"I won't tell her all of it or where I heard it."
As long as I had a captive audience, I asked a question. "Do you and your friends talk about losing your virginity?"
"Sarah!"
"Honesty. I'm not prying; I'm just curious."
"Nosy is more like it." I laughed and agreed with her. "You won't make fun, if I tell you?"
"Of course not."
"Yes, we talk about it. Anne is definitely going to wait until she is married. Monica says she'd be scared to do it unless she was sure she couldn't get pregnant but she doesn't know enough about how not to. She asked her mother about birth control, but her mom had a fit and wouldn't answer. Pepper doesn't have anyone she wants to do it with; she says she'll worry about it when the time comes. Barbara won't even talk about sex, but she has a steady and everyone wonders if she's already you-know-what-ing with him. Julie wants it to be on like a beautiful beach, and everything perfect and a movie star-type guy who loves her like crazy."
"What does Karen say?" I asked.
"I know what you want me to say; that I should be like Anne and save myself for the man of my dreams, on our wedding night."
"Not at all."
"Really?"
"Do you know what losing your virginity means?"
"Sure. Letting a boy do it to you; have sex." I recalled how embarrassed she'd have been saying those words just a few weeks earlier.
"It's having sex, for the first time. It only happens once and it should be a very important event; a very special happening with someone special. It will never happen again. My only suggestion is to be mature about it and not trivialize making love as if it's something everyone is doing so you might as well do it too. It all too often happens because the guy keeps pestering you to do it, and you finally give in. But that's not right either. It should happen with two mature people who both feel the same about each other; a person who realizes the importance of the act as much as you. You shouldn't lose your virginity the way I did by meaninglessly giving it away to a virtual stranger."
She popped up and left the room. "I have to put some stuff in my diary," she said as she left, but never answered my question.
All our anguish and compromise over Karen's first date was for naught. The next afternoon we learned Stanley's offer was withdrawn before Karen could respond. His parents thought he was too young to date.