A/N: I feel like I probably should have combined Ch8 & Ch9 together into one chapter… But well, I'm kind of too lazy to change it so… :/

The song in this chapter is I Was Made for Loving You by Tori Kelly ft. Ed Sheeran.

Guest (new to the fandom): Hey there! Since I can't PM you, I'll just reply here :) Well you put me on the spot haha, I felt like my brain suddenly went blank trying to remember the names of all those fics I read… To be honest I don't really keep track of what I read, but I know there are quite a few fic rec masterposts on tumblr that are all pretty solid lists, so if you want you can give it a search? I think it's a lot quicker this way. And of course, if you still want my opinion, feel free to pm me or something, it'll just take some time for me to rack my brains and try to remember the good ones you know :) Anyway hope this helps! xx

anapfischer: Ummm… 'her' as in Beca? Or Chloe? Or Fat Amy? :D

Chapter 10

Chloe watched as Beca strolled onto the stage and picked up her guitar, taking her time to adjust the microphone stand.

"Hey there." She said into the microphone when she finished adjusting it. And a few girls sitting close to the stage squealed in excitement. Beca smiled slightly and sat on a stool behind the microphone with her guitar.

"The first song I want to sing tonight is a song that I wrote a while back for a special someone. I haven't seen her or talked to her for almost 8 years, but recently she appeared out of nowhere and I came across her in a restaurant the other day. We didn't get to talk but… Anyway, she just happened to be in my mind a lot lately. So let's hear this song then."

Chloe's breath caught in her throat and her heart was beating so wildly that she felt like it was going to jump out of her chest at any second. And then Beca started strumming her guitar. Not even 3 seconds into the introduction of the song, Chloe instantly recognized it. Beca was going to play that song. The first song that she wrote for her.

A dangerous plan, just this time

A stranger's hand clutched in mine

I'll take this chance, so call me blind

I've been waiting all my life

Please don't scar this young heart

Just take my hand

Chloe teared up at hearing Beca's soulful voice, she didn't think she would be hearing Beca sing this song again, after so many years, after everything that happened.

I was made for loving you

Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through

Every bone screaming (I don't know what we should do)

All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you

Chloe's brain was screaming at her to get out of the bar, but she just couldn't move, feeling as if she was paralyzed. So she just sat there, in the corner booth of the bar, getting lost in Beca's voice, the voice that she used to fall asleep to countless nights.

Hold me close through the night

Don't let me go, we'll be alright

Touch my soul and hold it tight

I've been waiting all my life

I won't scar your young heart

Just take my hand

The bar had grown quiet, only Beca's soft voice echoing around the room. Chloe's vision blurred, and her mind started to take her back to that night when Beca first sang her this song.

Chloe tapped her finger impatiently on her laptop. It was her 19th birthday that day. She was supposed to Skype with her girlfriend but the brunette just wouldn't pick up. They hadn't seen each other for 2 months by that point. And even though they tried to Skype every day, it just wasn't the same, not being able to hold each other's hands, kiss or cuddle.

Chloe sighed and ended the call after the 3rd unsuccessful attempt, figuring that the brunette must have still been at work. She was just about to text Beca but saw that the brunette was calling her back through Skype. She happily threw away her phone and didn't waste another second to click connect on her laptop, instantly squealing when she saw her girlfriend's face appearing on the laptop screen.

The brunette looked tired, but she still had a huge grin on her face upon seeing Chloe. "Happy Birthday baby." Beca said.

Chloe grinned widely, "Thanks babe! Did you just come home? You look tired."

"Yeah, boss had some extra chores for me to do. But anyway, I'm here now. How was your day?"

Chloe shrugged, "Just a normal day for me, went to classes, had a birthday lunch with some of my friends, more classes and then here we are. So far my birthday highlight is finally seeing my gorgeous girlfriend." Chloe winked at Beca.

Beca smiled, she brought a hand up to her laptop screen to trace Chloe's face, sighing, "I wish I could touch your face and kiss you right now. I miss you."

Chloe moved her fingers on her laptop screen to touch Beca's face as well, "I miss you too, so much. But hey, 10 more weeks then I'll get to come back to you, okay?"

