'Static'

You will tell me about your first kiss. You will tell me that you went under-
water the moment your lips touched his. It felt like drowning, like your heart was beating too fast and everything inside wanted only to be free of your body.

Your heart was a bomb, seconds away from going off.

You opened your eyes and felt his tongue inside your mouth. At one point his teeth grazed against yours. It felt like drowning, you will repeat. But then, you closed your eyes again and continued to kiss him.

Everything else in that room was so still, so quiet, you will say.

I will offer you my hand after that.

You will look at me, curiously. Here, see this, I will say, pointing to the middle of my palm. Lines are all you will read. A diamond, I will say, here, and I will touch it lightly like an abrasion.

Once I tried to catch a badminton racket after throwing it high into the air above me, and it cut my palm open. I clutched my hand in pain and then opened it slowly to find a clean long line running across it. I traced the line with my left index finger, and pulled at the sides a little to see how deep it went. Strangely, not one drop of blood left it.

I will look into your eyes as I tell you this, my finger still resting on the diamond in the palm of my hand.

And then I will take your hands into mine, and say, my first kiss--

It felt like I was drowning too.