Chapter Four

"I, uh," Aubrey said, not sure what to do. "Excuse me." She ran upstairs, right past Jesse and into Stacie's room and started to cry. After a few minutes, she heard a knock at the door.

"Can I come in?"

"I guess," she sighed, wiping the tears away from her face.

"I think you could use a night out," Hat said, sitting next to her on the bed. "You seem a little uptight. When's the last time you've had your hair down?"

"My hair is down," she sniffled.

"Grab a jacket, you're coming with me and Donald," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the bed. "I'll tell my brother I'm driving you to the Inn since it's on the way to the bar that I'm going to with Donald and meeting up with a few other people, but you're coming with us. Okay?"

"Okay," she said quietly, following him out.

"Go wait in the car," he told her, unlocking it with the remote before heading into the dining room. "Aubrey said she was going to stay at the Inn tonight, and I offered to drive her there."

"We have to go back there anyway, we can drive her," Bumper said. "Even though she did just call us potentially bad parents."

"Donald and I are going to meet Uni and Benji at O'Learys for a few drinks," Hat said. "Is it alright if I drive her, Jess?"

"Yeah, fine," Jesse said, picking at the food left on his plate. "Thanks, man."

"No problem. Let's go," Hat said, pulling Donald out of his chair.

"Lemme guess, she's coming with us," Donald said quietly as they left the house and walked over to the car.

"I don't think she's as bad as she seems. She just needs to loosen up a bit, have some fun," Hat said. "We're exactly the guys to show her how to do that."

"Okay, but when Jesse finds out we brought his girlfriend to a bar with a bunch of other guys to get her drunk, this is all on you buddy. He'll probably think twice about killing family," Donald said, sliding into the backseat of Hat's car.

"I don't think it'll be that much of a problem, to be honest," Hat said, glancing over at Aubrey. "Ready?"

"Lets go."

"Jesse, you don't love her," Chloe said as she placed a mug of hot chocolate in front of her brother and sat down across from him at the island. "I know you don't."

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm your sister," she rolled her eyes. "I know that look in your eyes when you love something, or someone. You don't have that look anymore, that spark. You just seem lifeless lately, and I hate it."

"Well," he said, shrugging a bit. "I'm going to ask her to marry me, Chloe. Once Mom gives me the ring, of course."

"Don't do it," she said softly, shaking her head. "You're doing it for the wrong reasons."

"What makes you say that?"

"Like I said, I know," she said. "I know how hard it was when Beca turned you away after the miscarriage, and I can't blame her for doing that, even though you're my big brother and I hated seeing you so hurt. That's one of the worst things a woman could go through, no matter if she wanted the baby or not. But she's the girl for you, Jess, not Aubrey. She makes you laugh, and smile, and you look like yourself again. You look like the brother I grew up with when you talk to her."

"She doesn't want me, Chloe," Jesse said sadly, staring down into his mug. "It's too painful for her. We've been through this."

"She's just scared. Plus, there's the little issue that you've been dating her step-sister for a year."

"Aubrey was safe, you know? I had no idea she was Beca's step-sister until Beca showed up at the bus stop. Aubrey knows exactly what she wants in life, how she's going to get there, and always has a plan. She's completely different from Beca, and at the time I thought that's what I needed. I guess I just got comfortable, and then everything happened, and I thought that now would be the best time to get married."

"No one wants to see you get married because of what's going on, Jesse. Mom doesn't want that. She wants you to be happy. That's why she won't give you the ring."

"I know."

"Just, think it over before you do anything, Jess. Okay?"

"Okay," he nodded. "Thanks, Chloe."

"That's what sisters are for," she smiled, kissing him on the cheek before leaving him with his own thoughts. "Oh, Jesse?"

"What?"

"I think it's time to return Beca's luggage, don't you think? Especially since Aubrey's gone."

"Right, she's at the Inn," Jesse sighed. "Which means I should probably bring her back here."

"Or she could stay there and you can stop trying to be the perfect son who gets married and be the happy son."

"Chloe," he sighed again.

