Prompt: "Chloe did have to become an exotic dancer but kept it a secret from all the Bella's but they found out at Cynthia Rose's Bachelorette party.

Exotic Dancer, Actually

"But why didn't you tell us?" Beca asked, "Or at least me?" she almost whispered, a hint of hurt in her voice.

Chloe was looking into her eyes, until Beca nervously readjusted her stare to the ground. The bass of the music was still vibrating under their feet and Beca couldn't help but note how even the cream painted walls in the small office looked just as cheap and dirty as the club outside.

"I didn't- It never came up..." Chloe mumbled, shrugging her shoulders.

"It never came up?" the brunette asked, before rising to her feet and repeating herself, "It never came up?!" she shouted. She began to pace the length of the desk, flailing her arms in the air, "Being a stripper never came up!" she yelled, a bitter laugh leaving her lips.

"Exotic dancer actually" Chloe corrected.

"Oh, like there's a difference?"

XXX

Beca was sat in the back of the taxi sandwiched in between a rather drunk Stacie and an even more intoxicated Cynthia Rose. Despite Beca's protests and pleas for an early night, they were on their way to a strip club.

"I don't see why I couldn't have just sat in the front" Beca sighed, eyes fixed on the bright 12:46am shining from the car stereo.

"Beca quit complaining. It's Cynthia Rose's Bachelorette party!" Stacie reminded, "Besides we wanted to make sure you couldn't run off once the cab stopped at a red light" she added sarcastically.

Before Beca had a chance to retort, the car was coming to a halt and the lights of a club reflecting through the window. Once the three women had paid the fair and gotten out of the car, they were being joined by the rest of the Bella's from a taxi further up the street and she was being dragged to the door.

The other women were talking to a rather tall and stocky man on the door, as Beca couldn't help but wish she'd gone back to the hotel with Aubrey two hours ago. Ever since they had arrived early that afternoon, Beca had been paired with the once uptight blonde, because apparently "Bella captains stick together."

A couple of years ago, sharing a hotel room with Aubrey would have been unbearable, but since burying the hatchet in their first year at Barden, the two had gotten closer over the past six years, making Chloe happy her two best friends were getting along.

Once Beca had heard the redhead couldn't make their extended weekend trip, she had considered not going either. In all honesty, the prospect of seeing Chloe was selfishly the only reason she agreed to go in the first place. Since graduating from Barden, both women had kept in contact, but with the distance and their hectic work schedules, it was difficult to maintain they the closeness of their friendship.

The tugging of her arm brought Beca back to the present, as Fat Amy was pulling her from the streetlights of the sidewalk to the florescent lighting of the club. The sound of the generic dance music filled the brunette's ears, as she followed the rest of the Bella's, weaving through a couple of tables and chairs on their way to the bar.

Beca quickly cast her eyes down, the sight of women in their underwear grinding on poles bringing a scarlet blush to her cheeks. She berated herself once more for not leaving with Aubrey and barked her drink order at the barely clothed woman behind the bar.

Pulling at the label on her second beer, Beca let out a sigh, keeping her eyes trained on the glass bottle in her hands. Turns out visiting a strip club was exactly what she had expected and it was just making her feel awkward and uncomfortable. She had been offered a couple of 'private dances' and much to the Bella's disappointment had declined on all three occasions. Beca was making the dreaded journey to the bar when something caught her eye; a pair of stilettos.

The black heeled shoes were mostly plain, apart from the many straps on the front and immediately reminded Beca of a pair Chloe use to own in college. It was strange, but even in another state, Beca would often find herself seeing or hearing something that would cause the redhead to pop into her mind. Beca refused to over think it though; she wasn't ready to address her feelings for her best friend, so she shook the thought away.

Due to a subconscious twinge of curiosity, Beca felt herself lifting her eyes for the first time since walking in and looked at the woman dancing on a podium a few rows behind from where she and the rest of the Bella's were sat. Beca stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth hung open, as she realised the woman dancing was in fact no one other than her best friend Chloe Beale.

XXX

Chloe nervously rubbed the wrist Beca had grabbed and pulled her down from the stage with, unsure of what to say.

"Look, Beca, I think maybe you should just leave" she said quietly.

"Yeah, you and me both" Beca muttered, quickly seeing the flash of hurt in her best friend's face.

"No, I didn't mean it like that" she back peddled quickly. "What I meant was you should leave with me. You don't belong here, Chlo."

"Or out there where guys can drool- even touch you!" she added quickly, remembering the list of rules she was told when paying the cover charge at the booth by the entrance.

"You don't get to say that me. Apart from a text message once a week and a phone call here and there every month you don't know anything about me anymore" Chloe stated angrily, pulling Beca's leather jacket further around her shoulders.

