Chapter 5 Et tu, Cynthia Rose?
Did you ever hear what I told you
Did you ever read what I wrote you
Did you ever listen to what we played
Did you ever let in what the world said
Did we get this far just to feel your hate
Did we play to become only pawns in the game
How blind can you be, don't you see
You chose the long road but we`ll be waiting
-Bye Bye Beautiful by Nightwish
"What are they doing here, Rose?" Aubrey's question shattered the quiet before them, her voice lowered to an angry, almost violent hiss.
Beca stood slightly off to the side watching as Cynthia Rose stood and tried to calm Aubrey down. Beca, while as angry and having the same questions as Aubrey, chose to remain quiet and watch instead. Like everyone, she had kept tabs on her former bandmates, but she hadn't seen or heard from Aubrey in the past twenty years and she had to admit, Aubrey looked good. Her hair was shorter, curlier and certainly darker than the last time she saw her. She was obviously more mature, and seemed to have permanently forgone her glasses for contacts since she wasn't squinting her eyes at every turn. With her blush pink blazer and white designer pants, she exuded a confidence that Beca only seen while she was on stage.
Cynthia Rose reached out to Aubrey, only for the angry woman to snatch her arm out of Cynthia Rose's grasp. Aubrey then turned her head and levelled her livid countenance at Beca. "Aren't you going to say something?" Her face was red with anger and her tone a barely contained scream. However, for a split second, her eyes softened in confusion before the anger reappeared and Beca realized she'd been caught staring. Clearing her throat, Beca looked away and sighed. She was upset that Fat Amy had tricked her into meeting with the entire band but yelling about it wasn't going to change anything. She simply shrugged, biting her lip to hold in a smirk once she saw how her indifference only served to anger Aubrey further.
Beca glanced over to Chloe and was surprised that she seemed almost happy—relieved—to see everyone again.
"How about everyone take a seat—" Emily suggested only for Aubrey to cut her off with a glare.
"I'm not sitting anywhere until someone tells me why there are rumors—and god help, it better be a rumor—of a Bellas reunion tour."
Chloe nodded, "Yeah. What the hell, Em?"
Beca glanced at Cynthia Rose who stared back silently pleading for help. With an audible sigh, Beca gestured to the table, "How about we sit down and talk about this before we're kicked out of this place." She slid into the booth to sit next to Fat Amy and Cynthia Rose smiled at her in gratitude. She gave a nod in response. Chloe sat in the remaining empty seat and everyone looked at Aubrey expectantly. Aubrey, who stood with her arms cross, rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth as she grabbed a chair from the empty table next to them and sat down.
The waitress came over and refilled their water glasses and told them she'd be back when they were ready to place their orders.
"No need to wait," Fat Amy said, and picked up the plastic menu in front of her. "Can I have the chicken fried steak with extra gravy and instead of the mash potatoes, can I have hash browns? You know, the shredded ones, not that patty thing." The waitress nodded and looked at everyone else expectantly. Chloe ordered a coffee and everyone else declined to order anything. Beca waited until the waitress took their menus and walked away. She looked at Fat Amy and raised an eyebrow, amusement tinting her features. "I see you still eat the same, Ames."
Fat Amy laughed, "You know me, tater tot. Now that I can afford it, I'm never going to go hungry ever again if I can help it."
Aubrey rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair with her legs cross. her arms folded across her sternum and the fingers of her right hand massaging her forehead to stymie a migraine. "Now that we're all reacquainted," she bit out through clenched teeth, "Can someone please start talking. Please tell me that this is just some trumped up fan theory and you three didn't go behind our backs and do something as vacuous as book a tour."
"Vacuous?" Fat Amy asked.
"It means 'stupid,'" Beca replied looking up from where she'd been pouring packets of sugar into a pile on the table. She bit her lip to, one again, stifle a grin at the murderous glare Aubrey gave Fat Amy. However, before Aubrey could follow her glare with a scathing comment, Cynthia Rose spoke up.
"Aubrey, Beca, Chloe, it's been twenty years since our first LP. We needed to do this for the fans."
Beca looked at Chloe who was staring at Cynthia Rose and chewing her bottom lip as if debating whether she should speak up. The waitress came over with Fat Amy's meal and Chloe's offer.
Aubrey released an audible sigh when the waitress left the table, and held the bridge of her nose as she tried to take steady breaths to calm down. "Did you not think it was pertinent to inform the entire band before making such a stupid decision?" She dropped her hand from her face and glared at Cynthia Rose, Fat Amy, and Emily.
Emily sighed, "Aubrey, you know if we asked, you would have said no."
"Besides, it's not like you're easy to get in contact with," Fat Amy mumbled from where she was cutting her steak.
"And why do you think that is?" Aubrey bit back. "And even if I wanted to entertain this fantasy you have of a big happy reunion, I teach. I can't just drop everything to jump on a bus for a year."
Chloe nodded and lowered her coffee cup from her mouth to say, "Yeah, she's right. I teach as well."
"And we thought of that," Cynthia Rose said. "That's why we only scheduled a few shows during the summer. If it doesn't work out, then you guys can stop once September rolls around."
