Chloe watched Beca from the corner of her eye before they were due to perform. The younger girl seemed placid, seemingly comfortable in the high heels and uniform. But there was a vacant look about her face. It was like she was high - a thought that unnerved Chloe to no end. If the pain was that bad that she was resulting to some kind of drug, why was she continuing to perform? Because she doesn't want people to know, idiot.
Chloe knew she had to wait, at least until the end of the performance to talk to the brunette. Beca still believed that Chloe was angry, and she felt that they needed the stress of the performance out of the way before they could have a civil conversation.
The footnotes were killing it. The front man had come out of nowhere, shocking both audience and contestants. He seemed too young to be a part of collegiate a Capella, but apparently not.
Once they had finished, Aubrey gathered them together. The stress of the performance had taken its toll on the blonde. She had been up for the majority of the night, stressing over every detail and note of the set they had created. Chloe had heard her doing breathing exercises to keep down the stress-vomit at 3am. Aubrey was tired, and she was even more snappy than normal when this was the case. She just hoped that this would go down smoothly for the rest of the girls' sake.
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Chloe raced after Aubrey, who was pushing through the girls to get to the front of the group. The redhead could feel the rage emanating off of her friend, and she prayed that Beca would hold her tongue.
As soon as Beca started talking, Chloe knew she would have to wait. Beca was still angry at her, and anything that she said would inevitably make it worse. She watched as Beca's eyes roamed around the room, looking for some kind of support. Her eyes finally landed on Chloe, and she tried to have a look of reassurance, but turned into a deep frown when Aubrey started attacking again. She could see Beca had took this completely wrong, and Chloe was starting to feel hopeless. It was only when Aubrey brought up previous conversations about Beca not being a Bella that she tried to talk.
"Aubrey don't -"
"No it's okay. You don't have to pretend like you're allowed a say in the group." The words cute Chloe to the core. She knew that Aubrey put her down all the time, heck all the girls knew. But even admitting it made it more real.
Chloe wanted - no, needed to apologise. But she couldn't. The fear of what could happen... the thought of losing Beca was rooting her to the spot, sealing her lips. And when Beca made her exit, she knew that once again, she had let her best friend down.
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Once they had reached home, Chloe set about going to the brunette's dorm room. She knew she had to make things right, and this time she wasn't going to give up. She was just picking up her keys when her phone started to ring. Without looking she swiped her screen.
"Hello?"
"Chloe?" She stopped. Luke's voice was on the other end, sounding broken, tired.
"Luke? Is everything..." the realisation that Luke was calling her for only one reason made her stomach drop. "Where's Beca?" Her voice broke. She knew what was coming.
"Chloe you need to get to the hospital." That was all she needed to hear. She got the details from Luke and sprinted down to her car. She wasn't going to leave Beca this time. Not ever again.
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