Iliana's head lay buried in Andre's chest, sobbing silently as Luke's body exploding replayed over and over in her mind. Andre stares blankly at Marie as she looks up at him with teary eyes and Jordan looks over at Andre and Iliana, watching her body shake as she cries. Jordan swallows, wishing they could do something.

Because no matter how angry or hurt they were at Iliana, they couldn't stand to hear her cry like that... It was gun-wrenching. It was the kind of screaming sob that shook someone's core, and Jordan hated it.

Cate runs as she pushes her way through the crowd til she makes it to the front where men scraping up pieces of Luke. She freezes as her eyes begin to water and she drops to her knees. Andre nudges Iliana and she raises up, looking over at Cate. She nods and Andre gently helps her sit up. She makes the mistake of glancing at Luke's... guts before gagging as bile rushes up her throat and she quickly turns to the side. Andre scoops up her hair last minute as she hurls as hot tears stream down her face. God, Iliana hated throwing up. She hate the feeling, the taste, the smell, everything.

Andre rubs her back for a few seconds before Iliana takes a deep breath and they both hurry over to Cate's side. Andre grabs Cate by the shoulders as Iliana kneels in front of her and they collapse into each other, resting their foreheads together.

𖤓 𖤓 𖤓

"I have 45 million dollars' worth of Golden Boy merch at the Port of L.A. that I'm gonna have to set on fire." Ashley Barrett snaps over the speaker. "I can't just have them cross out boy and put girl on it! So what's the fucking play?" She asks everyone else on the other line.

"I'm with the trustees. We're all in sync." Indira Shetty tells her. "Golden Boy suffered a full psychotic break. Was also a chronic drug user." She informs Ashley the story they conjured up to cover their asses.

"Thank God Andre Anderson was there to stop him." Andre's father speaks up. "Classic superhero story." He beams.

"Marie Moreau was there too." Indira adds.

"How'd she do in the flash poll?" Ashley rushes out.

"Good. People like her. Helps that she's beautiful." Indira says.

"Golden Girl was also there, how are we going to spin that?" Ashley asks.

"Knew what was best for everyone and stepped up to stop her brother." Indira tells her, clearly having thought everything.

"Her polls are at an all time high, she'll double Golden Boy's sales in no time." Ashley perks up.

"She already has." Indira hums.

"Perfect. So, a psycho killer, but heroes rise, look for the helpers, all that shit." Ashley lays out.

"And we're also throwing together a Brink memorial gala. Should be a nice little earner." Mr. Anderson throws in.

"Fine. Whatever." Ashley rolls her eyes.

"What about Jordan Li? They're the one who actually fought Golden Boy." One of the men in Shetty's meeting asks.

"Oh, a bigender Asian with pronoun fuckery. Great fucking idea, Kyle. Try selling that to Dallas and Fort Lauderdale." Ashley chastises. " We lead with Golden Girl and Andre and this Marie chick, score some points with the NAACP, figure out the rest later." Ashley nods in thought.

"Settled then." Indira agrees. "Golden Girl will be ranked number one, as she was before she left the university to film last year. Andre Anderson will be ranked number two."

"Take me off speaker for a sec, Indira." Ashley lowers her voice.

Indira sighs before walking over to her desk and picks up the phone, taking it off speaker.

"Just say yes or no. Is the Woods part of what happened?" Ashley asks.

Indira clicks her tongue. "It's under investigation."

"This is already a PR disaster. If the Woods is exposed, we all have a big, potentially fatal problem." Ashley stresses.

"Vought hired me because I'm a problem solver." Indira states. "When 400 kids learnt they weren't gifts from God but their parents drugged them with Compound V as infants, I barely had any suicides, did I?" She reminds Ashley who she is.

"Well, you had one tonight." Ashley reminds her. "And Golden Girl can not follow in her brother's footsteps." She then hangs up, stressed beyond belief. America's favorite daughter cannot be next to lose her shit.

Indira let's out a shuddering sigh before dropping the phone down from her ear.

𖤓 𖤓 𖤓

Iliana rolls over at the sound of a phone chiming, greeted with the sun rays shining through the window, soaking them in to give her some energy. Her throat and eyes ache from all the crying and she feels like what she imagines death is like. To lose your other half...

She lifts her hand up, causing the rays to grow hotter as they bend at her will, grazing her arm, until Andre picks up his phone causing her to snap out of daze.

She sits up, which only causes her head to throb as she looks at the wall, emotionlessly. Andre brought her to his room last night, absolutely refusing to let go back to her room alone, and took the couch, not like he would've got any sleep.

She watches his face flash with shock before turning bitterly numb before he shuts it off and drops it face down on his desk. He sucks his teeth before looking up at her, noticing she's awake.

She glances down her phone which has been dead since yesterday and he subtlety shakes his head, warning her not to.

New rankings were out... and Iliana was number one, and he was number two.

He grabs his bong right and his lighter and moves to sit by Iliana on the bed as she silently begs to not be on this Earth anymore. She drops her face into hands as she waits for Andre to light the bong.

