Chapter 4

Fastnet

Von Tussle Bowling Center

12655 Ventura Boulevard, Studiocity, CA

Strike.

The sound of pins smashing in every direction as the bowling bowl hits them fill Emily's ears and she's not even complaining. It sounded great actually. When her senior Bellas said that it would be fun wherever they were going they weren't bluffing. It's been a while since she felt relaxed and being able to just have good fun since the start of this year's acapella competitions, recruitments and a huge pile of university work to be done. She clearly needed this.

After arriving at a very stylish bowling center, much to Emily's delight, they opted to go sing karaoke, which honestly sounds like drunk singing even though weirdly there wasn't even any alcohol involved, not yet. She wasn't against it though, and there's nothing better than seeing Fat Amy choose a song that would rile Aubrey up. And it doesn't help when it starts with,

"Aubrey, this one's for you,"

Apparently, it was a song that was said to be sung by her senior Bellas even before she entered Barden. She's heard the stories, also seen the video, and no matter how dark the energy Aubrey was projecting or trying to project, the former captain still can't help but smile as Fat Amy is joined by Cynthia-Rose, Stacie and Lilly, complete with the classic choreography.

Emily looks at her left, where Flo sat, taking a video of the little performance while Cora and Martha are on a corner busy flipping through the list of songs and debating on what they should sing. On her right, Chloe had just thrown her arm around Beca's neck, pulling the brunette close while holding a phone in front of them to snap a photo.

"It's unfair how I look weird and you look like, like that," Beca comments, pointing at the screen, her head inches away from Chloe's as they check the outcome.

"Shut up, you look cute, Becs," Chloe smiles and Emily silently observes her as she poses with a smirking Beca for another photo, an arm circling back around the DJ's neck, her forehead leaning on the side of Beca's temple and clicking away. Then she sees it again, that same look, baby blues gazing rather longingly at the person next to her. It passes quickly as it comes though, as if it never happened.

Emily feels sad about it. She truly does because at one point of her life she's been there, giving that look to a person she will never be with. So she knows. She can relate. But then again, that wasn't the only reason for her interest, there's more to it.

If anyone were to ask Emily why she was so invested in this, her answer would be found four years ago at the 'Acapella World Finals', what she has witnessed and knew all along, that made her so curious about these two people. That somehow, she was unintentionally made part of this story when she had heard and seen something she shouldn't have. And no, it wasn't anything lewd even though she wished it was, anything was better than that.

4 years ago

Acapella World Finals

Copenhagen, Denmark

"We won," Emily repeats again and again, still thinking that she's inside an amazing dream. She felt like she could fly any moment now, replaying the memories of what happened just an hour ago. There was a lot of hugging, screaming, fist pumping, crying and confetti eating, as Fat Amy says.

They were still at the venue backstage, everyone was making calls right now to let the people back at home know about the good news. Emily didn't have to though. Her overly excited mother is present to celebrate with her and Emily is just happy that her mother, also a Bella, is now catching up with her friends and generations of Bellas all in one room sharing their precious experiences.

Maybe it was because of the high earlier, but only now does Emily realize just how hungry she was. Earlier, before the competition she couldn't take anything mainly because of nerves and besides, Aubrey says that it's best to not eat before any performance as big as this or things can get well, messy.

Remembering the burger stand she passed by earlier, also probably where the missing Fat Amy would be at the moment, she decides to sneak off for a few minutes since it'll be a while before they could all go out to eat a proper dinner, one that hopefully doesn't have fish in it.

Walking out the huge tent, she hasn't gone very far when she suddenly hears their co-captain's voice. But this time, unlike the usual bright and cheery tone this sounded more like… heartbreak and tragedy which is a shock coming from a person like Chloe. She was talking to someone and Emily knows it's wrong but curiosity always wins. So there she was standing as quietly and as motionless as possible at a corner outside one of the large tents.

