I recently asked BuzzFeed writers to recount the first time they locked lips with someone. Here are some of their stories.
1. "It happened in a bowling alley. I was excited to go bowling with my cute eighth-grade boyfriend. He abruptly shoved me against the wall and shoved his tongue down my throat. I think my eyes were open the whole time. I couldn't breathe. And it hurt my teeth. I missed my turn bowling, and later on AIM he told me I should've used more tongue. I think he used enough for the both of us."
2. "My first kiss was at a youth club. The boy told me I looked like Gloria Estefan, then leaned in. I didn't want to kiss him, so I panicked and said I'd just vomited (it was the first thing that sprang to mind). Then he said he DIDN'T MIND, then kissed me. It was wet and cold. I was 15."
3. "We were watching Billy Madison."
4. "I was 13 and had a crush on this boy at my (day) camp all summer long — I was still rocking a unibrow and elaborate braces at this point, and it had never really occurred to me that if you liked someone they could maybe like you back. One day shortly after camp ended we took a walk around my town, and then he came over to my house and kissed me on the overstuffed armchair in my room. 'Kissed' is a strong word because he had braces too, so it was really more of a bump situation. I was so unbelievably happy."
5. "I was maybe 8 at the time, and my YMCA summer camp took a field trip to the beach. I was part of the 'bad kids' group, so we snuck away into the dunes to play spin the bottle (lol). My crush had the first spin, and fate brought us together. It was a weird/sandy/awkward kiss, but a memorable one."
6. "I was 13. She was 14. My friend Andrew, was asleep on the couch next to us. We were watching music videos on MTV. I don't remember how it physically worked out, just the excitement and how we laughed a little and how the living room was really dark — even in the afternoon — and how her house always smelled like rice, and I liked that."
7. "My first kiss was also my first date. I was 13, I think. We went to Subway for dinner and to see the movie School of Rock. So romantic. Later on we kissed under a tree during an eclipse. I got sap from the tree on my jacket and had to throw it away."
8. "Discounting some really wretched games of spin the bottle and truth or dare, because everyone knows those don't count and aren't real, my first kiss was when I was 17, on the couch at my parents' house, with a guy I had a huge crush on for months who was a couple years older than me. He had a boner, and he found my own awkward inexperience horrifying and embarrassing and decided that he never wanted to see me again because we didn't have chemistry. A few months later we ran into each other on the street, and I invited him to come over and play with chalk in my front yard. We then had the most magical make-out session ever in the middle of a thunderstorm and dated for many years afterwards."
9. "I was 17 and sitting at a piano with my crush. I had run out of Coldplay songs and was attempting to dazzle him with a bare-bones version of Moonlight Sonata, which definitely isn't the song Rachel McAdams played in The Notebook right before she and Ryan Gosling got naked. Still, he said, 'Hey, is this the song she played in The Notebook?' As I started to mumble, 'Nah, that's another song,' his face was suddenly on my face, which was still turned to the piano keys. It was awkward. The same thing happened a couple years later with another guy. I should probably learn another song."
10. "'Twas the seventh-grade winter dance at Lincoln Middle School. After some awkward slow dancing, I strategically led my crush over to where the mistletoe was hanging. 'Hey, look at that. It looks like we have to kiss.' By far the most glorious four seconds of my life."
11. "It was at a middle school dance to the romantic soundtrack of Sisqo's 'Incomplete.' It was horrible. We 'dated' for a year, but we just held hands after that."
12. "It was eighth grade during rehearsal for the school play. My crush and I were alone backstage, and I noticed she was standing on a random mark on the floor. I joked with her and said 'you're on my spot,' and she flirted back, saying I had to fight her for it. We playfully pushed each other in hopes of conquering the spot. Our romantic relationship, which only included hugging/holding hands, ended when the play wrapped up. Flash-forward four years to when I was a senior in high school: The two of us returned to the school stage, this time helping out with her younger sister's play. Again, we found ourselves alone backstage. I stared at her, leaned in closely, and whispered, 'You're standing on my spot.' She looked down, laughed, and then we kissed. The whole time I kept thinking, Holy crap, my tongue is in someone else's mouth. It was great."
13. "It was in a basement. It was dark. Mouths weren't congruent. It was slippery."
14. "My best friend, Jane, and I locked ourselves inside the bathroom and refused to let my mum in. When she managed to turn the lock, she found us naked, lying side by side with only our lips touching. She asked what we are up to, and I replied, 'We're trying to make a baby, Mummy.' I was 5. My inspiration came from the book Where Do Babies Come From, which was clearly rather economical with the truth."
15. "My first kiss with a girl was pretty uneventful. She had crazy red hair and we pecked in one of the hockey courts at my summer camp. I got a lot of high fives. My first kiss with a boy was when I was very drunk and in college. We made out like ugly teenagers in front of all of my friends. He told me he was from Long Island, so I poured a drink on him and told him to get away from me."
16. "I was 6. It was at school during sports class. We were all running in a circle, and this cute guy called Lucas was running right behind me with his best friend Guillaume. We stopped, and he kissed Guillaume on the ear, so I looked at him and asked, 'What about me?' and he kissed me on the lips."
