First Kiss....

   When I was fourteen (big year, see blog#2) my parents allowed my older brother Douglas and me to have a New Year's Eve party. My parents gave us a limit, so the modest guest list included only members of Mater Dei's Band. Parents dropped off our friends around 8 pm at which point we escorted them up to our rumpus room (part of the deal with mom and dad was that we all stay in one room the entire night.)  We talked and laughed and played games that were very innocent and childlike (what did you expect, we were Bandos!)
     At some point in the night Cindy, Kevin and myself were in the big walk-in closet looking to choose a board game to play with the group.  Someone outside the closet thought it would be funny to close the door and turn off the light inside the closet to scare us.  As the door shut and the light went out Cindy's arms went around my back and she pulled me close to her.  I immediately put my arms around her and our lips met.  Fourteen years of living, this had to be the highlight! She was this beautiful sandy blonde trombone player with an Angelic face. Why she wanted to kiss me was beyond me( I was a bony, acne faced, stuttering pile of no confidence,)  but I decided now was not the time for a Q and A session. We kissed non stop for at least 30 minutes.  After about twelve minutes I saw the door open and watched Kevin leave and close the door behind him.  I was so involved in kissing Cindy that I forgot about Kevin being in this 3x6 closet with us.  In the past thirty eight years I have never asked Kevin what was he doing in the dark for twelve minutes while Cindy and I were "making out." I think the next time I see him I'll ask.
   Thirty minutes into our first and only kissing session, my younger brother Patrick flipped on the lights, opened the door and yelled, "Dad wants to see you right now!!"  Well let me tell you, I thought I had just been caught feeling up the Queen of England (it might have been the guilt I was grasping while my thumb was trying to get some side boob during the last few precious moments in the dark.)  I ran as fast as I could out of the closet to our bathroom, washed off any evidence of lipgloss and ran downstairs to where my dad was entertaining his friends.  I must have looked white as a sheet, scared to death that I would be banished to a monastery.  He was sitting at the kitchen table, turned to me and gave me the index waving finger to "come closer."  I leaned in with my heart racing faster than a Quarter Horse.  My dad said, "pay attention to your other guests."  He turned back to his friends and continued talking.
   That was it? I wasn't going to the gas chamber?  I could live to see 1978?  I turned around and proceeded upstairs where I talked to everyone, but Cindy.  I didn't have much confidence back then. I didn't know what to do next.  I was between a boy and a man (mostly the former.)  We would always be friends and eventually even go to the Junior Prom together in 1980.  Although, we only went as friends (I still didn't have much confidence. )  I have probably have had less

than a couple dozen "first kisses" in my life,  but I have had two first kisses that I will never forget.  One was with Cindy and the other was on Cinco De Mayo in front of a Denny's in Orange.  If you're interested, both girls kissed me first.

That last "first kiss" was the best!