The Summer I Learned a Kiss Isn’t a Promise
It was the Fourth of July and the park had over 10,000 people listening to a band play and waiting for the fireworks display to go off.
“Jeff, did you get the beer?” “Let me get it out of the freezer. It’s my dad’s stash, but he bought a bunch so I hope he didn’t notice.” It was sunny and bright and about 100 degrees, at least it felt like it.
You could feel the sun bearing down. There were some bleachers that went in front of the bandstand. Jamie was carrying the little cooler like a prize.
We just sat down under the bleachers, and there was grass since the bleachers were temporary, but they blocked the heat of the sun. You could hear the bass pounding and saw people walking around, but we were the only people to take refuge under the bleachers here.
I opened the cooler and said, “Jeff, there are only six beers. I thought you were going to get twelve.” As I was saying that, Cindy, a girl in our class, looked under the bleachers and said,
“Derrick, what are you guys doing?”
“We’re just hanging out away from the sun.”
Cindy had altered her walking path the past couple of weeks and was walking partway home with me. I had her in class, but we seemed to be starting to become friends. She said, “Can I have a beer?”
I said, “Sure,” and Jeff sneered at me like we were giving away the last water we had on earth. But you know what? It was his fault for only bringing six beers.
The whole park was starting to get packed and it was becoming early evening. We finished the last beers, and it was good because at this point in time we were sticking out like a sore thumb. We all walked together. Jeff said, “Do you guys want some hot dogs? I’m going to go to the concession stand.”
I gave him some money and he went on his way.
I said to Cindy, “Do you think they’ll get the show started at dusk this year? They always seem to start late.”
Cindy said, “I’ll bet they start on time.”
“They haven’t for the past couple of years.”
She said, “Well, let’s make a bet.”
“What are the stakes?”
She said, “If you win, you get to kiss me.”
“What if I lose?”
She said, “I get to kiss you.”
It seemed as though I would win either way.
Jeff came back with the hot dogs. I said, “You forgot the relish on mine.”
He said, “Next time you go.”
We hung out, and when we were finished eating, Cindy said, “I have to meet some friends and we can catch up later. Meet us at the grandstand after the fireworks display is over.”
Jeff and I hung out, and after the fireworks were done, we went up to the grandstand and I didn’t see Cindy. Jeff said, “I’m heading home.” It was a Saturday, so we walked from the field home. I never said anything about the bet as I thought maybe I should keep it secret.
I went to bed and thought about it.
I liked Cindy, but I didn’t know when we would kiss and where it would take place. I thought about it often through Sunday. This guy-girl thing always seemed to elude me, and it appeared as though it was easy for some but not for someone like me. I was about to break my streak—that was, of course, if it did happen.
I was kind of the odd man out. I was one of very few people who didn’t have a phone in high school. My parents wanted me to wait until I was sixteen or seventeen. I had no way of contacting Cindy and she had no way of contacting me. I didn’t know where she lived, but on Monday I walked across the park.
There was still trash from Saturday’s Fourth of July celebration. I decided that I would go to the bike shop. I was looking at a new bike and was saving up my money. I walked by the pool—there was a fence that separated the pool from the outside—and I saw Cindy. There was this excitement, and it was as though I was looking for her all my life and finally found her.
She saw me. She came running and said, “Hey Derrick.”
I said, “Hey Cindy.”
“Are you going to Jared’s party?”
“I wasn’t aware of it and I wasn’t invited.”
She said, “You’re invited now and you’re going with me. It’s next Saturday and his folks will be out of town.”
I was now excited because this was not a hoax. It was real. I was wondering if we would kiss at that time. I thought about it all week. I brought some snacks because I had no way of getting any alcohol. I knocked at the door and Jared said, “Derrick, Cindy said you were coming.”
Cindy walked through a crowd of maybe twenty people and she grabbed me by the hand and took me to the fridge, and I got a beer. She had some sort of flavored wine. She was holding my hand and then took me to the stairs and sat me down and put her arm around me and said, “I won the bet,” so she started kissing me.
I had never kissed a girl before, so I tried to figure out what I was supposed to do, but I figured things were going good and that at this point we were boyfriend and girlfriend. All of a sudden Jared said, “My parents will be back in four hours. Everyone needs to go.”
I said, “Cindy, you want to do something the rest of the night?”
She said, “I’m going to hang out with my friends.”
I gave her a hug as I was leaving and I was figuring that she would kiss me again, but she didn’t. I still was happy. I laid in bed and thought about what had happened and I was happy.
I didn’t see her for a couple of weeks, and then she and Jeff were together. She said, “Jeff and I are going out.” Jeff looked at me smiling, and I had a bitter pit in my stomach. I really didn’t know what I had done at the party.
I wondered if maybe I had done something wrong or if she was using me to get to Jeff. I never asked and I never found out.
The thought came across my mind as my wife and I had our tenth anniversary and we had two beautiful kids. I smiled because I knew if something hadn’t happened years back, I may not have been married and have my wonderful family. I never wanted it, but my mind would go back to it occasionally, if anything to wonder what happened.
I had given her a present and had made reservations at her favorite restaurant, and she grabbed my hand and she started kissing me on the stairs and said, “Let’s skip the restaurant.”
We made out for over an hour and it was magical. I didn’t think about Cindy again.