Chime for the first time and every time after...

I was 14 when it happened.

The summer between my 8th and 9th grades in school, my uncle put in an above ground swimming pool. I spent a good portion of that summer over there in the pool. And so did a lot of the neighborhood kids. We'd get in the pool in the early afternoon and not get out until after dark. My aunt and uncle would feed the lot of us.

It was one evening after it was dark, and still warm outside, that were all were gathered on the deck between the house and the pool. It was late-ish, and I'm pretty sure my aunt and uncle were in for the night. Someone then suggested a game of Spin The Bottle.

Tracey laid out the rules, "Everyone spins and whoever you land on, you have to kiss. On. The. Lips. NO exceptions." Tha game started. Tracey's spin landed on Mike (her boyfriend) and they had a passionate, spit filled kiss. Mike's spin landed on Jamie. He and she had a quick, chaste peck on the lips. Chasity spun it and it landed on Brian, and they had a kiss somwhere between the passionateness and the chasteness of the previous two. Then, Derek took a spin.

Derek. Only a year older than me, and even though I was a tall kid, he was taller. And more built. He ran track in school, and jogged throughout the year to stay in shape. He was muscular and defined, but not in a bodybuilder way. He had a mop of brown hair, curly, almost kinky, that he kept in a white afro-ish type of cut that was never really in style. But he had the self confidence to carry it off and not care. He was tanned, not only from all the running, but all the time we spent in the pool. Unlike me who only ever burned and peeled and burned and peeled.

He was wearing his still-wet swimming trunks, the long kind that came down to mid thigh. He had earlier thrown on a white tank top with the name of a local business across the chest. I thought it a shame to cover up his torso, but the shirt accented his shoulders and biceps, so it was okay.

Derek was one of those people blessed with perfect skin, the bastard. I only ever had the occasional zit, but Derek never seemed to have any. He had large brown eyes that didn't miss anything, and a large mouth, which resulted in smiles that bared all his teeth and were quite contagious when you saw one.

He wrapped his long, lean fingers around the empty Coke bottle and spun it. It slowed and ended up pointing directly at me. I gasped inwardly, and perhaps outwardly as well. But it was covered by the laughter from everyone there. I joined in, perhaps a bit less enthusiastically as the others. As it died down, Jamie said, "Okay, spin again."

Derek scowled at her. "Spin again? Why?" All the remaining laughter kinda died down to a few nervous chuckles. "We all heard the rules. 'No exceptions'!" He smiled that smile of his and looked directly at me. "You're up for it, right?"

All eyes turned on me. Was I up for it? Hell yeah! I wanted it! But I couldn't appear to want it. Everything I knew growing up told me to hide the feelings for other guys I was having, and therefore I should have just told him no right there. But I wanted to kiss him. And I didn't want to appear to be uncool. And I didn't want to go against it, since he suggested it.

So as best I could, I feigned nonchalance, shrugged and murmured, "Whatever." This brought another round of laughs from the others. But Derek simply said, "Cool." and continued to smile.

Derek got up to his knees and leaned into the circle we all made. He and I were on opposite sides of the circle, so he put his left hand down on the deck near the bottle and with his right hand, beckoned me with a curled finger on his other hand.

I was sitting on my butt, Indian style. I got up to my knees and leaned in slowly. I still wasn't sure about all of this.

Then, unexpectedly, Derek reached out with his free hand, grabbed the front of my t-shirt, and yanked me towards him. Before I even knew what was going on, his lips were pressed against mine! I was too shocked to actually kiss back. Despite the shock, I remember the feel of his lips against mine. I remember hearing the hoots and howls and laughter of the others sitting there. I remember wishing it would never end, dreading when it ended, wondering if I should pull back or wait for him. There was no tongue, it wasn't as passionate as the Tracey/Mike kiss, but it was a lot more than the Mike/Jamie peck. Derek was making the kissing noise, moving his lips around on mine, he wasn't just keeping the tight rigid and still. Frankly, I was quite floored by what he was doing.

I don't know how long it did last. It seemed like it lasted forever, but assuredly less than a minute. And when Derek pulled away (yeah, I let him end it), he was smiling at me. He sat back on his hunches, I kinda flopped back onto my butt just shocked. And several of the others applauded and whistled. "You guys are inSANE!" Jamie exclaimed. In mock seriousness, Derek bragged, "It'll be the best kiss he ever has." And then he broke out into laughter. Everyone, including me joined him.

And that was how I had my first man to man kiss.

But it wasn't anywhere near the last.

POLT