Chloe finds Beca in one of the shower stalls. They're both fully clothed this time, but Beca is sitting on the floor of the stall, right up against the wall with her knees curled up into her chest rocking slowly back and forth.
The sobs are still wracking through Beca, and Chloe wonders how long she's been sitting there.
Chloe sits down next to Beca pulling the shorter girl into her arms and holding her tight. She whispers "it's going to be okay," over and over again.
She rubs small circles on Beca's back, trying to soothe her.
Chloe doesn't know how long she's been sitting in the shower with Beca, but eventually Beca's sobs subside enough for her to speak.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," Beca says.
"Beca, whatever it is, you're gonna be okay," Chloe says.
Beca looks at Chloe, and Chloe knows she's never seen so much raw emotion in anybody's eyes before. It's in this moment that Chloe realizes she's in love with this girl she doesn't even really know.
"I don't think I am," Beca whispers.
"Beca, what's going on?" Chloe asks softly.
"I'm – I'm pregnant," Beca whispers.
Chloe's eyes go wide. She definitely wasn't expecting that. It makes no difference though.
Chloe squeezes Beca tight. "It's going to be okay," she says. "I know it's scary, but it's going to be okay."
Chloe thinks Beca is all cried out. "Come on, Beca," she says. "Let's get you to bed."
Chloe stands up, but Beca reaches out and grabs her hand.
"Don't leave me," Beca says.
"Come on," Chloe says. "You can stay with me tonight. You have to get up though."
Chloe puts out her hands for Beca to take. Beca lets Chloe help her up. Chloe, never letting go of Beca's hand, leads the way back to her dorm room. Chloe is both pleasantly surprised and worriedly confused when she finds Aubrey is not in their dorm, despite the late hour.
She finds some clothes for Beca to change into, and she herself changes as well. She crawls into her bed and beckons Beca to join her. Beca does. Chloe puts her arm around Beca, pulling her close. Eventually she feels Beca's breathing even out.
"I won't," Chloe whispers before she lets herself also succumb to sleep.
Chloe wakes up, feeling someone staring at her. She knows it's either Aubrey or Beca, and from the even breathing and slight snoring of the girl still entangled in her arms, she knows it's Aubrey.
She thinks about pretending to still be asleep, but after a few minutes, she decides not to delay the inevitable. She takes a deep breath inhaling the scent that is Beca – a combination of vanilla and strawberry that one would not expect from looking at her.
When Chloe opens her eyes, she sees Aubrey glaring at her.
"What the hell, Chloe!" Aubrey whisper yells.
Chloe decides it best not to shout across the room, so she carefully disentangles herself from Beca, trying her best not to wake the worn out girl.
"Good morning to you too," Chloe says quietly.
Aubrey rolls her eyes. "Seriously Chloe," she says. "What is she doing here?"
Chloe had forgotten that Aubrey had had a certain distaste for Beca after the activities fair. She blinked once. Twice.
"Sleeping," Chloe says.
"You know what I mean," Aubrey says.
"Beca's my friend Aubrey," Chloe says.
"But – "
"She's not a treble, so I don't see what your problem is, and even if she were, I'm not just going to drop her because you want me to. And if that's the case, then you're not the friend I thought you were," Chloe says.
Aubrey's eyes widen.
"She's the one?" Aubrey asks.
Chloe sighs.
"Yes."
Aubrey's eyes narrow.
"So she's the reason you've been moping around for weeks, not going anywhere but class and Bellas?"
Chloe's annoyed now. "As opposed to you who wasn't even here when I got back to the dorm at 3 in the morning? Another late night stroll with Uni, I suppose?"
"I – How did you know?" Aubrey says.
"Please," Chloe says. "I'm not stupid. You know what? I'm done with this, I'm going back to bed."
Chloe climbs back into bed, putting her arms around Beca once more. She feels Beca relax in her embrace, and she can hear her uneven breathing, so she knows the brunette is awake.
