Chapter 10

Beca hadn't slept well that night. She had experience with sleeping on hard floors but that didn't make it any more comfortable. She had managed a few hours of sleep before Chloe's uneasy movements had woken her up. Beca had tried to soothe Chloe by talking to her quietly and had managed to calm her down but she couldn't fall back asleep herself. Her thoughts were wildly running around in her head, thinking about last night and her overall situation.

She prayed that Justin had finally gotten the message and would leave Chloe alone in the future. Otherwise she would make sure to give him a little reminder.

Beca usually wasn't one for violence but she made an exception when it came to people she cared about. She had fought for Jesse and she would fight for Chloe. The redhead had managed to gain a place in Beca's heart and once you were in there, nothing could be done to remove you. Beca didn't have many people she genuinely cared about but Chloe had managed to sneak her way into Beca's heart.

The brunette wasn't sure she liked that since she had tried to stay distant to avoid sorrow in the future but she couldn't do anything about it now.

A short knock on the door alerted her to the fact that it was apparently the next morning.

"Chloe, sweetie, are you awake?" a soft female voice asked before opening the door a little.

Neither Chloe nor Beca had closed the blinds last night so it was already pretty bright in the room.

Claire was about to turn around as soon as she saw that her daughter was still sleeping when she saw Beca on the ground.

"Beca? What are you doing here? And are that the clothes you wore to the party last night?" she asked quietly.

Damn it, Beca thought and slowly stood up. She didn't want to wake up Chloe so she made her way out of the room quietly and closed the door behind her.

Claire had a big smile on her face. "I am so glad that you two are getting along so well. But why did you sleep on the floor? We have mattresses. Chloe knows where they are, she should have given one to you."

Beca didn't really know what to say but shook her head. "No, it's okay. We were talking and fell asleep. I forgot to change out of my clothes. I could have gone to my room when I woke up but I was thinking. I've slept on floors before, it isn't as bad as it sounds."

Claire smile quickly vanished and her eyebrows furrowed. "You slept on the floor before? Why?"

"Um..." The brunette didn't plan on revealing that little detail to Claire but if it meant she would stop asking questions about last night, Beca would have to think about something to say. Might as well be part of the truth. "You know that my former foster homes weren't up to standards. There were some nights where I would be punished. Didn't happen too often, don't worry. It's not so bad, you basically do the same while camping."

"I'm sorry Beca, I didn't mean to pry. But the next time, use a mattress or something. I came to wake both of you, I'm making breakfast and Stacie will be here in about an hour for your shopping trip. Will you wake Chloe for me?"

Beca gulped. Oh no, she had totally forgotten about that shopping trip. She hastily plastered a fake smile on her face and assured Claire that she would wake Chloe and that both of them would be down for breakfast soon.

Claire thanked Beca and went downstairs again.

Shoving any thoughts about shopping trips and what those shopping trips entailed into the back of her mind, Beca went back into Chloe's room to wake her up.

She stopped next to Chloe's bed and quietly said her name. "Chloe, wake up."

The redhead didn't move a muscle.

Beca tried again, this time a little louder. "Chloe, wake up. Your mom made us breakfast and Stacie will be here in an hour."

Chloe moved a little but didn't wake up. Beca sighed and carefully shook the other girl's shoulder. She had wanted to avoid that for both of their sakes but if Chloe wouldn't wake up, there was nothing she could do.

Chloe's eyes opened suddenly as she felt Beca's hand on her shoulder and she was awake instantly. "Wha..?"

Beca quickly removed her hand and took a step back. "It's just me. Your mom asked me to wake you up. She's making breakfast and Stacie will be here in less than an hour."

The redhead was a little confused but quickly became more alert. "Oh. Good morning."

"Morning."

Chloe slowly moved out of the bed until she stood in front of Beca. When she saw the blanket still lying on the ground where Beca had spent most hours of last night, all the events of last nights party rushed back into her mind.

"Oh. Did you stay the whole night?"

Beca couldn't quite read Chloe's mood and only nodded.

"Thank you. It was probably pretty uncomfortable. I won't make you sleep here again, I'm sorry. Are you okay? I didn't scare you off, right?"

Beca couldn't help a snort from escaping. "Am I okay? The better question is, are you okay?"

Chloe just shrugged. "I guess. As I said last night, nothing really happened. I will get over it."

Not wanting to be a hypocrite but still trying to make sure that the other girl was alright, Beca spoke up again. "Are you sure about that? You can't just forget what happened."

Chloe straightened her back and glared at Beca. "Watch me. Look, I'm really thankful that you saved me last night and stayed with me but can we maybe forget that this even happened? Please don't tell anyone. All will be forgotten in a few weeks."

Beca watched Chloe sceptically but didn't want to overstep any boundaries. "I'm not sure that this is the best plan here but I'll go along with it. I won't say anything. But if you ever want to talk, I'm here, okay?"

