A/N: Umm… apparently this is my longest chapter so far, and I was kind of emotionally drained after writing it tbh, so… let me know what you think in the reviews? Pretty Please? Do you feel that something is still hidden after all the revelations in this chapter?...

The song in this chapter is Echo by Jason Walker. Have a listen while you are reading if you like, I think it goes with the chapter quite well :)

RJRMovieFan, ChloeMitch, Guests: Yes, Chloe will help Beca get her confidence back! Also, definitely will be talking more about how these two support each other and work out their problems together once they get back together! btw, pink velvet cake will make an appearance again lol.

anapfischer: Haha, yeh my heart broke a little as well… but hey, the hardest part is almost over!

Chakram12, lincky13: Thanks guys! Glad to see you are liking it so far! :)

Chapter 16

They were watching an indie movie that Chloe picked with their feet up on the coffee table. Chloe turned her head to the side, wanting to tell Beca some trivia she remembered about this movie, but found that the brunette was already asleep with her head resting on the back of the couch.

Chloe chuckled. So much for tolerating them, still falling asleep after 30 minutes. She thought, but went to grab the blanket from the back of the couch and softly draped it over Beca. After tucking it around her, Chloe couldn't help but stare at Beca for a lingering moment. She knew she shouldn't, but she just couldn't help herself. After all these year, Beca still looked as beautiful as ever, if not more. Her brown locks fell perfectly around her face and she looked so peaceful in her sleep. It was almost like nothing had changed, that they were 17 years old again, and Beca fell asleep while they were watching a movie. The only difference was that Beca was no longer in her arms. Chloe looked away at this thought and tried to focus back on the movie playing on the laptop, pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind. She didn't want to think about her feelings towards Beca, if she still had any, not at this moment.

Stacie stepped into the apartment but was startled by a redhead rushing out from the hallway. She relaxed seeing it was Chloe, but frowned when she noticed that the redhead's face was covered with tears.

"Chl—"

The redhead didn't even bother to give her a glance. She made a beeline for the front door and before Stacie even finished saying her name, she slammed the door shut and was gone.

Stacie stood in the middle of the living room, stunned. "What just happened?" She blinked and heard some faint sobs coming from Beca's bedroom. "Oh no." She sighed, quickly making her way to Beca's room.

She was met with a sobbing mess collapsed on the floor when she entered Beca's bedroom. She rushed to her best friend and kneeled down in front of the small brunette.

"Beca? What happened?" She asked, putting a hand on the brunette's shoulder.

Beca looked up at her with desperate eyes, lost and filled with tears. "I… I screwed up…"

"What did you do?" Stacie asked, and when Beca didn't answer, she raised her voice, "Beca! What did you do?"

"I… Chloe came back to surprise me and sh-she tried to give me this song she w-wrote for me and I…" Beca choked back a sob, "I've had a really bad day at work today Stacie, and I… I basically threw the song away, then yelled in her face and told her to get lost."

Stacie dropped her hand on the brunette's shoulder, looking at her in disbelief. Then she spotted the empty bottle of Jack Daniel's on the ground and she snapped. She had had enough of Beca's crap lately as well.

"What is wrong with you Beca? Are you stupid or something? Do you not realize that Chloe is probably the best thing that has ever happened to you in your life so far? She makes you better in every way, makes you believe in your music, gives you inspirations and so many more! Why are you pushing away the best thing in your life?! She doesn't deserve to be treated like this! Do you know how many times I had to lie to Chloe in the past month to cover for you because you were passed out on the couch or in your room, drunk, again?! It's not her fault that you are unhappy with your job Beca! And I hope you are happy now, because you probably just destroyed your relationship!"

Beca's small body jerked in recoil from the loud volume of Stacie's outburst and she cried harder. Because Stacie was right. Every word. She was stupid, she pushed away the one good thing in her life. And she was terrified that she may never get it back.

Beca stirred and fluttered her eyes open, smiling when she saw the blanket draped over her body. She sat up and saw that the redhead was sitting on the other end of the couch, hugging her knees and deep in thought.

"Well the movie was good." She said to Chloe.

Chloe looked up at her and chuckled lightly, "More like the first 30 minutes of the movie to you."

Beca put the blanket aside and smiled, "Yeah… sorry about falling asleep." She checked her phone and saw that they still had one hour left before she had to go to the restaurant. "Well, only one hour left, what do you want to do?"

Chloe was biting her bottom lip nervously. She looked hesitant, before she finally decided to speak, "Beca… can I ask you something?"

Beca answered without a second thought, "Sure, what is it?"

"You finished our song." Chloe whispered softly.

