Our First Kiss

In the spring of 2015, I had the role of Belle in my school’s musical, “Beauty and the Beast.” Everyone knows that Belle kisses the Prince at the end of the story. As a fourteen year old girl who hadn’t kissed anyone before, I was very nervous about kissing the junior boy who played the Prince.

At this time, Brady and I were close and definitely liked each other (a lot). Brady was also a part of this show, but he wasn’t the Prince. He was an hourglass in “Be Our Guest.”

I expressed my nerves about giving my first kiss to this random guy to Brady, and he decided to take things into his own hands (without me knowing about it). Basically, Brady called the musical director and told her that the Prince couldn’t kiss me until Brady kissed me first. From what I’ve heard, Brady was pretty emotional on that phone call. He didn’t want my first kiss to be with a guy I barely knew in front of the entire musical cast.

I think the director was a little shocked by this conversation, but she told Brady that he had a few short weeks to make his move (we were scheduled to rehearse the kissing scene at the end of March).

At this point, it’s the second week of March. The live action film of “Cinderella” was playing in theaters. Brady asked if I would like to go see the movie on Friday, the 13th. I said “yes, of course!” But, both of our families also had to come because neither of us were old enough to drive, so it ended up being a big family get together.

I could tell that Brady was a little anxious throughout the movie, but I couldn’t figure out why. After the movie, my family took his family back to their house. Brady and I sat next to each other in the back seat of my mom’s black Dodge van. We barely talked to each other on the ride home; this was very unusual for us.

Once we pulled into Brady’s driveway, it was already past midnight, so it was March 14th (3/14/15). He hesitated to get out of the car, but he eventually turned to me and said “I’ve been waiting a long time to do this.” Then, he leaned in and gave me a (quick) peck on the lips.

I learned later that Brady wanted to wait until after midnight to kiss me since 3/14/15 was super pi day (3.1415). Brady knew that I’m a BIG math nerd, and I always thought that was such a sweet gesture. I also found out later that Brady danced his way across the living room when he went into his house after he kissed me.

My first kiss with Brady (and my first kiss in general) happened five years ago today. Brady wanted my first kiss to be special, and it was. I am so grateful that I was loved by a guy who always cared for me in both small and big ways.

I remember and love Brady constantly, every day. But today, I particularly remember Brady as the teenage boy who gave me my first kiss.