Monday morning, 5:49am

Chloe Beale couldn't sleep. Most nights, she had no problem at all. Sleep was something that rarely eluded her. Tonight, though, she could. not. sleep. In all honesty, her mind had been restless since Friday night and it was only now, Sunday night into Monday morning, that her body had finally caught up.

After spending most of the night tossing and turning, her thoughts racing, she decided to go for a run to clear her mind. It was almost 6 am, so there wasn't much point in trying to sleep now, anyway. After checking her phone again and seeing no new texts, she hopped out of bed, drank a glass of water, ate a granola bar, and put on her running clothes, hoping the exercise would help regain her focus and maybe give her some energy.

Chloe liked to run, liked the way it opened her lungs and cleared her mind. She liked the endorphins and the way it helped to sculpt her body. Whenever she found herself in emotional turmoil, running was her go-to solution to at least take the edge off, if not completely calm her nerves.

At first, the run seemed to help Chloe's mental state. Sticking to a playlist of potential Bella's songs, she was able to hone in on the music, working out which members of the group could perform which parts of the song, eliminating some songs from contention, boosting others to the top of her list. After a while, though, her brain went back to the rambling, anxious state it had been in last night while she should have been sleeping.

Bella's song lists. Beca. I really should get new running shoes. Beca. I need to plan a study schedule for midterms. Beca. Beca. Stacie still never gave back that jacket I let her borrow last week. Beca. Beca. BECA.

The events of Friday night were on a constant loop, no matter what she tried. Even when she was thinking about something else, she could feel it in the back of her consciousness, rattling around like loose parts. The thought that something between her and Beca had potentially broken or come undone stopped Chloe in her tracks.

She put her hands on her hips and took a few deep breaths, looking up. It couldn't be a coincidence she stopped in this spot. Ever since she started attending Barden, Chloe had set herself the goal of one day running up the stairs that led to the astrological observatory. The tower, which was part of the Physics and Astronomy building, sat in the corner of the University at the south end of Millerand Common just before a sharp drop-off of the topography.

Chloe's usual run took her in a circuit through the middle and around the outskirts of the south side of campus. This route always took her past the bottom of the gargantuan staircase. The incline was steep and the stairs zigzagged up the side of the rock face, carving a wide path, left to right to left, into the stone. Chloe had tried to run the complete set a few times over the past three years and had never made it all the way. The furthest she had gone without stopping or slowing to a walk was to about ¾ of the way to the top. All in all, there were 429 steps. The wiki entry said 430, but Chloe knew it was wrong. She had counted. She had walked the steps quite a few times, but she wanted to run them, all at once, no stopping, no slowing.

Her eyes raking over the imposing task in front of her, she flipped through her playlists until she came to her hardcore workout list and set it to random. "Let's do this, Beale," she said to herself.

Chloe started her ascent, counting steps as she went.