Aubrey kept her gaze fixed on some distant point outside the window, willing the night to end so she could leave the house without the guilt of ending the party abruptly; but she had not yet gained the superpower of teleportation, time travel, or moving the world according to her will, so really all she could do was look out the window and wait.
She didn't know how long she stood there, staring out the window, but at one point, she felt someone join her in the room, and she adjusted her focus enough to recognize Stacie's reflection join hers on the window. She regarded the tall brunette with some skepticism. "Did you draw the short straw?"
Stacie sighed. "What will it take for you to admit to yourself that maybe some of us want you around because we want to be around you?"
"Years of deprogramming." Aubrey quipped, but lost the casual tone when she saw Stacie's serious expression. "I'm sorry. I just…"
"A defense mechanism. I get it." Stacie concluded for her, nodding as she approached the blonde, joining her at the window. "You've been up here a while. Are you OK?"
Aubrey had no idea.
"Okay." Stacie conceded, realizing just how loaded the question probably was. She had watched Aubrey and Chloe avoid each other through most of the night, and she was sure she wasn't the only one who had wondered what was going on between the co-captains. Not to mention how they had all heard the raised voices when Aubrey and Chloe had been alone. She paused, trying to figure out what to say next, before noting, "So… that was intense."
Aubrey had always suspected how sound carried in the house. "Did you all hear?"
"Hear, yes. Listen…" Stacie winced, and admitted, "yes."
"Sorry." Aubrey hesitated, wondering if she was in any position to show concern, but ultimately couldn't help but ask: "Chloe?"
"Drinking with the girls." Stacie answered. "She wouldn't talk about it, if that's what you're worried about."
"No, you're her friends, she should be free to talk to you if she wants."
"And you?"
Aubrey tilted her head in question at the taller girl.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Aubrey sighed heavily, before reluctantly admitting, "Maybe a little."
And it was a victory, they both knew, given Aubrey's reticence to share beyond what she deemed strictly necessary (see: the existence of a Bella house of residence), or the fact that Stacie knew she wasn't exactly on top of anyone's list of people they shared their deep emotional issues with. But over the course of the year, somehow, a trust had developed between the two women, and they were putting that trust on the line now.
"Well, what was that about, anyway?" Stacie asked, hoping to prompt Aubrey into talking. "If you don't mind me asking."
Aubrey sighed again, leaning against the window frame, and faced Stacie. "Chloe's not graduating. And… I'm not taking it very well."
Stacie frowned. "Well… it's logical, right? You met as freshmen, so you naturally always thought there was going to be some kind of arc to your college life, ending in graduation."
Aubrey looked at her for a long beat, before she chuckled softly, shaking her head. "Of course you'd get it."
Stacie looked confused, unsure if that comment had been sarcastic or honest.
Aubrey let out a frustrated huff of breath. "I want to be the supportive best friend, I do, and I know that's what she needs from me right now, but…" She let her voice trail off, unsure of how she wanted to finish that sentence. She eventually sighed. "I don't want to have to lie."
"Then don't lie."
Aubrey gave her a dire look. "She isn't even willing to try and graduate. I can't very well support that decision, Stacie."
Stacie smiled patiently, taking Aubrey's hand as a means of grounding her. "Just be her friend, Aubrey. She already knows you don't… approve, or whatever, but maybe she just needs to be reminded you'll still be her friend, no matter what."
Aubrey glanced down at their joined hands, then back up at Stacie. "Of course I'll still be her friend."
"Then tell her that." Stacie paused, hesitating briefly before adding, "Maybe some of us are actually worried that when you graduate we'll just be the people you left behind, you know."
Aubrey furrowed her brow, contemplating, but wasn't sure how to address that certain point. It would be easy, to say otherwise, but she also knew from experience it was just as easy to forget even the most important of people.
Stacie sighed, realizing Aubrey wasn't going to confirm or deny her subtle accusation. Under her breath, but still audible enough for Aubrey to hear, she muttered, "Some sign you actually care would be great right now."
Aubrey glanced up at her in concern, but instead of delving into the implications of that accusation, Stacie gave her a coy grin, momentarily throwing the older girl off her train of thought. Aubrey had no idea why Stacie was throwing such snide asides at her at that moment, and wanted to engage, but at the same time she knew she shouldn't. And for reasons she couldn't explain, was pretty certain Stacie knew why they weren't going to, either. So the accusation lingered between them, but both women knew what was a more important matter for the moment.
