Aubrey came back to the apartment that she shared with her best friend Chloe expecting to find her best friend and Beca curled up on the couch or in Chloe's room. She definitely didn't expect to see her redheaded friend lying on the sofa sobbing into a throw pillow. Aubrey immediately dropped her bags and raced over to her roommate.
"Chloe what happened? What's wrong?" The blonde girl questioned frantically. She wrapped her arms around the smaller girl's shoulders and pulled her into a sitting position.
"B-Beca I-we h-had a fight," Chloe managed to choke out between sobs.
Aubrey felt her heart sink. If Chloe was in this bad of shape she could only imagine how Beca was holding up on her own. Aubrey wasn't sure exactly when she started to care for the younger girl, probably a few months after she got together with her best friend. She sort of realized that maybe Beca wasn't the devil trying to steal captain on the Bellas from her.
"It's okay. You guys love each other, it'll work out," Aubrey comforted. She rubbed soothing patterns on the back of best friend until her loud cries muffled and eventually stopped altogether.
"I-I need to see her! She's probably alone in her room crying her eyes out. I can't leave her like that Aubrey," Chloe cried, her voice still thick with tears. She tried to stand up only to be pulled back down by her roommate.
"Sweetie you can't go over there like this. You're a mess and obviously upset, you'll just make it worse. You can go see Beca in the morning. Besides, it's really late and we both need some sleep, "Aubrey reasoned gently.
"What am I supposed to do? Leave my girlfriend crying alone in her dorm room?" Chloe asked sarcastically.
Aubrey sighed, "Look you going over there right now is going to do a lot more harm than good. She's upset, you're upset. I know you want to make up with her but it can wait until tomorrow. Besides, you know she'll just push you away and you're in no state to listen. Give her time to cool off."
Chloe pouted, she knew that Aubrey was right (the blonde girl usually was) but the idea of Beca so distressed made her heart shatter. She wanted nothing more than to pull the younger girl into her arms and take all the hurt away. It killed her that she was responsible for Beca's emotional state; she knew that the younger girl had a lot of hurt in her past and she really didn't want to contribute to the number of times she'd been hurt. The beautiful redhead didn't mean to lose her temper and honestly, she hardly ever did, but Beca just kept shutting her out and she couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't about to give up on her girlfriend; no, she loved her far too much to do that but something had to change. All that could wait though, all she wanted to do now was make Beca happy again.
Meanwhile back in her own dorm, Beca wasn't fairing much better. Kimmy Jin was out with her Korean club so at least she had the room to herself while she wallowed in her misery. After what seemed like hours, Beca just couldn't cry anymore. She really, really didn't want to lose Chloe. Chloe was the best thing that had ever happened to her, she was like the light that she finally found after an entire life of darkness. Just seeing Chloe lit up her whole day.
A part of her wanted to go back and make sure that Chloe was okay but she was confident that Aubrey was taking care of her. Jealousy boiled up inside of Beca when the thought occurred to her that she didn't have an Aubrey. Someone who could comfort her and confide in that wasn't her girlfriend. Shaking away those thoughts Beca crawled into bed, willing herself to fall asleep without any painful thoughts or nightmares to ruin her already fucked up night.
Chloe woke up the next morning with less than 10 seconds of peace before the events of the previous night came crashing back down on her. Sighing, she checked the clock and saw that she had 30 minutes until a ccapella practice. She quickly showered and dressed in workout clothes, knowing today was the day for her to teach the freshman the new choreography she and Aubrey had come up with. She grabbed her keys and locked her dorm room, not surprised that Aubrey had already left for practice.
Chloe was unable to hide her disappointment when she opened to the auditorium doors to see that all the Bellas were there, expect for Beca. Aubrey looked at Chloe and smiled, happy that at least she had shown up.
"Where's Beca?" Stacie questioned. She - like most of the Bellas - had expected her to arrive with the ginger.
"She's um…I don't know," Chloe murmured, her usually bright blue eyes dim.
An awkward silence fell in the group.
"Okay so we're going to teach you guys some new choreography today. I want half of you over here with me and the other half over there with Chloe okay?" Audrey commanded in her no-nonsense voice.
About 10 minutes into the practice Beca came in. Her hair was still damp from her shower and her clothes were disheveled. She'd thrown her hair up in a messy bun and her eyes looked glassy. Chloe's heart broke as the girl got closer and she could see the deep dark circles, indicating that her girlfriend hadn't slept a wink the previous night. As she got closer to the stage, she wrapped her arms around herself protectively. Aubrey didn't have the heart to scold the heartbroken girl for being late, something she would normally do without hesitation.
"Beca why don't you go in Chloe's group? We're teaching you guys the new choreography today," Aubrey suggested gently. She knew that putting her in Chloe's group might be a recipe for disaster but she had to do something to try and get the two of them talking.
