Emily's heart lept into her throat as she looked Beca up and down, jaw dropping, "Oh… you- you're Beca?"
"Uh… yeah." Beca frowned slightly. Her heart began to pound harder in her chest.
The invitation had come as a bit of a shock to Beca if she was completely honest, because even though she had remained close with the Bellas since moving first to New York and then to L.A., she hadn't spoken to Chloe since the summer of graduation. Beca didn't even really know why she'd come. Sure, she was never one to turn down a Bellas reunion and that was what she had told herself as she booked the time off, the entire sixteen hour flight to Greece, and then on the boat ride from the mainland over here. But in her heart of hearts, stood on this tiny island that she hadn't been on in fifteen years, Beca knew why she'd really come. So much had happened in the fifteen years since she'd left: she'd become an immensely successful solo artist with three gold albums and a platinum under her belt; she'd won seven Grammys for her work as a solo artist and three for her work as a producer; and she was the owner and CEO of her very own record label Perfect Pitch, living her very best life in L.A.. Despite all of this though Beca had always felt that something was… missing.
"Okay, great!" Emily was trying to suppress her panic, looking around to make sure Chloe wasn't nearby, "I'm Emily, it's my wedding that I invited you to."
"Oh! Right, of course. Congrats man!" Beca forced a smile onto her face as she tried to figure out what had the young woman so jittery.
"Thanks! Uh, if you follow me I can show you where you'll be staying?" Emily was trying to quickly form a plan to keep Beca from Chloe at least for a little while, "Here, I'll take your bag…"
Emily all but snatched Beca's suitcase from her hand and started to quickly make her way through the backstreets behind the hotel, Beca having to practically run to keep up with the long legged girl, taken aback by the rush they seemed to be in.
"Dude, wait up!" Beca called as she used her hand to keep her hat on her head, stumbling a little as she tried to keep up with Emily.
"Alright!" Emily panted as she stopped outside a dilapidated old goat house, "Here we go. Home sweet home."
Beca looked up at the building with a mixture of horror and confusion, "Uh… is this the hotel? It's a little… rough."
"No, no! This is the old goat shed! C'mon, I'll show you were you're staying." It was a stroke of genius quite frankly on Emily's part this. There was an old air mattress up there, a little generator, a lamp and an old bedside table… it could be quite homely actually.
"Wait… what?" Beca followed Emily inside and up the somewhat shaky ladder into the attic room. She'd have probably left Emily to it had she any idea where she was or had her suitcase which Emily was still clutching tightly, "Dude what is going on?"
"Ta da!" Emily stood in the cramped attic space, watching as the brunette looked around her confused and a little put out.
"Alright kid, what's going on?" Beca frowned a little as she crossed her arms over her chest, an eyebrow raised.
"Okay so um…" Emily ran her free hand through her hair, "You know how I invited you here to perform at my wedding?"
"Yeah…" Beca nodded, eyeing up the strange woman who seemed to have accosted her.
"Well Chloe doesn't know, I wanted it to be a surprise because she's been so lovely to me and she deserves a really nice surprise! But then I find her diary, totally by accident! And it's from the summer she moved here and… well I didn't realise you guys had this history…" Emily winced as she looked at Beca, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.
"Oh shit…" Beca mumbled, "I knew this was a surprise, but… somehow I figured you knew about us and Chloe had moved past it. Not that she should have to! It was… shit…" Beca shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Look I'm sure it'll be fine!" Emily smiled awkwardly, "I just… I didn't want it to catch her off guard y'know?"
"Yeah. Yeah that's definitely for the best. Maybe I should just go home, I don't wanna make Chloe uncomfortable." Beca took off her hat and ran a hand through her hair with a heavy sigh. Why this hadn't occurred to her before now she had no idea, but now it had she was even more confused as to why she had thought coming was a good idea.
"No, no, don't go! It's been fifteen years, I'm sure it'll be fine!" Emily tried to reassure her.
"Oh really?" Beca raised an eyebrow skeptically, "In all the time you've known Chloe has she ever once mentioned me?"
"Well… no, but-" Emily started.
"Look, I messed things up really badly fifteen years ago okay? And the last thing I want is to drag it all up for Chlo again. She doesn't deserve that." Beca sighed, a sad, regretful smile on her face, "I'm sorry dude, I think it's best if I just go home."
"No!" Emily insisted, pouting a little, "Just… give me a couple of hours, make yourself at home. If Chloe doesn't want you here then you can go, but please let me at least try?"
Beca didn't know why she was letting this girl that she barely knew talk her into staying for what was sure to be an uncomfortable weekend to say the least, but something about the blind optimism of the tall eighteen-year-old reminded her of Chloe and it left a soft smile on her lips.
