Beca Mitchell knew she had a bit of an abrasive personality.

At least, that's the wording that her mother had used once, when Beca had been in the ninth grade and had asked why she couldn't seem to make many friends. "You can be just a little abrasive sometimes, honey," she had said. "But all teenagers are that way, so don't worry about it."

She supposed her mom had been trying to be supportive, but it definitely hadn't felt like it then, and it didn't really feel like it now. She had taken those words to heart, though, and every time a classmate had turned down her requests to hang out, and every time everyone else in her class had gotten an invite to a party and she didn't, she remembered her mother's words and wished that she wasn't so fucking abrasive.

She had thought that she had toned back the sharp edges of her personality; hell, after Chloe warned her about how Aubrey tended to be a little "abrasive" the night before (what was with people and that term, anyway?), she had made sure to keep most of her comments to herself. Hell, she learned choreography and sang stupid girl-power ditties without bitching about it. For fuck's sake, she did cardio. Aubrey still managed to find some stupid-ass reason to bitch at her.

They were literally the stupidest fucking reasons, too. Ear monstrosities? Attitude? Fucking Jesse?

The entire exchange made her want to say "screw this" to the entire thing; made her want to just fuck off and hop on a plane bound for LA because at least there she wouldn't have to put up with uptight blondes with sticks up theirs asses.

Well, she probably would have to put up with different uptight blondes with sticks up their asses, but they probably wouldn't care about a capella, right?

Even through her anger, though, she knew she couldn't leave. She didn't have the money for LA. Hell, she didn't even have enough for a plane ticket. So instead, she had come back to her dorm and thrown herself into a random mix because it seemed healthier than punching a wall.

She was bent over her mixing board, staring at the dials and faders and wishing she could figure out what the hell she was doing wrong, when she felt a tap on her shoulder that almost sent her flying out of her chair.

"Jesus Christ, Kimmy Jin, what do you-" she started to say as she turned around in her chair, but then her eyes landed on the unamused expression on her roommate's face. Her roommate, who as it turned out, was still sitting at her own desk and was certainly not the bashful-looking redhead peering down at her.

"Uh...hey, Becs?"

Beca blinked once, then held up a finger. "One sec." She turned around and paused the music that had apparently been loud enough to prevent her from hearing her captain from coming in. She made sure to save what she had been working on before she closed her laptop and pulled her headphones off of her ears so that they hung around her neck. "What are you doing here, Beale?"

"You didn't answer any of my texts," Chloe said, and Beca turned back around in time to see her scratch the back of her head nervously. "I got worried."

Beca reached for her pocket, feeling for her phone. She pulled it out and winced when she saw the several missed notifications. "Oh, sorry. I didn't even realize that you had texted me." She glanced over the messages, unable to hide the slight upturn of her lips as she took in Chloe's texts. When she finished, she looked up towards Chloe, who looked almost embarrassed. "I'm fine, Beale. I can handle Aubrey and her bullshit. Though, yeah, not sure where that Jesse comment came from, because that's not true."

"Yeah, that was...really weird," Chloe said, laughing a bit at the end. The laugh didn't quite reach her eyes, though, and Beca found herself growing concerned despite her best efforts not to.

"Everything okay, Red?"

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay." Her voice cracked just slightly at the end, though, and that was enough to make Beca stand up.

"Liar." Beca reached out for button-up that she had placed on the back of her chair after coming back from rehearsal. She pulled it on, fixing the collar so that it wasn't sticking up before she slipped her wallet into her back pocket. "Come on, let's go someplace a little less..." she looked towards her roommate, who continued to glare towards them. "Scary," she finished, and if she didn't know better, she would have thought she saw Kimmy Jin's lips quirk upwards in the barest of smirks.

"Are you sure? I mean, I obviously interrupted you in the middle of...well, whatever you were working on, and..."

"Chloe." Beca turned back towards her, shooting her a look that she hoped read more "stop arguing" and less "my roommate is fucking terrifying help me." From the way Chloe's mouth immediately shut, she guessed she had succeeded. "Let's go, okay?"

Chloe nodded.

"Excellent." Beca walked over to her door, opening it and gesturing for Chloe to lead the way. The redhead complied, but she paused in the doorway so she could wave goodbye to Kimmy Jin.

"Have a good night!" Chloe said, and Beca had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at how sweet her captain was. She was about to push her the rest of the way out the door, eager to get away from the stare of her roommate, but then Chloe was moving past her and she was finally able to close the door behind them.