"Everything's okay, Beca," Chloe whispers. "We can talk when we wake up, if you want to."
When Chloe awakes, she finds herself alone. She looks at the clock. It's three thirty. She's missed all her classes today, and she knows if she doesn't get up now, she'll miss Bellas rehearsal too. Then Aubrey would be really pissed at her.
She sighs, wishing Beca had still been here when she woke up. She wonders where she went. Probably woke up and realized she had class. Chloe wishes Beca would have woken her up when she left. She's hoping last night wasn't a one-off. Maybe Beca only called because she had no one else to turn to when she got the news? Well yeah, but maybe now that she's talked a little about it, she won't call again. The thought is unsettling.
Chloe starts getting her shower stuff together. There's a knock on the door right as Chloe notices Beca's clothes are still there on the floor.
Chloe opens the door to see Beca on the other side. Beca is still in the clothes Chloe lent her, but she's taken all her make-up off. She's got two cups of coffee in a tray in one hand and a brown bag in the other. Chloe is thrilled that Beca came back.
"Uh, hi," Beca says.
"Beca!" Chloe says, throwing herself into the brunettes semi-open arms.
"Woah, careful there, I've got hot coffee," Beca says.
Chloe releases Beca. They go back to Chloe's bed, both sitting on the edge.
"Um, here," Beca says, handing one of the drinks to Chloe.
Chloe takes the drink and smiles. She takes a sip. "Oh my God," Chloe says. "This is like the best thing I've ever tasted. What is it?"
Beca blushes. "Um, it's a Caramel Macchiato. I thought you might like it."
"What's in the bag?" Chloe asks.
"Oh, um, sandwiches?" Beca says. "I didn't know what you like, so I got a bunch. There's turkey, um, egg salad, roast beef, and um, a grilled cheese."
"Oooo," Chloe says. Those all sound great to her. "Why don't we split them? Both take a half of each sandwich?"
Beca just nods along.
Chloe doesn't realize how hungry she is until she takes her first bite. In only a few minutes she's demolished all her food. Beca must have been feeling along the same lines, because she's only a few bites behind.
"So, um," Beca says when she's done. "We should probably talk, huh?"
"Yeah, but only if you want to. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable," Chloe says.
Beca chuckles. "I think we've already passed that point."
Chloe doesn't really know what to say to that.
"So, um, thanks for coming last night," Beca says. "I really needed someone and you came through. I really appreciate it. I know I've been – well actually I don't really know what I've been. Distant, maybe?"
"I guess you could call it that," Chloe says, "but why?"
"I didn't come here to make friends," Beca says. "I want to move to LA and become a music producer, but trying to move to LA is hard. My dad, well he left my mom and I when I was young. We don't really get along anymore, but he's a professor here. He promised he'd help me move to LA, but I had to come here and get a degree first. I didn't want to get attached to anyone or anything, I didn't want anything to get in the way of my dream, you know?"
Chloe nods along.
"And when I met you," Beca says, "I just knew that if I spent time around you, I would get attached. I mean how could I not? I never planned on avoiding you per se, but I definitely wasn't going to seek you out. Because from day one you started jumping over walls that I spent years building. And that scared me. So I ran, metaphorically in this case."
"So what now?" Chloe says.
"I don't want to run away from you anymore," Beca says. "So could we be friends?"
Chloe grins. "That's all I wanted," she says. Well maybe not all.
"Um, so I'm sorry I made you mope," Beca says. "But thanks for sticking up to Aubrey for me."
"Oh my God, Aubrey!" Chloe says. She looks at the clock. It's quarter of five. "She's gonna kill me if I'm late."
Chloe starts finds some clean clothes to throw on. "I'm sorry Beca, I don't mean to interrupt our moment, but Bellas rehearsal starts at five." She doesn't even have time to shower now, though she think she should make time to brush her teeth.
"That's okay, I'll just head back to my dorm. Um, call me later?" Beca says.