Beca froze. Then she saw her notebook on the coffee table and closed her eyes briefly. Chloe found the song.

"Yes, I did." She answered.

"Would you… would you play it for me?" Chloe asked, looking down.

Beca let out a sigh, "Chloe…"

"Please? Beca. I want to hear it." Chloe whispered, still looking down.

Beca watched the redhead for a moment. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to play that song for Chloe. But…

After what seemed like a 10-minute silence, Beca finally gave in. But instead of grabbing her guitar sitting next to the couch, she stood up and walked to the other side of the living room where her piano was. She sat down on the bench.

"Your melody was beautiful. I didn't change a single thing. The only thing I did was playing it with the piano instead of the guitar. I think it's better."

Chloe nodded, even though Beca couldn't see her because the piano was behind the couch so Beca had her back to Chloe.

Beca ran a hand through her hair and let out a trembling breath, before placing her hands on the keys and starting to play.

As soon as the first few notes flowed from Beca's fingers, Chloe instantly agreed. It was better, with the piano. And then Beca started to sing the words. The words she filled in to go with Chloe's melody.

Hello, hello

Anybody out there? Cause I don't hear a sound

Alone, alone

I don't really know where the world is but I miss it now

–

I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name

Like a fool at the top of my lungs

Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright

But it's never enough

–

Cause my echo, echo

Is the only voice coming back

My shadow, shadow

Is the only friend that I have

Beca hadn't played this song in a while, but she knew it too well like the back of her hand. And not even five seconds into the song, old memories and overwhelming feelings started to come back. They always did when she played this song. And they hurt so much, every time, but she just couldn't stop playing.

After Stacie was done yelling at the sobbing brunette, she sighed and went to the kitchen to grab a strip of Aspirin and a glass of water before going back to Beca's room. She tossed the strip at Beca and slammed the glass on her table, before walking out without a word.

Beca didn't flinch, she felt numb. She just stared blankly into space, while tears continued to silently roll down her face. she wondered for a moment why she still had any more tears to shed, because she had never cried so hard in her life and didn't even know she was capable of producing so many tears.

Suddenly, she jumped, remembering something and starting to frantically search around her room on her knees for that piece of paper she threw out, the song that Chloe wrote for her, which was supposed to be their song.

She grew desperate when she couldn't find it and angrily burst into a fresh round of sobbing. She knocked over a few things here and there but she didn't care, she had to find it. Now Where was it?! After a 10-minute inch-by-inch search, she finally found the crumpled ball of paper at a corner under her bedside table. She quickly smoothed it out and eagerly read the music on it.

It was a sad song. Now how ironic was that? Beca sat back on the ground and wanted to slap herself. She looked at the sheet music again, before jumping up and grabbing her phone to call Chloe. She needed to fix it, whatever it took. She couldn't lose her anchor, she just couldn't.

But the redhead didn't answer.

No surprise there.

–

3 days later, Chloe still wouldn't answer her calls. Beca sighed, hanging up the phone after another unsuccessful try. She didn't know what to do now. And she hated herself for avoiding Chloe's calls before because now she knew how it felt like. However, she didn't have any right to be upset about it. She was the one that messed up in the first place.

During these 3 days, Beca filled in the words to their song and probably played it a thousand times already. Chloe's melody was beautiful with the guitar, but Beca soon found out that it sounded even better with the piano. She felt proud that Chloe was able to write such a beautiful song, but in the meantime, she wanted to kick herself because she didn't want Chloe's first song to be a sad song. She always thought Chloe would write something brisk and cute, that was full of sunshine and would make anyone smile just hearing it. But now she was the one that made Chloe write a sad song. She was the one that made Chloe sad.

Beca sighed, she went to her drawer to retrieve her lyrics notebook, but froze when she saw a small jewellery box, sitting quietly in the corner of the drawer. She took it out and touched it softly. It was her grandma's engagement ring that she almost forgot she had it with her. When she graduated high school and came out to her grandma, she gave Beca this ring and winked at her, saying she would need it someday.

She opened it and admired the ring for a while. It was a vintage rose gold ring, with a round cut diamond in the middle, simple yet elegant. She couldn't help but imagine how Chloe would look wearing this ring and smiled to herself. Actually, she had imagined this image a lot ever since she got the ring and to be honest, she really couldn't see anyone else but Chloe wear this ring. But then her smile dropped and it hit her.

How could she be so stupid? It was always Chloe. It would always be Chloe. Sure, she took her career very seriously and wanted to make a name for herself. But if she was asked to choose between them, it would always be Chloe. Because Chloe was the one that kept her grounded, that kept her dreaming, making her feel loved and less alone in this wild world. Chloe was the one that Beca wanted to spend the rest of her life with, the one that she wanted to laugh, cry and experience every emotion with. And she just couldn't imagine life without Chloe, her anchor and her everything.

