Concrete

That pillar right there is where I first kissed my first love. We were talking about something, arts or history or the Cold War or whatever, I don’t remember what we were talking about. We were just passing the time because it was cold and we were locked out of the building and we were waiting for our ride to arrive.

"Everything kinda turned out awful," I remember saying to her. I remember rubbing the back of my neck and feeling my head heat up.

"I still had a great time," I remember her replying. I remember she was smiling, her head leaned into the pillar. I wanted to lean in and kiss her, but I wasn’t sure, so I hesitated, then I clumsily reached for her hand, and she let me take it and hold it and I smiled back at her. Then she kissed me. She reached up and pulled my face into hers, and it was great. Then we pulled back and we smiled at each other and kept holding each others’ hands, then we hugged.

Then a funny thing happened. We were hugging, and I noticed the inscription on the wall, and for some reason I started reading it and completely forgot where I was. It took a whack to the head to snap me back to reality. She was flailing around a bit and I realized I was clenching her tightly against my chest - way too tightly. I let go and she shoved me away, clutching at her chest. She coughed.

"You were smothering me," she said.

"I’m sorry, I kind of lost track of the moment."

"Yeah, no kidding." She brushed a stray hair back, then gave me a look, then stormed past me. I tried to apologize again but she just put a hand up and shooed me away. A minute later our ride arrived and drove us home. She never talked to me again.