Chloe rapped her cold knuckles hard on the door to Beca's dormitory. It opened sharply.
"Hey-oh!" Chloe beamed as it swung open, until she realised it was not Beca standing on the otherside of the door, but instead a sour-faced Kimmy Jin. "Hi." Chloe said, smiling meekly. "Is, um, is Beca in?"
Kimmy Jin narrowed her eyes and then turned away, saying nothing as she sat down at her desk.
"All right then." Chloe muttered, stepping over the threshold. Beca was rummaging in her wardrobe, back towards Chloe, with her big black headphones on her head. Her hands were reaching up to the top shelf, allowing a thin band of skin to peep out beneath the hem of Beca's shirt at her hips. Chloe found herself biting her lip, resisting hard the temptation to reach out herself and pull Beca in close to her by the band of pale bare skin, realising she longed to feel her again under her touch.
Instead though she reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. Beca jumped and spun around.
"What th- oh, Chloe - my god, give me a minute - I'm not ready yet. " Beca said, pulling her headphones off. Chloe smiled at her as she noticed a hum of a blush radiating high on her cheekbones.
"That's alright, I'm early anyway." Chloe said and took a seat at Beca's desk. "What's this for?" she asked, pushing a few of the dials up and down on the mixing desk in front of her.
"They," Beca said, swooping over to close the lid of the laptop and reset the dials "Are for my music."
"Can I hear some?" Chloe asked, looking up and smiling expectantly at Beca, who just rolled her eyes as she pulled on her coat.
"Jeez, seriously? Everyone round here is nosy!"
Chloe smiled and stood up, following her to the door. "What do you mean?"
Beca smiled, holding the door open, but Chloe noticed the awkwardness in it as it crept across her face, her lips pursed and her eyes avoiding her gaze. "What?" Chloe repeated, stepping backwards out into the corridor.
"It's nothing." Beca said, shutting the door behind her. "Come on."
"No, go on!" Chloe smiled playfully. "What's going on? Is Kimmy Jin giving you grief?"
"Far from it." Beca grimaced, holding the door open to the Baker Hall quadrangle. Whilst the temperature had crept up slowly over night, everywhere was still covered in a blanket of crisp snow, and as they left the halls their breath plumed ahead of them in clouds.
"Go on, tell me!" Chloe elbowed Beca playfully in the ribs as they walked side by side through campus.
"Which hotshot producer has their eye on you and your music, but you just won't hand it over because you know how much it will affect your beloved studies and the Barden Bella's if you dared to do such a thing." Beca rolled her eyes, but Chloe just grinned back. "Why won't you tell me?"
"Fine, jeez, it was Jesse.
"What?!" Chloe stopped dead in her tracks.
"I know," Beca said, turning to face her as she carried on walking backwards. "He got all weird and demanded I teach him how I mix my music up. He's..." Beca paused, standing still to think whilst Chloe caught up. Now probably wasn't the best time to tell her what he had done. "He's just weird."
"I thought that the other day," Chloe said, shivering. "He's an odd one."
Beca laughed. "We should hook him up with Aubrey. She's an odd one too." Her face quickly dropped though as she noticed the glare Chloe had thrown her. "What? It's true!"
"Hmm," Chloe said quietly. "He's a Treble though. You know what she's like. And we did take an oath."
"It'd do her good to stop being so uptight for once." Beca said. Chloe sighed, and Beca turned to look at her, her sad face and eyes painful. "Chlo', what's wrong?"
"It's nothing." She said, shaking her head, but Beca narrowed her eyes. "Alright - me and Aubrey, we haven't - I mean, we've had this - this argument - thing. Oh, and Beca, it's so ridiculous, but she hasn't spoken to me since." Her voice trailed off, and Beca's brow furrowed.
"What happened?"
The concern in Chloe's face - no matter how hard she had tried to hide it - was evident. Chloe shrugged. "It was something stupid."
"And you've tried to speak to her?"
Chloe nodded.
Beca paused, then looked at her shoes shifting in the snow.
"Will it help if I know what it is you argued about?" she said.
Chloe looked around, at the quadrangle - some kids dancing in a circle in the distance - and there was a lecturer in a huff, flinging his briefcase around trying to fight his way through the snow. She looked anywhere but at Beca, but eventually realised she was standing ten yards or so in front of her, her arms folded. She already knew what they had argued about, and Chloe felt wracked with guilt - she should never have opened her mouth. Today wasn't supposed to be about Aubrey.
Beca pursed her lips, then shrugged. Chloe's awkward silence had confirmed her thoughts. She was mad - very much so - but she wasn't going to let it show.
"I told you, it was stupid," Chloe said, reaching out to take Beca's hands in her own. "Aubrey was being ridiculous. It doesn't mean anything."
"What did she say?"
"Nothing." Chloe smiled and tried to reach down and plant a gentle kiss on Beca's nose. Instead, Beca stepped away. "Beca-"
"If you want me to help you get back in her good books you're gonna have to tell me what she said." Beca sighed.
"What do you mean?"
"I know she doesn't like me - she doesn't approve of whatever this is, but she's your best friend, and I don't want to come between that." She looked up and rolled her eyes. "Bella's is stressful enough as it is."
Chloe simply glowed. She had expected Beca to be angry - perhaps even upset - but that she was genuinely wanting to help touched Chloe, and she could do nothing more than blush and smile warmly.
"You don't have to do anything - it's not your problem - it's hers. And you're never gonna be that person, please don't think that. If anything, Aubrey was more of a bitch about me than you," Chloe said, recalling Aubrey's sharp tongue with a grimace.
"You'll sort it out," Beca said. "Come on, there's a cab over there - lets get out of this snow."
Chloe smiled again as she felt that all-too-familiar flutter in her stomach as she felt Beca's cold fingers intertwine with her own and pull her towards the yellow cab that had just pulled up down the road.