Peaches

disgusted.
    “My underwear is soaked.” Leeda’s eyes arched pleadingly at Birdie and Murphy. “I can’t ride all the way home in wet skivvies.”
    “Just take ’em off,” Murphy suggested.
    “But what’ll I do with them?” The question came out in a slight slur. Which sounded funnier than usual coming from someone like Leeda.
    “I don’t know. Just bring them with you.”
    “I don’t want to carry around beer-soaked skivvies.”
    Murphy shrugged. She really didn’t care either way. Leeda ducked behind a baby blue Chevy pickup while Murphy and Birdie continued on to the car. They stopped when they heard a snicker behind them.
    Leeda was still standing next to the pickup. Her black thong, on the other hand, had found its way onto the middle of the pickup’s windshield. Leeda had her hand stuck in front of her mouth and she leaned forward, clenching her knees and laughing drunkenly.
    Birdie and Murphy both guffawed loudly, and then Birdie ran across the lot, scooted behind a car, and whipped out her skivvies, flinging them onto the windshield too. They were pink and said Sunday across the front.
    “I’m ready to go home now.” Birdie stuck her chin up in the air and then laughed. “I wonder what they’ll do when they see them.”
    Murphy followed suit, though she hated to part with her favorite monkey undies.
    Finally, they piled into the car, wet and sweaty and sticking to the ripped vinyl seats. Honey Babe and Majestic were thrilled to see them.
    Murphy turned the key in the ignition. The car rumbled and died.
    Murphy and Leeda looked at each other and then Murphy tried the ignition again. Nothing happened this time. Damn.
    “Well, car’s broken,” Murphy said, throwing her hands up and letting them fall on the dashboard.
    She looked at Leeda and Birdie.
    “How will we get back?” Leeda asked.
    Murphy thought. “I guess we’ll have to call someone.”
    Silence.
    Birdie’s eyes widened. “My dad’s gonna kill me.”
    Murphy thought about her mom, but she’d definitely be asleep right now. And Richard would probably be the one to pick up the phone.
    “I’m sure someone can come pick us up, Bird. Don’t worry.”
    Finally she looked at Leeda. Birdie did too.

    Leeda had never thought Rex’s car could look good. But when he pulled over in his beat-up Ford pickup, she wanted to kiss the hood.
    It was close to four when he got there, barely giving them enough time to get back to the farm before sunrise, but Rex didn’t just pull up and throw the door open for them to hop in. He turned off the ignition and got out of the car.
    Leeda crossed her arms over her chest instinctively.
    “Thanks, baby.” She walked up to him and stuck her hand into his. He didn’t look happy. In fact, he looked pissed. He looked at Birdie, then at the bar behind them, then at Murphy.
    Then he looked over their shoulders at the cars. Damn. She’d forgotten.
    “Did you guys put that underwear there?”
    Murphy and Birdie cracked up, but Leeda shrank, embarrassed. “Um…”
    “Your idea, right, Murphy?”
    “Actually, that was all Leeda.” Murphy was giving him her patented dead fish look.
    Rex sighed. “I mean the bar.”
    Murphy bristled. “So?”
    “So number one, you guys shouldn’t be drinking and getting on the road in the middle of the night. And number two, I don’t want a bunch of drunk rednecks hitting on my girlfriend. You guys shouldn’t come to a place like this alone.”
    Murphy leaned heavily onto one hip, yawning. “Birdie, we should have called Walter after all. If we were gonna have a dad, it might as well have been yours.”
    Leeda had to agree that the whole speech was pretty ridiculous coming from Rex, who’d had his share of wild nights. Leeda met his eyes. Many times she’d felt like he was more of a big brother than a boyfriend. She felt like that now.
    “Next time we’ll call someone else,” Leeda muttered.
    “Please do.”
    He ducked into Murphy’s car through the open passenger door and tried the ignition. “I think the bushings are out on theclutch,” Murphy said. Rex just shook his head and climbed back into his own car.
    They rode in silence for several minutes, all smushed into the bench seat, with Leeda next to Rex and Murphy at the window. Birdie sat in the middle with both dogs on her lap. “It’s the starter that’s out, not the clutch,” Rex said.
    “Actually, Rex, I’ve had it happen before, and it’s the clutch.” Murphy rolled down her