Chapter 15

Chloe parked outside Beca's apartment building, before running a hand through her hair and taking in a deep breath. She stared at the building for a moment, and remembered the conversation she had with Aubrey in the cab the other day. She told her best friend that she knew what she was doing. But did she really? She said she and Beca were just friends. Well, did she mean by that? Was she maybe hoping for more? Chloe shook her head and stepped out of her car, deciding not to ponder over those thoughts for now.

Beca opened her apartment door and greeted the redhead with a smile, letting her in. Chloe walked in and was instantly met with the delicious aroma coming from Beca's small open kitchen, which immediately made her feel hungry.

"What are you cooking? It smells great!" Chloe said excitedly.

Beca chuckled and closed the door, "Shrimp Fra Diavolo." Then she seemed nervous, "I hope it's still your favourite? If not, we can just have some mac and cheese, or I can order some pizza or Chinese food if you want—"

"It is, Beca." Chloe reassured the nervous brunette and her heart swelled knowing Beca still remembered her favourite food after all these years.

Beca relaxed, and said, "Well, good. I'm almost done anyway. So do you want to go and wait in the living room? I hope it's okay that we eat in the living room since I don't have a dining table and all?"

Chloe nodded, and went to the living room to sit on the couch.

She took off her jacket and looked around at Beca's apartment. It was not big but quite cosy. There were heaps of manuscripts scattered all over the coffee table. Some were filled with music notations and some with lines of words which she figured would be lyrics. Chloe smiled at the sight and could already imagine the brunette writing raptly and furiously on the table. Her eyes continued to roam around the table and then something on the corner caught her attention. It was a thick notebook filled with even more pieces of sheet music. But there was a small part of a yellowed and wrinkled sheet peeking out in between the pages. Chloe stared at it for a while and suddenly had a hunch of what it was. Her heart started pounding so hard that she could hear nothing but her own heartbeats.

She looked over at the kitchen and saw that Beca was still busy with the sauce. So she turned her head back around and stared at that yellowed sheet again, finally reaching out a hesitant and slightly trembling hand to draw it out.

She was right.

It was the unnamed song that she wrote 8 years ago.

The only difference was, now there were lyrics under the music notes.

Chloe arrived at Beca and Stacie's apartment at 6pm. She took in a deep breath and raised her hand to knock on the door. There was no one answering. She waited for a few minutes and knocked a little harder this time. Still no answer.

Chloe was a little disappointed, but decided to try the door handle before she called the brunette. To her surprise, the door was unlocked.

So she stepped in, making a mental note to remind the two girls to lock their door whenever they left the apartment to be safe. She had been in the apartment before she left for New York, so she figured she should just go to Beca's room to wait for her.

She walked past the hallway and reached Beca's room. The moment she opened the brunette's room door, she was met with a strong alcohol smell. She frowned and scrunched up her nose, scanning the room and seeing her girlfriend passed out in bed, face down and completely unaware of her surroundings, with an empty bottle of Jack Daniel's sitting on the ground beside her bed.

–

Beca didn't usually drink whiskey. Even though she started drinking quite often lately, she normally just went with some good old beers. But today, she really needed something strong.

Her boss had started to let her into some recording studios for chores. At first, she was ecstatic, thinking she finally got to see some actions and perhaps her boss might even give her something related to music production to do. However, her hopes were soon shattered.

Because the only chores she got to do were taking coffee orders still, and playing the accompaniments for some snobbish artist.

That artist was someone that the label was trying to promote recently, who apparently had a powerful and wealthy family background. And he demanded to have live guitar accompaniments for his recording sessions instead of playing the recordings. However, other staff at the label were all busy with their respective work and Beca was the only intern who can play the guitar, so here she was.

The artist's voice was okay, but he would always mess up the tempo in one part of the song that they were recording for today. After the 7th failed attempt, he turned to Beca who was sitting behind him in the corner of the recording booth and yelled, "What the hell?! Can you focus and get the tempo right? What is your problem?!"

Beca couldn't believe him. She played the piece perfectly, and she didn't even roll her eyes when he kept getting the tempo wrong. Now she was the one getting yelled at?!

"I played perfectly fine." She said, holding back her anger.

"Well, then why did I keep getting it wrong? Are you trying to sabotage this song for me? News flash, this is as far as you go in your career. Don't think for a second that you'll get to be some overnight success. Nobodies like you would never make it. And sabotaging other artists is just low. So you better behave or I'm telling boss how you've been slowing down the recording progress!"

Beca was clenching her fists, tears in her eyes. She turned her head to look at the producers sitting over at the other side of the studio window. Surely they could hear she was playing the guitar perfectly fine and it was him that had been missing the tempo. But no one was even looking at her, let alone sticking up for her. So she turned back around without a word, swallowing the lump in her throat and forcing back her tears.