Aubrey exhaled, and nodded in resignation.
"You should talk to her." Stacie offered gently. "It can't be that bad."
"Yeah. Okay." Aubrey whispered, knowing Stacie was right. Contemplatively, she lifted their hands, and idly played with Stacie's fingers with her own, while she considered exactly what the implications were of doing what Stacie was telling her she should do.
"Can I ask you a question?" Stacie asked, after a lengthy pause, when she realized Aubrey wasn't going to add to that thought.
Aubrey nodded.
"Does Chloe at least have a reason?" Stacie asked curiously.
"She says she does, and I'm sure it makes sense to her."
"But you don't believe her." Stacie surmised.
"That's the problem." Aubrey gave her a wry smile. "I actually do."
Whatever Stacie was about to say was cut off by a sudden noise in the hallway, and they both turned, the noise interrupting their conversation and prompting them to jerk their hands apart, as they watched Beca stumble into the room. "Sorry. Sorry." Beca pointed behind her. "There was a wall. And, uh, we thought Stacie was gonna check if Aubrey was still here, and when she didn't come back we wondered what happened; if Aubrey was still up here or if she knew of a hidden passageway out."
"And they sent you?" Stacie asked curiously.
"Everyone else is doing shooters with Chloe. Or passing out." Beca informed them, unsteadily taking a seat on the nearby bed. "I think I'm drunk. Someone thought whiskey and tequila go together." She groaned. "Can you get drunk from whiskey shots?"
"It's like the fastest way to get drunk on whiskey." Stacie informed her.
"Yeah? Tell that to Aubrey." Beca squinted at the two of them, then blinked when her gaze focused on Aubrey. "Oh hey, there you are." She squinted at the blonde. "Are you as drunk as I am?"
"No."
"That sucks." Beca frowned. "Weren't we having shots, how'd that happen?"
"Nobody asked you to try and drink more than me." Aubrey told her. "Plus, you're tiny."
"Yeah, too late for the lack of compassion there, Blondie Bear." Beca told her, before she paused, furrowing her brow. She stopped and gave herself a moment to run over what she had just said, and a look of consternation and confusion crossed her features. She turned to Stacie. "Did I just call Aubrey Blondie Bear?"
Stacie giggled. "You're so drunk."
"I think you could be right." Beca agreed. She pointed at Aubrey. "You. You need to fix stuff with Chloe. You don't get to make Chloe sad."
Aubrey looked at Beca with some amusement. "What're you going to do about it, Beca?"
Beca looked deep in thought. "I…" She frowned. "I'm gonna get back to you on that, but I'm gonna come up with something. Oh yes. Something threatening. And awesome." She shook her head, but then abruptly stopped. "Whoa, no. God, I'm so drunk."
"Why don't you lie down?" Aubrey suggested.
"Yeah." Beca nodded, and abruptly stood up from the bed, turned, and marched out the room.
Aubrey and Stacie watched curiously as Beca left the room, and their gazes followed Beca's progress as she walked down the hall, into a room on the opposite end, and disappeared behind a door.
Aubrey blew out a breath. She turned to Stacie with an expression that was a mix of exasperation, and fond amusement. "I'm leaving the Bellas in those capable hands."
"And your best friend." Stacie reminded.
"Chloe would let all of you do whatever the heck you wanted, given the choice." Aubrey grumbled.
Stacie paused, briefly debating on whether or not she would regret what she was going to say next, before she spoke again. "That's not what I meant."
Aubrey gave her a wry smile. "I know what you meant."
"That's part of why Chloe's staying, isn't it? Beca?"
"Is it that obvious?"
Stacie smiled weakly, because they both knew the answer was yes. "The first step is admitting you're powerless, Aubrey."
Aubrey returned her smile. "My best friend is in love with that mess."
"Chloe does seem to have a weakness for a hot mess." Stacie quipped, setting Aubrey up for the obvious rejoinder.
Aubrey laughed softly, taking the bait. "Look at who her best friend is."
Stacie laughed as well, eventually letting her grin fade to a soft smile as she offered what she hoped would be a helpful insight into the human condition. "People do stupid things for the people they like, Aubrey."
