Emergency Contact(73)

“We gotta get Mal too,” she said.

They swung by Twombly. “Where are we going?” asked Mallory, jumping in the back. It was such a new dynamic, to have Penny in charge of the night for once.

“I want to see the ocean,” Penny announced.

“Yay!” the girls chorused. Penny felt as if she could’ve suggested anything from the zoo to the airport and they would’ve been game.

The closest beach was three and a half hours away, but Penny was hell-bent on making it to Galveston in under three. Jude was responsible for the music and directions. Mallory was responsible for making them stop every half hour so she could pee. The girl had the smallest bladder in the world.

“Penny, I haven’t seen you in one thousand years.” Mallory handed her a Red Vine. The only benefit to stopping every thirty miles was the snack haul remained bountiful. “That party was so fun.”

“Yeah,” said Jude. “Speaking of which, what’s up with Andy? He’s so hot.”

By dusk they’d made it to the halfway point, where there was a glowing power plant up ahead. It was beautiful, like a space station on the cover of a sci-fi paperback from the seventies.

“Seriously, what or who have you been doing?” Mallory poked Penny’s cheek with the wet end of her Vine.

“Stop,” yawped Penny. Mallory cackled. “Nothing. And yeah, Andy’s great. He’s helping me with my project.”

“I wish he’d help me with my project,” retorted Jude, and they laughed.

“I’m up to my eyeballs in homework and ignoring my mother,” said Penny. “Same as everyone.”

“Oh!” said Jude, swatting Penny’s arm. “Your mom friend requested me on Facebook.”

“Shut up.” Penny groaned.

“Yuck!” exclaimed Mallory. “That’s such a violation. You didn’t accept, did you?”

“No,” said Jude. “I mean, Celeste is adorable but, yeah, no way. Obvious violation. She did it literally the night we hung out.”

Penny felt her cheeks redden. “Did I tell you she sent Mark, as in my ex-boyfriend Mark, a message after we broke up?”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”

“Not only that.” Penny got worked up again. “But she went on a full lurk and told me he was dating someone new. Why would you tell your daughter that?”

“That’s egregious,” Mallory confirmed.

Jude patted her shoulder in sympathy. “Completely egregious.”

“I mean, your mom’s cool, but sometimes I can’t tell if a cool mom is better than a completely out-of-touch Stepford Wife mom like mine,” said Jude. “At least Nicole isn’t thirsty.”

“Well, she’s obviously not hungry,” agreed Mallory. “I’m pretty sure the only food Nicole eats is Ativan.”

“I love my mom.” Mallory rummaged in her shopping bag for a bottle of Big Red. “She’s completely out to lunch, like all moms. I don’t know, though. At some point in high school we became friends. The thing is, P, you can’t ignore them.”

Penny couldn’t believe that the craziest girl in the car probably had the healthiest relationship with her mother.

“Moms are like cows,” Mallory said. Jude shot a glance at Penny. This was going to be good. “You’ve got to milk them or they lose their minds.”

Mallory leaned into the front of the car so the girls could feel the full weight of her wise words.

“They’re shoplifting teens,” she pressed.

“Wait, I thought they were cows,” Jude said. Penny couldn’t meet her eyes for fear of a giggle fit.

“They’re both. However, they’re more shoplifting teens because it’s not about the intention. It’s about the at-tention.”

That did Jude in. She cackled boisterously.

“What are you talking about?”

“Wait, I actually think I know what you’re getting at, Mal,” said Penny. “You’re saying that ignoring my mom isn’t the right way to go because her cow milk or need for attention or whatever gets insane and she’ll burst or do something stupid. But if I pay consistent attention to her, she’ll chill the F out.”

“Exactly,” said Mallory, leaning back into her seat satisfied.

There were worse theories.

“But what if your mom is the most annoying human in the universe?” asked Penny.

“Dude.” Jude knew the answer to this one. “Every mom is the most annoying human in the universe, but most of them, besides the super-abusive genuinely bad ones, are in your corner.”

“You know what I do that helps?” Apparently Mallory wasn’t done dispensing gems. “I imagine how my mom would feel if she could overhear the mean shit I said about her. It makes me say way less mean shit, which makes me think way less mean shit. It works.”

Penny’s heart sank. It would destroy Celeste to know how she felt about her and what she’d been keeping from her. Pushing her away was Penny’s way of protecting her. Of protecting them both.

“Okay,” said Mallory, interrupting her thoughts. “Enough about moms. We’re going to play a game. We’re going to go around in a circle and ask questions and answer them truthfully.”