- Part 1 -

Arrhythmia

Can't count the years on one hand that we've been together,
I need the other one to hold you,
Make you feel, make you feel better.
It's not a walk in the park to love each other,
But when our fingers interlock, can't deny, can't deny, you're the worth it.
'Cause after all this time,
I'm still into you.
-Paramore

Sophia weaves through The Bellas, starting at the front of their single file line down the sidewalk toward the pool and working her way back until she's standing in front of Aubrey and Chloe. She jumps and spreads her arms and legs apart as she lands, almost losing a sandal in the process. "A Bee!" She shakes her foot to slide her sandal back on. "There's stweet!" She points at the grass and stomps her foot back down on the sidewalk. "Da stweet."

Aubrey looks back and forth between the grass and Sophia then at Chloe. She adjusts the strap of her beach bag on her shoulder and hopes for some sort of translation. Chloe is better with kids than she is. Chloe is practically one with them.

Chloe looks at the grass then back at Aubrey and offers a shrug.

"That's stweet!" Sophia insists, still pointing. "It's stweet!"

Aubrey looks at her and rubs the back of her neck, aware that everyone has stopped walking and their eyes are suddenly on her. "There's no street, Sophia," she says gently. "That's just the grass."

"No." Sophia shakes her head. "Geen light. Red light. Geen light. Purple light."

Aubrey blinks.

"I...I tell you," Sophia says. "I tell you."

Chloe presses her lips together in a suppressed grin and covers her mouth with the back of her hand.

Stacie sighs. "I never know what she's talking about," she tells Aubrey, folding her arms. "Sophia, do you want to go swimming or what?"

Sophia turns to look at Stacie and holds out a hand to stop her. "Wait, Mommy! I tell."

Stacie sighs and rolls her eyes.

Sophia exaggerates a sigh and an eyeroll of her own and turns to look at Aubrey again. "That's stweet," she says again. "And geen light." She points at the grass again. "Hold hands." She points at her hand. "You."

Chloe kneels down to Sophia's level. "You want Aubrey to hold your hand crossing the street, because there's a green light?" she guesses and reaches forward, smoothing down Sophia's hair as a breeze blows through it.

Sophia looks at her and nods. "Mhm." She looks back up at Aubrey. "Stweet."

"That's grass," Aubrey corrects her again but takes her hand anyway. She fights back a smile, smug that Sophia wants to hold her hand above anyone else's. "But I'll still hold your hand." She frowns at Chloe as she stands up, recognizing that face as the one she gets whenever she reads the 'Free Kittens' ads in the newspaper. That look is usually followed by, 'Oh, Aubrey, look! Can we have one?' "You already have sixteen kids," she reminds her quickly once The Bellas start walking again. "You see them five days a week."

"Oh, Aubrey," Chloe gushes, wrapping her arms around Aubrey's arm. "I don't get to take any of them home."

Thank God. "We have enough with the child I already have at home," she says and gives Chloe a pointed looked, attempting to wiggle her arm free, to no avail. She starts walking after The Bellas, dragging both Chloe and Sophia along beside her. "Maybe we should just get a cat." She regrets the words as soon as they leave her mouth.

Chloe gasps and her grip on Aubrey's arm tightens by a ten-fold.

Fat Amy turns to look at them as she walks. "Chloe, if you get an orange cat, you can always just pretend it's your kid," she suggests and slows down to walk with them. "I'll help you with the kitten shower. I'm really good at throwing kitten showers."

Aubrey looks at Amy and frowns, having not realized anyone was listening. "We're not throwing a kitten shower," she cuts in quickly then looks at Chloe. "And I said a cat; something already litter-trained."

"Y'know, if y'all throw a kitten shower, Fat Amy can do her beat boxing," Cynthia-Rose adds. "You can even ask Beca to be your DJ."

Aubrey didn't think there could ever be an event she would want to attend even less than Beca's wedding, but clearly she was wrong. The creases in her forehead deepen as she can practically see the wheels turning in Chloe's head. "You do know this isn't happening, right?" She attempts to turn enough so that she's almost in front of Chloe, but nearly trips over Sophia in the process.