Beca just nodded and slowly joined the other group, not speaking to anyone and avoiding eye contact with Chloe. Chloe watched as Beca walked to the back of the small group and imitate the dancing she saw fat Amy doing.
"Bab- Beca, can you come up here?" Chloe called her, kicking herself for letting the causal nickname 'babe' slip out at such a horrible time.
Beca looked up like a deer in headlights. Still not looking at Chloe, she slowly strolled to the front of the stage.
Beca continued to dance to the music along with her friends but she wasn't doing it right and she was well aware. She attempted to learn by watching the others and didn't dare ask Chloe to help her. Chloe sighed, ignoring the part of her that wanted to send Beca to Aubrey's group; she pulled her girlfriend aside and stood behind her. She wrapped her hands around Beca's wrists and showed her the movements, as if she were a puppet. Chloe felt her heartbreak when she felt Beca tense and then tremble ever so slightly, as if she were about to cry. This situation wasn't unusual, she and Aubrey always taught the girls choreography like this and usually it was the most fun with Beca because Aubrey was always telling her to keep it 'PG' but they never did.
"Stop Chloe. I don't need your help, I can do it myself," Beca commanded, trying to pull away.
"Obviously you do or you would be doing the choreography correctly," Chloe said softly, keeping her grip on Beca firm and not allowing the other girl to pull away.
"God why are you on me about this? You know I'll pick it up! I just missed the first part of class!" Beca snapped, pulling away from the older girl completely.
By this time everyone was no longer dancing but watching the fight between the -what they assumed as still together – couple. Most of the girls were just openly staring but Aubrey just looked over at them sadly. Two people that she cared for a great deal were fighting and she hated it, this must have been how Chloe felt when she and Beca used to argue so much.
"Okay that's enough. Beca, you and Chloe need to go work this out and don't come back and disrupt my practices until you can be civil towards one another. Your personal problems don not concern me or the rest of the Bellas," Aubrey barked, leaving no room for argument.
Beca rolled her eyes and jumped off the stage, mumbling to herself about how she shouldn't even have come and should have expected Aubrey to try and glue their relationship back together.
Shooting her group an apologetic look, Chloe grabbed her bag and raced after Beca, who was speed walking as fast as she could to get the hell out of the auditorium and presumably, away from her.
"Beca wait up! You know we have to talk about this," Chloe said, catching up with the brunette.
"I don't want to," Beca mumbled, walking quicker.
Chloe sighed; she expected this kind of reaction from Beca. She reached out and grabbed the younger girl's hand, holding her firmly in place.
"Frankly I don't care. I am not about to let the best 5 months of my life end right now because my girlfriend 'doesn't want to talk about it'," Chloe said forcefully.
As careful as Chloe knew that she needed to be with Beca, she also knew that sometimes the stubborn girl just needed a push, not a pushover that would just agree with whatever she wanted.
"Okay so talk," Beca growled, frustrated. She was no longer fighting to get out of Chloe's strong grip.
"I'm sorry that I blew up at you last night. I'm sorry that we fought but I meant what I said, babe I need you to start opening up to me about how you feel and your past and why certain things make you sad and uncomfortable. How am I supposed to avoid them if you don't even tell me? Look I really, really care about you and I don't want to lose you ever but I need you to trust me with all of you, the emotional parts too," Chloe explained, tears welling up in her eyes.
Beca felt her heart break. She hadn't meant to make Chloe cry.
"I'm sorry too Chloe. I don't mean to be so closed off it's just…hard for me okay? I need you to be a little more patient but I swear I'm getting there. I want to be able to open up and tell you every little thing about me it's just…every time I let someone in, I get burned. They use it against me or they leave and I-I just can't deal with it anymore. It's too hard," Beca paused. "But for you I'll try."
Tears were now welling up in both girls' eyes and streaming down their cheeks.
Chloe pulled Beca in close for a tight embrace, holding the girl as if she might break if she didn't. Beca sighed in relief. She breathed in the tropical with a hint of vanilla scent that was her beautiful girlfriend. Looking up into her breathtaking blue eyes for this first time since their fight, Beca felt like she could breathe again.
"I can't lose you Chloe. I can't," Beca choked out, she could feel the hot tears poor down her cheeks and her first instinct is to run away so no one can see her cry. She wasn't quite sure why she was crying, maybe the thought of losing Chloe makes her that sad or maybe they were happy tears because she and Chloe made up but she just hated crying in front of people. She reached her hand up to wipe them away but Chloe beat her to it, lovingly stroking her cheek.
"Lucky for you, you won't ever have to," Chloe promised, tightening her arms around Beca.
Everything wasn't perfect. They still had to go back to Chloe's place and work things out. They had a lot of issues to deal with but in that moment everything was okay. They were back in each other's arms and really that's the only place they ever wanted to be.