By Alex Ghenis
My awakening was five months after my spinal cord injury, when I was locked in the caring confines of Shriners Hospital for Children Northern California. Shriners is a free hospital, supported by various chapters across the country - and Shriners NC was in Sacramento, a city which I'm now aware is more of a prison than any hospital ever could be.
My awakening was with someone who just had major hip surgery, a patient there with me in a free institution because her Central Valley family was too poor to afford health insurance. It happened not because I loved her, but because I was a sixteen-year-old boy and she was a sixteen-year-old girl with the biggest breasts I'd ever seen, and I wanted my face in them. Confidently I flirted with her in the way the nurses knew I was good at, and with newly red cheeks she flirted back. I couldn’t help but think that, if I could still get an erection, I'd have one (side note - they have pills for that).
Pink Cheeks’ flirting continued for three whole days ‘til she told me that she (much sooner than I would be) was about to be discharged - because hip surgeries take less rehab than spinal fusions with major MRSA infections. The latter of which put me on IV antibiotics for a month and took away my "OK" to have roommates.
“Did I mention my room is all mine? Do you want to make out in it?”
Out of tact and self-preservation, I did not mention I was imagining my mouth on her nipples. Thank goodness she said "yes."
As we entered my abode, I tapped Cathy Huey, the charge nurse, saying “do not disturb.” She smiled as she shook her head, and then graciously closed my door behind us. My mouth was watering so much, this girl might have wondered if all crippled boys also had saliva problems.
We made out for a half hour. Halfway through it, I started caressing her breasts over her sweatshirt. She was hesitant, but I was determined to fulfill my nip-sucking fantasies - half because it would be awesome and half because this was my last opportunity to really have fun for the next 35 days until I was discharged.
One minute later, my one good hand was on the inside of her sweatshirt and a minute past that, the top half of her body was bare in front of me. I was fulfilling my fantasy - my first time doing so with anybody – and it was beautiful (and also, pretty awesome).
This was my awakening not because my eyes were wide open like my mouth against her chest, but because I realized that constantly sitting I could still be seen as sexy. And instead of being cursed, I am actually lucky - because now my lips are at the perfect height of nipples.
I never saw her again and I do not remember her name. It was a quintessential one-hour one-night stand between post surgery teenagers in a children's hospital room in the prison that is Sacramento, California. And then, despite knowing I'd be locked up in that place for another 35 days, I was free.
Alex posed for the above photo for a calendar created by Sexability. You can buy the calendar on their website.