Fat Amy lifts her fist to her mouth and makes several poorly attempted beat boxing noises against it. She clears her throat then tries again. "Dog and cats and dogs and cats and dogs and cats..."

Sophia squeezes Aubrey's hand and starts giggling.

"And when it gets old enough, you can use it to make more cats," Stacie adds. "And then you can kick out Aubrey."

Aubrey's shoulders tense and she straightens her posture. Don't they care that she's right there? "It's my apartment," she points out. She and Chloe may split all of the bills, but everything is in her name. "No one is getting kicked out, except for Chloe's fictional cat." She swallows thickly and glances at Chloe out of the corner of her eye.

Chloe gives her a glance, apologizing for Stacie. "Aubrey and I are going to be happy with the two of us and our five cats," she announces.

Fat Amy's beat boxing changes. "Cats and cats and cats and cats and cats and cats..."

"It was one cat, Chloe," Aubrey reinforces. "One. And I've already changed my mind about it." She walks through the gate into the pool area and looks at the entirety of the wedding party mingling around the pool. She spots Beca on a beach chair with her headphones on and her eyes closed. Jesse is in the pool, talking to Benji. She walks over to an empty chair and pries her arm away from Chloe so she can put her beach bag on the ground. On the other side of the pool, there are bowls of fruit and glasses of what looks like lemonade, and she eyes them eagerly.

Stacie kneels down in front of Sophia and holds up a bottle of sunscreen. "You need to put this on," she says.

Sophia takes the bottle from her hands. "Daddy do it."

Stacie looks around. She points at Donald and Bumper who are sitting on the edge of the pool. "Donald!" she yells and stands back up.

Donald looks up. He pats Bumper on the shoulder then gets to his feet and starts walking over.

Sophia skips to meet him half way, but rather than stopping, walks in a circle around him. "Mommy do it," she says and walks back.

Stacie sighs. "Why can't you ever make up your mind?" She reaches for the bottle.

Sophia jumps back and holds the bottle above her head. "No do it." She turns and throws it in the pool.

Aubrey decides she doesn't want kids. She pulls her own bottle of sunscreen out of her beach bag then sits down on the lounge chair and inches back to make room for Chloe. She tries to readjust herself, the hot plastic burning her thighs. "Sit," she commands. Unlike Sophia, after too many harsh sunburns - Chloe at least knows better than to go without sunscreen, unless she wants to be flinching as Aubrey smothers her in aloe again.

Chloe pulls off her shirt then her shorts, dropping them both on the ground beside Aubrey's bag. She glances behind her, sitting down between Aubrey's legs and resting her hands on her lap. She hisses and moves her hands under her thighs so they're between her and the chair. "Do you think they sell cupcakes for cats?" She cranes her neck to look at Aubrey.

Aubrey looks up from squeezing sunscreen in her hand and shakes her head, not even sure how she's supposed to answer that question. She's not even sure why that's a question. If cupcakes for cats are a thing, whoever invented them is surely getting rich thanks to people like Chloe. She places the bottle on the chair beside her then focuses on rubbing sunscreen onto the back of Chloe's neck and shoulders.

xxxxx

The Bellas were going to start practice in fifteen minutes, and Aubrey still hadn't faced Chloe about the note. She had come to a decision though – and only stress-vomited twice in the process. She sat on her chair as The Bellas arrived, scrolling Google on her phone for the right song. She had decided on a few during a long night of not sleeping, but none of them were perfect. It didn't help that she wasn't exactly well-versed in the latest music. At least she had come to terms with the fact that she wasn't going to be able to sing whatever she found; she wasn't as brave as Chloe was in that area. She nervously fixed her scarf and stared at her phone screen.

"I'm sorry, but wasn't it clear about the 'No Cellphones During Practice' rule?" Alice approached her from the side, her arms folded across her chest. "It's even written on the board, if you're smart enough to read."