The DJ stood there, her mouth opened to speak before she snapped it shut again and ran a hand through her hair.

"That's not fair."

"Yeah, well-"

"No, you know what?" Beca interrupted, "You can't blame us drifting apart just on me. I was always going to move to LA after Barden, you knew that from the beginning. I'm sorry I left Atlanta so quickly after graduation and I'm sorry you feel like you couldn't talk to me about this, but you're my best friend Chlo, I should be someone you know you can talk to when you become an..." she paused, using her fingers as air quotes "...an exotic dancer."

Chloe crossed her arms over her chest.

"Why?" Beca simply asked. "What happened to your teaching job at the school?"

XXX

Chloe was scanning through the job section in the newspaper sat on the floor of her empty living room. Her mind wandered back to the couch that used to sit in the centre, along with the flat screen television and her coffee table, but now all she was left with was an empty room.

She let out a long sigh, before bringing her eyes back to the text in front of her. She couldn't let herself remember how her life had drastically changed in a matter of weeks. Being let off from her job as the choir teacher at the school was a big shock and something Chloe couldn't really fathom.

She could of, no should have argued the school's reasoning; "budget cuts" just wasn't a good enough excuse for an ambitious and hard working teacher like Chloe. Days passed as the redhead struggled to get a job at another school. It gradually turned into weeks and now she was looking for any kind of work she could get, but with the current economy, nowhere was hiring; and if they were, they consisted of long and unpaid trail periods or years of experience in waitressing that she didn't have.

She threw the newspaper down in frustration and tried to keep her tears at bay. How did life become so complicated in such a short space of time?

Her phone buzzed, causing her to fish the device from her pocket. Chloe looked at the screen, a group message notification from Cynthia Rose. After a quick read of the paragraph, she let out another sigh before typing her reply.

Chloe Beale: Sorry, girls, I'm stuck at a work training thing both the Saturday and Sunday on that weekend. I hope you all have a great time and I'll see you at the wedding next month xx

...If she still had an apartment next month, she thought to herself. It's not that she didn't want to go, she wanted to go to Cynthia Rose's Bachelorette party more than anything, but she just didn't have the money, nor did she feel like partying any time soon.

Her eyes wandered to an ad at the back of the newspaper now lying next to her foot:

Exotic dancers wanted. Apply within.

XXX

"Chloe?" Beca called, reminding the redhead she hadn't answered the question.

"I got laid off" she murmured.

Beca could hear the shame and sadness in her best friend's tone and see the defeated look in her face.

"They can't do that, can they? You're amazing at your job, why would they-"

"It happened, OK?" Chloe shouted, cutting Beca off, "And now I work here, because it's the only job I could get that pays as well as a teacher."

"Did you not apply for more teaching jobs?" Beca asked, slightly confused.

It was the wrong thing to say.

"Yes, of course I applied, Beca but no one was hiring..." Chloe's voice cracked, before she added "...No one wanted to hire me."

The tears that she had been trying to hold back from the moment she realised Beca was here - at her work; watching her work - were running down her cheeks and the sobs becoming difficult to control.

Before Beca could even think of something to say, she was instinctively closing the distance between them and wrapping the other woman in a tight hug. Seeing Chloe break down like this wasn't sitting well with her; Beca believed Chloe deserved the best of everything in life and to find out she wasn't getting that tugged at something in her chest.

"Hey, it's OK. I'm sorry I shouted. We'll figure it out" she said, feeling Chloe tightly hugging her back.

After a few minutes, Chloe was pulling away and wiping the tears away with her hands. Beca smiled a soft smile, before sitting down on the grungy sofa in the club's small and unimpressive office, motioning her friend to do the same.

"I don't want the Bella's to know, especially Aubrey" Chloe rushed out as she sat, a pleading look in her eyes. If the older woman was being honest, she was grateful Beca had spotted her first and how discreetly she had pulled Chloe away from the stage and demanded they talk some place quiet.

"Yeah, of course."

"I don't know what to do, Becs. I got the job a couple of weeks ago, I was only going to do it for a few days, you know? Just until something else turned up."

Chloe's voice was quiet, but desperate and Beca resisted the urge to pull her in for another hug.

"How about you come to LA for a bit? You can stay with me; help out at the studio, just until you get back on your feet?"

Chloe let out a sigh, momentarily closing her eyes. She took hold of Beca's hand before barely whispering, "You'd do that for me?"

Beca nodded with a sense of conviction and the trace of a smile on her lips before uttering, "I'd do anything for you, Chloe - you should know that by now."

XXX

A/N 1 – I tried to make this the least angsty I could, however I feel like if Chloe did become a stripper, she'd be at least a little bit ashamed about it, rather than "Oh yeah, no biggie" you know?

Anyway, thanks for reading and prompting.