The room was filled with awkward silence for a agonising few moments, with the Bellas all staring at Beca in total disbelief. Daisy felt her jaw drop and couldn't bring herself to do anything about her obvious gaping. The silence was thankfully broken when Cynthia Rose managed to blink in awe and stutter out a mess of confused words.

"Lil B? Really? Damn. Wish I'd seen that coming. Could've tried—"

"Are you sure it was Shortstack? She's never shown any interest in girls? Well except one. But they're aca-married so it's different."

"You lost your lady v card? Thought Cynthia Rose was the only one…"

"Beca? You like girls?"

It was Daisy's bewildered line of questioning that snapped Beca out of her reverie, the other Bellas comments went unnoticed to Beca as she had been busy thinking about Aurora's tongue.

"I uh. Maybe? Not really sure yet." Beca shrugged sheepishly and waited for the floor to swallow her whole. She couldn't handle so much attention on her all at once. Beca was well aware of her sexuality but really didn't want to discuss it at that moment so figured a vague response and feigned confusion would end that particular conversation. She was too busy staring at the floor to notice Aurora smirking at her.

"Beca. You were certainly sure last night." Stacie cackled wickedly and started texting Beca. There were some conversations even she didn't want to have out loud.

Seriously?

How the f did you manage that?

She is PERFECT

Like she is a threat to the hunter, and no one is

Why?

What about Chloe

Like congrats that you got it on with the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, but STILL

You basically cheated on Chloe

How could you do that to her?

We will be talking about this tomorrow

Stacie looked up at Beca and saw the girl's brow furrow as she was reading the messages on her phone. She paused, typed for a few seconds and put the phone down before looking at Stacie with the most heart-breaking look she had seen in some time.

Chloe didn't want me.

I can't continue to pine after someone who will never love me back

Stacie stared at her phone, feeling more confused as time went on, as she was absolutely certain that Chloe Beale was head over heels in love with Beca. She knew something must have happened to make Beca so completely wrong about Chloe's feelings, but that would have to wait for another day. Stacie forced herself to focus on the present and on helping out her friend, the poor idiot who managed to attract so much attention without so much as batting an eye.

"Guys, on that note, I think we should leave Beca in peace for the night. Even you blondie." Stacie gave Aurora a pointed look before raising one perfectly shaped eyebrow in Fat Amy's direction to stop her making any comments to aggravate Beca any further.

The Bellas all insisted on hugging Beca goodbye so they could each whisper something in her ear in an attempt to avoid Stacie's perfectly reasonable request to leave her alone.

"Damn Shawshank, you would catch the best fish in the sea."

"Please be safe."

"You should definitely go for round two, or I'll go for you."

"What about Chloe?"

"Please don't go for her."

Daisy's sad utterance got Beca's attention, and she looked at the freshman's devastated expression, trying to figure out why she looked so forlorn. Aurora appeared behind Daisy and pulled Beca into a tight embrace, making sure her lips ghosted Beca's ear as she spoke in the sultriest tone she could muster.

"If you want your mind blown again you know where to find me, and you haven't even touched the surface of what my tongue can really do."

Beca choked on air as the beautiful girl sauntered out the apartment, leaving her alone with Stacie.

"I know you're tired, grumpy and in no mood to do this now. But we're going to talk about the mess you've got yourself in. We're having this conversation right now, and if it takes all night then so be it."

Beca rolled her eyes at her friend and dragged herself, slightly overdramatically even on her standards, onto the couch. Once the pair had got settled, each leaving on an arm of the couch and adjusted the cushions to their liking, the dread talk left an awkward tension lingering in the room.

"I know you can be unbelievably oblivious sometimes, so I just want to check that we both have the same understanding of your situation."

"Stacie I don't—"

"You love Chloe. You always have, but only realised once she had fled the country."

"Chlo didn't flee—"

"FLED. To get away from her own feelings that were shattered once you moronically kissed Jesse, who you thought you liked."

"I really did think—"

"Jesse never knew you. He just liked the idea of you and wanted to version of you that he was trying to shape you into. But you wouldn't change, no matter how hard you both tried. Eventually you fully committed in the only way you could think of – you slept together and it was awful."

"I didn't hate it—"

"Ugh fine. It was mediocre. Happy now? So you got distracted when he was inside—"

"Stacie!"

"You're oddly prudish considering you were inside the most beautiful girl I've ever seen 24 hours ago. Anyway, my point is you weren't thinking of Jesse when you slept together. You were thinking of Chloe. And you've been thinking about her a lot over the last few months."

"I hate it when you're right."

"So always? Moving on, you texted Chloe gradually, trying to rebuild your relationship and completely ignore the fact that she disappeared and never told you why."

"Has she told you?"

"She didn't have to. The hunter always knows Bec."

"The hunter is stupid Stace."

"Don't be ridiculous, don't mock something just because you have never been honoured to experience it. While you were busy wasting away your sophomore year of college moping you accidentally built a reputation around campus through your music and generally vibe of being cool, aloof and oh so hot. Even if you are barely four feet tall. The fact you've become weirdly obsessed with running and the gym has definitely done wonders—"

"Stace."