𖤓 𖤓 𖤓

"Everybody cannot wait to hear from you, Andre, and Golden Girl." Courtney Fortney tells Marie as she arrives on the set. "We need Golden Girl here, now." She barks at her assistant urgently, before turning right back at Marie, not missing a beat. "You guys are heroes. So currently we're testing 'The Guardians of Godolkin.'" She fans her hands in the air before cringing. "Even when I'm saying it now, it feels like it's too many syllables, so we'll see.

As Andre and Marie begin their photo shoot together, Courtney pulls her assistant to the side. "Where the fuck is Golden Girl? Hmm?"

Her assistant shrugs, gulping. "I-I couldn't get ahold of her.

Courtney sighs. "We'll just photoshop her in then."

𖤓 𖤓 𖤓

Andre and Marie begin making their way across campus, leaving their interview. He knows Iliana is still in his room high as fuck and that was exactly where he was heading to check up on her. It's only been one day and everyone has managed to go back to fucking normal like nothing happened to Luke. If it wasn't for her, he'd think he imagined the whole thing.

When he told her about the photoshoot and interview, her phone still being dead, all she did was laugh, manically, which lowkey scared the shit out of him. He knew she wouldn't go with him, hell he wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for his dad. But what he needed was answers. And fast.

"Did... did Luke say something t-to you about my dad?" He stumbles out to Marie at the mention of his father.

Marie shrugs. "He just said 'the Woods.' Whatever that means. Honestly, it seemed manic as fuck."

"Cause Luke, uh, whispered something to me before he died." Andre tells her...

"Did Luke whisper anything to you?" Andre looks up at Goldie as he takes her shoves off. "Goldie?" He sighs. "Goldie, please."

She inhales slowly, biting her lip as she nods yes.

"What did he say?" He rushes out causing her to flinch. "Sorry- sorry." He tries softer. "What did he say to you?

"He-" She pauses, screwing her eyes shut. "He just said 'help him.'" Her eyes well up. "Who the fuck is him?" She chokes out.

"Shh, shhh, come here." He pulls her in. God, what was he supposed to do? He can't imagine losing a twin- a twin. Yes, he lost his best friend, but he can't begin to even imagine what the best friend sitting in front of him was feeling.

Andre focuses back on his conversation with Marie. "He said, uh 'Your dad has it.'"

"Has what?" Marie looks at him puzzled.

"I don't know." He shakes his head. "It doesn't make sense to me that he would just kill himself and kill Brink, you know?" Iliana just got back. "I just don't understand how the most sane person that I have ever met just loses his shit, and the second most sane person I know is now losing hers, and I'm the only ones curious about it." He looks at Marie, exhausted and desperate.

Her eyes shift from the ground up to Andre. "Well, good luck with that." She looks at him sincerely.

He looks back at her dumbfounded. "That's it? You're just gonna run off. With your fancy fucking clothes?" Iliana is falling apart in his room and Marie wants to run off like she won the lottery?

Two girls approach them. "Hey, can we get a shot?"

"Oh, just..." Marie looks over her shoulder, holding up a finger to the girls before turning back to Andre. "Look." She huffs. "I went out with you guys one night. I... I don't know you. Or Iliana. Or Luke." She stresses, as if she wasn't giddy and excited to meet them a couple days ago. Andre nods shortly. "Who tried to kill me, remember?"

Andre looks back at her. "Yeah, well, he's dead. And his twin is falling apart. But I guess you have no problem stepping over him to get to the top. Or her next." He snaps, defending his friends.

"That shit at the club-- Brink was gonna expel me for it. Did you know that?" Marie's quick to respond.

Andre shakes his head. "Of course not. No, I would never ask for anything..."

Marie cuts him off. "You don't to. You have your dad. And half the school ready to cover for you." She argues. "I don't have shit." She pauses. "I'm sorry your friend is dead. And I'm sorry it was your other friends brother." Marie lets out a shudder. "And I'm sorry Brink is dead." She pauses again. "But, leave me out of it."

𖤓 𖤓 𖤓

𝟶ʙᴜᴛᴛᴇʀʙɪsᴄᴜɪᴛ𝟽 sᴘᴇᴀᴋs!

Heyyy, okay sorry this chapter barely had any Iliana, but I always write the pov/scene even if my oc isn't actually in it if they are mentioned sooo... yeah she was mentioned a lot lol. It just did not feel right at all to have her be at the photoshoot when she literally just saw her twin kill himself right in front her like 24 hours ago—

Oop, so anywayyy, hope y'all enjoyed even though it was mostly just Iliana being talked about mao. BUT I BETTER STILL SEE Y'ALL IN THE NEXT CHAPTER !!

Lollll, okay bye, thank you so much for reading <3

Updated Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for 300+ reads!!! When I was writing these chapters sick af  the last week of the year I was so focused and determined lol, and so excited to publish for the new year, so I can't thank y'all enough for reading this story!! Much more to come!!*