No New Year's Eve kiss

It was the summer vacation after my first year of university, and being Australia that meant summer vacation included New Year's Eve. I'd enjoyed my first year at uni, had a couple of interesting boyfriends too, but as the year ticked over I was going to be single. Most of my friends had a boyfriend at the time and I was jealous, the kind of jealousy that 17-year-olds seem to specialize in.

In any case, a big group of us bought tickets to a New Year's Eve concert that would be held outdoors in Fremantle. Some great Australian bands were playing, and one of my favorite partying bands were due to play in the new year - the Hoodoo Gurus. I'm not sure that they became too famous outside Australia, but whenever I wanted to have a good time, they were the band for me.

Apart from having no boyfriend, I had one more problem that night. All my friends had already turned 18, the legal drinking age in Australia. I was still 17. And at the oval where the concert was held, the grounds had been divided into two areas. If you wanted to have a drink, you needed to show ID and security would let you into the drinking area; you couldn't bring alcohol outside of it. So most of my friends headed in there and left me outside with just two who took pity on me, a guy and a girl.

Just before midnight, the girl took off for the alcohol area and this poor guy was kind of stuck with me. We had been in some classes together but didn't know each other very well. I was feeling desperately lonely, and the Hoodoo Gurus were playing "What's My Scene", one of my favorite songs. I couldn't enjoy it. I kept wondering if this guy would kiss me at midnight. I didn't like him especially, but I thought it would at least make New Year's Eve a bit more tolerable.

The Hoodoo Gurus counted in the New Year; the guy didn't kiss me. We kind of hugged, a bit half-heartedly. Thankfully the rest of my friends came back out to see me, and we all celebrated together for the rest of the evening. Hearing the Hoodoo Gurus now always makes me think of this night.