grabbed Ellie's arm and the two stomped off.
"Temper tantrum. Hey, you never know, I just might be the next title of a rap song." He started beat boxing, rather badly, and then in a ridiculously deep voice, he rapped, "T-t-t-Ty, you know yo' gonna d-d-d-die, you make me wanna cry, 'cause I'm gangsta."
"Give it up, man!" Scott said, staring at him. They all couldn't help but laugh, though.
"That wasn't a very nice way to treat our boy Dylan's rescuer," Brad said, smirking.
"Yeah, I really needed him to rescue me from Big Bad Jay," Dylan scoffed, with a swig of his beer. "So, Marco, you wanna dance?"
Though normally he would've jumped at the chance, he had to go to the bathroom really badly, so he smiled and said, "I've gotta go to the bathroom, but uh, how about a dance when I get back?"
Nodding, Dylan grinned and said, "Of course." He winked, and then turned to Ty. "What about you, Ty? Wanna get down and dirty?"
"Sorry Dyl," Ty replied, shaking his head. "But don't worry… it's not you, it's me." He cracked a grin.
"Got that right," Dylan laughed.
Marco fumbled upstairs, and went into the bathroom. To his disgust, a couple he didn't know were making out on the bathroom floor "Dude, what do you think you're doing?" the guy asked, glaring at him hard.
"Uh… I have to pee."
"Find somewhere else, then!" he shot, and Marco quickly left. He didn't know where any other bathroom in the house was, and by now, he really had to go. Silently, Marco turned towards the balcony. He knew what he had to do.
Quickly he made his way outside to the balcony, checking all around for any onlookers. No one was down there. He didn't want to act out a scene from American Pie, he thought, and then he laughed at the idea.
Quickly, he began to relieve himself. Suddenly, the sound of doors opening made him stop dead in his tracks.
"Marco? What're you d - oh my God! Uh… s-sorry!" Paige's shrill voice rang out, and he quickly zipped his pants again, cheeks burning. Paige was shielding her eyes with her hands, cheeks almost as red as his.
"I - I - the bathroom was taken," he stuttered lamely.
"Why didn't you use the other bathroom?" she asked, now staring at him.
"I didn't know there was one," he said, and his voice hardly came out above a whisper.
"Oh, well, um, no problem, right? I mean sure, I got a little more than I bargained for, but… boy will this make a great story in school."
"Paige!"
"I'm kidding, hun, I'm kidding."
He started to leave, then looked at her. "Where's Spinner?"
"He went to the store to…" She winced. "Buy spray cheese." They both laughed. After a slight pause, Paige looked at him. "Shouldn't you be dancing with my brother?"
"Brother?" he said, playing dumb. "What brother?"
"Oh, you know. Tall, blonde, madly in love with you? Dylan?"
"Hmm…" He jokingly scratched the side of his cheek, as though deep in thought. "Sorry, no. Doesn't ring a bell."
"Oh, don't make me tell him what just happened," she threatened with a grin.
"Oh, that Dylan!" he said hurriedly. "Of course. Yeah, I'm going back down now."
"Good boy," she said with a grin.
In return, he shot her a grin as well and then went back into his house and retraced his footsteps. It didn't take long for him to spot Dylan's golden curls, and he forced his way over to them.
The older boy was now holding four or five empty cups of beer, and he, along with all of his other friends, was drunkenly laughing at something Scott was saying. When he saw Marco, though, he seemed to almost sober up… but only a little bit.
"Marco, hey! What took you so long? You fall in?"
He laughed. "No, actually, I, um, I ran into Paige." Okay, so it wasn't a complete lie.
"Oh right. Well, you know, I think you owe me a dance."
"I don't know," he teased. "Every guy here's trying to dance with me. You're going to have to make a better proposal than that."
"Oh really? Well, then how about this: we'll dance, and then I'll take your hand and lead you upstairs and then…" he stopped talking, and Marco impatiently urged him to continue.
"And then? And then what?"
"You'll have to dance with me to find out." A grin tugged at the blonde's lips.
"Is that the best you have? Because, you know, Spinner's making an especially great offer," he went on. Dylan flashed him his best puppy-dog eyes, and Marco immediately gave in. "Okay, okay, let's dance." Beaming, Marco took his hand and led him into a crowd of people.
Somehow, they ended up next to Sean and Ellie, who were also dancing, and Marco and Ellie exchanged knowing looks.
The next song came on, and it had a rapid beat. Marco was surprised to see that Dylan was an awesome dancer, slightly drunk or not. Worried, Marco tried to keep up but he was sure he'd make a fool of himself.