The artist glared at her in disdain and turned around. When the producer's cold voice 'Again!' sounded through the speaker, Beca closed her eyes, feeling nothing but hopelessness and she just hated her life at that moment.

–

Chloe walked over to her girlfriend, frowning. Beca was never a drinker, why would she need to gulp down a whole bottle of whiskey? She instantly became worried. She flipped the brunette over carefully and her heart broke seeing that the brunette's face was bathed with tear stains and even in her sleep, there was a touch of despair. She wiped the tears on her girlfriend's face softly and watched her for a while. She had no clue what happened and she hated that she wasn't here to comfort the brunette. But she was here now and she would find out. Then she would hug her tight, and everything would be okay. They would be okay.

Just when Chloe was about to go to the kitchen to get some water for her girlfriend, Beca stirred in her sleep, and eventually opened her eyes. Seeing a flash of red hair, she looked confused for a few seconds. And then when she recognized Chloe's face, she blinked.

"Chloe?" She slurred and slowly sat up, "What are you doing here?"

Chloe smiled at her, "You haven't been picking up my calls, so I thought I'd fly back and surprise you. Surprise!" She tried to lighten the mood, but when she saw Beca didn't even flash a smile, her own smile dropped as well.

"Yeah… sorry about that." The brunette murmured, "I've been busy."

Chloe nodded, moving to sit next to Beca on the bed, "It's okay." She bit her lip, "Are you okay?"

Beca nodded, "Yeah, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."

Chloe decided to push a little, "It didn't look like nothing. I know you, you don't drink this much… Do you maybe want to talk about it? Did something happen at work?"

"Nothing happened. How long will you be staying?" Beca tried to change the topic, averting her eyes from Chloe's because she knew she would definitely break down looking into the redhead's eyes even just for one more second.

"Just for tonight. Tomorrow I'll have to go back since I have class on Monday." Chloe answered.

"Oh, okay. So what do you want to do then?" Beca was a little disappointed.

Chloe looked at Beca carefully, watching her subtly sniffle. This definitely didn't look like nothing. And why wouldn't Beca talk to her?! She knew the brunette was guarded to most people, but never to her! Why wouldn't she want to talk to her own girlfriend and instead trying to push her away?!

Chloe had to find out what was wrong, so she asked again, "Beca, you know you can tell me anything. What happened? Was it something at work? Or is this about your demos? I told you, you don't need to worry, they'll get back to you. You just got to be patient. Someone will see how talented you are."

And that was it. That was the ignition.

What was it with Chloe? Why did she always believe in the brunette so much? Because apparently nobody else did. And if it weren't for Chloe, maybe Beca wouldn't be so hopeful in the first place and then get slammed into the ground so hard. She was confident sure, but she was always realistic and a little pessimistic. So if Chloe didn't spur her on, she wouldn't be feeling like this right now. Because having her hope shattered sucked. And if no one believed in her in the first place, it wouldn't matter this much. She would just get used to it and her heart wouldn't hurt this much.

Beca had had enough. She couldn't hear the redhead say one more word about how talented she was. Because she wasn't. She jumped out of her bed abruptly, startling the redhead.

"Stop. I said I don't want to talk about it." Beca raised her voice a little but she was trying really hard to control her volume and her frustration, feeling her head was going to explode.

"So it is about your demos? What happened? Talk to me Becs!" Chloe pushed.

"Just drop it Chloe okay? Nothing happened I already told you!" Beca answered, on the verge of tears.

Chloe let out a frustrated sigh, but seeing Beca was getting upset, she decided to try later and change the topic for now.

"Fine, but I'm not letting this go. We'll talk about it later. I have a surprise for you though." She stood up, picking up the guitar that she brought with her and pulling a sheet out of her bag, before sitting back down on the bed.

"Remember you said that we should write a song together? Well guess what, I finally get to finish a whole song! But it's just the melody, I'll leave the lyrics and the song title to you. I'm hoping you make this a top-10 hit okay? And I know I'm not an expert in song-writing like you, so if you want to change anything in the melody, please do—"

"JUST SHUT UP CHLOE! WILL YOU PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT?!" Beca couldn't take it anymore, she couldn't look at Chloe's expectant eyes anymore and listen to her saying how she was an 'expert' in song-writing. Apparently only Chloe would still think that.

"Excuse me?" Chloe was shocked, gaping at Beca.

"Sorry to disappoint but I can't make a top-10 hit for you! I'm just an intern! And I'm not some expert in song-writing either! So will you please stop saying that?!" Beca said through gritted teeth, eyes brimming heavy with tears.

"I'm only joking Beca and—"

"And congratulations to you for finding an inspiration to finish a damn song but I don't have lyrics at hand to give you."