"What happened? Tell me," it was Aubrey her voice pleading and worried. Emily could hear sobbing and sniffing, definitely coming from their co-captain.

"I messed up," that was the only soft reply and she could hear Aubrey sigh deeply but what Emily hears next makes her jaw hang open.

"So Beca already knows," Aubrey softly starts to say, dragging her sentence to urge Chloe on. However, Emily is guessing the same thing that the Bella alumna is dreading.

"Bree…" Chloe stops and soon muffled cries are heard.

"It's all my fault and now Beca, she—" her voice breaks and makes way for another sob. Deep intakes of breath follow as she hears Aubrey calmly telling Chloe to breathe.

"I can't just force someone to love me back. I can't dictate how they should feel. And besides, I am the idiot who confesses their love to a person who is in a perfect relationship with the perfect boyfriend, like a wolf ready to pounce on their prey when the opportunity comes," Chloe says in between sobs and she just sounded so miserable and vulnerable, which is so strange since it's Chloe, the ever energetic, positive and happy puppy Chloe, that Emily just wanted to come out instantly and hug her.

"Chlo, look at me. You are not an idiot, okay I may have told you that love is for idiots, but scratch that, you are not one. You… just… happened to fall for the wrong person-"

"Which makes me an idiot!" Chloe whines, sobbing and Aubrey sounds helpless which rarely happens. It was only after a few moments when Chloe's voice is heard again.

"But it never felt wrong. Love is never wrong. It just wasn't clearly meant to be. From the very beginning I should have known better," it was like a whisper but Emily definitely heard every word and if those aren't painful enough, what comes next tops everything.

"I can't put this between us. Our friendship… is more important than anything else," Chloe pauses, taking a deep breath.

"I have to make this right. I need to find Jesse. I'll fix this, tonight,"

"Chloe, you are only going to hurt yourself even more this way," Aubrey counters but Chloe doesn't budge.

"I don't want to lose her, Bree. I can't take that. I won't survive. I'd rather be next to her like this than, than nothing! This pain, these feelings, they will all go away someday, and I'll be fine. She needs me now more than ever, but as a friend, and that's… what I'm going to be," Chloe sadly says trying to sound positive but failing very miserably and Emily quickly leaves once she hears footsteps approaching but not before she hears Aubrey's last words.

"For once in your life, Chlo, I just wish that you could be selfish and put yourself first!"

It took a while for things to sink in. The revelations she found out tonight was just mind blowing. She knew there was a spark between the two but for it to end this way. Now that's unexpected.

Nevertheless, hours later at the celebration party, Emily watches silently as the two captains put up big smiles and converse with the other Bellas like nothing happened, even letting out laughter from the jokes going around the table about their biggest acapella rival Das Sound Machine. Jesse was next to Beca and everything was just back to normal, or so it seems. From the other side of the table, she notices Aubrey lightly shaking her head before sipping on wine, clearly not wanting to play along to the absurdity in front of her.

However, those baby blue eyes betray the façade the red head was wearing and to Emily, she could certainly say that if pain had a face, that's what it looks like.

And it is nowhere near lovely.

Present time

Von Tussle Bowling Center

12655 Ventura Boulevard, Studiocity, CA

"Your turn, Legacy!" Fat Amy calls out cutting Emily from her thoughts as she looks up with a start, visibly disoriented. She immediately stands up, realizing that it's her turn to play.

From the karaoke room, they now continued on to finally play bowling. Their large group has been divided into two teams with which both former captains are leading. Beca and Chloe just naturally seemed to love competing against each other, all in good fun of course. Although, in her mind Emily knows that the truth simply is, together they are unbeatable thus, playing games against those two are futile.

Oddly enough, Beca and Aubrey are in the same group which is a rare occurrence but then the choice of members aren't exactly by leader's preference, as they need to pick names written on pieces of shredded paper which Flo, who decided to sit this one out, was passing around earlier.

