Helping Others Out

Chapter 5

Marco goes on a date. Before, he asks Jean for advice, and after, he talks to his parents. How fun.*

*Please read with sarcasm.

Ahhhhhhh I'm so sorry for taking so long with updating this chapter. It was supposed to be up 4 months ago, and I apologize. I have chapter 6 written out already and am starting chapter 7, but don't expect them to come quickly. If we're lucky, they'll be typed up within the half year. Oops. Either way, I 'm getting out of school in a week and a half, so it might be a little quicker. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's 2572 words long (it felt a lot longer, but that's probably just because I had to write fakehetero!Marco, and that is not something I'm very interested in writing.)  

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At noon that Saturday, Marco called Jean, Pacing around his room.

"Hello?" Jean answered groggily after a few rings. Marco ignored the ping of guilt for waking him up.

"Help." The word felt strange coming out of his mouth. "My date is in two hours, I don't know what to wear, and I have no clue what to expect."

"Woah, slow down there." Jean laughed. "First of all, where are you going?"

"Margaret said she wanted to go to a small café on the other side of town," he replied.

"So, if you're going to a café, just wear something semi-casual, like a nice button up and jeans or something," Jean suggested.

Marco mentally face-palmed. 'Of course.' He walked to his closet and started going through clothes.

"Second of all, what do you normally do on a first date?" Marco's hands froze. Jean spoke again after a few seconds of silence. "Hello? You still there?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, yeah, I'm here." He took a shirt out and placed it on his bed. "It's just ... I haven't ever been on a date."

"You haven't?" Shame took over Marco's body.

"No ... sorry. I tried to tell you I wasn't exactly qualified to give you advice, but you insisted. I'm sorry."

"I don't mind, really. Advice is advice. besides, your advice is pretty good, despite my inability to go through with a lot of it." Marco chuckled softly. "Anyway, on the first date, you should probably get to know her better. I mean, you don't know much about her other than the fact that she's smart, right?"

"I know more than that!" He tried to argue. "I know she's really confident and that she knows almost everyone."

"That isn't much more. And those are the basic things that everyone knows about her." Jean paused. "You've had your first kiss right?"

"Uh ..." Marco blushed, thankful Jean couldn't see him.

Jean seemed to get the message. "You haven't? Dude, you're eighteen!" He sounded more surprised than Marco had been expecting. "What have you been doing with your life?"

Failing. Struggling. Drowning.

He shook his his clear of the thought and quickly thought of a reasonable excuse. "Remember, my parents are kind of restricting."

"Right. How could I have forgotten about your parents?" Jean sighed. "How are you not choking by now?"

I am choking. I've been choking for years.

Marco grimaced. "I don't know. I guess I'm just used to it They've been like this my entire life."

"Damn."