17. "I spent most of my freshman year of high school very openly obsessed with a guy in my group of friends. One day we were hanging out in the cafeteria after school, and he asked if I wanted to go to the third floor and make out, which, duh. So we went up to the third floor hallway, he sat in a hall monitor desk, we made out, and I was like 'ugh, tongues are gross.' For a few weeks after that some dudes called me 'Third Floor Arianna' so, overall, great and very romantic experience."
18. "I made out with a vagina less than five minutes after my first kiss. I was 17."
19. "I was 13. It was a dare to both me and the boy who I was (secretly) in love with. A dare, but a magical, beautiful, life-altering dare. We dated for two weeks afterwards, but then he cheated on me, and that was when I first understood that love is a lie."
20. "I was 14 or 15 and babysitting and had invited my 'best friend' over to hang out. My neighbor, Mrs. Jennings, said it was OK because she knew my mom was pretty strict. Our best friendship was fraught with make-out tension, and once the kids went to sleep he tried for two hours to convince me to try a, YOU KNOW, French kiss. I successfully and nervously fended off all his advances, repeatedly citing my main concern, which was that I would mess up. Then, just as he was about to leave, in front of the door, he grabbed me and went for the kiss! It was great. When he pulled away, I said, sadly, 'I messed up,' and he said, 'No, you didn't,' and then he left and I ran to the microwave to record the time and then wrote it down in my journal as soon as I got home, relishing in the precision of the memory. We took the step from 'best friends' to 'boyfriend and girlfriend' a few days later."
21. "My first kiss was a rehearsal stage kiss (lol) in the high school band room, with a few students and my Drama teacher watching. I was 17 and felt super awkward about never being kissed before. My teacher counted to three, and then the lead guy and I kissed. I think I might have even said, 'Whoa, this is happening!' during it."
22. "First kiss was with a guy called Jason who, until then, I absolutely loathed. We kissed in a forest, just after French class. I then wrote in my diary saying we are deeply in love and that he was the ultimate man that I can only aspire to me. I told a girl at my school the next morning, who then gossiped to the entire school the next day. By football class, he got into a big fight with two other guys who heard the rumors, thought he started them, and wanted to punch him to teach him a lesson. He ended up with a fat lip. He hasn't spoken to me since. He's now married with two children."
23. "The night I graduated from middle school I hung out with my closest girl friends and our group of guy friends. We were in someone's basement watching a movie, and I happened to be sitting on a couch next to the boy I had a crush on ALL year. He put his arm around me, took his hat off, we hid our faces behind it, and he kissed me."
24. "I was 15, on a class ski trip in New Hampshire. It was with the boy I liked, who actually became my boyfriend for most of high school after this, but at the time we were both super pimply and awkward and neither one had made a move. So, after two days of completely avoiding each other, late at night we snuck into this abandoned upstairs room in the ski lodge and held hands, and then he kissed me. Later I found out two of my friends were hiding under a table in the room watching."
25. "Mine was...under the table at a Bat Mitzvah in eighth grade."
26. "I was 11 or 12, at camp. It was the final night and there was a camp-wide dance. I danced with Taylor to Great White's 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy' and then at the end he leaned forward and kissed me. My camp counselor, Laura, saw it happen and told my mom about it when she picked me up the next morning. I was so mortified, but it was totally worth it. Taylor was so cute."
27. "In kindergarten, this kid Oliver and I vied for the attention of a smart girl named Vanessa. One day, Vanessa had the two of us face off against each other in series of events: a race during recess, a rope-climbing contest during gym class, etc. By the end of the day, I'd been bested in every event (Oliver was in much better shape than I, if there is such a thing in kindergarten), yet Vanessa walked over and kissed me... This was no sweet and innocent peck on the lips. It was a kiss 'like they do on my grandma's TV,' she said to me, as the teacher briskly crossed the classroom and told us we would both be kept after school. Our romance never recovered."
28. "In sixth grade I kissed three boys in the same night. When my current boyfriend kissed me for the first time I threw up immediately after because I was so nervous."
29. "His name was Sam. We were 13 and coming back from a school field trip. Someone told me he was waiting for me at the back of the bus, so I went there and sat next to him. We giggled and kissed for five seconds. It was awkward and shy and clearly we had no idea what we were doing. When I opened my eyes the whole class was watching and cheering, and I wanted to die of embarrassment."
30. "In kindergarten I saw a classmate named Ashley — I immediately identified her from her trademark plastic pom-pom hair ties — crying her eyes out in the sandbox during recess. Being the proper Texan gentleman, I inquired what the matter was, and she replied that she had borrowed her dead grandmother's ring for the day and lost it somewhere in the sand. I spent the entire hour scouring the pit and eventually found it. She rewarded me by grabbing my head and sticking her tongue in my mouth. She then looked me dead in the eyes and proclaimed, 'Now we're married, and I'm pregnant!' My knee-jerk reaction was to scream like a little girl, throw her dead grandmother's ring as far as I could, and run away. NOTE: I later found out her grandmother hadn't even passed away, and the ring was a cheap bottom-of-the-cereal-box prize. She was luring boys into her tawdry kindergarten kissing sandbox."