Aubrey glanced at the time on the corner of her phone screen. She still had thirteen minutes. But she would have to just avoid Chloe and then continue trying to pick a song after practice. "I'm sorry." She lowered her phone to her lap, but wasn't quick enough to exit out of her browser before Alice swiped the device from her hands. "What the hell?" She leapt to her feet and grabbed for it, but Alice stepped out of her reach. She clenched her teeth together, and debated how humiliating it would be to keep trying.

Alice hummed in amusement and turned to the side, scrolling up the screen with her finger. "Songs To Ask Someone Out With," she read from the search bar. "Are you serious?" she asked, grinning. She gave Aubrey a once over. "Do you really think someone would go out with you? I'm surprised you even have one friend."

Aubrey was tempted to tell her that she only had one friend because she didn't want friends (and because it wasn't like she would have time for them between classes and Bellas practice), but she knew better than to open her mouth as her stomach began to roll. She glanced to the side as, if on cue, Chloe walked into the room. Couldn't she be late like she usually was? She couldn't let Chloe see her making a fool out of herself, begging for her phone. She sat back down on her chair and folded her hands on her lap, staring at the white board. From the corner of her eye, she could see Alice going through her things, and took a deep breath to steel herself. Alice had already seen the most embarrassing thing she had to show.

Chloe draped her jacket over her own chair then walked over to Aubrey and Alice. "What's up?" she asked, casually placing her hands on her hips.

Aubrey kept her gaze focused on the back of the chair in front of her.

Alice smirked and lowered Aubrey's phone away from her face. "Your stupid friend is trying to ask out a boy in probably the most pathetic way possible," she answered. "She's hopeless. Not even a slut like you could help her."

Chloe's jaw dropped.

Aubrey bolted upright out of her chair, nearly knocking over the chair in front of her. She grabbed her phone from Alice's hand so quickly that it took Alice a moment of staring at her empty hand to realize what just happened. "Aca-scuse me?" she bit out. "I won't let you talk to her like that."

Alice arched her eyebrows, an amused smile playing on her lips. "You will if you want your solo next year." She flipped her hair and walked toward the front of the room before Aubrey could say another word.

Aubrey gaped and shook her head. She turned to face Chloe, her stomach dropping as she noticed the tears welling up in Chloe's eyes. "Chloe..."

Chloe shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, pressing her lips together in a tight, forced smile. "You know, it's not even that you're asking someone else out," she said quietly. She swallowed thickly. "You just could have told me." She turned around and walked back to her seat, knocking her jacket onto the floor as she sat down.

It felt colder in the room than it did just moments before and Aubrey folded her arms. "Chloe, I'm not," she insisted, cringing at how desperate she sounded, but Chloe had decided to stare straight ahead and not pay attention to her. "Chloe." This entire thing was going to be ruined. She subconsciously placed a hand on her stomach and tried to focus on breathing as she searched for the right words to explain what she was doing, or to simply claim that Alice was lying.

"Alright, Ladies!" A voice called from the front of the room. "Everyone to your seats! We're discussing Sigma Beta Theta's Annual Fall Mixer!"

Aubrey sat down on command, but couldn't take her eyes off of Chloe.

Two Bellas sat down in their assigned seats between them, blocking Aubrey's view.

Alice turned to face them, zeroing back in on Chloe. "Look at you, Chloe," she said loudly, drawing the attention of the other Bellas to her as well. "You're always a mess. Do us all a favor and come back when you're not crying like a baby?"

Chloe got back to her feet without a word. She sniffled and wiped at her face with the back of her hand, squeezing out between two of the seats, not bothering to pick up her jacket before leaving the room.

The door slammed and triggered Aubrey to her feet. She looked back and forth between the door and Alice, folding her arms even tighter, squeezing her phone in one hand. "Why do you always pick on her?" She could take Alice's harassment, but not when it was directed at Chloe. "She never did anything to you."

Alice's brows raised so high on her forehead that they almost met her hairline. If anything, she looked impressed – but that quickly turned to annoyance. "If anyone has anything to say, you can show yourself to the door for good," she said tersely, as if she was already in charge. "If not, you can sit down and shut up."