"Okay, fine. But if Chloe doesn't want me here, I'm not staying." Beca couldn't help herself from smiling as she saw the excited glint in Emily's eyes, the young girl practically bouncing up and down with excitement.
"Great! I won't be long, I promise!" Emily practically leapt down from the attic room, Beca chuckling softly. Chloe had clearly rubbed off on the young woman over the years.
Walking over to close the hatch in the floor, Beca looked around her with her hands on her hips. This was cramped even for a woman of her diminutive stature, but it wasn't the worst place she'd stayed over the years of touring the globe. She'd come close to coming to visit Chloe once before about six years ago when her tour had brought her to Greece but she'd decided against it in the end. It felt weird to actually be here after so long, after so much had happened, but Beca had to admit that it wasn't terrible.
"Alright Mitchell, let's see if you can blow up this air mattress…" Beca mumbled to herself, eyeing up the currently deflated mattress.
Chloe sighed softly as she looked at the crack at her feet, "Right, I'd better get something to fill that in… I want everything to be perfect for tomorrow."
"You've gotten close to this kid huh?" Stacie raised an eyebrow, sipping her mojito with a soft smile.
"Yeah." Chloe beamed with a nod, "She's amazing, I've know her since she was like three years old, she's basically my little sister."
"You always were a soft touch Beale." Amy teased with a playful nudge as Chloe blushed a little.
"Alright, I'm gonna go get some grout from the old goat shed, fix this up and put this shutter back, and then we can catch up maybe? Providing nothing else falls apart in the meantime that is." She mused, throwing Stacie and Amy a wink as she began to head for the goat shed, "Make yourselves at home, I'll see you soon!"
"We'll keep an eye out for the others too!" Stacie called after her, waving her off with her free hand.
Chloe giggled softly to herself as she followed the well-trodden path to find the grout, humming softly as she reached the outbuilding, swinging the door open and heading for where she kept her DIY supplies. It was as she was rummaging through the supplies that she heard the floor above her head creak. Frowning, Chloe paused briefly as she looked up at the ceiling. That was weird. Shrugging, she went back to rummaging for the grout until she heard the creaking again.
"What the…" Chloe mumbled. She couldn't fathom what was making her ceiling creak, there was nothing up there that would be moving around of its own accord. Unless a chicken had got in through an open window again…
Deciding to have a quick look to put her mind at ease (and potentially rescue a stuck chicken), Chloe set down the grout she had found and climbed up the ladder, lifting the hatch a little so she could peak in. What she saw made her heart leap into her throat, and the shock of it nearly caused her to lose her footing on the ladder. Stood in the attic room of her old goat house, a frown on her face as she tried yet again to blow air into what Chloe knew to be a popped air mattress, looking almost exactly as she had fifteen years ago was Beca Mitchell.
Lowering the hatch slowly so as not to make a noise, Chloe leant against the ladder, biting her lip as she tried to process the fact that her ex-girlfriend, the woman who had broke her heart into a million pieces, was now attempting to blow up a mattress in her goat shed after fifteen years of radio silence. What the hell was Beca doing here? After everything that had happened between them and she just showed up out of the blue and hid in her goat house? Who does that? She hadn't even come and said hi!
Yet Chloe couldn't deny the way that her heart was pounding, the way her palms sweat, the way her mouth went dry at simply a glimpse of the short brunette, who didn't seem to have aged a day in the last fifteen years. A testament to what a life of success, wealth and sun in California could do. Chloe had of course kept up with Beca's career because even though she had left her to pursue her own passions without being 'suffocated' by Chloe and her wants and dreams (Beca's words) the redhead had always wanted nothing but success for her; it was what she deserved despite everything else.
"I was cheated by you and I think you know when. So I made up my mind, it must come to an end…" Chloe sang softly to herself as she pulled herself off the ladder. It seemed cliché, but singing to herself was the easiest way for Chloe to try and sort out her feelings.
"Look at me now, will I ever learn? I don't know how but I suddenly lose control. There's a fire within my soul…" Chloe decided to get a better look at Beca. Maybe she was mistaken? Or maybe she'd finally gone crazy and was seeing things…
"Just one look and I can hear a bell ring… one more look and I forget everything, o-o-o-oh…" Chloe grabbed a different ladder and headed outside laying it against the side of the building just underneath a window, resting against it dramatically as she vocalised.
"Mamma mia, here I go again, my my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again? My my, just how much I've missed you." Chloe sighed as she leant against the ladder biting her lip. Because she really had missed Beca, no matter how much she had hurt her when she left.
"Yes, I've been broken-hearted, blue since the day we parted, why, why did I ever let you go? Mamma mia, now I really know, my my, I should not have let you go." Chloe turned and climbed the ladder, singing as she went. She paused before she opened the shutters, her heart pounding and then sinking as she opened it and remembered at the exact moment that she'd boarded that window up after the last trapped chicken incident.