"Sure." Aubrey agreed, but also scoffed the dubiousness of Stacie's assertion. "I doubt you've done anything as stupid as fail a class to spend an extra year in college for a crush."
"I don't know," Stacie said slowly, taking a deep breath. She had one last card to play, and she really hoped Aubrey didn't dismiss this one, either. "Does auditioning for an a cappella group when you've never sung in public outside of karaoke count?"
"Stacie…" Aubrey sighed, the heaviness of it telling Stacie all she needed to know. Aubrey glanced down briefly before gazing back up, allowing Stacie to see in her eyes that the words had made their impact, that the temptation Stacie was offering her was a reprieve from the turmoil of the night, even if it implied its own complications. "Don't start something we know we can't follow through."
Stacie smiled faintly. "Then maybe I'm sober enough to not start something with you tonight."
Elsewhere and later on, after she'd fallen asleep and woken up to a quiet house full of sleeping Bellas, and with no idea how long she had been sitting outside, Chloe sat alone in the darkness of the night, letting the cool night air sober her up and wake up her system. All she knew was that it was the first time she'd actually drunk herself to a stupor enough to fall asleep, because through four years of college, Aubrey had always managed to find her just when she'd passed the point of tipsy to drunk, and tonight was the first time she'd gone drinking without Aubrey as a safety net.
And she was just going to have to get used to that.
As if her thoughts had conjured the blonde, Chloe watched from her seat as Aubrey opened the front door, carefully closing the door as she stepped out of the house. After Beca's drunken ramble earlier about Aubrey's apparent intent to leave the Bellas as soon as she graduated, without even saying goodbye, and how thankful she was that they showed up – although Chloe wasn't sure if Beca had been talking to her, the Bellas in general, or the bottle of whiskey that Aubrey had found in the house – Chloe couldn't put it past Aubrey to just ghost on the Barden Bellas. And the very thought made Chloe feel a spike of anger towards the blonde.
"You're really just gonna leave?"
She watched Aubrey stiffen, before the blonde took a deep breath, as if bracing herself for the confrontation, and turned to lean against the door jamb. Her gaze found Chloe, who sat against one of the pillars by the house's front steps. "That's not what's happening."
"Oh, so you weren't about to sneak off into the good night without saying goodbye to your friends?" Chloe accused, her voice a strange mix of anger and confusion, a tone she knew Aubrey had probably never heard before. She knew she had her own faults, sure, she had avoided Aubrey when she had first decided not to graduate, knowing she didn't have the fortitude to face Aubrey's anger or disappointment, but she had always intended to face the issue inevitably. She wasn't the one sneaking off in the middle of the night without a word.
Aubrey frowned, her confusion evident. "We still have finals week, and everyone knows where our dorm room is."
Chloe glared at her. "That's not the point!"
Aubrey pushed off the door and took a seat on the steps in a conciliatory manner, facing Chloe. "Chloe."
"I mean, I get you're angry with me, but those girls deserve better than for you to just…" Chloe shook her head, her anger fading to disappointment and hurt. "And Stacie? Don't think I didn't notice her sneak off upstairs and never came back. We had to send three people up to check on either of you, and only Ashley came back to report." She paused, and frowned, and asked: "What happened to Beca and Denise?"
"Asleep." Aubrey answered, and worried briefly why neither she nor Stacie registered Denise coming to check on them. Stacie had already fallen asleep when Ashley came up to check in, right before Aubrey took her own nap.
Chloe narrowed her eyes, closely scrutinizing her best friend, even in the darkness and lit only by the light coming through the windows from inside the house. More curious than anything else, she had to ask: "Did you and Stacie actually do it in a house full of your friends?"
"No." Aubrey said simply, resigned to Chloe knowing her secrets; because just as Aubrey knew of Chloe's crush on Beca, Chloe knew why Aubrey didn't mind Stacie's proximity and tactile tendency too much. Changing the subject, because she did not want to examine too closely the implications of her tryst, Aubrey motioned over her shoulder in the direction of the door, where several of the Bellas were asleep in the living room. "You're surrounded by lightweights."
"I know." Chloe agreed, understanding the deliberate change of subject for what it was. "I thought Amy or Lilly would have a higher alcohol tolerance than they do."
Aubrey paused, then frowned. "I didn't see Lilly."
