Trigger warning for mild self harm from this chapter onwards.
Beca woke from a noise downstairs. Slowly, she got out of bed so as not to wake Chloe and crept downstairs following an aroma of toast and coffee protruding from the kitchen. As she walked into the kitchen Sarah turned her head and said, "Sorry sweetie, did I wake you? Sorry, don't mind me. I'm just taking this up to bed before I nod off. Have whatever you want from the cupboards." She gave Beca a smile before wandering upstairs in her nurse uniform with a coffee in one hand and a slice of toast in the other. Beca headed for the cupboards and pulled out a teabag and mug. The sound of the kettle boiling brought her back to the event of last night. Did it really happen? Or was it just some absurdly real dream? The look on Chloe's face as she walked into the kitchen told her that it really did happen, and it most definitely was not a dream.
It was Chloe who broke the awkward silence first. "Hi." Beca smiled and said a quiet hello back. "Do you want a tea?" she asked. Chloe nodded, and then walked towards Beca. She ran her fingers along the counter as she slowly walked over until their fingers touched. It was like a spark of electricity when their skin met, and Chloe leaned in to give Beca a kiss. She accepted it, and then darted out the way as she said, "Wait." In response to Chloe's confused look she continued, "I haven't brushed my teeth yet." With that she ran upstairs and into the bathroom.
Chloe smiled at how adorable her friend could be at times. Could she even call her that now? What was she supposed to say – her girlfriend? All she knew was that last night was definitely not friend behaviour. A couple of minutes later Beca returned with a smile on her face and clean teeth. She gave Chloe a kiss which brought smiles to both their faces. "Mmm… minty," Chloe joked. Just as she was about to pour water into Beca's cup, the smaller girl stopped her and said, "Don't worry about mine; I hate how everything tastes after you brush your teeth."
"Okay," Chloe replied, "Go into the living room then and put the TV on." She did, and as usual ended up scrolling through all the channels before landing on Friends. In the middle of her laughter, Chloe came in and set down her tea before sitting on the sofa. In view of everything that had happened to them it had been a long weekend, so their last day before going back to school was planned to be pure relaxation. One hour and two episodes of Friends later, Beca had her legs outstretched on Chloe's and they were still on opposite sides of the sofa.
The ending credits came up, and Chloe pulled on Beca's legs to bring her closer to her. They held each other's gaze for a few seconds, and then their lips met. With their arms around each other, everything just felt right, but all of a sudden Beca's phone started to ring. Reluctantly they pulled apart and Beca picked up her phone from the coffee table. "Hello?" It was Aubrey – the final member of their trio of friendship.
Beca and Chloe were always had a closer relationship as their classes coincided, but Aubrey also had a friend in a girl aptly named Fat Amy. "Is everything okay? I just rang your house but your mom put the phone down the second I said your name?" Beca sighed and very briefly explained everything that had happened the previous night. Well, not everything. "Oh okay. Well if you're up for it, do you and Chloe want to come out tonight? She wasn't picking up her phone, but I was thinking we could go out for a meal to celebrate our last night of freedom before going back to school." Beca quickly checked with Chloe if she was up for it and then replied, "Yeah sounds good Aubrey. Pick us up at 8?" As they finalised details, Chloe began teasingly kissing Beca's neck. When she hung up the younger girl glared at her and said, "She could have heard you!"
"You didn't exactly try to stop me," Chloe replied with a smirk. Beca kissed her back, and their tongues grazed against each other. She ran her fingers down Chloe's spine, causing her to squirm. "You okay?" she asked. Chloe laughed and said, "I'm fine, it tickles that's all." They resumed kissing, and as Chloe pulled lightly on Beca's short hair, they heard footsteps on the stairs. Light would not have challenged the speed at which they flew apart from each other and casually began watching TV again.
"Hi girls," Sarah said as she appeared in the living room, now awake and dressed in normal clothes. "Hey," Chloe and Beca chorused back. Chloe stood up and put on her most innocent and pleading voice before saying, "Could I have some money to go out for a meal tonight with Beca and Aubrey?" Sarah nodded and reached for her purse.
