Over the next few years, Collin and I played that little cat and mouse game all girls and boys play when they like each other. He'd sneak up and pull my hair. I'd call him stupid and start laughing hysterically when he read out loud in class. He'd call me ugly, I'd tell all the girls he had cooties and to get their shots whenever we saw him coming. He'd say my mama had cooties and I'd tell everyone that his mama couldn't read either, just like him.

That sort of thing went on for the rest of elementary and most of middle school, but by the seventh grade we had become pretty good friends. That summer we actually spent most of our time together. My best friend, Jean Toussant, was away at camp and Collin's best friend had gone to spend the summer with his father in Vermont. So that left the two of us. Collin did, after all, live right across the street from me.

We went from ignoring each other when we both came outside at the same time to running across the street at the crack of dawn to see what the other was getting into for the rest of that day.

One Saturday morning, on the summer before our eighth grade year, Collin came to my door bright and early and asked me to go out to the creek with him. I told him I'd be out as soon as Soul Train went off. He looked a little disappointed, but didn't argue. When I finally came outside two hours later, I was surprised to see Collin still outside with my dad, working on the car. Well, he was passing the tools to my dad, but from the look on his face he really thought he was doing something. I briefly wondered why he was always hanging out with my dad and never with his own. They both looked up when I walked out.

"Bye Mr. Berry."

"Bye Daddy."

"You kids be good," my father called, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"'Bout time you came out!" Collin mumbled as soon as we were out of earshot.

"Psht!" I hissed and turned around with much seventh - almost eighth grade attitude. "I can just as easy go right back inside."

"No! Wait." Collin grabbed my hand. "Come on. I wanna show you something."

I looked in the direction of my house and shook his hand loose.

"Don't be holdin' my hand in front of my daddy!" I declared loudly and rolled my eyes. This boy didn't have no sense.

"Sorry! Sorry!" He held his hands up in front of him. "Come on. I wanna show you something."

When we got to the creek, I didn't see anything spectacular. Nothing was out of the ordinary and it was even hotter than usual. Really, I was ready to go back inside. I had outgrown that whole going to the creek thing the year before and followed Collin out there that day out of pure curiosity.

"Well? Where is it? What did you want to show me?"

I reached one hand up to wipe the grease out of my eyes. To this day, I don't know why mothers picked the hottest days of summer to grease their daughter's scalps. All it did was sweat right off. And now here I was, blinking at the TCB stinging my eyes and the sun's reflection bouncing off the creek. Then on top of everything else, I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes!

Apparently, Collin was getting pretty hot too, because all of a sudden he pulled me to him and kissed me.

Just like that!

Without a word. It was more weird than anything, probably because he didn't even give me any time to prepare for my first kiss. But hey, that's the way it goes sometimes.

"So...what'd you want to show me?" I tried to play it off, but in reality was having a hard time catching my breath.

"That."

"What?"

"That!"

"Collin! What are you talking about?"

"You mean you didn't like it?"

"You mean you brought me all the way out here to kiss me? Dag boy, you could have done that at my house!"

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I could have?"

An involuntary grin spread across my face. "No." I grinned even wider. "So...show me again."

I didn't have to ask him twice. This time he at least waited and let me get ready before he put his shined up lips on mine. It's kind of funny now that I think about it. I bet Collin broke out the Chapstick right before I walked out the door. He wanted to make sure this kiss was just right. I never did ask him, but all of his preparation made me think that maybe this was his first kiss, too.

After a minute, he pulled away. "So, you're my girl now. Right?"

"What?"

"What do you mean what? I said you're my girl. You got a problem with that?"

"Heck yeah I got a problem with it!" I said and put my hands on my hips. I had a lot of fire back then. "You didn't even ask me, Collin," I stated with much attitude.

"Oh," he looked away and then looked back at me, trying to hide a smile. I think, at first, he liked my 'tude more than anything. I was the only kid in school that ever dared to fight him over the high swing.

"Humph!" I turned away from him and thought to myself, Wait for it...

"Hey Natasha," he tapped me on the shoulder. "Will you be my girl?" There it was.

I let out a loud sigh. "I guess." I rolled my eyes. This kid didn't even know what he was doing.

"Good."

"Fine," I snapped back.

"Fine." And he kissed me again. This time he even put his tongue in my mouth.

"What was that?"

"A French kiss."

"Hmm..."

He grinned. "You liked it."

I grinned back, but looked away shyly.

"So, now that you're my girl, I get to kiss you like that any time I want, ok?"

"Ok," and I opened my mouth for him to kiss me again.

Hey, we were kids!

What the heck did I know?