Chapter 3

"Dylan!" Paige squealed as she ran to the door to greet her brother. He laughed at her unusual excitement upon seeing him.

"Hey, Paige," he hugged her quickly and then began to set his things down by the couch.

"Soooo…." started Paige excitedly.

Dylan, confused at the way Paige was acting, turned toward her with an eyebrow raised, "So, what?"

Paige rolled her eyes, "Dylan, in the fall, I will be starting University, therefore I need your…" she paused at Dylan's skeptical look, "Alright, I want you to get back together with Marco. Now I know I'm going to hear complaints, but--"

"No complaints, Paige," he sighed. "I want…I need Marco back. Do you think he'll take me?"

"Umm…well, no, but we can work on it," she laughed slightly, "Don't worry. Marco loves you, trust me!" she said confidently, "Marco, as much as he denies it, wants to be with you."

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"So…how do I act? What do I do?" he asked Ellie, nervously pacing his room.

"Marco," she laughing, rolling her eyes, "Why are you freaking out? It's not like you've never been out on a date before!"

"I know, but not since…" he paused and, taking a deep breath, sat down on his bed. "Not since, you know."

She nodded, "I know, but don't worry, everything will go fine. I have to get going, but call me after you get home or maybe tomorrow if you're out late," she said with a wink and turned out the door.

Marco sighed, "Everything will be fine." He told himself this over and over again.

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"Tim, hey…" Marco trailed out when he saw him waiting patiently outside of The Dot.

"Hey! Marco, you look awesome. You always look great, actually…." he nervously complimented Marco.

"Oh," Marco looked down at what he was wearing. He realized he hadn't actually put too much thought into his appearance, (surprisingly). "Umm, thanks. Here's let's go in."

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"Dylan!" Paige shouted as she banged on his bedroom door, "Dyllllannn," she whined.

He sighed, "Paige, look," he opened the door, "I know you want me to try harder to get back with Marco, but I don't know if I'm rea--"

She laughed, interrupting him, "I was going to tell you that I'm really hungry. Mom and dad decided that they were going to leave on the particular weekend you're home," she rolled her eyes, "to go to Aunt Emily's house."

"Wait, so they're not getting home until next week? I thought you were joking!"

"Nope, it's just us," she paused, "or perhaps, if things go well, it will not be just us," she winked,

"When am I even going to get to see him, Paige?" he whined, annoyed.

"I don't know! We'll work something out! We have the whole summer, don't worry. Let's go to The Dot. Neither of us can attempt cooking and I am completely starving."

"And this is what we're going to do for every meal until they return?" he asked skeptically.

She sighed and put her hands on her hips, "Dylan, do you think I'm crazy? For tomorrow's dinner, we have potato chips! Hello!"

"Of course," he rolled his eyes, "How silly of me, honestly,"

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"Oh, yeah, I completely understand. I'd never want it anyway."

Marco nodded, "Well, it's difficult because…" he paused mid-sentence, "No way," he said softly.

"What's no way?" Tim asked, confused.

He shook his head and took a deep breath, "It's nothing. I'm fine," he tried smiling.

Tim still looked skeptical, but his trust for Marco was too great to interfere, so he nodded.

Marco put his hands on his forehead and tried to disappear. When it was apparent that this was not going to happen, he gave up. Then, it happened. Paige spotted him.

Marco was completely fine. Thinking about Dylan didn't hurt anymore…well, not that much. Seeing him after a year was a shock, but shock isn't always such a bad thing. But hearing his voice? That—that's what brought trouble.

"Hey, Marco," started Paige. Marco tried to act as normal as possible and pretend that Dylan simply wasn't there.

"Hey, Paige, how's your…day going?" he asked for lack of a better question.

She smiled, "Good, good…"

"Hey, Marco," Dylan smiled.

Two words. That's all it took. The first two words Dylan EVER said to him happened to be 'Hey, Marco," so why, hearing it again, should be such a big deal was a mystery to him.