It was at this moment Chloe remembered the hatch on the roof and started to clamber onto the narrow window ledge, scrambling and scuffling as she tried to find enough purchase to pull herself over the edge of the roof, "I was angry inside when I knew we were through. I can't count all the times I've cried over you…" Gripping the edge of the roof ledge, Chloe started to pull herself up higher.
"Look at me now, will I ever learn? I don't know how but I suddenly lose control, there's a fire within my soul." She grunted as she sang, half climbing half falling over the edge of the roof ledge, lying there for a moment as she caught her breath.
"Just one look and I can hear a bell ring. One more look and I forget everything, o-o-o-oh…" Chloe shook her head as she lay on the roof, suddenly anxious at the thought of laying her eyes on Beca again.
"Mamma mia, here I go again, my my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again? My my, just how much I've missed you. Yes, I've been broken-hearted, blue since the day we parted… why, why did I ever let you go?" Chloe puffed out her cheeks as she sat up, pulling herself to her feet as she looked down at the little hatch by her feet. She bit her lip as she leant forward, tracing her hand over the handle as she paused again.
"Mamma mia, here I go again, my my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again? My my, just how much I've missed you. Yes, I've been broken-hearted, blue since the day we parted… why, why did I ever let you go?" The singing carried on in Chloe's head as she slowly opened the hatch, determined not to give herself away. She frowned as she peered into the semi-darkness, unable to make out anything.
Getting to her knees, Chloe leant further into the hatch, the same chorus flowing through her mind as she tried to make out anything in the room below, "Mamma mia, here I go again, my my, how can I resist you? Mamma mia, does it show again? My my, just how much I've missed you. Yes, I've been broken-hearted, blue since the day we parted… why, why did I ever let you go- WOAH!"
The "woah!" was audible as Chloe's hand slipped from where it was resting on the edge of the open hatchway underneath her, sending the redhead tumbling headfirst through the hatch. Beca had heard the panicked gasp and looked up, arms instinctively reaching out to catch the person toppling through the ceiling towards her.
"Hey Chlo." Beca smirked as she realised who the woman in her arms was, red hair unmistakably familiar as it fell into her face, a deep blush on her cheeks, "I didn't realise you'd be dropping in!"
Chloe couldn't help but roll her eyes at Beca's terrible joke but managed to stave off the smile that tried to creep onto her lips, "You know that air mattress is popped right? Why else do you think it was up here in the old goat house?"
"I dunno, I think it's weird that you keep everything but goats in here…" Beca shrugged, still smirking as Chloe brushed her red hair from her face with an irritated huff.
"You mind putting me down?" Chloe asked, not really wanting to be put down if she was entirely honest with herself but determined not to let Beca know that.
"Oh I'm sorry, next time you fall through the ceiling I'll just let you smack your head off the floor, my bad!" Beca raised her eyebrow as she lowered Chloe's legs so the redhead could stand on her own.
"What are you doing here Beca?" Chloe crossed her arms over her chest, trying to act cool and composed despite the fact the fact that she had just fallen through the ceiling after trying to spy on her ex.
"Look a goat shed isn't exactly top of my list of places to stay but I seemed to have very little choice in the matter at the time…" Beca was still wearing her trademark smirk as she ran a hand through her hair, looking her ex-girlfriend up and down for the first time in fifteen years. How was she more beautiful than Beca remembered? This would have been so much easier if Chloe wasn't still the most ridiculously attractive person the brunette had ever seen.
"No Beca…" Chloe sighed softly, "What are you doing here. On the island?"
Beca shrugged again, the smirk falling from her face as she shuffled her feet awkwardly, "I got invited to a wedding and a surprise Bellas reunion, I didn't realise you hadn't said two words about me in fifteen years and Emily had no idea that we had a history."
"What was I supposed to say?" Chloe scoffed, "On the off chance you want to surprise me with a Bella reunion the weekend of your wedding Em, don't invite Beca because she ripped my heart out and stomped on it and I haven't heard from her since?"
Beca shook her head sadly as she averted her gaze, "I never meant to hurt you Chlo…"
"I know." Chloe whispered, swallowing the lump in her throat, determined not to cry in front of Beca. Not again.
"Look, if you don't want me here I get it. I'll go." Beca didn't want to leave, somehow being stood here with Chloe, even if this was the most painfully awkward thing in the world, Beca somehow felt… comfortable.
"No…" Chloe shook her head, not quite able to believe these words were coming out of her mouth, "You should stay. It is a Bella reunion after all, it isn't about us."
"Are you sure?" Beca felt her heart flutter, suppressing a grin. Chloe wanted her to stay.