"So, where do you want to go?" Beca asked, patting her pocket in hopes that her key was there, because she definitely didn't want to have to ask Kimmy Jin to let her back in.

"Where do I want to go? It was your idea to go somewhere else, Becs, so you should get to pick!"

Beca, having found her key, looked up at Chloe and rolled her eyes. "Beale, I've been here for like, two months. I've gotten really familiar with the radio station, my room, and, on the odd occasion, the dining hall. I literally don't have any clue where to go. So would you just lead the way and stop arguing with me?"

Beca couldn't read the look on Chloe's face, and she felt her stomach twist as she realized just how fucking abrasive she had sounded without even trying. She was about to apologize when Chloe smiled and nodded. "Yeah, okay. Is it okay if we don't really go anywhere? We could go back to my room, maybe order some pizza?" She paused, looking at Beca thoughtfully. "Do you like pizza?"

"Are there people who don't like pizza?" Beca asked, her question accompanied by an , incredulous look that made Chloe's smile grow ever-so-slightly.

"I mean, you don't like movies, so I figured I wouldn't just assume that you'd like the things that most people do," Chloe explained, and Beca felt her heart skip a beat for absolutely no reason at all. She chalked it up to the fact that Chloe looked so sincere, like she truly didn't want to assume anything about the freshman standing in front of her on the off chance of being wrong.

Beca wasn't exactly used to anyone caring that much.

"I love pizza, Red," Beca said after a long moment, realizing that she should probably answer at some point in time or else it would be kind of weird. "Can we get pepperoni on half?"

"Of course, Becs." Chloe reached out and grabbed her hand. Beca almost pulled away, but then Chloe was leading her down the hallway. "Whatever you want."

Beca had never really had to comfort someone before. Well, no one other than her mother, of course, but she didn't really think that running out for more pints of Ben & Jerry's for a depressed parent really counted. So when Chloe still hadn't brought up what she was upset about after about an hour of hanging out in her room, Beca found herself trying to figure out the best way to address it.

What she eventually came up with, carefully plotted out in her mind as she ate her third slice of pizza, was to ask her captain, very gently, what was going on.

What she actually ended up saying, though, around a mouthful of cheese and sauce, was: "So, why do you look like you're going to start crying at any moment?"

Smooth, Mitchell. Real smooth.

Chloe had just lifted her own slice to her mouth, but when she heard Beca's question, she slowly set it back down. "I don't look like I'm going to start crying."

"Yeah, you do. You have ever since you showed up in my room. I can't imagine that you're all upset just because Queen Bree got all up in my business, right? Because I told you, I can handle that stuck-up busy..."

"She's my best friend, Mitchell," Chloe said, and Beca stopped talking even though she wasn't sure if Chloe had meant that to be a warning or not. From the expression on Chloe's face, it didn't look like she herself even knew.

"Right. Sorry."

Chloe nodded at her in acknowledgment, and picked up her slice. She took a bite, chewing slowly as Beca tried to figure out if she should ask again, or just drop it completely. But then Chloe was setting the pizza back down. "There's just a lot going on."

"With the Bellas?"

"Partially, yeah." Chloe pushed her plate away and leaned back against the wall, looking anywhere but towards Beca. "But also not."

"Oh. Okay." Beca waited to see if Chloe would continue talking, but she didn't, so she decided to just throw caution to the wind because fuck it, she could at least try to be comforting. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Chloe pursed her lips and looked up towards the ceiling, blinking a few times. "She yelled at me."

"What?" Beca sat up straighter, feeling a familiar surge of heat in her chest. "Who did?"

"Bree."

"She did what? Why?"

Chloe blinked again in an effort to keep the tears at bay, but she knew it was pointless. So she looked back down at the floor and wiped away the few that had formed at the corners of her eyes. "It doesn't matter why. She just did. And it's fine, I know she just wants the Bellas to be the best, and I do too, I just..."

"It absolutely matters why!" The heat in Beca's chest burned hotter, and she was once again struck with the urge to punch something, anything. "She can't just yell at you, she's your best friend for Christ's sake!" She started to rise to her feet. "I'm going to..."

Chloe's hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her back down. "You're going to sit down and not do anything to piss her off even more, Beca Mitchell!"

"But she..."

"She's the captain, and she can and will kick you out if you keep pissing her off, so would you just stay put!"

