Beca had been in the guest room for twenty minutes with her back against the closed and locked door. Chloe and Aubrey had followed her to the guest room and Beca knew they were on the other side of the door. Beca's stomach was rattled by the surreal experience from twenty minutes before. Chloe and Aubrey had asked her time after time to unlock the door, to let them in. Beca was quiet. Tears were streaming down her face, but she tried to keep it quiet so the two girls on the other side of the door couldn't hear. She wished she could go back in time and change what happened. She wished they didn't know. But they did. They knew she'd been lying to them from day one. They knew that her soulmate tattoo was the same as them, the stupid cursive capital B.
"Becs, please. Please open the door." Chloe's voice sounded desperate. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. Please just let us look at your arm." This was her last attempt, Beca could tell. She'd tried asking her to open the door maybe ten times now. Aubrey had asked another ten times on top of that. Beca hadn't responded once, but she knew this couldn't last much longer. She'd texted Stacie and asked for a ride, but hadn't gotten anything back. She sighed and wiped her face clean of the tears. She stood and unlocked the door, then turned away from it and walked to the bed.
Immediately, she heard the girls on the other side stand and the door jiggled open seconds later. Beca took off the sweatshirt they'd given her, nervously. The air on her arms felt cold. She felt vulnerable in every way. The girls rushed in and Beca sat on the bed. She couldn't look up, couldn't look either of them in the eye. Chloe and Aubrey sat down on the bed, both on the same side as her cut arm. Chloe pulled up the sleeve of the tshirt she'd given Beca. It was an old Wonder Years tour shirt. Chloe was gentle with the fabric, flipping it up Beca's shoulder and revealing the laceration running from her shoulder down her arm. "Jesus, Becs." Chloe mumbled, looking it over. It was long and Beca knew it was deep. Chloe immediately went to work and Aubrey handed her whatever she needed. Beca joked to herself that it was a good thing Chloe was in the medical field too. Beca looked anywhere around the room to avoid their eyes. "You might need stitches." Beca didn't respond. She didn't know what to say - didn't know how to say it. She didn't need stitches. She'd been in enough fights in high school to know if she did or not. Chloe and Aubrey wouldn't believe the trouble she'd gotten into during the three year long divorce her parents went through.
"You really don't believe in Soulmates?"
Aubrey's words hung in the air. She made it an entire five minutes without saying anything. Beca felt the sting of her words immediately. She thought about the Never Have I Ever game they played a month before. She knew what Aubrey was asking.
You don't believe in us?
Beca didn't respond. Didn't look up. Couldn't.
Chloe finished wrapping up her arm. She took Beca's chin and forced her to look up and into her eyes. "Hey, we care about you, you know?"
Beca nodded and pulled away. "The two of you are so happy together." She told them as she looked down at her tattoo. "The two of you make each other happy."
"We do." Aubrey said, but her tone told Beca that she didn't understand what Beca was saying.
Beca's voice was shaking. "My parents were happy before my dad met his soulmate."
Aubrey was the first one to speak. "I'm not saying what your dad did was the right thing to do, but… your parents weren't soulmates Beca." Aubrey took her hand and Beca looked down to see her tracing the lines of the capital B tattoo. "This is different."
Beca met her gaze. Then met Chloe's. She looked back down at the bed. "I don't know why either of you care so much."
Aubrey shook her head. "I don't know why you care so little about yourself."
Chloe brushed Beca's hair behind her ear. "Have you ever taken a second to think about what you want, Beca? Have you ever thought about how happy you could be with someone? That you don't have to do everything on your own?"
Beca's phone rang and she answered it. It was Stacie, she was outside. "Are you okay?" Stacie asked after hearing the sound of Beca's voice answering.
"I'll be right out." Beca felt a pang of guilt when she saw both Aubrey and Chloe were disappointed about that. She hung up the phone and stood from the bed. "I, uh. I'll get the clothes back to you at practice tomorrow."
"Beca…" Chloe started but Beca couldn't take this conversation right now.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Beca went for the door and this time neither girl went to stop her. They let her go and the cool fall air was a breath of fresh air in her lungs. She practically ran to Stacie's car. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She said once she was in the passenger's seat.
Stacie pulled away when she was in the car and went for the exit of the apartment complex, though she was only half paying attention to the road. Her eyes were mulling over Beca's appearance - her obvious injuries. Beca sighed. She just needed to be alone. To do a mix. Something. "You're in short sleeves." Stacie noted and the connotation of the sentence was obvious.
"They… found out." Beca sunk in her seat and tears were rolling down her face without any consent from her brain. She hated crying.
"Oh, Beca…" Stacie put a hand on her knee, reassuringly. "I'm sorry. Wasn't exactly the way you wanted them to, huh?" Beca nodded and proceeded to tell Stacie what happened from the previous night and into the next morning. She pointed out the laceration on her arm and explained how Chloe bumped into her on the couch, which prompted questioning. Then she explained her hiding for twenty minutes and the conversation before Stacie arrived. Stacie listened silently as Beca finished the story through and through. Then she said what Beca knew she would say. "They're right you know. You never think about what could make you happy, Beca. You've spent your entire life trying to be on your own because you don't want to get hurt. Did you ever think that you're hurting yourself? You don't trust anyone, Beca."
"I trust you." Beca argued, but she was still thinking about the conversation she had with Chloe and Aubrey the night before, about trusting them.
"Don't you think having one single person in the world that you trust is probably a bad sign?" Stacie kind of laughed, but Beca knew she was just trying to lighten the mood. "Seriously, don't you think that maybe you should trust more than just me? That maybe fighting fate is going to make everything that much harder?" Beca rolled her eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me."
Beca crumbled as they pulled into the Barden parking lot near their dorm. "I'll… think about it." Stacie didn't say anything more and Beca spent the entire day thereafter on her computer and mix board. Thinking was the last thing she did that day.
