by Eby Lane

Created on: March 08, 2009

"I never..." the girl paused, waiting on bated breath as she looked around all of the anxious teenagers in the room. "I've never been kissed!" There were a lot of relieved sighs and laughter from the group, a few complaints of the challenge being lame.

"Everyone's done that by now!" the guy who initiated the game started to complain, until I waved the hand that I had raised after the girl made the statement. We were playing "I never", a game where you had to get as many people to admit to things they had never done. Those with the most were subject to dares. It was my first of the evening. I wasn't embarrassed, even though I was seventeen and popular, dating and romance had been the last thing on my mind. I had an awkward puberty and was overweight, it wasn't until my junior year that I grew in to my looks, slimmed down and gained that missing confidence from my elementary school days. By the time "I never" came around, however, I was too busy with studies and extra-curriculars to look for a boyfriend. Admittedly, I didn't want one, but I did have a crush on the boy whose sister was hosting the party.

My closest guy friend, Jay, looked over at me from across the room. He was shorter and younger than me, a freshman that I had taken in under my wing like a senior in the theater department had done for me years before. "I don't believe it." The de facto leader of the drama geeks had never been kissed!

"Believe it," I affirmed and threw in my own contribution to the game, getting my crush out of the game in the process. He ended up egged and retired from the party for the rest of the night. The rest of us gave up on the game after that, none of us wanted to be subject to needing a shower afterward. I had little time to be disappointed at the lack of opportunity to make an impression on my object of affections, my friends kept the laughs and conversations going on for hours. Especially Jay, we volunteered ourselves to play DJ and learned that we had similar music tastes.

His ride home was ready to leave, so he squeezed my shoulder and we said our goodbyes, knowing full well we'd see each other backstage during rehearsal the next day. He bounded up the stairs of the basement and I went to collect the scattered CD cases in front of me when I heard a commotion upstairs. Everyone dropped what they were doing to upstairs to see what it is. Before I could stand and make it to the stairs, Jay came running back down.

"Kiss me." he said, breathless. Noting my confusion, he took a breath and gently grabbed my arms. "Can I kiss you?"

"Sure." I answered out of surprise, hearing his friends tell Jay to hurry it up. It dawned on me that his friends were making a diversion for him to do this and I started to laugh. Jay choose that moment to kiss me, and he pulled away before I could register his lips on mine. He pulled away, gave me a tight hug, and ran up the stairs and out of the house. I had been kissed, but the attempt and the hug after was more gratifying than the kiss itself. Even though our friendship did not evolve into something more, I'm still thankful that Jay stole my first kiss in a way that I'll never forget.

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