Chloe knocked on Aubrey's room door and entered the blonde's room without waiting for a response. "I did something," she said with her hands behind her back.
Aubrey looked up from the book that she was reading and quirked a brow. "What'd you break?"
"Nothing, I borrowed something… without asking," Chloe explained, sheepishly.
"Yeah, Chlo, that's called stealing," Aubrey smirked in amusement. "What'd you take?"
Chloe pulled Beca's headphones out from behind her back and held them up for Aubrey to see.
She had stopped by the on-campus radio station to Beca but upon her arrival, she had spotted Beca's backpack on the table. She was just going to wait for the brunette but then she got a brilliant idea and took the headphones from the backpack before hightailing it out of the station.
Aubrey took one look at the black headphones and frowned. "Aren't those Beca's?" Chloe nodded as she bit her bottom lip. "Why'd you take them?"
Chloe fiddled with the headphones as she spoke.
"Because she's leaving tomorrow to go to California but she's really attached to these headphones so maybe she won't leave if she doesn't have them."
Aubrey looked at her best friend sympathetically.
"Chloe she'll buy new headphones."
"But these are like… everything to her," Chloe explained. "Her favorite deejay gave them to her."
"Which is why you should return them before she leaves." Aubrey patted the empty space beside her. "And when you're returning them, you can tell her how huge of a toner you have for her."
Chloe got onto the bed and rested her head on Aubrey's shoulder. "But what if I admit how I feel and she leaves anyway? I don't want to put it all out there just to get rejected."
"Since when do you not want to put it all out there? You entered her shower naked."
"Yeah but that was before feelings happened," Chloe pointed out. "Now when I think about getting into the shower with her, singing isn't exactly what I want to do."
Aubrey rolled her eyes at the perverted grin Chloe was now sporting. "Just talk to her. She's into you too. It'll be fine."
Chloe raised her head to look at Aubrey. "I can't do that without solid proof."
Aubrey started counting off examples on her fingers for Chloe . "She lets you invade her personal space, she smiles when you're around, she lets you listen to her unfinished mixes. Just this morning you took her coffee and drank it without asking and she didn't even think twice about it. If that was anyone else, there would've been bodily harm done."
"That doesn't necessarily mean that she's into me." There was a knock at the front door and Chloe looked over at Aubrey. "Expecting anyone?"
"Nope." Aubrey got up and headed to the front door with Chloe trailing behind her. She looked through the peephole and grinned. "It's Beca."
Chloe's eyes widened and she rushed to her room to hide the headphones. Aubrey shook her head and opened the door. "Ready for L.A.?"
"Not quite," Beca replied as she walked into the apartment. "Is Chloe here?"
"She is," Aubrey replied, figuring Beca's response was because she couldn't locate her headphones. "I'll go get her." The blonde headed to Chloe's room and leaned against the doorway. "You need to tell her how you feel."
"Horrible idea," Chloe said, simply as she closed the bottom drawer of the dresser where she was hiding the headphones.
"And give her back her headphones," Aubrey whispered before heading to her own room. Chloe walked out into the living room where Beca was now sitting. "Hey, you!" She greeted the shorter girl, cheerily.
"Hey, Chlo," Beca smiled. "Have you seen my headphones? I couldn't sworn I had them in my backpack earlier but I can't find them."
Chloe shook her head. "Haven't seen them. Sorry."
Beca sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
"I've looked everywhere. I can't believe I misplaced them like this."
"I'm sure you'll find them," Chloe said, trying to keep the guilt out of her voice.
"I hope so," Beca said, miserably.
Chloe felt horrible and almost went to her room to get the headphones but willed herself to stay put. This was for the better. She had to get Beca to miss her flight.
"Hey, I'm going to go see if I left them at Jesse's," Beca said. "Maybe we can do something later."
Chloe wanted to say yes. She really did, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep up the charade of not knowing where Beca's headphones were. She needed to distance herself for now. "I'm going to be really busy all day. Aubrey needs me for a thing."
"Oh, okay," Beca said, surprised. Chloe always made time for her no matter what she had going on. "You can text me if your schedule clears up."
"I will definitely do that," Chloe promised. "I hope you find your headphones. Maybe ask the other Bellas."
"Yeah, I'll do that," Beca said. "I'll talk to you later."
Chloe walked Beca to the door and once the girl had left, Chloe rushed back to Aubrey's room. She plopped down on her friend's bed and sighed. "I'm a horrible person."
Aubrey patted Chloe on the back with one hand as she used the other to flip a page in her book.
Today was going to be a long day.
-------
Beca had laid down to go to bed a few minutes ago when a loud pounding on her door sounded.
Frowning, she got up and opened it, revealing Chloe in plaid pajama bottoms and a pink shirt.
"Hey, Chlo. What are you doing here?" The redhead had responded to her texts with short responses and she had claimed to be too busy to hang out with Beca that day. It had left Beca pretty down. She thought that maybe she had done something to upset the redhead and had almost gone over to apologize for whatever she had done, but decided to wait it out.
Chloe held up Beca's headphones sheepishly. "I stole them and I'm really sorry. It was stupid. I thought maybe if you didn't have them, then you wouldn't leave to go to California. Ridiculous, I know. I've been avoiding you all day because I suck at lying and knew I'd tell you that I had them. I just… I don't want you to go, Beca. I…" Chloe took a deep breath and released it. "I like you a lot and I want to see where this could go," she gestured between them. "I mean, if you like me back."
Beca stood silently for a few seconds before speaking. "You stole my headphones to stop me from leaving?"
Chloe looked ashamed as she answered. "Sorry."
Beca smiled. "And you like me?"
"I do," Chloe confirmed with a head nod. Beca moved away from the door and went over to her desk to pick up a piece of paper. Chloe frowned at the action. "Beca?" Beca handed the paper to Chloe without saying a word. Chloe looked over the paper and her eyes widened when she realized what it was. "Class registration for next semester?"
Beca grinned. "I wanted to hang out today so I could tell you that I'm not going anywhere. This amazing redhead kind of wormed her way into my heart and I've had a hard time being excited about L.A. when it means leaving her."
Chloe beamed and pulled Beca to her for a hug.
"You're staying?!"
"I'm staying," Beca laughed as Chloe squealed excitedly.
"And just to be clear," Chloe began as she pulled out of the hug. "You like me too?"
Beca leaned forward, pressing her lips against Chloe's causing the redhead to smile into the kiss.
"So if you weren't already planning on staying, would my plan have worked?" Chloe asked, curiously.
Beca smirked. "Most definitely a solid plan."
"Good, you can tell Aubrey that," Chloe said before reconnecting their lips.
