Waking up out of a deep sleep, Beca immediately felt it; the blinding pain in her side, a wave of nausea suddenly hitting her. The throbbing was definitely not normal. Reaching for her phone, she quickly attempted to dial Chloe's number. She could barely make out the names in her contact list, thanks to the dizzying headache. Before she could do anything, a text from Aubrey displayed on the screen.
Aubrey [8:15]:Practice is in 20 minutes. BE THERE.
Rolling herself out of bed, Beca forced herself to throw some clothes on. She could barely even make it out of her dorm.
Walking out the door and immediately feeling like death again, she quickly regretted this decision.
Heading into the auditorium, she felt herself getting sick to her stomach and quickly made a mad dash to the closest bathroom. Feeling like she was beaten repeatedly with a brick and thrown down the stairs, Beca continued the short distance to the stage.
Approaching the group of girls, she could feel the weight of her body dragging behind her. She assumed she resembled a zombie by now. Before she could even grab a chair, Chloe came running over.
Oh my God, are you okay?" she wrapped her arm around her. "Holy crap, you're burning up." Beca slowly sank into her chair, inhaling in deep breaths, trying to ignore the pain. "I'm fine!" She sharply snapped at the blonde. Her voice immediately softening, "I'm good. Just….give me a minute."
Aubrey made her way to the group. "All right girls, we really need to crack down today's rehearsal and fix things. Okay, so Cynthia Rose. I need you to come up with something you want us to do during your solo. Fat Amy, no horizontal running today, okay? Chloe, I need you to—" Aubrey cut herself off. Hearing the loud thud coming from behind her, she quickly swirled around to find Beca on the floor. "Shit, Beca" Chloe rushed over to her. Dialing campus medics, she checked around her head to make sure she hadn't hurt herself.
Beca was blindsided by the pain. Clenching her fist, she moved her other hand over to grab her side. "I….can't….fuck." The tears were pouring out now. Trying to sit up, she immediately fell back, groaning in pain.
"We need to get this IV going," the young paramedic was starting the process, poking a needle into Beca's arm. She whimpered aloud, her face immediately overcome with fear. Chloe gently squeezed her hand, "it's almost done," she smiled.
"I'm going to let this run for a bit, get some fluids into your system. And in the meantime, I'm going to run these blood samples over to lab, see what's going on with you so we can get you out of here, okay?" He walked out of the room.
Beca leaned her head back against the pillow, "God, this is so embarrassing." Chloe brushed her fingers against the palm of her hand, "What are you talking about? You know, you really should have stayed home if you weren't feeling good." Beca nodded, "I know but…" she trailed off. "I didn't want to let you guys down. I said I was going to prepare a new song sample, and I never did. I was working on this stupid paper all week. I missed the last practice because I accidentally slept in." Chloe shot her a look, "Seriously, you could skip an entire week because you wanted to watch a Star Wars marathon and I wouldn't be mad." She smirked. "But Aubrey…" Beca started to fidget with her hospital bracelet.
"Don't worry about Aubrey", Chloe smirked. She'll live.
Beca winced as she tried to sit up, her sides throbbing in pain again. Chloe immediately jumped to help. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I just hate these stupid needles and wires and shit. Makes me look like a robot." The pain had since subsided once they got there, but every now and then it would hit her like a bus.
Chloe got herself comfortable. The small stool she was given wasn't exactly the softest. She'd always had a small infatuation with the younger girl. And after spending a good chunk of her days alongside her, it had grown by a mile. Granted, she hated seeing Beca in this condition, she was still loving the time she got to spend with her.
Before Chloe could say another word, the paramedic from earlier came back into the room. "Oo-kay Beca! So I have good news and bad news." Beca grew immensely nervous, Chloe grabbed her hand again. "Good news is, you'll be able to get out of here as soon as your prescriptions are written up. Bad news, you've got mono." Chloe's ears immediately picked up.
"But I don't…I'm not in a….." He quickly stopped her and smirked. "Don't worry. You don't always catch this from kissing. I mean, you live on campus 24/7. You share bathrooms and showers with how many strangers? It can be a number of things. We've actually had a few students coming through here the past few weeks with the same symptoms." Setting her medical information on the table, he made his way back out again, "I would highly advise you to rest though. I'll be back in a little bit to discharge you."
Chloe sat besides Beca in the chair. Before she knew it, the brunette was knocked out. Watching her sleep, she quickly found herself getting lost in her face. Noticing the slight twitch of her nose, or the small smirk she made at one point, had Chloe blushing. It was just too adorable to look away.
"You know, I'm really proud of you Beca." She brushed away the hair on her forehead. "I know how much you hate hospitals and everything. Love you, Bec." Glancing around the outside of the doorway, she quickly leaned over the sleeping girl and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. If Beca was aware of what was going on right now, she'd be flipping her shit. She was just as much into Chloe, but had absolutely no idea it was mutual.