"Yeah." Chloe forced a smile, "Besides it's been fifteen years, I'm over it." She shrugged, "Although you probably shouldn't stay up here, I don't think I got all the rats last time…"
Chloe laughed as she watched Beca instinctively jump and look around her with a glint of terror in her eyes, "Shit what?!" Beca exclaimed, "Chlo that's not funny!"
"It's hilarious." Chloe raised her eyebrow, "I'll find someone to help you get your bags over to the hotel, I've got some wedding things see to and cracks in the floor to fix."
"I can manage my bags, I just need to know how to get to the hotel." Beca smiled softly, eyes still darting around in search of a rat (just in case).
"Out the front door, take a left and follow the little stone path it'll lead out to the foyer." Chloe smiled softly, opening the hatch at her feet, "I'll see you later Becs."
"It's good to see you Chlo." Beca smiled back, watching as Chloe disappeared down the ladder.
She sighed softly after Chloe had gone, running a hand through her hair. Beca hadn't expected to still feel like this about her ex-girlfriend, but the minute that Chloe had quite literally dropped back into her life, Beca felt like she was twenty two again. The redhead hadn't changed a bit in the last fifteen years, and the Mediterranean climate seemed to have brought Chloe's glowing personality out onto her skin. If Beca was being honest, there hadn't been a day in the last fifteen years that her mind hadn't wandered, however briefly, to Chloe and the life she could have had. She just hadn't expected to still feel this strongly after all these years.
Picking up her suitcase, Beca awkwardly carried it down the ladder, almost falling as her foot slipped on the last rung. This was potentially going to be a very long weekend…
Aubrey Posen hadn't been to visit Chloe in three years and had missed her every minute of it. But Beca had needed her to help run her record label, because as talented a music producer and artist as she was, she really sucked at the administrative side of things. Thankfully Aubrey lived for that kind of work and was (unsurprisingly) very good at organising other people.
Still, it had way too long since she'd had a holiday, and with the added bonus of a Bella reunion Aubrey had no trouble in booking the time off for both her and Beca. They'd flown together, but had somehow gotten separated on the mainland, and Aubrey just hoped that Beca had managed to find her way over here. Spotting a familiar tall brunette at the bar, Aubrey couldn't help but grin broadly as she wheeled her suitcase behind her as she joined her.
"I should have expected to find you propping up the bar Conrad." Aubrey teased, Stacie turning around with a huge smile on her face as she pulled her into a tight hug.
"Bree! You made it!" Stacie cheered as she gave Aubrey a tight squeeze, the blonde reciprocating as she chuckled softly.
"Of course! Like I'd miss a reunion!" Aubrey pulled back from the hug and leant against the bar for a moment, smiling warmly at the woman who always made her heart beat a little faster.
"Thank god, can you imagine us trying to perform without you? Shambles!" Stacie laughed lightly, sipping the cocktail in her hand as she let her eyes wander over her former captain.
Before either of them could say anything else, Chloe (who seemed to be vibrating from the effort of keeping all her emotions in) walked up to them, a forced smile on her face as tears stung at the corner of her eyes and she tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Why was she crying? Sure, seeing Beca had been a shock but why was it leaving her feeling as vulnerable as she did when the brunette had left fifteen years ago. It was so stupid…
"Hey Bree!" Chloe waved a little in an attempt to distract her friends from the emotions that were on the verge of overwhelming her.
"Hey Chlo… are you okay?" Aubrey frowned a little as she saw the emotion in Chloe's eyes. She'd always been able to read Chloe better than anyone.
"I uh… excuse me…" Chloe turned on her heel, running for the bathroom, Aubrey and Stacie sharing a look as they followed her, Stacie still holding her cocktail as she did so.
"Chlo? Chloe what is it?" Aubrey asked knocking on the door of the cubicle that Chloe had locked herself in, able to hear her best friends muffled cries as she looked back at Stacie who shrugged, not knowing what was wrong with Chloe either.
There was a pause as Aubrey frowned softly, trying to figure out how to get Chloe to come out and talk to them, "Ah…" A smile crept onto Aubrey's lips as she thought of something that might work, "Chiquitita, tell me what's wrong…" She sang softly, turning to Stacie who was sipping her drink and giving her a nudge, nodding towards the door that Chloe was sat behind.
"Oh, me?" Stacie nodded, trying for a moment to remember the lyrics, "Um… I have never seen such sorrow."
Aubrey smiled softly as she joined in again, "In your eyes, and the wedding is tomorrow…" She winced as she realised how true the song was to the situation and Chloe sobbed a little louder.
"Give me a boost." Stacie whispered nodding to the locked cubicle door and setting her drink down next to the sink.