It sunk in that nothing Aubrey said was going to make a difference – at least not at this very moment. She lowered herself back down to her seat and stared in the general direction of the front of the room, redirecting her thoughts to how she was going to make things right with Chloe.

xxxxx

"Aubrey." Luke approaches the edge of the pool, treading water in the low end. "Hey."

Aubrey looks up from rubbing sunscreen on her arms, staring at him silently from behind Chloe. She arches her brows and shares a look with Chloe then resumes rubbing sunscreen on herself. If he expects Aubrey to pay him back for the drinks on what she is going to refuse to even refer to as a date or something, he has another thing coming. She places the bottle of sunscreen beside the chair, next to her bag and bathing suit cover up then rubs the excess sunscreen off her hands onto her thighs.

"Look," Luke says, not taking his eyes off of her.

Aubrey looks up, realizing he's probably not going to leave until she at least pretends to give him the time of day.

"I'm sorry about the bar," Luke says, following up his words with an awkward laugh. He looks around the pool. "I was thinking we could give it another go. Dinner this time." He nods at her.

The sunscreen on Aubrey's hands prevents her from rubbing her eyes to make sure she isn't hallucinating his ever-lingering presence. She shakes her head in disbelief. "You're an ass," she says simply.

"Can't disagree with you there." Luke stops treading water and stands up. "But I have money." He shrugs. "And I'm good at sex."

Aubrey furrows her brow and stares at him – hard, trying to determine whether he thinks she is that shallow or whether he is that shallow. Either way, the latter holds the truth. "I'm taken." She leans back against the chair, ignoring the glances she receives from a few Bellas and Trebles.

Chloe leans forward, folding her arms across her lap. "Go away," she says in an overly-sweet tone. She sits up straight again and leans back against Aubrey.

Fat Amy approaches the edge of the pool, not in her bathing suit yet. She stares down at Luke and bobs her head with the beat of the music playing from a stereo next to the food and drinks. "Y'could always try Stacie," she suggests.

Stacie doesn't look up from smothering herself with suntan oil. "Yeah, I'll have sex with you," she agrees. "What's your name again?"

Luke forces a laugh and takes a step back. He looks around at the several people now staring at him then turns and swims toward the deep end.

Stacie looks up when she receives no response. "Eh." She shrugs her shoulders and returns to preparing herself to bake in the sun. "He'll change his mind."

Chloe draws in a deep breath and leans her head back against Aubrey's shoulder. "So, was Luke, like, another one of your senior year flings that he's suddenly all 'oh my god, Aubrey, love me' now that he's seen you again?" She tilts her head back further, looking up at Aubrey's face.

"I did not have senior year flings." Aubrey presses her lips together to form a straight line, still staring at the pool. "That was one time with Howie when we were both seeing other people." She holds up one finger. "And then your nodes ruined his Fall Mixer and he couldn't even get it up after that."

"Who couldn't get it up?" Fat Amy asks, looking at them.

"No one," Aubrey snaps, her face flushing bright red.

Chloe lifts her head. "It's a touchy subject," she whispers and winks at Fat Amy. She pauses then turns to frown at Aubrey. "Wait, why are you blaming me for that?"

"I understand," Fat Amy whispers and points at herself. "I have that problem with Bumper all the time." She lowers her hand. "You know, we should swap suggestions."

"Viagra," Stacie cuts in. She looks up. "You know that works on women too?"

"Really?" Chloe asks.

Aubrey places her hands on Chloe's shoulders and eases her upright. "I just remembered I'm hungry." She uses Chloe as a crutch, giving them all disgusted looks as she stands beside the chair. She glances at the table where Sophia is desperately trying to reach a bowl of watermelon and walks that way to engage in better conversation.

xxxxx

"I know you're in there, Chloe." Aubrey knocked on her dorm room door again. "I have your jacket." She pressed her ear against Chloe's door, able to hear her moving around on the other side. Maybe she had her earphones in. She knocked louder. "Open up, Chloe." She tried to handle again, but it was still locked. "I hope you know that I'm making a fool out of myself in the middle of the hallway because you won't listen to me that Alice didn't know what she was talking about." Just because the hallway was empty didn't mean she didn't feel like an idiot talking at Chloe's closed door. She took a step back and waited for Chloe to open the door.

