Studio 22

Chapter 14:

Beca:

A week later, Chloe and I still hadn't talked about what happened with Tom. Was being with me really what she wanted? If I hadn't come in, they would've had sex. I was furious. She had told me she wasn't even into men anymore, so what the fuck had she been doing with this asshole then? Maybe space was a good idea. I got out of bed- I wouldn't be sleeping anyway- and plopped down on my sofa with my laptop. I searched for flight tickets for quite some time. When I had finally found some for a good price, I bought them and went back to bed.

I messaged Jo to call me in the morning, put my phone down on my nightstand, turned around and tried to get some sleep.

The next morning, I was just packing my bag, Jo called me.

"Morning, Jo."

"Morning. You wanted me to call you. What's up?", she spoke into the phone cheerfully.

"Jo, I need you to manage Studio 22 alone for a week." I explained.

"Oh okay. May I ask why?" Jo's question brought back the pictures of Chloe and Tom kissing. "Oh, and by the way, I haven't seen Jesse in a while. Is everything ok?"

"Please just take care of Studio 22, okay? I'll be back next Monday." I told her while pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Alright. I'm here for you if you want to talk. See you next week."

"Thanks. I appreciate it. Bye Jo."

I hung up and took my suitcase, rolling it to the front door. My flight would leave in three hours. I decided to call Chloe, to inform her that I was going to be away for a week.

"Hey, Chloe."

"Hi." Her voice was soft and quiet. "Listen, I-"

"I'm not calling about what happened with you and Tom, Chloe. I just wanted to tell you that I'll be away for a week. I didn't want to leave without telling you." I stated.

"What? You're leaving? Where are you going?", she questioned, a mix of shock and surprise present in her voice.

"I need some time to think..."

"I understand... it's just.. you said we were going to talk about this.." Chloe said sadly.

"We will when I'm back. I need to go now."

"Okay, bye. Travel safe.", she said with a trembling voice.

I hung up and found myself on the way to the airport a couple minutes later. Once I had passed TSA and passport control, I put on my headphones and waited for my flight to board. I skipped through my songs and stopped when I heard the intro to 'I see red'. My finger hovered over the 'skip'-button. Memories of Chloe dancing to this song, on stage alone after my imprudent decision to kiss her, rushed through my head. The guilt about hurting Jesse with it, was still strong.

I boarded my flight and as soon as I sat in my seat, I was lost in my thoughts again. I should've told Jesse that I hadn't been happy anymore long ago. It was so overdue. He was right. I had told him about the kiss because I knew he wouldn't forgive me; knew he would want to break up. Coward was the nicest thing I wanted to call myself for doing this. And then Chloe. Maybe we were moving to fast. The way we had discovered our feelings had been messy. The way we started our relationship had been even messier. Maybe we should've taken some more time- find out if being with the other was what we really wanted.

~

Two days later, I woke up to the sunlight brightening the room. I stretched myself, fluttered my eyes open and cuddled into the duvet once more. I gazed out the window into the beautiful garden for a while. My anger about Chloe and what had happened, was slowly turning into sadness. I threw on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and went downstairs.