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  The Game was simple. Three boys and three girls in a circle. An old coke bottle in the middle. Spin the bottle and whoever the bottle points to gets to pick who they would be paired with. When the three couples were decided, the game would officially start. Who could hold a kiss the longest. I doubt any of us in our 12 years had ever kissed anyone longer than one second. I think all of us were thinking the same thing before the bottle was spun. Put your lips on the other person’s lips and breathe through your nose. In the movies they always close their eyes, so closing your eyes seems appropriate. 

I was looking forward to playing this game ever since it was mentioned on the bus when our class visited Washington DC a few weeks earlier. Since my girlfriend Denise was in the circle, the game almost seemed rigged to me. My heartbeat fluttered as the bottle was spun. The basement linoleum floor accentuated the time of the spin. Finally, the pointed end of the coke bottle came to rest in front of Denise. I looked down trying not to look confident and was wondering if I should act surprised when she called my name. A diamond bullet shattered my heart when I heard her say Eric. It was as if someone had punched me in the stomach. Denise and Eric both stood up and waited for the other partners to be picked. Time slowed down as the next couple was picked which left me with Cathy. A girl who was nice, but she was not my girlfriend. In no way was she my girlfriend.

I didn’t have a girlfriend anymore.

Could this really be happening? Was I dreaming? Yesterday Denise and I were holding hands after school, in front of everyone. I’m sure everyone saw us. There were a few instances where our hands almost let go but Denise grabbed my hand tighter. I know this to be true because I replayed those instances, 100 times as I lay in bed last night. My right hand holding my left hand and squeezing it like she had.

 I had also rehearsed my reaction to the inevitable Mark and Denise sitting in a tree K I S S I N G, that I would surly hear on Monday. 

Each couple now moved to various corners of the basement. I had positioned Cathy in a way that I could see Denise and Eric. Everyone in that basement was standing and now holding their partners hands when someone said on your mark, get set, go. There it was….the KISS. As I suspected everyone had closed their eyes except me. 

I sometimes wonder if I was the first boy Cathy ever kissed. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was. I’d never seen her with another boy...holding hands. I also wouldn’t be surprised if through the years at giggly sleepovers and later with a wineglass in her hand above a half-eaten cheeseboard at a local bar with her friends, Cathy talked about her first kiss with a boy whose lips were quivering as tears rolled down his face. 

In case you’re wondering, Cathy and I won the contest. A few minutes after we started her mother called down the stairs asking if we were hungry. The two other couples quickly broke their kisses.

 I held our kiss one second longer. 

I needed to win this game. 

   My demons have a tendency to barge into my bedroom early in the morning when I first wakeup. They like to lay next to me. I know they enjoy the awkward silence. 

When you are here with me in the morning, my demons peek around the corner, see us and quietly tiptoe backwards.....

away into the silence. 

 It was the kind of day where everyone seemed to say, “What a beautiful day”

She was the kind of girl where everyone seemed to say, “She’s very attractive”

He was the kind of guy where everyone seemed to say, “That’s a good-looking guy”

Their eyes met briefly at the Starbucks counter at 8:43am on a Tuesday morning

At 8:57am their eyes danced the tango from 3 tables away

They both tried to hold their stare longer than the other

They both gave up at the same time and looked away

He waited for her to leave and got up and held the door for her

“What a beautiful day” he said. 

She nodded yes. 

They smiled, he went left, and she went right

He thought about those green eyes on and off for the next 52 years

She’s thought about that smile on and off for the next 61 years.