He kissed me

He took something

A first of many

Something I followed with a smile

To mask my fear

 

I didn’t feel any different

But I knew

Something was different

 

From the way that I moved

To the way that I talked

I wasn’t some little kid anymore

 

I grew up with that one simple action.

I had kissed people before

But this time,

Well, this time,

Something was different

 

I felt that something had been stolen rather than given

I wasn’t some kid anymore

Sure I was sixteen

“Just some dumb kid”

 

But I didn’t know how much dumber

How much blinder I had been

Until he took something

Something that striped away any childhood I had left

I was just seventeen

But this time I wasn’t just a dumb kid

I was a dumb teenager

 

I had to learn to grow up

With a touch

Something I couldn’t get back

Something I longed to erase

I wasn’t a kid anymore

 

I felt like it was my fault

Guilt and shame overtaking me

You think you’d know someone after nine years

But years don’t make a difference

 

I had known him

Through childhood

But in the end,

He’s the one who forced me to grow up