"What?!" Aubrey hissed, frowning in bemusement.
"So I can check on her! I'm not tall enough to see over the stall from here…" Stacie shrugged her shoulders as if it was the most normal proposal in the world.
Aubrey simply shook her head with a bemused smile as she knotted her fingers together, grunting a little as she boosted Stacie so that the tall brunette could see over the top of the cubicle door.
"How I hate to see you like… this." Stacie continued to sing, smiling softly down at Chloe who hadn't expected to see her friends face above the stall door and jumped out of her skin.
"There is no way you can deny it…" Aubrey's voice (albeit a little strained) carried the tune from the other side of the door as Chloe quickly and suddenly opened the cubicle door and ran to shut the door leading into the bathroom to give them some privacy.
"I can see that you're oh so sad, so quiet." Aubrey managed to steady Stacie who all but toppled on top of her as Chloe had burst through the door, both of them following Chloe to the sink where Aubrey wrapped her arms around Chloe's waist, head resting on her shoulder, Stacie opting to gently stroke Chloe's back as the both of them smiled softly at Chloe in the mirror.
"Chiquitita, tell me the truth, I'm a shoulder you can cry on. Your best friend, I'm the one you must rely on." Aubrey and Stacie sang in unison as Chloe took a moment to soak in their embrace, one hand resting on Aubrey's arm, the other on Stacie's cheek. She was so glad they were here this weekend with everything that was happening and with the sudden reappearance of Beca in her life.
"You were always sure of yourself, now I see you've broken a feather. I hope we can patch it up together. Chiquitita, you and I know, how the heartaches come and they go and the scars they're leaving, you'll be dancing once again and the pain will end, you will have no time for grieving." Aubrey pulled away from the hug to grab Chloe some tissues and began running the cold water for Chloe to wash her face and sooth her puffy eyes with the cool water. Stacie gently brushed Chloe's hair from her face as the redhead sniffed hard, wiping her nose with the tissues that were pressed not her hand.
"Chiquitita, you and I cry but the sun is still in the sky and shining above you. Let me hear you sing once more like you did before, sing a new song, chiquitita." Stacie passed Chloe her discarded cocktail to her, raising her eyebrow as Chloe necked it without a second thought. Sighing Chloe leant back against the sink, sniffing again as she looked at her friends with a soft smile.
"Try once more like I did before, sing a new song, chiquitita." Chloe finished the song, her voice a little thick from all the crying and the tears. She paused for a moment as her friends looked at her with concerned expectation, "Beca's here." She sighed, running her hand through her hair.
"Oh that's great! Right?" Stacie frowned softly as Aubrey shook her head subtly, her eyes closing for a second as she realised her mistake.
"Oh Chloe I didn't even think…" Aubrey placed a hand on Chloe's shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze.
"It's fine." Chloe gave her a sad smile, "It's been so long, why would you?"
"Wait, what am I missing here? I thought you guys were best friends?" Stacie frowned as she hopped up onto the edge of the sink.
"We were… and then the summer we graduated we became so much more." Chloe shook her head a little.
"What?!" Stacie exclaimed excitedly, slipping back into the sink with a yelp (partly no doubt due to the two and a half cocktails she'd already had), "I knew it!"
"Yeah well…" Chloe chuckled, "We toured Europe together, but when we got here I fell in love with the place… and with Beca. I asked her to stay here with me, we'd talked about it a little over the previous couple of months but… she went back to New York and broke my heart in the process."
"And you knew about all this?" Stacie looked to Aubrey who immediately became defensive.
"Hey, Chloe is my best friend! She asked me to keep it a secret, I was just trying to be a good friend!" Aubrey's eyebrows shot into her hairline as Chloe chuckled softly.
"You are a good friend, I appreciate you not saying anything over the last fifteen years." Chloe briefly rested her head on Aubrey's shoulder, "I didn't realise that she'd still make me feel like this after so long but god… it's Beca, y'know?" Chloe sniffed again as she straightened her dungarees, "I don't how to be around her anymore… it's all so complicated."
"I know." Aubrey sighed softly, moving Chloe's hair from her face, "But there's so much going on this weekend, and there's so many of us here you don't have to be one-on-one with Beca."
"Yeah I guess…" Chloe mumbled, moving to leave the bathroom, Aubrey and Stacie still close behind, "I've got loads to do, I should be getting on with it."
"Chlo, wait." Aubrey kept pace with Chloe as she frowned a little, "We can talk about this, I'm sure if you asked Beca would go home if it's too much for you?"
"I don't want her to go because of me…" Chloe shook her head, "It's a Bellas reunion, I can't ask that."
"Chloe if you're this upset about it…" Stacie started, long legs making it easy to keep up with her friend as they crossed the foyer.