"Just go bring Beca back her luggage. I'm sure she wants her clothes back."

"Let me get this straight," Unicycle said as he took a sip of his beer. "You get stressed out to the point you throw up."

"Not just throw up," Hat said. "She projectile vomits. I've seen the video. Pretty impressive."

"It's disgusting, actually," Aubrey said, taking a sip of her own drink. "It's disgusting that I do that and disgusting that I actually reach that point."

"Why do you reach that point?" Donald asked.

"My job and my life is stressful," she said simply.

"Living with Jesse can't be that stressful, I did it for years," Hat said.

"Living with Jesse is great, he's great," she said. "It's just, I have a problem with perfection and I put a lot of pressure on myself."

"No need to be perfect around us," Uni said, ordering a round of shots for all of them. "I think you could use this."

"Yeah, that I could," she said, downing her shot and then another. "Sorry."

"No problem, I'll just take Hat's since he drove," he smirked.

"Asshole," Hat muttered. "Oh look, Applebaum's here."

"The guy who took Stacie's virginity?" Aubrey asked.

"Yes, and he loves to be referred to as that," Donald said with a laugh. "Benji! Over here!"

"Hey guys," he said and looked at Aubrey. "I'm Benji."

"I'm Aubrey," she said shaking his head. "Sit down, Benji. We need to have a little chat."

"Uh, what?"

"Humor her," Hat said with a smirk. "Aubrey is Jesse's girlfriend."

"Okay," he said slowly.

"Why does Stacie hate me?"

"I haven't seen Stacie in a long time," Benji said. "I wouldn't know why."

"I was so nice to her, you know? I brought her to one of the best restaurants in New York, and she treats me like shit."

"Stacie's a bitch," Uni said.

"That's my baby sister," Hat said warningly to him. "But she can be a bit tactless, I admit."

"I just wanted to be liked by everyone," Aubrey said sadly, sliding the beer bottle between her hands. "I get so nervous, and then I say things I shouldn't say. Like what I said at dinner."

"Yeah, that was bad," Donald said. "You called out your sister."

"I didn't mean too," Aubrey said. "Beca and I haven't always been closed, we used to not get along at all. Then she told me she was pregnant and I was so happy for her and that she actually told me about it, because I always figured I'd find out I had a niece or nephew way after it was born. I thought saying that what happened was for the best would help, obviously not though."

"Yeah, no. I would assume a lot of women don't like saying that's for the best," Hat said. "It's alright though, family can't hate each other for too long."

"You haven't seen my family," she mumbled. "My dad was controlling and I was never a good enough daughter. My mom divorced him and married Dr. Mitchell, who's really great but then Beca comes along with him and she's mad at the world because her parents got divorced and she's stuck with me as a sister."

"I'm sorry, Aubrey," Hat said, resting his hand on her arm comfortingly.

"It's not your fault," she said, smiling at him. "But thank you."

"So, Stacie's been talking about me?" Benji said.

"No, her mom has though," Aubrey said with a smirk.

Gary sat down next to his oldest daughter on the couch as she watched Miracle on 34th Street. Sophie was upstairs in bed, but Chloe couldn't sleep so she came downstairs by Stacie. Stacie had fallen asleep halfway through the movie.

"She's nice like this," Gary said as he wrapped his arm around Chloe and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Nice and quiet," Chloe said. They watched the movie in silence until Chloe just had to ask. "It's not good, isn't it?

"No, it's not," Gary said quietly, knowing what she meant. "We found out a few weeks ago. Your mom wanted to wait until after the holidays."

"Any idea how long?

"No," he shook his head. "It's going to be okay though."

"I know," Chloe said, nodding her head a little, but not entirely convinced.

"Who else knows?"

"Jesse kind of figured. Stacie and Hat don't know yet though. Bumper doesn't either."

"We'll be okay," Gary said, kissing the top of Chloe's head.

I know I said this story will probably be ten chapters, but it might less than that lol. I try not to drag my stories out, and this one is set over a really short time period. It won't be rushed though, promise lol.

Leave a review, let me know what you think :)