"I'm-" Beca started to disentangle herself from chloe, this was made difficult by the addition of skis and poles and her general lack of gracefulness. Not to mention, she felt the eyes of her three friends boring into her from above; the pressure wasn't simplifying the matter. After a few moments of hasty struggle she finally got to her feet before helping the other girl up as well, "learning to ski," she finished brushing herself off as aloofly as she could at the same time.

"I see that's going as well as it ever has," Stacie joked. She crossed her arms in front of herself; even if her face was stoic, Beca could tell from the way she was standing that she was assessing the situation before her with a shrewd eye.

She didn't know why, but her heart was thudding heavily in her chest all the sudden; she was sure if it beat much harder the others were sure to hear it over the noise of the other skiers making their way around them.

Much to Beca's relief Chloe piped up, "Actually she just made it down without falling! I mean until that part where she couldn't stop and almost killed me…" She trailed off while the others laughed, then flashing her bright smile, added, "I'm Chloe, by the way," as she pulled her goggles up over the top of her helmet; Stacie kicked Beca lightly from beside her.

Beca glanced over at the woman she had been spending the afternoon with for the first time and couldn't help but notice she was very pretty. She had bright blue eyes, much lighter than Beca's cool blue ones, that crinkled at the corners as she smiled. Chloe looked like she had spent a good amount of time out in the sun; her skin was tanned to a golden brown, making her eyes pop even more. A chunk of curly red hair fell out of her helmet near her face and she shoved it back in nonchalantly.

Stacie answered before anyone else could, "I didn't know Beca had a friend that was going to be here this weekend; or one named chloe, at all for that matter. Where has she been hiding you?" She rounded on Beca; she couldn't see her face, but Beca knew Stacie's eyebrows were raised expectantly at her. As the person who Beca told everything to, she was quite shocked to meet this new girl.

Beca felt her heart thud loudly again.

"Oh, we just met," Chloe said quickly with another nervous smile. "I found her on the ground-"

"And thought I was a kid," Beca grumbled. Chloe smiled apologetically at her. Beca was really starting to enjoy the ever-present smile, especially with the new addition of Chloe's striking eyes.

Emily and Steve were bent in half laughing. "That's great," emily gasped, slapping her knee as she said it. She straightened up and turned to chloe, "I'm emily, Becas my mom, this is Stacie and Steve," she motioned to the other two. Steve grinned goofily while Stacie snaked her arm around his waist.

Chloe cocked her head to the side looking between the teenager and Beca, "becas your mom?" She turned to face Beca and, sounding extremely surprised, asked, "How old are you anyway?"

"21," beca responded quickly, "just 21. I adopted Emily last year-"

Emily, who appeared to still be somewhat drunk, threw her arm around Beca's shoulders. She leaned heavily on her, putting far too much of her weight on the smaller girl whose knees buckled a little while she was interrupted. "After my mom died…Beca's probably too gay to have kids anyway," she added as an afterthought. Beca wanted to kill her, but settled for tugging on the braid that was trailing down Emily's back making her head pull backwards.

Emily looked around drunkenly trying to figure out what had happened to her through blurry eyes.

Beca was thankful to still have her helmet and goggles on to shield her face from the rest of the group. She looked over at Stacie, whose hand flew up to cover her mouth, and Steve, whose mouth was hanging ajar again, and felt another wave of embarrassment flood over her; she wished they would at least try to act like Emily hadn't just made her want to disappear on the spot.

However, despite the gay comment, Beca could tell Chloe was touched by this. "Wow, that's really amazing of you, Beca," she said, causing Becas face to flush for the third time that day; out of embarrassment at Emily's comment or Chloe's praise she wasn't quite sure now. "And I'm pretty sure that's what my mom said about me too," she added simply.

Beca felt embarrassment and relief and confusion rush through her body in a simultaneous wave; she had no clue how she was feeling right now. Had chloe just told her she was gay too? Was she just making a joke? What was actually happening here? The day had gone in a direction she never would have anticipated; part of her wished she was barricaded in her room slogging her way through guitar chords, but the other part was excited to be out with her friends and this new addition.