Beca nodded and smiled lovingly at Chloe for a while, before she suddenly jumped and startled Chloe on the other end of the laptop as well, "Hey! I have a gift for my favourite birthday girl! I can't believe I almost forgot! It's totally your fault! I was distracted by your damn pretty face Beale!" Beca whined and looked like she was looking for something on her desk.

Chloe giggled, "How is that my fault? But you don't need to buy me a gift babe! It's not like you can magically throw the gift through the laptop screens and I'll get it."

Beca seemed to find what she was looking for and sat back, smirking at the redhead, "That is so not true, this gift you can totally receive and have it with you for eternity. I can't believe you are a college student and didn't think of the possibilities."

Chloe narrowed her eyes, looking at the brunette incredulously, "Well, what is it?"

Beca waved a piece of paper in front of the screen and turned to grab her guitar, smiling at the redhead, "I wrote you a song."

Chloe's eyes widened and were suddenly filled with tears, "What?"

Beca adjusted the angle of her laptop so that Chloe can see her perfectly with her guitar, before replying, "Yep you heard it right, your super talented girlfriend aka me wrote you a song." She then asked her softly, "Do you want to hear it?"

Chloe just nodded, and turned up the volume on her laptop, waiting for the brunette to start…

–

'Cause I was made for loving you

Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through

Every bone screaming I don't know what we should do

All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you

Back into reality, Chloe quickly brought a hand up to wipe all the tears that were threatening to fall, but it seemed to be no use, they just kept on coming, without a sign of stopping. She still remembered that night, in her small dorm room, in front of her laptop, her 19-year-old self was smiling and crying at the same time listening to the brunette sing to her, falling more in love with Beca if that was even possible.

And right now, even after 8 years, the butterflies returned somehow, fluttering their wings in Chloe's stomach, syncing with the rhythm of Beca's song. Then, she heard a small quiver in Beca's voice and looked up. Beca somehow found her despite of all the crowd and was looking at her, with her steel blue eyes, filled with so many emotions. Surprise, delight, pain, regret, hesitance, hope, tenderness, and so many more. Chloe felt a little dizzy just looking at Beca's dazzling eyes, but she just couldn't look away even if she wanted to.

Please don't go, I've been waiting so long

Oh, you don't even know me at all

But I was made for loving you

–

I was made for loving you

Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through

Every bone screaming I don't know what we should do

All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you

With a last stroke of her guitar, Beca finished her song and the room burst into applause, but Beca didn't seem to care, she just continued to look into Chloe's eyes, those cerulean eyes. It was almost like the rest of the world didn't exist anymore and there were only the two of them, looking into each other's eyes, without any words or moves.

Suddenly, Aubrey's voice seemed to bring Chloe back to her senses, "Man, they weren't kidding, this girl is really good and really hot too."

After hearing Aubrey's comment, Chloe broke eye contact with Beca and suddenly couldn't take it anymore. She spoke a little too loudly to Aubrey, "I want to go home." And with that, she grabbed her purse and left the bar, with a confused Aubrey running after her.

After getting into the cab, Aubrey looked at the silent redhead for a while, not sure what was wrong or what to do. She watched Chloe angrily wipe her tears forming in her eyes and watched her clutch at her purse so hard that her knuckles turned white.

Finally, Aubrey couldn't stand the silence anymore, "Are you okay Chloe? What's going on?"

Chloe didn't answer, she just struggled to control her breaths and tried to fight back the tears.

"Chloe."

"That's Beca. The singer. That's Beca." Chloe whispered under her breath.

"What?!"

Beca sat on her stool, dumbfounded. She couldn't believe it. What were the odds that Chloe came to this bar at this exact night, when she just happened to decide to sing this song. And Beca let the redhead run away from her, again. But given what happened between them all those years ago, she couldn't blame Chloe. Not really.

It had been 5 months. 5 months since Chloe left for NYU, and 5 months into Beca's internship. And Beca felt like she was slowly losing her mind at the record label. Every day, she just went to the building, getting all the coffee orders, preparing those coffees, and then gathering lunch orders, running out to get those lunches, going back and then there was another round of coffee orders. In addition, her boss would throw random chores for her to do day after day.