Dylan had obviously taken notice, because he grinned and said into Marco's ear, "You're trying too hard. Just feel the music." Closing his eyes, Marco loosened up a bit. Dancing became subtly easier for him.
A new song came on, a bit slower, and the younger boy grinned at his boyfriend. "I love this song."
-----
"I love this song," Ellie said to Sean with a smile. He grinned back at her as they continued to dance. Neither of them said anything else for a little while, until finally, "Look, Sean, I just wanted to say… thanks."
"For what?" Sean asked with a raised eyebrow.
"For stopping Jay. And for… for defending me, I guess."
"Did you expect me to let him insult my girlfriend in front of my face?" he asked doubtfully.
She laughed slightly. "Well, no. But you didn't have to."
"I wanted to."
"You know, you're a really good dancer," she told him, blushing slightly. He looked into her eye and smiled, if only a little one. "Let me guess; Dancing For Gangsters 101?"
He was the one to laugh this time. "Not exactly. You've really got to lay off this. Every non-gangster thing I've ever done, you've criticized me for it. Do you want me to fall into the whole stereotype perfectly? Should I start only grunting and only saying things like "whatever" and "straight up"?"
"No," she replied. "Straight up is more wigger, actually."
They once again fell into a comfortable silence, but it was Sean to finally break it this time. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked, steering her away from Marco and Dylan a bit.
"Sure."
"Why do you like Marco so much?"
At this question, she stopped dancing and stared at him. He innocently stared back, as if he was asking legitimately, and not to be rude. It took her a second or two to began functioning normally again, but she was able to continue dancing as she answered. "There's nothing to not like about him. He's caring, he's sweet, he's…"
"Gay," Sean finished, as though he didn't understand perfectly.
"Well, yeah, he's gay, but that's not a choice."
"Not a choice?" he repeated, arching a single eyebrow. "You like girls or you like guys. How is that not a choice?"
"He can't help liking guys," she snapped.
"Hey, I don't care if he's gay but I do think it's a choice."
"Well it's not." She gave him an icy look, which was intended to end the conversation, but Sean would not give up without a fight.
"Well, if he wasn't gay… would you rather go out with him than me?"
Disbelievingly, she cocked her head a bit and looked at him. "You can't ask me that."
"Why not?"
"Because… it's not fair. I like Marco for completely different reasons than I like you."
"But do you like him more than me?" he inquired. Ellie was starting to get angry.
"I already told you. I like him for who he is, and I like you for who you are. There are boundaries. There's no way I could even ever compare you two."
"But…"
"Sean!" she said, exasperated. She leaned in and kissed him, hard. When she broke away, she said, "I've never kissed Marco like that. Is that enough for you?"
He grinned. "I guess so."
"Good." She kissed him once more, and then they returned to dancing.
-----
"Well," Marco said, after they'd danced to a few more songs.
"Well what?" Dylan asked, looking down at him curiously.
"Well isn't it time that you take my hand, lead me upstairs, and then I'll find out what comes after 'and then'?" Marco said, winking suggestively. Truth was, he was almost - if not more - nervous than he was excited.
"Oh right. We could arrange that." Grinning, Dylan laced his fingers with his boyfriend's, and guided him through the crowds until they reached the stairs. On the way, they passed Spinner, who was chugging cheddar spray while Jimmy and Craig laughed, and Paige, looking extremely bored.
"I don't think this is the kind of party Paige had in mind," Marco yelled over the music.
"Yeah, I doubt it."
Finally, they reached Dylan's room, and they were both disgusted to find his friend Brad was in there with some girl. "Brad?" Dylan said in a demanding tone. He quickly pulled out of the lip-lock to look at his friend.
"Dylan, hey. Um… this is Sarah," he motioned to the girl.
"It's Kara, jerk!" the girl said, pushing Brad away and stomping out of the room.
He cursed slightly and got up to follow her, then looked at the guys again. "Oh, right. Sorry, man. I didn't think you were gonna need… but obviously…" He glanced at Marco and then back to Dylan and grinned. "Go get some." He left the room, shouting, "Kara! Kara, wait!"
"Sorry about that," Dylan apologized, but Brad occupying the room wasn't what was on the Italian boy's mind.
He put his hand on Dylan's face and kissed him, and the blonde was quick to kiss back. They slowly moved to Dylan's bed, all the while making out. They sat on the bed together, and then Dylan laid back and pulled Marco with him.
After a few moments, Dylan put his hand up Marco's shirt and pulled it off. Marco started to worry even more, but the feel of Dylan's lips on his neck calmed him a bit. He rubbed Marco's stomach with his hands as he continued to kiss his neck. He moved his lips lower, so he was planting kisses along Marco's chest.