"It's fine, really. Like Aubrey said I've got too much to do this weekend to worry about Beca and how complicated this whole thing is." Chloe shrugged, kneeling next to the large crack in the dolphin mosaic and setting down the grout as she started to go about fixing it.
"Exactly!" Aubrey grinned, "And with rehearsals for the Bella performance, you'll have no time to be thinking about anything or anyone else."
"Oh, I don't think I'll be performing with you guys." Chloe pulled a face as she shrugged.
"Excuse me?!" Aubrey was incredulous as she looked down at Chloe, "I'm sorry, you think performing this weekend is optional?!"
"I have so much to do already, and besides aren't we too old for all this? We're nearly forty!" Chloe looked up from her task with a sigh, an eyebrow raised.
"Oh no…" Stacie chuckled nervously as she watched Aubrey's eyebrows disappear into her hairline, "You poked the bear…"
"Get the Bellas Stace." Aubrey didn't take her eyes off Chloe, the brunette complying immediately. It may have been fifteen years since she was in charge of her, but Stacie was still lowkey terrified (and quite honestly a little turned on) of Aubrey when she had her captain's head on, "Chloe Beale, you are never too old to crush a cappella. Especially not with your sisters."
"Bree…" Chloe started, stopping when Aubrey held her finger up to silence her.
"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life." Aubrey started to sing, hips starting to sway as she smirked at the redhead who still looked unconvinced.
"See that girl…" Stacie joined in as she returned, grinning as Aubrey picked an old Bella classic.
"Watch that scene…" Amy was the next to join in as she fell in line with Aubrey and Stacie.
"Diggin' the dancing queen!" Jessica and Ashley were beaming from ear to ear. They'd forgotten how fun it was to perform with the Bellas.
"Friday night and the lights are low, looking out for the place to go." Cynthia-Rose had arrived with Lilly and Flo about ten minutes before Aubrey and was now leading them into the verse as the Bellas fell back into the choreography and harmonies as if they'd never stopped performing at all.
"Where they play the right music, getting in the swing. You come in to look for a king." Flo carried on into the verse as Lilly took up her usual beatboxing roll, the Bellas harmonising behind her. Chloe couldn't help the smile that started to creep onto her face as her friends danced like no-one was watching, despite the fact that a large group of locals was starting to form.
"Anybody could be that guy. Night is young and the music's high… with a bit of rock music, everything is fine. You're in the mood for a dance. And when you get the chance…" Stacie and Aubrey took the verse into a duet, back-to-back as they slipped straight back into performing as they did when they were twenty-two.
"You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen. Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine." The Bellas launched into to the chorus, hips swaying, Chloe shaking her head as she chuckled.
"Oh yeah!" Amy vocalised dramatically as Aubrey took Chloe's hand and pulled her to her feet, twirling her as the Bellas continued the chorus.
"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life. See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen…" The Bellas all pointed to Chloe, an expectant look on their faces as they all turned to look at her. Chloe rolled her eyes but couldn't help herself as her hips started to sway and match the Bellas choreography.
"You're a teaser, you turn 'em on. Leave them burning and then you're gone…" Chloe finally relented and joined in, the Bellas cheering as she did so.
"Looking out for another, anyone will do, you're in the mood for a dance… and when you get the chance…" Aubrey and Chloe duetted like they used to in college, dancing in sync as the Bellas harmonised.
"You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen, dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine." Chloe had to admit she'd missed this, there was nothing quite like singing and dancing with the Bellas.
"Oh yeah!" Amy vocalised dramatically again to the helpless giggles of her friends.
"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life…" The Bellas sang, wide grins on everyone's faces.
"See that girl…" Aubrey sang twirling Chloe again as she pulled her close.
"Watch that scene…" Stacie pressed close to Chloe's other side, the redhead giggling as her problems were momentarily forgotten.
"Diggin' the dancing queen!" Chloe finished the song with a dramatic flourish of her arms, the Bellas cheering as they all piled in for a group hug. It hadn't escaped Chloe's notice that Beca was missing, but at this point in time she was grateful for it; she needed a breather from her after the goat house incident.
The assembled locals were applauding and cheering loudly too as Chloe blushed a little, curtseying a little as Aubrey turned to her with a triumphant grin.
"So? Still too old for a cappella?" Aubrey asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I guess not…" Chloe rolled her eyes, "Alright, I'm in."
"Yes!" Cynthia-Rose cheered, "It wouldn't be the same without you Red."
"Thank you." Chloe hugged her, pulling away to look at her closest friends with a huge grin on her face and tears in her eyes, "I'm so glad you guys are here, I've really missed you."
The Bellas cooed and awed as they wrapped Chloe in their arms again.
