'That song... was for him?' Chloe thought, as her heart shattered into what felt like a million pieces.
The explosion of the crowd was euphoria, pure joy that enveloped them all as the Bellas made their way off the stage to await the announcement that declared the winners of that year's ICCA finals; it was theirs, they earned it, they were wonderful and everyone in the building knew it that night. Tugging on and tripping over each other as a tight group while they made their way off stage left, these group of girls were still giddy and stumbling as they found their reserved row out on the audience floor. It was while Chloe fumbled to her seat, clutching fast to Aubrey's hand and smiling so huge her cheeks hurt, that she realized her other hand should have also been occupied - by Beca.
The younger girl had desperately tried to maintain a mysterious distance with Chloe just as she had done with the other girls at the beginning of the a capella season, but the bubbly redhead would have none of her usual closed-off demeanor from the start, and the two had quickly become "fast friends". It made sense then, for Chloe to wonder why Beca had suddenly gone missing, and she whirled around to see if maybe the girl had stayed onstage for some reason. Not finding here there, she quickly scanned the section of seating that had been reserved for performers and family - and the smile that had just held her face alight sank faster than a plummeting stone into water, as did her heart.
Beca had already made her way to the crowd, it seemed, dashing ahead of the rest of their group to run to the one person Chloe had hoped to have seen the last of for good - Jesse. Letting herself get pulled into his tight embrace, Beca threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss that any John Hughes movie would have died for. And in that instant, she knew.
Only three days before the finals, Beca had rushed in to practice, eyes bright with determination to add one last song to their set list. Don't You (Forget About Me) had been launched into fame alongside the iconic move The Breakfast Club, and Chloe had always loved the song, so she of course was one hundred percent behind the idea of incorporating it into their set, even though the hurriedly added choreo would be a bitch for everyone to master this close to the ICCA's. Then again, Chloe was supportive of almost anything involving Beca Mitchell these days.
To know that she had worked so hard, and helped bring the Bella's so far with that song, only to have it be for him... it was too much for Chloe just then. All the Bella's at this point had been seated, and she realized that she must have been staring at Beca for much too long, and there was Aubrey stepping in front of her to block her view of the kissing pair, deep concern etched in her forehead. Stark horror and grief was written all over Chloe's face, and when her eyes met those of her blonde best friend just then, she saw a spark of recognition in them, and then a flare of anger. Turning to follow her gaze, Aubrey also spied Beca and Jesse, then whipped her head back around to face Chloe, who had by now plastered on the worse fake smile she'd ever used.
"She knows.. God, Bree knows why seeing that makes me so sick and now she's going to want answers and please, God, just kill me where I stand..."
Chloe heavily dumped her body in her reserved seat, Aubrey's glare at her softening somewhat before she took the seat next to her. Only a few minutes passed before Beca was there, and the heat coming off of her body was only inches from Chloe, and her blissful smile tore a hole through her, and the fact that she was still jabbering excitedly but didn't notice anything was wrong was just about the absolute end of what Chloe could stand.