"Or you could come with me?" Chloe says hopefully. She wants to spend as much time with Beca as she can.
"I don't think Aubrey would like that," Beca says.
"Don't worry about Aubrey, I can take care of her," Chloe says.
"Okay, um, sure. Let me just go back to my dorm to change. Um, you can pick me up from there?" Beca says.
"Sounds good," Chloe says. "I'll see you in like five minutes." Chloe gives Beca a hug and Beca runs back to her dorm to change.
The first thing Chloe hears when she and Beca enter the rehearsal space is "This is a Bellas rehearsal."
Beca looks awkwardly at Chloe. "It's cool, Bree," Chloe says. "She's with me."
"No, Chloe," Aubrey says. "This is Bellas only. She has to go."
"It's okay, Chlo," Beca says. "Just find me after, 'kay?"
"No, stay," Chloe implores Beca.
"Go," Aubrey says.
Chloe's at her wit's end with Aubrey. "I have been there for you for years. I've done pretty much everything you've ever asked of me, and you mostly treat me like shit. You expect me to just listen to your every command, and it's not okay anymore. If you make Beca leave, I quit."
The entire room wears identical looks of shock from Chloe's outburst. Chloe thinks she might have overdone it a bit, but it was a long time coming.
Silence.
"Come on Becs," Chloe says, taking Beca's hand and leading her back the way they came in.
"Do something, Aubrey," Chloe hears Fat Amy say.
"Chloe," Aubrey says. Her voice is tender now.
Chloe stops and turns to look at Aubrey.
"Please don't go," Aubrey says.
Chloe looks at Aubrey, waiting for her best friend to say that Beca can stay. But she doesn't. So Chloe pulls Beca out of the performance space.
"You didn't have to do that," Beca says once we're outside.
"I know, but it's better this way. I get to spend more time with you. Plus I have nodes," Chloe says.
"What are nodes?" Beca asks.
"Vocal nodules. The rubbing together of your vocal chords at above average rates without proper lubrication."
"Sounds painful," Beca says.
"Yeah, that's why it's probably better that I'm not in the Bellas anymore," Chloe says.
"I guess. I mean I don't want you to be in any pain," Beca says, "But I know how much the Bellas mean to you."
Chloe just nods along. Beca is right. The Bellas do mean an awful lot to Chloe and she would miss them, but she really does think it is for the best.
"So do you want to watch a movie or something?" Chloe asks.
"Uh, not really," Beca says.
Chloe thinks Beca is about to pull away again. She wonders what she can possibly do to make the brunette stay.
"So what do you want to do?" Chloe asks.
Beca thinks about it. "I don't know," she says. "I've never been a really social person, I'm mostly just on my computer all the time."
"If you want to go back to your computer, you can," Chloe says glumly.
"I, um, I'd rather stay with you," Beca says, "if that's okay?"
Chloe grins. "Of course it's okay," she says. "Come on, I want to show you something."
Chloe leads Beca by the hand to Barden's Library. It's a funny looking building, a few stories high, with a seemingly random floorplan. They take the elevator to the third floor, which is known as the stacks and is notorious for people making out and having sex. Chloe can even feel Beca tense when she hits the button in the elevator.
But Chloe leads Beca to a door on the opposite end of the building. It's a stairwell that only goes up from the third floor. They take the stairwell up and go through the door. The layout is open, with a few support beams here and there, but otherwise it looks like the rest of the library if it were empty with no walls. There's roof access, and beautiful views from the windows. It's one of Chloe's favorite spots on campus.
"Aubrey doesn't even know about this place," Chloe says. "Whenever I really need to get away from her, I come here, because I know she can't find me."
"It's amazing," Beca says looking around. "But this is your place, Chloe. Your hiding spot, so why show me?"
"Because I'll always want you to find me," Chloe says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
So what do you think?
Also, while you don't need to know this quite yet, but Chloe's father is a billionaire. Just throwing that out there.