Finally, he dove back up and kissed Marco on the lips again, and Marco took the chance to start unbuttoning Dylan's own shirt. Fingers trembling slightly, he undid them one by one until finally the shirt was hanging open and Dylan slid it off.
Dylan went back to kissing Marco's neck, and Marco ran his hands over Dylan's back and along the sides of his torso. He completely froze, though, when he felt Dylan's hands graze the top of his pants.
"Dylan, wait," he pleaded, grabbing his boyfriend's hands with his own.
Dylan's concentration broke and he looked down, slightly concernedly, to Marco. "What?"
"I… I can't."
"You can't?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," he responded quietly. "I can't."
"You can't," Dylan said, once more, "or you won't?"
"What are you talking about?" Marco said, looking confused.
"Why can't you?" He put sarcastic emphasis on the word can't, and Marco stared at him, feeling quite dumbfounded.
"I'm… I'm n-not ready," he stuttered.
"Of course not," Dylan sighed, and he started to put his shirt back on. "What aren't you ready for? You're out of the closet. Everyone knows."
"That's all I am to you, isn't it?" Marco challenged him, feeling extremely irritated. Dylan usually wasn't so blunt, but maybe the alcohol brought that out in him.
"What?"
"Gay," he said. "All I am to you is the gay kid who is now officially out of the closet, so that means I'm available. And just because I'm gay, you think I'd have sex with you."
"I didn't…" Dylan started to say, but Marco in his anger, cut him off.
"Well go find some other gay kid, then. We're done." He blew past Dylan, slammed the door, and charged out of the house. He didn't stop until he jolted into his own home, past his family members without saying anything, and in his room. By then, tears were streaming down his face. He could only think of one sensible thing to do at that moment.
He dug into his backpack, brought out his journal, and began to write.
[Journal entry 11]
Marco del Rossi
I broke up with Dylan. I can't even believe I did it. But… if the only reason he was with me is for sex, then I don't wanna be with him anyway. We had a good time at the party, I guess. He's a great dancer. But we went up to his room, started making out, and then we went a little further.
I told him I wasn't ready and he basically told me I was a loser. I guess alcohol really does bring out the worst in people.
I really wish this night had never happened. All I want to do is stay in bed for the rest of my life. I don't even want to have to look at him anytime soon.
This sucks big time.
[/Journal]
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Well this chapter took forever. I meant to have this finished like three days ago, but I kept putting it off. Sorry. I hope it's okay. I'm not exactly jumping with joy at this chapter. I dunno, you tell me what you think. By the way, this chapter is the longest one yet.
thanks guys. :D
Rating: PG-13 for themes and language
Characters: In this chapter: Marco, Dylan, Marco's parents, Carlos, Paige, Ellie, Sean, Jay, Towerz, Tom
Pairings: Marco/Dylan, Spinner/Paige, Ellie/Sean, not sure of any others.
Disclaimer: I really don't own a thing, sadly.
Author's Note: God, I'm the worst author on here. I completely forgot I'd be leaving for a week, so this story hasn't been updated in a long time. Please forgive me. I just wanted to point out, as Nick reminded me; Tom has made a huge appearance in almost every Marco/Dylan story lately. If I had known that would be the case, I would have gladly renamed Tom. Because I brought him into the story long before ever seeing "It's Raining Men". In fact, the only reason his name is Tom is because on Degrassi.tv, Dylan's journal states:
to this day we've never really talked about it but whenever my friends come over, especially ones like Tom who are hard to mistake for straight my dad is always nice to them as long as the conversations keeps to neutral territory.
That is the only reason Tom came to life. He wasn't based off It' Raining Men Tom, but was mostly all imagination. When I finally did see Tom on It's Raining Men, however, the show character helped sway my story character. I really wanted to get that off my chest. And actually, if you're interested, Carlos was mentioned on Marco's journal once upon a time.
Alsoalso, Isdule07 asked the smart question of "Where did he get the toothbrush?" I hate when the readers are smarter than the authors. :P Let's just say it appeared out of thin air, eh?
And to end my longest author's note ever, thanks to EVERYONE who read the story - and a double thanks to EVERYONE who reviewed!
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"I am so bored," Sean sighed, once again.
"I know," Ellie replied flatly. "You've said it at least thirty times in the last five minutes. Okay, I get it. You're bored." She put the magazine she was holding down, and looked at Sean. He was lying on the floor, feet propped up on the bed and hands cushioning his head.
"Well, I am." Grunting slightly, he propped himself up on his elbows. "Let's do something."
