Gas Mask

My first “real” girlfriend

Was Lisa

And our “romance”

Was short and sweet.

She lived in these garden apartments

On a main road

At the end of my street

About a mile and a half

From my house.

I used to ride my bike

There after school.

Her mom was divorced

And worked

So she wasn’t there

Afternoons.

There were always

Other people there

Besides me...

Friends of hers

Friends of her brothers.

We never really got to be alone.

One of these afternoons

It was just me and her,

Her brother and some of his friends.

They were older

And putting their clout on.

Lisa saw something on the table

In his room and asked what it was.

It was his cup.

How she didn’t know what that was

I dunno.

He told her it was a gas mask.

He showed her how to put it on

Centering the cup over her face

And wrapping the straps

Around her head

Then telling her to “Breathe!”.

I felt a pain inside

Like I should be doing something

To stop this from happening

To my “girlfriend”.

But between teen machismo

And trying to impress these older guys

I stood there and let it happen

And watched as Lisa breathed

Into her brother’s sweaty, ball stink cup.

As the guys howled with laughter

Rolling, falling off the furniture

Horror registered in Lisa’s eyes

As she realized that she had been taken.

She turned to look at me

Her “boyfriend”.

I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

It was pretty damn funny.

Well, shortly after that

I was riding my bike home

Without a “girlfriend” named Lisa.

The “romance” was over.

I never got to hang with her

Brother and his friends after that

Either.

It was a short moment

In one afternoon

And it changed everything

Between us

Permanently.

It was so damn funny though

And I laughed pretty much the whole

Mile and a half ride

Back to my house

Unusually

Early for dinner.