"You're the captain too, Beale!" Beca wrenched her wrist out of Chloe's grasp, but she didn't move to stand again. Her eyes met Chloe's, and from the way Chloe wouldn't quite look at her she knew her words had hit exactly how she had intended them to. "You're the captain, too. And you wouldn't let her kick me out." She waited for Chloe to give her any sort of acknowledgment, but when it didn't come, she felt an icy chill settle in her bones. "You wouldn't let her, right?"

"Of course not," Chloe replied, but her eyes darted towards the ground and Beca couldn't help but laugh because the only thing that Chloe's answer had reassured her of was that she couldn't even depend on the one person that she had grown not to hate at Barden.

"Right," she said. "Well, I think I'm going to head out, then." She stood up, half-expecting Chloe's hand to wrap around her wrist again, but the senior didn't move. "Thanks for the pizza."

She had her hand on doorknob when Chloe spoke again. "Beca, please, I-"

"I'll see you at rehearsal, Beale."

She didn't hang around to see if Chloe said anything after that. Instead, she went back to her room, ignored the look Kimmy Jin shot towards her, and shoved her headphones back over her ears. At least if the music managed to disappoint her, the only person she would have to blame was herself.

Crazy Shower Chick (Chloe), 10:31 p.m.

I'm sorry. I would never kick you out, and I would try my best to make sure Bree doesn't either, but I don't have the final say, and...ugh

Crazy Shower Chick (Chloe), 10:33 p.m.

I'm sorry, okay? I don't know what you want me to say other than I'm sorry

Crazy Shower Chick (Chloe), 11:01 p.m.

I'm sorry

Beca didn't speak to her for the rest of the week, despite Chloe's attempts to get her to say something to her. She tried texting, and calling, and even whispered apologies to her during the choreography portions of Bellas rehearsals, but she got nothing in return from the freshman other than glares. For pete's sake, she didn't even care if Beca started yelling at her because at least then it would be some sort of acknowledgment of her presence, but by the time Saturday rolled around, Beca hadn't said a single word.

It wasn't like it had been an easy week outside of the cold shoulder Beca was giving her, either. Her classes weren't going as well as she wanted them to, and the rehearsals weren't going as well as she thought they would, and it felt like every time she turned around, Aubrey was giving her a disappointed look, or was barking orders at her, or just looked like she was going to explode, and Chloe would have to try and calm her down and then the next day would come and the cycle would repeat.

And then there was the issue of her throat.

She had been planning on asking Aubrey to go with her to the appointment, but she had quickly nixed that idea when she realized that if, god forbid, the doctor gave her bad news, Aubrey would probably actually explode.

Her next thought had been to ask Beca, but she seriously doubted that the younger girl would want anything to do with her at the moment.

So she went alone. She was alone when the doctor gave her a shot that they said would sedate her enough to allow them to stick a long tube down her throat. She was alone when the tube was inserted and the doctor made little noises of concern while Chloe tried desperately not to panic. And she was alone when he pulled the tube out and told her as gently as possible that her vocal cords were riddled with nodules.

She had stared at him for a long time, unable and unwilling to process the words that he had said. Then he repeated himself, and she felt her entire world come crashing down around her.

Later, she was alone as she sat in her car and looked at the vocal cord surgery pamphlets that the doctor had given her before leaving his office. She was alone as she read over the possible risks of the procedure, the risks that increased if she didn't get the surgery done as quickly as possible. And she was alone when she threw the pamphlet down onto the passenger seat and started sobbing.

She truly thought that her day couldn't get any worse. But it was Saturday, and that meant that she had the SBT mixer, and even though she had hoped and prayed that the Bellas would be ready for it, she had known deep down that they weren't. In fact, she had practically begged Aubrey to reconsider. But her best friend had insisted that they were going to be fine.

They were decidedly not fine.

When Howie cut them off during their first song ("Turn the Beat Around", of course, had to keep with the classics), Chloe was almost relieved.

They had filed out of the fraternity house single-file, each Bella looking a little more downtrodden than the last. She was about to start reassuring the younger Bellas that it was okay, that they had only had a week's worth of rehearsals and they couldn't hold themselves accountable for not being quite ready yet, when Aubrey beat her to the punch.

"God. Well, I hope you all remember the way you feel right now, so you will never want to feel this way again. Chloe?"

Chloe stopped when she heard Aubrey say her name, letting the other Bellas mill around her. She didn't turn around when she heard Aubrey bitch at her about her voice not being "Aguilerian" at all. It only was when Aubrey stood next to her, demanding to know what was wrong with her, that she finally turned, giving her co-captain a scathing look before facing the rest of the Bellas. The words tumbled from her lips before she could stop them. "I have nodes."