"Like what? Look outside." She gestured to the window, where rain was beating hard against the pane. "It's pouring. We've already looked at the movies playing. You don't want to see any of them."
"They're chick flicks," he retorted.
Pretending not to notice that he had interrupted her, she went on, "You don't want to play a card game because they're "for little kids". You don't want to go get dinner because you just ate. So what do you want to do?"
Once more, he began to butt in with a whiny comment, but Ellie didn't leave him any room to.
"We watched TV. We got online. So what, Sean? What would make you less bored?"
He found himself a little sheepish now. "I don't know." He reached over and grabbed the magazine Ellie was reading. "Teen People? You've got to be bored too. Where are all of your annoying, angsty, preppy friends tonight?"
Glaring at him, she answered, "My annoying, angsty, preppy friends are at a party."
"Party?" he said, perking up a little bit.
"Slow down. I said a party. Very vaguely. You have no idea of what kind of party it is." She rolled her eyes.
"Well, what kind of party is it?"
"Two words: Paige Michalchuk. She invited all of her friends over."
"How do you know about it?" he inquired, looking at her oddly.
"She didn't invite me," she said cynically, reading his mind. "Marco told me about it. He's going."
"Well, let's go."
Blinking, Ellie was sure she hadn't heard him correctly. "What?"
"I said let's go. To the party." He waved towards the door, as if to tell her they were going to get up and leave. "When have you ever wanted to skip a party?" he continued, when she didn't make any notions to stand.
"You must have not heard me. I said Paige Michalchuk is throwing a party. You know, one of those parties where everyone sits in a circle on the floor and spins a bottle, and everyone else giggles as two people kiss? The kind that only has potato chips and lemonade?" She rolled over on her stomach, and gave him an incredulous look when he seemed unfazed.
"Then lets crash it," he explained, grinning.
"It's an invite only party," she said lamely, when she couldn't think of anything else to say.
"So? Paige invited Marco, Marco invited you. You're inviting me, and I am inviting Jay."
"Sean," Ellie said, thinking what Sean was doing was irrational.
He paid no heed, though, as he snatched the phone and started punching in numbers. Putting the phone up to his ear, he waited for it to ring a few times before Jay answered. "Jay? Yeah, it's me, Sean. Listen, want to crash a party tonight? Yeah. It's at the Michalchuk house." Jay said something to him, and Sean turned away from Ellie as if he didn't want her to hear what he was going to say next. "Yeah, Homochuk and his boyfriend will be there."
Ellie, however, did hear and she shoved Sean's shoulder. "You guys are not going to say anything," she warned.
Brushing her off, Sean turned back to his phone conversation. "Yeah, we'll meet you there in half an hour. Yeah, bring Towerz. Okay." He hung up the phone and beamed at his girlfriend.
"What, you guys too "gangster" to say goodbye?" she teased him, grinning.
Narrowing his eyes and scoffing, he said simply, "No."
"Look, if the party gets too out of hand we're leaving."
"Yeah yeah yeah." There was a sudden knock on Ellie's door, ultimately ending the conversation. Standing up, Ellie gave her boyfriend a skeptical look and then stood and opened the door. To her slight dismay, her father was standing there, smiling brightly.
"Uh… hey Dad," Ellie said tensely.
"Hello honey." He kissed her forehead slightly, and then looked around the room. His smile turned into a stern frown as his eyes landed on Sean. "Hello Sean."
"Hi Mr. Nash."
"Sean, I'd like to talk to you," her father said, crossing the room and sitting in a chair across from Sean. Sensing the seriousness in his voice, he too sat upright and looked emotionless.
"About what?" Sean said, trying to put on a falsely polite tone, while arching an eyebrow.
"About you sneaking into my house at about fourteen hundred hours - that's two AM," he noted, when Sean looked confused, "waking up my baby girl, taking her outside, and not coming back for some time afterwards."
Sean gulped. "Well, see… I - I was just trying to do something nice…" Mr. Nash's eyes were missing the usual twinkle, and Sean thought nervously about the weapons he was sure to have with him. His eyes briefly darted to the doorway. Should he try to make a run for it?
Mr. Nash stared at him hard, as if trying to crack him. And he was extremely close to succeeding, judging by the way that Sean was fidgeting around. "Do you know what could have happened to you guys, being alone in the dark?"
"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just…"
"Do you know what I would have done if something had happened to my daughter?" he went on, paying no heed to Sean's nervous ramblings.
"I can guess…" Sean mumbled. Ellie was actually sort of enjoying this; she'd never seen her boyfriend so nervous and vulnerable.
"Well, it won't happen again, right?"
"No. No. Of course not." He shook his head vigorously.
