Love was always something that I really never understood. It was something my sisters always rambled on about. They were always talking about their boyfriends. I never wanted anything to do with it. Boys weren’t my love, they were always my friends. Right up until the summer I turned 14.

Every typical love story is about a teenage girl around 16. Well this isn’t a typical love story. Well I will tell you my story. It all happened last summer. You don’t have to read my story. It’s not typical, sappy, love. It’s my story.

It all started in 5th grade. Only a week left of school. I was 10 and my birthday is June 14th. And I was turning 11 and I couldn’t wait. But what I really couldn’t wait for was staying out later. Running all over the place with my friends. Swimming in the swimming hole down on Creek Road. It was just supposed to be another summer, like all the other summers before that one.

Well skipping forward some. We moved after school was let out. We moved to a small, country neighborhood in Louisiana. It was a big move for me. From Georgia to Louisiana. My summer had just started and it was already different from all the rest. I didn’t want it to change too much, so I decided to take a running jump into summer in a new town and I set out on an adventure. I didn’t have any friends yet but I still wanted to stay out late and swim somewhere down a dirt road.

Well sorry but I left something out of my story so I must back this train up a bit. When we arrived at our new house there was an old truck there. My dad said he would have to haul it off. I could tell just by looking at it that it was a ’73 Ford F150. I fell in love with it. The keys were in it and my 3rd night at the new house, I fell asleep in it. My Daddy saw how much I liked it, so it stayed. A year later we moved out in the country a little ways down the road from the neighborhood and the truck came too. We put it at the tree line in the backyard. I made lots of friends in that year. All boys too.

Only about three days of school left and I was anticipating summertime. I was going to sleep in the truck. It was almost like I lived in that thing.

I locked the truck when I wasn’t in it. No one had been in there with me. When school ended all of my friends and me went everywhere together. Swimming in Old man Doug’s pond. Raced bikes down slow, asphalted, back roads. And all sorts of stuff like that. About this time is when I started taking an interest in boys. I didn’t know what was considered cute, I didn’t know what I was supposed to like about them, and I knew nothing. And I really didn’t understand why I liked Daniel more than the others. As the days passed by I grew to like Daniel more and more. Well one day I called Daniel and invited him over. Just him. He was curious to why it was just him. I told him that that I wanted to show him something that I had never showed anyone before. The truck. I think he may have sensed that I liked him because he acted a bit weird and standoffish. I showed him everything about it. I had pictures on the back glass of the truck and had put air fresheners in there. It was like a tree house and he promised not to tell anyone.

My birthday rolled around and he invited me to the movies. I thought it was all of the guys going but it was just Daniel. When the theatre went dark, he took my hand and held it tight. I didn’t understand it but something about it felt right. Stuff like this went on for weeks and none of the other guys ever found out. I just felt so close to Daniel. It was a young, innocent love.

Well a week before school started Daniel and me were in the truck. Just going on about things that I can’t remember. He was holding my hand. I actually let him sit in the driver seat. He scooted closer to me and kissed me on the lips. It felt so natural, like it was supposed to happen. After that we dated behind our friend’s backs for a year. I was only 14 and had the most innocent, young love.

I had my first kiss in a run down ’73 Ford. Plain and simple story right? Yeah, I know, but this was my story. It was the summer I turned 14.