Pixie1913: I guess you'll have to wait and see.
Guest: Because Chloe is 110% all the love and happiness in the world.
Bechloe-bible-49: The culprit will be revealed very, very soon. Once they're found out, they're found out. There won't be any high-speed chase spanning for chapters upon chapters.
RJRMovieFan: I cannot answer that question.
FromTumblr: You're going to get A LOT more Mitchsen soon.
SunDanceQT: Ikr. I can totally imagine Chloe having a Jonas Brothers phase tho, lol.
Mwallace: Chloe's mom is pretty intelligent.
Arrhythmia
I can hear the sound,
Of your barely beating heart;
Pieces on the ground,
From a world that fell apart.
Just hold on,
It won't be long.
I will find you here inside the dark.
I will break through,
No matter where you are.
I will find you.
- Ruelle
"My finals are over. Sophomore year is done. You're coming home with me for the break. Everything is aca-mazing." Chloe did a twirl as she walked into the room, then shut the door behind her. "What are you up to? You look bored."
Aubrey closed her laptop and spun her desk chair around. "That was a lot of words all at once."
Chloe collapsed backward onto her bed, propped up on her elbows, and kicked her shoes off on the floor. "Do you wanna go get coffee? I'm exhausted."
Aubrey nodded. In all honesty, she was bored out of her mind. She had finished her finals that morning, and she was left with nothing to do while waiting for Chloe to finish hers.
"This means I have to put my shoes back on." Chloe dropped down onto her back.
"They're flip-flops."
"Help me up," Chloe pleaded.
Aubrey stood up to help her – stopping as both of their phones went off at the same time. They shared a look. That could only mean one thing. She picked up her phone and opened the text to read it out loud, "Now that Chloe is finally done with her finals, I'm calling an End of the Year Bellas meeting in 15." How was Aubrey supposed to be early if the meeting itself started in 15?
"I swear she has a tracker on me." Chloe frowned. "It's not like I scheduled the dates and times." She rolled onto her side, pulling her blanket over herself. "Tell her I'm sick. Tell her I'm dying. Tell her I'm dead."
"You're going to be dead if you don't show up." Aubrey slipped her shoes on.
Chloe didn't budge.
Aubrey drew in an irritated breath as she walked to the bed and grabbed Chloe's blanket in a futile attempt to unwrap her. "Chloe." She folded her arms. "Fine. Stay here alone." Nothing. "Chloe, I'm not waiting for you." She threw her arms up then turned and walked out the door.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
The door opened and Chloe quickly stepped out into the hall.
Aubrey stared at her – arms crossed again.
"You did wait for me!" Chloe grabbed her and hugged her then kissed her cheek. "I knew you would." She linked their arms, then changed her mind and slid her hand down Aubrey's arm until their fingers interlocked.
"Only because if Alice kills you, I have nowhere to go over summer."
"You could go home…" Chloe tested.
Aubrey looked at her.
"Or not."
"How do you think you did on your final?" Aubrey changed the subject.
Chloe released her to spread out her arms as she spoke. "Mind-blowingly," she said, "average." She grabbed Aubrey's arm again, hugging it.
"And that makes you happy?" Aubrey held the door open for her.
"Yeah. Why wouldn't it? I mean, I'm sure I got an A in the class." Chloe smiled as they stepped outside. "My goal is to get through college, not be the best at it."
Aubrey had nothing to say to that.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that," Chloe said, "Am I saying the wrong thing?"
"No," Aubrey responded a little too quickly. It was just difficult to understand how someone could be happy being average. Not that Chloe was average. She was anything but. Maybe it was Aubrey who was average, since Chloe was so content to settle for mediocrity. "I'm just not looking forward to this meeting." But only because she was looking forward to coffee with Chloe.
"Me neither. I love The Bellas, but I am so ready for Alice to be gone. Like, how does she even get to act like she's in charge? She's not even a senior. Okay, actually, do you know what I heard?"
Aubrey arched her brows.
"I heard that last year, she was paying favors to Rachel, and that's how she got power. And, this year, she's paying favors to Brianna."
"Paying favors?" Aubrey blinked. Rachel had been the captain last year – and, while Alice hadn't actually been named a co-captain or anything of the sort, she had a lot of leverage. "Like, she's picking up their groceries?"
"Like they're having sex, Aubrey."
Oh. Wait, what?! ...actually, that made an undue amount of sense. It was also something Aubrey never wanted to think about again.
"Can you believe next year, she's actually going to be in charge – like officially? She's going to be the boss of us."
Aubrey was not looking forward to it.
"But after that, it'll be us. Unless she fails. Oh my god, what if she fails? Should we have sex with her?"
"No bad karma," Aubrey stopped her, "If she fails…"
"Guys, stop talking, here they come," Alice announced. She loved to do that – making Aubrey feel like they were talking about her.
"Look at their clothes," one of the girls whispered, and the others laugh.
Aubrey ignored them.
"Do you want us to donate them to Goodwill for you when we're done with them?" Chloe asked sweetly.
"Chloe," Alice said, "You look like-"
Aubrey and Chloe walked inside the building, and Aubrey shut the door behind them.
"What do you think she was going to say?" Chloe asked as they took their seats in the back.
Aubrey looked her over – assessing Chloe's lime green dress. "An inverted carrot."
Chloe let out a loud laugh. "That's so mean."
Aubrey suppressed a smirk. "I was channeling Alice."
"In that case, I'll forgive you." Chloe smiled and winked at her.
Aubrey felt her cheeks grow warmer. She glanced back at her – also smiling.
"So, you never told me," Chloe said, leaning closer to her, "How did you decide you wanted to be a Bella?"