"What? Oh my God." Aubrey reached for her hands, and she let her take them because for the first time in what felt like forever, she could hear genuine concern in her best friend's voice.

"I found out this morning," she said, mostly to Aubrey.

"What are nodes?"

Chloe couldn't quite believe that she had heard Beca ask that question, and so she didn't answer. That was fine, because Aubrey was already answering for her. "Vocal nodules. The rubbing together of your vocal cords at above-average rates without proper lubrication."

Chloe looked up as Aubrey was talking, and she let herself finally look at Beca, who looked back at her with an expression that she couldn't quite read. She was pretty sure it wasn't anger, though. "They sit on your windpipe and they crush your dreams."

"Isn't that painful?" Beca asked, and Chloe felt her chest tighten at the concern that she swore she could hear in the freshman's voice. "Why would you keep performing?"

"Because I love to sing," she answered, like the answer should have been the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, it's like when my lady-doctor told me not to have sex for six weeks, and I did it anyway," Stacie said, and Fat Amy responded before anyone else had a chance to.

"You should really listen to your doctor," she said, and Stacie gave a little shrug and a noncommittal noise and Chloe decided to start speaking again before the younger Bellas got completely off-topic.

"The key is early diagnosis. I am living with nodes. But I am a survivor." She looked at all of the Bellas again, trying not to look too hard at Beca, who was still giving her that "what the fuck, Beale" look that she had grown accustomed to seeing. "I just have to pull back. Because I am limited. Because I have nodes."

The words sounded stupid even as she said them.

"Chloe, this is horrible," she heard Aubrey say, and she had to agree.

"Well at least it's not herpes."

Every head turned towards Fat Amy, Chloe's included. The Australian looked somber. "Or do you have that as well?"

No one spoke for a few moments. Chloe knew she should probably confirm that she didn't have herpes, but Aubrey's nails were digging into her wrist and she just wanted to go home and-

"Shut up, Ames," Beca said, and that broke the spell. The other Bellas started to come up to Chloe, throwing their arms around her and offering words of comfort, and for a moment, Chloe felt like maybe it was going to be okay.

But then she caught sight of Beca, who hadn't joined in on the impromptu group hug. Instead, she stood off to the side, looking every bit as awkward as she had when she had walked onto the audition stage.

Something inside Chloe's chest ached as her eyes met Beca's.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed towards her. Beca just nodded, but there was a look in her eye that made Chloe feel like maybe, just maybe, they would be all right.

Beca Mitchell, 8:13 p.m.

Hey, uh...sorry about the whole nodes thing. That's pretty rough, huh?

Chloe Beale, 8:15 p.m.

Yeah, but it'll be fine! Nothing can stop this girl from singing!

Beca Mitchell, 8:18 p.m.

Yeah, but like, you definitely shouldn't be singing, dude. I looked these things up, and they're pretty serious. Like, surgery serious.

Chloe Beale, 8:21 p.m.

Don't worry, Becs. They're not that bad yet.

Chloe Beale, 8:22 p.m.

Also it's hella cute that you're WebMD-ing on my behalf

Beca Mitchell, 8:23 p.m.

If you say so

Beca Mitchell, 8:23 p.m.

And no it's not, shut up

It honestly and truly just was not Beca's week.

It wouldn't have been a good week even if it hadn't started out with that absolutely crap-tastic Bellas performance at that stupid frat mixer. Beca had known that they didn't belong performing yet; for Pete's sake, she was fairly certain that Jessica and Ashley didn't even know the words to "Turn the Beat Around".

(And who the fuck thought that performing "Turn the Beat Around" at a fraternity house would be a good idea?!)

But she had held her tongue and went along with it because there was absolutely no way that she was going to give Aubrey more ammunition to use to kick her out of the Bellas. She was pretty sure that her Dad wouldn't really care about the reason behind her expulsion, and as much as she hated it, she needed his support (even though the idea of him supporting her at all was fucking laughable). So she had kept her mouth shut and they had bombed and then Chloe decided to drop the news that she had fucking nodes and that was just Saturday.

By Thursday, she was ready to stab someone.

Sure, she and Chloe had started talking again, which was all well and good. It wasn't really the same as it had been, since Beca definitely still didn't trust that she would support her if Aubrey did decide to just up and kick her out, but it was still something. It was a busy week, so they had stuck to texting outside of rehearsal. Even with all the awkwardness, though, Beca still had to fight to keep herself from smiling whenever she saw Chloe's name light up her phone screen.

