Beca wakes up sore, with an arm hanging off of Aubrey's couch and the other one entwined with Aubrey's hand. Aubrey's arm is holding Beca close, and Beca can feel Aubrey's soft even breaths on the back of her neck. She hums in contentment and tries to focus on Aubrey, timing her breaths with Aubrey's. She doesn't want to think about the night before, but she can't escape it.

She feels the tears silently streaming down her face as she recalls the night before and the events she had accidentally let slip to Chloe.

Beca hates gym class. It's just another excuse for them to hurt her without the risk of getting in trouble. It's dodgeball today and Beca's trying to think of an excuse to get out of it. She doesn't need more bruises than she already has. God she hates school.

The only thing going in her favor during dodgeball is that Beca is small and agile and therefore can actually dodge most of the balls being aimed at her. She's also developed a pretty good aim, so when she has the opportunity she can peg somebody which allows her to let a little of her frustration out.

At the end of gym class she's escaped relatively unscathed only getting hit at the very end by three balls at once. It's been worse.

She heads toward the locker rooms to get changed. She's only halfway there when she hears her name being called.

"Mitchell!" Bryant Duncan calls.

Beca just ignores him. He's one of the douchiest guys she's ever met and she didn't like him even when she was around and nobody gave her any trouble.

"Mitchell!" he calls again.

Beca just keeps walking. She can hear him start to head towards her and she only prays she can reach the locker room before he reaches her.

"Mitchell!" he calls again.

He's closer now, and she starts walking a little faster. She's almost there.

Suddenly Bryant is behind her slamming her into the steel doors of the gym.

"You answer me when I'm talking to you," he yells at her. "Understand?"

Beca doesn't respond and he grabs her by the back of the head and smashes her head as hard as he can into the door.

Her vision blurs into darkness and the last thing she hears is "That'll teach you stupid dyke."

A sweet kiss on her shoulder brings Beca back to the present.

"You're okay," Aubrey whispers. "You're okay, I've got you."

Beca is all too aware of how messed up the present is. She's not sure she knows where Chloe's head is at, but she knows that Aubrey must be worried about what she might do now that Chloe is in the picture, and Beca, for her part is thoroughly confused and scared and all sorts of things that she doesn't quite understand.

Beca grips Aubrey's hand tighter and squeaks out, "Please don't leave me."

Because thus far, Aubrey is the only one who hasn't left yet, and Beca's not sure she could survive if she ever did.

Aubrey pulls Beca impossibly closer to her, holding her tightly. "I won't ever let you go," Aubrey says.

Beca turns around, so she's facing Aubrey and kisses her slowly and softly. "Thank you," Beca says.

Aubrey runs out of the lecture hall. She wouldn't say she dislikes her classes. She actually enjoys a great number of them, but she's a little bit desperate to spend time with her girlfriend, so she rushes to meet up with her by their tree. She hadn't really wanted to go to classes today, but Beca had insisted that she needed to, as much as they would both enjoy spending the whole day together, Beca had said that one of the things she loves about her is that Aubrey has a great sense of responsibility and an impressive drive to succeed in all she does.

Aubrey smiles to herself as she sees Beca standing underneath their tree. She frowns as she gets closer and notices her talking to some guy she doesn't recognize. Beca's posture is tense and defensive and Aubrey quickens her pace slightly.

She announces herself just before she reaches them.

"Hey baby," she says to Beca, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl and placing a quick kiss to her cheek. She feels Beca relax into her arms.

Beca turns slightly to give Aubrey a proper kiss, still just a peck, but it's something that Aubrey thinks they both needed, given the last week or so.

"You should get going," Beca says to the boy. "And like I said earlier, you can fuck-off. You don't have any idea what you're talking about. And while you're at it, tell your sister, she can fuck-off too."

"Beca," Aubrey scolds.

"Sorry, baby," Beca says.

Aubrey barely registers the boy leaving.

"Are you okay?" Aubrey asks. "He seemed like he was making you uncomfortable."

"Yeah," Beca says. "I just wasn't expecting to see him."

"Who was that anyway?" Aubrey asks.

Chloe plops down on her couch. She considers turning on the television in an attempt to distract her from the thoughts revolving around her two favorite girls, but ultimately decides it's pointless. She's waiting on the Chinese delivery person because she's not leaving her apartment for anything other than classes. She doesn't really want to bump into Beca or Aubrey.

Okay, so she's lying. She really does want to see Beca and Aubrey, preferably not together because that still hurts her heart every time she thinks about it. She knows it's better for now if she just sticks to texting Aubrey, which after years of long-distance friendship, she's used to. And if yesterday was any indication, Beca most certainly won't want to see her.

Chloe's thoughts linger on Beca and what she had said the night before. Guilt courses through her veins for ignoring the younger girl, even if her intentions had been good. She should have known better. But how was she supposed to know that those things would happen? The people Beca had mentioned had all seemed like good people when she was there. How had things changed so drastically?

