A/N: It's really nice to see so many people invested in this story, thank you for all the support!

After Chloe walked away from Beca, she couldn't move. She stared at Chloe's back until it was no longer visible. She had no idea how long she had been standing there before the cold got the best of her. She started moving, but didn't want to go back to her dorm. She justed started walking without thinking. Walking was good, it meant doing something. She felt a pull towards Chloe's apartment, but knew that going there wasn't a good idea, so she changed her direction. She walked off campus, but kept moving. She felt the fatigue in her legs from the game, but kept going. She felt the weight of her bag on her shoulders, but didn't stop.

When it started getting dark, she decided it might be wise to turn around, so she did. By this time she had been walking for a long time, and it would take at least as long to get home, if she had remembered how to walk back. Her phone had died about halfway through the walk, so she couldn't check where she was. Some roads looked vaguely familiar, but then again, every road looked similar. She made sure to check the road signs she passed this time round. After wandering around for a while, she finally found one that indicated that Barden was ten miles away.

She didn't care that she was hungry or tired, because as long as she was feeling these things, she didn't have a chance to replay the earlier conversation in her head. She could focus on the strain on her shoulders, the pain in her feet or the growling of her stomach instead. And so she did for ten long miles. Any thought of Chloe was suppressed immediately, but she couldn't stop the words from floating around in her mind.

I think we should break up

By the time she got back on campus everything hurt. She went to her dorm, threw her bag on the floor and laid down on her bed. The pain in her shoulders and feet prevented sleep for a while, but eventually it got the better of her, so she dozed off.

Sleeping wasn't much better than staying awake. As soon as she fell asleep, nightmares haunted her dreams and it didn't take long for her to wake up again. She went through the process of falling asleep, getting nightmares and waking up several times, and by the time it was morning, she was wrecked. She hadn't eaten since the previous afternoon, her feet were blistered from the walk yesterday and her shoulders were killing her. She didn't get much sleep either, which didn't help.

She wanted to check the time on her phone, but realized she hadn't charged it. Kimmy Jin wasn't here anymore, so she was probably already late for her morning lecture. She decided to charge her phone and get some breakfast in the meantime. When she got back and checked her phone, she saw that there were several messages waiting for her. A few teammates had invited her to celebrate the first place they currently still held in the poule. Amy texted her a couple of time, each time probably more drunk than the last. Jesse had asked her about the result of the game and whether she had any plans later. Her father sent her a message congratulating her on their performance in the fall season and inviting her over for dinner.

Messages from Chloe were tangibly absent, not that Beca really expected anything. Of course she secretly hoped that yesterday was just a bad dream, but she knew it wasn't. She put her phone away without answering any of the texts and laid down on her bed. She was feeling tired enough to fall back asleep, but knew it wouldn't do much good. She reached over her head to grab her headphones from the desk and started blasting her music.

Listening to music didn't inspire her to make any new mixes, like it normally did. After a while it didn't even distract her enough to keep out the thoughts of red hair and tears, so she decided that she needed to do something else. The next best distraction has always been running for Beca, so despite the fatigue and the pain in her feet she put on her running shoes. She switched to her running playlist and stepped outside.

Running was good, it did the job of distracting her. She ran fast and far until her feet wouldn't carry her anymore. She ended back at her dorm covered in sweat. She took a quick shower and found herself back on her bed. By this time she was out of ideas on how to distract herself. Music didn't help, and even if she wanted to, she couldn't walk another step.

Eventually she grabbed her phone again. She saw some new messages from the girls, but none were interesting enough to reply to. She unconsciously clicked on Chloe's name and read the last few messages they had exchanged. They weren't particularly interesting or funny, but they made her smile nonetheless. She quickly realized this was exactly the opposite of distracting herself, so she turned off her phone and got her laptop.

The rest of the day was spend with playing computer games. By the time it got dark she was incredibly skilled at one particularly fighting game and she killed opponents left and right. She stopped playing when Kimmy Jin requested silence and went to bed. She considered taking some aspirins to help her sleep, but decided against it, because it seemed a bad habit to get into. She was tired enough to fall asleep anyway.

After a very bad night of sleep, she forced herself to get up in the morning, because sleeping seemed like the worse of two options right now. She put on her running shoes again, because the pain in her feet had decreased and she didn't really have anything better to do. She put on her headphones and ran with the same strategy she did yesterday, just run until you get too tired to go on.