Luckily, Stacie pushed the conversation forward naturally. "We were just gonna go hang out for a bit in our rooms and then get ready for dinner," Stacie informed the girls. She pulled her helmet and goggles off and tucked them under her arm while her hand automatically moved to her hair shaking out the tangles as she went, "you're more than welcome to join if you'd like, Chloe."

This was just like Stacie, always kind and always inclusive. And always up to something. Her eyes flashed at Beca who could see the cogs turning in her best friend's brain as she took in the interaction that was being had. Beca knew that Stacie had a habit of doing what she thought was best for Beca without really asking, but for the life of her, she didn't know what the older girl was trying for right now.

Without her noticing, Beca's heart pounded while she waited with bated breath for Chloe's response.

Chloe's face lit up with excitement, "I would love to! As long as it's not inconvenient for you guys at all? I wouldn't want to barge in." She looked concernedly around at the group of four standing around her.

"Not at all!" Beca's three friends chorused together at the same time.

Beca shocked herself when she heard her voice add a second later, "Yeah, really we'd love to have you."

Stacie kicked beca in the shin again without chloe noticing, but Beca was already kicking herself for it too. We'd love to have you? Who was taking over her body right now? When had she ever voluntarily wanted to hang out with a stranger?

"Okay then," Chloe looked over the moon at her invitation, "I'm just gonna head back to my room to change and then I can meet you guys?"

"Room 14 whenever you're ready," Stacie said sweetly.

"Thanks guys," chloe beamed at the group, "I'll see you in a little bit. Bye, Beca," she reached over and squeezed Beca's arm in way of goodbye before skiing away from them.

Beca watched her leave, not a thought in her brain, while she placed her hand on the spot where chloe had previously squeezed her arm.

She most likely would have continued staring after the girl until she disappeared if it hadn't been for her friends. Stacie cleared her throat, "see wasn't it so nice to leave your phone at the room? You didn't have to worry about Dany texting you once."

Beca's heart plummeted; she felt as if the air around her weighed a ton, she was sinking through the snow, into the ground and out of sight. The sounds of the mountain disappeared and were replaced by a muted buzzing that pressed hard against her ears.

Dany.

Her afternoon learning to ski had pushed the thought of her girlfriend right out of her mind. Really, really far out of her mind.

Becas head swam for a moment; she reached down blindly and managed to undo one ski and then the other without fully comprehending what she was doing. Her breathing was haggard as her anxious mind sprinted in every direction and she couldn't manage to form any words.

She hadn't done anything wrong; there was nothing wrong with meeting someone right? Then why did she feel so sick to her stomach? Did she even really feel bad for meeting chloe? And what did meeting chloe even really mean? A little voice in Beca's head hounded her with questions, one after the other.

"Woah, Beca, are you okay?" Steve reached forward and placed his hand on her shoulder to steady her; she had begun to look as if she was swaying on the spot as she ripped her feet out of the skis.

"Let's go back to the room," Stacie suggested gently when beca failed to respond again. Beca nodded numbly and let the other girl lead her towards the lodge, then up the steps and through the doors. She could hear the other two trailing behind her, but everything around her seemed to be dissolving away.

Once they were inside their rooms Stacie shoved Beca down on the couch where she sat staring blankly in front of herself as she took off her helmet and goggles. Stacie squatted down in front of her best friend. "You're okay," she said softly, putting her hands on Beca's knees and leaning towards her.

Beca made a small whimpering noise, she did not feel like she was okay right now. She felt like she just had the best afternoon of her life; but the thought of betraying Dany weighed heavily on her mind.

"Becs, you haven't done anything wrong-" Stacie stopped when she saw the look on Beca's face. "You haven't. There's nothing wrong with meeting someone and hanging out with them. How you're feeling right now is because-"

"We all HATE Dany," Emily said, nodding her head knowledgeably, plopping down beside Beca and throwing her arm around her.

Stacie closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning to Emily who didn't seem to notice she had said anything wrong. "Em, you need to go drink a bunch of water and take a nap before dinner-"

"I don't want to," she pouted crossly.

"Too bad," Stacie raised her eyebrows dangerously; she didn't often step in to say anything to emily, letting Beca handle the relatively easy teenager, but emily was drunk and there was an exception to everything. Emily made no move to get up; Stacie glared at her, there were many things Stacie could do, but being a mother was probably low on the list, she truly didn't have the patience for it.