"I don't need lyrics now Beca, I just want you to have it and you can fill in the lyrics whenever you feel like it. It was meant to be our—"

"Well I don't think I'll have time to fill in the lyrics for you! I myself haven't written a damn song in 2 months for god's sake! Don't you see?! Work has been keeping me busy lately!"

Tears were falling down Chloe's cheeks now, she clenched the piece of paper, "Yes I can see that since you haven't been picking up my calls for a month!"

Beca didn't respond at that.

The two fell into a silence, with the only sound in the room being Chloe's quiet sniffling.

"Will you just take it?" Chloe finally broke the silence, extending her arm with the sheet music in hand for Beca to take, "I don't care whether it has lyrics or not. It was written for you, so please just take it. And maybe if you play it you'll just find the words. You always do."

Beca snatched the sheet from Chloe's hand and scrunched it up before tossing it to the side of the room, "Stop saying that! STOP BELIEVING IN ME!" she yelled, tears streaming down her face now.

Chloe was stunned and was at a loss for words. She felt like she didn't even recognize this person before her. Where was her Beca? The one that used to hold her cold hands in her jacket pocket; the one who would always know when Chloe was feeling upset and would drop everything to kiss her, sing to her and cheer her up; the one that hated watching movies or dancing but would do all those things for Chloe; the one who may even know Chloe better than herself. Where was that person?

She raised up her hand to wipe some tears from her own cheeks but when she dropped it, she accidentally hit the strings on the guitar that was sitting on her lap, causing a few discordant sounds. Beca visibly cringed and snapped her eyes back to look at Chloe.

Seeing the redhead's tear-stained face, Beca sighed, closing her eyes, "Just go Chloe. Take that stupid guitar and go. Get some rest before your class on Monday." She knew if Chloe stayed, she might say some more hurtful words to the redhead.

Chloe stared at her in disbelief. After seeing Beca really meant it and wouldn't even look at her anymore. She nodded silently, and walked out of the brunette's room without a word, with the guitar clutched in her hand.

Hearing the front door slammed shut, Beca felt like her heart was ripped out. She fell onto her knees in the middle of her room and started crying her eyes out.

What had she done?

"Lunch's almost ready! Chloe can you clear a space on the table? Don't worry about the sheets, just stack them and put them away. Sorry I should've cleared them away beforehand!" Beca called from the kitchen.

Chloe blinked, she quickly put the yellowed paper back, wiped away a few escaped tears from her eyes and did what Beca told her to do.

Beca walked in to the living room with one bowl of pasta in each hand, "I haven't cooked this in quite a long time, but I think they are edible." She joked, "Hey, what do you want to drink? Since I don't drink alcohol anymore, I only have water, apple juice and soda…" She trailed off and frowned. The redhead seemed off.

Beca walked cautiously towards the redhead and put the bowls down on the table that Chloe just cleared up. "Well, do you want anything to drink?" She asked again.

"Water's fine. Thanks, Beca."

Beca nodded and walked back to her fridge, taking out two bottles of water before going back to sit down next to the redhead, handing her the water.

Chloe offered her a small smile before reaching out to take a bowl of pasta on the coffee table and digging in. Beca looked at her for a second, and went to grab her bowl on the table as well, thinking she must have been paranoid.

"Oh my God! This is really good Beca!" Chloe exclaimed with a mouthful of pasta.

Beca chuckled, "Thanks."

"Oh my God!" The redhead was still in awe, "Who knew you are such a good chef now? Now I don't want to eat takeout anymore! You've ruined them for me! Can I camp outside your apartment from now on?"

Beca laughed, "You know you can come here to eat at any time! I'll feed you anything you want."

Chloe smirked, "Anything?"

Beca looked at her suspiciously, before shrugging, "Well yeah, if I know how to cook them of course."

"Then next time I want a raspberry pink velvet cake." Chloe said innocently. She knew that Beca knew how to bake this cake. Because it was her that forced the brunette to learn so that they could bake one for the redhead's 18th birthday.

Beca shuddered involuntarily and stared at Chloe with a horrified look in her eyes, "You… what now?"

Chloe shrugged, "You heard it. And I know you can bake that cake missy, so don't tell me otherwise."

Beca groaned, rolling her eyes, "God not again! I see what you did there Beale! You just want to see me buying pink food colouring in the supermarket, don't you?"

Chloe giggled, "No I just think it's a really pretty cake. And you buying all those pink ingredients for the cake is just a bonus."

Beca sighed loudly, "You are going to be the death of me Beale!"

Chloe smiled and put down her bowl. She looked to be contemplating something for a few seconds, before she asked, "So what happened? With that woman from yesterday?"

Beca looked up at her, putting her bowl down as well. She knew she couldn't avoid this question forever, so she'd better get it over with. She took a deep breath before telling the story.