She found out that running on an empty stomach was not a good idea, so she was drained by the time she made her way back onto campus. By that time the battery on her phone had also died, she had forgotten to charge it again, so her headphones were now hanging around her neck idly. She was startled when she heard someone call her name. She looked around and saw Stacy walk towards her. She didn't feel like having any social interaction at the moment, so she just greeted the girl and wanted to run along, but she was already too late.

"You're taking Aubrey's winter break cardio rules very seriously," Stacy said teasingly. When she got closer, she had a chance to examine her teammate closer and saw the state Beca was in. "Wow, Beca, are you okay?"

Beca nodded and made an attempt to run along. Stacy stopped her though and put her hands on Beca's shoulders. She studied Beca's face for a moment before pulling her along. Beca let the other girl drag her to a nearby bench and sat down. Stacy kneeled in front of her with worry in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Beca considered telling her friend that everything was just peachy and that she just wanted to shower, but she had gotten a glimpse of her reflection that morning and knew that she looked far from fine. She went with the truth instead.

"Chloe broke up with me."

At that point, something inside of her broke. She had been avoiding feeling anything at all for the last two days, but this simple statement meant two days worth of emotions hitting her at once. Tears fell from her eyes and she felt like she was about to puke, or faint, of both. She felt Stacy's arms around her and leaned into the girl. They sat like that for a while until Beca's breathing evened out and her tears stopped streaming.

Stacy led her back to her dorm and told her to take a shower while she would get them something to eat. Once showered and fed, Beca felt a bit better. They sat down and she told Stacy the stripped down version of last Sunday. She didn't include the events of her senior year of high school in the story, but enough for Stacy to understand why she and Chloe had a fight in the first place. When she revealed the information about LA, Stacy's eyebrows shot up, but she didn't say anything. When Beca was done, they stayed silent for a while.

"Do you love her?" Stacy asked eventually. Beca hadn't expected the question and took her time to answer. Chloe was the one person that made her feel completely at ease. She was caring, smart, funny and, not to be forgotten, extremely hot. Even though Beca had been pissed about Chloe telling her secret at first, she also realized that it showed just how much Chloe cared about her.

"Yes," she stated.

"Then you need to talk to her and tell her that. An apology goes a long way, you know."

Beca wasn't too sure, she had never seen Chloe the way she had been yesterday. She couldn't just knock on her door and hope for the best, could she?

"You just need to go see her. Not talking never helps these situations."

Beca looks at Stacy. She had been able to laugh with the busty brunette the last half year, but never realized how much good advice she actually gave. She was glad that she could call this girl her friend.

"When did you become this wise," she joked. Stacy shrugged. Beca started putting on her jacket and got ready to leave.

"Maybe you should change before you go out," Stacy said mockingly. Beca looked down and realized that she was wearing a pair of old sweatpants and a shirt that was two sizes too big. She nodded and went over to her closet to pull out a nice pair of jeans and shirt of the right size. After she changed Stacy told her that she had to go, but that if Beca needed her she was just a text away. Beca thanked her for everything and promised her that she would let her know how it went.

The walk to Chloe's door was nerve-racking. Beca thought about what she was going to say, but everything seemed wrong. She was wondering in what state she would find Chloe. She hoped her captain was handling things better than she had. She realized that she hadn't checked whether Chloe was home at all, it could very well be that she was at a lecture, but figured it was too late to turn back now.

When she arrived at the all too familiar door, she took a few deep breaths and knocked. She listened intently but heard nothing the first few seconds. After a while she heard the sound of footsteps followed by the door being opened. She looked up to see a face surrounded by blonde hair, not exactly the person she wanted to see at the moment.

"Is Chloe here?" she asked nervously.

"No, Chloe isn't here," Aubrey responded, before she started to close the door.

"Wait, Aubrey, do you know when she will be back? I need to talk to her."

"I think you misunderstood. She is not in Barden anymore. She finished most of her coursework early and left yesterday. She will be back after winter break."

Aubrey closed the door. Beca was still staring at it. Chloe never told her she was planning to leave and Beca assumed that finishing coursework early would take some preparation, meaning that Chloe knew she would leave. But why?