February 13, 1998

Today was Friday the 13th, but it was lucky for me! After school, Steph and I went home on this girl named Maggie’s bus. She is nice and everything, but the real reason I went home on her bus was because Zach is on her bus.

When the bus went by his house, he said, “Oh, damn, my parents are home.” So Steph and I went over Maggie’s house after all, where we left our backpacks and set out for the pizza place.

While we waited for Zach, we went across the street to CVS and Steph bought herself some fake nails. When we went back across the street, Zach was waiting there and Maggie’s dad was right behind him. He said Maggie had to go to dance class and they left.

We hung out at the pizza place for a while, then walked Zach back to his house. We stood at the end of the driveway and he said, “Emily, go to Jenna’s house tonight, and we can make out.”

Steph said, “Why don’t you just do it now?”

And that’s how the best part of my day started. Zach looked at me and said, “Do you want to?” I shrugged. He said, “Because I want to.” I smiled. Steph shooed us away toward the house. He told her, “Keep watch. If you see a red van, that’s my mom!”

Zach walked down his driveway and behind his house and I followed him. He stood there and said, “I’m waiting.” I stood there and looked nervous, hugging myself because it was so cold.

He said, “Please?”

I said, “I need Steph here. I feel uncomfortable.” He turned to the end of the driveway and yelled to Steph, but she yelled back that she didn’t want to watch us make out.

So Zach turned back to me. He touched my arm (I love it when he does that!) and said, “Come on. Please? Do it for me.”

I giggled and asked, “Who else would I be doing it for?” For some reason, I was extremely nervous. I was slowly inching closer to him across the grass. I said, “Should I just… kiss you?” “Yeah.” “Like on Halloween?” “Yeah, only this time, not on the cheek.”

I smiled and inched even closer to him. I said, “Turn your cheek!” He started to and then said, “No, no, I want the tongue.” I laughed – he is so bold! His arms were around my waist; we were so close together.

I said, “But I don’t have that much experience… only you.” He said, “So? Neither have I. Only three people. I’ll make you experienced.”

I asked, “Do you just want to kiss someone and you don’t care who it is?”

He put his hands to his cheeks and said, “Oh, my god.” He ran out to the driveway and faced Steph, then stomped up and down and, pointing at me, yelled, “She’s awful!”

Steph ran up the driveway and said, “Emily, I need to talk to you.” I went over to her and she shooed Zach away. Then she whispered to me, “Emily! What are you doing? You always like, fantasize about this, and now you won’t do it!” I told her, “It’s harder when the time comes.”

She sighed and ran back to the end of the driveway to keep watch. Right then, she was being the greatest friend. She is always the greatest friend.

Anyway, back behind the house, I told Zach that I couldn’t kiss him because I had gum in my mouth. So he told me to spit it out. Then he pulled me up to him and told me to just do it. “Please?” He whined. His head was tilted and his eyes were looking at my lips. His head was leaning toward me.

“Okay,” I said, and just kissed him. It was our best kiss yet, probably. It was the longest, at least. And this time our heads moved like in movies. His tongue seemed small.

It ended mutually and he looked down at me and said, “You’re not so bad.” We kissed again. This time, it was sloppier; his mouth was around my mouth and I think I might have bit his tongue!

I pulled away while our mouths were still open and we walked together to the end of the driveway, where Steph was faithfully waiting. We said goodbye, because his mother was on her way home, and Steph and I walked back to Maggie’s house to pick up our backpacks.

Zach’s spit had dried around my mouth. I felt so special.

[No wonder I haven’t been feeling special lately - no dried spit around my mouth. In the way of foreshadowing: I probably should have told Steph what an awesome friend I thought she was.]