Monday
Chloe comes home later than her two girlfriends every Monday and Wednesday night. She works as a choreographer and a co-director at a prestigious summer children's theater program in the city, and these days always ran late.
Chloe expects, when she gets home on these nights, to find her home in one of two states. One being Aubrey and Beca happily hanging out together, doing normal girlfriend things. You know, cooking, watching TV, or just doing their own things but while cuddled together on the couch. The other being, the actual Aubrey and Beca version of normal, doing things like yelling at each other, ignoring each other, or doing elaborate stunts to purposely annoy one another.
Tonight when Chloe walks through the door, she soon realizes it is going to be the latter. She immediately notices the surprising quiet of their town home. She sets her things down and makes her way into the living room where she see's her normally put together blonde girlfriend laying on the couch looking terribly defeated.
Aubrey was staring up at the ceiling, wide-eyed, lips pursed, and hair falling over the edge of the couch so it was slightly sweeping the floor. "Rough night?" Chloe asked, raising her eyebrows. She looked around the room but didn't see any sign of Beca or any specific evidence as to what caused this puddle of Aubrey in front of her.
Aubrey hoisted herself up on her elbows, pulled her eyebrows together, and sucked in some air as if she was about to defend herself, but instead just fell flat again, head plopping hard against the cushion. Although she was rubbing her face, causing the response to come out muffled, Chloe thinks she heard her groan out a "Yes."
Chloe thinks most people would think this is an issue. The frequency of her coming home to a night like this, but this was just how they were with each other. She stopped being concerned ages ago. It's Beca and Aubrey, everyone knows its just how they operate. And Chloe usually fixes it. Thats partly the reason the three of them work so well together.
However, tonight she's not sure she's going to have the energy to deal with whatever this new challenge was about to be. The three of them moved about an hour and a half drive out of the city to be closer to Aubrey's lodge after graduation. It was necessary, because otherwise Aubrey would have to sleep at the lodge more frequently, so she could be there to bark orders at sunrise. She wouldn't be able to make the commute very often to and from their apartment in the city. And neither Chloe or Beca had to be in Atlanta every day, so their new commute was worth it.
Except some days it was kind of exhausting. Especially today for Chloe. One of her leads actually broke a leg rehearsing, and the traffic was dreadful, and she was kind of starving. So she decides cutting to the chase is probably going to be her best bet for her mental stability right now.
"Your fault, huh?" She asks, dully.
Chloe jumps a second later as the blonde starts wildly waiving her arms around as she starts talking quickly. "I really tried to say sorry Chlo'! I seriously did! Like a million times." She sat up, perched on her elbows and looked at the staircase in front of her. She raised her voice, so Beca could hear her, Chloe presumed. "But someone is being too stubborn and choosing to ignore me instead of working it out!" Then she plopped back down, huffing again.
Great, Chloe thinks. The silent treatment. A tactic that comes easily to an introvert like Beca. This one was not going to be easy. Chloe was about to voice her confusion when she hears the padding of foot steps coming down the stairs. A moment later the petite girl appears in front of her, looking normal as ever.
Beca smiles at Chloe, walking toward her. She gives a chaste kiss to Chloe, who doesn't have time to reciprocate, because she's not expecting this normal behavior. She turns on her heel quickly, and Chloe watches with her, confused, slanted jaw ajar, as Beca saunters into the kitchen. No acknowledgement of the apparent argument whatsoever. Chloe glances down to make eye contact with Aubrey. Aubrey's hand flies up, "I told you," she sings.
Chloe huffed. Her patience was already thin, and she had to work on the play and figure out what to do about her leads broken leg. She didn't exactly have time to be doing this charade tonight.
However a minute later, after dragging Aubrey behind her, she finds herself in the kitchen trying to reason with Beca.
Beca on the other hand, was happily chopping up vegetables for some salad, apparently. And definitely not intending on breaking the stubborn thing she had going on at the moment. "I missed you," she smiles up at Chloe, who's leaning her back on the counter next to her. "How was your day?"
"Beca," Chloe said assertively.
"What?" Beca asked, in a light, innocent voice.