"Good." He now cracked a slight smile, and put his hand on his shoulder. "You would regret hurting my baby. Next time, make sure her father knows where she's going."
Sean nodded, and Mr. Nash began to leave when Sean blurted out, "Wait!"
"Yes?" Ellie's dad asked, raising an eyebrow. Ellie too looked at him curiously.
Sean smirked before going on, "Do I have your permission to escort your lovely daughter to a party tonight?" He was obviously trying his hardest to be charming and witty at the same time.
Mr. Nash laughed loudly before responding. "Will it be chaperoned?"
"Uh…" He only hesitated for a second. "Definitely." This might not have been a lie, but he was never sure and it couldn't hurt to assume, right?
"Well…" He considered it for a second, and it was only when Ellie gave him a look that he gave in. "Okay, okay. But have her home by ten?"
"Dad!" Ellie said.
"Fine. 1 AM and not a second later. Got it?"
"Got it," Sean grinned.
Mr. Nash laughed again. "You're a good kid, Sean." He paused seriously. "Don't change that, okay?" Still smiling, he left the room.
"Well…" Sean said, and the two were silent for a few seconds. He grinned finally. "Ready to go?"
-----
Marco opened the front door to the Michalchuk house, and was surprised to see how crowded the room was. Loud music was thumping, people were dancing, some were making out on the couch, and others were madly eating pizza slices. He turned to his boyfriend, who looked almost as astonished as he did. "I thought this was invite-only," Marco said, raising his voice over the blaring music.
"Yeah," Dylan replied, hardly audible, "me too." He let out a little grunt as some guys he didn't recognized shoved past him and disappeared into the crowd.
"Let's go find Paige," the younger one suggested, and received a nod in return. For mainly security reasons, Dylan grabbed Marco's hand and they began wading through the clumps of people, being griped at every few seconds for knocking into someone. Finally, though, they caught sight of Paige dumping bags of potato chips into bowls, which seemed to vanish every time she finished.
"Paige!" Dylan nearly yelled, and she looked up. "Who is everyone? Why are they all here?"
"What?!" she yelled back, not able to hear her brother.
"I said why is everyone here!" he shouted in a much louder tone.
"I don't know! I only invited a few people and then suddenly everyone started showing up! It was impossible to keep them out!"
Dylan, tired of straining his voice, fumbled over to the machine from which the music was playing, and turned the volume down a great amount.
"Hey!" somebody yelled. "Turn that back up!"
Ignoring the complainers, he went back to his boyfriend and sister. "That's better." Just then, he looked over at the door and groaned. "Paige, please tell me you didn't invite… them."
She too craned her neck to look at the doorway to see a bunch of people entering. "I didn't!" she said honestly. At this point, Marco stood on his tiptoes and glanced over the heads of the crowd. To his horror, he saw Jay and his gang walking in, or rather waddling like tough guys, and carrying cases of beer over their shoulders.
"I thought we agreed!" Dylan said to Paige, pointing at her accusingly. "No alcohol!"
"I didn't tell them to bring it! And besides, chill out. It's not like you haven't been drunk before." Dylan's face paled slightly, and Marco curiously looked at him.
"Well - I swear, if I catch you drinking…" he warned his little sister, but it was a bit feeble.
"Same goes to you," she shot back, smirking.
Marco was still watching the door, and to his surprise, Ellie came into the room right after Sean did. He hadn't expected her to show up - especially right after Jay, Towerz, and their friends. "There's Ellie," Marco said to Dylan. "Let's go say hi." He nodded, so they began, once again, charging through the hordes of teens.
"Hey," Marco said to Ellie, and she smiled at him. "I didn't know you were coming," he went on.
"Yeah, I - I thought I'd stop in… is that okay?" she asked, glancing at Jay, who was already opening a can of beer.
"Yeah, of course! I'm glad you came." He grinned at her, but the grin faded when he caught sight of his boyfriend, who was shooting daggers with his eyes at the company. Jay just then realized Marco and Dylan were standing there, and he smirked.
"Well if it isn't Homochuk and his boyfriend," Jay sneered, grinning.
"Shut up Jay," Dylan shot at him.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you faggots should watch their mouths?" he laughed, pinching Dylan's cheek mockingly. Dylan hurriedly knocked the hand away. "Oh, and he's even got a damn temper."
"You blow your father with that mouth, Jay?" Dylan snapped, and Jay's hardened face grew scarily furious.
"What did you just say to me?" he said in a gravelly voice.
"You heard me."
"You mother fu -" he started to lunge at Dylan, but Sean, after Ellie cast him an alarming look, grabbed his shoulders. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Cameron? Don't tell me you're a queer now too."