However, if there one thing Beca and Aubrey agree on, it was winning. So, it's no surprise how serious they were playing. Especially since, Chloe, the champion of all games, isn't an easy opponent. It's not even surprising that her team is now leading the game, much to Beca and definitely Aubrey's dismay.

At this point, it won't take long until the game starts getting dirty. But there's still hope as the lane next to them shows that Beca's team, Stacie and Cora, are on the lead, also mainly because of Cynthia-Rose's distractions, or whenever Stacie strategically stretches those long legs like she's on some photoshoot.

Emily's name was picked by Beca which means she has to perfectly hit all pins if she doesn't want a fuming Aubrey exploding and going all personal on her as well.

"A gutter ball?! Seriously, Beca? You have to only hit two more pins! Two! Is DJ-ing really the only thing you are good at?"

"I'm trying! It's the stupid ball's fault, Aubrey! It won't go where I want it to go! And I'm sorry if music was the only friend I had before Barden!"

Swallowing down hard nervously, honestly more nervous than any acapella competition she has ever been in, Emily picks up the ball of her choice, a smaller dark green one with just the right amount of weight, feeling Aubrey's burning gaze on the back of her neck while Beca supportively talks to her.

"You can do this, Legacy. I believe in you. Pay no attention to anything else,"

Nodding positively, she starts holding up the ball, adjusting her fingers and stepping right in front of the line. However just when she was about to start, Fat Amy's voice sings from behind her, causing Emily's blood to suddenly run cold.

"When tomorrow comes, you'll be on your own. Feeling frightened of the things Aubrey knows,"

"Oh really? Are we starting that now?" Beca shouts out at a smirking Chloe and a Fat Amy who is dancing mockingly at them before ducking as a bowling shoe comes flying towards her. Aubrey's menacing words successfully earning an angry glare from Fat Amy,

"Watch out Fat Amy, a flying burrito may come next,"

Exhaling loudly, Emily goes for it without a warning, holding her breath for a few seconds as the ball rolls along noisily across the floor and crashing in to the pins. Her hand was still in the air as one last pin swayed a little but then remained standing in the end.

"Okay, that's good! That's great! Just one more! Relax, we got this," Beca anxiously yells and Emily wishes that it was that easy. But as her second ball, rolls to the left and doesn't stop until it hits the gutter it's like she is ready to have the world swallow her whole.

"Aca-seriously?!" Aubrey's sharp voice breaks the roof as Beca groans, looking up at the ceiling with both hands clutching her head.

"Both of you should get your heads out of the gutter!" Aubrey continues, pun very much intended, ready to throw another shoe towards Fat Amy's celebratory dancing.

Sluggishly picking herself up, Emily stands closely near Beca and avoiding eye-contact with Aubrey. This time its Lilly's turn, ceremoniously doing some sort of Tai Chi exercises before letting her ball slide down and whatever 'chi' she had spiritually thrown in that bowling ball is working because Chloe's team earns another strike.

Needless to say, the enthusiastic ginger earns bragging rights and a chance to mess with Beca's fashion style, a dare that had been placed before the game started.

"She's going to make me wear those bright pink flowery dresses and neon colored accessories," Beca mutters before bumping her beer towards Aubrey's glass of red wine and then taking a huge sip, both looking glum.

"That's not even a problem. It's dark in the club, no one would even notice. At least you aren't going to a meeting wearing a sesame street shirt, cheap looking jeans and flip flops, in front of all my staff," Aubrey grumbles, sharply eyeing the winning team as they all celebrate with pizza, hovering around a pool table just across the bowling area where the 'losers' were pathetically seated.

"I have meetings too. And you're forgetting that everybody has HD cameras on their phones that could spread my humiliation around the world. Oh did I tell you that I'm going to be on pig tails as well? Pig tails!" Beca retorts with a sardonic smile, gulping on more beer with her gaze straight ahead. Emily follows the DJ's line of sight, and of course it's on the very cheery red head currently laughing at something Martha just said.

