Lucy and I came from Tallahassee
With our bones on our backs
Our backs on our knees
- To Travels & Trunks by Hey Marseilles

One year.
Then a free flight to LA. This was the agreement Beca and her father had agreed to.
So when she's finally hoisting an ICCA above her head as Aubrey's cheering into her ear, Chloe laughing in the other, and the crowd is hollering louder than the lights in her eyes, a part of her thinks: "Okay. Done."

They head out to their favourite bar off-campus in celebration, small vials of vodka and gin tucked into bras, and cell phones set to vibrate in slightly naughtier bits. Stacie ensures them all it makes for a better night, and everyone's a little buzzed anyway, so most of them wonder 'Why not?' They line up for a total of the amount of time it takes to get to the back of the line, before the bouncer is greeting Aubrey with a sly look in his eye. "You're the reserved party?" he asks pointedly.

Aubrey shakes her head with such confidence you'd never question it, though the people in line of course do. "Seriously dude?" a man in a leather jacket with his arm slung around his girlfriend asks the bouncer, "My girl's hotter than all these bitches." Beca feels Chloe pause in her steps and grimaces at the man's choice of words, before grabbing loosely at Lily, gripping her fake ID tightly, and the Bellas move inside.

The flickering bar is thumping and after everyone's shed their coats, they're dancing wildly against each other and Beca's eyes are fluttering as the music pumps loudly in her chest and ears and Fat Amy's grinding up against her back and Chloe's got her hands on her waist and she's laughing so warmly into her ear it's like Beca could just fall asleep against her and Chloe's murmuring, "I'm so glad you came back to us," and Beca can hear her smile in her words and she can only grin widely as the redhead pecks her softly on the cheek before hooting loudly with Stacie's ecstatic cheer, "I LOVE THIS SONG' and the Bellas sing aloud to a remix of Katy Perry's Roar and Chloe's never looked so carefree and Beca thinks, "Okay. Done."

One afternoon in late May, Aubrey's at her door with a brand new black and white pitch pipe she offers almost shyly to Beca with pursed lips and a smile and Beca actually feels pretty accomplished and as her fingers grip around the cool metal case she thinks, "Okay. Done."

It's just a few days from the last day of school, and while Kimmy-Jin has been studying haphazardly about their dorm or in the library, Beca's been concentrating mostly on her mashup resume, scoping flight deals for LA, and appreciating the general tense silence on campus that's developed with this time of the year. She's working on a Young Jeezy/Taylor Swift mashup when a pencil is flicked onto her keyboard. Pausing momentarily, Beca snaps her headphones off and turns to Kimmy-Jin. "What's up?" she sighs, setting aside the frustration for another day that her roommate just can't tap her shoulder like a normal person.

"There's someone at the door," Kimmy-Jin responds with those frustrated eyes, turning back to her work.

Beca detangles herself from the headphones entirely, skipping across the room with a dramatized huff. She isn't exactly expecting anyone, aside from maybe sometimes her father, though he rather make obnoxious comments from behind the door, so there's no real questioning when it's him. Jesse was home for the summer and had just texted her a photo of him and his family by the beach, many of the Bellas have also already gone home, and it was exam season. So what she doesn't quite expect, especially because they just met up yesterday for a run, is an uninvited, unannounced Chloe Beale, smiling nervously when the door swings open.

"Hi," she says almost breathlessly.

"Uh, hey," Beca's eyebrows crease, "You out of breath?"

Chloe shakes her head quickly, convincing no one. "Do you-" she glances nervously into Beca's room, which the brunette follows with more confusion, "Do you have time to talk?"

"Is this like a You-Need-Me-To-Give-You-A-Shovel-And-Duffel-Bag Thing or a Girl-Chat-Type thing?"

Chloe laughs and bites her lip. "Neither, just – I wanted to ask you something."

There's some excitement in her eyes that seems to infect Beca, which only makes her more suspicious. It sounds like it may be private, but there's such a casual air about her that it's probably about which of these stupid adorable kittens should she adopt. "Is-I mean, is out here okay?" Beca motions to the emptying hallway.

Chloe looks about, as if she'd never thought of it before. "Oh-yeah."

Beca closes the door, careful to exchange a fire-flash glance with Kimmy-Jin, and they move down the corridor to a windowsill. Baker has always been a pretty active dorm, but it's nearing dinnertime and everyone walking past seems to be preoccupied with their phones. Beca leans against the window, until she realizes that makes the sunlight shine into Chloe's eyes, so she scoots beside it and Chloe stills beside her. Outside, the sun is setting and casting a beautiful red glow onto her. "What's his name? Where is he from?"

Chloe rolls her eyes. "Not girl chat."