Nothing.

"You're being ridiculous." Aubrey swallowed thickly, trying to ignore the tightening of her chest and the sour taste in her mouth. She hugged Chloe's jacket closer to her chest and closed the distance between herself and the door again. "I didn't do anything wrong." She suddenly felt like her father yelling at her mother and took another step back, lowering her gaze to the ground. But she hadn't done anything wrong. Quite the contrary. She glanced down the hall toward her own dorm room then looked at Chloe's door again, clenching her jaw in determination. "Chloe," she tried again calmly, "Please, open the door."

She twisted the sleeve of Chloe's jacket around her hand, taken aback by the continuous lack of response. She almost regretted all of the times she wished Chloe would shut up. Almost. Exhaling a sigh, she wiggled the strap of her bag from her shoulder until it dropped to the crook of her elbow then knelt down on the ground and placed Chloe's jacket down beside her. It was a good thing she always brought a notebook to Bellas practice. She neatly tore out a sheet of lined paper then grabbed a pen. If anything, she could at least use Chloe's curiosity to her advantage and see if Chloe was even paying attention to her. She quickly scribbled 'Open the door.' on the paper then folded it and slid it halfway under the door.

Aubrey placed her pen and notebook back in her bag then sat on her heels and waited, counting in her head.

One. Two. Three.

Chloe grabbed the note and pulled it the rest of the way under the door.

So Chloe was listening as Aubrey continued to humiliate herself in the middle of Baker Hall.

Chloe slipped the paper back under the door and into the hall.

Maybe they were finally getting somewhere. Aubrey unfolded it and looked at what Chloe had written back.

'Is it Howie?'

"Howie?" Aubrey mouthed. From Sigma Beta Theta? What the hell? She wrinkled her nose and frowned at the door as she crumpled the sheet of paper and stuffed it in her bag. "It's not anyone, Chloe," she replied and got to her feet. That was a lie, because it was someone. "It's not any boy," she corrected herself. It's you. She couldn't bring herself to say the words. She stood up and flung her bag over her shoulder again then picked up Chloe's jacket as well. She didn't have time for this. Class started in an hour and she had two papers to finish within the next three days. She glanced at the door again.

Shaking her head, she folded her arms and marched to her own room.

xxxxx

"What else?" Aubrey asks and looks down at Sophia, holding a plate full of watermelon and peaches.

Sophia grips the edge of the table, barely able to see the plates on top. She lifts a hand and points at the strawberries. "I hungwy," she states, matter-of-factly.

"I am too." Aubrey scoops some strawberries onto the plate, followed by grapes. She turns and faces Sophia. "Where should we sit?"

Sophia lets go of the table and turns around. "Hmmmmm." She touches her lips with the tip of her finger then lifts her hands as she shrugs. "I don't know!"

Aubrey looks around, hoping to spot a table. No such luck. She approaches a lounge chair and sits down, folding her legs and placing the plate in the middle of the chair.

Sophia sits down at the bottom of the chair. She grabs a grape and pops it in her mouth then grins at Aubrey, holding the fruit between her teeth. "Eeeee," she hums.

Aubrey has to suppress a smile and reminds herself to be responsible. "Don't do that. You're going to choke," she warns her. She takes her fork and picks up one of the peach slices, letting the juice drip off of it before placing it in her mouth. Now this is how vacations were supposed to be. She leans back against the chair and stabs a few chunks of watermelon.

Sophia stares at her for a moment then picks up the second fork and attempts to use it to pick up another grape. She chases it around the plate twice before managing to poke the fork through it. "A Bee!" She wiggles and holds up the fork for Aubrey to see.

Still chewing on watermelon, Aubrey raises her brows in exaggerated interest and nods until she swallows. "Good job."

Chloe approaches them from the side, carrying a glass of lemonade. "Can I ask you something?".

