Fast-forward to band practice in the auditorium. They were rehearsing music for the Labor Day (yes, in May) parade. Thousands of people, including scores of coal miners, would be there, either cheering them on or booing them off, so it had to be perfect.

The drum major, a fellow senior named Brittany, called the band to attention. After a series of quick tweets, they were off.

Just when it got to the good part, an older lady, about the same age as Mrs. Gosling, parted one of the sets of double-doors to the auditorium and entered. Once right up to Mr. Flores’ ear, she told him to completely stop everyone so she could give Julio the nagging of a lifetime. As expected, everyone stopped playing, but in the middle of the song no less? Some were confused, a few to a degree of concern, as to what was happening.

“Julio Marcus Estevez! Open your eyes and see the light, look around you!” she introduced. He looked around the room, totally confused as were the rest of them.

“Julio Marcus Estevez!” she shouted again. “Yoohoo, my eyes are over here.”

“Oh, there you are!” He then began to put on a visage of seriousness right after. He suspected that flak was about come his way.

“Today is the day that you will need to change your life for the better.” He put his sticks back in the sleeve on the side of his apparatus and continued to maintain his composure and resilience. He had a reputation to uphold, so he needed to keep his cool in order to not break down and have a hissy fit in front of his friends.

“Your brothers in the coal mines… in the steel mills, working the farms and fields, all your friends and family…” mentioning a collective of different people for emphasis, “…call on you to guard your heart!

“Walk in purity. As your brothers have done in past generations, they lived in wholeness and strength in mind, body, and spirit, and were committed to living a life of integrity, purpose, and purity. You need to follow them in their ways, allow them to shepherd you and meld you into the righteous man you ought to be; whatever positive change comes your way, will it… Dare not stray form their words – you’ll have a moral duty to take them to heart and live to that accord."

Julio said nothin’.

“Now, I’m not trying to rat you out or anything…” Bullshit. “…but I know you’re a good person, and I’ve been hearing things about you. And I just want you to know that your strength lies in your character and NOT how many people you’ve intimidated and threatened just to make yourself feel comfortable!”

“So you’re tolerating the bullies?” Julio said.

Ignoring those words, the lady continued. “…and a part of that is pursuing purity in all aspects of life, which includes the active implementation of abstinence until marriage.” Julio’s eyebrows perked up.

“Now Julio, you need to abstain! And I’m not talking about religious reasons – “

“Maybe…” Julio said.

She continued. “ – but I’m also not excluding health and morality.”

Mr. Flores looked like he’d had enough of seeing his favorite drummer getting badgered like he was, so he went to tell Brittany to strike up the band. He shot up, intent on stopping Julio from having a heart attack. Until:

“What are you doing?”

“You know what Julio’s capabilities are. Do not encourage him.”

She honestly didn’t seem to care, and went on. “On a related note, do NOT allow anyone – your friends, your peers – whatever… to persuade you into thinking that having sexual relationships before marriage is acceptable. Honestly, it’s just not.

Julio came up with an idea. “Can you do me a quick favor?”

“Sure.”

“Look at my shirt…”

“Okay, but what am I looking for?”

“Does it say ‘I Give a Damn’?”

She simply stood there, shocked.

“Now please go away.”

She backed off, maintaining her stare on the coal miners’ boy. “I see. I can see the problem now… your little romp with Rainbow Dash has put you among the false-hearted. What you need to do is rebuild and renew your temperance and your virtue. And one thing that could help with that a good bit…? Stop hanging out with that stupid faggot Rainbow Dash, she is nothing but a disgusting piece of lesbian slime!”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY NIGGA!?”

Nnnnnnope. “What I’m trying to say, Julio, is that you need to start being a gentleman; try out being a man, just like God intended you to be.”

Julio continued to stand there, absolutely disgusted by her vulgar remarks about the Rainbow that had caught his heart.

But unfortunately, she continued. “It’s up to you to protect yourself: Wholesome – the word of the day. Remember it and express wholesomeness in dress, language, actions, thoughts, et cetera. Have ‘custody of your eyes’ – don’t touch the private parts of another person, obviously; do not be indecent – that means no inappropriate looking, touching, or actions to that defect… Do not lie on top of other people. Do not engage in passionate kissing or ‘making out’, because one thing leads to another – “

“Ugh… just call me an idiot and piss off out of here…”

“Oh! When you go dancing, don’t go out to clubs, and when in the act of dancing itself, no inappropriate moves or gestures; and please no full body contact – “

“And with that, you’ve officially labeled me as an ignorant dumbass.”

“The Lord commands you to.” was her only reply.

With that glob of spit in the face, so to speak, Julio finally decided that he wasn’t having another word of her inanity.

“I don’t have to hear this nonsense, you know!”

“Hey, I was only suggesting things…”

“Well, you’ll need to suggest better things than that,” he replied, resilient in tone.

“Would everyone please calm down so we can get back to business?” Mr. Flores said in an attempt to ease the tension.

Once she started back up… “Hon, a celibate lifestyle – “

“So I’m just a faggot to you, huh!?” Julio stormed over to Jennifer’s quads and grabbed a large stick. Then, with all his pent-up rage, he chucked it skyward, where it tore a sizable hole in the ceiling, made clanging noises along its gut, and possibly breaking a light fixture before it could be seen falling to the stage with a clatter. “What’s good, niggah!?” Julio shouted.

The whole room was rendered speechless. Everyone that stood in the auditorium or looked through the door was shocked, some with their mouths agape. They could not believe what had ensued, but their eyes certainly didn’t deceive them.

The lady who caused the ruckus in the first place broke the silence, this time with a soft, still voice. “Julio, every day, I hear about the good things you do and the things you think about, and you are destined for great things… and for that you stand out from the crowd. But in order to continue to do that, you’ll need to get the train back on the tracks, so to speak.

“In addition to standing out, of course you did those good things like raising money to help those kids in Africa and helped feed the homeless, and you take pride in that… but you also have to extricate yourself from those who make bad decisions. And I know you’ve made some not so good choices in recent days, and it’s because of this tendency to hang around that sort of people…”

“Okay, but can you tell me in simplistic terms – “

She stopped him once again. “But to truly stand out, you have to stand out with pride… set a positive example, stay healthy, make good decisions, stay out of trouble, have good friends, form positive relationships with people that improve and enrich your life… For that reason, we want you to be abstinent until marriage.”

Julio made a cross between a grunt and a groan and walked back to the intolerant one.

“As if I give a shit what all y’all want. I am finished dealing with the likes of you.” He made an about face and stormed out of the room.

[I apologize if this chapter is a little extreme… just wanted to give the tasteless idiots who disliked the story a little taste of their own medicine, as well as creatively raising awareness at what some people are capable of doing in order to shove their agenda down other’s throats. Finally, some just don’t know a good steamy romance when they see it!]

Author's Note

I was originally going to have Julio still be steaming mad, but then I got the idea for that lady (in case you don't know, she's one of the aides who goes around making sure everything's okay) to actually attempt to calm him down, instead of them to continue yelling. With this approach to the ending, Julio wouldn't have a massive stroke over all this and come out somewhat cooled down, while also setting the stage for a more calm, peaceful, somewhat dulcet transition into the main events of Chapter 4.