I Am Jack's Life Ch. 00-01

I could smell her faint perfume, faded, because it was late in the day, but there nevertheless. A barely perceptible faint mist of scent that hung near her. I'd caught it a few times before when I'd leaned in to correct her work. Now she was leaning in to me.

Time stopped.

She put her arms around me and drew me close. She hugged me. I felt her breasts against my shoulder, covered by her tee shirt and bra, but there they were; the soft round mounds of my feverish desires pressed against me. She leaned her head on my shoulder and I felt her hair cascade over my arm. It was very soft.

"I do," she said again, moving time forward a few seconds.

I'm not sure I was breathing.

She looked up at me and turned my chin to face her. Our faces were inches apart. I could feel her breath on my cheeks. I inhaled her exhale. Her eyes were the most emerald green. The rest of the world that was not her face fell away. The rest of the summer may have been a blur, but twenty years later I can still recall the tiny blemishes of her skin, the wrinkles in her lips; practically count her long dark eyelashes. That moment is frozen in my mind forever. Wherever I travel in this life from here, whomever it's with. The moment sitting on Beth's couch, the Princess Bride playing in the background, and her face inches from mine, will be with me forever. It's the stuff the universe is made up of, friend. Moments like this one, hung in space and time like tapestries.

I'm definitely sure my heart was not beating.

And then she kissed me.

I'm going to pause here a second.

Whenever guys imagine their first kiss, at least guys of my generation, James Bond is involved.

I have no idea about girls. I've never been one, but I'd bet even money it's either James Bond or Richard Gere. But I'm pretty sure, James Bond.

You know, the kiss that he closes out every movie with. On a yacht after defeating a hundred enemy spies, and rescuing the Bond girl of the film. The bend-her-backward, doubled-over-in-anticipated-ecstasy, this-is-definitely-going-to-end-in-coitus, kiss. He's the epitome of suave, she's the avatar of sexy. That kiss. Yeah that's the one most guys think they are going to give the first time they kiss someone.

That was not my first kiss. I doubt it's anyone's, but I can only speak for me.

It was excruciatingly brief. It lasted an eternity, but it was very brief. Just a gentle brushing of her lips against mine. Her's were warm, soft, and dry. I hope mine were too. It probably lasted less than a second to be honest. I didn't even have time to close my eyes. I stared at her in shock the whole time.

Her eyes didn't close either, they fluttered down. But never closed.

"There. Now it's out of the way," she said what felt like a few years later.

I blinked.

She giggled, and blushed. Fuck, I'd never seen her blush. Holy fuck, so sexy.

"You've been thinking about kissing me all summer. Now it's out of the way, and we can be real friends. And stop worrying about me not talking to you anymore," she said, leaning back on her hands.

She was talking. (We kissed.) Process. Rewind. (She kissed me.) What did she say? (Shekissedme.) Friends. (Kiss.) We can be friends now.

Huh?

"Huh?"

Seriously, sometimes that's all you got.

She giggled again, still blushing. "Oh Jack, I really do like you, as a friend. I don't want to stop being friends just because you're not very popular. I don't care what people think, okay?"

I'm pretty sure I nodded. I could still feel the after-impression of her lips against mine.

"Cool, now stop worrying and rewind the movie okay? I don't want to miss your favorite part!" she bounced back to her spot on the couch and we were no longer touching.

And that friends, is how I got my first kiss, and friend-zoned in the same moment.