TW: suicide, death, cyber harassment 

When I got to school, it was the exact same as it had been since Sophie's funeral. Even the people who didn't know her were mourning. None of us ever expected to lose one of our classmates. Everyone pretty much avoided us, her friends. They didn't know what to do with us, how to act around us. At least, all of the sensitive people were like that.

"Hey Keefe." Linh greeted me, trying to be the cheery one in the group. She was really good at staying positive and hiding her emotions, she knew the entire group couldn't be depressed. I still wish she'd show some emotion though, show that she does miss Sophie. I understood that we all had to deal in our own ways, it just felt like no one really cared as much as they should've. Like I was the only one that actually felt the loss, beside her family of course.

"Hey." I replied, joining in the gap of the circle my friends were standing in. Dex wasn't there, he hadn't shown up to school since Sophie's funeral and announcing himself as Techno. I didn't blame him, the paparazzi and crazy fans that surrounded his house for the first few days were enough to make all of us stay away for a while. It calmed down after a few days, but you could still see a few stragglers trying to get a picture or an interview. That's why we started getting they're groceries and running errands for them, so they couldn't be bothered and mourn in peace.

I wish I could have the same luxury, but as prince I had to attend many press conferences with my parents about her disappearance, suicide, and later reveal as one of the most popular music artists in the world. So far, no reporters had found out that Sophie and I were dating, so at least I wasn't getting asked about that. It was still well known that we were good friends, so I got bombarded by far too many personal questions.

"How're you feeling?" I asked Biana, noticing her lack of makeup and styled hair. That's how we truly knew how broken she was. Even at her mentally lowest, she still made sure to put so much care into her appearance. But with the loss of her best friend, she started pairing sweatpants and pajama pants with baggy shirts that didn't match, along with a clean face and half her hair in a ponytail, the rest falling out in greasy strands.

Meanwhile, Linh was too put together, putting way more effort into her appearance than usual. Tam just looked darker, a certain type of emotional shadow hanging over him. Fitz and Marell were constantly glaring at everyone and everything, becoming incredibly irritable.

From what I'd seen, Wylie and Jensi were also extremely broken, walking through the halls at sluggish paces and dark circles under their eyes. Stina hadn't even shown up at school.

After finding out about Sophie being Moonlark, we had also found out about the song she wrote for Stina, what she meant to Stina. I couldn't possibly imagine how she was feeling, but I also knew no one could understand it for me. Stina lost her dad, then one of her greatest friends, one who understood the loss she felt. And not only that, but she... she killed herself.

She broke up with me, then killed herself. What did I do wrong? There were a million thoughts running through my head, a million ways to fix it, to go back and fix everything. But I couldn't. No one could. She was gone, for good.

"Keefe?" My attention snapped back to the present, to my friends looking at me with understanding in their faces. I felt a wetness underneath my eyes, quickly scrubbing away the tears that had fallen.

"Sorry, what's up?" I asked, quickly shrugging off all of my emotions.

"I just said that I'm doing okay, better than yesterday at least. But you weren't responding." Biana stepped a little closer to me, putting her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay to cry about her. We all do. You love her and you miss her. You're allowed to show emotion."

I blinked quickly before gently pulling her hand off my arm. I didn't want to cry about Sophie. Not at school, not at home, not ever. If I didn't cry, then I didn't care. If I didn't care, then I didn't lose anyone. She wasn't gone, she didn't die, I didn't even know who she was.

But I did know, I knew everything about her. And no amount of pretending would bring her back, make me forget her, or fill the gaping hole in my heart left by the first girl who saw me for me. I just couldn't believe she was gone. I didn't want to make it real.

"I'm not crying about it." I responded. She looked taken back by my harsh tone, but understanding crossed her face in an instant. "It's fine. I'm fine. Just leave it be."

I knew that I just proved their points even more by saying that, but I couldn't show my emotions in front of them. I couldn't just tell them the truth full out. I needed to be stronger. Sophie wouldn't have wanted me to be weak.

The bell rang and I walked off to my class, not waiting for my friends to join me. I needed time, needed my space.

"Hey Keefe." Dex greeted me after opening his front door.

"Hey, how're you holding up?" I asked, walking into his house after him and sitting on the couch. He sighed before answering.

"It's been rough here. Edaline won't even talk to any of us, and for Grady it's severely limited. Which yeah, I don't really like talking to people too much either, but it still hurts. Like, not only did we lose Sophie, but I've also lost my aunt and uncle now. Does that make sense?" He seemed cautious to be so honest with me, but I wasn't going to judge him and his feelings. Especially not with this.

