Her butterfly tattoo is fabulous! Or so she thinks for a while, but she eventually starts to dislike it. She ended up having it done on the back of her neck, which is nice and all, but she hardly ever gets an opportunity to even look at it. Her friends say that there is way too much blue in it, and not enough yellow or pink.

What's even worse, the placement of the tattoo means that it's only a matter of time before her parent's find out and she'll be in big trouble. Within one week or so, mom and dad spy the fluttering insect on her neck, and they approach her in tandem to see what their unruly daughter has to say for herself:

"What do you have to say for yourself?" they demand. "Is this the kind of daughter we've raised?" they ask. A furious coming-of-age style argument ensues, with all parties cursing and crying. Marilyn storms out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Her parents yell to her that she should never come back.

She never does go back home. Marilyn lives with friends for a while before they get tired of her and tell her to get lost. So she ends up on the streets, living on charity and sleeping in abandoned buildings. This lifestyle can't last, so she packs her stuff and heads out west. Things don't work out for her there, either. "All because of this great tattoo," she thought to herself. She never makes it to college, and she never speaks to her parents again.