"You guys call that humiliation? Seriously? I'm going to be wearing a sexy bunny costume at this year's Activity Fair, handing out flyers to everyone on campus!" Emily cries out, grabbing the wine bottle Aubrey brought and chugging half of its contents down in one go.

Beside her, Beca and Cora both gently pry her hands off the bottle, taking it away from her reach and into Stacie's arms, whose complaints about the turtle neck grandma sweater and pajama-like fluid trousers had been drowned by the cheers from the overly happy people at the pool table. Obviously rubbing in their win.

"I actually think it's a good idea, it'll attract more recruits, which means more talent, which also means bringing the Barden Bellas to the ICCAs again," ignoring Beca's sarcastic, "Is it?", Aubrey takes a sip of wine, stops to think twice about it before adding,

"And please don't tell me that second place is good enough. Second place is like the grand loser of all losers, you better win this year," Beca shakes her head dejectedly at that while Emily continues to lament about her bleak future.

It took a couple of hours, more games with lots of dirtier tactics, definitely more beer and ironically, obnoxious singing before the group called it a day. Having spent the entire afternoon at the bowling centre all to themselves, thanks to Aubrey, 9pm is a great time to hit home. Half of them are drunk, some had already lost their voices from screaming in to the microphone and some are just too tired to move.

Beca, definitely the most intoxicated in the group, has now passed out on the passenger seat next to Chloe who has automatically taken the role of driver. The former co-captain had rolled down her window, elbow propped up on the side with her hand playing with her red locks. The only other person awake is Emily. Beside her, Cora and Martha are also sleeping, adorably leaning against each other.

"Are they like a thing?" Emily whips her head to the rear view mirror to see Chloe's blue eyes on the two sleeping sophomores, a playful smile on her lips. Emily chuckles at the unexpected question, shrugging in reply when Chloe looks her way.

"I can tell, they have chemistry. They'd make a cute couple," Chloe adds, a finger tapping her lips lightly. Emily looks at her thoughtfully before nodding.

"Yeah, I think so too," Emily smiles and it's probably the wine clouding her brain but before she could stop herself the words stumble out of her mouth.

"Like you and Beca,"

Shit

Her words had impact because she could tell with the way Chloe's fingers on her hair suddenly stilled and Emily immediately felt like she had just been drenched in ice cold water. Thankfully, none of that affected Chloe's driving and they haven't crashed in to the concrete barricades along the highway yet. She seriously has to lay off on the alcohol. Wine is as dangerous as any beer with just the right amount in your system.

"I-I mean, your chemistry as friends! You guys are really sweet together—I mean as friends and, well, not many can be friends for seven years and be close, and…" she trails off, mentally berating herself before hurriedly adding,

"I'm sorry that was a really stupid thing to say since Beca is like with Jesse and I don't know why I said that about you and Beca," she ranted on, frantically wondering what she could do to save herself until she heard Chloe's light laughter.

"Relax Em, we get that a lot since we are always together. But really, we are just best friends," Chloe explains before her features get a little serious.

"And uhm by the way, Beca and Jesse aren't together anymore," the red head sneaks a glance at the sleeping brunette next to her as she says this and Emily blinks back her surprise.

No way.

"But the media said-,"

"The media doesn't really have their facts straight most of the time," Chloe shakes her head, her disapproval at the down side of fame clearly showing.

This wasn't enough for Emily though, she did her search today and definitely seen photos from just a couple of weeks ago of the famous singer-DJ out with what looks like a dinner date with Jesse, now also famous for the musical scores he made for a big movie last year. The articles about their rumoured engagement and the LA house they are said to have purchased have been loitering around the internet for some time now.

"So how long have they been, you know, not… together?" she asks uncertainly, hoping that Chloe doesn't think of her as nosey. She naturally wasn't, but anything involving any of her aca-sisters isn't something she could just pass on.

