"Beca Mitchell!" a voice shrieks from her left. Beca pulls the flask away from her mouth and blinks in that direction. A white blur walks toward her.

Her brow furrows and she tries to focus her eyes. "Chloe?"

"Funnily enough," Chloe says as she looks around mockingly, "this doesn't look like my wedding!"

Beca looks around, too. "I guess not."

Chloe stops beside Beca, crosses her arms. "What the hell are you doing here, Becs?"

"What-what are you doing here?" All of a sudden Beca flies into a panic. "Dude! You can't just leave your own wedding!" She looks around, completely missing Stacie in the distance leaning against the car. "How did you get here? Why are you here? Oh my God we have to get you back!"

She tries to scramble to her feet, but stumbles almost immediately. She heads back for the safety of the swing.

"What is going on, Becs? Why are you miles from my wedding, getting sloshed in a park by yourself?" Chloe demands.

"Oh."

Chloe waits.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

Beca shakes her head. "I promised myself I wouldn't tell you and you don't need to know and it'll only make you sad and also maybe things will change for the worse and I really don't want that."

Sighing, Chloe sits on the swing beside Beca. "Does it involve me?"

Beca nods, but looks in the opposite direction.

"If it involves me don't I deserve to know?"

Beca shakes her head. "It's only gonna make things worse. Especially now. So just like go back to your husband and I'll hang out here for a bit and then I'll make my way back there."

Sensing that the direct approach won't work with intoxicated Beca, Chloe shifts tactics. "Why this playground, Becs?"

She shrugs. "It's our playground. I'm saying goodbye to the old us, the old you."

"Why?"

"Because we're different now," Beca nods sagely. "Because you didn't have magnolias at your own wedding." She sighs. "We're just different."

"Oh," Chloe trails off. "You remember that?"

"Of course!" Beca declares loudly. Her voice turns a little snooty, "I would have made sure you got magnolias."

"That's really rude, Beca," Chloe says, exasperation colouring her tone. She sniffles a little. "God, you're such an idiot!"

Beca just nods sadly. "Yeah," she agrees and takes her first sip of scotch since Chloe's arrival.

"No, you don't get to just agree. I can't even get married Becs, I can't even marry this really nice guy who loves me and cares about me!"

Slowly, Beca turns to blink at Chloe.

"God, even now, even when I've basically thrown my entire current life into a dumpster fire…" Chloe cries, "I can't even be mad at you."

"What? No!" Beca launches herself haphazardly off her swing and lands on her knees beside Chloe. "Be mad at me, please. I fucked up. I fucked up so much and so often and you don't even know all of my fuckups but trust me there are a lot. Please be mad at me. Be mad and storm off and be happy." Beca's dissolved into full-on sobs, her voice creeping up more than an octave. "God, all I ever wanted was for you to be happy and he makes you happy!"

"All I ever wanted was you!" Chloe all but shouts back at her. "But I couldn't have that and now I need you to come back with me and sit in your seat so that I can marry a decent guy."

Beca whips her head back like she's been burned. Her eyes narrow and Chloe can almost watch the sobriety filter into her eyes.

"Damn it, did Stacie tell you? Is that why you said that?"

"What are you talking about?"

Beca hops up off the ground and starts pacing agitatedly. "She swore to me she wouldn't fucking tell you."

Chloe rises to her feet, too. "Tell me what?"

Beca snorts. "She totally did. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I fucking explicitly told her not to tell you."

Chloe steps forward and traps one of Beca's arms in her hand. "Damn it, Beca, tell me what?"

"Well she told you I'm in love with you, didn't she?" Beca growls. "I shouldn't even be surprised. She's the one who's been demanding the whole fucking time for me to tell you. And I told her I wouldn't. Hell, I left my post as your friend at your wedding to make sure I wouldn't tell you and she just fucking tells you!"

"You're what?"

Beca scoffs. "In love with you, as you already know because apparently," Beca raises her voice, "nothing is sacred!" She finally looks at Chloe's face. "Hey, no need to freak out. I'm going to get over it," Beca says. "I mean," she continues, "it's been more than twenty years and I still haven't gotten over you, but I probably just wasn't trying hard enough. Hope's a bit of a dick. Now you're married though and so I definitely have to stop but it's fine."

"You've been in love with me for more than twenty years?!"

"Yeah. No worries though. We were friends that whole time and we can still be-"

"YOU ABSOLUTE DUMBASS!"

Beca cocks her head to study a suddenly angry Chloe. "Wait, what have I done now?"

Chloe marches right up to Beca and points her finger at Beca's nose. "I have been in love with you for so long! And you didn't say a damn word!"

"What?"

"Why didn't you say anything?!"

Beca scrambles for a good retort, "Why didn't you?!"

They stop yelling at each other for a moment, and Chloe's finger slowly lowers.