"I went to LA about 6 years ago. At first, I was just doing some gigs at a few clubs. You know, singing and sometimes spinning as a DJ. And about 2 years ago, Olivia approached me and said her record label was looking for new talents and song writers. So of course, I was so happy and thought I was finally getting my big break. Then, she said I could only work in administration first because the label needed to see some solid work before signing me as an artist. Of course I accepted. And she did let me record a few songs that I was writing, but I should've been alarmed when she never let me use the label's recording studios, only her studio at home."

Beca laughed bitterly, shaking her head slightly before continuing, "Anyway, I finished 3 new songs in probably a year's time and I was really happy about them. If not at a releasing level, at least they were some really good demos. And sometimes Olivia would ask me to help with her own productions as well. But again, never at the record label of course. At first, I would just help with some small stuff here and there, nothing major so I didn't think too much about it. However, later, she started to ask me to help rewrite the tunes or tweak the lyrics. I began to feel unsure because I felt like I was taking some roles in production. So I asked her about it one day, she said they needed some big names in order to sell the songs but she promised she would put my name in the production credits somewhere in the end to acknowledge my inputs."

Beca's voice was shaking a bit, she paused for a few seconds, and decided to get this story over with quickly, "Then one day I went to this club and suddenly I heard my song coming through the sound system but I wasn't the one singing it. So I immediately called her and it turned out some artist that the label was promoting back then really liked it so Olivia just gave the song to her, along with the other two songs I wrote. I checked the production and the song-writing credits, but neither had my name on it. And I didn't even need to check the other songs that I helped her with to know that they didn't have my name on them as well. She offered to give me my share of the profits as if I was the song-writer, just minus the acknowledgement of my actual inputs in those songs. But I refused and left the label. And apparently, she was worried that I might go around spreading rumours. After all, reputation is quite important in this industry. So she badmouthed me first. And that's why I left LA and came here."

Beca let out a sigh of relief, glad that she finally got it over with. When she didn't hear any responses from Chloe, she looked up to see the redhead was shaking with anger.

"Chloe? Are you okay?" Beca asked, a little confused.

"Beca! She can't just steal your songs! Did you consider suing her or something?!" Chloe was furious. If she had known, she would have punched that woman in the face yesterday.

"Yeah, I thought about that, but pretty much everything I did was off-the-record, so it would probably take years to sue her, not to mention the label has some influential and powerful connections in the city. I don't have the time, or the money for a lawsuit like this. Instead of wasting my time on a case that I might not even win, I could use the time to find other opportunities." Beca explained.

"That's not right Beca! They were your songs! You know, Aubrey is a really good lawyer and if I ask her perhaps she can—" Chloe wasn't convinced by Beca's words.

"Chloe, it's okay." Beca cut her off, "I've decided to let it go. They were just 3 songs. I'll write other songs. Besides, I've made my peace with it. I'm just not good enough and I've accepted it. It's okay."

Chloe's heart broke a little at hearing this. She looked into Beca's eyes, realizing that the brunette really meant what she said. Other people might not be able to tell, but Chloe knew, she could see the hints of sorrow and resignation in the brunette's eyes even though she masked them really well. She suddenly wanted to hug Beca. She wanted to hold the brunette in her arms and tell her to just hang on a little longer, to not give up and everything would be okay. But she didn't. She just sat there, watching Beca give her a sad smile and her heart hurt for Beca. Because the brunette used to be so confident and so carefree. Her eyes would sparkle whenever she talked about the future, about all the possibilities and all the cities she wanted to visit. But now, she felt like life had smoothed out the brunette's edges and made her a little bit more reserved yet a little bit stronger all at the same time.

Beca looked at the redhead's sad expression and felt like she needed to reassure her somehow. So she added, "Later I found out that Olivia had done this with plenty of new artists, but most of them would just take the money and wait until they were financially capable enough so that they could leave the label and make names of themselves. But it just wouldn't feel the same. I just want to be able to do this properly without all the schemes you know?"

Chloe smiled, "I know. I'm proud of you."

"For what?"

"For sticking to your dream, for doing what you believe is right, and for telling me this." Chloe said.

Beca smiled and slightly nodded. "Thanks for listening too. I guess the reason why I missed all the red flags and just dived in blindly was that when I met Olivia, I thought I had finally found another person who believed in me like—" She suddenly shut her mouth when she realized what she was going to say.

"Like what?" Chloe asked curiously.

Beca looked down for a few seconds, before looking back up and locking eyes with Chloe, "Like you." She whispered, "No one's ever believed in me like you did, Chloe. So thank you, for that."

Chloe fought back the tears in her eyes, and smiled at Beca, "I still do. You know, believe in you."

Beca just gave her a sad smile and nodded.

"Well, looks like we still have 3 hours before we have to go," She checked the time, "Do you wanna watch a movie or something?"

Chloe pretended to think it over, "Sure, but only if you let me pick the movie."

"Gladly." Beca grinned, grabbing her laptop and handing it over to Chloe.