A/N: This triangle is irresistible to me and I'm not even sure how it will end up. This is just a series of drabbles that I was compelled to write after my hiatus.
A sort of sad pallor overtook Chloe's features and Aubrey watched as it washed all the usual cheer from her favorite face. The rolling coldness in her stomach was the nuanced realization that she, or more precisely, her actions, had caused the change.
She couldn't help remembering the voice that spoke in the quiet part of her mind for the past three months. The one that urged her not to give in to her feelings, not to take a chance. Change was one thing that Aubrey detested.
The way it screwed with her control and made her evolve from the pattern she had created in her life. She needed her best friend and would not sacrifice that relationship for the warm storm created inside her body when they kissed. So, she backed away, faster and faster, until she could no longer discern the exact look on Chloe's face. It blurred through salt water and distance.
Turning to run, tears streaming from her eyes, she absolved herself of the guilt by thinking that this was better. It was, because there was nothing that could wreck her life like losing the person she cared about most.
Forget the night they had spent wrapped in each other, hoping that daylight would not come. Aubrey had to forget it, push back the feeling that what she was losing was the making of her.
When she reached the dorm, she rushed into her room and collected all the things she would need to stay at her father's house. It was a thirty minute trip, down a winding road, and away from all the issues that plagued her. When she got there she would have to explain, lie, but that was okay. As long as she could take comfort in her old room, breathe the fresh air, and loose herself in grooming her horse, all would be well.
Chloe would forgive her and see the wisdom in what she had done. She would move on, maybe with Beca. An invisible fist wedged into her abdomen, making the air rush out. The image of Beca kissing Chloe after Regionals appeared like a ghost.
That was something she would have to get used to again. Seeing Chloe with other people had always been hard but now she had even more reason to appear to be fine with it. She had made her choice. Throwing that night to the back of her mind like baggage she would have to carry with her, she left their shared dorm but stopped in the doorway.
On the peg by the door hung Chloe's hound's tooth coat. Impulse overtaking her, she reached out and grabbed the neck of the thick fabric and brought it to her face. It smelled of fig and lavender, Chloe's perfume.
The scent mingled with her thoughts bringing the utter fear of loss screaming into her mind. She shoved the coat away, not caring that it fell onto the floor and rushed down the hall and into the stairwell.
When she got to her car she threw the bag in the back and got behind the wheel. When she looked up at the dorm she saw the light she had left on shining in the window and the brush of the curtain as air from the vent disturbed it.
One deep breath got the perfume out of her system and she left, hoping that when she returned it would all be back to the way it was before. A few days distance would do them good. It would set their orbits to right.