Chloe wants to hunt them down and make them pay for doing the things that they did, and for hurting Beca of all people. Beca had most definitely changed from the happy little girl she had once been. Chloe could see that she had become dark and jaded. She had only seen the light in her eyes return when she had been telling Aubrey that she loves her and that they're okay. And as much as Chloe wants Beca back, she also wants Beca and Aubrey to be happy, and it seems like they are, so she doesn't want to disturb that. Right now, she just hopes that she and Beca can be friends again. If for nothing but Aubrey's sake.

The doorbell rings and Chloe is relieved because she's kind of starving and Chinese food has always been her go to when she's upset. She grabs her purse, rifling through it for the money as she opens the door.

"You're paying me?" she hears.

She looks up and her eyes widen. She definitely isn't expecting her brother to be standing there in front of her. Her brother who hasn't properly acknowledged her since he went away to boarding school. He's gotten taller than she remembers, though she hasn't seen him since the summer after she graduated high school, and even then, she'd only seen him once or twice when he'd come down to visit because he preferred to spend his summers at school rather than come home.

"Bray," she whispers. It takes her a second, but then she literally jumps on him, wrapping her arms around him in the tightest hug she's ever given. He catches her.

"You're here," she says. She's hoping this isn't a dream because she's really missed her little brother, and she's hoping that him being here means he's letting go and forgiving her.

"Yeah," Brayden says. "I – um – missed you."

"I missed you so much," Chloe says. "I never meant to hurt you. You're my little brother…"

"It's okay, Chlo," Brayden says. "I'm over it… mostly. It's been a long time and I've moved on. I actually have a girlfriend of three years now."

"I know, it's Theresa, right?" Chloe says. "Mom says she's sweet and that she's really good to you and for you. And I'm glad because I want you to be happy Bray."

"Mom told you?" Brayden says.

"Yeah," Chloe says. "Every time I called, I'd ask mom how you're doing. I love you, Bray, I always have."

"I love you, too, Chlo," Brayden says, "but can we move out of the doorway, please?"

Chloe laughs. "Yeah, come in," she says. She leads him into the living room. She's only just gotten there when the doorbell rings again.

That's got to be the Chinese, Chloe thinks. It is. She opens the door and pays the man for her food, tipping him generously.

"Sorry," Chloe says to her brother. "I wasn't expecting company, or I would have ordered more.

"That's okay," Brayden says. "I can't stay all that long anyway, I just wanted to see you. And maybe we can work on being as close as we used to be?"

"There's nothing I'd want more," Chloe says honestly. She's not going to let anything get in the way of repairing her relationship with her little brother.

Beca's just finished ordering her meal when she feels Aubrey's inquisitive gaze lingering on her. She looks up to meet Aubrey's eyes as Aubrey orders a shepherd's pie and a side salad, never looking away from Beca once.

"So," Aubrey says when the waiter disappears, "Let me know if you're not ready to talk about any of this, okay?"

Beca nods.

"So, that guy?" Aubrey asks

Beca nods.

"How do you know him?" Aubrey asks.

"He used to be my best friend," Beca says.

Beca tries not to feel guilty about that. It's not really her fault they're not friends anymore. She repeats that in her head over and over again.

Beca can feel the question on the tip of Aubrey's tongue. Used to? She's kind grateful that Aubrey isn't asking, and because of that, she answers the unasked question anyway.

"I met him on the first day of pre-school and we clicked right away. He was into all the same things I was into and he didn't think I was weird because I didn't want to play with Barbies and make-up and all the other things girls that age seemed to like. We became best friends in a matter of days. We started to have play dates outside of pre-school. He would come over and we'd play with legos and everything in the world was right, because I was four, and everything is easy when you're four."

Beca still remembers the first time she went to his house for a play date. It was the day she met Chloe.

"Dad!" Beca whines. "We're gonna be late!"

Beca's dad laughs. "Alright princess, let's go."

Beca grunts at the pet name but runs to the car, buckling herself into the carseat in the back before her dad even reaches the car.

"Someone's eager," Beca's dad says.

"I've never been to Brayden's house before," Beca says. "Is it going to be like our house?"

"I don't know, princess," Beca's dad says. Beca frowns at the nickname again. "I've never been to his house either."

Beca hops out of the car before it's fully stopped and Beca can hear her dad yelling at her for not being safe but she's at the front door and she's knocking impatiently.

The door opens and Beca looks at the girl who's opened the door. She's taller than Beca, but not by that much. She's got long red hair and bright blue eyes and Beca absently thinks that this is what a princess looks like.

Mrs. Beale comes up behind her and says "Chloe, what did we say about opening the door when you don't know who it is."

"You know me Mrs. Beale!" Beca interrupts her lecture. "It's me! Beca!"

Mrs. Beale laughs. "Of course!" she says. "Brayden's just in the living room, why don't you go on in through there."

Beca shoots off like a rocket to go see Brayden, but not without looking back over her shoulder at the red-headed girl who smiles at her and skips off to play somewhere else.

"He went away to boarding school shortly after I started dating Chloe," Beca says.

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