Besides, if there was a happy ending she was rooting for it was for these two. Not that Jesse ending up with Beca would be bad. The Treblemaker alumnus is such a nice guy. He was like a brother to her as well but then as she had pointed out aloud earlier due to her wine induced brain, the chemistry both females have is no joke, honestly even better than Jesse's, and clearly she wasn't the only one who can see it.

"Probably about almost two months now," Chloe answers after seemingly making sure of the timeline.

"But," Chloe quickly adds before pausing to choose her words carefully.

"They seem to be on talking terms nowadays. So, I think it won't be long until they get back together again. It's a slow process but I believe they'll get there," she says in what sounds like a hopeful tone, it sounded so calm and Emily wishes Chloe was facing her while she said this because the way her knuckles gripped the steering wheel was saying otherwise.

Also, the way Chloe was putting it, sounded like this wasn't the first time Jesse and Beca had broken up. Emily then realizes the way Beca drank all those alcohol like no tomorrow, the tired dark circles around her eyes that she has hid underneath those sunglasses which probably comes from working too hard, and what seemingly looks like a desperate attempt for a distraction.

She observes how Chloe declined all the alcohol being passed around for some fruit juice. It was as if she already knew that she would be the one driving tonight. Obviously, this wasn't a first either. Nobody stopped Beca from drinking which may mean that the Bellas knew, well at least Aubrey does since she chose the place after all and kept the beer flowing the DJ's way.

These thoughts occupy Emily for the rest of the ride until she realizes that they've already stopped in front of the hotel. Cora and Martha, who have been woken up by Emily, slowly step out of the car when the hotel staff opened the door for them.

The movements in the car instantly wake Beca up, unfortunately still drunk what with the way she blurts out complaints about Fat Amy cheating on their game of darts earlier, her words in a slur. It fades and just when Emily is about to say her goodbyes, the DJ suddenly stretches and reaches out towards Chloe.

"I don't want to go home. I want my Chlo Bear!" Beca whines like a child being dragged away from the toy store. Emily looks at Chloe worriedly but the red head just gives her a look.

"She does that when she's drunk. It's her thing," she waves dismissively like it was all normal.

"Don't worry, I got this. You better get some rest, you still have a long flight tomorrow," Chloe reassures her and again before Emily could speak Beca finally gets hold of Chloe's right arm, pulling at it before leaning forward, her head landing on Chloe's shoulder and settling at the crook of her neck.

"Chlo Bear is so warm. Don't leave me, Chlo Bear. I don't want to be alone," Beca's desperate tone echoes inside the car that Emily feels like the DJ's about to break down right then and there. It was silent after that and only Beca's inaudible mumbling is heard.

"I'm right here, Becs. Always," the words come out so softly, Chloe's hand gently reaching up to smooth the back of Beca's head and Emily couldn't help but feel like she's intruding in such a private moment.

"I should go," she quickly says and this brings Chloe's attention back to her. She looked like she suddenly forgot that Emily was still there.

"Right, I really need to take her home," she motions over at Beca who seems to have gone back to sleep in her arms.

"Uhm see you tomorrow then," she adds and Emily smiles, stepping out of the car.

The door slowly closes and the last thing she sees is Chloe slowly untangling herself from the other female's hold and carefully leaning the DJ's head back to her own seat. However, the red head doesn't seem to let go of Beca's hand, like an assurance that she was still there and Beca had nothing to worry about. The door closes completely and Emily takes a few step back, watching as the car finally drives off.

The scene lingers in Emily's head for a few moments as she sighs, heading inside the hotel's lobby until a thought crosses her mind.

She needed to talk to Aubrey. Now. She needed to say something important. And hopefully, this time it's a perfect strike.

The thing is I wrote this a month ago, before the Bellas went bowling minus Kendrick, Snow, Hailee and Hana. Could it be that I actually can see the future? Well then, Bechloe is going to happen in PP3, Amen. Oh and I guess this is the part where I thank the followers, those who left comments and those who favorited this story. Thank you for listening to the creation of my crazy brain. :)))