It was about mid-summer, the days were hot and thick. The skies were beautiful every day; a vibrant blue with wispy clouds smeared across the dome above. It was post harvest. The rolling, waving, golden fields of wheat had been hacked down into short, unattractive stubble. Coyotes and deer ran through CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) fields, stopping occasionally to scan the horizons and sniff the wind cautiously.

My old friends, Larissa and Roberto, had been out at my new friend Nick’s house one day. He had an indoor heated pool, and we had been swimming and riding dirt bikes to our wild and reckless content. At this point, it was dark. It was about 11 o’clock when Nick’s mom told my old friends and I that it was time for us to head out. Nick’s house was 30 miles out of town where all 3 of us lived.

But it was summer, and none of us were ready to give up the night just yet. Nick gave Larissa 5 gallons of gas for her pickup and told us to wait down the road, across a field from their house, with our lights off. We did as he told us, not even slightly wondering what was going to happen.

We parked on the side of the road with the lights off. We put the gas in her tank and waited. Rustling and heavy breathing came from the darkness of the field after about 15 minutes of waiting, and it was Nick. He had snuck out his window, jumped off the roof and ran through the field. We all climbed into the truck and let Nick drive. He said he was going to take us somewhere that we could all hangout without worry until we had to head home for curfew.

After a few dirt roads and turns here and there, we drove up a small dirt road into this little farm that was surrounded, and mostly covered, by trees. There was a large open area in the center between all the buildings where Nick parked the truck. We turned off the engine and turned up the music. We all got out to go explore, excited about this place. It wasn’t abandoned, it was a vacant farm, but it was still eerie, lit only by one light.

I have this thing for old red barns. And there so happened to be one there. Larissa had taken off to go explore the windmill, and Berto stayed in the pickup because he wasn’t feeling well.

“Someone come with me to go explore the barn!” I whined. I wanted to go, but not alone.

“Okay, let’s go.” Nick said, then took off in the barn’s direction.

I followed closely as he opened the door, turned on the flash on his phone and we crept inside. It creaked, like normal old barns. There was a dusty old farm truck inside and large gas tanks. It was dark, quiet and cool. Light bounced off the walls near us and softly lit the rafters above us while shadows danced around. We walked along one wall almost down to the other end of the barn until we realized we couldn’t get around the truck and the tanks, so we stopped by a little window where the light shined through. The lamp outside showered us with soft yellow light, right in the spot where we were standing. I looked up into the bright, shining bulb looking down on us and shivered viciously. I was cold from swimming earlier, with my hair still damp.

“Are you cold?” Nick asked, coming over to me and hugging me. He was warm from running and in his sweats, I immediately hugged him tighter to soak up all the warmth I could. It was such a comfortable hug, too…

Next thing I know our foreheads touched. For some reason I was totally oblivious to what was about to happen next, until it happened.

Nick leaned in and kissed me.

I was totally not expecting it, but it was so nice, and in the perfect setting, my head was swimming. He let go and we started to walk back to where the others were. He stopped for a second and kissed me again. Yet again, my head swam more. He started jogging over to the others and I followed. I felt dizzy and nearly thought I was going to fall over.
We took him home later on, and we went home. Nick and I spent a lot of time this summer, and we still spend a lot of time, together, as much as we can. This was the beginning of us and our story.