Emergency Contact(75)

“Oh my God, can you guys smell that?” Mallory rolled down her windows. Penny could hear the waves crashing in the dark. The moonlight turned everything blue.

They got out of the car and stretched. The salt air was sticky.

“Do you have towels?” asked Jude, kicking off her shoes.

Penny nodded. Mallory laughed. “Of course you do.”

“You’re going actual swimming?” Penny asked. “Now?”

“You’re not?” Jude said incredulously. “It was your idea to come to the beach.” She stepped out of her shorts. Penny handed her a towel.

“I wanted to see the water,” she said. “To be near it.” It hadn’t occurred to her that anyone would go in.

Jude shrugged and ran to the water, whooping before diving in. Mallory watched her, looked back at Penny, and offered her a chip.

Penny took a handful. “Are you swimming?”

“Oh, hell no,” said Mallory. “I only dip my toes in chlorinated water.”

They could barely make Jude out in the waves.

Mallory hopped up onto Penny’s trunk, and Penny climbed up next to her. She felt Mallory shiver slightly in the dark.

“Cold?”

“A little.”

Penny grabbed her hoodie from the front seat, pulled her phone out of the pocket, and handed the sweatshirt to her. They huddled closer.

She thought about how with Mallory everything was even steven. Affection, loyalty, even laughing at jokes. Jude was different. Penny could see now why they were so close. Mallory was tougher and looked out for her. They were a good team.

They faced the water, feeling the breeze and listening to the roar of the tide.

“Isn’t it appalling that she’s friends with us?” Mallory asked.

Penny was strangely flattered to be a part of Mallory’s “us.”

“She’s so nice,” said Mallory. “Decent, you know?”

“Yeah,” said Penny. “If there were an apocalypse tomorrow, she’d be out in the first wave. It wouldn’t matter how fast or strong she was. Her heart wouldn’t be able to take it.”

Mallory bumped her shoulder with her own. “I love how this is where your brain goes,” she said. “I know what you mean though. God, can you imagine? She’d probably die trying to save a bus full of orphans.”

“Why would anybody save children during the apocalypse?” said Penny.

“For anything other than food? No idea.”

Penny smiled in the dark.

Mallory took her hair down from a bun and shook it out. The wind was balmy on Penny’s face. She was glad they’d come. After a moment she shook her hair out too. “I love the ocean.”

“We’re going to have the best beachy waves.” Mallory scrunched her hair and pulled out her phone. “Get in this with me.”

The first shot with the flash was awful. Straight up the nose with both of them resembling startled possums.

“Oh my God.” Mallory laughed, deleting it. “Tragic.”

Penny switched on the flashlight of her phone and illuminated them from an angle.

“No flash, only mood lighting,” said Penny.

“Ooooh, you are resourceful,” said Mallory. “I would eat you last in the apocalypse.”

They tried another. Better.

“Okay,” said Mallory, repositioning Penny’s hand and tugging at her arm. “Wait, seriously, is this as far as you go? What are you, some kind of midget T. rex?”

Penny laughed. When Mallory made fun of you in this way you felt like the only person in the world.

“Here, let’s switch.” Mallory became the flashlight as Penny shot.

“So much better,” said Mallory as Penny swiped through the options. In fact, they were the best selfies Penny had ever taken. They were two giggly girls with great big hair doing irrepressibly fun things. Even without the pictures, Penny would remember this night for a long time.

“See,” said Mallory. “Look how good you look when you tilt your chin down like that?”

“Oh my God, it’s sooooooo cold!” Jude breathlessly ran toward them. “I knew it was gonna be a bitch when I got out.”

Mallory flashed the phone light toward her. She was shivering in her underwear.

“What happened to the towel I gave you?” asked Penny.

Jude’s eyes widened. “Oh shit,” she said, turning back toward the beach.

“Don’t worry. Penny has an extra,” said Mallory, hopping off the trunk.

“You do?”

Penny reached into the trunk for the other one and handed it to her.

“I kneeeeeeew it!” Mallory clapped her hands triumphantly. “Oh my God, you’re so predictable!”

“That’s my last though!” Penny exclaimed. It required heroic restraint not to make Jude go back and hunt for its mate.

“Wait, I want a selfie too,” said Jude, reaching for her phone. “Give me. I want to check my face.”

Penny handed it over.

“Oh my God,” said Jude, pawing through her hair helplessly. “Drowned rat much?”

“First wave of the apocalypse,” muttered Mallory.

“Seriously,” Penny said, cheesing.

“Look at you two all buddy-buddy,” said Jude, eyeing them.