She wasn't trying to be difficult, she knew those were basically what interns did anyway. But it was just that she started to see the harsh reality in the industry. And sometimes it would make her doubt herself and feel a little lost. Her contract for this internship was 1 year. But what would happen after 1 year? She would probably be promoted to become that guy who spent all his working hours watching YouTube videos and trying to find new artists? Was that really something she wanted to do? And how many years would it take for her to finally make a name for herself? It was naïve to think there would be some shortcuts or overnight success. I mean there may be, but she highly doubted that they would happen to her anyway.

And with all the rejections of the demos she sent out and sometimes even harsh words, she felt like they were slowly breaking her resolve. She also felt like she was drifting in the ocean, not knowing where to go or not even having control over herself. And her anchor? Well her anchor was away in New York. So sometimes, she just felt all alone, helpless even.

And of course she didn't talk about all these things with Chloe. They only get a one-hour Skype session everyday if they were lucky. More often, with Chloe's assignments and Beca's tiredness from work, they would just call to say goodnight to each other. Also, Beca didn't want to fill their Skype dates with all her whines and insecurities. She didn't want to be a buzzkill when Chloe would sometimes excitedly tell her about the cute animals she got to meet that day, even though Beca had a really bad day at work or just received another rejection email and wanted to cry. She just put on a smile for her girlfriend and listened quietly, wishing she could just hug her and listen to Chloe tell her how she always believed in her talent, because she was not so sure anymore.

Beca blinked, hearing Jesse's hushed voice telling her to keep singing. Beca sighed, she took a haste glance at her bar audience, knowing most of them weren't here to listen to her music. To them, her music was probably just some background noise that would enhance the vibe of the bar. But if only one person was listening, she would play. So she adjusted her guitar and began absentmindedly singing some random songs.

Aubrey had never met the "famous" Beca Mitchell before. Even though she had known Chloe since freshman year at NYU, they didn't get to share a dorm since they had different majors. As far as she knew, Beca only ever visited Chloe twice before they broke up.

However, she did witness Chloe's breakdown after Beca's second and last visit here. She had never seen anyone cried so much in her entire life. The redhead missed classes for a whole week, and she was sure if Chloe didn't have that compulsory exam the week after, she still wouldn't even set foot out of her dorm room. Aubrey would drop by every day after her classes to check up on the redhead and bring her food, forcing her to eat something because she knew Chloe wouldn't remember to eat otherwise. And the redhead's state was hard to watch. As days went by, Aubrey didn't even have the heart to look at Chloe anymore. And then Aubrey would wonder if that was what it looked like to have one's soul crushed and heart shattered.

Aubrey tried to help but she could only do so much because she never knew the whole story. The redhead wouldn't tell her. So all she could do was to try her best to look after her best friend, checking up on her, bringing her class notes that she missed, buying her food and being there for her if she ever needed anything.

Then, to Aubrey's surprise, on the 15th day of Chloe's distress, she suddenly pulled herself together, stepping out of her dorm with perfect makeup, attending all her classes, going to lunch with all her friends like nothing had changed. Aubrey wanted Chloe to talk to her, because she knew although the redhead seemed to go back to her normal bubbly, sunshiny old self, deep down there still lay a broken heart, which was now protected by cold hard walls. But after seeing the look in Chloe's eyes, she decided to shut her mouth, since she knew Chloe intended to never talk about this ever again. So she went with it, pretending those 15 days never existed at all.

But the ghost from the past finally caught up. And now here they were again, sitting in the back of a cab, Aubrey had to watch the redhead silently broke down in front of her all over again, helplessly.

It was 4am, and Beca finally finished her shift at the bar. She said goodbye to Jesse and Fat Amy before getting in her beat-up car and driving home. When she walked in her small apartment, the sky was beginning to awake, but she went to pull all the blinds down since it was her bedtime during the day and she couldn't sleep with all the sunlight dancing in the apartment.

With a heavy sigh, she quickly showered and changed, before throwing herself on her bed. She didn't have the mood to sleep today, especially since whenever she closed her eyes, all she could see was Chloe's cerulean and teary eyes.

"Becs, babe, I know, I'm so sorry!" Chloe said during one of their Skype dates the week before Christmas, "I know I said I would come home during the holidays, but my professor said that if I use this time to finish some of the research, I would be able to move faster in the advance courses so that I can take more for next semester!"

