Emergency Contact(74)

“So, truth or truth?” asked Penny.

“Yeah,” said Jude. “Although I already know everything about Mal because she and I are the oversharing queens of the universe.”

“How very dare you!” said Mallory in mock outrage. “Though in the spirit of full disclosure: Everyone may as well know that I have a UTI and am drinking boatloads of cranberry juice because of the sheer volume of sex I had this past week. Hence my current rate of peeing.”

“Wait, I thought Ben left,” said Jude.

“He did,” replied Mallory. “That’s why it’s a particularly sordid truth.”

“J’accuse!” exclaimed Jude.

“Okay, me first,” said Jude, flipping on the dome light so the car resembled an interrogation room. “Penny,” she boomed in a TV-announcer voice, “did you or did you not recently sleep with someone who is responsible for giving you that radiant, highly irritating glow?”

That was easy. “No,” she said.

“I’m dubious,” said Mallory. Penny glanced at Mallory in the rearview.

“I’m a bad liar,” Penny told her.

“That’s true,” confirmed Jude. “And it’s not Andy?”

Penny smiled.

“It is Andy!” Jude swatted her arm.

Penny wiped the grin off her face. “It isn’t. I promise!”

“My turn,” said Mallory.

“Wait, isn’t it my turn?” asked Penny. She wondered if this was a thinly veiled attempt to ask her a series of deeply invasive questions.

“You’ll go right after,” said Mallory. “Besides, this question is for Jude.”

“I’m ready,” said Jude, turning to her bestie.

“In a parallel universe in which the practice wasn’t frowned upon and utterly Appalachian, would you or would you not have sex with Uncle Sam?”

Penny’s stomach lurched.

“Eeeeeeeeew,” screamed Jude. “Mallory, why are you such a perv?”

“I take it that’s a no?” said Mallory, grinning evilly.

“No!” said Jude.

“I’m sorry,” said Mallory, still smiling. “I just couldn’t stop leching on him this morning. He was making matcha with this little whisk and he looked so deliciously annoyed. You do acknowledge that he’s hot though, like, objectively?” asked Mallory. “Because I would bang the ever-living shit out of him if he’d give me the time of day.”

Mal cracked open a bag of chips.

“Back me up, Penny. Sam’s hot,” said Mallory in between crunches.

“He’s a type,” Penny agreed. “Great hair.”

“Ew, no, guys,” said Jude. “And, Mal, don’t forget you’re promise-bound on pain of death, no banging.”

“I know,” said Mal. “This is a hypothetical.”

“Also, come on. I know he’s technically not my uncle anymore, but I think of him as a brother. You wouldn’t be allowed to bang my brother either, Mallory. You’d demolish him.”

Mallory sighed. “It’s true, I am a man-eater.”

“Okay, my turn,” said Penny, desperate to change the subject. “You guys are going to make fun of me.”

“Probably,” said Jude, reaching back to grab Mallory’s chips. She offered some to Penny, who shook her head. She felt as though she was constantly telling her no.

“Why do you guys want to know anything about me?” she asked.

The car went silent. And then Mallory started laughing. Jude joined in.

“How are you so awkward?” asked Mallory.

“Friends tell each other things, dummy,” said Jude. “And cello? We’re friends.”

“Why though?”

“Oh my God, Penny. Stop being so emo. Are you going to make us talk about feelings?” asked Mallory. “Seriously, you are so homeschooled sometimes.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” asked Jude. “You actually don’t know why anyone would like you?”

“Yeah,” said Penny. “Genuine question. You guys are this official thing. You’re a unit. But you keep asking me to do stuff even though I know I’m boring compared to you, and I want to know why.”

Mallory switched off the interior car light.

“Okay.” Mallory took a deep breath. “At the beginning I only liked you as much as you liked me, which wasn’t very much.”

That made sense.

“But then I felt bad for my dear friend Jude, who had to live with you.” Mallory laughed.

“And I’ve always liked you,” said Jude. “You’re mysterious. You’re the hella metal dude in high school who’s sexy even though he sneers and doesn’t talk to anyone.”

“But now I enjoy your company because you’re smart,” said Mallory. “And dark. You do seem seriously tormented.”

“And you’re a good egg,” said Jude simply.

Penny crumpled inwardly when Jude said that. She wasn’t a good egg. Penny didn’t have to tell Jude everything, that she was desperately, hopelessly in love with Sam, but she should have told her they were friends. Penny knew it would hurt Jude to have been kept in the dark this long.