" His eyes flit across mine, begging me to let him off the hook. He doesn't want to say it out loud. "You're not the kind of girl I usually go out with."

"What does that mean?" I'm shaking.

"I don't usually date Asian girls, that's all," he says finally.

I blink and my eyes go blurry.

"I don't have anything against girls like you," he insists, "but my parents, they wouldn't understand. This is kind of a small town, you know?"

WHAT I WANT TO SAY:
"So you want to lie about my first kiss because your parents are racist?"

WHAT I ACTUALLY SAY:
"You were the one who kissed me."

My throat tightens. My face burns. It's not that I wanted our kiss to mean anything—I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with it being erased. I'm not comfortable being erased. "

― Akemi Dawn Bowman , Starfish