So, my first kiss was on the pier with Vivian, my first kiss ever! It wasn't hers, but it was still cute. We were heading down towards the long dock, we were getting closer and closer to the end where the only things people did there was make-out, pee, or get blow jobs. The last I wasn't equipped for, the middle wasn't necessary, and the first I could have never been prepared for. My heart was pounding, up until this point our date had seemed more and more like a friendly outing, I expected that was all that it would ever be, but I was wrong (a year and 2 months later, I'm still wrong). We stopped walking, I leaned against the fence facing the wind so it could blow my hair in a cool, sexy, movie-like way, but it only kept flying in my mouth. We played with each other's hands in a nervous, half-assed version of PattyCake. She asked me if she could kiss me, I said 'yeah', and then finally, the moment I've been waiting 18 years for, years, months, OK minutes of anticipation had all lead to this the most important "First" in my life (well, one of them), and here it was, it was a peck.

Peck, a tight-lipped peck, it was the best I could do. No sparks, no fireworks, no tongue, peck. But, that didn't stop us, she asked if she could kiss me again, of course I said 'yeah', and we did. This time it was a bit more full, more lips, better hang time (4 seconds instead of 1), it was a double-header, "s mack-smack". Then we rode off into the sunset, on the bus, to get her home before her curfew.

-Kathy Rodriguez

December 1, 1998