Chloe sent her a small thankful smile. "Thanks. I'll get dressed and then we'll meet downstairs? I'm sure Stacie will be here in a few minutes, she's always early."

Beca's shoulders slumped. "Do we really have to go shopping?"

Chloe grinned. Beca had been complaining ever since they made the plan to go shopping but Chloe wouldn't budge. "We have to. Now go and get dressed."

Beca sighed unhappily and turned around to her own room to get dressed.

Once she arrived there, she choose to wear as much layers as she could. Shopping meant clothes and clothes meant changing rooms. She was absolutely sure that Stacie and Chloe would make her try something on so she prepared herself as much as possible by wearing her leather jacket over a hoody with a long-sleeved shirt and a tank top underneath after a quick shower. It was pretty warm but Beca was used to that. She had been wearing layers for a long time now.

Beca was starting to feel comfortable in this house and that was a mistake. It had always been a mistake to feel a fake sense of security. She was pretty sure that the Beales had never laid a hand on Chloe but that didn't mean they wouldn't start something as soon as Beca relaxed enough to make some kind of mistake. She had let her guard down last night for Chloe's sake but she wouldn't continue doing so. So she steeled herself and went downstairs after grabbing her bag from last night.

Beca was greeted by the sight of Claire and Stacie talking while drinking a cup of coffee and Andrew reading the newspaper.

She slowly made her way to 'her' seat at the table and poured herself a cup of coffee.

Stacie quickly noticed her and sent her a bright smile. "Good morning Beca! Are you excited about our little trip today?"

"Can't wait." Beca mumbled into her coffee cup, not looking at the other girl.

"Are you still tired? You went home early last night and your mom told me she has just woken you up. You must have gotten enough sleep, is everything alright?"

"Um... yeah. Fine. I didn't sleep that well, don't worry."

Stacie wasn't convinced. "If you say so. What about Chloe? Why did she go with you?"

Beca looked up and glared at Stacie. Not maliciously but she was getting annoyed with the questions. Where was Chloe? She should help her fending of the questions, damn it. "She was tired as well."

"Uh huh. Right. I'll get it out of you eventually."

Beca was about to answer when Chloe came downstairs with a big smile on her face.

"Good morning! You are pretty early Stace, couldn't sleep or something?"

Stacie grinned. "Oh, I slept very well. At least the few hours I got. I didn't leave the party early."

Chloe sat down next to Beca and her dad and poured herself a cup of coffee. "Yeah, sorry, tired. So, what do we have planned for today?"

"You know, I thought we could head to the mall and spent a few hours there, get some lunch and after that maybe a movie? We'll see, I'm open to anything."

"That's okay with me. What about you Beca?"

"Hm."

"Oh, before I forget. This is for you Beca, buy yourself some new clothes, you really don't have enough." Claire said as she handed Beca a few dollar bills. Which turned out to be about 500 dollars.

Beca's eyes widened. "No! I don't need any money, I'm fine. I've got enough clothes, don't worry. Please keep your money." She quickly gave the money back to Claire and busied her hands with her cup, not wanting the older woman to give the money back to her.

"Don't be ridiculous, we're happy to give this to you. You really need some clothes and since I'm sure you won't like what I would pick out if I were to buy you clothes, I thought you could just chose stuff for yourself. You won't get out of it, I already talked to Chloe. She has strict orders to at least buy you a couple pairs of jeans and a few shirts. And a jacket. You are lucky that it isn't that cold this winter but it probably won't stay this warm for long." Claire said and gave the money to Chloe who grinned at Beca as she put the money into her wallet.

"I really don't need clothes. Please keep it." Beca was getting desperate. She had been in this kind of situation before and it hadn't ended well for her. Steven West had liked to make fun of her as often as he could, using cruel punishments as incentive so she would always stay on her guard around him. He and his wife had been nice at first but shortly after her social workers visit's grew further apart, they completely changed and treated her like a slave. But before that, they had also given her money to buy some clothes and when she happily took the money and bought some stuff (It was only a hundred dollars), they screamed at her for wasting their money and told her, she had to work to pay them back the money she had wasted. This started her cleaning, cooking and repair duties. They had started hitting her and shoving her against walls then when she was in the way. It wasn't that bad at first but Beca always thought that this event started everything in the West's home.

So she really didn't want the money. "No, really, I'm fine, please don't waste your money on me."

Andrew and Claire looked at her contemplatively. Chloe and Stacie just watched in confusion. Andrew chose to ask the obvious question. "Is there a reason you don't want to take our money, Beca? We are happy to give it to you."

"I don't need more stuff. Please keep the money. I was thinking about getting a job anyway, so I could buy some necessary stuff. You don't have to give me anything. I'm grateful that I can stay here but that doesn't mean you have to buy me things. I'm fine."