All it took was two words. Two simple little words. Eight letters with that voice. Oh, god, that voice. It was all it took to throw Marco over the edge, to turn back time and make him forget what happened for the moment, to make him fall in love all over again (even though, truthfully, he never stopped) to make him feel whole again.

Those words that carried so much emotions with them were just so completely powerful and…and the one thing Marco could think of to respond was, "Mm?"

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Tim looked from Marco back to Dylan and repeated the process, "Uh, Marco?"

"OH! Right," Marco said coming back to life, "Tim, this is Dylan. Dylan, this is Tim. You've met. Wonderful. Tim and I were just about to leave."

Tim shook his head and laughed, "Marco, we just got here!" Paige laughed nervously along with him. She hadn't foreseen Marco being on a date with anyone other than her brother. It slightly unnerved her.

Tim, not sensing that Marco was uncomfortable or even knowing who Dylan was, invited them to sit. Marco tiredly rubbed his temples feeling a headache coming on. His first thought was to excuse himself to go to the bathroom, but he quickly shot down the plan. No way was he leaving them all alone to talk.

"Hey, Dylan…how are you?" said Spinner as he came to take their order.

"Hey, Spinner,"

"What'll you be having?" he asked both Paige and Dylan.

"Oh, no thanks," he eyed both Tim and Marco, "I'm not really hungry anymore,"

Marco closed his eyes, 'Whatever happened to life being easy?'

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"And then Tim asked him to sit with you?" said Ellie in disbelief.

"Ellie," Marco warned, "We are not talking about this ever again."

"Why not?" she asked laughing. "This is good stuff here. Hey, High School's over, in the fall we'll all probably be leaving and I have absolutely no chance of being with my dream boy, if I can find something that'll make me happy, I'm going to embrace it."

Marco smiled despite his attempts at feeling sorry for himself, "My pain makes you happy? What a great friend you are, El!"

"Oh, you know you love me!" she yelled as she hugged him tightly.

He hugged her back, "Unfortunately,"

"Come, on, let's go get something to eat. Hey, maybe we could go to The Dot and we could ask Dylan and Tim to come. They could get to know each other better!" She laughed, "Okay, okay, I'm done! Get the death eyes off of me!"

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"Did you know, Paige?"

"No! I swear I would not have done that purposely. I had no idea he was on a…date. I'm sorry, Dyl. Really! But, don't worry, that little thing will be over soon enough." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but I'm still not guaranteed. I need him, Paige. Do you understand me? I really need him. I know it's my fault that I lost him, but…can I ask you a question?"

"Sure,"

"Does he hate me?"

Silence.

"Paige, I don't like that face! Please, just tell me!"

"Hate is such a strong word. Besides, if her really hated you, he wouldn't have been so hurt," she said reasonably.

"Yeah, well, at the time he didn't hate me, but he probably does now. What do I do? Am I still wrong here?"

Paige sighed, "Of course you are because you haven't even tried to apologize. Dyl, you saw him one time and had a conversation with his 'date'. He doesn't even know you want him back. You have to tell him that you love him, miss him, need him, everything you've told me, that you think of him every single night, and then get down on your knees and apologize like you've never apologized before!"

Dylan laughed, "And then he will, what, dump the guy and take me back?"

She shrugged, "I never said that any of that would do anything. It'd just be interesting to see and he'd probably want to see it, but it probably wouldn't do anything."

"Thanks for the advice, Paige,"

"Anytime, big brother," she smiled.

She left the room and Dylan sat alone in his bedroom. "What to do…what to do…" Dylan thought long and hard, but wasn't able to come up with much. All he knew was he had to do something soon. It had been a year already and he couldn't waste much more time. He needed to prove he was worthy, amazing, (without being arrogant) loving, caring, and all around perfect. The only problem was that he didn't fit this definition at all. The only person who really did was…well, Marco