Fifteen year-old Melanie and her friend Chandra sit outside in their neighborhood and make a game out of teasing boys. Melanie's mother, Bernice, is very strict and will not allow Chandra to come over. Melanie claims that boys their age are too immature for her, and as a result, Chandra encourages her to sensually tease an old man nearby. Melanie does so, but when he begins to approach her, she runs inside so as to avoid engaging with him further. Melanie feels braver after her encounter with the man and secretly hopes to see him again. One day, he pulls his car up to her while she is alone and she continues to act coy. Eventually, he gives in and tells her to get in the car. He claims that he only invited her to see what she would do and decides to take her back home, but Melanie claims that her mother won't notice and tells the man that his cologne smells like that of her father, who is absent. The man says that he is only interested in women, not teenage girls, and Melanie begins to cry because wants to be a grown-up woman too. The man, who introduces himself as Milton, ends up taking Melanie to his house. Milton makes her some food. Melanie privately reflects on her mother Bernice's life and how she had once commanded attention from all sorts of men, but had turned them all down. Melanie promises herself that she will never do what her mother did and waste attention. She and Milton have sex and she goes home to see her mother in the kitchen. Melanie feels proud because she has lost her virginity, but her overbearing mother doesn't know this secret.