Jesse cancelled Trebles practice. He burrowed himself in his room, headphones covering his ears and plugged into his laptop, watching The Breakfast Club on repeat. He didn't even get up to make popcorn.
That in turn worried Benji the most.
"Dude, what happened last night?" Donald asked the younger boy, and Benji shrugged. "I mean, Beca was here and then they drove away and then Beca never came home".
"Jesse?" Donald tapped on Jesse's door, before swinging it open. They found the boy cocooned in his blankets, his eyes fixated on the screen.
(They knew something was wrong when Jesse didn't fist pump with Judd Nelson.)
"Hey buddy", Benji said. "What's up?"
"I don't think this is healthy, man", Donald said honestly. "Where's Beca? Why didn't she come home with you last night?"
Jesse felt his heart break just a little more when Donald said 'home', because they had made his room in the Treble house their home. Despite Beca sharing with Fat Amy, they both knew that the girls' dorm went empty most nights.
"Did you break up?" Donald wanted to know, and Jesse shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe".
"Maybe? How do you maybe break up with someone?" Hat said, coming into the room in time to catch Jesse's last statement.
"It's complicated". And Jesse pressed play again, essentially blocking them out.
"What the hell happened?" Hat wanted to know, and Donald just shrugged.
"Shit went down", the other boy said finally.
That afternoon, when Jesse emerged from his bedroom (flinching at the light), he made his way to the station, knowing that Beca had the same shift as him. Instead, he bumped into Luke, who glared at him.
"Is there a reason Beca wanted all the night shifts from now on? And why is she taking the next fortnight off?"
(Beca worked fast, he had to give it to her.)
"She's sick", he said finally, and Jesse saw a flash of what he would ordinarily see as concern in Luke's eyes.
"Right", he said finally, picking up a crate of CDs.
He understood why Beca was pushing him away. He just wished that she wouldn't. He thought he had broken down her walls, but nothing was going to crack through the steel enforced concrete wrapped around her.