Chloe looked up to find Aubrey pouring herself and rather large glass of some cabernet. She looked at Aubrey, who looked back, and Chloe swears she can hear her think something along the lines of, listen, i've done everything I could've, now I'm going to drink this whole bottle of wine, sue me, red. (In more or less words, but Chloe thinks after knowing Aubrey for eight years that she can read her pretty damn well.)
She shakes her head and gives her attention back to Beca, who was now not so subtly, angrily chopping up a tomato. "Becs, I've had a very long day, and so if you can maybe tell me what you're so upset about, so I can help, I would really appreciate it." Her voice came out heavy and tired, and Chloe thinks it pushes Beca in the direction she's asking for.
Beca's arm comes down especially hard on the cutting board, and her mouth tightened into a straight line. "Ask her," she said, through gritted teeth.
And Chloe was avoiding this, because, well, if Aubrey is admitting she's wrong so easily, then her side of the story is still not going to be the one she wants. Because admitting it is one thing for Aubrey, but being completely honest on the specifics, well, thats another.
But she looks expectantly back at the blonde anyway, because at this point she'll take whatever information she can get. Aubrey is staring into her wine glass, circling the rim with her forefinger. "In my defense," she starts, biting her lip. Chloe can practically hear the eye roll Beca displays at the comment. "Beca had been putting this off for like, two weeks, and… and…" She looked up. Her face changed from guilty to determined. "And well, I just couldn't wait any longer! I had to know and I just thought she was over it! I didn't think it would be this big thing! She doesn't even really like this stuff anyway!"
"Oh, that is so not true!" Beca turned around suddenly, knife still in hand. "I was just busy! I've been trying to do this with you but we haven't had time with just the two of us in awhile but since Chlo' was going to be working late tonight and we were both going to actually be here I was so excited to finally come home and do this together!" She took a step forward, knife waiving around in her hand. "But noooo, you broke the number one cardinal lesbian rule Aubrey!" She pointed with the knife, "You-!"
"Okay, okay!" Chloe shouted, taking a step up as well. She took a deep breath, and reached for Beca, "First of all," she wrapped her hand around the handle of the knife, "lets's give me the knife," slowly pulling it from her grasp, Beca realizing and nodding in agreement. She turned to set the knife down, and then back to the girls. "Second of all, what in the aca-hell are you talking about? And please, specifics."
"She watched the Master Chef Junior season finale without me!" Beca shouted toward Chloe, before turning back to cross her arms and glare at the blonde.
Chloe's mouth dropped a little. They all had their designated binge watch shows together. Beca and Aubrey's being Master Chef Junior (because they're small and adorable and food geniuses), Chloe and Beca's being True Blood (which Aubrey refuses to watch because the girls are always saying how much Aubrey looks like that evil bitch Sarah Newlin, and she just doesn't want to be associated with her), Chloe and Aubrey's being Grey's Anatomy (mainly because it has so many seasons, and they were so far along by the time Beca moved in that there was no catching up), and then of course the three of them together watched Orange is the New Black, (because, duh.)
Chloe's mouth dropped open because, well, Beca was right. No matter what, the girls agreed to never watch the show without one another, let alone a season finale. But truthfully, she doesn't know what to say, so she just stares at the blonde, who is now looking ashamed again.
"She might as well have cheated on me." Chloe hears Beca say under her breath to the right of her. To this, Chloe rolls her eyes and lightly swats Beca's arm. "It's true," she grumbles back, before turning her attention back to the cutting board.
Chloe spends the next twenty minutes trying to reason with the two of them who are not budging. Primarily because Beca is back to not talking directly to Aubrey; She's only talking through Chloe.
Chloe only stops trying to be the peace maker when her phone vibrates. A confirmation text from the boy who broke his leg's mother, that it is indeed broken, and they are so sorry they won't be able to do the play. She tells the girls that she has to go work on the play, to make adjustments, and that they will have to figure it out on their own.
Aubrey looks at her helplessly, and Beca simply leaves the room with her salad, Chloe presumes to lock herself away in a mix somewhere in the house.
"They're big girls," Chloe thinks as she ascends the stairs to the home office. "They can figure this one thing out on their own. It's just a TV show."