Friends… Stacie liked being friends with Aubrey. She liked going to Bellas rehearsals and help Aubrey rearrange the gym afterwards. Most times she would just sit by the piano and watch Aubrey stack up chairs while they talked about nothing and everything.

When Aubrey suggested they be friends, it turned off Stacie's flirty side which made her open up more to the blonde. She liked that when she told the blonde that she was thinking about majoring in something science related, instead of laughing like most people did, she just nodded and said "Yeah, I can see that." She loved that the blonde didn't assume that she was stupid and would often ask for her opinion. She loved how she'd text her most mornings to see if she wanted to go jogging with her. She loved the easy silence between them when they ran, their steps synching up perfectly and the focused look on Aubrey's face. She loved how she'd send her links to geeky things she knew would interest her and how she didn't make fun of her when she told her she loved World of Warcraft. She loved… Stacie stopped when she realized she was thinking of the word love when thinking about Aubrey. They were friends. Just friends.

Yes, she really liked being friends with Aubrey. She also really liked sex which was the only thing she wouldn't talk about with the blonde. Not because she thought Aubrey would judge her, she was sure Aubrey knew she had sex people, and she usually didn't have a problem discussing it, she wasn't ashamed. But as their relationship developed, it seemed to be an unspoken agreement between them to not discuss what they did with other people. But lately it seemed that having sex with random people wasn't as fun as it used to be.

Stacie stretched until her hand was stopped by something under the covers, making her pull back. She peeked across the bed at her clock and groaned. Taking a deep breath, she got out of bed and woke up the blonde girl in her bed. She fished a clean pair of underwear from her dresser and some running shorts and started getting dressed while sorting out the mess of clothes on the floor. She threw hers in the hamper and placed the rest at the foot of the bed.

She looked at the girl on her bed for the first time since she got up. She was really pretty, her blonde hair framed her face and she had a sleepy smile on her face. She looked back at Stacie and her smile widened.

"You have to go now."

The girl frowned and sat up, holding the sheet's to her body. "Why?"

Stacie sighed. She hated when this happened. "I have class later and I want to go for a run before that so…"

The girl in her bed grinned seductively. "I can think of something better than running to get your blood pumping."

Stacie rolled her eyes at the cheap line. "I don't do morning after sex, sorry."

She grabbed the clothes she'd placed at the foot of the bed and tossed them at the girl. "I'm gonna go brush my teeth. You should get dressed."

Stacie went into the bathroom and closed the door. She didn't get why it had to be so hard. You meet someone, you have sex, they leave. You'd think people would understand how a one night stand works, it's college.

She finished brushing her teeth and went back into the bedroom. The girl was putting on her shoes and looked up at Stacie when she heard her come back. She smiled at her and Stacie almost smiled back but thought better of it, walking to the other side of the bed to get her phone. She had two texts from Aubrey. She heard a jingle of keys and looked up to see the girl gathering the rest of her stuff. She looked at Stacie shyly. "So… maybe we can do this again sometime?"

"I don't think that's a good idea." Stacie focused on her phone again and opened Aubrey's texts.

[Aubrey 7:22] Hey, wanna go for run?

A small smile tugged at her lips and grew as she read the next one.

[Aubrey 7:48] Hey, lazy! I'm going now. Meet me there if you want to… or I guess I'll just see you later at rehearsal. *pouts*

The last text was sent while she was in the bathroom. If she hurried she could definitely make it before Aubrey finished stretching.

She put her phone in her pocket and saw that the girl was standing by the door looking at her with a sad smile. "She must be pretty special."

Stacie frowned in confusion. "Who?"

"Whoever has you smiling like that. You should tell her and, you know, stop sleeping around." The girl got out and closed the door behind her.

Stacie huffed. She didn't need some random girl she slept with to tell her what to do. It wasn't like she was cheating on Aubrey, they were just friends.

She reached the quad and smiled when she saw Aubrey stretching on the grass on the other side. Slowing down to better appreciate Aubrey's form, and being familiar enough with Aubrey's stretching routine, which never changed, she knew still had a couple of minutes. She was standing facing away from her, holding one of her feet behind her with one hand and holding on to a light post with the other. She was wearing a bright pink shirt and black running pants, her hair tied back in a messy ponytail. She changed the foot she was holding, turning a little bit which allowed Stacie to see her face. She was looking ahead, her tongue slightly poking out the side of her mouth in the most adorable way. Stacie felt her stomach do a summersault.

