Chapter 10

Thanks for all the support guys! I wanted to remind you all that if you have a prompt you'd like me to look at, you can send it to me on my Tumblr (ofnotebooksandcoffeeshops). I can't promise I'll make it to them, but I do promise to check them out and see if any of them work in my head! The link is in my bio, in case you want a direct link.

I know how you're all feeling… Why did Beca start to think Catherine was right? Is Chloe just using her? Why was she with Tom? So many questions, so few answers.

Enjoy…

Two weeks. Two weeks worth of Bella's practice since the Initiation Party that Beca had succeeded in avoiding her. Chloe couldn't decide if she should be concerned or pissed. What had she done to her? Was the body-shot her best idea? No, but that wasn't enough to induce this treatment. Something else was happening and she had no idea what it was.

Aubrey entered their apartment, noticing the frowning redhead on the couch the instant she set foot in the door. She put her things up and made her way into the living room, having the inkling feeling that she knew what this was about. She could be wrong, but she was Aubrey Posen.

"What did the pain-in-my-ass do?" Aubrey growled, getting her phone out in preparation to message Stacie so that they could go and smack some sense into the alt-girl.

"You could try to be nicer to her, you know. She's only trying to help," Chloe defended. Aubrey sat down next to her best friend, crossing her legs and joining her hands together on her lap.

"Then she'd think she'd won," she stated, knowing it was true. And the last thing she wanted to deal with was a gloating Beca. "Besides, with the routine we've got, there is no way that we won't win Nationals."

Chloe rolled her eyes, something she picked up from Beca in the short time they had been around each other, but chose not to fight her friend on the issue. Once Aubrey decided on something, it was almost impossible to change her mind. "Ace of Bass always prevails," Chloe said, forcing herself not to smile at what she had just said.

"Thank you!" Aubrey cried. "So, what did the Hobbit do to make you so angry?"

"I'm not angry," the redhead lied.

A sigh escaped her lips, knowing that there was much more going on beneath the surface. Aubrey was also sure that she knew what had caused this sudden rift. "Catherine talked to her."

"She did what!?" Chloe questioned, hurling herself around to look at the blonde. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted and contorted in a semi-frown.

"Catherine spoke to her, she saw you and Tom, then she stormed off," Aubrey summarized the entire Initiation Party. Though she made sure to leave out the part where Stacie straddled Beca while she interrogated her.

"No..." the co-captain whispered, her head falling into her hands.

The blonde nodded her head, "I think it was mostly the Tom part."

"I need to go," Chloe scrambled to her feet and began gathering her things; her shoes by the coffee table, her keys from her bag, and her phone. She was almost to the door when Aubrey spun her around by the shoulder.

"Go where?"

"The station," Chloe said, spinning back to leave. She threw the door open and marched out.

"Those two are just crazy enough to work," Aubrey mumbled to herself.

Beca despised working the Monday shift with Jesse, or working the Monday shift in general. Her typical bad attitude was made worse because of the Initiation Party, which occurred two weeks ago, but still lingered in the back of her mind. Beca Mitchell was not someone who got fucked with.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" Jesse asked from behind a shelf where he was stacking. Beca looked up from the crate she was sorting through to see his head peeping out between some vinyls and CDs.

"Uh," Beca mumbled, thinking about what she was told that morning at Bella's practice. "Nothing. I have another early practice and one class, but after that I'm going to sleep. Don't even think about making me watch a movie."

"So you're going to be free at like seven?"

Beca moved to another shelf to start stacking, glaring back at Jesse's still visible head with half-closed eyes. "I guess."

"Then you should come out to dinner with us," Jesse's innocent voice said.

"No," came her curt reply. Her head shook back and forth, reminiscent of how Bumper had reacted to Benji the first time they had ever met.

"C'mon," Jesse whined, walking out from behind his shelf towards Beca.

"No."

"It'll be fun."

"No."

"Please?"

"I'll say it in Spanish. No."

"Beca," Jesse pleaded, leaning on the desk near her. "I'll pay for everything."

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, narrowing her vision at him. "Why do you want me to go?"

