5 Women Share The Times They Dated Someone Taboo—And What It Was Like

“My cousin Adam* was my first kiss. I don’t normally tell people that because, well, kissing cousins are gross, right? I didn’t think he was gross though, and I was totally crushing on him. He had silky brown hair, bright green eyes, and the most perfect lips. We lived nearby and hung out all the time, so when we started to get flirty with each other it didn’t seem weird at all. We’d always joked around with each other. And then one day, at the lake during a family reunion of all places, we started talking about kissing and he dared me to kiss someone. So I kissed him. The only weird part was how weird it didn’t feel. 

“That summer we hung out every day, but it got awkward fast. We never did anything more than make out. The hardest part was how careful we had to be to hide our relationship from our families. I still remember my mom walking in on us in my bedroom and making up this elaborate lie about how I was trying to help him fix his braces. (Ironically, I wasn’t allowed to have boys in my room but because he was my cousin it was fine.)

“But even when it was just us, we still felt kind of like we never knew what to call each other, exactly. Boyfriend and girlfriend sounded wrong, but kissing cousins sounded way worse. Eventually when school started it just fizzled out. We grew up and have never spoken of it again. Although we still see each other at family gatherings on a regular basis. I never told my husband about it. And whenever someone asks what my first kiss was like—which really doesn’t happen much anymore—I still feel like I have to edit out the genetic relationship. It was a confusing time in my life, and that was just one of many strange things I did as a kid.”

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