"Drop it, Jay," Sean said, not letting go.
"Drop it?" he repeated incredulously. "Drop it? Fag insults me in front of my face and you want me to drop it? What's the matter with you? You going gay on me or something?"
"No, I'm not going gay," he said, as though the idea repulsed him a bit. "He's not worth it, man."
"Yeah, right. You're just defending him because you're whipped by that vampire girlfriend of yours."
"Watch it, man! I mean it!" Sean said loudly.
Jay opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly a blonde girl in a tight belly shirt appeared next to them. "Jay, are we gonna get drunk and have sex already or what?" He closed his mouth, looking contemplative, and then finally turned to the girl.
"Yeah, let's go." He took out two beers, gave one to her, and then handed the rest of the pack to Towerz. He started to walk off with her, then stopped suddenly, and looked at Dylan. "This isn't over, Homochuk." Finally, he left.
Marco looked at Dylan. "He's such a dick," Dylan said, shaking his head.
"Yeah," said a voice from behind them. "But that was one damn good comeback."
The two whirled around, only to see Ty, who had spoken, Jeff, Brad, and Scott beaming at them. "When did you guys get here?" Dylan asked them, raising an eyebrow.
"During your little rendezvous with Hobart there," Brad answered.
"But we were ready to protect our little Dyllie if anything got out of hand," Jeff added with a smirk.
"Funny," Dylan said dryly.
"Hey, man," Ty said to Towerz, who was being his usual strong but silent self. "Can we borrow these?" And without waiting for a reply, "Thanks." He yanked the case of beers out his hands and started passing them out to his friends. After handing one to Dylan, he looked at Marco. "Want one?"
He contemplated drinking one, but his mother's lecturing voice filled his head and he said, "Nah." Dylan, however, had already opened his and was sipping it.
"Ellie?" Ty asked, remembering her name from the lunch they had shared.
"No thanks."
"What about you, Vanilla Ice?" he went on, referring to Sean. He got a glare in return, and Sean moodily grabbed Ellie's arm and the two stomped off.
"Temper tantrum. Hey, you never know, I just might be the next title of a rap song." He started beat boxing, rather badly, and then in a ridiculously deep voice, he rapped, "T-t-t-Ty, you know yo' gonna d-d-d-die, you make me wanna cry, 'cause I'm gangsta."
"Give it up, man!" Scott said, staring at him. They all couldn't help but laugh, though.
"That wasn't a very nice way to treat our boy Dylan's rescuer," Brad said, smirking.
"Yeah, I really needed him to rescue me from Big Bad Jay," Dylan scoffed, with a swig of his beer. "So, Marco, you wanna dance?"
Though normally he would've jumped at the chance, he had to go to the bathroom really badly, so he smiled and said, "I've gotta go to the bathroom, but uh, how about a dance when I get back?"
Nodding, Dylan grinned and said, "Of course." He winked, and then turned to Ty. "What about you, Ty? Wanna get down and dirty?"
"Sorry Dyl," Ty replied, shaking his head. "But don't worry… it's not you, it's me." He cracked a grin.
"Got that right," Dylan laughed.
Marco fumbled upstairs, and went into the bathroom. To his disgust, a couple he didn't know were making out on the bathroom floor "Dude, what do you think you're doing?" the guy asked, glaring at him hard.
"Uh… I have to pee."
"Find somewhere else, then!" he shot, and Marco quickly left. He didn't know where any other bathroom in the house was, and by now, he really had to go. Silently, Marco turned towards the balcony. He knew what he had to do.
Quickly he made his way outside to the balcony, checking all around for any onlookers. No one was down there. He didn't want to act out a scene from American Pie, he thought, and then he laughed at the idea.
Quickly, he began to relieve himself. Suddenly, the sound of doors opening made him stop dead in his tracks.
"Marco? What're you d - oh my God! Uh… s-sorry!" Paige's shrill voice rang out, and he quickly zipped his pants again, cheeks burning. Paige was shielding her eyes with her hands, cheeks almost as red as his.
"I - I - the bathroom was taken," he stuttered lamely.
"Why didn't you use the other bathroom?" she asked, now staring at him.
"I didn't know there was one," he said, and his voice hardly came out above a whisper.
"Oh, well, um, no problem, right? I mean sure, I got a little more than I bargained for, but… boy will this make a great story in school."
"Paige!"
"I'm kidding, hun, I'm kidding."
He started to leave, then looked at her. "Where's Spinner?"
"He went to the store to…" She winced. "Buy spray cheese." They both laughed. After a slight pause, Paige looked at him. "Shouldn't you be dancing with my brother?"
