As the Bellas filed back into the house, plan firmly in mind, they expected to be greeted by their captains doing something adorable, but instead, there was silence in the house. Usually, when any of the Bellas were in residence, there was some sort of music blaring out or a capella being performed, especially when Chloe was involved, but alas, silence. Presuming that the two girls had gone out somewhere, they went about their normal activities (the term normal being used loosely), thinking nothing more of it.
As it neared time for them to start preparing dinner, however, the girls began to wonder where their favourite redhead was, knowing that she would usually be there to float around the kitchen doing whatever it is that Chloe does. Beca's lack of presence at dinner wasn't unusual, since she was usually out and about doing whatever it is she does, but still, the fact that none of the girls had heard from the captains at all that day was quite unusual.
It wasn't until Fat Amy returned from her 'study group' with Bumper and went to her room, that they found out that Beca had in fact been in the house all day.
"Crying midget alert!" the Australian said loudly whilst jogging into the living room containing the rest of the Bellas, "this is not a drill! I'm so worried that I vertically ran all the way down here to tell you!"
"Whoa, Amy, what exactly is happening?" Cynthia Rose asked, the concern in her eyes reflecting that of the other girls in the room.
"Beca is laid in bed staring at the wall and crying, she wouldn't even look at me, never mind talk to me," the blonde replied, not really knowing what to do with herself, since she really didn't feel like cracking a joke on the subject.
"Well, you need to go and talk to her, Chloe isn't home, and you're the one that shares a room with her," Jessica says, with Ashley sat at her side, nodding her agreement.
"No, no, no, serious conversations are not my area of expertise, get the ginger here."
"Fine, I'll text Chloe, she can't be too far away, maybe she can hurry up and get her ass back to sort this out," Stacie says, making the executive decision in the absence of any captains past or present.
"Yeah, I swear that girl has her phone permanently attached to her hand," Cynthia Rose adds, knowing that Chloe always replies to the girls' messages within five minutes.
10 minutes later…
"Text her again!"
"I cannot cope with a grumpy midget in my room tonight!"
"Tell her that there's a puppy being kicked, she'll soon be here!"
"Call the police, we haven't heard from her all day!"
"Everybody shut the fuck up!" Stacie shouts over the commotion that's been occurring since she didn't instantly receive a reply from the redhead, "I'm gonna call her and see where the hell she is in our time of need."
At this everyone drops silent, wanting to hear what their captain has to say. As they hear the rings through the speaker of Stacie's phone, they also hear the faint sound of 'Stacie's Mom' coming from upstairs. Knowing that Chloe has personalised ringtones for each of them, the girls all look at each other, as Stacie ends the call.
"Why would she leave her phone at home? If there's one thing that Chloe never forgets, it's her phone," Stacie says, beginning to worry for the redhead's safety.
"Okay gang, let's split up and look for clues," Fat Amy announces, earning her a few incredulous looks from the other girls.
"I'm gonna go find her phone and look in her room, if her gym bag's gone, she might've gone there and stayed out to shop or something," Cynthia Rose states calmly, trying to stay rational when she is just as worried as everyone else.
Walking up to Chloe's room, she begins to wonder where the hell the redhead could be, unable to think of any situation which could possibly cause her to leave her phone any further than two feet away from her.
Opening the door, her heart breaks, and suddenly it all makes sense, even if it is painful to think about. With tears in her eyes, she creeps closer to the bed, and gets a closer look at the redhead curled up clutching her favourite photo of her and Beca from the party they threw after they won Nationals for the first time. As Chloe's sleeping face comes more clearly into view, CR's heart breaks a little more when she sees the tear stains on her cheeks, and hears the faint sound of what she knows to be a mix that Beca had once made to give to the older girl on her birthday coming through the earphones firmly plugged into her ears.
Glad that she knows that the girl is safe, but heartbroken by the state that she's in, Cynthia Rose slowly walks back out of the room and softly closes the door, mentally preparing herself to relay what she saw to the rest of the girls.
A/N: I have a rough idea of where this is going now, but as always, I'm open to suggestions. Hit me up on Tumblr: narwhalsarecooltoo. Thanks for reading!