'Maybe this weekend will be okay after all…' Chloe thought to herself, 'Even with Beca here…'
Beca had heard the singing in the foyer as she made her way outside after getting settled into a hotel room with a proper bed. She smirked a little as she saw the assembled crowd around her friends but decided against joining them; Chloe was undoubtedly with them and Beca wanted to give her a little space after earlier. They both probably needed some time to process seeing each other again, especially with Beca feeling… feeling things she thought she'd put behind her fifteen years ago.
She decided to take a walk down to the marina to try and clear her head, following the path that she'd taken up to the hotel after her arrival back down to the dock. After walking for twenty minutes, Beca settled on a grassy hill overlooking the ocean, picking at the grass as she tried to organise her thoughts. She knew that she'd spent the last fifteen years feeling something was missing, but she had never really had time to stop and think about it. Her career had taken off at alarming speed and she'd barely had time to breathe let alone reflect on her life. Hiring Aubrey had been the right choice when she established Perfect Pitch, the blonde knew how to organise people and maintain at least an illusion of calm leadership whereas Beca was stressed just glancing at the stacks of papers on Aubrey's desk. And there was the added bonus of Aubrey knowing what had happened between her and Chloe so when Beca had written songs about it she knew Aubrey would be able to help her edit them if some of the details were too revealing.
Beca had only had one serious relationship since leaving Chloe here, one that Chloe had no doubt heard about as it had been splashed all over every tabloid in the world much to Beca's frustration. She hated that aspect of her job, hated that she seemed to have no privacy anymore just because she was good at her job. The paparazzi had been the thing that had killed the relationship in the end, the sales manager she was dating sick of the invasion of her privacy and breaking off their engagement just days after it had been the front page of every tabloid in L.A. despite the fact that Beca had gone to great lengths to do it in private (curse those damn camera men and their long range cameras). Aubrey had been a huge help with the whole situation, keeping the break up out of the papers by some miracle and some thinly veiled threats to papers that threatened to run the story. If Beca was honest with herself, she'd only proposed out of a sense of obligation; they'd been dating for two years and her girlfriend was worried that they weren't going anywhere so Beca did what she thought was the right thing and got down on one knee. Beca certainly hadn't fought very hard to get her to stay.
Sighing heavily, Beca stared out at the ocean trying to remember why she'd left in the first place.
"Hey! There you are!"
Beca turned her head, smiling softly as she recognised Emily making her way towards her, "Here I am."
"I thought you were gonna stay in the goat house and wait for me? I haven't had a chance to find Chloe yet, it's like she disappeared…" Emily sat next to Beca with a warm smile.
"Oh no need to worry about that, Chlo fell through the roof and figured it out." Beca smirked a little at the memory of it.
"Is she okay?" Emily exclaimed, looking concerned.
"Physically yeah." Beca nodded, "She was a little shaken up that it was me that had caught her but y'know." She shrugged, running a hand through her hair.
"Yikes…" Emily sighed, "I feel really bad about putting you both in this position."
"You didn't know, you couldn't have." Beca reassured her, nudging her gently with her shoulder, "I didn't realise how much I missed her until she fell back into my life." She mused.
"What happened between you two?" Emily asked. Chloe's diary had been woefully lacking in details, "If you don't mind me asking…"
Beca chuckled softly as she turned her head to look at Emily, "No, it's fine honestly… I actually wrote a song about it years ago."
"Oh really?" Emily beamed, "Can I hear it?"
Beca blushed a little, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, "Uh, yeah I guess… it's gonna sound weird without the instruments tho…"
"Oh! I have a guitar! Wait here!" Emily scrambled to her feet as Beca frowned, unable to stop herself grinning as the young girl shot off. She reminded her so much of Chloe.
It was ten minutes later when Emily returned with an old battered guitar, settling on the grass next to Beca again.
"Do you wanna teach me the chords or do you play?" Emily asked, eyes sparkling with excitement.
"I'll play it." Beca smirked, gently strumming the guitar as she took it from the young girl when it was offered to her, "Huh it's been a while since I played one of these…" Tuning it slightly, Beca cleared her throat awkwardly, not used to playing for such a concentrated crowd.
"I can still recall our last summer. I still see it all… walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain, our last summer, memories that remain." Beca started, a little sheepish about laying her heart bare for a girl she had just met, but somehow comforted by the familiar mannerisms that she had picked up from Chloe over the years.
"We made our way along the river and we sat down in the grass by the Eiffel tower. I was so happy we had met, it was the age of no regret, oh yes." Emily smiled warmly as Beca sang. It was clear that Beca had cared very deeply for Chloe over the years they'd been at Barden together as well as the months they had spent travelling after graduation; this hadn't been a simple fling to her.
