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“Okay, Chloe, you sure you want to do this?” Aubrey asks. It had been years since they went back to Barden. Not since Chloe and Beca’s tumultuous split just before Beca’s sophomore year. But now, Beca was gone, having graduated last spring. Aubrey and Chloe wanted to go back to Barden, check on the Bellas, so they had come for the activities fair to help drum up support for the club. Unfortunately, the first thing they saw was Beca. And Stacie. Arm in arm. At the Bellas booth.
“Beca and I agreed we would be amicable,” Chloe hisses. She takes a deep breath. “I’m not going to avoid her. Let’s just go say hi.”
“God, why would Stacie go for her ?” Aubrey asks.
“Are you jealous, Aubrey Posen?” Chloe asks, grinning. She’d always known that Aubrey had a toner for the oversexed brunette.
“No, I told you. I got over her long ago,” she sniffs.
“Liar,” Chloe snorts, but she links arms with her blonde friend and heads over to the booth.
“Oh my god, guys!” Stacie squeals, kissing Beca on the cheek, (Chloe has to stifle a smile when Beca grimaces- she had never been one for PDA), before running over to greet their former captains. “We missed you! Meet Emily, this year’s captain. She’s a legacy ,” she says. Chloe’s eyes widen.
“A legacy? We have a legacy on the team?” Chloe squeals. “Who?”
“Emily Junk,” the brunette introduces herself. Chloe eyes her appreciatively. “My mom was Catherine Junk, the-”
“The woman who pioneered the syncopated booty shake!” Chloe interrupts, grinning. “You have to tell us all about how the Bellas have been doing. After the activities fair, you’ll have to meet us for drinks, okay?” After making plans to meet, the girls all part ways, Chloe, Aubrey, and Stacie go to claim their table in the pub, and Beca goes to find her dad.
“So, Bree, you have to tell me what you’ve been doing with your life. Probably something glamorous, right?” Stacie says, tracing a finger up and down Aubrey’s arm. Aubrey, for her part, is just trying not to be so visibly flustered. Chloe narrows her eyes. It’s one thing for Beca to date Stacie. It’s another if Stacie thinks she can cheat on her ex with her best friend. In front of her.
“Um, I’m running a, uh, a retreat camp. Like, for businesspeople? Um, team bonding, stuff like that?” she says breathlessly, pulling her arm out of Stacie’s reach. Stacie just giggles.
“Oh my God, I can totes imagine you doing that. Like a little drill sergeant, whipping their asses into shape. You’d be a total hardass, right? What kind of retreat is it? Like, spa? Or boot camp? Knowing you, it’s boot camp,” Stacie winks.
“Like, a nature camp. Lots of outdoor stuff,” Chloe supplies. Aubrey nods, biting her lower lip. Based on the way she just tensed, Chloe could guess that Stacie was probably playing footsie with her friend. Or maybe her hand was on Bree’s leg. Either way, Bree was blushing, and Stacie was giggling.
“So, water sports? Or, ropes courses? Ohh, a mud pit?” Stacie asks, leaning closer to Aubrey.
“All of the above,” Aubrey chirps, her blush creeping down her chest.
“Listen, Bree, I gotta ask,” Stacie whispers. “After drinks with Legacy, wanna head out to dinner, just you and me? Maybe, uh, see what develops?” Chloe scoffs.
“I’m sorry, are we all just pretending like Beca doesn’t exist?” Chloe asks. Stacie raises an eyebrow.
“What about Beca?” Stacie asks.
“Okay, you cannot just cheat on her like this! Beca is amazing, and deserves so much better! She deserves someone who will cherish her, and treat her like the goddess that she is. I screwed that up, okay? And I will regret that for the rest of my life. But damn it all to hell if I’m going to let you hurt her. You may be bigger than me, and probably stronger, but dammit Stace, if you hurt her I’ll fight you,” Chloe rants. Stacie just laughs.
“Beca and I aren’t dating , Chlo,” she laughs. “God, I love her to death, but not like that. No, the only girl I’ve ever had a thing for is Bree, here. I thought I made that pretty damn obvious freshman year,” she adds to Aubrey, who just gaped before lunging forward, kissing her.