Aubrey opened her mouth to speak.
"Ladies!" Alice clapped her hands at them to shut them up as everyone walked inside, and she took her seat in the front row. "Try to pay attention for once."
xxxxx
"I think your body needs a few more minutes to rest," Beca says as Aubrey uses the tree to pull herself up.
"I slept an entire day," Aubrey reminds her.
"You can barely stand up." Beca gets up next to her.
Aubrey turns – getting right in her face. "I'm fine."
xxxxx
Chloe scooted her chair closer to Aubrey's so they could whisper. "Why aren't you at, like, Harvard or Yale? Why here? Why The Bellas?"
"Some…strange lady told me about them." Aubrey tried not to think of it anymore. The fact was she was here – it didn't matter how it came to be.
"Some strange lady?" Chloe asked, "Like at a college fair? Now you have to elaborate."
Aubrey shook her head. She crossed her ankles and leaned sideways so their shoulders were touching. "She saw me alone, and…accosted me with kindness." She left out the fact she had been nine.
"Accosted you with kindness?" Chloe asked.
Aubrey nodded. "She was...persistently nice." Looking back now, she had tricked Aubrey with claiming she needed help, ice cream, by telling her she couldn't ride the ride alone.
Chloe laughed. "That sounds like my mom."
Aubrey couldn't deny it. There were many similarities – from what she could remember. A lot of it was a blur caused from being so young. What she could remember clearly was how she humiliated herself by asking to go home with her. Her cheeks flushed at the very thought. It was one of those embarrassing thoughts that would pop up at random and plague her all night long sometimes. She was almost relieved that none of the girls there looked like her – beautiful brown hair, the deepest blue eyes. Whatever. That girl would have been irrelevant compared to Chloe anyway.
"Julia Beale: Perpetrator of Kindness. You know this one time at Dis-"
"Chloe!" Alice spun around, "Do you ever stop talking?"
Chloe fell silent until she turned back around. "You'd think she'd stop asking that question, seeing as she already knows the answer."
Aubrey breathed a laugh through her nose.
"Chloe, take your chair over there," Alice demanded, "Away from Aubrey. God, you're like Laverne and Shirley."
Chloe stood up and grabbed the back of her chair, leaning over it to keep whispering to Aubrey. "You'd also think she'd realize I'm just going to find someone to talk to over there, too." She pulled her chair across the room to sit by one of the other girls.
"All the way over there," Alice said before she could sit down.
"Seriously?" Chloe frowned and dragged her chair off to the side to sit by herself.
Aubrey smirked and pulled out her phone to text her. 'How's the 'alone chair'?' According to Chloe's mom, that's what Chloe called her seats all through elementary school. And middle school. And high school. While great in theory, it apparently never worked, because she'd just talk or sing to herself.
Chloe's ringtone went off, and she scrambled to pull her phone out of the pocket of her dress.
Alice got up and stormed over to her, grabbing it before she could open the text. She marched over to Aubrey next and held out her other hand. "I know it was you."
There was really no trying to deny it. She sighed and handed her phone over. It was hard to pay attention even away from Chloe and without her phone – especially with the 'seriously, Aubrey?' looks that Chloe kept shooting her.
"You two were a mistake." Alice sat back down in her chair. "How did your parents even want you around?"
That got Aubrey's attention. Her stomach immediately felt sick. She stopped playing with Chloe and stared straight ahead – trying now to pay attention to what was being said.
xxxxx
"You're not fine."
Aubrey is about to go off on her, but she gets distracted by light behind her. She can barely see it, but it's there on the horizon, peeking out from cracks in the dark clouds. "Beca."
"Listen to-"
"Beca, look."
Beca turns around.
"It's morning." Finally. Finally.
"Okay, good, great, let's just wait until we can see," Beca says, frowning when Aubrey starts walking East toward the sun, "Haven't you heard the saying 'don't go toward the light'?"
"The closer you get to the light," Aubrey responds, "The more it gets bright."
"Well, wander around in the dark, and," Beca gathers their stuff then moves quickly to grab her hand, and goes silence for a long while, "Give me a rhyme."
"Aardvark."
"Something else," Beca requests.
"Central Park."
"Aubrey…"
"Sand shark."
"Something I can use."
Aubrey almost manages to smirk. "A caustic remark."
"You're fucking with me on purpose."
Of course. Aubrey knows when to seize an opportunity. "Question mark?"
"Do you want me to make bee jokes again?" Beca threatens her, "You're such a buzzkill."
"Fine," Aubrey concedes, "Wander around in the dark, and you won't see a landmark."
"Was that so hard?" Beca asks.
"Asks the person who couldn't think of it herself," Aubrey answers.
"I meant being nice."
Aubrey goes for one last swing at her. "I don't need your advice."
"Hey, Aubrey, what rhymes with 'shut up'?"
Aubrey hears something. "Shhh."
"Pretty sure that's a synonym," Beca says.
Aubrey clamps her hand over Beca's mouth, and tries to block out her incessant mumbling. "Listen."
Beca stops talking and pushes away Aubrey's hand.
Aubrey doesn't hear it anymore.
"Are you sure you heard something?" Beca whispers.
There it is again.
"What is that?" Aubrey looks at Beca.
"How should I know?"
It sounds like metal banging against metal.
Aubrey walks slowly in that direction.
"Don't…" Beca says.
It could be Chloe. "We'll be careful."
"What if it's Luke?" Beca asks.
Aubrey releases Beca's hand and pulls the gun out of her pants. It's really come down to this - to where they have no choice but to kill or be killed. And after her encounter with him in the woods...? She still struggles with what she's about to say. "We end this."