Chloe also frowned, and they both wondered if either of them were sober enough to launch a manhunt for their elusive member. Shaking her head, because her answer was no, Chloe reached for her side and lifted the now-familiar bottle of whiskey. "I always thought this was a myth."
"Honestly? I think they found the real bottle a long time ago and just replace it to keep the story alive." Aubrey admitted, taking the bottle from Chloe and examining it.
"Yeah, but don't you think it's weird, that you found this bottle when Alice almost tore the house apart last year looking for it?"
"Well, according to your version of the story, it's stuff of legend, and according to Beca, it's 'magical'." Aubrey told her.
Chloe paused at the mention of Beca, briefly lowering her gaze to the bottle in Aubrey's hands, remembering her surprise earlier that day when she had received a text message from Beca for the Barden Bellas to meet at an address that Chloe had known was the Bella house. When she had bailed on the captains' meeting hoping to avoid spending time with Aubrey, she hadn't known that Aubrey had gotten word from the school that it was once again permanently approved as the Bellas' residence. Which was nothing to say of her surprise when she'd gotten to the house to find Beca and Aubrey sharing whiskey shots.
She sighed, and lifted her gaze once more to meet Aubrey's. "I won't apologize."
There was a pause, which had Chloe bracing herself for the same onslaught of accusation from earlier that night, but instead Aubrey just said, "You shouldn't have to."
Chloe blinked, surprised.
"Do I think you're making the right decision? No. But it's your life." Aubrey sighed, and laughed softly. "I mean, I'm sitting here, and I might go on to regret it, but I'm choosing not to start anything with Stacie when it's really easy to make a mess of it given where we both are right now. So if you think staying for another year is something you need to do, then I won't stop you."
Chloe hesitated, then admitted: "I just want to be sure."
"But how can you know, when you won't even tell her how you feel?"
"She's with someone now."
Aubrey scoffed. "But he's a Treblemaker."
"She dedicated one of our songs in the Finals to him."
Aubrey considered that point, and conceded a momentary defeat. "I just don't want you to get hurt."
"Shouldn't be that my choice?" Chloe asked.
"I guess it is." Aubrey conceded. She looked up at Chloe, almost apologetically. "They all heard the fight, by the way."
"I know." Chloe made a face as she leaned back against the pillar behind her. "Fat Amy said nobody likes hearing Mom and Dad fight."
They looked at each other with matching irked expressions.
"I guess I'm obviously Dad in this scenario." Aubrey muttered.
"Do I look like a Mom?" Chloe retorted in annoyance.
"Well, you are getting the kids in the separation." Aubrey noted.
"And you've hooked up with a younger woman before it's even final." Chloe remarked. She reached forward, and took the bottle from Aubrey, uncapped it, and lifted it in a toast. "To Aubrey. Soon to be graduate, finder of lost whiskey bottles of myth and legend." She smiled at the blonde. "My best friend, who should have gotten laid when she had the chance."
"I don't think you should be drinking straight from the bottle." Aubrey warned, watching Chloe take a sip from the bottle.
Chloe made a face at the taste, but quickly recovered to give Aubrey a poignant look. "You're graduating. You just hooked up with the girl you've been crushing on the whole year, and with the ICCA victory and finding this bottle, you've proven you're better than Alice twice over. Live a little."
Aubrey still hesitated, but eventually nodded, taking the whiskey from Chloe. "To Chloe," Aubrey returned, lifting the bottle and smiling patronizingly at the redhead, "Who finds duet partners in showers and thinks the bathroom is a suitable place to practice harmonizing when all you want to do is wash your hair."
"You know you loved it."
"Who continues to live in denial of the fact that not everybody wants to sleep with her."
Chloe paused, frowning deeply at what Aubrey had just said. "Do you think she just doesn't find me attractive?"
"Do you think that maybe since your first encounter was in the shower that she just doesn't know if she wants to see you naked or uncomfortable that she already has without even buying you dinner first?"
Chloe's eyes widened in mortification.
"Yeah, apparently people do stupid things when it comes to the people we like." Aubrey told her in an attempt at being reassuring.
Chloe groaned, burying her face in her hands. "I hate having been raised by hippies."
"You were raised by child psychologists."