She sighed and kept walking towards the blonde who was about to finish, stretching her arms above her head and turned. She spotted Stacie walking to her and smiled brightly. "You made it!"

Stacie smiled back, her heart skipping a beat at how happy the blonde seemed to be that she'd come. "Yeah, sorry, I put my phone on silent and forgot."

Aubrey narrowed her eyes at her but didn't comment. "Well come on, Conrad, we're wasting time!"

She took off down the path and Stacie stood there staring at her for a couple of seconds before running to catch up. She ran next to the older girl for a while, occasionally turning her head to look at her.

She realized she had had that feeling of wanting to be more than Aubrey's friend for a while now, she just hadn't identified it. She hadn't even thought about being in a relationship for so long that she'd forgotten what it felt like and she was unsure of what she was supposed to do now. It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to be a relationship. She didn't have a tragic heartbreak story that had led to her to swear them off, she just hadn't found someone who interested her enough to pursue something that went beyond sex, but Aubrey did. She had never wanted to spend as much time with anyone as she wanted to with Aubrey. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to ask her out, she'd get to spend more time with her and maybe even get to touch her.

Stacie looked at Aubrey and thought about what it would be like to walk her back to her apartment after one of their dates, holding her hand and getting to kiss her goodbye. She slowed down and admired the blonde's body. How it moved effortlessly and gracefully away from her, how it stopped and turned and waved at her…

Stacie frowned, looking up and saw Aubrey jogging back to where she was standing. "Stace, what's up? You just stopped. Are you feeling okay?"

The blonde looked up at her with a concerned look on her face. Stacie hadn't even realized she'd stopped, she was just lost in thought, but she couldn't exactly tell Aubrey she stopped because she was thinking about kissing her against her front door. "Umm… yeah… I'm just tired, I guess. I had a late night." She fake yawned and chuckled. "You know me."

Aubrey frowned and Stacie mentally kicked herself. Why did she just imply she had spent the night with someone. She pinched the bridge of her nose. Being this close to Aubrey wasn't helping her figure out what she was feeling. "Maybe I should go rest, I'm not feeling so well."

Before Aubrey could say anything, Stacie turned and took off in the direction of her dorm, leaving the stunned blonde standing by herself.

Stacie didn't stop until she reached her door. She quickly opened it and went to her bed, plopping on it face down. Since she'd cut short her run, she still had some time before she had to get ready for class.

She considered her options. She could do nothing, suffer in silence and hope this crush passees. Except she was pretty sure this was way more than a crush and it would not pass so easily so, next option, she could ask Aubrey out. That was the best option if Aubrey accepted, but if she rejected her the suffering in silence sounded more appealing. She had already rejected her once before, and while she hadn't felt that bad about it back then, she was sure it would feel a lot worse now. Not to mention the possibility of ruining their friendship and the awkwardness whenever she saw her for a Bellas rehearsal. Granted, Aubrey might have changed her mind about dating her since hood night, and she had caught her stealing glances at her body more than a couple of times during rehearsal, but she needed to be sure before she made an ass of herself.

So before she decided between her options she had to find out what Aubrey's answer would be if she asked her out. She could ask Chloe but she was too close to the blonde and could let something slip. Chloe was too risky; she needed someone close enough to Aubrey to help her but distant enough to keep their mouth shut.

She took out her phone and texted the person she thought met that criteria to meet her for coffee before rehearsal and smiled. At least she had a plan now.

Aubrey slammed the front door and kicked her shoes at the wall, cursing loudly when she stubbed her toe on the hall table. She stomped her way to the kitchen to get some water and froze when she saw Beca in there with Chloe. The DJ was holding the other girl's hand and dropped it as soon as she saw the fuming blonde.

"Hi Aubrey… I was just leaving…" She turned to Chloe and hesitated before kissing her cheek and walking out of the kitchen, mumbling goodbye to Aubrey.

Aubrey waited until she heard the front door close before she walked to the fridge. "Did she sleep here?" She said through gritted teeth from behind the fridge door. At least the shock of seeing Beca in their kitchen so early in the morning had calmed her down a bit.

