Who Did It? {Interactive Story}

27. ◼ Epilogue (ending 1)

A day after the incident, the atmosphere feels somber and uncharacteristically quiet in the Bellas house.

Well, quiet in terms of chatter. No one dares to speak on the events of the previous evening, not even Emily, in hopes to heal and move forward. Actually no one talks, at all. It seems like those unspeakable events affected not only the victim, trust was broken for all the involved parties.

You could probably hear a hairpin drop if it wasn't for the earpiercing angry sound of the vacuum cleaner down in the living room.

"I can't believe this," Ashley huffs in annoyance after she turns the vacuum off, "they really benched us and gave us all these errands. On what basis?"

"It's okay, Ash, Beca was just doing her job," Jessica reasons, dusting off the China cupboard.

"But it's not fair! We're already hardworkers and our efforts never even get acknowledged!"

"Maybe you should have put all that effort into covering up your traces better," Jessica deadpans. Ashley's jaw slacks for a moment, then she scoffs in disbelief.

"Excuse me? At least I had the balls to try. You chickened out!"

"Does it even matter anymore?" Jessica raises an eyebrow, "it's done. Maybe we kinda had it coming,"

"No we didn't," the brunette crosses her arms.

"Don't you feel even the tiniest bit guilty?" Jessica asks, fully turning towards her partner in crime, "for Emily? Cause I've had some time to reflect as I cleaned the bathroom this morning,"

"Oh please, don't do that. Don't paint me as the villain, you were in on it as much as I was," Ashley sneers, "and we didn't know the chocolate was Emily's specifically, it looked too expensive to be bought by just one person. I assumed they all chipped in,"

"Wouldn't we have to have chipped in too?"

"As if they ever consider us for that stuff," Ashley rolls her eyes, "You see? That's where I'm coming from. We're not the bad guys, Jess! They were supposed to help us with the 4th of July preparations but they all backed out, even Emily. We were loaded. How was that fair?"

"I suppose..." Jessica let's out a deep sigh as she gets back to work, "I just can't stand the looks they throw at us. Either dirty or obviously discontent. As if we're not already being punished,"

"It will all go away, just wait it out, okay? I don't really care for the glares, but I wish we weren't tasked with all this. You're right, we should have been more cautious,"

"well, guess there's no point in crying over spilt milk," the blonde says plainly, "we got busted,"

"That won't happen next time," Jessica freezes and turns back to the brunette, giving her a somewhat uneasy look.

"Next time?" she repeats, not sure she heard her right. Ashley's lips twitch up slightly and she opens her mouth to say something but is cut off by Beca checking up.

"You guys done here?" she asks, a bit awkwardly. They turn their heads to look up at her st the same time.

"Almost, boss," Jessica forces a half smile.

"Alright," Beca nods, mindlessly playing with her thumb ring, "Well, um, I'll see you at rehearsals then. Don't, uh, tire yourselves too much. You should have some breaks," Beca doesn't miss the intense stare Ashley has on her. Sh shifts under it, but she avoids her gaze by looking elsewhere, mostly focusing on Jessica.

"Got it," Jessica smiles, "See you later, boss,"

Beca stops fidgeting and gives a firm nod, before sparing one quick glance at Ashley and leaves.

Jessica let's out the breath she was holding and gives Ashley a concerned, questioning look.

"Ash?" the girl ignores her.

"Let's get back to work, Jess," Ashley turns the vacuum back on with a tight lipped smile.

The end.

A/N: go ahead to the explanation chapter if you wanna understand better!