It Was Twenty Years Ago Today...Sgt. Pepper Taught the Band to Play

Today is the 20th anniversary of my first kiss. I was a late bloomer: 16. It was with a boy named Adrian. His real name was Bruce, but he changed it to Adrian. He dressed like Robert Smith. Wore makeup and eyeliner and had shellacked black hair. A few years ago I ran into him at a book conference in NYC. He was working for the book distributor of my old publisher. I was on a panel with my boss Greg presenting our spring titles. Afterward, Adrian came up to me and said, "Angie!" He's a big fag. Completely preppy. Looked nothing like he did when we were teenagers. Back in the day, he said he was bisexual. In high school I dated several guys who said that who ended up being gay. It was a sign—a sign of my own gayness.

About a week after we kissed, I had my first kiss with a girl: Meghan. She had red hair all teased up and idolized Siouxie Sioux. Our first kiss took place at an all-ages Gene Loves Jezebel concert at a St. Louis nightclub called Mississippi Nights, not far from the Mississippi River. In a dark hallway near the bathroom. Two weeks later, on Halloween, we kissed in my mother's backyard at 1 a.m. Meghan was dressed as a banshee (because of her Siouxie & the Banshees fascination). I was dressed as a pirate, complete with eyepatch. The air was cold. My mother's garden was covered in frost and all the plants were dying. The moon was bright. She had braces.

I can't believe it all happened twenty years ago.