There really isn’t much to tell about my first kiss. The resulting beating afterwards was far more memorable but it never really stopped me. Have I been cryptic enough? Good.

My first kiss, I initiated. I was a still a small boy, but I was gaining height quickly around 12. I was gangly and I found myself unappealing and I wasn’t exactly noticing girls for the first time that came a year or two later. I had those strange feelings about other boys. The guy I was crushing on was a few years older than I was. He was on the swim team. I watched him from a distance. I was an outcast so people didn’t tend to notice I was around most of the time.

We were at an afterschool party in the boys dorms. The swim team had just won a meet and we were all celebrating as…