"Whatever you say, red. So what's up? You seem…different."

Chloe twitches nervously, biting one side of her lower lip, then the other. Fumbling hands and cracking her knuckles slowly, Beca's never seen her so uncertain but seemingly about ready to burst. "So you know about the mandatory Bellas meeting next week," she says agonizingly slowly, as if she's ready for Beca to jump in. When she's only met with a nod, she bites her whole lower lip before continuing. "Well actually it's kind of mandatory because we're a little bit behind on schedule this year."

Beca's eyes knit together. "Okay..." she says slowly.

Chloe takes a step forward to her. "We're supposed to already have the new leaders of next year to submit to school but since we went through – you know - what we went through this year, " Beca rolls her eyes with a smile. "We didn't actually get around to talking about the long run-Anyway! Long story short. I think that … you should do it. I'm going to nominate you on Monday, and I already know through secret means that I'll get a second nomination from one Stacie Conrad." Chloe's smile is megawatt, and only slightly falters at Beca's silence. "Of course," she bulldozes through, "It doesn't – matter. If you don't accept the nomination. Which I suspected you might not without some-" she winks, "Convincing."

Beca's only allowing small awkward puffs of air out at a time. She inhales quickly and stares out the window. Well, fuck. She feels Chloe's hand grab at her arm.

"Oh come on, Beca, we both know you're the best choice. Just say yes."

It's too much. A little too much information, a little too much belief, and a lot too much touching. She slowly arches her arm out of Chloe's reach, trying to look away from the redhead's smile that suddenly slides right off. "Yeah," she says softly, watching the bros outside play Frisbee, "Listen, Chloe. I probably should have told you this before…"

Chloe's breath catches. "You're leaving the Bellas?"

"No, it's not-I'm-urgh," Beca shuts her eyes and rubs them with a hand frustratingly. Fuck, why did she have to hurt peoples' feelings just by pursuing her own dreams? She takes a breath and raises her eyesight to Chloe's. "I've kind of always had the plan to leave Barden after my first year," she breathes out quickly. "For LA."

There's a silence, as Chloe's eyes grow wide, then softer. She licks her lips for the first time, purses them together. "Um. Oh," she settles with. They shift together on their feet as a group of girls walk by quizzing each other on what sounds to be a chemistry test. Beca fights some stupid fucking urge to like – cry. Chloe actually wipes at her eye, which causes Beca to inhale quickly. Nobody needs to fucking cry over this, least of all Chloe.

"Look, it's always been the plan. It's nothing personal, Chloe. Not to Barden, not to the Bellas, not to-" she stops.

Chloe's just nodding, but it's not clear if anything is quite landing. "I um-"she wipes at her lips this time, "I kind of thought you were…" she trails off, with a distant look in her eye, "I mean, I thought that we had-" she stops herself. She's not sure where that sentence is going, but it pulls at her chest too tightly.

This has to stop. This whole awkward back and forth and stopping sentences thing. This was Chloe, for god's sake, why did this have to be something painful. Why did we have to talk about it? Beca reaches for that. "I mean, you get it, don't you, Chlo? You're leaving, too."

At this, Chloe breaks into a sudden smile. A wide grin followed by an almost maniacal laugh, and she's wiping at her eyes that are actually tearing up. And something's squishing inside of her and dying over and over, and over. "No, Beca," she laughs, and it sounds like nothing is funny, "No, the thing is I'm – um-" She pauses and laughs harder, this time tears actually streaming down her face. Fuck fuck fuck. Beca reaches forward to grab at her but Chloe's moved out of her grasp, pushed off the wall and out of the sunlight. "No," she says, waving a hand to motion she's fine, "No, the thing is I'm actually not graduating." She laughs again before grimacing and bites her lower lip. "I failed Russian lit, so I think I might be staying at Barden for another year."

The wheels spin. Because Chloe is awesome at Russian lit. No: Chloe could fucking teach Russian lit. The wheels spin. They spin and spin. And Beca finally clicks on. "Chloe," she says softly, reaching forward this time instead, she grazes the redhead's arm. When she doesn't shift away, Beca traces her forearm down to her hand and plays with her fingers lightly. "Were you asking me to co-captain with you?"

Chloe sniffs, hating that she's crying. Fuck, it's not that big of a deal. Amy would be fine. Amy would be fine. Amy would be fine. "It's fine," she shakes her head. "It's just that the first round of pre-auditions is coming up next week and I've got to be home for my nephew's birthday so I won't be able to attend and I – we need a captain there."

