At Last, LG

By the time I was approaching my seventeenth birthday, I had had many first kisses and given many first kisses. I had gotten my first kiss behind my school, given two in a hot tub, had a romantic first kiss in Paris, and an awkward stolen kiss on a couch in a basement, all at sixteen years old. Through it all was Miles, watching from the sidelines since we were thirteen and met playing Laurey and Curly in Oklahoma! He was always a constant in my life, a good friend to talk to, so easy to be open with. My junior year in high school, we ended up involved in a love triangle involving one of his best friends. Being a teenager ruled by hormones, I chose to be with Josh, and we frivolously dated while Miles watched once again. After four months, I realized Josh was never going to be anything more than just a pretty boy, and we parted ways. Finally, Miles had the chance he'd been waiting for for years. Three weeks later, he took my hand and said, "I can't help but smile when I think about being with you" and I realized I had been waiting more than three years for him to be able to say that to me. I had another first kiss and got to give him his real first kiss. This time, he didn't have to watch.

Katie R., 16

My first kiss happened about a year ago when my current boyfriend and I were sixteen. We had been dating for about a week and our friends kept "coincidentally" leaving us alone so we could kiss, but we never did because we were both too nervous. One night after one of these nights of being left alone we were talking over text message and it came up that we had not kissed yet. We both agreed that we wanted to, and he agreed to kiss me the next day when he was coming over. Of course this extra planning just made me more nervous. The next day he came over and we went swimming in my backyard with my family in the evening. After everyone got out of the pool my family one by one drifted inside leaving me and him alone. Now I was really nervous. I had been waiting to get alone for it all night, but dreading it at the same time. We were sitting under this little gazebo thing in my backyard for a while just talking. He kept kinda leaning in then pulling back, no doubt just as nervous as I was because it was also his first kiss. Someone who lived on the street behind us started setting off fireworks and we were just sitting there quietly watching them, when suddenly he turned his head and it happened. It was a little bit messy, but surprisingly not that bad. Although he did most of the kissing and I just froze up. It lasted a few seconds and when it ended we both giggled nervously. Not knowing what to say finally he blurts out, "Well that sucked!" I didnt know what to say and he explained to me that he didnt mean he didnt like kissing me just that "we needed more practice." We both giggled and hugged. Now we always joke about the first thing he said to me after our first kiss.