Halfway to eating another piece of watermelon, Aubrey frowns and lowers her fork. She licks her lips and looks up, waiting for Chloe to continue.

"No, Glowy!" Sophia cuts in. She points her fork at Chloe, grape still attached. "You no talk!"

Aubrey blinks, stunned, and looks at Sophia again.

"Sophia, that's not nice." Chloe kneels down to her level.

"You no talk." Sophia waves her fork. "I talk to A Bee."

Aubrey glances back and forth between them then looks down at the plate and takes a bite of watermelon, leaving the two of them to battle this out. She rests her elbow on the arm of the chair and leans her head against her hand, poking at another slice of peach.

"We can both talk to Aubrey," Chloe suggests, smiling.

"No, Glowy!" Sophia shakes her head. "She my A Bee!"

"Well..." Chloe looks flustered. "Well, how about if she's my girlfriend and your best friend and then we can both talk to her?"

Sophia tries to fold her arms, but the fork gets in the way. "No."

There is a seed from the watermelon stuck to Aubrey's peach and she picks it off and flicks it in the grass then licks the juice from her fingertips. In the pool, Lilly is standing perfectly still, making fish lips – and Aubrey watches her in confusion and mild interest. She reaches over and takes Chloe's glass of lemonade from her without looking and takes a few sips from it. Sugar lines the rim of the glass and she licks her lips. She'll have to at least leave a good review for The Candlewick Inn on Yelp, as all of their food has been aca-mazing so far. She smiles and places the cup in the cup holder.

Chloe places her hands on the arm of the chair. "But what if I have to ask her something important?" she asks Sophia.

Sophia stands up on the chair and steps over the plate of fruit to throw herself down on Aubrey's lap. "My A Bee!" she insists. She points to the pool with her fork. "Go!"

Chloe stands up and places her hands on her hips. "Aubrey," she all but whines.

The tone of Chloe's voice makes it harder to keep a straight face, and Aubrey has to take another bite of fruit to focus. She draws in a deep breath and turns to look up at Chloe, raising her eyebrows. "I'd like to talk, Chloe," she says, putting in effort to keep her voice even, "but..." She motions at Sophia with her fork and shrugs. She presses her lips together, but a smirk breaks through.

Chloe gapes at them. She leans forward and steals all of the strawberries from Aubrey's plate, putting one in her mouth, then turns and marches off back in the direction she came from.

Aubrey stifles a laugh and is about to take another sip of lemonade, but lowers the glass. "If it's about Viagra," she says while Chloe is still in earshot, "The answer is no." That's where she draws the line.

Chloe throws a strawberry over her shoulder at the two of them and keeps walking. "I don't need Viagra," she announces haughtily and keeps her hand raised after throwing the strawberry. She accidentally bumps shoulders with Beca as she walks by on her way to the refreshment table, but keeps going. "I am amazing in bed."

Aubrey can't exactly disagree. She places a grape in her mouth and lowers her gaze to Chloe's ass as she walks away.

Beca looks back and forth between them, her face pinched in disgust. She shudders and walks away.

Aubrey bites down on the grape and looks at Beca, refusing to even tell herself that Beca is missing out. Aside from the Tyler's death and the phone calls, Beca Mitchell no longer exists.

Her hunger slowly begins to fade as she stares at Beca's back, thinking about the previous night. She swallows hard and looks back down at the plate of fruit, not wanting Chloe to catch her staring at Beca. She has to remind herself of how Beca hurt Chloe, because, somehow, through it all, Beca manages to not always seem that bad – despite what a pain in the ass she is. She reminds herself that Beca is a pain in the ass, and that not having to deal with her is everything she has wanted for years. She steadies her breathing.

Somehow, Beca Mitchell not existing should feel a lot more relieving than it actually does.

I should be over all the butterflies, but I'm into you, I'm into you.
And, Baby, even on our worst nights,
I'm into you, I'm into you.
Let 'em wonder how we got this far,
'Cause I don't really need to wonder at all.
Yeah, after all this time,
I'm still into you.
-Paramore