But it really was a busy week. Besides the constant Bellas rehearsals, she also was working at the radio station every other day, stacking albums and CDs and even the odd 8-track here and there. The stack of flashdrives that she had given Luke, the ones with her mixes that she had spent more time on than she cared to admit, just kept growing and growing and it was beginning to drive her a little insane.

So when she finally had a minute to herself, one where she could sit on the quad and work on the mix that she still couldn't quite get right, she knew she should have expected to be interrupted. That didn't stop her from almost slapping Jesse when he appeared next to her with a ratty blanket and a couple of Capri Suns.

"What's all this?" she asked, forcing herself to laugh so she wouldn't absolutely lose her mind.

"As much as I love spending time with you stacking CDs...and I do, I love it like, more than life...I figured we could do some other fun things that don't make us want to kill ourselves, right?"

He started pulling out DVD cases from his bag, and Beca wished that she was anywhere but there.

"So I brought some movies! Jaws, E.T., The Breakfast Club, Star Wars, and Rocky. Best scored and soundtracked movies of all time." Jesse paused for only a moment, but the look on his face managed to grab Beca's attention. "That's what I wanna do when I grow up. I wanna score movies. Bring people to tears, you know. Blow their minds. I feel like only music can do that."

For the first time, Beca was actually impressed by something that he said. She was struck with the sudden urge to tell him that she understood, at least to some degree, but then she caught sight of the DVDs again and the urge passed. "You must really sweep your girlfriend off her feet."

"Oh, I don't have a girlfriend," Jesse replied, far too quickly.

"What!"

"No," Jesse said, shaking his head.

"You have juice pouches and Rocky!" Beca knew she should probably tone back the mocking sarcasm, just because she knew that he wasn't a bad guy, but he turned away from her before she could even get the chance to apologize.

"Okay, so what do you wanna watch first?" he asked, inspecting his DVDs. Beca took a sip from her Capri Sun and tried to tone back the snark that threatened to escape her lips.

"Wanna do something else?"

He turned, his confusion written across his face. Beca continued, unable to stop herself. "We could relive my parents' divorce. Or visit a gynecologist." She made sure to smile just so he would know that she was (mostly) joking, but it was apparent that he was less than amused.

"What, do you not like movies or something?"

Beca thought back to the conversation she had with Chloe on Hood Night about the same damn thing and hoped that Jesse would be at least as considerate as Chloe had been. She had a feeling he wouldn't be, though, so she decided not to answer and instead took a sip from her Capri Sun.

"Like, any movies?"

Another sip, this time accompanied by an uncomfortable laugh.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She tried not to wince at that, instead choosing to continue to hold the juice box up to her lips. "How do you not like movies? Not liking movies is like not liking..." he thought for a moment, obviously struggling. "Puppies!"

"They're fine," she said, wishing that she had chosen to go back to her dorm instead of risking the quad. " I just get bored and never make it to the end."

Jesse's expression grew incredulous, and Beca realized that had been the wrong thing to say. "The endings are thebest part!"
She was quickly growing tired of the conversation, having had some form of it over and over again throughout her eighteen years. "They're predictable. Like, the guy gets the girl, and that kid sees dead people, and Darth Vader is Luke's father."

"Oh, right, so you just happened to guess the biggest cinematic reveal in history?"

God this was getting tedious. "Vader in German means Father. His name is literally Darth Father." She let the smile fall from her face at the end, hoping that the one random piece of trivia she knew about that entire franchise would get him to finally drop the subject.

"Huh." He considered her words for a moment. "So you know German. Well, now I know why you don't like fun things."

She gave him a tight close-lipped smile and wished, not for the first time, that a sinkhole would appear beneath them so she could be put out of her misery.

"You know, you need a movie education. You need a movi-cation. And I'm gonna give it to you."

Beca considered telling him exactly what she thought of that idea, but then the perfect excuse popped into her head. "Yeah, in between Bellas' rehearsals, which are always."

She honestly wasn't sure what kind of reaction she expected him to give to that excuse, but it definitely wasn't for him to turn to her with an excited smirk on his face. "You guys getting ready for the riff-off?"

Beca's stomach immediately began to ache with dread.

"What the hell is a riff-off?"

Beca, 5:43 p.m.

Beale, when the hell were you going to tell us about whatever the fuck a riff-off is?

Crazy Shower Chick (Chloe), 5:51 p.m.

Oops