"Steve!" Stacie called over her shoulder to her boyfriend who had been sitting comfortably on the chair across from them, watching everything the whole time.

He jumped up immediately, "got her," he said before walking over and grabbing a protesting Emily around the middle and throwing her over his shoulder. This was Stacie's way of parenting. Emily grumbled as she hung upside down over Steve's shoulder, her hair falling all around her face so they couldn't make it out clearly. "We're gonna take some liquidiv shots, em, it'll be fun," he promised, picking up a bottle of water and winking at Stacie as he carried the girl to her room and disappeared.

When the door snapped shut behind them Stacie turned back to Beca who was looking paler than usual. "Okay-well, even if she didn't say it the best way, emily sort of said what I was going to. You're feeling guilty because you're a good person-"

"I do NOT feel like one," Beca said earnestly. And truly she didn't.

"Why? Because you're unhappy in your relationship? And you were just able to have a good, relaxed time with someone and it made you realize how little of that you get in your day to day life?"

"Okay, ouch," Beca said pointedly. "I feel shitty because I didn't think about Dany once-"

Stacie dug her nails into Beca's knees, "Because she doesn't make you happy! Because she makes you miserable! I am so glad to hear that you had a great afternoon, Becs, really I am, and I'm so happy that it was so great you didn't think of her. And I know, and you know, that you would never do anything to disrespect Dany, and you haven't done that yet and you won't.

"Now, I'm not going to sit here and act like I don't want you to hang out with and get to know Chloe." Beca felt her stomach plummet with her heart now. "I think it's perfectly fine to get to see what is out there right now. Because let's face it: you will literally never leave Dany if you don't realize how horrible it truly is. I'm not saying you're going to end up with this girl you just met; I'm just saying it couldn't hurt to see that the grass is definitely greener on the other side for you."

She stopped talking, her chest was rising and falling rapidly as she had spoken with so much passion. Beca sat quietly processing everything that had been said to her.

Deep down she knew that Stacie was right. She did only feel bad because that's just who she was; she never wanted to hurt anyone. Especially the girl she had been with for a year a half. And she also knew that Stacie most likely wasn't wrong about the grass being greener.

Danys face swam through her mind, followed shortly by chloe's smiling one. She dropped her head and dug the heels of her hands into her eyes while she tried to clear her head of both women.

She felt Stacie stand up next to her and squeeze her into a quick hug. "We're gonna have fun tonight, okay? It's gonna be alright." She paused for a second before adding, "You're a good person, Becky, I know you're gonna make the right choices."

"Thanks, Stace," Beca sighed heavily, finally removing her hands from her eyes. The world came back into splotchy focus as her eyes readjusted to the light in the room. Stacie was looking wearily down at her so she cracked a small smile, "I'm gonna go get changed. I'll see you in a little bit," she rose to her feet and left Stacie in the living room looking after her with a small frown on her face.

Once she was in the privacy of her sun soaked room Beca collapsed face first onto her bed. She had so much to think about: everything seemed to be pointing towards her needing to break up with Dany. She had known this; but the fact that she just had more fun with a stranger in one afternoon than she had with her girlfriend for the better part of six months was a bigger sign than ever.

"How do you break up with someone?" She mumbled into the comforter before sighing again and rolling over.

Her phone was on the night stand and she sat up while she reached over to grab it. There were five notifications from Dany.

1:36pm: okay have fun babe :) let me know how it goes

2:30pm: I miss you I hate you won't be home when I get there tonight :(

3:43pm: hey babe kind of wondering why you haven't texted me back

4:27pm: beca are you ignoring me? I hate when you don't text me back

5:05pm: seriously babe I'm getting off work and I still haven't heard from you? This is getting ridiculous. How am I supposed to trust you to go anywhere without me when you can't even keep me updated with everything you're doing.

"Oh my god," beca groaned throwing her phone at the pillows. This wasn't healthy. She had told Dany right before she left the room earlier that afternoon that she wasn't taking her phone onto the mountain just to avoid this exact problem. Fat lot of help it had done her she thought angrily.