"Even worse." Chloe groaned into her hands. Her parents were actually hippies and psychologists, who subscribed to a laissez-faire approach to child-rearing, which meant Chloe and her siblings had grown up with few limits set upon them, and in Chloe's case, making her as carefree and reckless as she could be.
It was a wonder how she and Aubrey got along at all, but their dynamic was pretty straightforward: Chloe made sure Aubrey took a deep breath and stepped away from the metaphorical edge, while Aubrey made sure Chloe didn't free fall herself into one catastrophe after another. And it had worked for them, pretty much, for four years.
"This is why people decide to never drink again." Aubrey muttered, after she took a sip of the whiskey. She took her time, letting the effects of the alcohol wash through her, but eventually looked back at Chloe. With a deep sigh, she tentatively started, "You know, you can head home right after exams, spend a few extra days with your family before the Bellas' ICCA tour."
"What – oh right. I forgot about that." Chloe glanced at her. "I guess Cabo's out of the question."
"And I already accepted Chicago."
Chloe frowned. "When?"
"Week after graduation."
"Why?"
"I was angry?" Aubrey hedged, because she had accepted the job offer on a knee-jerk reaction to Chloe not graduating. If Chloe could upend all their graduation plans, she had not-quite-reasoned, Aubrey could do the same. "It had the highest salary and best career progression offer?"
"What about the tour?"
"You can promote Jessica to lead." Aubrey mused. "The choreography would have to be reworked, but vocally, the changes should be minimal."
Chloe paused, giving it some thought, then finally looked at Aubrey and told her earnestly, "I'll stay for graduation, Aubrey."
"Chloe."
"I know you're trying to make me avoid the awkwardness of watching so many of my friends and classmates graduating when I'm not, but you're graduating." Chloe pointed out. "And I'm not missing that for the world."
"You're sure?" Aubrey asked, hope coloring her voice.
Chloe smiled at her, leaning forward to squeeze Aubrey's hand. "Where else would I be?"
Aubrey smiled back at Chloe, and lifted the bottle in a toast that hearkened back to their days when they were freshmen, and back when they could only really rely on each other. "You and me."
Chloe waited until Aubrey finished drinking, before taking back the bottle and echoing Aubrey's sentiment. "You and me."
"Are you nerds still drinking?"
They both turned to the open doorway, where Beca stood, frowning down at them. "Seriously, everyone's passed out and how are you still drinking?"
"We're drinking again." Aubrey corrected.
Beca glanced at Aubrey, then at Chloe, and back to the blonde. "So you're friends again?"
"Of course we are." Chloe answered for Aubrey. "Aubrey won't ever get rid of me."
"I really can't." Aubrey nodded in confirmation.
"Because Chaubrey is forever." Chloe added.
Beca glanced in amusement at Aubrey. "She calls you two Chaubrey?"
"Like I said," Aubrey spared a glance at Chloe, "I can't get rid of her."
"But why would you even want to." Chloe retorted. "When you get the sex for free."
Aubrey turned back to Beca. "And there was a blood pact."
Beca paused, then shook her head. "Either I'm still drunk, or your stories are so messed up I don't even know if you're telling the truth or shitting me anymore."
"Would we do that." Chloe said innocently. She motioned Beca forward to join them, and after a moment's hesitation, Aubrey did the same.
Beca frowned at the two, briefly considered her options, before she closed the door behind her and sat down close to the edge of the exterior entryway, away from the steps, and facing Chloe. She frowned suddenly. "Wait, there's free sex?"
Chloe burst out laughing, while Aubrey frowned at Beca. "Really?"
Beca looked deeply troubled. "Have you two-"
"No!" Aubrey and Chloe exclaimed together. They exchanged affronted expressions at the fact that the other would react so vehemently at the suggestion, before they both turned back to Beca.
"I've tried, and tried, but Blondie here is impossible to get into bed." Chloe said.
"And I don't sleep with redheads who call me Blondie." Aubrey added.
Beca squinted at them, trying to gauge how much of their answers were sincere and how much were wry quips, but then decided she just wasn't sober enough for this discussion. She turned to the redhead. "You're really not graduating?"
Chloe shook her head.
"But why?" Beca asked, surprised. Why would anyone voluntarily stay longer than necessary in college, in Georgia?