Beca closed the ring box, put it into her pocket and quickly went to gather a few things into her travel bag. After she was done, she grabbed the song on her piano and rushed out of her room, shouting to Stacie on her way out of the apartment.

"Stacie, I'm going to New York and I'm proposing to Chloe!"

Beca blinked and took in a deep breath, before beginning the second verse. She needed to get it together to finish this song. She wouldn't let herself cry, not this time.

Listen, listen

I would take a whisper if that's all you had to give

But it isn't, isn't

You could come and save me and try to chase the crazy right out of my head

–

I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name

Like a fool at the top of my lungs

Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright

But it's never enough

–

Cause my echo, echo

Is the only voice coming back

My shadow, shadow

Is the only friend that I have

Beca went to Chloe's dorm straight after arriving in New York. She didn't know if Chloe would be back from class already because the redhead wouldn't pick up her calls. When she reached Chloe's dorm building, she suddenly grew nervous thinking about what she was going to do. What if Chloe said no? What if she was still mad at her and wouldn't even see her? Beca felt like she was going to faint. She stopped in her tracks to take a few deep breaths, and when she looked around, she saw a small convenience store near the building. She hesitated for a few seconds, before deciding to go into the store to buy herself a beer, thinking she could use a little more courage so that she wouldn't back out.

She finished the beer quickly, and finally walked into the building, reaching Chloe's dorm room. She leaned closer to the door and listened, there didn't seem to be any movements or sounds from inside the room. But she decided to knock anyway just in case.

She didn't even have time to panic before she heard footsteps and the door swung open, revealing a redhead with puffy red eyes standing before her.

Chloe was surprised to see her, but she quickly changed into a neutral face looking at the nervous brunette.

"Hi," Beca said, a little awkwardly, "Can— can I come in?"

Chloe looked to be considering it, before she slowly moved out of the way to let the brunette in.

Beca walked in and luckily, Chloe's roommate wasn't in the room. She looked back at the redhead, who was just carefully watching the brunette's movements without saying a word, her arms crossed in front of her. So Beca began,

"I'm so sorry Chloe, for so many things." She said, looking into Chloe's eyes, "I'm sorry for avoiding your calls, I'm sorry for yelling at you, and I'm so sorry for throwing out the song, our song! I just— I was just in a dark place I guess and I shouldn't take all my frustrations out on you. You've done nothing wrong. God, you've been nothing but amazing. But I've just been really miserable at work lately and I've started drinking… so I'm really sorry."

"Is there someone else?" Chloe asked in a small voice after a beat of silence, not looking at Beca.

"What?! No! Of course not! I would never do that to you! Why would you think something like that?!" Beca was horrified that Chloe would even have this idea.

Chloe's eyes seemed to soften a little, "You need to talk to me, Beca. You don't need to keep everything to yourself. I can help you, you know." She moved a little closer to Beca.

Beca let out a long sigh, "I know, I know. I just— I guess I thought I can work it out on my own."

Chloe frowned, smelling alcohol on Beca. "Did you drink again?" She asked.

Beca snapped her head back up to look at Chloe. She didn't want to lie, so hesitantly, she said, "Yes, but—"

"I knew it! Why are you being like this Beca? You are not a drinker! If you are unhappy about anything, you can talk to me, talk to Stacie! Why are you being so self-destructive?!" Chloe huffed.

Beca widened her eyes, and suddenly got angry as well, "Yes I'm self-destructive, so why don't you go and hang out with all your rich friends that seem to get their lives together?"

Chloe couldn't believe her ears, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It is exactly what it sounds like it means! That Tom what's-his-last-name dude seemed to be quite close to you."

"How dare you accuse me of this or even suggest something like this? Who are you Beca? How did you become like this?! And why are you pushing me away? I feel like I don't even know you anymore!"

Beca was silent. She couldn't understand how this conversation suddenly took a sharp turn.

"You are clearly not happy with your life, I don't know, maybe not happy with me either. Do you still want to be with me? Because I'm starting to feel like me being your girlfriend is just some empty title. You don't tell me things, you didn't call for a whole month Beca for god's sake. Maybe we shouldn't be together anymore if that's your way of telling me you've lost interest in our relationship." Chloe said angrily.

Beca clenched her fingers around the ring box in her pocket so hard that her knuckles started to hurt. She muttered, "Yeah maybe we shouldn't be together anymore if that's what you want."

