CHAPTER 11: OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY, A MILLION MILES FROM LA

Billings

Chloe could remember the three times that her life changed. The first was when her parents divorced and they split her and her brother up. She didn't understand. How could she? She was 8 years old. How could she understand the pain of falling out of love? The decisions that you make at the time. Decisions that are in the best interest of everyone involved. She didn't understand why her parents split up her and her brother, not for years. Not until she asked her mother about it 12 years later. She still doesn't know if she would have made the same decision if she were in that situation but nevertheless a decision was made and it changed her life.

The second time was when she stepped out on the stage of her high school production of To Kill A Mockingbird. She'd felt alive during those 90 minutes she played Scout. She knew after that that was what she was meant to do. Perform. Act. Create. After that she'd taken every acting class she could find in her small hometown in Georgia. She worked at the local movie theatre and saved as much money as she could and got the best headshots she could afford. She drove into Atlanta every weekend that she wasn't working for auditions. She auditioned for everything. Commercials. Supporting parts. Leading roles. Walk through parts. Anything and everything. And she landed a couple. She was in a group of kids hanging out at a McDonald's in a local commercial that she saw on TV once. She was turned down a lot but she kept going. Her senior year in high school she got a call from an Atlanta producer that she'd auditioned for a few times for small things. The lady had remembered her and she saved her number after her last failed audition. The lady said she had an opportunity that she thought Chloe would be perfect for. It's funny how things happen. How you get 'discovered'. When she worked on a set in Atlanta for 5 days shooting the part of Sally, new love interest, in a little known WGN comedy she never thought in a million years that they'd bring her back for the next episode. Or the episode after that … but they did. And as soon as she had enough credits to graduate high school, Chloe took the test and left for Atlanta the very same day. Two months later and she was moving to LA. It all just kind of happened for her after that. She worked hard and tried to make the best choices she could. She turned down the stereotypical roles in favor or parts in movies that spoke to her. That challenged her as an artist. She made enough money to live on her own and send a little home to her mom. But if she hadn't have pulled the flyer off the wall in her high school calling for auditions for the spring play, her life may have not changed for the second time.

When her phone was ringing off the hook last year one early January morning, her life changed again. The noise coming from the other end was hard to decipher. She knew it was Aubrey but she couldn't make out a word she was saying. Luke had mumbled for her to hang up and go back to bed but instead she pushed the covers off of her and walked into the bathroom, begging Aubrey to slow down so she could understand her. When she'd finally understood what her best friend was calling to tell her she couldn't believe her ears. She couldn't. She'd only been acting steadily in LA for a five years. That was nothing. People tried to succeed for 25 years in LA and were never nominated for anything, much less an academy award. She couldn't understand how this was happening to her. Everything after that was a blur. She was interviewed by everybody. Her picture was all over the place. Luke's band grew in popularity and even though he insisted it wasn't because of his relationship with her, Aubrey had always accused him of ride on her coat tail. Of course she didn't win the academy award. Why would she? She was just Chloe Beale. She wasn't Meryl Streep … who actually did win the award that year. But since that fateful day in January nothing was the same. She was sought after. It didn't matter what she was doing. Grocery shopping. Clothes shopping. Going to the movies or to a concert. Coming out of an exercise class. Someone was always lurking around to take her photo. She was always conscious of that. She never felt alone. Not anymore.

That was up until 5 days ago. When she stepped off that plane and froze at the sight of Lily standing by the white car at 5 in the morning in Jackson Hole Wyoming. How could that be? She didn't understand. But turns out Lily has a twin sister. Milly. Chloe wondered how many people, other than Lily knew she had a twin. They were identical in every way, except for the fact that Milly spoke at a volume that normal people could hear. Milly drove her 6 hours from Jackson Hole to Billings. They didn't stop until Milly pulled up in front of a small cabin in the middle of nowhere. She helped Chloe out of the car with her bag and handed over the keys to the cabin. She said she'd be back in a few days to bring Chloe some supplies she would gather and to get a list of items Chloe may need. And true to her word, 3 long, lonely days later, the same white car pulled up and Milly got out. She had bags of groceries. She had some warmer clothes, jeans and a pair of outdoor boots. She had a new computer. A camera. Some notebooks. Things Chloe would later find out that Aubrey told Milly bring to her. And it got better after that. There was no TV. No internet. Shitty cell service but she had a camera. And she had 72 acres of the most beautiful landscape she could ever remember seeing. Now that she had a computer, she had hours to sit and write. Stories. Screenplays. Letters she couldn't send. Whatever she could think of. The last two days had been the most creative in her life. She'd been able to speak to Aubrey and CR at least once a day. Her mother, Stacie and Jessica once. The girls had been back in LA for a couple of days and were being hounded with questions about her whereabouts. She felt bad about that but they'd insisted it wasn't that bad and they were confident that it would blow over. A couple of stories of Luke's recent infidelities were beginning to surface, according to Aubrey, and the press was turning on him. Chloe wasn't thrilled when Aubrey told her that one of the photos taken of her in the SUV hinted at the black eye that she was sporting at the time. Currently it was all but gone but that photo was out and Aubrey told her people were talking about it.