"Yeah, that makes sense. All of this is just... I don't know. I can't describe it. I never ever thought she would..." I didn't even want to finish speaking. Thinking the words, saying in my head that she killed herself, that was already too much. I didn't want to say it out loud. Thankfully, Dex just nodded in response.

"Want something to drink? Or eat?" He asked.

"No thanks, I'm good." I didn't feel like having anything, especially not after talking about Sophie.

"You sure? I'm gonna go grab myself a water." He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

"Yeah, I'm sure." I nodded, remaining where I was on the couch.

I looked around the Dizznee family's sitting room, never having really taken in the details before. It was really homey, with lots of pictures of Dex and the triplets, along with cute pictures of Juline and Kesler.

My house just had our one family portrait, along with the past royal families and expensive artwork. That was it. I wished my parents would've hung up my artwork from when I was five and kept it there, like the Dizznees do.

I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket but ignored it, knowing it was just my mom or dad wondering where I was. They could call Ro, I didn't feel like talking to them at the moment.

Dex came back and sat down where he was before, clutching a glass of water.

"When are you planning on coming back to school?" I asked, wondering how much more time he's had to soak in the peace and not be bombarded by insensitive questions.

"Probably next week. My parents keep telling me I can take as much time as I need, and the triplets got the same. They haven't even been able to sleep in their own beds, so I think it's gonna be a while for them."

"I can't imagine having to go through this at such a young age." I said. "It's hard for everyone, but they're still so young, to be experiencing a loss this big." I could see Dex's eyes shining, but I knew he liked talking about everything, especially with someone who understood almost exactly what he was feeling.

"Yeah. It's probably gonna shape their futures. More so when they find out exactly what happened. Mom thinks that if they knew she..." he paused, skipping over the words none of us liked to hear or say. "It would be so much worse for them."

"Dex!" I heard his front door open and shut, the sound of his mom's voice echoing through the house. "We're home, please don't have an inappropriate movie on this time!"

I looked over at him in confusion and slight horror.

"I had been changing channels right as she came in! I wasn't watching it!" He defended immediately. I believed him, he was the guy that watched My Little Pony and lied about it.

His mom walked into the sitting room with the triplets, and as soon as they saw me they froze. I hadn't seen them since we found out. I almost wondered if they blamed me, for not getting more attention on her, not using my power to find her before anything happened.

Instead, Bex ran to me immediately and hugged me.

"Keefe! You're here!" I let out a surprised laugh, hugging her back.

"Yeah, what's up?" I asked, ruffling her hair as Lex and Rex ran over and jumped onto the couch next to me. Dex rolled his eyes after seeing that I was obviously their favorite.

"Mommy just took us over to Aunt Edaline and Uncle Grady's house to cheer them up. Aunt Edaline didn't come out though." Her chubby little face dropped with sadness and I immediately wanted to protect her from everything bad in the world. Her, Rex, and Lex. They wouldn't ever be hurting or in danger, not if I had any say in it.

I left a little while later, not wanting to intrude on their family time too much. There was a reporter waiting outside but I pushed past him, getting in Ro's car and letting her drive me home.

When I got there, my phone started ringing with a call from Fitz.

"Hey, what's up?"

"You'll never believe what someone just tried to do. I talked to Dex already about this, did you get a call earlier from a random number?"

I checked my call log cautiously, wondering what was going on. The call from when I was at Dex's house, I saw, wasn't from my mom. I read off the number to Fitz

"Yep, that's it. Did you answer?"

"No. Why? What's going on?"

"That number called Biana too but I had her phone, some rando trying to play off like they were Sophie, like she was still alive." His voice softened at the last part, but still filled with disgust for the person. "Dex said he's gotten a few other of those calls, starting from the funeral. They've increased now that Dex revealed they were Moonlark and Techno, but no one has tried to call Biana or anyone else yet."

"That's so sick." I practically snarled. Why do people think they're so funny for doing that? People have actual lives and feel actual loss and pain from deaths, why would someone try to hurt them worse? And knowing that Dex had been getting a lot of those on top of being one of the people hurt the worst by... her. I couldn't imagine how hard it was for him. And the fact that Biana would've had to deal with that too if Fitz hadn't had her phone.

I wish none of this would've happened, that the world could be a perfect place with no pain or twisted people. With nothing bad. With Sophie still with me.

sorry if things in this chapter don't line up or something, it took me like two weeks to write this because i've been so busy with school. also i had already written the next two chapters before this one, just threw this one in so you can get a keefe pov and see how things are going bc j realized you wouldn't have had a keefe pov of after she died. hope you enjoyed

Avery, out ->

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