Beca's mind is swirling. Swirling and swirling and goddamit why doesn't Barden have palm trees and why won't Luke give her a better chance and why won't the radio stations return her calls even after the ICCAs and she really doesn't want to tell her dad she wants to stay another year and see that stupid smug expression on his face and Jesse would finally be able to literally marathon all John Hughes movies and why does Chloe look so sad, and god, this is why you don't make friends. "Chloe-"

"It's fine, Beca," she says again, this time gazing back out the windows. She sighs and wipes at her eyes with finality.

"Okay, I know what that means, it means nothing is fine, but look, you've got to see this from my point of view, too, right?" Chloe's sinking into herself and it's not what Beca intended, but dammit she has to get this point across. "It's not personal, it's just the plan."

Chloe swallows hard. "The plan?"

"Yes, the plan! Don't you have a-" she stops herself yet again. Fuck that has to stop. She takes a breath. "Chloe, it's not like I haven't had a blast this year, okay, I have. But me staying another year, I mean, you've got to see, that's – that's fucking crazy."

Chloe shifts on her feet, and shifts her head upwards. "Why is it 'crazy'?"

Beca taps her head with a blink. "Am I-" She starts, and then lowers her voice, realizing she's yelling, now. "Am I on fucking glue or something?"

Chloe's eyes grow harder.

"We won! Chloe. You won. We won the ICCAs. We're done. Aren't you done?" Beca's aware that her hands at flying every which way at her head and for some reason pointing into the hallway as it to present the ICCA award. She lowers them calmly. Chloe's staring at her with some sort of unreadable expression, her lips parted. Beca's heartbeat slows. The sun has set.

"No," Chloe murmurs softly, "I'm not done."

Chloe's brows knit together slowly as her gaze travels across Beca's face, and the brunette's suddenly aware of a warmth that flushes across her neck. Chloe's eyesight flows carefully from Beca's eyes to her lips, and the only reason Beca knows this is because she's looking right into Chloe's eyes, but seeing her look at her lips makes Beca look at Chloe's lips, which are now closer because apparently the redhead has shifted closer and they're breathing loudly – so loudly, she can hear it in her ears.

"Are you done?" Chloe breathes out, and Beca can actually feel her hot breath on her own lips.

fuck.

This is fucking crazy.

This is just fucking crazy.

Where did the fucking sun go, and why is it hotter if it's down?

Chloe's looking at her like she knows something even Beca won't admit out loud, and it's only growing more confusing and intimate as their silence extends. They've always had these moments, more so in the past few months once Beca returned to the Bellas. They'd spot one another from across a party and wink. They'd share a smile during a hard day of rehearsal. They'd spend an extra moment holding the others' gaze before wishing them goodnight. What it meant they'd never spoken about, but their relationship was, without talking about it, without Beca having to think too much on it, intimate. And that was fine. She supposed. What wasn't fine was when anyone wanted to speak about this closeness, which luckily Chloe never did, or when Beca had to think about losing it. Which luckily she never did. Until this moment as Chloe's so close, her eyes so wanting, her hands still at her sides.

Beca clears her throat slowly, the sound breaking something in the air, and Chloe's snapped away, gazing away, biting that lip again. She breathes out loud and runs her hand through her bright red trestles and damn it, Beca never gave much thought about how much she might miss Chloe. Something is so tight in her chest and it feels like a sob but it feels like laughter, too.

"Give it some thought, Beca," Chloe says, breaking her from her thoughts. "I'll see you on Monday?" she asks, those sad eyes back. Beca swallows down her guilt and nods. Chloe smiles just a small one, and hey, Beca will take her small victories anywhere. There's a soft squeeze of her shoulder and Chloe's gone.

She listens to her skip down the stairs until Chloe's probably out of the building, and Beca rests herself back onto the wall.

Fuck.

In all honesty, what exactly was her exit strategy out of the Bellas?

"I'm sorry," Chloe's hand is out at the camera, the widest smile plastered on her face, and she can't help but giggle, "Did you just say '22'?"

"You know I fucking did," Beca grumbles, biting at her red licorice rope, kicking her feet up onto the table.

"I'm sorry," Chloe bursts out again, full-on hands on table, guffaws and snorts laughing, "I'm going to need a moment to fully appreciate this."

Beca re-adjusts her laptop's height for the camera to better view her and swings her arms back. "That's what the kids are listening to these days, I figured it was a safe choice to audition with."

Chloe's biting her lip again and smirking her laughs away this time. "Okay, Mitchell, whatever you say, you secret Swiftie."

Beca rolls her eyes and grabs another licorice rope. "Shut up. Don't you want to know how they were?"

Chloe nods and hums, and suddenly all the humour is gone from the moment, and Beca can see her glancing down at her desk, a pad of paper and pen in hand. "Let's start with the immediate callbacks," she says, writing it down.

And Beca smirks.