"Those crazy years, that was the time for true love to flower… but underneath I had a fear of flying, of growing old, a fear of slowly dying… I took a chance, like we were dancing our last dance." Beca seemed to move past the awkward stage of singing for someone and lost herself in her music. It was cheaper than therapy and Beca found herself getting more out of it than she probably would out of a therapist.
"I can still recall our last summer. I still see it all… In the tourist jam, round the Notre Dame… Our last summer, walking hand in hand. Paris restaurants, our last summer. Morning croissants, living for the day, worries far away. Our last summer, we could laugh and play."
Emily rested her chin in her hands, sniffing a little as she could feel the emotion that Beca had poured into writing the song. There was so much that had been left unsaid, so much that they should have said and Emily could tell that there was something there for Beca.
"I can still recall our last summer, I still see it all… in the tourist jam, round the Notre Dame. Our last summer, walking hand in hand. I can still recall our last summer, I still see it all… walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain… our last summer, memories that remain." Beca played the final notes, blushing as she met Emily's gaze and shrugging a little.
"Yeah so… I spent four years of college trying to figure out how to tell Chloe how I felt, a summer on the most romantic continent on Earth falling further and further in love with her, and then I ruined it in the space of one afternoon." Beca sighed, gently setting the guitar down and flopping backwards into the grass.
"How?" Emily asked softly, voice barely above a whisper, totally invested in the story by this point/
"She wanted to stay here, to open up a hotel… we'd talked about staying in Europe a few times, but I guess I just didn't… I didn't realise she was serious about it. I had this plan y'know? Work my way up at a record label, get a recording contract, move to L.A… and this thing with Chloe terrified me." Beca shook her head as she looked up at the sky, cursing slightly as a tear slipped down her cheek."
"I wasn't used to someone being that… invested in me y'know? And then she's telling me that she loves me, and she wants to spend the rest of her life with me on this little island away from everyone we knew and I just… I freaked! And so I told her that she was just saying this in the moment, that she'll feel different in the morning, that moving here was a mistake."
Emily bit her lip, not saying a word as she saw the turmoil in Beca's face. It was clear that Beca had so many regrets about what had happened that summer, and Emily couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
"Chloe was saying that she'd given this so much thought, she had this five year plan for the both of us, this whole idea of how our lives were gonna pan out and I just… I panicked. She told me that she loved me and she wanted me to stay here with her and… I told her that I didn't feel the same way, that she was suffocating me, that I wanted to go to New York and take a chance at my dreams, that I couldn't put my life on hold for some… fling." Beca covered her face with her hands, so ashamed of her behaviour back then.
"It was all bullshit of course… I loved her so much that it hurt. I wanted to be with her but… I was so stupid, and I fucked up the best thing that ever happened to me." Beca sniffed hard as she wiped furiously at the tears on her cheeks. She hated crying, especially in front of other people.
"Until today, I thought that I'd moved past this feeling of guilt but… just looking at Chloe today I can feel it eating away at me again. I made the right call moving back to New York, my career just took off when I got back to the States, on paper it's the best decision I ever made… but it's the biggest regret of my life. I should've come back here, I should never have called it a fling for god's sake… there hasn't been a day over the last fifteen years that I haven't thought about her, even if it was just for a second…" Beca sat up again, wiping at her face again as she shook her head, her stomach churning with all the emotions and confliction inside her.
"It sounds like you really loved her…" Emily smiled softly.
"I did… I still do. God I hate the fact that I do, she deserves so much better but… she's the love of my life. No-one else has ever come close." Beca smiled sadly, feeling a burden lift as she finally admitted what she had been repressing for fifteen years if she was truly honest with herself.
"I thought you were engaged?" Emily tilted her head to oneside, quizzical. Of course she knew who Beca was on paper, she was one of the biggest artists in the world, but it was only when Beca had started singing that Emily had connected Beca Mitchell international singing sensation with Beca Mitchell former Barden Bella and Chloe's ex-girlfriend.
"No, she broke it off." Beca shook her head, "And honestly? I was kinda relieved… there wasn't any spark y'know? I think I was just dating her because it felt like something I should be doing…"
"Why not tell Chloe how you feel then? It's not like there's been anyone else…" Emily smiled softly. Maybe this weekend wouldn't just be the start of hers and Benji's love story, maybe Chloe would get her fairy tale ending too.
"I can't do that kid… not after everything." Beca smiled sadly, "I'm just glad she didn't kick me off the island the second she saw me. Besides, there's bigger priorities this weekend. Tell me about this Benji guy, he must really be something if you're marrying him at eighteen."
Beca raised an eyebrow as Emily beamed, starting to ramble about the love of her life. Beca half listened as her mind wandered to her ex again. Chloe was better off without her.
Right?