"Why do you want to get a job? If you want something, all you have to do is ask." Claire told Beca, not really sure why the brunette girl didn't want their money.

Beca shook her head. "No. I'm not some charity case, I can get the stuff I need on my own. Thanks for offering, but I have a few dollars on me. If it means so much to you, I will buy a jacket, okay?"

Claire sighed deeply and after sending a meaningful look in her daughter's direction, agreed with Beca. "Okay. But I hope you will feel comfortable to take things from us soon. We really don't mind."

Beca just shrugged and finished her cup of coffee.

Chloe and Stacie looked at each other confusedly, but decided it would be best to head out as soon as possible.

"So, I borrowed Aubrey's car so we can drive to the mall. Shall we go?"

Beca quickly nodded, rinsed her coffee cup in the sink, dried it and placed it in the cupboard before Chloe had time to even stand up from the kitchen table.

"Well, it seems we are in a hurry. See you later mom and dad." Chloe told her parents and the three girls made their way out of the house.

Stacie, being the nosy one, decided to ask the obvious question once she started Aubrey's car and drove in the direction of the mall. "What was that?"

Beca only looked out of the window.

Chloe turned around to look at Beca, who was sitting in the backseat behind Stacie who was driving. "What's up with you? You've started talking more around us and now you are back to the silent treatment? Did we do something?"

Beca shook her head. "No. I'm just not in the mood for talking right now."

Chloe sighed. "Okay. We can't force you I guess. So, Stacie, how did you manage to convince Bree to let us borrow the car?"

Stacie laughed. "Oh, it was quite easy. She wanted to use this weekend to get some studying done and when I asked her if she wanted to come she said no. So I told her that we needed her car to get there and if I could borrow it. She said no as well but when I told her how I would spent the whole weekend pestering her while she tried to study she gave up pretty quickly. Not without some threats of bodily harm if I got so much as a scratch on the car but she agreed eventually."

Chloe grinned. "Cool. I didn't expect her to give up so easily."

"Oh, she wouldn't dare. I've done it before, the pestering. I'm pretty good at it. She got a B+ because of it. She didn't talk to me for two days after that."

The redhead furrowed her brows. "When was that? And how come I don't know about that?"

Stacie shrugged. "I think it was just after you got together with Tom. You were pretty busy with him. I think we just forgot telling you about it. She forgave me eventually, so it doesn't matter."

Chloe's eyes widened. "What? Don't tell me I was one of those girls? That forget about their friends as soon as they get a boyfriend?"

The tall brunette chuckled. "It was only for about two weeks. Don't worry, Bree and I already had a plan to get you to pay attentions to us again. But we didn't have to use it, you went back to your old self pretty quickly."

"How come you haven't said anything? And how come I haven't noticed that? It should be pretty obvious."

"We didn't want to annoy you. You were happy with him at first. We didn't want to stay in the way. I don't know how you didn't notice though. Don't worry about it. We'll be there in a few minutes, do you know what you want to buy?"

"I still don't get how I couldn't have noticed such behavior. Well, it's in the past I guess. But please tell me if something like that is happening again. I don't want to be one of those girls."

Stacie grinned. "No problem."

They arrived in the parking lot a few minutes later and got out of the car.

"Well, let's go inside girls!" Stacie cheered and grabbed Chloe's hand to pull her in the direction of the entrance. She had tried to do the same to Beca but the small brunette had skillfully evaded the other girl's hand by adjusting her pony tail.

"Where to first?" Chloe asked as soon as they entered the mall through the front doors.

"Clothes!" Stacie exclaimed and made her way to the closest clothing store.

Beca sighed deeply and followed the other two girls slowly. She didn't like shopping. At all.

When she arrived in the store she saw that Stacie had already found some stuff she wanted to try on. She ignored both girls for the moment and went to the sunglasses rack. One couldn't do wrong with looking at sunglasses. The other girls would assume she had found something interesting to look at and would leave her alone. Hopefully at least. That tactic had worked before.

Bot not today apparently.

"Beca!"

The small brunette turned around and saw both girls looking in her direction.

Not wanting to shout and not really wanting to go over to them she just mouthed 'What?' at them.

Stacie rolled her eyes. "Come over here! I found something you just have to try on!"

Beca's eyes narrowed. "No way." she mumbled and turned around to continue pretending to look at the sunglasses.

Stacie chose to give Beca a little more time but only because she wanted to try some stuff on herself. She would get Beca into some of those shirts as soon as she had finished trying some stuff on.

"Come on Chloe. We'll get her to try some stuff on later. I'll try these on and you'll tell me if I look fat in them, okay?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You don't look fat in anything Stacie. You have the perfect body and you know it."

