"CHLOE! GET OVER HERE, BITCH!"

The voice is so distinctively Australian that I can't help but smile despite my sadness. It reminds me of another time - a time when Beca didn't hibernate her life away in our shared apartment, a time when people's main reaction wasn't pity when they looked at me.

"No Beca?" Amy asks, frowning a bit despite the fact that she already knows the answer. I shake my head, force a smile and head into the restaurant with her.

"I've got half a mind to head over there and go all Crocodile Hunter on her skinny little ass."

"Go easy," I urge, folding my arms over my chest as the cold air conditioning hits my skin. "She's not feeling well."

It's a lie and the blonde knows it, but she doesn't press. The table choruses in greetings as we sit down, and I'm the only one to order water in a long succession of variations on a margarita. Beca's been drinking enough for the both of us lately, and I'm sure tonight will be no exception.

Aubrey slides the bowl of salsa up against my plate, and I grab a chip from the basket in the middle of the table just to humor her.

My phones vibrates in my purse, and I dig it out hurriedly in hopes that it's Beca, but it's just my mom confirming my appointment next weekend. I type out a quick affirmative reply and slip the device back into my bag.

I don't know when things got this bad.

...Another lie.

It was after the diagnosis. But I don't want to admit that - don't want to accept the idea that Beca could be so selfish when I need her more than ever.

"Aca-scuse me?"

Amy's boisterous tone snaps me out of my thoughts, and I watch the waiter's bushy eyebrows shoot up in anticipation of her request.

"Si, senorita?"

"Quieres bacon?"

The same brows furrow in confusion, and mine do as well. Instead of rephrasing, she simply gets louder, as if that will bridge the language gap between them. "QU-IER-ES BA-CON? OINKY OINKY? EL PIGO?"

As if this isn't enough, Amy proceeds to pull the tip of her nose back towards the center of her eyes, clearly attempting to imitate a pig, but for what reason I have no idea.

"Que?" Apparently neither does our waiter.

"What on earth are you doing?" Aubrey asks exasperatedly.

"I'm asking him whether they have bacon!" Amy yells, shooting her hands up into the air and sloshing her frozen beverage onto the table in the process. Clearly she still feels misunderstood, because she's now standing, pig nose and all, and snorting. The small man blushes bright red, mumbles something, and darts off towards the kitchen.

"You asked him whether he wants bacon," I correct lightly. "...And then you acted like a pig, implying that you were the bacon."

Realization dawns on Amy's face and laughter erupts around the table, myself included. It feels good, but all I can think about is how Beca would react if she were here. She'd probably make some witty remark and follow it up with a condescending stare, but as soon as she made eye contact with me her smile would break and she'd laugh.

The collective laughter slowly ebbs around the table and turns to mildly drunk conversation. Food passes around the table, and the realization dawns on me how in reverse she and I have become. I used to turn her scowls into smiles, but now...

"BODY SHOTSSSSS!"

...aaand that's my cue to go.

The clock reads 9:24 when I climb into my car, and 9:42 when I walk into the apartment. Beca's small frame is curled up against the arm of the couch and the Food Network blazes brightly on television screen.

My lips turn up a little bit at the memory of the first time I ever heard her call this channel "food porn," but they quickly turn back down when my eyes fall on the half empty bottle of Absolut sitting on the coffee table.

She stirs, and I stand there for a moment, debating whether to wake her. Before I even realize I've made a decision, my hand is reaching for the remote. I turn the television off, pull a blanket up and around her shoulders, and head towards the bedroom.

Due to the Barden Bella's success the year prior, auditions held a much greater turnout. There were some really talented singers, and they'd actually have to make some cuts this year instead of just accepting everyone.

...And that's what the girls were all doing in Amy's humble abode. Weirdly enough, the odd girl came from a disgustingly affluent family, and her father footed the bill for a spacious off-campus apartment. The decor was a little too Housewives of New Jersey for Chloe's taste, but she'd never say that out loud.

Although, never may come very soon if the drinks kept flowing like they were. Aubrey was trying to protest, but the days of the Bellas being a dictatorship were long gone. It was a democracy now - a drunk one.

"THAT GIRL BLEW!" Amy screamed from the kitchen, shouting over the noise of the blender.

"I think we can come up with something a little more constructive than that," Chloe corrected. Her words were followed by a short giggle, and she laughed again when she realized nothing was really funny. After another sip of her margarita, she settled her head on Beca's shoulder. It was starting to feel a little heavy, and the couch they were sitting on, though printed in zebra, was actually quite comfortable. "I'm getting tireddd."

Shaken from her reverie by Chloe's slurred words, Beca smiled a little. "Want me to take you home?"

"Nononono," the older girl mumbled, shaking her head and causing strands of red hair to fall into her slightly flushed face.

She didn't drink too often - mainly because she was a relatively health conscious individual. Her mother had been a dancer, and her father had almost gone to the Moscow Olympics for the decathlon. Luckily they didn't put as much pressure on her as one might think, but they did raise her to take care of herself and those around her. For that reason, it was kind of funny that Beca was offering to chaperone her back to her place. If it had been later she may have acquiesced, but for now...they were celebrating.

"We're celebrating!" Chloe exclaimed, apparently gathering her second wind as she jumped off the couch and grabbed Beca's hand. The blood all rushed to her head at once, and she closed her blue eyes for a second in hopes to regain some composure. "Maybe...outside? For a second? Yeah?"

