Speech and Debate

Firstly, A HUGE thanks to everyone who voted for this series over the months and have put me in the running for Best Gay Male Story of 2015!! You are all amazing! If you like what you read here, please go and vote for me on the Contest forum and also read some of the other amazing works by my fellow nominated authors.

I wrote and re-wrote this chapter 5 times. As I get closer to wrapping up this part of the David and Daniel saga, I am finding it harder and harder to find the words to properly send off these characters who have come to mean so much to me over the past year and half. That, coupled with the semi-autobiographical nature of the piece as a whole makes these last two chapters of this arc an emotionally taxing experience.

That said, here is the penultimate chapter of this series. There are two smaller series planned for sometime in the future. One on Ian and Justin (a spin off series if you will) and one on David and Daniel in college and post college. They will be smaller stories, shorter chapters.

But once this current series is done, I am going to focusing for a bit on my Epic Fantasy series for a bit (those are 13-17 full length novels in a High Fantasy / Historical Fiction / MM Romance Erotica vein, while I plan the other David and Daniel epics. Those are set to be a published set of books.

The final chapter of this story should arrive in 1-2 weeks barring any unforeseen circumstances.

I would like to thank each and every one of you who have helped me find my voice as a new author and sent me words of encouragement and thanks over the months. You have helped me find my path in this and kindled in me a true desire and passion to make writing less of a hobby and more of a career aspiration. I will never be able to express how much that means to me. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

- DAMackey

DISCLAIMER: The following fictional story deals with sex among males. If you are offended by such material, are too young, or reside in an area where it is not allowed, depart. Though not observed in this story, care enough about yourself and humankind to practice safe sex.

The author retains all rights. No reproductions or links to other sites are allowed without the author's consent.

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Always There: Polaris in the Southern Skies.

By: D A Mackey

Due to the sheer physical size of the "Lake Manse," it took the new arrivals a good six hours to travel through the main floor and emerge onto the back deck where Justin and I waited for them with nervous stomachs. Exaggeration, of course, but it certainly felt like six hours to the two anxious nerds. It was probably more like sixty seconds.

Tomato Tomahto.

The first to become visible, like a zombie emerging from the fog of the graveyard in the Thriller video (if the zombie was rambling through an immaculately decorated house straight from the pages of Southern Living Magazine,) was a familiar face. Well, to me at least. He was one of the few Sophomores who played on the Varsity Baseball team. I couldn't help but release a breath I had held in since Daniel and Ian had left us standing there. This new party-goer wasn't an immediate threat. The stream of others who followed the first were

another matter.

I could almost feel Justin trembling beside me. I trembled alongside him, both of us vibrating with anxiety. It amazed me how quickly I had reverted to my old "prey" mindset. Anyone who walked through that back door could be a predator and every single muscle in my body was tensed and ready to leap away like a gazelle on the Serengeti. No matter how much I had changed since falling in love with Daniel, those old instincts were still there, buried deep inside me, keeping me safe.

I nudged Justin with my elbow and he squeaked like a puppy with a stepped-on tail.

"Don't do that!" he hissed through his clenched teeth, doing his best to smile at the people who continued to come through the back door. Even to my side-eyed glance, his grin was more of a teeth-baring glare.

"Sorry," I whispered.

How strange the two of us must have seemed to our peers. Most of them were Seniors and Juniors, with only a few lower classmen mixed in. Two nerds, just standing there, stock still, side by side, smiles plastered across our faces but our eyes wild and hunted, obviously distressed. We must have looked like the most surreal sculpture garden in existence.

Thankfully, not a single one of the newcomers spoke to us. They just nodded as they passed. Some favored us with a smile or a mumbled "sup?"

I was well-versed enough in the language of the popular crowd to know that this question was strictly rhetorical. They did not require or desire a response, which was all for the better because my tongue was dry and stuck firmly to the roof of my mouth.

Where was Daniel?

There were already more than a dozen people milling about on the deck and still no sign of either Daniel or Ian. I was beginning to get nervous. Well, more nervous than I already was just given the tense situation. I had already lived in this bizzaro world of jocks and popularity for a few months. I couldn't imagine what Justin must be going through, new to this scene as he was.

