Peaches

chest.
    After covering every row, Birdie went down to the lake and threw rocks in the water, thinking about all the times she’d gone swimming there, and smiling when she thought about being there with Leeda and Murphy.
    Birdie had never felt so empty and so full. She guessed it was because there was so much she would be leaving behind and because she knew that she had so much to leave in the first place. It seemed like her world had grown hugely. And there was more to love and more to miss.
    As it got a bit darker, her legs carried her back along thepecan grove and along the property line. There, Birdie came to a halt and stared. On the other side, the Balmeade Country Club had been leveled. The water was in the sand pits and the sand filled up the water holes. Just over the rise she could see that a roof or two had been ripped off the condos. And strewn across the grass were tables, chairs, even doors—all mutilated—and a toilet bowl. It was amazing nobody had been hurt.
    There wasn’t a sign of life except a duck waddling across the grass, quacking away happily.
    Seconds later Birdie found herself standing outside the entrance to Camp B. She pushed through the creaky screen door. She made her way down the hall to Enrico’s room.
    His room looked extremely empty and barren now that the rest of the house was empty too. Birdie sat on the bed gingerly and then sank onto her back. Her heart ached, but it felt good to be there, remembering her time there and how happy it was.
    She closed her eyes, pulled her hands up beside her face, and drifted off to sleep.
    When she woke, Birdie noticed two things immediately. It was dark. And there was someone else in the room. Birdie sat up in bed and stared down at the figure lying on the floor.
    “Enrico?” She knelt beside him and put her hand gently on the back of his shoulder, shaking him gently. He stirred and rolled onto his back.
    “What are you doing here?” Birdie whispered, as if there was anyone else around.
    Enrico let out a sleepy sigh and sat up. “She is just a girl. Not my girlfriend.”
    “What?”
    “I’m sorry, Birdie. I am not good at…I was not sure. I thought, but then…” He paused and smiled shyly. “You are always running away.”
    Birdie watched his face as he thought through how to say what he wanted to say. Finally his expression settled on a worried but tender look.
    “I told her I will not see her again. Am I late?”
    Birdie stared at him, unsure, trying to fit the pieces together. But before she could, Enrico put his hands on either side of her face and pressed his warm lips against hers. She responded immediately, kissing him back.
    “I am not late?” he asked, grinning, looking at her lips, stroking her cheek. Birdie breathed in the amazing smell of him and feel of him and smiled back.
    “You’re not late.”
    She leaned forward and kissed him again.

    The next morning, for the last free weekend of the summer, Leeda was going to Tybee Beach with Rex. Tonight she was relaxing on the white leather lounger in the Cawley-Smiths’ home theater, running her hands over her soft skin. She’d gone to the hotel spa that afternoon, where they’d scrubbed her and rubbed her and slathered her with all sorts of lotions and muds, getting her back to the old Leeda. The softness of her skin felt foreign to her.
    Alicia was sprawled out in the next lounger over.
    “What do you wanna watch?” Leeda asked, nodding to the big screen.
    “I don’t know. What about you?” Alicia had come to get bodywrapped with her and see her off for her trip. Only Leeda wished she hadn’t invited her. It just made her feel more alone.
    “Why don’t you pick something?” she said, standing up irritably and ducking into the minibar for a club soda. The door to the theater cracked open, and Mrs. Cawley-Smith stood in the doorway. “It’s Danay, for you.”
    “Really?” Leeda hadn’t expected to hear from her sister for at least another week, which was how long she and Brighton would be in the West Indies. She took the cordless from her mom and walked into the living room, sinking down on the couch.
    “Hey.”
    “Lee,” Danay said through static. “What’s going on?” She sounded exuberantly happy, giddy.
    “Nothing. Just getting ready to leave for Tybee in the morning.”
    “With Rex?”
    “Yeah.” She braced herself for a lecture.
    “Oh, well, I just wanted to thank you. For your speech. I didn’t get a chance to the other