Pitch Please!

Chapter 10

I spotted Stacie sitting at a booth with a frappe. I ordered my drink and joined her at the table.

"What's wrong? What happened?" She basically yelled at me.

"Calm down.  And I've done something 'bad'" I said adding quotation marks to the 'bad'.

"What"

"I may or may not have slept with a treble last night." I said quietly, just in case any Bellas or Trebles were in the Cafe.

"I won't tell. Who was it?" She asked eagerly, leaning forward in her chair.

"Donald."

                                                                             ~~~

We were currently singing 'Turn the Beat Around', and it sounded horrible.

"Woah. Woah. Stop. Just Stop." Howie said 

"I am so sorry, Howie. I know we're not performance ready."Aubrey basically cried at him.

"I wanted the hot Bellas, not this barnyard explosion. I'm not paying for this. Let's go. Come on."He replied. Harsh.

"But you, tall brown hair, in the middle you can stay!"Howie's friend hollered to me.

"Save it for someone else" I said 

"God. Well, I hope you all remember the way you feel right now, so you will never wanna feel this way again. Chloe, your voice didn't sound Aguilerian at all. Chloe, for serious, what is wrong with you?" Aubrey yelled at us.

"Calm down. Gees."

"I have nodes." Chloe said. WHAT?

"What? My God."

"That's horrible."

"I found out this morning." She said, almost crying.

"What are nodes?" Beca asked.

"Vocal nodules. The rubbing together of your vocal cords at above-average rates without proper lubrication." I continued.

"They sit on your windpipe and they crush your dreams."Chloe said, crying even more.

"Isn't that painful? Why would you keep performing?"

"Because I love to sing.

"Yeah, it's like when my lady doctor told me not to have sex for six weeks, and I did it anyway. I'm pretty sure Rachel didn't listen either" Stacie said. Awkward.

"Stacie!" I scolded.

"You should really listen to your doctor." Fat Amy said, looking at us both as we went silent.

"They key is early diagnosis. I am living with nodes. But I am a survivor. I just have to pull back. Because I am limited. Because I have nodes."

"We get it Chloe." I said trying not to sound harsh. "You have nodes.

"Chloe this is horrible."

"Well at least it's not herpes."Fat Amy said, making me choke on my own saliva. "Or do you have that as well?"