Beca sighed, "It's okay Chlo, I just don't want you to be too stressful you know."

Chloe smiled, "I know I know! I promise I won't stress myself out!"

Beca then checked her calendar, and suddenly perked up, "Will you be busy at the end of January?"

Chloe thought for a few seconds, "I don't think so...why?"

Beca grinned, "Because I have 5 days off, and I think I can afford to fly over and spend a few days with you in New York! What do you think—"

Beca was cut off by Chloe's high-pitched squeals and she laughed, seeing that her girlfriend was literally bouncing up and down on her chair and she could only see half of her face on the screen now.

"Calm down Beale, get in the camera will ya? It'll still be another month. So right now, I want to see your whole face." Beca teased.

Chloe sat back down properly and beamed at Beca, "You are the best girlfriend ever!"

Beca laughed, "I try."

"Anyway, enough about me, what about you? How were those demos that you sent out a few months ago? Did you receive any reply?" Chloe asked.

Beca's smile faltered a little, but she tried to act normal, "Eh, not much." She didn't want to tell Chloe that they were all rejected by various record labels, some she knew didn't even bother to listen judging by the fact that her demos returned in the exactly same way as how she mailed them. But she didn't want Chloe to know that.

Chloe smiled reassuringly, "Hey don't worry, they probably got tons of demos to listen to, I'm sure soon they will start to get back to you!"

Beca just nodded, not knowing what to say. Why did Chloe believe in her so much? She suddenly wanted to cry and scream at the same time. Just when she saw Chloe was about to say something else, probably asking about her work, which she didn't really want to talk about, she quickly said,

"Hey, umm, my boss just texted me, I need to prepare a few documents for tomorrow's meeting, so I got to go. But I'll talk to you tomorrow. Love you." With that, she quickly ended the call, and couldn't hold back her tears anymore.

"Okay, love yo—" Chloe didn't get to finish when she saw Beca had already ended the call. She frowned, but brushed it off thinking Beca must have some urgent matters to attend to. It was near Christmas after all, and paperwork tended to pile up.

Beca reached over to her nightstand and picked up her phone. She stared at it for a few seconds and laughed at herself. Why was she even checking her phone? It was not like she was waiting for the redhead to text her or call her. Plus, she couldn't text or call the redhead either. Chloe was the one who had the initiative. All Beca could do was wait since she didn't have the redhead's number. And to be honest, she didn't think Chloe was going to contact her. After all, she made it clear in that voicemail all those years ago.

So, with another sigh, she set a few alarms and tossed her phone back, forcing herself to get some sleep before having to leave for her gig at the restaurant later.

Aubrey and Chloe were now back at Chloe's apartment. The redhead had calmed down after a silent breakdown in the cab. So now she was sitting on the couch, lost in her own thoughts while Aubrey was in the kitchen trying to make them both some tea.

"Here," Aubrey handed Chloe a mug filled with her favourite fruit tea.

Chloe took it and offered a small appreciative smile to Aubrey, before the blonde sat down next to her.

The two sipped their tea in silence for a while, until Aubrey finally spoke, "Chlo, I know you'll probably get mad at me, but I think you need to talk to her and work things out. You can't keep going like this, having a breakdown every time you see her."

Chloe sighed, putting down her cup of tea on the coffee table in front of her, "I'm not mad… and you are right. I need to work things out with her. If we can't be friends again, at least I need some closure."

Aubrey was surprised to hear this but pleased, "So… do you need me to go back to the bar and get her number for you?"

Chloe smiled at her best friend's gesture, "Thanks Bree, but… I already have her number."

"What? How did…"

"I went back to the park a few days ago but she wasn't there anymore, and her musician friend gave me her number… but I haven't called her yet." Chloe explained.

"Oh, okay." Aubrey nodded, "So when you meet her, do you need me to come with you?"

Chloe thought about that for a few seconds, before shaking her head, "No Bree, I think this is something I need to do by myself. And I think I'll be okay."

Aubrey nodded, "Okay, you are doing the right thing, Chlo," She reassured the redhead, "Good luck."

After Aubrey left, Chloe picked up her phone and sent out a text message before she could change her mind.

Beca, it's Chloe. I think we need to talk. When are you free? – Chloe