Peaches

leaning against each other, eyeballing her. She wanted to share her success with someone other than two papillons.
    She stood up, brushed the dirt off her knees, and walked back to the dorms. She knocked on Leeda’s door, but there was no answer. Murphy grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from her room and wrote on it: Dinner in the garden, 7 o’clock. Bring gifts.

    That evening she put together sandwiches in the kitchen and made lemonade. She set out toward the garden with her blanket rolled under one arm to use as a picnic blanket. She dug a Wilco CD out of her collection and hauled her CD player down the path. Halfway down, she ran into Rex.
    “Rex, hey…” Murphy hoisted the CD player up tighter under her arm.
    Rex had a couple of peaches in his hand and he held one out toward her. “Hey. Have a peach.”
    “Thanks.” Murphy stuck the peach in her pocket.
    “Your garden looks really good.”
    Murphy smiled. “What were you doing in my garden?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve kind of been keeping an eye on it. And I’m out of here tomorrow, so I wanted to get a final look. You did a good job.”
    Murphy’s heart sank. “You’re going already?” She was as surprised at the question as Rex appeared to be. It didn’t sound like her at all.
    Rex stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around. “They don’t really need me anymore. I guess everybody’ll be trailing off from here on out.”
    Murphy kicked a toe in the dirt. “Yeah. I keep forgetting. I keep thinking it’s only me that’s leaving. It’s weird.”
    Rex looked at her seriously and didn’t answer. Finally he said, “Leeda and I just took a nap down at the lake.”
    “Oh.”
    They looked at each other.
    “What’s with all the goods?” Rex said, indicating the stuff in her arms.
    “Oh, I’m having a picnic. Me and Leeda.”
    “Sounds great.”
    “Um.”
    “I’m so glad you invited me.” Rex gave her his cocky grin.
    Murphy sighed and let her shoulders sag. “Fine. Whatever. See you at seven. You’ve got fifteen minutes. Clean yourself up a little, huh?”
    “No problem.” He continued on down the trail.
    Bird, try to come to the garden.
    Leeda crumpled up the note into a ball and lofted it into Birdie’s window, then walked through the trail to the trellis. When shegot there, Murphy and Rex were laughing about something, sitting cross-legged, Murphy with her back against the trunk of the nectarine tree, her cupped hands resting on the grass between her legs, and Rex resting back on his hands.
    “Hey, baby,” Rex said, smiling up at her and patting the grass beside him. Leeda tried to ignore the tiny voice that was telling her he didn’t seem one hundred percent happy to see her.

    The food—just sandwiches—tasted more exotic in the garden, and the lemonade was sweet and cool. Leeda relaxed, picking flowers from where she sat and sticking them all over Murphy’s curly hair.
    “I guess Birdie isn’t making it,” Leeda said when she’d finished her second ham and cheese.
    “Poor Bird,” Murphy said, stretching out on her back and smushing most of the flowers.
    “Moment of silence for Birdie missing the picnic,” Rex said, and they all bowed their heads, Murphy bowing hers against her chest where she was lying. When the moment of silence was over, Rex turned to Murphy.
    “What’re you going to do when you grow up anyway?” Rex asked.
    “Move to NewYork.”
    “Ooh, that sounds good,” Leeda said. “Maybe I’ll come. We can go to NYU.”
    Murphy tucked her hands behind her head. “Nah. I don’t know. I think I’ll get a job as a waitress. Something romantic like that.”
    Rex frowned. “What about school?”
    Murphy shrugged. “I’m not so into school.”
    “Don’t you think that’s kind of a waste?” Rex sounded concerned enough to make Leeda feel a little jealous. Murphy sat up.
    “What, do you think waitresses are stupid?”
    “No, I just think you’re stupid. Aren’t you a genius or something?”
    “You just said I was stupid.”
    “I think anybody who has something good and wastes it is stupid.”
    Leeda looked back and forth between the two of them, feeling like a spectator to their conversation. Rex was gazing sternly at Murphy and Murphy was narrowing her eyes at him in return, and neither of them seemed too concerned about what Leeda was doing when she grew up.
    “Yeah. You’re crazy, Murphy,” she piped in, wanting to be part of the discussion and also knowing Rex was right.