“I bet he’s into, like, freaky stuff. Like things we haven’t even heard of. He just seems to cool and relaxed, and God, I bet his power motor is long. And strong. We’ve seen him in gray sweatpants. You remember the gray sweatpants?”

She made her fingers act like they were walking down a set of stairs and added the pinkie from her other hand to be Austin’s penis. It flopped and whopped around in his pants like it was trying to get out.

“The sweatpants. I'll never forget the sweatpants.” I made my own fingers be the walking legs with the added appendage.

“Those sweatpants made a woman out of me. Remember, they were so low?”

“So low. The V. Fucks out loud the V.” I made a V with my fingers.

“And that tattoo we didn’t even know he had of the bird with the wings? Ugh. I wanted to lick it.” Peaches snapped her mouth shut, cutting our reminiscing short as Teddi opened her bedroom door. She was all flushed and happy.

“My boyfriend makes me so happy, even my downstairs lips are puckering up.” Peaches imitated Teddi’s voice.

Teddi hopped onto the bed like no one was on it, landing cleanly in the small space between Peaches and me.

“What were you guys talking about?” Teddi looked from my face to Peaches’ face and back again.

Peaches spoke up, “How we would both sell an organ for a chance to get railed by Austin.”

Teddi made a gagging sound. “Ugh. No. That’s my brother. You two are obsessed and always have been.”

I had to offer at least a little defense. “Please. He wears skirts, nail polish, and eyeliner. It’s not even fair.”

Teddi stuck her tongue out. “I cannot even think of Austin with either of you. It turns something in my stomach. Gah. Let’s switch the subject.”

Peaches propped her head on her hand and gave me an elaborate wink, but asked Teddi about her newest program that was working on getting families in need lunches and breakfasts on the weekend. She pointed out that a lot of the kids miss meals when they are not in school.

Once we got her talking about her charities, she could plan/dream for hours.

I made sure to steer the conversation to her and Ruffian, and when that dwindled down, I grilled Peaches about her new major. Peaches wanted to be a police officer (for now). We fell asleep talking about how scary Peaches would be armed.

In the morning, we all woke up in Teddi’s bed like a lump of puppies. These girls damn near raised me, and spending time with them made my soul happy. It reminded me that despite the crap that went on with Roberta, I still had these girls and always would.