"Brother?" he said, playing dumb. "What brother?"
"Oh, you know. Tall, blonde, madly in love with you? Dylan?"
"Hmm…" He jokingly scratched the side of his cheek, as though deep in thought. "Sorry, no. Doesn't ring a bell."
"Oh, don't make me tell him what just happened," she threatened with a grin.
"Oh, that Dylan!" he said hurriedly. "Of course. Yeah, I'm going back down now."
"Good boy," she said with a grin.
In return, he shot her a grin as well and then went back into his house and retraced his footsteps. It didn't take long for him to spot Dylan's golden curls, and he forced his way over to them.
The older boy was now holding four or five empty cups of beer, and he, along with all of his other friends, was drunkenly laughing at something Scott was saying. When he saw Marco, though, he seemed to almost sober up… but only a little bit.
"Marco, hey! What took you so long? You fall in?"
He laughed. "No, actually, I, um, I ran into Paige." Okay, so it wasn't a complete lie.
"Oh right. Well, you know, I think you owe me a dance."
"I don't know," he teased. "Every guy here's trying to dance with me. You're going to have to make a better proposal than that."
"Oh really? Well, then how about this: we'll dance, and then I'll take your hand and lead you upstairs and then…" he stopped talking, and Marco impatiently urged him to continue.
"And then? And then what?"
"You'll have to dance with me to find out." A grin tugged at the blonde's lips.
"Is that the best you have? Because, you know, Spinner's making an especially great offer," he went on. Dylan flashed him his best puppy-dog eyes, and Marco immediately gave in. "Okay, okay, let's dance." Beaming, Marco took his hand and led him into a crowd of people.
Somehow, they ended up next to Sean and Ellie, who were also dancing, and Marco and Ellie exchanged knowing looks.
The next song came on, and it had a rapid beat. Marco was surprised to see that Dylan was an awesome dancer, slightly drunk or not. Worried, Marco tried to keep up but he was sure he'd make a fool of himself.
Dylan had obviously taken notice, because he grinned and said into Marco's ear, "You're trying too hard. Just feel the music." Closing his eyes, Marco loosened up a bit. Dancing became subtly easier for him.
A new song came on, a bit slower, and the younger boy grinned at his boyfriend. "I love this song."
-----
"I love this song," Ellie said to Sean with a smile. He grinned back at her as they continued to dance. Neither of them said anything else for a little while, until finally, "Look, Sean, I just wanted to say… thanks."
"For what?" Sean asked with a raised eyebrow.
"For stopping Jay. And for… for defending me, I guess."
"Did you expect me to let him insult my girlfriend in front of my face?" he asked doubtfully.
She laughed slightly. "Well, no. But you didn't have to."
"I wanted to."
"You know, you're a really good dancer," she told him, blushing slightly. He looked into her eye and smiled, if only a little one. "Let me guess; Dancing For Gangsters 101?"
He was the one to laugh this time. "Not exactly. You've really got to lay off this. Every non-gangster thing I've ever done, you've criticized me for it. Do you want me to fall into the whole stereotype perfectly? Should I start only grunting and only saying things like "whatever" and "straight up"?"
"No," she replied. "Straight up is more wigger, actually."
They once again fell into a comfortable silence, but it was Sean to finally break it this time. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked, steering her away from Marco and Dylan a bit.
"Sure."
"Why do you like Marco so much?"
At this question, she stopped dancing and stared at him. He innocently stared back, as if he was asking legitimately, and not to be rude. It took her a second or two to began functioning normally again, but she was able to continue dancing as she answered. "There's nothing to not like about him. He's caring, he's sweet, he's…"
"Gay," Sean finished, as though he didn't understand perfectly.
"Well, yeah, he's gay, but that's not a choice."
"Not a choice?" he repeated, arching a single eyebrow. "You like girls or you like guys. How is that not a choice?"
"He can't help liking guys," she snapped.
"Hey, I don't care if he's gay but I do think it's a choice."
"Well it's not." She gave him an icy look, which was intended to end the conversation, but Sean would not give up without a fight.
"Well, if he wasn't gay… would you rather go out with him than me?"
Disbelievingly, she cocked her head a bit and looked at him. "You can't ask me that."
"Why not?"
"Because… it's not fair. I like Marco for completely different reasons than I like you."
"But do you like him more than me?" he inquired. Ellie was starting to get angry.
"I already told you. I like him for who he is, and I like you for who you are. There are boundaries. There's no way I could even ever compare you two."
"But…"
"Sean!" she said, exasperated. She leaned in and kissed him, hard. When she broke away, she said, "I've never kissed Marco like that. Is that enough for you?"