Chloe snapped her eyes back to Beca, "What did you say?" Her voice was shaking a little.

"You heard me, I said it's over, that's what you want isn't it? You said I don't tell you anything, well sorry if my pathetic life is not as glamorous as your New York high life princess!" Beca raised her voice with tears starting to pool in her eyes.

"You are drunk, you don't know what you are saying."

"I'm not drunk, and I'm doing this for you actually. You already think I'm an alcoholic anyway. So I'll save you the trouble of feeling embarrassed by an alcoholic loser girlfriend."

"You should leave Beca, I refuse to talk to you right now."

"Seriously?! If we can't work this out now, what's the point of talking after? If I leave, we are done." Beca was trying very hard not to let the tears fall.

Chloe hesitated, but still wouldn't change her mind, "You are drunk, we can't work this out even if we want to. We should both take a break and calm down. And when you are sober, we'll talk more."

"I told you I'M NOT DRUNK! But whatever, I'm giving you one last chance. If I walk out now, we are done, for good." She moved slowly to the door and looked at Chloe.

Chloe remained silent, looking away. Beca let out a laugh, and left without looking back.

Beca was pouring her everything into this song, expressing what she otherwise wouldn't be able to say to Chloe. Through every pressing of the piano keys, every note, and every word in the song, she was trying to tell Chloe how she was so sorry about what happened 8 years ago, how she wished she could've been less stubborn and had stayed, how she would take back all those hurtful words if she could, and how she would always love Chloe, no matter what. Because Beca knew, Chloe could understand all those things through this song, she always did.

Her vision was already blurred and she couldn't make out the keys clearly. But it didn't matter, because she didn't need to see them, her fingers had already memorized all the movements from those countless nights when she would play this song, when she missed Chloe so much that she couldn't breathe. Even now, when they were barely five steps away from each other, she still missed Chloe like crazy that she couldn't understand how it was even possible to miss someone this much even when you were with them.

Beca was wandering in an unknown street in LA. She didn't know where to go or what to do. She just found out that Olivia gave her songs to some artist at the label and didn't even bother to acknowledge her inputs or let her know. She was furious, but she didn't cry. She remembered herself refusing Olivia's offer of giving her an impressive amount of money and quitting her job straightaway over the phone.

So now, she was left with no job, and no one to lend her a shoulder to cry on, not that she needed to. Those who she thought were her friends all stamped on her face, hard, and was probably laughing at her naivete and stupidity at this very moment.

She paused in the middle of the street and slowly went to lean on a palm tree nearby. It was a nice street, with tall palm trees lining up on both sides of the road. And the summer breeze would graze those thick leaves, creating a relaxing sound.

Beca blinked, feeling her eyes start to sting a little from the emerging tears. She brought up a hand to rub her eyes, with a little too much force. No, she would not cry this time. She was used to this, having her hope shattered. And she could do this, she was tough, she could get through this without crying.

She rested her head on the trunk of the palm tree and tried her best to control her breaths, focusing on the feeling of how the breeze would gently brush her cheeks and kiss her hair. She felt calmer and decided to look up to the sky in order to force back the last few remaining tears in her eyes.

And oh, how she wished she had never looked at that sky.

Because the colour of the sky that day, was the exact same shade as Chloe's cerulean eyes.

Something inside Beca snapped, a lone tear escaped from her eye, and just like that, all her previous resolve and efforts to not cry collapsed. She slid down the tree and silently broke down. Because she seemed to finally grasp the harsh truth that when she fell, there would be no one to catch her, to pick her up, to hug her and tell her everything would be okay. She would just keep falling, lost and alone.

All these year, she had never missed Chloe that much like in this moment. She felt like she could give up anything just to have the redhead smile at her, hold her hands and kiss her cheeks, listening to the redhead tell her not to give up and that she believed in her. But all of them were just some unreachable fantasies now. Because Chloe wasn't hers anymore. She lost her, in this ruthless and cold world. She lost the only person that could keep her warm and safe. And the irony, she was the one that pushed the love of her life away. So who was she to blame?

Beca closed her eyes and focused on keeping the quivers out of her voice, she needed this song to be perfect. She needed to finish it, for the person who would appear in her mind whenever she played it.

I don't wanna be down and

I just wanna feel alive and

Get to see your face again

–

But 'til then

Just my echo, my shadow

You're my only friend and I'm

–

I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name

Like a fool at the top of my lungs

Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright

But it's never enough

Chloe blinked away her tears, letting them fall freely onto her lap. She was right. Beca did always find the perfect words to her songs. Because that was exactly how she felt when she wrote the song. That was exactly how she felt when she woke up at nights after the break-up and cried herself to sleep again. She could still feel the pain from those 15 anguished days.