My jaw was just beginning to ache a bit from holding my smile with intent ferocity and determination when Katy and Amanda sauntered through the back door. Their smiles were genuine when they saw me, or at least much more so than the others. They wore floor length sundresses in purple and orange respectively, the multicolored straps of their two-piece bathing suits visible on their bare and somehow already bronzed shoulders.

"Hey David!" Katy said, bounding up to me in high heeled sandals. "Great speech today."

"Thanks," I replied as nicely as I could, working my jaw back and forth to ease the tension.

"My Mom thought you were adorable," Amanda drawled in her thick accent that still somehow seemed to make every sentence she spoke into a question. "She even asked if you were single and why I hadn't snapped up the smart boy."

That sent the girls into a fit of giggles and I joined in nervously, twittering like an idiot.

"I didn't tell her that you've already been snapped up. So to speak. Who's this?" Amanda asked, turing her attention to the statue-like Justin.

How she couldn't recognize a person she had gone to school with for the past 4 years was anathema to me. It just reinforced for me how very regimented the social hierarchy at school was. Or rather, had been. Justin hadn't even registered on her radar as a person.

"I'm Justin," he piped in, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "I've been in your class since the 7th grade."

To her credit, Amanda blushed and had the decency to at least look ashamed of her oversight.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

Still a question.

"Saludatorian, right?" Katy asked, attempting to redeem the popular girls as a whole.

Justin nodded.

"Congratulations. It takes an awful lot to beat David here in the brains and smarts department, I guess."

Justin smiled warmly at that.

"He can best me in other departments," I added, hoping my cryptic reference to his larger member would be enough to shake my friend from his stock still stupor.

Luckily, I had help in rousing him.

"Hey there ladies," Ian boomed, nearly skipping onto the back deck and making a B line straight for Justin's side. "Hope you found the place okay."

Justin visibly relaxed when his protector was ensconced once more beside him. Even more so when Ian's muscle-corded arm snaked around his shoulder and rested flatly on his chest.

Amanda and Katy's eyes went a little wide and they shared a look between the two of them that seemed to say: "we got us another one!"

Daniel emerged soon after and came to my side, giving me a gentle kiss on the cheek and putting his arm around my waist. The heat of his bare skin against my arm made me shiver. Katy and Amanda both "aww'd" like the four of us were a litter of newborn puppies.

Daniel rolled his eyes and pulled me a little closer.

Someone turned on some music and rescued us from the well-meaning females. With the musical lubrication, things began to evolve at a rapid pace. Here and there I noticed six packs of beer or wine coolers, some litre bottles of hard liquor, and even a bottle or two of wine one of my wealthier colleagues had snatched from Mommy and Daddy's wine cellar.

Yes, plenty of my former classmates had actual wine cellars. Not just places to store the Holiday decorations in cardboard boxes and well-worn childhood items like my family did, but places devoted to literally just shelves and shelves of fermented grape juice.

I would never understand the wealthy.

"I'm gonna go show there where the cups are," Ian said. "And take their keys. You gonna be okay?"

He posed this last question to Justin. The tone in his voice made it crystal clear to Amanda and Katy that yes, indeed, they did have "another one."

"I'll be fine," Justin said quietly, attempting to look at the ground, but his view was blocked by Ian's spectacular pectorals.

"Go take care of your guests. I'll be here."

Ian smiled wide and bounded off back towards the house, yelling for everyone who had alcohol to give him their keys or get the fuck out, no questions. No one put up any resistance. How did one even begin to resist Ian?

More and more people began to fill the back deck and started exploring out into the yard and pool areas. It wasn't long before articles of discarded clothing began to dot the space. A shirt here, pants there. Nearly every male in the vicinity was shirtless within five minutes. Not that I minded.

"Don't go leaving me for some hotter younger model," Daniel joked, crushing me to his chest when he saw me eyeing all the newly visible man-flesh.

"Not a chance," I ensured him, sealing the assertion with a small kiss.

"Can we change in here?" someone shouted from down below in the yard. Daniel looked over the railing to see a shirtless Junior with his khaki pants unbuttoned pointing towards the pool house.

Daniel looked around for Ian, found him no where in sight, and so took the lead.

"Go ahead!" he called back.

"Thanks!"