Stacie winked. "Well, it can't hurt to hear it more often."

"Yeah, yeah, go and change. I'll wait in front of the curtain."

Stacie grinned and moved into one of the changing stalls.

"Chlo?"

"What is it? Do you need help with the zipper or something?"

"No. I just wanted to ask if everything was alright?"

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know. You are acting a little strange. Beca too by the way. And I'm sure you're not telling me everything about last night."

Damn it, Chloe thought. "I told you, we were tired. Everything is fine. And I told you everything about yesterday. I went outside to look for Beca, found her, we talked for a bit, found out that we were both pretty tired and then called a cab to take us home."

"Why didn't you say goodbye to us? And if you had asked Bree, I'm sure she would have taken you two home. Or even Jesse."

"I just didn't think about that. I was pretty tired."

"I don't believe you. But I'll let it be for now because I don't want to ruin this day. But we'll be talking about this again."

Chloe was growing frustrated. "Everything is fine! We don't have to talk about anything!"

Stacie opened the curtain to the changing stalls and looked at Chloe unimpressed. "Right. Thanks for that reaction, now I'm definitely talking to you about this again. So, what do you think about this blouse?"

Chloe was a little annoyed at herself for acting so out of character but pushed it to the back of her mind. Stacie said she wouldn't say anything today. She would have to think about something to say to her later today.

"It looks good on you Stacie. I like the simple style of it. Green is a good color on you."

Stacie beamed at Chloe. "Thanks. Yeah, I like it. But I do have a lot of blouses like this. I'm not sure I need another."

The redhead rolled her eyes. "Since when do you go shopping for something you need? You always buy things you want because you already have everything you could possibly need."

"True. But I'll try the other stuff on and then decide."

"Good idea." Chloe told her and checked her phone for any new messages. There weren't any so she decided to look around the store a little. She didn't see anything interesting until she saw Beca by the sunglasses rack. It didn't look like she was looking at any of them, she was just standing there and looking at the people walking through the mall.

She didn't really know what to think about Beca. She had thought they were getting along after their rocky start but after they had woken up this morning Beca had shut her out again. She was so thoughtful last night and Chloe really had a lot of fun when they spent their evenings in the basement mixing music. She didn't know what had changed but she resolved herself to ask her once they got back home.

Fifteen minutes later Stacie was finished in this store and made her way over to where Beca was standing.

"Hey, did you find a pair you like?"

Beca jumped a little as she heard Stacie's voice next to her.

"Oh, it''s you. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. No, I was just looking. Are you finished here?"

Stacie nodded. "I am, but you aren't. I found this really cute shirt and I think it would look really good on you. Why don't you try it on? You don't have to buy it but I want to see how it looks on you."

"No. I'm really not a fan of fashion."

"You don't have to be. Now come on." Stacie said and pulled Beca in the direction of the changing stalls were Chloe was still standing.

"Stacie, no. I really don't want to try anything on." Beca tried to pull her arm out of the grip of the other girl but Stacie wasn't letting her go that easily.

"You haven't even seen it."

"I don't need to." Beca grumbled.

Stacie grabbed the shirt from Chloe's arms when they arrived at the changing stalls and showed it to Beca. It was a long sleeved black shirt with some nice buttons in the front.

"This doesn't look so bad, does it? It's even in black, you like black, don't you? Just try it on please."

Beca sighed. The shirt really looked pretty nice. And it had long sleeves, so her arms won't be exposed.

"If I try this on, will you leave me alone for the rest of the day?"

Stacie nodded. "Yeah, I promise."

"Okay." Beca's shoulder's slumped as she grabbed the shirt from Stacie and moved into the changing stall.

Beca closed the curtains firmly and put her bag on a chair that stood next to the mirror in the corner of the changing stall. She removed her leather jacket, hoody and shirt before snatching the shirt Stacie had given her. She had already one arm in the shirt when she noticed that her tank top had ridden up and her scar from the broken bottle was visible. She hated looking at all of her scars and tried to pull her tank top down quickly. She took a step backwards and brushed against the chair which made all of her stuff fall to the ground with a loud thud.

"Beca? Is everything okay?"

Beca's eyes widened as she heard Chloe's voice. She tried to put the black shirt on quickly but she had somehow tangled her arm in the shirt. She watched with growing horror as the curtain was pulled to the side a little and Chloe's head peeked through the opening.

"Do you need help?"

Chloe looked at the panicked look on Beca's face and furrowed her brow. What was going on with her? That was when she took a closer look at the brunette and saw the scar on Beca's side.

"Beca? What is that?" she asked quietly, hoping that it wasn't what it looked like.

A/N: I finally found the time to finish this chapter. Sorry for the long wait guys, I had tons of stuff to do. Anyway, thanks for the continued support and if you liked this chapter, please leave a little review to let me know :)