"You're my best-friend and she's my girlfriend," he said, Beca cringed at the girlfriend comment. It took everything in her to not gag in front of him. "Stop cringing when I say that!"

"It's my natural reaction!"

"I just want you two to try and be civil," Jesse said. His hands went to his head, attempting to remember something he vaguely remember hearing. His eyes shot open and he pointed his index finger at her, "You can bring Luke!"

"What is Luke being brought to?" the Brit asked from the doorway of the booth, one eyebrow raised.

"Dinner with me, Beca, and Catherine," Jesse explained.

Luke's eyebrows scrunched together in a mixture of disgust and confusion. His nose wrinkled up, his mouth turning down in an overdone frown. "Why the hell would I do that?"

"I'm paying."

"Alright, as long as the Ice Queen doesn't flirt with me," Luke mentioned.

"She won't! She's my girlfriend," Jesse said like that was the most obvious answer.

Beca and Luke both started laughing, eventually getting to the point that they were gasping for air. Jesse closed his eyes, his finger pinching the bridge of his nose as he waited for them to calm down.

"Like that would stop her," Luke said.

Jesse looked like his puppy had just been kicked, yet remained persistent. "I'll pay for everything, I'll work double shifts for a week, and I'll take over stacking for Beca so she can sit here."

Both stared, their mouths agape at the sudden offer. "No double shifts, but you buy my lunch for a week," Luke bargained.

"Fine."

"No forced movie nights for a month," Beca threw in.

"Deal," he sighed. "Seven o'clock tomorrow, The Peddler Steakhouse, so please dress nice," Jesse said, sounding exhausted from having to bargain with two of his friends.

"Becky and I will be there," Luke answered. He then looked around the station and down at his watch. "You two can go, I got all the tracks I need and you guys weren't really working in the first place."

"True," Beca said, picking up her satchel and throwing it across her shoulder.

"I'll tell Catherine that you two will be there," Jesse said, more of his goofy-self now that he got out of work early. He grabbed his backpack and jogged out the door, excited to see his girlfriend.

Beca and Luke shook their heads, neither needing to look at the other to know what was happening.

"At least we get to make fun of them all night," she mentioned. Luke nodded.

"I'm just in it for the free food," Luke admitted. He went back into the booth and shut the door, waving at Beca through the window once he sat down. Beca saluted him while she took a few steps back, turning and making her way out of the station not too far behind Jesse.

She trudged across the grass, mentally preparing herself for the torture that would be tomorrow night.

Chloe dashed to the radio station, throwing herself through the first door and bursting past the second one with ease. She didn't mean to run the entire way, but she had taken off the moment she saw Tom roaming around her apartment building. He may have been attractive, but he had never been able to take a hint.

Glancing around the station, she saw no one there except for Luke inside the booth. She stormed over, smacking her hands against the glass a few times and succeeding in getting his attention. He pulled his headphones off at the intrusion. His face once again took on his signature look of confusion that transformed his handsome face into a handsome face that appeared to be judging you. He hung outside the doorway, his hands holding the entrance for support.

"Need something?" Luke asked, now amused at her look of determination.

"Where's Beca?" she asked, evening out her breathing from her run over.

"Just left," Luke answered, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorway. "What do you need her for?"

"There was a huge misunderstanding-"

"Is that why she's been more mopey?" he questioned, finally putting the pieces together. He had taken note of how she was slower than usual, and that was saying a great deal. Her temper had grown shorter, she wasn't as sarcastic, and had even been giving him fewer flash drives.

"Dammit," Chloe muttered, moving to sit on the station's couch. For the second time that night, her head fell into the palms of her hands. Her auburn hair cascaded down to cover what could be seen of her face.

Luke strolled across the room to stand before her. As he stood there, he began thinking of a way to fix this mess. Maybe it wasn't his mess to clean up, but Chloe was too sweet to deserve anything that had happened to her over the years. "You need to talk to her right?"

"Yeah," she answered, turning her head up slightly to look at her friend. The bottom part of her face remained hidden, only her eyes visible.

"Has she been avoiding you or something?"

"For two weeks."

It finally clicked. He got it. "Listen up, Strawberry Shortcake. I may just know how to handle this..."