Every time Beca began to feel bad for how she felt about her girlfriend Dany would do something to instantly remind her. And here she was doing it again; it had been such a good day and now she had to deal with this. It was so typical for Dany to ruin any time beca had to herself she fumed silently.

She knew her blood was boiling too much for her to form a response that wouldn't get her into more trouble so she stood up pacing between her bed and the door.

Why was Dany like this? Why couldn't Dany just leave her alone? Why must she always pick?

Beca pestered herself with questions as she trod the same path back and forth further fueling her fire with every step. She only stopped when she remembered she was supposed to be getting changed and rejoining her friends in the living room.

Her mind was still racing, but she picked her phone up off the bed where it had been discarded. She had a few more angry texts from Dany but she ignored them as she typed out an answer.

5:45pm: I just got back from skiing Dany. I told you I wasn't bringing my phone with me right before I left. I don't know why there always has to be a problem anyway. We're all getting ready to go to dinner, I can't do this right now. We'll talk later, please don't ruin tonight for me

She groaned to herself again before anxiously turning off Danys notifications. It was probably best for her to not see the deluge of texts she was most likely getting right away; she would handle it all later when her head was clearer.

With that issue out of the way beca stripped off her ski pants and the t shirt she had been wearing before going to peruse the bag she had brought for the weekend. She was bent over causally searching through what she had when she straightened up suddenly remembering Chloe would be joining them.

This seemed to trigger a whole set of nerves Beca wasn't aware she had. Just get dressed she told herself calmly, just put clothes on it doesn't matter what you wear; you're just hanging out with someone…

And she's going to see you for the first time the tiny voice in the back of her head said making Beca's blood run cold. That was right; she forgot Chloe hadn't actually seen her yet. She shook her head "you're being ridiculous," she hissed at herself; it was bold of her to think Chloe even cared at all. Maybe she was just happy to be making friends.

After going back and forth for a few minutes Beca finally selected a pair of green cargo pants and a skin tight white t shirt crop top before collecting her things and heading to the bathroom in her room for a quick shower before she got dressed.

This'll be fine, she thought twenty minutes later as she took in her reflection who was staring back looking strained and anxious. She leaned in close to fix an eyeliner smudge and heaved another heavy sigh, "You're okay," she told herself forcefully, trying to make sure she believed it. "I need a fucking blunt," she added woefully.

With one last glance at her phone she pushed open the door and made her way back out to the living room. Stacie, who was now changed and had fresh makeup on, was sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in hand. She looked up lazily from her phone when beca walked in.

"You look cute," she said slyly over the edge of her glass.

"Thanks; where are the others?" Beca asked, she had expected both Steve and Emily to be back out here by now but they were nowhere to be seen.

Stacie nodded towards Emily's room, "go look," she said with a smile.

Beca quietly pushed open the door, the room was bathed in golden light and long shadows and was dead silent except for the steady breathing of Steve and Emily. The two of them were passed out on the bed; emily was sprawled on her stomach, her face shoved hard into the pillow she was laying on while steve sat upright next to her leaning against the headboard with his mouth agape. Beca couldn't help but smile, the two of them were sweet.

"Well, that's adorable," she said when she rejoined Stacie on the couch and pulled the rolling tray that was on the coffee table onto her lap. She started breaking up the weed and added thoughtfully, "Maybe we shouldn't let her drink so much next-what?"

She stopped when she saw the look on Stacie's face, the older girl was glancing at her phone nervously. She looked up quickly and tried to feign a smile but failed and chose instead to sigh heavily.

"Ah, well, here's the thing…Dany texted me."

Beca groaned loudly, "can't she just leave us alone for one day? Fuck." She angrily split open a Dutch and emptied its contents back into the package, a little more haphazardly than she had intended and sent blunt guts flying in every direction. She quickly swept them up and funneled them into the package.

"I know, love, I really wish she would too," Stacie bit her lip and watched as Beca, frowning profusely, filled her blunt with shaky hands. "She's just wondering why you won't talk-"

"Because she can't let me breathe!" Beca snapped, "because she won't let me have five hours to myself without attacking me. I literally can't do it anymore, stace." She started rolling the blunt, her eyebrows were furrowed in annoyance.