PRELUDE TO A KISS
So you want to know about my first love? is what I will say to my kids, when I actually have some. I will tell them that his name was Robert Kingston. He was tall and slim, about 6'2 to my 5'6 and curves, with messy dark hair, the same colour as mine. We looked fairly alike - embarrassingly, strangers on the street would take us for twins, and people who knew our names thought ''our'' parents had named us cleverly - Rita and Robbie.He had (and still has) a cute little chip in his front tooth, instantly noticeable when he smiled. We got together just after I turned 16 (he was 6 months older than me), but I had been in love with him since I was 14.
Before Robbie, I had had an internet boyfriend by the name of Carl, and had a brief liason with an Iranian guy named Saeed. Although they had both been - speaking plainly - extremely hung up on me, I didn't think it was fair to stay with them when I was hung up on Robbie.
Over the first two years we knew each other, Robbie and I became firm friends, confiding many things to each other. But the part where we really got close is when he was having ''lady troubles'' - Daphne, a mutual friend of ours, had decided that she liked him, and he felt somewhat the same. However, even though she had turned him down when he asked her out, she enjoyed periodically checking that he still liked her.
Eventually Daph decided to ask him out again. I had been talking to both of them, one part of me sincerely wanting things to work out, another part hoping against all hope that things would fall to pieces and I could pick them up. Sure enough, all was over, and I was left in the joyous position of being Robbie's (by his own admission) best friend.
A few weeks later, after I had broken things off with Saeed, I invited Robbie around to my place to watch some anime. We had got into the habit of, whenever there were sleepovers or movie nights within our group, snuggling up together on the couch - one night he even fell asleep with his head on my chest, and we stayed that way all night.
Well, it wasn't any different this time, as we snuggled against each other tightly. I kept sending him telepathic messages, urging him to lean down and kiss me.
They didn't work - by nature, Robbie had always been somewhat shy in some ways.
So I pulled away from his arms, sat up and started actually watching TV as opposed to watching Robbie.
I turned around for a second to look at him - and in that second, I realised he had been watching me.
We leaned in and kissed.
I had been kissed before, but this was nothing like those wet, slobbery doggy kisses that I'd been given by Saeed. Robbie's lips were soft and full, and slightly moist in the very centre. Kissing him was an absolute pleasure.
This much would be what I would tell my children. But what I'm going to tell you is much too explicit for their non-existent little ears.
I'm going to tell you about everything that Robbie and I did, from early exploration to popping my cherry, and everything in between.