"Right. Sorry. So things went as close to normal as possible, and she came to visit. That's when you truly lost your shit. You threw yourself at her – literally, when you first saw her again. You guys cried, you refused to let go and you fell asleep in each other's arms multiple times. Sickening, but adorable."

"We're not—"

"We, the bellas, tried forcing it. That's where we went wrong."

"You what?"

"We manipulated the drinking game questions, until we got impatient and played chicken. If we'd left things to develop in their own time maybe—"

"No Stace, that wasn't your fault. It was mine. I was the one who messed things up. I was the one who had to go and ruin things with my feelings. And kissing Chloe. Oh God and repeatedly telling her I liked her."

"Becs you did everything right, except the part when you didn't give her enough time to process.. and falling into bed with another girl. Although to be honest that part wasn't entirely your fault. We wanted to get your drunk to help you move on, but we didn't think it through, like at all. I'm so sorry Beca, if we hadn't meddled in the first place you wouldn't be in this position. I'm so so sorry—"

Stacie cut herself off mid sentence and crumpled into herself sobbing, her whole body shaking while Beca awkwardly tried to comfort her, eventually drawing herself into a gentle hug. Clearly some of Chloe's social awareness had finally rubbed off on her. The pair stayed like that for far longer than either would willingly admit, until they eventually moved into bed. Stacie held Beca that night, stroking her hair while the tiny DJ cried herself to sleep yet again. Stacie felt truly heartbroken for her friend, and at a complete loss as to how to move forward from this.

The next morning, in true Beca fashion, she literally ran away from the situation and into the gym at an ungodly hour. She worked her frustrations out on the cross trainer, the treadmill and the spin bike until eventually her muscles screamed at her to stop. Beca trudged back to her room, reluctantly showering before passing out soaking wet and wrapped in her towel.

None of the Bellas heard from Beca for the next week, as she distracted herself with mixing, exercising and sleeping. She stayed clear of any alcohol as she was painfully aware of the damage her last drinking spree had caused. There were ramifications from that night which she was still ignoring and knew would have to be faced sooner rather than later.

Beca had just finished a particularly strenuous workout when her mind wandered to Daisy's expression when she had found out about Aurora. The girl had looked so upset. Something inside Beca, that she would never willingly admit to, started to feel a little guilty. She pulled her phone out of her arm band. She also hated that she had become one of those people that had such an accessory, but it had become essential with the amount of cardio she had become accustomed to doing.

Beca: Hey, Starbucks in in hour?

Beca cursed herself for walking home for being so abrupt. The poor freshman probably thought someone else had her phone, seeing as Beca had made no effort to get to know her in the past. Beca rolled her eyes internally, clearly heartbreak, or whatever the hell she was going through, had made her one of those sensitive and borderline thoughtful people that she hated. Ugh. She welcomed the relief her scalding hot shower brought, taking the time to lather her hair with slightly more shampoo than necessary, just letting the warmth rush over her. It was one of the few times she ever felt at peace.

Beca had dried herself and pulled on some faded black skinny jeans and a dark grey slightly oversized sweater when she realised Daisy had replied.

Daisy: Hey Beca! How are you? That sounds good, meet you there at 11?

Beca: Yup.

Beca washed her face, taking more care than she would have ever done a few months ago. A decent skin care routine was one of the few positive things that she had developed recently. Beca proceeded to apply her usual make up, completely unaware of how the subtly smoky eye shadow with the slightly smudged eyeliner made her eyes pop and would catch the attention of most passers by.

While Beca had been absent mindedly preparing herself for coffee and the rest of the day Daisy had been alternating between overwhelming excitement and complete panic. When her phone had gone off she had been been lying in bed, she had lifted the device above her slightly and had dropped the device directly onto her nose in surprise. She couldn't fathom the idea of THE Beca Mitchell initiating any form of communication between them, even less why she wanted to meet in person. She knew the sophomore had no interest in her romantically, but she couldn't help that her heart started beating that much faster when she thought about her.

Daisy arrived first, getting the pair a table and waiting nervously whilst pretending to be doing something on her phone to pass the time. She thankfully didn't have to wait long, as a few minutes later Beca strode up to her, coffee in her hand, looking stunning as ever. Daisy's breath caught in her throat as she gave Beca a not so subtle once over. She was breath-taking in a casual outfit of black heeled boots, black ripped skinny jeans, a dark grey sweater and an oversize black leather jacket. Beca noticed the effort Daisy had made with her outfit of knew high boots, a short skirt and a tight fitted sweater, with her hear flowing around her shoulders. Beca did her best to behave as she imagined any regular person would and hugged Daisy awkwardly. The freshman was too overwhelmed with Beca's perfume and the fact they were hugging at all to realise that it was so awkward.

"Beca! Hi!"

"Hey Daisy."

The pair sat down as Daisy looked expectantly at Beca, clearly wondering why they were meeting in the first place.

"So I wanted to meet in person so I could uh apologise."

