Makani buried her face in Darby’s shoulder, but it made them all laugh.
“Honestly?” Alex continued. “I think it’s rad that you have a mug shot with the word bitch on your forehead. I’m gonna be you for Halloween this year.”
Makani’s body uprighted as her emotions crashed back down. “It’s not funny. I ruined my best friend’s life. I will never forgive myself—”
“David is ruining lives. By taking them. You did a shitty thing, and, yeah, she’ll probably hate you for the rest of her life—”
“Alex,” Darby warned.
“—but she still has a life.”
“That’s beside the point,” Makani said. “My actions weren’t harmless. I didn’t just snap a wet towel or shoot my goggles at her.”
Darby stepped in front of Alex to block her from Makani’s view. “You’re right. But I know what it’s like to be angry—to think that everyone has it easier than you. Or that everyone is against you. And if you don’t deal with those feelings, they don’t go away on their own. They keep building and building until they force their way out.”
Tears pricked Makani’s eyes again as she stared at her bandaged arm.
“You aren’t a bad person,” Alex said. “You just had a bad night.”
Darby guided Makani onto the love seat, squishing her in between him and Alex to confront the real issue. “So,” he said, “you think David found out what you did.”
Her head hung even lower. “Yes.”
“You think he chose you—”
“Like Harry Potter,” Alex stage-whispered.
“Oh. My. God,” Darby said. “Can’t you hold it in for, like, one second?”
She gave a nonchalant toss of a braid as he turned back to Makani. “You think David chose you as some sort of act of . . . antihero or vigilante justice?” he asked.
“There’s nothing else it could be,” Makani said. “I don’t have any connection to the other victims. I think he found out something about all of us, and he’s punishing—”
“No,” Ollie said.
They looked at him in surprise. He sat, unmoved, across from them, and his voice was resolute. “You aren’t being punished. You’ve already been punished. You were publicly shamed, and you’ve spent the last year shaming yourself. How would he even know? I didn’t know, and I’ve Googled the hell out of you.”
The love seat froze in astonishment.
Ollie’s face skewed with regret. “Not anything creepy. Normal Googling.” He paused. “But, like, a lot of it.”
Darby’s and Alex’s eyes popped.
Queasiness and curiosity mixed inside Makani. “What did you find?”
“Not much.” Ollie seemed pained, perhaps because he only had himself to blame for this conversation. “Small things, funny stuff you said. Pictures on their Instagrams.” He motioned toward Darby and Alex.
Makani blinked.
Ollie was growing smaller. “Please say you’ve Googled me, too.”
“We’ve all Googled you,” Alex said.
Heat slipped up Makani’s neck as she nodded.
“Thanks for leaving me hanging.” Ollie exhaled, shoving his hands into his pockets. But then he sidled her with a grin. “So, what’d you find out about me?”
Makani snorted. “Even less. Though, I did already know that you used to wrestle in middle school. I saw a picture of you in one of those weird blue leotards.”
“It’s called a singlet.”
“It’s a leotard.”
He laughed. “Now, you have to show me that swim team photo. You owe me.”
But Makani’s mind had already circled back to her worries. She chewed her lip. “You never found anything about my past?”
“No, I swear . . .” But then his head cocked.
She recoiled. “You did.”
“Okay. I did do a search for ‘Makani and Hawaii,’ and I think, now, that I might have found something on Reddit.” He didn’t notice her shudder, but he spoke faster, betraying his concern. “How could I have known what I was looking at? I barely even remember the thread. I discarded it so quickly. It wasn’t your name.”
Her blood drained. There it was. Proof that her past was available for anyone to discover. It wouldn’t be a huge step to notice the dates of the incident, search for her old name, and then find her in the swim team photos on the school’s website.
Ollie was following her train of thought. “No. It’s too unlikely.”
“Too unlikely that a serial killer with an elaborate plan would have the patience to discover that I’m actually someone else?”
“You aren’t someone else.” This distinction seemed to bother him.
“But it’s the only explanation that makes sense. I don’t have a single connection to the other victims.”
“That’s not true,” Alex said, jumping in. “He’s clearly attacking one person from every clique. He’s plucking out the shining stars for some macabre collection.”
Makani glowered. “I’m not a member of a single club or team. I don’t talk to anyone but you guys. And who says Rodrigo was a shining star?”
“Me,” Alex said. “He was really freaking smart. Probably the smartest person in our whole class. Probably the whole school.”
“So, what’s my special talent? Having brown skin?”
Alex hesitated. “Well. You do stand out.”
Makani stared at her for several long seconds. “Fuck,” she said, looking away. She didn’t know if she was angrier with Alex for pointing out something so stupidly obvious or for the idea that her skin color or being biracial or whatever might even be a fraction of David’s motivation. Of course it could be.
Even smushed between Makani and the love seat’s arm, Darby managed to tuck his thumbs under his suspenders. “Okay, let’s pretend your theory is correct, and David was trying to punish you. What about the other victims? What did they do?”
“They were probably assholes, too,” Makani said. “I mean, look at Matt.”
Ollie frowned. “Some of his friends are worse.”
“Yeah, but Matt was their leader. He set the example, and his friends followed.”
“What about Rodrigo and Haley?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know,” Makani said. “But none of you knew what I did. Everyone has secrets.” She couldn’t help glancing at Ollie, but he was distracted, so he didn’t notice.
“I don’t know about Haley,” he said. “But I do know something about Rodrigo.”
Makani felt Alex’s spine straighten beside her.
“It feels wrong to speak ill of the dead, but one of his friends gave the police a tip, which they checked out—and it was true. Rodrigo was a troll.”
Darby frowned. “What kind? Like, a comments troll?”
“The kind who threatened women,” Ollie said.
Makani’s stomach dropped.
“Dozens of platforms,” he continued. “Hundreds of aliases. Mainly against women in gaming. He stopped doing it a few months ago. The friend said Rodrigo realized it was wrong, but he wasn’t sure what had happened to trigger his conscience.”
Alex twitched sharply. This new information appeared to upset her more than Makani’s confession.