Fat Amy tried to lighten the mood, interjecting with, "We won't even have to worry about drawing cards for the big bed on the bus. We can actually afford a jet now."
Aubrey rolled her eyes, "Yes, because having a jet is what's important." She shook her head and said, "No. I'm not doing it. Of all the asinine things that I expect from those two," she said, her eyes fleeting to Emily and Fat Amy for a second before returning to focus on Cynthia Rose, "I'd at least thought you respected me enough not to go behind my—"
"Enough, Aubrey!" Emily shouted, irritated with Aubrey's histrionics. "The three of us invested a lot of time and money into making this tour happen. If you don't feel the fans deserve it, well we damn sure deserve not to have our money wasted. So, get over your fucking feelings and sign the damn contract."
Aubrey's mouth opened slightly in thinly veiled shock at the normally quiet and mild mannered pianist's outburst. Fat Amy reached across the table and placed a hand on Emily's forearm to calm her. She waited until Emily stopped shaking in anger before looking at Beca, Aubrey, and Chloe.
In a rare moment of seriousness from the Australian, Fat Amy said, "I'm broke. The last of what I had went to this and if it doesn't happen, then I'm back to playing on paint buckets for change at Penn station."
"You know we would never let that happen," Cynthia Rose said and Fat Amy smiled softly at her before continuing.
"I'm not like you guys who can go off and do other stuff. I only know how to beat a drum and playing with you guys was the best. Playing together made us so happy. Can you fault us for wanting that back?" Her eyes met each of theirs before finally landing on Beca's. "C'mon, Becs. You can't tell me you don't miss it."
Beca Mitchell looked over from here she was tuning her Explorer, interrupted by familiar chords filling the small space. While it cost thousands to gain the smooth tone of her Gibson, she couldn't say the same for the teal Stratocaster being stummed by Chloe.
Beca rolled her eyes, "Chlo, why do you insist on playing that piece of shit?" She asked, gesturing to the cheap tattered instrument in her girlfriend's hand.
Chloe grinned and said, "Everyone doesn't have the luxury of lifting guitars from their jobs."
Beca scoffed, "I didn't steal it. I borrowed it…and then I quit."
"More like you were fired," Stacie chimed in as she walked past with her camcorder in one hand and a beer in the other.
Beca rolled her eyes and mumbled "semantics" as the rest of the band started to laugh.
Chloe leaned over and said, "Besides, you sold me this guitar."
"Well damn, I'm sorry," Beca said and Chloe giggled.
"You can make up for it, ya know."
"Oh really?" Beca smirked and leaned in until their lips touched. Beca adjusted her strap to push her guitar behind her to move closer to Chloe and deepen the kiss. They ignored the bright flashing light of Stacie's camera, too invested in the other. It was only when Aubrey passed them and mumbled, "Get a room,"—her tone holding a cold bitterness, did they pull apart.
Beca grinned and turned towards Aubrey, "We won't need a room because after tonight, we'll have enough money to buy a house."
Stacie peeked from behind her camera to chime in with, "Two houses."
Beca nodded and looked into her camera lens, "We'll buy anything we want because we're gonna take the world by storm, dammit!"
Beca frowned and pulled out her phone to call for her driver. There were many reasons she walked away all those years ago, and one of them was why she was preparing to do so now. Being a part of the Bellas did bring her great happiness but it also brought her pain. So much pain that being around the other five women only served to unearth it and remind her of what she lost and what was taken from her. She typed out a quick text and stood before looking at her former bandmates. "We've change. We're never gonna get back to 1993. It's pointless thinking otherwise," she said before turning and walking away.
Cynthia Rose sighed when Beca was out of sight. She looked at Aubrey who stood, preparing to follow Beca's lead and leave. "Look, Bree, Chloe. We really miss you three and this tour gives us the chance to get back to doing what we love. It's been twenty years but I know that no matter how small, a part of you misses singing, the crowds, the music."
Aubrey crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She glanced over at Chloe before meeting Cynthia Rose's stare, "Well it wasn't my drug problem that broke us up." And just like Beca, Aubrey made her way out of the diner without a glance behind her.
Sorry this took so long. I feel like I'm becoming redundant with my repeated apologies on every update. But this time the wait was so long because I had to restructure the entire story. I realized that in my stories, the ones I've posted and the ones I haven't, I have a tendency of having Chloe be the bad guy or over time become the bad guy so that mitchsen can happen. That's something I didn't consciously choose to do in my previous stories but it's still there. While I don't write for bechloe, I do support the ship from the sidelines, if that makes sense, and I don't want to constantly make Chloe the scapegoat. So I'm trying to rewrite what I have planned and kinda distribute the blame for the band's breakup a bit more evenly.
Also, have you guys heard the song Sick of Losing Soulmates by dodie. I found it by accident but I just love that song. I'm getting all kinds of Steca feels from it. I don't have the time or energy to dedicate to a full fledged Steca fic but maybe I'll try my hand at a one shot again. What do you guys think about that? I don't know, there's something about rare pairings that just get my blood flowing.