Aubrey and Chloe shared a glance, before Aubrey turned to answer Beca. "It's your fault." Almost immediately, she glared at Chloe, who had extended her heretofore folded leg, and kicked her. "What the hell, Chloe?"
"Involuntary muscle spasm?" Chloe hazarded. She gave Aubrey a look of warning, because she loved Aubrey, she did, but if the blonde went and took matters in her own hands and told Beca the real reason why she was staying another year, Aubrey would not live to graduate.
"Because of giving you back the joy of music and performing." Aubrey returned Chloe's warning glare with one of her own, as if challenging Chloe from the thought of ever doubting her loyalty. Addressing Beca even as she glared at Chloe, she advised, "So make sure neither of you lose sight of that, and watch out for each other."
Beca's eyes darted between the two older girls, trying to figure out why they were glaring at each other in an obvious silent conversation different from the one they were actually verbalizing, before she concluded, yet again, that she wasn't nearly sober enough for this. "Because she's my co-captain?"
"Oh, wow, that's such a major proposition." Chloe gushed, exaggeratedly, breaking her glare-off with Aubrey to turn and face the younger girl. "I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of commitment with you, Beca, and you really should ask a lady first."
Beca blushed, even as she observed, "You have seen me naked, so that's a major commitment."
Aubrey eyed the exchange skeptically, wondering how it was possible Chloe could question whether or not Beca was attracted to her. And did Beca really not realize the flirt signals she was communicating to the redhead?
"Wait, what?" Beca stopped, as if suddenly startled, and frowned at Chloe. "You're staying because you want to keep being a Bella?"
"Plus she failed Russian Lit." Aubrey added quickly, because damn Beca was pretty sharp even when barely-sober, if a little slow. "She didn't realize the stories were so depressing."
"And so long." Chloe appended, before she remembered that half of her assigned reading were short stories. Well, what the hell. Hopefully none of the Bellas were going to take Russian Lit any time soon. Quickly, she name-checked one of the writers they covered intensively: "That Chekhov, he's such a writer."
"Didn't Chekhov write plays?" Beca asked, confused.
Chloe stared at her, then at Aubrey, who had covered her eyes with her hands, unable to meet Chloe's gaze, her shoulders already shaking in amusement. Chloe wished she had a paper cup – or anything, really – to throw at her best friend. She turned back to Beca, who looked back at her as if expecting an in-depth analysis of Chekhov's plays off the top of her head.
Before Chloe could come up with an answer, Aubrey sighed deeply, breaking the stand-off, and rubbed her face with her hand. "I think the alcohol's kicking in."
Chloe smiled at the obvious reprieve – because her best friend was awesome like that, when she chose to be – and got to her feet. She pat Aubrey's shoulder as she passed her to head back into the house. "I'll go get you water."
Aubrey smiled gratefully, and watched her disappear behind the front door.
Beca watched Chloe leave, but her attention switched to Aubrey's expression as Chloe walked past, leaving the two of them behind. Because the moment the door closed behind Chloe, Aubrey's lighthearted and inebriated expression faltered to something sadder, more akin to the blonde's expression earlier that afternoon when she had expressed her frustration over Chloe not graduating.
Softly, the short brunette offered, "She'll be OK, you know."
Aubrey glanced at the door for a beat longer, before she turned to face Beca. "No, I don't know that." She sighed. "I know she puts on a brave front, and I know she'll prioritize everyone else before herself, and I won't be here, so trust me, I have every reason to be worried."
"Maybe you won't be, but she'll have me." Beca reminded. Before Aubrey could react to that, she continued. "And Stacie. And Amy. Lilly, Jessica. She has us. The Bellas. All of us. We'll watch out for her."
Aubrey looked at her, studying Beca closely, wondering if Beca could really be this oblivious or in denial, and why couldn't she just confront Beca into realizing why Chloe was really staying.
"So, you know," Beca tentatively reached out, and timidly and awkwardly pat Aubrey's shoulder. "It'll be OK. I know there's something you're not telling me about why she's not graduating, but whatever it is, she'll be fine. It's not the end of the world. And it's just an extra year, right? She'll figure it out before you know it."
Aubrey wanted to laugh. Or cry. Or punch Beca in the face. Because, really, how could someone so in tune with Chloe and be on the redhead's wavelength get her so completely wrong? Instead, she took a deep breath and faced Beca, meeting her gaze seriously. "Remember what I said earlier?"