“Not obvious enough, Stace, I’m oblivious ,” she growls through the kiss.
“Um, so, you’re not cheating on Beca?” Chloe asks, confused.
“Nope,” a voice calls from behind. Chloe turns to find Beca and Emily, staring at her. It was Beca who had spoken. “For the rest of your life?”
“Uh, yeah. I fucked up. Monumentally, Becs. I left what was possibly the best thing I’ve ever had. I… I was afraid, afraid that we were, like, forever. And I know you’re the one with the crappy background and the crappy example for love, and my parents should be the perfect example of lifelong love, but that scares the crap out of me, Becs. I was barely holding it together as it was. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, I had just graduated college, and was trying to find a job, find myself, figure life out. The idea of having found the love of my life, too? It was all a little too much. So, I let you get away, and that was my mistake,” Chloe explains earnestly. Emily just watches, eyes wide.
“Love of your life?” Beca challenges, crossing her arms. Chloe stands, turning to face her. She zeros in on Beca, letting the rest of the world fall away, just like it used to when they were together.
“Would you say any different?”
“No,” she says, her voice small. Then she stops, and her jaw sets. “But you left me. You knew how fucked up I am about people leaving, and you left. You think that’s okay just because you love me? That makes it worse!” she says, her voice rising.
“Hey, uh, Becs, let’s take this conversation somewhere else, huh?” Emily says, pulling on Beca’s arm. Beca just yanks away from her, glaring at her. She backs away, hands up in surrender.
“Beca Mitchell, I love you, and I am sorry I screwed up. I’m not saying you have to take me back. Hell, I wasn’t even planning on asking. I was just going to be miserable and live with my mistake forever,” Chloe says, tears in her eyes. She turns. “I’m sorry, Emily, but I have to go. I’d love to talk to you about the Bellas some other time. But, I know where I’m not wanted.” She turns to Aubrey. “Go, have fun with Stacie. No matter what you say, you never really lost your toner for her. I’ll be at the hotel, so please, dear God, don’t bring her back there.” Chloe turns on her heel, walking away quickly as the tears blur her vision. She get out of the noisy pub, and halfway down the block before a hand grabs her wrist.
“Fuck you, Chloe Beale, okay?” Beca says angrily, and Chloe is surprised to see she, too, is crying. “Because you don’t get to make these decisions by yourself. You’re the love of my fucking life too, okay? So, when you decide to leave, I’m affected, too. I couldn’t ever find that feeling. I tried, okay? But nobody compares to you. So, you don’t get to just walk away, make the decisions for yourself. Because this isn’t just your life that you’re fucking over!” She’s shouting now, and people are staring, but none of it matters.
“So what do you want me to do, Beca? What do you want? You don’t want me to leave. You don’t seem to want me to stay. So? What the hell do you want?” Chloe roars angrily. Beca surges forward, and suddenly Chloe is pressed up against the wall of the nearest building, Beca’s hands all over her, her tongue in her mouth, like it’s lashing her, trying to punish her for leaving. But god, this feels more like a reward to Chloe who just moans, her knees trembling. She forgot just how perfectly Beca’s mouth fit on hers.
“I want you to shut up, and kiss me. And we’ll figure the rest out later,” Beca breathes, panting hard as she pulls away.
“That? I can do that,” Chloe nods, her voice an octave higher than usual, blush creeping down her chest, up her face. She grips Beca’s hand. “Let’s go back to my hotel room. I have it on good authority that Aubrey won’t be back for quite a while.” As they hail a cab together, barely managing to not grope each other in the back seat, Chloe snorts.
“What?” Beca asks quietly.
“Who were we kidding with ‘amicable’?” she giggles. “You and I are not ‘amicable’ people. We’re all or nothing people.” Beca smirks.
“I much prefer ‘all’ to ‘amicable,’” she breathes, practically sliding onto Chloe’s lap. Thankfully, the cab pulls up to the hotel, and before they know it, they’re naked, in bed with each other, writhing, and screaming. Yeah, they were never meant to do amicable.