Speech and Debate

Hey! Long time, I know! I apologize. I was promoted at work and went from 15 hour weeks to 60 hour weeks. Just like that, my writing time vanished. But I'm adjusted now and able to write more regularly.

However, instead of the longer 15-20K chapters, I am going to be posting shorter chapters (this is 14A for example) that I would have normally worked into a longer piece. They will be about 5-10K instead. That way I can get you something new more regularly.

I hope that helps! Go to my author page here for more info.

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.

****************************

One Ring to Rule them All: Transitions and Promises

By: D A Mackey

For the first time since before my 18th Birthday, before meeting my Daniel, I woke up and just didn't want to get out of bed. My legs felt like tree trunks and it just seemed like an impossible task to lift my head from the pillow.

Why can't I just stay asleep?

I had been having the most wonderful dream: reliving the recent Senior Camping trip over and over. Each time, Daniel was more beautiful in my fantasy than he could ever be in real life. But, that was how I saw him: flawless, perfect, beautiful, and powerful.

There was a danger to that. Or so I had been warned.

I had always been told that the "honeymoon" phase would wear off and that reality would eventually kick me in the teeth. His flaws would become glaring. His habits would begin to grate on my last nerve. Call it the price of admission, if you will. Getting to know the real man I had fallen in love with, in all of his human failings weaknesses.

I waited...but that just never happened.

Each and every day I just found myself in awe of Daniel and his boundless love for me. And mine for him. Where he was weak, I seemed stronger. Where I fell short, he lifted me up.

So why couldn't I will myself to rise from my bed today? When I had that waiting for me?

Because it was the day of my high school graduation.

It had finally arrived, after months and years of working towards it. I had always pictured it as some kind of emancipation. The shackles of four years of social torment and just trying to survive would be struck from my ankles and I would walk joyfully towards the setting sun. I had finally done my time and I was being released from the land of overly structured curricula into a world of specialized academia; a land where I could delve into subjects that interested me alongside like-minded individuals. I had dreamed of college since I was six.

And on the morning I was to receive my walking papers, so to speak, I didn't even want to be conscious.

Sleeping was just easier than dealing with the conflicted world I suddenly found myself in. I could live in Daniel's arms while I slept.

Safe, comforted, happy, loved.

Awake, I was worried and excited all at the same time. Before Daniel, I couldn't WAIT to leave high school. But since meeting him, he had changed not only my outlook on Jocks and love and life, but apparently also made me a little nostalgic for what I'd always thought of as my temporary prison before "real life" began.

Daniel had made my young life more "real" than I had imagined possible.

My phase buzzed on the bedside table beside me. I groaned and rolled over to retrieve it.

1 unread text message.

DANIEL: Good morning, sleepy head. I can't wait to watch you on that stage, baby. I'll see you soon. I love you.

I smiled to myself, already feeling a little more human. My thumbs tip tap tipped out my reply

DAVID: I love you too Angel Boy. See you soon.

Sappy, I know.

Angel Boy.

It had just happened one day a few weeks ago. We had been lying in his bed staring at the ceiling and talking about nothing and everything. He brought up the subject of pet names. We had called each other "baby" for months now. He tried on a few really horrible options. Honey Bunch. Sweet Pea (too close to what his mamma called me) Blue Eyes, Lover Boy. None of them seemed to fit.

I had been embarrassed to offer my suggestion for his pet name. But eventually he had kissed it out of me; a feat I very much enjoyed.

"Well you always seem to protect me, watch over me, and are always by my side, no matter what. Like a Guardian Angel. My own Angel Boy."

I had turned seventeen shades of scarlet after that, but Daniel wiped a tear from his eyes and proceeded to make love to me for several blissful hours until we fell asleep with him begging me to call him Angel Boy, over and over.

So, thus, Daniel became my Angel Boy.

And, true to his namesake, he was watching over me even now, via text.

I grumbled a bit, but I got to my feet and shuffled to my closet. I picked out an outfit, not really caring what it was or whether it matched or adhered to any sort of style guide. I was going to be wearing a floor length polyester graduation robe, after all. No one would see whatever I wore under that.