"I don't know, Aubrey, you said, like, a ton of things."
Aubrey rolled her eyes. "About being captain."
Beca nodded. "Don't screw up."
"Be better." Aubrey added. She motioned to the front door. "Chloe: She'll pick up our slack, she'll do what it takes to make everyone feel like everything's OK, even when it's not." Even when she's not, Aubrey thought, but didn't verbalize, because some things were still sacred between best friends. "And I missed it. I screwed up. So—" Aubrey cut herself short as the door suddenly opened and Chloe returned to the front steps, squeezing herself in the space between Aubrey and Beca.
Chloe handed Aubrey a bottle of water, and smiled at her two friends, noticing Beca's troubled look and Aubrey's pensive one. She frowned. "What did I miss?"
"Beca's an Undeclared Major." Aubrey told her swiftly, not missing a beat. "I was trying to give her career advice."
Chloe glanced at Beca, who was staring at Aubrey. "Really? You still haven't chosen a major?"
"Yeah." Beca continued to stare at Aubrey, because the girl was just blowing her mind since they met that afternoon, with the coffee cart of decent coffee, the shortcut, the bottle of whiskey, and now this? How did she know?
On her part, Aubrey ignored Beca's wondrous stare and wondered if the freshman had forgotten that she had filled out a registration form for the Bellas that distinctly stated her Undeclared status, and that as head of the student organization to which Beca was a part of, Aubrey had access to check if there were changes in Beca's academic status.
Chloe turned, and rest her chin on Aubrey's shoulder, grinning at the blonde. "Not everyone knew they wanted to be CEO or Head of the Federal Reserve since they were kids, Aubrey."
Beca frowned. "The Federal Reserve?"
Chloe turned to Beca. "She's very weird with her ambitions."
"Why stop there, why not just be President?" Beca questioned.
"Because yelling at local and foreign leaders isn't very diplomatic." Chloe teased her best friend, who tried to move away from her, but not successfully. "Maybe you should try for Secretary of State: slightly less pressure."
Aubrey rolled her eyes. "You know I can't be Secretary of State because I'd exaggerate a local conflict for every place you're heading off to on your concert tour or charitable crusade so there'll be a travel warning and prevent you from ever leaving the country."
Chloe grinned, and pecked Aubrey's cheek soundly before she relented, leaning against the back of Aubrey's shoulder as she turned to face Beca. "She's very protective."
Beca regarded them both, at Aubrey who had laced her fingers with Chloe's, and Chloe who was resting her weight against her best friend's back. "I'm getting that."
Chloe pulled back, and turned to face Aubrey, gazing thoughtfully at the blonde with a wistful smile. "I bet you're gonna be great, whatever you do."
Aubrey smiled, and glanced at her. "Yeah?"
"Absolutely." Chloe nodded. "Just, you know, don't throw up all over your fawning audience."
Aubrey laughed softly. "I'll try."
Chloe laughed as well, and rest her head on Aubrey's shoulder again. "What am I going to do without you?"
"Have fun?" Beca muttered dryly, yelping when Chloe swat her in the arm with her free hand.
Aubrey lowered her gaze, before glancing beside her, her gaze momentarily looking past Chloe at Beca, before flicking back to Chloe. "Whatever it is, I'm sure you're going to be amazing." She smiled at Chloe. "And, I, for one, can't wait to see what you'll do next."
It was, they knew, as good a promise as any, that they would still be in each other's lives even after they parted ways. Things weren't completely fixed between them, and they were both aware of the cracks in their friendship, but the distance and enmity of the past week was no longer as prevalent as it had been.
But it was OK. They were Bellas, Bellas were family, and being part of the Barden Bellas was for life.
Even when they were going to be hundreds of miles apart.
Beca, who had preoccupied herself with trying to read the label on the bottle of whiskey, suddenly looked up to turn and look at Aubrey. "Holy shit."
The two other girls on the steps turned to stare at her at the surprise expletive.
Beca stared at Aubrey. "Maybe I'm just drunk, but I think I'm gonna miss you when you're gone."
"You better." Aubrey retorted.
Chloe wrapped her arms around either girl's shoulders, and squeezed them tightly. "See? Isn't it better when we're all friends? I knew you two could get along."
The End.
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