The kids pants hit the grass before he'd even opened the door.

Unlike most of the other guys and girls in the school, the baseball and football teams were used to nudity. Instead of searching for a private place to change individually, they simply huddled up in a circle facing each other and stripped in unison. A circle of bare pale butts and muscled backs took shape.

Justin nearly died, flushing to match his reddish hair.

I, on the other hand, simply enjoyed an encore performance of the buttocks buffet I hadn't seen since the last game of the baseball season a few weeks back.

The first person to make the leap into the pool gave everyone else tacit unspoken permission to join. Splashing and laughing soon filled the darkening summer air. Daniel, Justin, and I stayed at the railing, surveying the revelry and chatting between ourselves.

I was so incredibly proud of Daniel as the conversation continued.

He treated Justin as if he'd been a part of the group for years. He made my new friend feel right at home, asking him every question in the book and generally getting to know him. I could tell Justin appreciated it from the ever relaxing expressions on his face.

Our conversation was occasionally interrupted by the return of Ian. He'd make a point to check on Justin at least once every five minutes. We'd be chatting about Justin's mom's job when all of a sudden:

"You okay babe?" Ian's voice would come from behind, a large thick-fingered hand suddenly pulling Justin backwards into his chest.

"I'm fine, you lummox!" Justin would pretend to struggle against Ian, but never really put in much effort. His struggle looked more like an attempt to snuggle into the embrace rather than truly trying to evade or escape it.

"Okay then. I'll be back in just a bit. Someone brought Everclear and I gotta pour that shit down the sink before anyone tries to drink it. That crap is essentially gasoline."

And just like that, he'd flit away again to manage his soiree. If a 220 lb ball of muscle can even be said to flit.

"This is just...surreal," Justin said after a while of wide-eyed observation of the splashing and socializing of our now former classmates.

"How so?" Daniel asked.

Justin's face was a picture of existential struggle as he tried to find the words to tell Daniel what being at this kind of party felt like to a nerd.

I stepped in to rescue him.

"Strange huh?" I offered. "But you get used to it."

"I feel like the animals in the zoo decided to throw a party and the the zoologists caught them in the act," Justin mumbled.

It was Daniel's turn to try and hide the shock on his face.

"Animals in the zoo, huh?" he asked, feigning offense.

Justin's eyes went wide and he immediately got defensive and flustered.

"Not like that! I didn't mean...I'm not calling them...or you...I don't want to seem like I don't appreciate..."

Daniel laughed at him.

"Easy, little dude. I get it."

"I've explained all of that to him many times now," I told Justin, who gave a weak smile in return.

"I'll be right back. I'm gonna grab a beer. Want me to get you two something?" Daniel offered.

"Sure," I said for the both of us when Justin didn't respond.

Daniel turned my head to kiss my lips gently, favored me with a smile and twinkle of his bright brown eyes and then headed inside to the fridge.

"He really doesn't care if people see you two together, does he?" Justin asked quietly when Daniel was gone.

"I guess not. I haven't really thought about it much for a long while now."

And I hadn't. I hadn't thought about Daniel and I keeping our relationship to ourselves in what seemed like a very long time. It had only been weeks, really, but it felt like so much longer. Daniel was just so much a part of my reality at this point, the effort it would have taken to hide that reality from the rest of the world seemed pointless. Who could keep up that facade? The effort that would require exhausted me just thinking about it.

I was on my second (or maybe my third) beverage and beginning to feel the light headed dizziness and faux-euphoria of an inexperienced and admittedly underaged drinker when the sound of breaking glass echoed from inside the house. Ian was taking a momentary break from his hosting duties to chat with Justin, Daniel and me. When the sound of the shattering silicon reached his ears, his wide-eyed loving gaze at Justin changed so abruptly it was very nearly terrifying. He shared a look with Daniel who smiled so slightly I almost thought I had imagined it.

Ian's eyes narrowed, his brow furrowed and his teeth clenched together so tightly you could see the muscles in his jaw throbbing. A vein slowly rose in the middle of his forehead and he started to change color. Like putting one of those Easter marshmallow Peeps in the microwave, Ian began to expand before our eyes. His chest puffed out and he slowly started to draw himself up to his full and maximum height and breadth.