Mental note: attempt to speak in complete sentences. With that in mind, she tugged, perhaps a bit too roughly, on the shorter girl's arm and pulled her out on to the balcony. Beca trailed obediently after Chloe and once outside leaned on the screen door, trying to concentrate and not fall down.

"It's nice out, hm?" Chloe asked, grinning and leaning against the railing. Her eyes lit up suddenly. "That was a complete sentence!"

A tiny happy dance around the perimeter of the balcony ensued, and then ended seconds later a few inches in front of Beca.

"You look pretty," she cooed, leaning in and rubbing her nose against the brunette's. It wasn't that weird. It was just Chloe.

Blinking owlishly as she was complimented, she had opened her mouth to retort when she found Chloe nuzzling her nose in a way that was not entirely unpleasant.

"Uh...thanks?"

"Mhmmmm," the redhead replied slowly, not giving the affectionate nuzzle a second thought.

Chloe had always been far more forward than just about anyone else Beca had ever met.

It was strange and a little disorientating at first, but, over the course of the last year, Beca had grown accustomed to Chloe's extroverted nature. Still it didn't mean that she wasn't occasionally caught by surprise when the other young woman was so touchy feely with her. What alarmed her more was that she didn't ever recoil from it.

Chloe loved to love people, and she was good at guessing who she'd end up loving. For example, she knew, the second she laid eyes on Beca that the slightly broodish DJ was going to be the one to save them. She'd had this confident air about her that day they'd met in the quad. It was a quality that Aubrey would never possess, and one that Chloe herself didn't really have the capacity to put onto others. She wasn't a leader. She never had been, but she was happy to follow. Beca just so happened to be a little easier to follow than Aubrey...but she'd never let that slip to her best friend.

"Tell me something," Chloe demanded, sweetly assertive. She leaned back against the railing, sizing Beca up and waiting for something good.

"T-Tell you something?" Beca echoed, rubbing the back of her neck. "Well...what do you want to know?"

Chloe exhaled deeply, disappointment washing over her face. "You're playing the game wrong, Bec. It's not about what I want to know. It's what you want to tell me."

The girl's knack with people had always come naturally. Her innate understanding had never come as a result of prying into people's lives. On the contrary, she often found people opening up to her unexpectedly. It was nice to have people feel safety in coming to you. She felt like...a lighthouse. Or something. An emergency room? No. Those were horrible similes. She frowned for a second, wondering whether she'd said any of that out loud. One glance at Beca told her no. The younger girl still looked utterly uncomfortable to have the spotlight shining on her.

In any other moment, Chloe would've let her off the hook - joked it off and gone back inside. But for now, thanks to the alcohol, Beca's discomfort felt incredibly far away. In fact, it was gone in a matter of seconds. Still, her demeanor softened a little. People came to her, sure, but never Beca. Chloe had a feeling Beca never went to anyone for anything.

Maybe Jesse.

Maybe not.

She kicked her foot out slightly, tapping the toe of her boot on Beca's shoe. It was a subconscious move of encouragement, but Beca was still staring at her blankly.

"I had a brother," Chloe blurted, surprising even herself with the confession. Only Aubrey knew about this. Chloe wasn't one for sympathy. But Beca looked expectant now, so she rushed the rest of it out as well. "He died. When we were really young. It's not a huge deal. I don't even really, um, remember him."

She cleared her throat, and smiled. "Your turn."

Beca immediately felt her whole body tense.

"I-If that's a joke..." Her words were coming out slow. She was trying so hard to hold control of her emotions but at any second she was liable to crumble "Then it's not a funny one."

Chloe's face fell to a frown. "What do you mean?

"I...My older brother..." It was probably best to explain, just in case this wasn't all some horrible joke and Chloe actually knew what it was like to lose a sibling. "He was killed when he was in high school. Drunker driver."

Letting out a heavy sigh, her shoulders slumped. "That's why my parents split up. Dad...got him the car. Mom never got over losing him. None of us did."

Seconds later, Chloe realized she had never heard such silence in her life. Strange, because she knew that there was a party going on inside, and a town moving through the night below them. She couldn't hear any of it. All she could see was Beca's shoulders fall and the sigh exhale from her body.

The redhead blinked out of her short-lived daze when the sliding glass door was thrown open by one inebriated Amy stepping on to the balcony and screaming something about bacon margaritas being the stairway to heaven.

"Go away," Chloe requested plainly, still somehow managing to sound sweet in the face of such a blunt demand.

"Go away, she says," Amy mimicked, glancing to Beca with a grin that shortly fell at the sight of the brunette all curled up. She stood for a second, swaying, and then nodded and raised her glass - which, Chloe acknowledged with a frown, did have small pieces of bacon floating inside. "Cheers to the bacon gods!"

With that she was gone.

"Hey," she soothed, stepping up behind Beca and wrapping her arm's around the smaller girl's frame. "I didn't know."

Chloe thought again back to her original intention with this conversation. She couldn't remember what it was. Certainly not this.

"I didn't know," she repeated, squeezing tightly in an effort to convey her presence. She ran her palms up and down the other girl's arms, simultaneously attempting to ward off the cold and any other bad feeling lurking in the night air. And then, acting on mere instinct, Chloe nuzzled her nose into the space between Beca's shoulder and neck and dropped a light kiss on the skin there.

"Let me take you home," she mumbled quietly, lips still lingering on their claimed skin. Beca just nodded quietly.