Chloe had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she spun the spoon slowly around in the coffee watching the black liquid change to a lighter caramel color. She picked up the mug and walked towards the back door. She slipped her feet inside her fur lined boots and made her way out on to the back side of the house.

The porch wrapped all the way around the small log cabin but the back had the best view of the mountains in the distance. She loved watching the sun come up over the mountains. It had been her thing for the last 4 days. The first full day, she'd spent in bed crying and feeling sorry for herself but after that she explored the house. It was beautiful. It only had two small bedrooms. One, was slightly larger and had its own bathroom. That's where she decided to stay. It had a queen size bed. One night side table and a simple chest of drawers. The other room was much smaller and housed only a twin size bed and nothing else in the room. The living room and kitchen were practically the same room and shared a wood burning fireplace, which Chloe found out was the only source of heat. She'd found a large pile of wood stacked up on the backside of the house and figured out how to light a fire on her second night in the home. It was perfect. She loved it. It was only missing a few things. Her friends were one of them. Internet would have been amazing but after a few days, she didn't really miss that as much.

Chloe leaned against the railing of the porch and brought the hot mug to her lips. It was just after six in the morning and the sun was due up at any time. She couldn't wait. The colors that danced through the sky mesmerized her. The black sky that was lit by thousands of stars would turn dark blue and then slowly begin to brighten. She'd managed to catch it several times with her camera but she never grew tired of watching it. After the blue continued to lighten up it would eventually turn to the most beautiful and vibrant orange hue she'd ever seen. On the second day, the day she actually got out of bed and wondered outside, it actually brought tears to her eyes. It seemed that each morning got more spectacular which was the opposite of what she thought would happen. That maybe one day it wouldn't be as beautiful. Maybe one day she wouldn't wake up and hurry outside to see it. She hoped that she wouldn't be in Montana long enough for her to get tired of the sunrise but she also didn't mind it at the moment.

Chloe stood on the porch leaning up against the railing, wrapped in a blanket and sipping her coffee when it was just beginning. The first ray of golden orange was starting to peak out over the mountain and she couldn't peel her eyes from it. Until she heard it. It was something she hadn't heard in five days. She knew she was out there all alone. She'd walked as much of the 72 acres as she possibly could in the last few days and she never came across anything other than birds and ducks. She knew to be on the lookout for all kinds of wild animals. She'd expected to maybe see some. Maybe some deer or a moose? She'd really hoped she'd never come face to face with a bear but she was careful. They were probably more scared of her than she was of them anyway … at least that's what she'd told herself. She'd sat out on the porch once at night but went back inside quickly at the sounds coming from around her. They were from animals, she knew that, but she didn't know what kind and she couldn't see them in the darkness. So she'd done what any sane city girl would do and hurry back inside so she wouldn't be eaten alive. But this sound, she knew. She'd heard it before. It was definitely on the other side of the house so she didn't get a look at it. All she saw was the flock of white birds, maybe 7 or 8 of them fly off squawking unhappily as they did. Then the barking again and again. It was getting closer to her but she still didn't see the dog.

"Sorry"

Chloe turned in the opposite direction quickly. She was so surprised that she dropped her coffee mug.

"He's been cooped up in the truck for like the last 6 hours so he's got some energy to burn." Beca said with a smirk.

"Beca?" Chloe whispered. She couldn't believe her eyes. Maybe she was dreaming.

"Hi." Beca replied as she slowly made her way towards the spooked actress. By the time she'd made it up the three porch steps Tuck had given up on chasing the birds and was now running towards them. Chloe could see his white fur off in the distance as the sun continued to climb in the sky. "I didn't mean to scare you." Beca said as she knelt down at Chloe's feet. For the most part her the mug was intact. The handle was broken off and there was a large piece chipped off from the top but at least it wasn't shattered.

Chloe looked down at her feet as Beca collected the mug. There was coffee all over the porch that Tuck was suddenly happy to try and lick up.

