No two first kisses are alike. There's the sloppy makeout with the rando at the bar, the sweet lip-lock with a Tinder cutie after a swoon-worthy second date, the long-awaited kiss with the friend you've crushed on for years. What might be a magical moment with one person could be a totally awkward encounter with the next. That's kind of the beauty of first kiss stories — you never know what you're gonna get.
When I set out to collect stories about guys' best and worst first kisses, I thought it would be a breeze. After all, who doesn't want to share hilarious hookup stories or tender descriptions of their first kisses with their now-girlfriends?
Well, um, it turns out that a lot of guys prefer not to kiss and tell.
One guy even admitted to me that it's not that common for guys to "admit to having a softer side."
But finally, a few dudes opened up to me about kissing in the rain, kissing with vomit breath, and kissing a thief who wound up stealing his credit card. Like I said — no two kisses are quite the same.
Below, read real stories from nine guys to learn how you can make sure your next first kiss is the kind of moment a guy will file under "best kiss ever."
The Dreamiest First Kisses Ever
"My best first kiss was on my first date with my ex. I took her out to dinner and a game of pool. During the last game of the night, I upped the ante and proposed that the loser goes for the kiss. When I won, my geeky self never got kissed like that by a woman before. We made out at every red light on the way home."
— Michael, 25
"It was after a first date. I walked her back to her car. We were just casually talking, and out of nowhere, she grabbed me around the waist, pushed me up against her car, and didn't stop kissing me for like 20 minutes. She told me afterwards that she had planned on letting me make the first move, but she couldn't help it."
— Benjamin*, 24
"My best first kiss was with my ex. I had liked her for a few years, and she felt the same way, but nothing had really happened before. We went to separate colleges but met up one summer before the semester started. We got caught in the rain and had to take cover beneath a Greek restaurant's awning. The magic happened soon after."
— Aidan*, 24
"I met this girl through a friend. We both kinda liked each other, so we kept in touch. We exchanged a lot of messages. One day, she said her parents would be out of town. She asked if I wanted to come over for a few days. I was stoked. We cooked, watched a movie, and eventually, we kissed. What made the kiss so great was that I really liked her, and it was all building up to this magical moment. We had chemistry. She was a good kisser, too."
— Patrick, 26
"I was at a club on New Year's Eve. I procured glow sticks from someone on the dance floor, and in order to strike up conversations with women, I asked them to help me attach them on my wrist. One woman was very helpful, and we started dancing. We wound up making out for the next 20 minutes. We exchanged numbers, and nothing came out of it, but I found out that she was best friends with one of my good friends, so we had a laugh about that. The last time we saw each other was at our mutual friend's wedding."
— Irving, 27
"The best first kiss I ever had was in December of 2015, as the school semester was ending, and the holiday season was well underway. I went to a club party to celebrate the end of the term, and ended up chatting with one of my good female friends in the club who I hadn't talked to for some time. We ended up drifting away from the party and talking about our semesters, about looking for jobs, about international political developments (we were both major foreign policy nerds) and our lives in general. We just talked for so long that suddenly we looked up and the party was over and we were the last ones there.
We left, walked around the campus for a little, and ended up walking back to my room where we had some wine, and some cheese that I'd bought as a final exams snack. We were sitting together on my couch, leaning up against each other for warmth, and at the same time we turned our heads toward each other, and just kissed really deeply and passionately for about a minute. I think the combination of the season, the chilly weather, the feeling of intimacy that had been built up and enhanced over the course of our evening all combined to make it a really meaningful, close, and enjoyable kiss."
— Baxter*, 23
"The best kiss I've ever had has to be my first kiss with the woman I'm still dating. We've had countless kisses just as good since, but the first is impossible to forget. We had chatted online first, and decided to meet at a bar. It was 7 p.m. on a Tuesday — not the most romantic of times — and we had both come from work. Though I couldn't have known this at the moment, she was very close to canceling that day, and when she arrived, she declined to have a drink so she could bail in the event I proved either boring or boorish.
I had known her personality a bit from Twitter, and she was revealed to be even more lovely in person. She was witty and smart and clearly talented, a conversation had never flowed so smoothly, and I did my best not to screw it up by blurting out something about supply-side economics works or that I heard there were studies about how girls are worse at math than boys. I suppose I didn't, because at some point during the night (we were seated on high barstools), the respective V-shapes of our legs interlocked.
We kissed at the bar. She says that she kissed me first, but I'm not so sure."
— Matt, 24
"My first kiss came from a lady who would eventually become my girlfriend. We were talking for about a month and had our first date at a friend's birthday party. We spent all evening chatting it up. When I walked her to her car, we finally kissed. It was electrifying. She melted into my arms and we made out against her car for a few minutes."
— Demarcus, 18
The Kisses Guys Wish Never Happened
"She had just eaten cheese curls before it happened. Like, a lot of cheese curls."
— Nathan, 24
"I was doing research in Italy and out for my birthday. I didn't know anybody, but I ended up meeting this girl. We spent the entire night bar-hopping around Florence. We both drank way too much and vomited within five minutes of each other. Later that evening, we both made out, and definitely hadn't brushed our teeth yet. I was definitely fine with it in the moment, but cringe whenever I think about it."
— Aidan*, 24
"Last year, I met this girl on an online dating site. We had been on a few dates, including one at a club. We drank a little, got cozy on this comfy couch, and started kissing. The kiss was bad because she was somehow not trying to be a part of it? She wasn't using her tongue and her lips were almost not moving. It was bad enough that I asked her if she wanted to stop, but she said no. Later, it all became clear why she wasn't interested in me — she didn't want a relationship at all. She was only out with me so she could steal my credit card."
— Patrick, 26
"In high school, I had a crush on this girl who I saw in a lot of my classes, spent a decent amount of time with, and was very pretty. It was the night of the senior scavenger hunt, which my school took very seriously. Everyone had to tape their completed missions for the judges to verify them and award points. This particular scavenger mission was to make out with one person from each grade, so four people. The girl was my teammate; I was the designated senior she was to make out with. That I was the third or fourth guy she made out with in a brief period did not add to the romantic atmosphere. Nor did the camera that was pointed at us. I was probably a doof about it too, pretending I was less excited than I was, because that's what I thought a cool person would do. Those conditions made for a stiff, impersonal, and disappointing kiss. I wish I had the good sense to try another round with her outside of the competition."
— Matt, 24
"My worst kiss with with a co-worker at this summer camp I worked at. We hung out a couple of times and clicked. One night, I was over at her place and it was obvious we were going to hook up. We were on the couch and she dove in. It was technically a kiss, but she just smushed her face against mine. We recoiled and tried again, and it was better, but the first one was still bad."
— Irving, 27
"The girl had never kissed a guy before and she smoked a lot. She shoved her tongue down my throat. It was kind of like licking an ash tray."
— Demarcus, 18
"My worst first kiss was probably near the end of college, at one of the parties for graduating seniors. Everyone had had a lot to drink, and were all dancing. I ended up dancing with a friend of a friend, and what with the combination of the drinks, the music, the celebratory atmosphere of the end of year and of college, we both just started kissing on the dance floor. It was probably my worst first kiss because I mostly did it just because the year was over, not out of any sense of attraction or connection, and so as soon as it was over it felt like an empty and shallow experience."
— Baxter*, 23
Long story short: Guys do have feelings, and they remember those unforgettable kisses in just as much detail as you do.
* Name has been changed.
Check out the entire Gen Why series and other videos on Facebook and the Bustle app across Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.