Chloe started to panic 5 hours after Beca left and started to call the brunette. No answer. Okay, that was nothing big, right? Beca hadn't picked up her calls before. For god's sake, she didn't pick up her calls for a month. So this should not freak her out, right? Yeah, it was only 5 hours, she would try later. Beca was just mad at her, she would cool down and answer her calls and they could work this out together, right? Right.

6 days later, Chloe was not so sure anymore. Sure, Beca didn't call her back for nearly a month, but she would occasionally send the redhead some texts, letting her know she was okay, just busy or something like that. But this time it was different. There was nothing. No calls, no texts, and Stacie wouldn't pick up her phone either. Chloe was restless and she couldn't help but replay their last fight for the thousandth time in her head.

"… I'm giving you one last chance. If I walk out now, we are done, for good."

Did Beca really mean that? Now it started to seem like that way. That they were done. It was over between them. She thought the brunette was drunk and was only saying that because she was upset and angry. She didn't think for a second that Beca was actually serious about this.

If she had known, she wouldn't let Beca step out of the room. Never. And she regretted that she didn't say anything to make Beca stay. She wished she had said something, anything! She couldn't believe it, how on earth did they get to this point? They were so good together. They were always the couple that everyone envied about. And how did everything just fall apart like that? It was not supposed to end like this.

Chloe wiped her tears away and looked down at her phone. She had been calling the brunette every day and would leave one voicemail at the end of the day when Beca didn't answer any of those calls. She didn't know how long she could keep doing this. And she didn't want to fly back to Atlanta again, since last time it ended up being so disastrous that her heart still hadn't fully recovered. Besides, she had her pride too, she wasn't going to beg, and chasing Beca back to Atlanta was just pathetic.

She knew she couldn't keep doing this, missing classes, skipping meals and spending days and nights crying her eyes out. Aubrey came to her dorm every day, to bring her food, comforting her and trying to cheer her up. She was beyond grateful for her best friend, even though the blonde had no idea what happened. She didn't want to tell Aubrey because she didn't want to look at her sympathetic eyes and listen to Aubrey telling her that everything would be okay. Because it wouldn't. It would never be okay.

By the time that 13 days had passed, Chloe was still in her grief state, without hearing anything from Beca or Stacie. She didn't cry as much now, but her chest hurt so much that she felt numb. Most of the time, she just stared blankly out of the window and tried to think about anything but Beca. Because when she thought of their fight, her chest would tighten and her brain would force her to accept the reality that Beca and her were over. And when she thought of all their happy and sweet memories from when they were still together, she would feel more excruciating pain in her heart and want to scream.

She looked at Beca's guitar sitting in her room corner and laughed at herself. Now that she had finally accepted that it was really over between Beca and her, she wanted to smash that stupid guitar, or throw it away. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Every time she was so close to touch it, she would burst into more tears and drop her hands. And the engraving at the back of the guitar? Now it just seemed like a joke to her and was mocking her. 'Always'? It seemed like nothing would be always and she was just too naïve to see it.

So she needed to stop her useless sorrow. She needed to pull herself together because life would continue no matter what. And since this relationship apparently meant so little to Beca, it was just pathetic for her to cry this much and struggle to move on. She needed to move on, with or without Beca.

Therefore, on the 15th day, she left Beca a final voicemail and got out of her bed. She showered, put on her makeup impeccably. She would go out, go to her classes, hang out with her friends and forget about Beca. She would build concrete walls around her bleeding heart, because she wouldn't allow anyone to hurt her like this, ever again. And she would find someone else to love, but that someone wouldn't be Beca anymore.

She looked at herself in the mirror one last time and put on a smile before leaving her dorm. She would be okay. She had to.

But she knew, deep down, a part of her heart had already died.

Cause my echo, echo

Oh my shadow, shadow

–

Hello, hello

Anybody out there?

Beca pressed the last keys softly on her piano and finished the song. She lingered her fingers there for a few seconds more, before retracting them completely. She was glad that her piano was behind the couch and her back was to Chloe. Because right now her tears were dropping down uncontrollably onto the piano keys in front of her. She bit her tongue hard to stop herself from making any sound. She was tempted to look back at Chloe, but she didn't dare to move, not even for a little bit.

After what felt like eternity, she heard Chloe's small voice breaking the silence, "It's time. We should go to the restaurant. I'll wait in the car downstairs."

Not daring to look up, she closed her eyes when she heard her apartment door click shut.

A/N: Psst, an old friend will appear in the next chapter and this person will reveal something VERY important…