"What the ever-loving fuck was that?" he growled low and viciously through his clenched teeth. His eyes turned from Justin towards the open door of his house.

"Umm," Justin tried to intervene, "Maybe someone dropped a glass. I'm sure it's..."

"Will you excuse me? I need to go take care of something real quick," Ian hissed, trying to disentangle Justin's lean arms from his torso. Justin did his best to cling on and hold back the growing storm that Ian had become, but it was like a scarecrow trying to stop a tornado. Ian easily but gently removed Justin and physically lifted him out of his way.

Justin was wild-eyed, unable to comprehend what to do. Ian marched forcefully towards the door, his pace quickening with every step.

"What do I do?" Justin asked in a panic as Ian departed.

"Follow him!" I ordered.

"He'll be fine, just go make sure he doesn't go too crazy," Daniel offered with a smirky grin. I had the distinct impression that he had seen this kind of behavior from Ian before.

Justin quickly handed me his half finished beer and rushed off after Ian. I said a quick silent prayer for him. He was heading into uncharted waters, even for me. I had no idea the proper or expected actions he could or should take in a situation like this.

Justin disappeared inside and at that moment Ian's temper crested and his booming voice echoed so loudly from inside that even the people splashing down in the pool stopped their romping and took notice.

"CLEAN IT UP AND GET OUT!"

Daniel broke into a fit of giggles.

"I don't see what is so funny about this?" I reprimanded.

"He's not even mad. Something breaks at every party, babe. He just does this so people won't fuck with him in the future. He's done it since Freshman year. Don't worry. It's all just social theater. Jock stuff."

Some people had made the trek back up the stairs from the lawn to check out the scene taking place in the house. I heard murmurs from some of the popular kids that seemed to confirm Daniel's un-phased analysis.

"Oh, this ought to be fun," Katy giggled. "I love it when he does this!"

"Who was it?" Amanda asked with as much real concern in her voice as if she'd been asking which of the Jonas Brothers had been spotted nearby. "Do you remember when I accidentally dropped an ash tray Sophomore year? I thought I was gonna piss my pants when he caught me! To be honest, I kinda did. But only a little! I swear!"

The two girls broke into a hysterical fit of laughter and pushed through the crowd blocking the door to get a better seat to the show.

"Perfect timing," Daniel said to himself. He placed his beer on the wooden railing of the porch. "Come on."

Daniel grabbed for my arm. The usual tingle at his touch was muted by the excitement of the new and only superficially (apparently,) dangerous situation arising inside.

"What? Come on what?"

"Just follow me," Daniel said quickly, his voice low and breathy, his eyebrows climbing a little higher as he pulled me towards the porch stairs. I took one quick swig from my now tepid beverage and placed it hastily on a table as Daniel very nearly dragged me along behind him.

"Daniel, what the fuck are you doing?!" I was starting to get concerned and more than a little annoyed but Daniel remained calm and steady.

"Just trust me. Come on."

"Come on where? Where are you taking me?"

"Everyone is watching Ian. Just, please, follow me."

As I was lead past the open door, I glanced inside and caught Justin's gaze, standing beside Ian. He looked helpless but more at ease than when he'd rushed after the boy. I raised my eyes in a pleading question towards him. He smiled broadly and gave me a thumbs up. Apparently, he had caught on to Ian's little party game and was now enjoying the rest of the show. The growing crowd around them blocked my view of who had incurred Ian's faux-wrath, but my heart went out to them.

Daniel and I, (well, more so Daniel as I was just being towed along in his wake) had to clear a path through party-goers who steadily climbed the stairs towards the house and current entertainment, eventually coming to the bottom step.

Before my bare feet could touch the grass, Daniel pulled me sharply to the right...away from the pool and back towards the house.

"What in the world are you doing!?" I whined. "There's nothing over here except..."

"Ian showed me something once. Just trust me."

"Fine!" I sighed dramatically.

Daniel lead me quickly back towards the house, around the staircase to the upper deck to a small locked wooden door that seemed to lead directly under the deck itself. Daniel spared a quick glance upwards. No faces peered back down at us over the railing. No one seemed to be paying any attention whatsoever. Why would they when Ian was so masterfully performing his bull-in-a-china-shop routine?