Chloe quickly pulled away and threw herself back down into the chair as she saw Fat Amy standing outside. Did she just see that? She was now silently freaking out. There was no way anyone could know about her liking Beca.
"What uupp?" Fat Amy stood along the opposite side of the hospital bed, peering down at Beca. "So what's the deal with Shawshank?" Chloe "She has mono. But I guess it's going around, or something. We're allowed to leave as soon as she gets up." Fat Amy started to walk towards the door. "Wait, where are you going? You just got here."
Turning back around, Amy looked serious. "Oh, well Aubrey called off practice after you know," smashing her hands together, she made a crashing sound, "and we all went back to your apartment and they told me to pick up the pizza on my way back but I ended up giving the money to a homeless man because he touched my bum. So I have to go find out where he went so I can get that money back." Chloe muffled her laugh, trying to keep it under control. No matter what came out of that girl's mouth, it always had her cracking up.
As she made her way out the door, Fat Amy popped her head back inside. "Oh, and blondie, next time don't be such a pussy and just kiss her when she's conscious." Chloe's mouth dropped. "Nah, don't worry Ellen. I won't tell anyone."
Beca slowly opened her eyes, stretching as much as she could before remembering where she was and that she was connected to so many tubes. Almost ripping out the IV in her arm, she quickly stopped mid stretch.
"Hey sleeping beauty!" Chloe grinned. She had the bag of meds sitting in her lap. "You waited here?" Beca sleepily asked. "Of course! I brought you here, didn't I?" Beca glanced at her, "well technically, an ambulance brought me, and you just jumped in."
"Well that's because it was the only ride I had, and I couldn't leave you here because I had no way of getting back. Duh." Chloe sarcastically laughed.
The nurse that handed Chloe the medications had returned. "Nice to see you're up. Feeling any better?"
"Well, it doesn't totally feel like I'm dying. But, I still see two of you right now." Beca proceeded to yawn.
"So I kind of gave your friend here the run down on what all I gave you. I printed off some instructions for you on them, how much to take and when. There's also a list of things you need to refrain from doing for the next couple of days. Basically no vigorous activity, sports, exercising, sex, rapid movement. Anything that can cause strain on your abdomen."
"Damn. What am I supposed to do with all those Barden guys now?" Beca perked up, her signature smirk curling the side of her mouth.
"Oh, it's safe to say you're feeling better." Chloe laughed.
The nurse exited the room and Chloe began to gather all of Beca's belongings. As she grabbed her jacket, the woman returned, wheelchair in tow.
"Ready to go?"
Chloe assisted Beca up to the second floor of her building. She insisted that she stayed at her and Aubrey's place, until she was well enough to be on her own. Lord knows Kimmy Jin wouldn't lift a finger. Reaching the door knob, she heard the distinct sound of the Bella's inside. Walking in, they saw everyone sitting around in the living room, huddled around four boxes of pizza and the television.
"Heeeeeeey!," the voices synchronal. "You guys waited up for me?" Beca leaned against the blonde. Lily was the first to respond. Whispering, she let out a quick "of course!" Stacy popped her head out from behind the recliner, "you know Beca, I can totally look after you if you want. I've had mono so many times, it's turned into stereo." Jokingly, everyone slowly moved an inch away from her. "Thanks Stace" Beca smirked.
"I love that you guys are here and all, but I think I'm just gonna go crash in the back if you don't mind." Chloe proceeded to guide her to her bedroom. "Twenty bucks says they're totally going to cuddle back there." Lily whispered.
Beca curled up in Chloe's blankets. Her head sinking into the mass amounts of pillows. "Are you sure you don't need anything?" The look on Chloe's face still hinted of concerned worried mother.
"Nah, I'm good. That walk up the stairs just kind of got to me. I'm just gonna sleep it off and hopefully when I wake up, your face won't be spinning and I won't want to throw up!"
Before Chloe left, she set a bottle of Gatorade on her nightstand, as well as a bucket next to her bed. "Just in case."
As she made her way out of her bedroom, Beca sighed heavily. "Hey, thanks. By the way."
"For what?" Chloe really didn't need to be thanked.
"You know. For just all the stuff you did today. You really didn't have to."
Chloe looked at her, "well you know if I wasn't here, Aubrey would have just left you on the floor in the auditorium and kept going. You'd probably still be there!" Both girls agreed.
The blonde was out into the hallway now, starting to close her door when Beca started again. "Oh, and don't worry. I'll make sure Fat Amy doesn't tell anyone."
Chloe shut the door and leaned against it. Beaming, she headed back to the group of girls, grinning from ear to ear.
Beca lay in Chloe's bed. Admiring the soft sheets and lingering scent of her friend on the pillows, she couldn't help but capture every moment of that day. Smiling, she let out a whisper, "love you too, Chlo."