The First Kiss
The First Kiss
It was a few days after Christmas, 1969. I was loaded down with cash from grandparents, uncles, aunts, and others who years before had given up trying to figure me out. I’m talking about tens of dollars and it was burning a big hole in my pocket.
Little did I know, this gift of cash would be the first domino to fall in a chain of dominos that would lead to the gift of euphoria.
I received a call from my close girl-type friend, Shirley, completely out of the blue. She was going to Willowbrook Mall with a girlfriend, and wanted to know if I would like to join them. Reluctant at first, I felt that hole burning where the cash was pocketed. I wanted to buy the Crosby, Stills and Nash album released the prior June. After a little more thought, the first domino fell. I met them at the corner of Bloomfield and Ridgewood Avenues to pick up the bus that would drag us out to the Willowbrook Mall.
I didn’t offer to drive them in the family car because I couldn’t. I was only weeks from turning eighteen and I did not have my license yet. I was afflicted with Boring Oldest Brother Syndrome, BOBS), a disease that attacks the maturity system; for example rendering one to postpone getting one’s driver’s license for as long as one possibly can. It’s quite crippling really.
Happily, I met them at the bus stop.
Shirley introduced me to Sue. It took, oh let’s see, about 3.7 seconds. Nope, I think less. I’m pretty sure it was when I heard the “ue” sound of her name that I instantly felt something deep inside my chest, a ping right below the top of the rib cage, like an electric shock only it didn’t hurt; it felt really goofy, really exhilarating.
She was beautiful. Her hair smelled like the freshest Breck shampoo for color treated hair I had ever laid nose on. And she was awash in Shalimar perfume, sending my olfactory glands into nasal nirvana.
During the bus ride to the mall, surprisingly I was overcome by an eerie confidence that pushed me to new heights of flirtatious wit. I was on top of someone else’s game and loving it! By the time we had arrived at the mall, I was hooked. Oh boy was I hooked. We had giggled our way into some kind of magic. And the very best part, as I would learn later from Shirley, who by then had been ordained the puppet master of Bob’s love world, was that Sue didn’t just like me, she ‘LIKED’ me—as in capital letters—‘LIKED’ me!
How quickly one’s fortunes change when suddenly plunged духовые шкафы into the throes of youthful romantic chase. We walked the long winding caverns formed by nameless boutiques and anchor stores, laughing and smiling and teasing and touching and laughing some more. To the casual observer, it was probably nauseating but I didn’t care. I was dominoing into a wonderful new world. I bought the CS&N album. The girls replenished their perfume stock. Before we knew what hit us, it was time to go.
As the bus pulled away, my mind was dancing in heaven. But by the time we arrived back and disembarked where the adventure had all begun, heaven had turned to hell. It was all too good to be true. Rejection was moments away. Such was the fragile nature of my life.
The bus sputtered away from our stop, dumping an ominous black cloud of monoxide in its wake. But all I could immerse myself in was Sue, who by now was wearing a dazzling array of seventeen fragrances скачать сериалы she had tested on her delicate soft wrists for me to blushingly critique. The air about her was a beautiful collage to the finely tuned nasal passages of a teen boy in fresh mushy pursuit. Unfortunately it was духовые шкафы ariston a wondrous moment that could not last. It was time to be noble in the face of her pleasant rejection with an empty smile, and cherish the fond memory of the mall.
I took the lead step in the dance of disengagement.
“Well, I guess I have to get going.” As clever a line as I had ever led with.
“Yeah, its dinner time and my brother is picking me up at Shirley’s in ten minutes.”
“Hey Shirls, can you give me a call later after din?” I asked, trying not to tip my cards too much.
“Yeah, no problem. I think we have something to talk about.” She was so obvious.
“Oh yeah? You think?” I coyly replied.
“Yeah, we need to talk too Shirls?” Sue added.
My heart sank at the foreboding potential of their pending conversation. I reached deep inside to maintain the high road.
“All right then, I guess that’s that! Everyone needs to talk! Everyone is talkin’!” Not a very good job. I probably needed to reach deeper.
Unfortunately my old friend panic had made himself at home in my thoughts. Was this going to be as good as it gets? Was my breath killing her? Was she just now realizing the lowliness of her affection?
I had to say something but what? What could I possibly say to rescue this sweet moment from the clutches of rejection like all the others?
I found it . “Okay then
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