She was drunker than she’d ever been, and it was dark. Frank led her to a plush floral couch. Her head was spinning, and she didn’t have the energy or the desire to stop Frank when he slid her pants down. She wanted to lose her virginity under better circumstances, with someone she was madly in love with. But her virginity had gone from a romantic concern to a practical one. She was convinced that she was the only virgin at the resort, and she was nervous but ready to change her status. She figured Frank, still in his sweater, grunting with his eyes closed, was doing her a favor—a favor that suddenly blossomed into more hurt than she’d expected, but just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, the whole thing was over. Frank sank on top of her, heavy as a pile of bricks. Soon he was sound asleep and snoring. Sherri wished he’d at least said something nice to her. He could have told her she was pretty.

The next morning, she woke up alone, cold and still dizzy. She didn’t know where Frank had gone off to. She saw a red Solo cup sitting on the coffee table and thought of all that brown liquid that ran through her veins. She rushed into the bathroom to vomit, just missing the toilet, making a mess on the floor and all over her jeans. She was a mess, a mess! Had she really lost her virginity? She wiped herself up with a hand towel and sank down onto the cold floor. She wanted to go home—not home to the Bunny Hutch, but home home, to East Troy. She wanted her mother so badly she couldn’t stand it. Muriel had once told Sherri that she had the grace to get through hard times, although Sherri wasn’t sure anymore. She’d been trying so hard to grow up and be an adult, but at that moment she wished she could be a little girl again, sitting next to her mother on the piano bench as she introduced the lines of the treble clef. “EGBDF. Here’s how you remember: Every Good Boy Deserves Fun.”

After a good cry (she didn’t think she’d cry after losing her virginity!) she dug around in the medicine cabinet for aspirin and came across something she hadn’t expected to find in a grandmother’s house: a Massengill douche. Carmen said that douching prevented pregnancy, and the very last thing Sherri needed at the moment was a baby to take care of. She could practically hear all the doors of possibility for her future slam shut.