I laid out my clothes on the bed, grabbed my towel from the back of the door and tried to disentangle the knots in my blonde hair as I made my way down the hall to the bathroom.

My tank top and sleep pants made a pile on the tile floor. I turned the knob and let the water begin to heat up while I surveyed myself in the big mirror.

I still wasn't quite sure what Daniel saw in me.

Not to get down on myself. I wasn't insecure. Not exactly. I just never really thought of myself as being all that attractive.

Being with Daniel had forced my body through some changes.

My chest was a little more defined now. There were some striations that hinted at the outline of abs and the barest whisper of those lines that bodybuilders call their Adonis Plate. My arms had filled out a little, become a little more defined and not quite so twig like. My shoulders even seemed a little broader.

My skin was still pale and clear. The approaching summer had caused a few light brownish reddish freckles to appear across my shoulders and upper chest. They were matched to the same across the bridge of my nose.

But my eyes did seem to have a new light, a sparkle they had lacked before Daniel. Back then, they had always seemed like the eyes of...well... prey. Hunted, anxious. Now, though they were a long way off from being predatory, they seemed more at ease, more open, more engaged and actively involved in the world around me.

And the piece de resistance, so to speak, my never-failing companion in love and passion was making himself known at that early hour. My cock stood straight and firm in front of me, bouncing gently in time with my heartbeat.

Even to my own eyes, I had to admire it. I mean, it was a luck of the draw type of thing, a lucky roll of the genetic dice...but hey, I wasn't going to complain. I enjoyed my cock immensely.

Thankfully, so did Daniel.

As I showered, my body seemed to be going through the motions by wrote. Like when you get into your car and then, all of a sudden, you are pulling into the driveway at home, no direct memory of how you got there.

My mind was still floating somewhere in the ether; disconnected and lost in worry and variously contradicting courses of action or inaction to the myriad emotions I was experiencing. No way made itself clear while the hot water worked into my muscles and kneaded the sleep from my corporeal form. No "Eureka!" moment for me.

They are said to come when your mind is wandering and distracted...like sitting in traffic or taking a shower.

Sigh.

No such luck.

Even slowly jerking on my hard cock, usually a sure fire way to lure my mind back into my skull, had little effect. I could conjure up a short scenario and begin to play it in my mind, but then it would fade away in the fog of everything else. I couldn't seem to stay focused. Not even on THAT.

An 18-year-old boy who couldn't jerk off.

There was something seriously amiss with that situation.

I was still only half in my body when I got dressed in whatever nonchalant outfit I had cobbled together and laid out earlier.

Ever been inside your own head and felt like you were being carried around inside the pocket of a giant? Pounding on the walls of your mind with both fists, screaming at the top of yours to WAKE UP! But the crystal clear bubble that is your prison holds fast, never waivers.

Try as you might you can't seem to break through, though the walls are invisible and thinner than a breath in the dead of winter.

I plodded down the stairs, still in that distracted state.

Even the barbed and usually vitriolic wit of my little sister failed to illicit the usual counter response from me. When she made some half-assed remark about the irony of me, a gay man, wearing a "gown" (weak joke, even for her) I just shrugged and smirked at her. She seemed shocked at first, and then returned her attention to her Lucky Charms.

Even the gentle sobs of my Mamma failed to move me.

Every now and then, she flipped pancakes and gently stirred scrambled eggs and bacon on the stovetop, she would let out a racking sob, her shoulders hunching forward and trembling for a moment.

When she fixed my plate and turned to set it down in front of me as I took my seat at the table, I saw her mascara and eyeliner had made dark wet circles under her eyes. She looked at me, biting her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyes full to bursting with tears.

The plate clattered to the table and she wailed, "don't grow up! Not yet! It's too soon!"

She pulled me to her embrace and squeezed me so tightly while she was wracked with sobbing and wailing that I had difficulty breathing.

"Mom!" I gurgled. Her grip only intensified, as did her wails.

"Mamma! I can't breathe!" I gasped.

With a final agony wracked sob she released my shoulders, took my face in her hands and pulled my face forward, squishing it up between her fingers.

"Such a handsome man you've become," she started. "What happened to my little blonde baby? When did you grow up?! Seems like I blinked and missed the whole thing."

