Peaches

daughter, and giving off the impression that nobody’s life was as seamless or as sweet as hers.
    Ding ding ding. Leeda turned to see Glen standing at the front of the room. “Now we’ll hear from the maid of honor.”
    Leeda’s pulse spiked instantly. Oh God. She had totally forgotten she was supposed to write a speech. How could she forget something like that? As everyone looked at her, she pasted a smile on her face, but her stomach throbbed. She was so unprepared. She walked up to the bridal table and took the mike from Glen.
    “Um…” The room of five hundred people stared back at her. “Uh, my sister, Danay…is…my sister….”
    Oh God. The whole feeling of the room seemed to be urgingher to pull it together. She said the first thing that came into her head. “She’s, um, pretty perfect.”
    There were a few chuckles. “It’s easy to be jealous of a sister like that,” Leeda added, and then regretted it. She spotted Rex across the room. And instead of making her feel safe, it reminded her of Murphy. “But the thing is, I’m stuck with her.” A murmur from the audience. “Oh, c’mon, that’s not such a bad thing.” Leeda started this sentence irritably, but as she finished it, she felt her body relax. There was a long pause, and then what she wanted to say came to her, like she was riding a wave. “Maybe it’s lucky when we’re stuck with someone we love. Because it gets hard, and then it gets easy to give up on someone. And I guess that’s what makes a marriage…” Leeda searched for the words “…so special. Is that you choose to be stuck with somebody, even through the hard times. It’s like a pact. It means the good times are just so good, and it means you love that person so much that you’re willing to stay through all the bad.” Leeda scanned the faces for Danay. Tears were glistening in her eyes. Leeda cleared her throat. “I guess what I’m saying is we’re lucky to be stuck. I’m glad I’m stuck with Danay, and Brighton—” All eyes in the room looked at Brighton. “I’m glad you’re stuck with her too. I hope you don’t forget how lucky that makes you. She’s perfect.” Leeda stopped herself abruptly, embarrassed.
    Brighton shook his head. “I won’t let him,” Danay said loudly, grinning through her tears.
    Everyone looked at Leeda expectantly. “That’s it.” She smiled.
    Amid the applause she felt a hand on her back. She turned to look—Rex.
    He hugged her, tight. She sank into him and let go.

    Murphy and Gavin lay crashed out on the couch, Gavin’s head against Murphy’s chest. A few minutes ago he’d tried to unzip her shorts, but Murphy had shut him down, and now she could tell he was wondering why he was here at all. Murphy thought it was nice to have a warm body just sitting next to her. It didn’t really matter who it belonged to.
    “You got anything to eat?”
    “You can check in the kitchen,” Murphy said, keeping her eye on the TV. A Hard Day’s Night was playing on VH1. This was the twenty-sixth time she’d watched it. Same as the number of letters in the alphabet. That was worth celebrating. Murphy cheers’ed herself with her can of Dr. Thunder and took a sip.
    Outside, a car pulled into the driveway.
    “All right, Gavin, you gotta go. My mom’s home.”
    “Really?” Gavin looked shocked and disappointed. He had just found a bag of Combos and was holding it to his chest proprietarily.
    “Door’s that way.” Murphy pointed with a limp wrist.
    “Okay. See ya, Murph.”
    “Murph-y,” she shouted at the screen door as it hissed closed.
    A moment later it hissed again, admitting Jodee and Richard.
    “I never knew I was your meal ticket,” Richard was saying.
    Jodee turned to Richard and touched his shoulder gently. “You know I don’t see you that way. I don’t think it’s too much to ask for you to pitch in for groceries.”
    Murphy pulled her arms over her stomach protectively. She decided to count the number of seconds it would take Richard to plunk down beside her on the couch and change the channel. It took seven.
    Jodee disappeared in the bedroom for a moment, then started puttering around, tidying up the mess that Murphy and Richard had left behind.
    Murphy sat up stiffly so that no part of her body would be touching Richard’s. She watched her mom cleaning up with a pinchy feeling of guilt.
    “Well, what’re you gonna do with yourself?” Richard asked. “Two whole weeks off?”
    Murphy shook her