Chapter 2: Back in the day

I remember that Saturday morning when Mom opened my bedroom door. I was ten years old.

"Hey, Daniel."

I closed my book.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"New neighbors today. Want to go and see if they need help?"

Sigh. I put the book down.

"Sure."

Emily was a year younger than me, but that first year or so we were the only two kids in the neighborhood so the age thing didn't matter much. Especially since Emily liked the things I did, like riding our bikes as far out of town as we could, especially along the country road beside the railroad tracks, baseball, and swimming. Our parents got along together as well as Emily and I did, even better than that as we discovered later, and one of the first things our dads did was to install a gate in the fence between our two back yards.

Emily and I were in and out of each other's houses almost every day. We rode the same bus to school. We often did our homework together, even through high school, in her kitchen or mine. The gate made it easy, and during the warm months, which was most of the year where we live, we swam as much in her pool as in mine when we didn't have swim practice. We didn't worry about swimsuits, either.

Puberty changed our world, like it changes things for everyone. I first kissed a girl in the spring of my ninth grade year on the last day of school, just after I turned 15 and Emily, in eighth grade, turned 14. Sandy was a super kisser, not that I had any personal experience to compare. She should have been an expert, given that she'd apparently kissed every other boy in our class by then, most of them more than once. She'd kissed a few of the girls too, I heard. I was only her latest triumph, even if there wasn't much more to this particular conquest than a few kisses.

The day after my first kiss with Sandy, late in the afternoon of the first day of summer vacation, Emily and I were sunning ourselves beside her pool when she asked me about the kiss.

"It was nice."

Emily snorted.

"Nice? That's it?"

She turned on her side to face me.

"It was more than nice."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I liked it. I was sorry when it was over."

Emily moved closer. I knew what was going to happen, at least what I hoped would happen. It did.

"Wow."

Emily smiled.

"As good as Sandy?"

"Better."

I leaned toward her. Emily's smile turned into a grin.

A couple of minutes later I was short of breath when we finished our second kiss. Even so, I was the first to speak.

"Double wow."

Emily's features had softened, her lips were moist and maybe a little puffy. I didn't know then what those things meant, not really, but it was obvious even to me that she was happy. She stroked my cheek as she spoke.

"I liked that."

"Me, too."

God, that was the best I could do?

"I mean, thank you, Emily."

Emily put her finger on my lips.

"No, Daniel. Never tell a girl, 'Thank you.' She didn't do something for you, and you didn't do something for her. You did something together. That's important."

I blushed.

"Never ask her permission to kiss her, either."

I must have looked completely lost.

"Daniel, you'll know when she wants you to kiss her. She'll show you."

With that Emily stopped my floundering with another kiss. This time she put her hand behind my head and held my lips to hers, not that she had to try very hard. When we broke the kiss, she was breathing hard. So was I.

It was pretty obvious to me I wasn't the first person Emily had kissed. I figured we were good enough friends for me to ask.

"Emily, how'd you learn to kiss that way?"

"I read a lot."

She grinned. Even I could figure out she wasn't ready to tell me more. But before I could say anything, I heard Emily's mom from the house.

"Emily, Daniel. Time for dinner!"

We pulled on our clothes and headed inside. Alma was putting sandwiches and a bit of salad on plates, their usual summer evening meal.

"You two looked really cute out there."

I turned red again. I didn't know what to say, but Emily did.

"Mom!"

Alma laughed.

"You were, sweetie, really."

"Mom!"

I kept my mouth shut but I was watching Alma. She wasn't angry, I could see that. Was there something else? Anticipation, maybe? I wondered.

"Sorry, Mrs. D'Angelo."

"Why are you sorry? You didn't like kissing Emily?"

She was teasing, I knew that, sort of, but I felt kind of twisted up inside and I wondered what Emily's dad was going to think when he found out. I figured I might as well tell the truth. I was pretty sure Alma knew the answer anyway.

"I liked it. A lot."

Emily's mom laughed and stepped over to me and hugged me tight. Really tight.

"Good answer, Daniel!"