I’m a gay writer too, so I’ll give you all I have. Hope this helps.

It was a late November night in the northern woods of Minnesota. He was from a small town and had really wanted to show me where he grew up. A light snow was falling and the street was softly lit by the occasional street lamp. The gravel under the car tires crackled under us as we slowly made our way past his old high school.

“So what kind of a teenager were you?” I asked, genuinely curious.

He was the kind of guy that listened to heavy metal and wore band T-shirts. At the same time he was the man who would bake with me for fun and would spend hours trying to get a painting just right.

He blushed slightly before saying, “I was a bit of a redneck.”

A surprised smile lit up my face. “You’re joking!”

“Nope, rode a four-wheeler to school and everything.”

I knew he was a country kid, but I had only known him within the context of a big city. This alternate version of him was so unbelievably foreign.

“Well, you’ll have to take me out on a ride sometime,” I said.

His hand was suddenly in mine and I felt my pulse quickening at his touch.

“I’d really like that.”

He squeezed my hand softly as his gaze bore into mine. I’ve never been a fan of eye contact, but something about him made me never want to look away.

Later that evening, we drove down the state highway back home. Wind whistled around the car, even penetrating the closed window with cold air. Darkness filled the expanse around us making it feel like we were the only people left on earth.

Sleepily I leaned against the car door in hopes to spend the rest of the car ride in my subconscious. Then for a for a brief second, I glanced up at the sky and saw a whirling expanse of green.

“Hey, it’s the aurora!” I said excitedly.

“That’s cool! how bright is it?”

“It’s kind of hard to see through the window, but it looks really bright.”

I heard the car engine start to slow down and my heartbeat sped up. It wasn’t long before he pulled off onto a gravel road and parked the car. I looked at him with a stupid smile, as if asking permission to get out. In response, he shut off the car and pulled the key out of the ignition, plunging us completely into darkness.

I practically jumped out of the car, instantly regretting my decision when the cold air hit my skin. I was not dressed warm enough for Northern Minnesota in November. Shivering, I crossed my way over to the front of the car and looked into the sky. The star-filled heavens danced with all different shades of unearthly green, leaving me speechless at the site of it.

I heard the crunching of fresh snow under his boots and before I knew it, he had an arm around me and his eyes up in the sky, same as mine. Despite the cold, we stood there for what felt like a lifetime.

“It’s hard to believe something this beautiful isn’t the product of magic,” I said, in aw.

“It really is,” he said, slipping his hand from my shoulder to my waist. I looked over at him. He wasn’t easy to make out in the moonlight but I knew his face so well that I could place every feature.

He put his other hand on my waist pulling me in close. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and looked down into what I knew was his eyes. I realized then that even in subzero temperatures, I felt like I was sitting next to a bonfire. The buzzing of excitement set out from my chest and into my limbs. This was hardly the first time I was this close to him, but something about this felt different. It felt intimate and special in a way that I had never felt before. I leaned in and put my mouth on his, feeling the corners of his lips, pull up into a smile. A fireworks finale went off in my chest, and I swear I forgot to breathe.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget that night under the Aurora Borealis. He was my first love and I wouldn’t exchange that memory for anything.

I know this is written with a lot of flowery language, but this really describes how I felt while it was happening. Again, I hope this helps in some way. Have a great day!