"You what? Why?" Daisy blinked at her, doing a remarkable impression of a goldfish.

"I uh realised that I haven't really treated you the best over the last few months and I'm truly sorry for that. I've been an asshole this year, you've only really seen me at my worst and that's not ideal I know."

"What do you mean? We haven't interacted enough for you to do anything?" Daisy didn't mean to sound so bitter but couldn't help her tone heavily implying it all the same.

"Well you have always tried to befriend me, and I never even bothered getting to know you. And then there was the incident with your cousin.." Beca trailed off, blushing as her eyes became fascinated with a speck of dirt on the table.

"Incident?" Daisy smirked as she felt Beca become more uncomfortable at her response.

"You know, the time I—" Beca paused to look at Daisy, and immediately stopped talking when she saw the mirth in the younger girl's eyes.

"Oh I see. You were fucking with me. So you do have a sense of humour after all."

Now it was Beca's turn to smirk as she felt Daisy grow shy once more.

"I just. I wanted to impress you all year and nothing has worked, so I figured you might as well get to know the real me and all."

"Real you? What have you been hiding from me Daisy?"

"I. Uh. Well—"

"Oh god there's no need for you to panic on me. If we're going to be friends you're gonna have to learn to understand my humour."

"Friends?" Daisy winced as she heard the thrill tone her voice had taken, it had become more like a squeak than ever before.

"Yup. F.R.I.E.N.D.S." Beca spelled it out slowly as if concerned that the freshman was unfamiliar with the word. The girl was in fact trying to ignore the twinge in her chest at being friendzoned, but quickly put it aside to focus on getting out actual words to respond.

"Okay. But you're going to need to be nicer to me." Beca smiled at this, glad that the girl was finally becoming comfortable enough around her to make jokes.

"Fine. So long as you stop doing that whole staring thing."

"What? I don't do that. At all." Daisy felt her cheeks redden as she struggled to meet Beca's gaze.

"I have eyes you know. Just because I don't comment doesn't mean I'm not aware of you just looking into my eyes all the time. Not a massive fan of it to be honest. Oh God that sounded bad. I just mean dial back on the prolonged eye contact."

"I can do that." Daisy cringed as she realised that Beca may not be aware of her feelings, but still had recognised that something was up. Beca's offering of friendship had broken the ice so to speak, and the pair had ended up talking for another hour before going their separate ways.

Over the next few months Beca slowly developed a routine that was helping her move on from the beautiful redhead she no longer allowed herself to think about. She blocked out all thoughts of Chloe by starting every day with a gruelling workout followed by a shower and either a shift at the radio station or class depending on the day. She made sure to see at least one of the Bellas every day and they all we drank together at least once or twice a week.

Gradually Beca had become quite the charmer, far more interested in others than she had ever been before, even if it was just due to the distraction it provided. Nevertheless, the DJ had gone from being awkward and borderline rude to engaging and devastatingly attractive. She had seemed to become aware of her own attractiveness and had gained a level of confidence that she exuded effortlessly. Beca was now quietly determined and had become almost unnervingly focused on anything she set her mind to. First it was to widen her reach on the air, which she succeeded in doing once she set up youtube and soundcloud accounts where she started uploading mixes on a weekly basis. The hits both sites were getting had ensured the listening stats for the radio station had quadrupled since the start of the year.

While Beca was making mixes like there was no tomorrow it was helping her vent any and all emotion she was feeling. She was able to completely compartmentalise Chloe oriented thoughts and plough through her day. Beca had gained an alarming amount of energy, which she could only alleviate through exercise, her daily cardio in the day and more often than not night as well seemed to calm her. Beca wasn't drowning herself in alcohol, but her frequent outings with the Bellas were something she had grown to truly look forward to.

Beca hadn't slept with Aurora since their first and only night together, but from time to time Stacie would catch a guy stumbling dazed from Beca's room in the middle of the night, sometimes it would be a girl, it really didn't matter. Beca wasn't trying to sleep around by any means, but she had started to crave physical contact lately that just couldn't be relieved by her trusty vibrator.

Suddenly the ICCAs were coming up and Bella rehearsals were in full swing. Beca had created an unbelievable set for the girls that was a seemingly impossible mix of vulnerability and hope that seemed to reflect Beca's own state of mind perfectly. Starting the set with Years and Years' "If you're over me" was a bold choice but it worked flawlessly. The theme of the set was heartbreak but also self-confidence. The songs allowed every audience member to recognise a time they had been rejected, but also that they deserved someone to truly love and appreciate them. Although Beca had almost unwittingly bared her soul through this set a very select few could see what was truly going on. Such a powerful set won the Bellas the ICCAs for a second time in as many years.

As they stood on the stage hugging each other excitedly, Beca felt tears coming to her eyes. She had come full circle back to last year, when she had unknowingly been at a crossroads in her life. This time she hoped that she would have the chance to make things right and repair the most important friendship of her life, if she ever got the chance to that is. Beca subconsciously scanned the crowd for the one person she truly wanted to see, and felt her whole body jolt when her eyes met those impossibly blue orbs for the first time in months.