"Tuck. No" Beca said standing back up, coming eye to eye with Chloe.

"Wh, what are you doing here?" Chloe managed to breathe out.

Beca shrugged her shoulders. She'd had 12 hours to think about everything she wanted to say to Chloe. "We never got to finish out conversation." Beca said sarcastically. "And you were in the shower when I had to leave."

Chloe picked up on the hint of sarcasm but continued asking questions. "Why did you have to leave? Where did you go?"

Beca smiled. She could tell she'd caught Chloe completely off guard. She thought that Aubrey would have spilled the secret by now to her best friend but she hadn't and Beca could tell by the look on Chloe's face that the actress was completely surprised to see her. "Well" She started as she reached down for Chloe's hand, gently grabbing it and pulling her towards a nearby porch swing. She continued as they sat down. "It was part of the plan. For both of us to leave." Beca said.

Chloe turned her body slightly to face Beca as she spoke.

"Originally we were going to both be on the plane to Wyoming but I changed my mind at the last minute." Beca admitted.

"Changed your mind? Why?" Chloe asked.

"Because of you." Beca broke eye contact. "You said, that I always ran." She looked back into Chloe's eyes. "And you were right. So I needed to go home first. To New York" She clarified. "I had some unfinished business to attend to. Things my father left that I've been putting off. That I didn't want to deal with." Beca said with a sad smile. "When that was done, Tuck and I got on the first flight we could to Minneapolis. We bought the shitty pick-up truck that's out front from some really sketchy dude and drove here. To find you." Beca summarized. "It's kind of a miracle we made it to be honest." Beca smirked.

"Why?" Chloe asked breathless.

"Because I needed to tell you something." Beca replied as her smirk turned into a gentle smile.

"What?" Chloe wasn't sure she said it loud enough for anyone to hear but Beca obviously did.

"It was true when I told you we were worlds apart." Beca said slowly as she looked down at Chloe's hand in hers. "But it's not anymore."

Chloe shook her head slowly. "I don't." She took a breath, "I don't understand."

"You were right." Beca smirked. "I was running."

Chloe's head was spinning. At some point in the last several days, she'd resigned herself to the fact that she'd never see Beca Mitchell again. But now, on a cool Montana morning as the sun was rising in the sky, Beca Mitchell sat across from her. Holding her hand. Speaking so honestly. She had a confidence about her that Chloe had only seen glimpses of. But somehow, this Beca was a little different than the one in Cabo.

"But I don't want to run anymore." Beca said softly with a gentle smile and a slight turn of her head. "I want" She looked back at Chloe, "My parents" Beca said deciding to start again. "My parents were amazing. They loved me more than anything in the world and when I wanted to pursue music as a career, they wanted me to be happy, but they didn't want me to struggle. They wanted something more" Beca paused to choose her word carefully, "practical."

Chloe's brows furrowed as she listened intently.

"They would have supported me if I'd insisted on going to LA and trying to make it as a producer, but in a way," Beca braced herself, she'd never said the following words out loud to anyone before and she couldn't believe she was going to say them now, "in a way, they gave me an out. Gave me a reason to not go. To not take that chance."

Seeing how difficult that admission was for Beca, Chloe squeezed her hand gently.

"So I went in a more practical way." Beca shrugged. "I never gave up on music. I still love it. But I was too afraid to put myself out there. Too afraid to leap."

Chloe swallowed hard. She could feel this story coming back around to what exactly Beca was doing sitting next to her.

"Jesse told me that I was a complete idiot if I let you walk out of my life. If I didn't take a chance with you." Beca admitted with a signature eye roll. "And I was" Beca stopped and corrected herself, "am … scared."

Chloe nodded. She agreed. She felt that was too.

"So, I think I want to leap. I'm nervous as hell but I'm hoping you'll be there to catch me?" Beca asked sweetly.

Chloe couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her eyes were filling with tears.

"I can't promise you that I won't want to run." Beca sighed, "I've been doing it so long that it's my first instinct."

Chloe sniffed as she continued listening, breaking eye contact with Beca for a few seconds before bringing her eyes right back to the brunette's. She could feel the moment. She knew the feeling. It was going to be the forth time her life changed.

"We don't have to be worlds apart. I can be anywhere in the world and the only place I want to be" Beca smiled softly, "is with you."

AN: My apologies for being a little on the short side but I'll try to make it up to you guys with Sunday's post. So Beca showed up. She came back... wonder what she's been up too? I would love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Song Title Cred: Rita Ora, Anywhere