Iliana hastily leaves Brink's office, rushing to the nearest bathroom as her chest begins to tighten and her breathing picks up. She falls into the door, hurrying inside and grips the sink as she feels it begin to melt in her hands.

Jordan fucking Li.

Still seems to have this hold over her, after not even seeing them for about a year. Her phone rings causing her to jump and release the sink- well, what's left of it.

She clears her throat before answering. "Hello?"

"Hey Il, you finished with Brink?"

Luke, she shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, calming down.

Shoot! The "welcome back" performances, more for the Freshman, but still cool all the same. And important to Luke.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way to the field." She tells him.

"Okay, I'm on next." He says, sighing in relief. "See you in a few."

"Yeah, I'll be right there." She assures. She reapplies her lipgloss and smooths down her hair and shirt before making her way to the field. She has an extra pep in her step knowing who else will be there, trying to push what happened in Brink's office to the back of her mind.

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"Ew, my eyes!" Iliana fake gags as she approaches her brother and best friend on the field. "Get a room you two."

Cate spins around, face lighting up immediately. "Il!" She screams, jumping into Iliana's arms.

"I'm with Goldie, tongue in your head. Head in the game." Andre shouts as he makes his way over to them.

Iliana looks over Cate's shoulder and gasps. "Magnet!" She runs over to Andre and he spins her around as she lands in arms.

"Really? Still going with that name, huh?" Andre muses as he sets her down.

"Course." She scrunches her nose playfully, never giving up the nickname she gave him Freshman year, second semester. "You still call me Goldie." She points out.

"Always." He grins before him and Luke start walking together.

Cate loops her arm through Iliana's. "Just us girls now." She winks. "So, when did you get in?" She asks as they move to the sideline.

"Earlier today." Iliana answers. "I had a couple errands to run before I could meet up with you guys." She keeps it vague.

Cate shakes her head, letting out a sound of disapproval. "Iliana, you're always on the go, you need a break."

Iliana sighs. "I know, I know."

Suddenly Cate grabs Iliana's hands. "Let's go out this weekend." She smirks.

Iliana perks up as her body buzzes with excitement. She hasn't been out in forever and a night out to catch up with her favorite people makes it that much better. Texts and the occasional facetime just isn't the same as talking and hanging out in person. Iliana missed movie nights, clubbing, lunches, and shopping more than anything, she even missed class with all of them.

"Perfect." Iliana responds.

"Yes." Cate claps her gloved hands together. "I have the cutest new outfit that I know you're gonna adore."

Iliana smiles excitedly as the crowd begins to cheer 'Golden Boy' and she looks over to find her brothers body on fire.

"Fights on." She smirks to Cate.

His opponent takes the first swing, trying to capitalize on Luke looking out at the crowd, but he dodges it easily, as he does the next few punches before taking his own upper cut. Iliana stands on the tip of her toes in anticipation as Luke gets several more licks in before throwing the other guy over his shoulder.

His opponent makes it to his feet for more and Luke gives him a big punch, laughing before he makes his way over, steps on the guys back, and rips off both his arms.

"Egh." Iliana turns her head, not in the mood to see blood and ligaments hanging out of the guys arms-well, what's left of them.

Luke gets a robe on and him and Andre take the guy his arms back.

"That was fun." Iliana turns to Cate raising her brows and Cate grins slyly in return. "Go get yourself a victory kiss." She pushes the lighter blonde towards the boys as they laugh and make their way over to the fighting pad.

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Iliana arrives back on campus from a quick shopping run with a bag full of tampons, sour candy, hot chocolate, and an eye mask kit. Starting her period was the cherry to top off her day, but Andre said they could have a movie night and was supposed to be waiting for her outside.

Her eyes widen when she notices a bunch of campus security vehicles.

"Hey, hey, who is that guy?" She hears Andre's voice and hurries across the lawn to find him standing next to a girl as several men run past her.

"Magnet? What the hell is going on?" She rushes out.

"Goldie!" Andre wraps his arm around her shoulder. She turns to find the girl from this afternoon in Brink's office. She follows their line of vision to find someone smashed between a van and car and guards putting a mask over the person's face. "Shit." He mutters.

"What the fuck happened?" She whispers, totally oblivious that the boy being drugged merely a few feet in front of her is her little brother...

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Andre sighs as he shuts Iliana's door behind them and they collapse onto her bed.

"Some night, huh?" He speaks first.

"Yeah, some first day back." She lets out a chuckle. "So you really didn't get a good look at the kid?" She asks again. For some reason she can't help but shake the feeling that that was much more than some kid whacked out.

"No, no. I mostly came in at the end, smashed him between two cars." Andre shrugs. He leans up, grabbing her shopping bag and starts riffling through it. "So we doing eye masks or what?" He smiles towards his best friend. He can tell she's exhausted, more than beyond jet leg or no sleep... but he didn't pry, at least not the first night she was back. Andre never pushed more than needed, and Iliana loved him for that.

"You wanna do eye masks?" She laughs.

"Of course, I gotta get rid of these bags you see." He muses. "You open these, I'll start the cocoa." He stands, holding out his hand for her. "I'll even let you pick the movie." He grins, pulling her up.

She instantly wraps her arms around him. "Thank you, Magnet." She whispers.

Andre was the first person she met here at God U and she'll never forget him helping her around campus her first day, scared to death to be late to class already, and very embarrassed to walk in by herself. Thankfully, Andre was also late. And she'll never forget that she made fun of his dad's statue right to his face, completely unaware Polarity was his father, which only made him like her even more.

"Don't mention it, Goldie." He smiles, happy to have her back, having no idea what she went through while she was away...

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𝟶ʙᴜᴛᴛᴇʀʙɪsᴄᴜɪᴛ𝟽 sᴘᴇᴀᴋs!

Hello, hello!! <3

So I know that Luke's fighting scene happens before the scene and brings office... but I flipped them bc this is just what worked better for this story lol.

Also Andre and Iliana are so BROTP FOR LIFE!!! Ugh I absolutely adore their friendship so so much!

Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed this chapter & Iliana getting to reunite with her besties <3 See you in the next part!!