The sentiment was touching. I felt myself becoming a little more engaged.

"Still here, Mamma. Can't get rid of me that easy," I whispered and tried to smile as she manhandled (or MammaHandled...) my cheeks.

"Why does David get a home cooked breakfast and I have to eat stupid cold Luck Charms?" my sister whined.

In the way only Southern Mammas can, Mamma's face melted from weeping maternal softness to cold-eyed iron-hard fury as she rounded on my little sister.

Sissy knew she had crossed that line the moment Mamma's gaze hit her. You could see the whites suddenly bloom all around her bright blue eyes, the twin to my own. They very nearly popped out of her head.

"Because he is graduating High School, Darling," Mamma snapped, making the pet name seem almost a condemnation. "When you do something as momentous as that, then you too will get a big breakfast. But since all you've accomplished recently is being a thorn in your brother's side for no good reason, you will sit there and eat your Lucky Charms and you will be grateful and LIKE it! Do I make myself clear?"

Sissy meekly bowed her head, shoveled the remainder of her cereal hurriedly into her mouth and quickly cleaned her bowl before headed to the living room. She didn't even drink the left over milk...arguably the best part of a Lucky Charms breakfast. Grey in color (gross) but delicious.

"Wow," I said as I watched my sister retreat with her tail between her legs. "You didn't need to do that Mamma. I can handle her."

"Hush you," she scolded me lightly. "You got enough on your plate, Sweet Boy. You don't need to be dealing with her sarcasm today. Let me take care of you for just a little while longer."

That set her to weeping again.

I sighed and let myself be enfolded in her embrace once again.

"When's Dad meeting us?" I asked some time later once Mamma's sobs had quieted a bit. My sister still hadn't worked up the courage to return to the kitchen.

"He's meeting us at the ceremony. Or so he says," Mamma said flatly.

Another factor that had my emotional world in turmoil was the fact that my parents had filed for separation a few weeks back. At the time, I had been too wrapped up in my burgeoning relationship with Daniel. But as the weeks passed, as is the way of such things, the complex feelings associated with the disillusionment of my nuclear family had begun to worm their way into my heart.

I hadn't really sat down and dealt with any of them. I hadn't responded much at all when my father had moved most of his stuff into a rented two bedroom house about 2 miles from my own. I wasn't in denial by any means. I just hadn't focused on that particular issue as yet.

Not that my parents heading towards divorce wasn't important. But one life altering change at a time, please. What was going to happen to Daniel and I after graduation and our last summer before college trumped even something as severe as divorce.

So, I focused on the food in front of me and pushed everything else to the back of my mind.

My speech was typed neatly onto several note cards and slipped into my back pocket. I had it memorized, but it would have been foolhardy not to have a backup close at hand. Just in case. My usually steel trap of a mind was obviously unable to function at its' normally peak capacity.

Better safe than sorry.

I was reciting a rather academic and wordy section in my head, making sure I had the syntax and diction just so when the doorbell rang.

Mamma dried her eyes on a kitchen towel and hurried to the front door. I tried to rise from my seat but a curt, "SIT!" from Mamma stopped that plan.

Daniel had arrived.

My heart began to beat a little quicker. The first sign of something close to life I'd felt since waking

"Morning, darling boy! Don't you look handsome? Well come on then, get in here," I heard Mamma twittering away happily.

"Thanks. And you look great, too," came Daniel's baritone reply.

It took every ounce of my strength not to get up and run to him at the door. After wandering around lost in my own head all morning, his voice seemed to open a tunnel to the real world for me.

And then I felt his arms encircle my chest from behind, his cheek pressing to my temple. I felt his lips kiss me gently on my cheek.

"Hey, baby," he whispered, pulling me tighter to his chest. My fingers dropped my fork and knife and gripped his taut forearms, hugging him even closer. I turned my face up towards his and saw his smiling brown eyes as if for the first time.

And I was struck with a sudden sadness.

A deep hole opened inside me and at the bottom I could just make out all that I stood to lose: all the love and devotion, the care and comfort, the dramatic change in my life since Daniel had become enmeshed in my soul. All of that could be gone soon. Wiped away as if it had never happened. Today marked the beginning of a transition from the old to the new. Daniel, as new as he was still to my life, was part of the old. Staring down the possibility that he may not be apart of the new made my stomach want to tie up in knots.

