I was in Italy on an American army base near Pisa. This was a place for Americans military families to camp and visit the beach. My father was stationed in Germany in the early 1980s and I was in college visiting for the summer. A bunch of friends and I took the train from Germany to Italy and stayed on this base and went to the beach every day. Lots of beer. Chasing girls. Sun tans. Etc.

A couple days in I meet this girl. Tall, brunette and mature body. Can’t remember why but probably just hormones. We start hanging out and talking and flirting and all that. I’m 20 at the time. I didn’t have time for high school girls. This girl definitely didn’t come off like a high school girl. Knowledgeable, mature, worldly.

She was with her parents but I figured she was like 18 and a senior in high school. No big deal. It was all still innocent.

A couple days later I was at the beach with her and my friends. She and I can’t keep our hands off each other. I drag her into a changing room and we make out for a while. But I didn’t want to go too far, so I made an excuse to stop.

Good thing. Went back to the beach and we sat down and I had forgotten my ID and wanted to buy a beer at the American hamburger shack and they carded everyone because only Americans were supposed to buy. I asked Nikki if I could borrow her ID card. She flipped it to me and while I’m walking up there I looked at her birthdate and my puny brain figured out she’s only 14.

Holy crap I freaked out. Got my beer. Went back and sat down. Gave her back her ID. Drank my beer and walked away.

I could’ve gotten whatever I wanted from her. But I was an adult. I couldn’t do it. I told her the next day she was too young. She was very hurt. But I know so many guys that would’ve just had sex with her and not cared. I couldn’t.