He grinned. "I guess so."
"Good." She kissed him once more, and then they returned to dancing.
-----
"Well," Marco said, after they'd danced to a few more songs.
"Well what?" Dylan asked, looking down at him curiously.
"Well isn't it time that you take my hand, lead me upstairs, and then I'll find out what comes after 'and then'?" Marco said, winking suggestively. Truth was, he was almost - if not more - nervous than he was excited.
"Oh right. We could arrange that." Grinning, Dylan laced his fingers with his boyfriend's, and guided him through the crowds until they reached the stairs. On the way, they passed Spinner, who was chugging cheddar spray while Jimmy and Craig laughed, and Paige, looking extremely bored.
"I don't think this is the kind of party Paige had in mind," Marco yelled over the music.
"Yeah, I doubt it."
Finally, they reached Dylan's room, and they were both disgusted to find his friend Brad was in there with some girl. "Brad?" Dylan said in a demanding tone. He quickly pulled out of the lip-lock to look at his friend.
"Dylan, hey. Um… this is Sarah," he motioned to the girl.
"It's Kara, jerk!" the girl said, pushing Brad away and stomping out of the room.
He cursed slightly and got up to follow her, then looked at the guys again. "Oh, right. Sorry, man. I didn't think you were gonna need… but obviously…" He glanced at Marco and then back to Dylan and grinned. "Go get some." He left the room, shouting, "Kara! Kara, wait!"
"Sorry about that," Dylan apologized, but Brad occupying the room wasn't what was on the Italian boy's mind.
He put his hand on Dylan's face and kissed him, and the blonde was quick to kiss back. They slowly moved to Dylan's bed, all the while making out. They sat on the bed together, and then Dylan laid back and pulled Marco with him.
After a few moments, Dylan put his hand up Marco's shirt and pulled it off. Marco started to worry even more, but the feel of Dylan's lips on his neck calmed him a bit. He rubbed Marco's stomach with his hands as he continued to kiss his neck. He moved his lips lower, so he was planting kisses along Marco's chest.
Finally, he dove back up and kissed Marco on the lips again, and Marco took the chance to start unbuttoning Dylan's own shirt. Fingers trembling slightly, he undid them one by one until finally the shirt was hanging open and Dylan slid it off.
Dylan went back to kissing Marco's neck, and Marco ran his hands over Dylan's back and along the sides of his torso. He completely froze, though, when he felt Dylan's hands graze the top of his pants.
"Dylan, wait," he pleaded, grabbing his boyfriend's hands with his own.
Dylan's concentration broke and he looked down, slightly concernedly, to Marco. "What?"
"I… I can't."
"You can't?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No," he responded quietly. "I can't."
"You can't," Dylan said, once more, "or you won't?"
"What are you talking about?" Marco said, looking confused.
"Why can't you?" He put sarcastic emphasis on the word can't, and Marco stared at him, feeling quite dumbfounded.
"I'm… I'm n-not ready," he stuttered.
"Of course not," Dylan sighed, and he started to put his shirt back on. "What aren't you ready for? You're out of the closet. Everyone knows."
"That's all I am to you, isn't it?" Marco challenged him, feeling extremely irritated. Dylan usually wasn't so blunt, but maybe the alcohol brought that out in him.
"What?"
"Gay," he said. "All I am to you is the gay kid who is now officially out of the closet, so that means I'm available. And just because I'm gay, you think I'd have sex with you."
"I didn't…" Dylan started to say, but Marco in his anger, cut him off.
"Well go find some other gay kid, then. We're done." He blew past Dylan, slammed the door, and charged out of the house. He didn't stop until he jolted into his own home, past his family members without saying anything, and in his room. By then, tears were streaming down his face. He could only think of one sensible thing to do at that moment.
He dug into his backpack, brought out his journal, and began to write.
[Journal entry 11]
Marco del Rossi
I broke up with Dylan. I can't even believe I did it. But… if the only reason he was with me is for sex, then I don't wanna be with him anyway. We had a good time at the party, I guess. He's a great dancer. But we went up to his room, started making out, and then we went a little further.
I told him I wasn't ready and he basically told me I was a loser. I guess alcohol really does bring out the worst in people.
I really wish this night had never happened. All I want to do is stay in bed for the rest of my life. I don't even want to have to look at him anytime soon.
This sucks big time.
[/Journal]
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Well this chapter took forever. I meant to have this finished like three days ago, but I kept putting it off. Sorry. I hope it's okay. I'm not exactly jumping with joy at this chapter. I dunno, you tell me what you think. By the way, this chapter is the longest one yet.
thanks guys. :D