Then he kissed me.

Gently. So soft and serene as to make a spring day seem like a monsoon. The moment his lips touched mine, that crystal prison shattered and my mind settled easily back into me. Like a feather floating to the ground. When he pulled back I was a little starry eyed and dazed. I cleared my throat and tried to mumble my greeting, but very little in the way of actual recognizable speech actually made it past my lips.

Daniel didn't mind.

"Hey Little Brat," he shot sarcastically towards my sister, who had finally worked up the courage to poke her head around the corner.

"You ready to be the lady of the house once David heads to school? Just a few weeks and you're rid of us entirely."

"Don't I wish, Rocks-for-brains," she quipped, gingerly entering the kitchen to spar with my boyfriend, but always keeping a watchful eye on Mamma. One scolding a day was more that enough for anyone. "But, alas, he will have to come home for breaks and Christmas and all that. So, I won't be totally free quite yet. But a vast improvement."

Daniel laughed and reached for her, pulling her into a tight hug and squeezing her tight. I reveled in the popeyed expression and bright red blush she tried in vain to control.

"Can't get rid of us that easy, huh? Well, either way, you look very lovely this morning."

"Thanks," she replied, for once without a hint of sarcasm or bile.

"You're in a good mood today, Daniel," Mamma said as she stacked another pancake on a plate she was preparing to set in front of him.

"Maybe you can get this one to cheer up a bit. Been a bit of a Gloomy Gus all morning. As far as I can tell. But what do I know? You boys make about as much sense as a fish with wings."

"Those exist you know," I chimed in without thought. "Well, they aren't really wings in the truest sense of the definition, just elongated fins that allow for several yards of lift when launched out of the..."

"Let's get you polished up and ready to go, baby," Daniel interjected. I looked up and saw the befuddled faces of my family members.

I had been rambling. I had a tendency to do that when I was nervous, anxious, or upset.

"Sit and eat a minute," Mamma offered, gesturing to the plate she'd prepared, piled high with more pancakes and eggs than any two grown men had a right to consume.

"I ate at home, Ma'am," Daniel said. "But thank you kindly for the offer."

I rose from my seat and took my plate to the sink, washed it as I had been taught since I was old enough to walk, kissed my Mamma on the cheek and waited for Daniel.

He jerked his head towards the staircase. I walked past him and before I got so much as two feet ahead, his full handed swat to my ass made me yelp and jump nearly two feet in the air.

"OUCH!" I whined, rubbing my sore butt cheek.

"Had to do something to get you to wake up! You're like a zombie this morning," Daniel joked, doing his best to raise my spirits with his tone.

"Get a room," my sister groaned.

"Where do you think we are going?" Daniel replied, raising one eyebrow at her and causing her to blanch to a shade resembling cooked rice.

I smiled to myself, reveling in her discomfort and the ease with which Daniel put her in her place, and headed up the stairs to my room.

Before the door had closed behind Daniel and we were safe and alone in my little sanctuary, Daniel's face morphed to a look of outright concern.

"What's the matter baby?" he asked, leaning against my door as I took a seat on the bed. "Your Mamma is right, you seem off today. What's wrong?"

I wanted to weep. I was so frustrated. For someone who had always relied on words and wit to survive in the harsh realities of life, it was beyond awful to be at a loss for words.

I grunted and flung myself back on the bed, my hand covering my eyes in the hope that I wouldn't cry.

"I don't know," I complained helplessly. "I can't describe it."

I felt Daniel sit on the bed beside me and then lay down next to me. He shuffled around so that he propped himself on one elbow, his free hand resting on my chest and rubbing lightly. I felt myself relax almost instantly.

"Sound to me like you are worry too much," he whispered. He leaned in to kiss me gently on the cheek. "You can tell me anything baby. What's got you so torn up? Let me help..."

The love in his voice is what finally broke me reserve. Here he was opening himself up to me, making himself vulnerable and asking me to lay my problems on his shoulders, let him help carry the burden. I still couldn't bring myself to look at him directly, but I felt the words I'd been searching for begin to take shape in my mind.