"Here," she said, "Take some extra and you can take Beca to that new café for lunch." Chloe gave her mom a gracious kiss on the cheek before turning to Beca and saying, "C'mon, let's go upstairs and get ready." They reached her bedroom when a thought occurred to Beca. She hesitated slightly before explaining, "I don't think I can come tonight actually. I don't have any money." Chloe merely smiled at her and said unwaveringly, "Don't worry; my mom gave me more than enough for both of us. Besides, if you ever need money we will always happily give you some. Like my mom said, treat here like it's your own home."
"If I did that then I wouldn't expect any money at all." Both girls were aware of Beca's previous family situation: ever since her parent's divorce, money had been in low supply. Nevertheless the next half hour was spent trying on countless amounts of clothes until they finally decided on a white dress for Chloe and black skinny jeans with a dark vest top and brown jacket for Beca. "Are you sure you need a jacket? I know it's October but it's boiling outside," Chloe asked, noticing the sheer difference in their outfits. Beca nodded and then grabbed her phone, hurriedly saying, "Let's go already, I'm starting to get hungry."
"One skinny caramel frappuncino with no cream, and a black coffee please," Chloe rattled off their usual order before sitting down at a table in the corner of the care. They ordered their food as well and once the waiter brought it to them, Beca picked up her napkin and started to fan herself with it. "Take your jacket off if you're that hot!" Chloe exclaimed, but Beca ignored her and just kept fanning herself. "Beca, you're sweating!"
"I'm fine," Beca replied, but it was obvious that she was far from fine. Not wanting to press the subject any further, the girls carried on with lunch and spent so long talking in the café that they only made it home an hour before they were due to be picked up for dinner. Fat Amy was joining them as well and the four girls all greeted each other before heading to the restaurant. They exhausted every topic of conversation except school, which no one wanted to bring up. It was the end of the October break and their penultimate year of school. Aubrey had the nicest car out of all of them and loved driving it around, and so she was usually the one to pick them up and drop them home again.
The night flew by because they were all having such a good time, and by the time they got home it was almost midnight. The two girls went straight to bed, and Sarah had already left for work so the house was in complete darkness. As they got under the bedcover, the soft mattress welcomed them at the same time as the feather pillows. This time when they fell asleep, it was Beca who placed her hand on Chloe's hip as they lay cocooned around each other.
The morning came too quickly, and the bleary eyed girls walked into school wearing their blazer, blouse, knee high socks, and skirt. PE was the first lesson and was dreaded by ninety percent of the year. The sun was still as hot as the previous day, if not hotter. As they got changed into their sports kit, Chloe noticed Beca pulling a sweater over her head. "Okay, do you have a death wish or something?" she stared at the smaller girl expecting an answer. Beca simply replied, "Apparently the more layers you wear the more calories you burn when you work out." Chloe left it at that but was still concerned as to why she wanted to burn calories so badly.
It was only during the cross country laps that the real trouble started and the truth came out. Beca was slightly ahead of Chloe, and when they were running through the forest area there was a straight stretch of path where Chloe expected to at least see Beca running somewhere in the distance. Halfway down the path she still couldn't see her, but then she heard someone retching just ahead of her. She caught up with where the sound was to see if whoever the person may be was okay, and was shocked to see Beca crouching behind a tree. She was pale white, sweating like crazy and doubled over as she gagged. When she saw Chloe she managed to whisper, "I'm so hot."
"Take your sweater off!" Chloe ordered, and began tugging at the top. Beca aggressively shoved her away, but as she did so she lost her balance and ended up grabbing on to Chloe's arm again. She fell to the ground and Chloe recognised the symptoms as heatstroke. Ignoring Beca's swinging arms hitting her sides and scratching her, Chloe pulled the sweater over her head. "Ouch!" she cried out as Beca hit her harshly in the eye, trying to force her to back off. "Stop it! You're sick and you're boiling up." She heard some more of her classmates running in the distance and called out, "Help!" As she discarded the sweater to the floor, she realised why Beca was so defiant against taking it off in the first place. The brunette went limp and stopped fighting back, accepting defeat and knowing that the truth was now on full display. Chloe had seen the red ladder of cuts going up both her forearms, old and new ones.