"What? No, she didn't sleep here. I invited her over for breakfast." Aubrey closed the fridge and raised an eyebrow at Chloe but let it go. They told each other everything so she knew the redhead would tell her about it when she was ready. She took the bottle of water and went to lie down on the living room couch.

She stared at the ceiling trying to control her breathing, not really understanding why she was so upset right now, when her view was blocked by Chloe's concerned face. "What happened?"

She frowned because she didn't really know how to answer that question. Nothing had really happened. Only Stacie telling her she was tired, because she had sex, all the time, with a lot of people, people who weren't her. Okay so she didn't actually say she had had sex with someone but she implied it and she'd never even hinted at her very active sex life before, at least not when it was just the two of them. "Nothing."

Chloe gave her a half smirk and nudged her head so she'd let her sit. When the redhead was settled, Aubrey moved her head down onto her lap. Chloe looked at her frowning friend and started playing with a strand of blonde hair. "Let's see… I assume something happened on your run since you always take at least an hour plus stretching time and I'm pretty sure I heard you leave less than 45 minutes ago." She tapped her chin making a huge act of pretending to think about it. "What could have happened? Maybe there was someone else there and they upset you? Who could that be?"

Chloe furrowed her brow and looked away from Aubrey, really committing to playing her confused role. Aubrey rolled her eyes but relaxed a bit at the other girl's antics. "You know I was with Stacie."

Chloe gasped "Of course! How did I not think of the hottie you've been hanging out with lately?"

Aubrey glared at her and crossed her arms in front of her chest. The other girl looked down at her questioningly while brushing her hair back from her forehead. After a moment Aubrey sighed. "Nothing happened. She was being weird and just stopped midway. She said she was tired and the she'd had a 'late night'" Aubrey air quoted. "She could've just told me she spent the night with someone since it's clearly what she meant."

The redhead almost laughed but tried to keep a straight face because she knew Aubrey was truly upset by this. "So you're mad because Stacie he's-a-hunter Conrad implied that she had had sex."

"No, I'm…" She groaned and covered her face with her hands. "We never talk about sex with other people when it's just us."

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "You talk about sex with each other?"

"What? No, I meant we don't talk about what we do with other people. Sexually or otherwise." Aubrey bit her lip and looked up at Chloe. "Do you think this means she thinks nothing can happen between us?"

Chloe's heart broke at the vulnerable expression on the other girl's face. "I don't know, sweetie. But you were the one who told her you wanted to be friends; you can't expect her to wait around for you to change your mind. It's not fair."

Aubrey only nodded, not trusting her voice. Chloe continued to run her fingers through her hair. "Have you changed your mind?"

"I don't know, Chlo. I really like her but this isn't the best time to be distracted by a relationship, I need to focus on the Bellas."

Chloe chuckled. "She seems to be distracting you either way."

Aubrey considered how much time she spent with Stacie or thinking about her and realized Chloe was right. If she wasn't with her, she was texting her, or some ridiculous song that she knew she liked came on the radio, or she saw something on the internet that she knew Stacie would geek out about. "But what if it doesn't work out and she wants to leave the Bellas? Or what if she doesn't even want to go out with me anymore? What if it's too late and it doesn't even matter if I changed my mind or not and I just ruin our friendship?"

She turned her head and faced the front, trying to hide the tears she wasn't able to hold back anymore. Chloe sighed and rubbed her back gently. "I haven't seen you like this about anyone before. Maybe she's worth the risk but you won't know until you tell her how you feel. Just don't wait too long."

They stayed like that for a while, until Aubrey felt like she could talk again without breaking down. Maybe she wasn't ready to tell Stacie how she felt but at least she wasn't denying her feelings for her anymore. She just hoped that it wasn't too late if she did decide to do something about those feelings. She squeezed Chloe's knee and sat up. "So, you and the hobbit huh?"

Chloe grabbed a cushion from the couch and threw it at her. "Hey, don't call my girlfriend that!"

Aubrey chuckled and threw the cushion back. "She's your girlfriend now?"

The redhead looked blushed and looked down. "We're still in negotiations but I'm hopeful."

Aubrey hugged her. "I'm happy for you, Chlo."