If their eyelids could all make noise, Plum thought, like if they all made a single piano plink—then the silence that greeted Jude’s statement would have been filled with a bunch of piano notes.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s okay, man,” Dude said bracingly. He squeezed the teen’s shoulder.
“No, it’s not!” Jude wailed. Tears openly poured down his face. “It’s a lie!”
“It is, but it’s not a big one,” Cici reassured him.
Jude sniffled. “I’m such a fraud!”
Marlowe gave Plum and Sofia a look and tipped her head. The three friends retreated slightly as Cici and Dude kept trying to console Jude.
Marlowe spoke in a low hush. “Here’s what I heard. Everyone here falls into two groups: opportunists and liars. Some people—like us, sadly—are in both groups.”
“So the link is . . . lying?” Sofia asked.
Marlowe nodded. “So far. It doesn’t seem like enough. Lots of people lie. Lots of people are opportunists.”
“There has to be more,” Plum agreed. “This is just the starting point.”
Marlowe held up three fingers. “Three trolls: Warix, Brittlyn, Dude.”
Sofia held up three fingers of her own. “Three liars: Sean, Shelley, and Jude.”
“Cici might count as a liar,” Plum murmured. “To the killer, at least. I’m not saying I agree, just the deception of makeup, maybe. ‘Lying’—you know. ‘You don’t look like your picture.’”
Marlowe nodded. “Which leaves Jalen out, but he’s a monster, right? If he’s a ghoul? So maybe that’s the troll pile.”
Plum nodded. “Where would Peach be? If she were here?”
Marlowe shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Plum sighed. It hurt in that same old familiar way. That she didn’t know enough about Peach’s life to know what possible wrong could have brought her into a killer’s plan. “I don’t know,” Plum admitted. “But I’ve got one more for you.”
She held up a finger and turned it on herself. “I’m both. A monster, because I was so desperate to be somebody. And a liar. Pretending that Peach was coming. Or that I ever had anything to do with her. Reflected glory like sucking on rotten marrow.” Plum couldn’t take her gaze off her feet. “I’m such a jerk. I’m going to get us all killed.”