Hold Me Close

23. Clues

CHLOE

I flew out to Ohio. Cathy was there waiting with a sign that had my name on it. Cathy kind of looked like Beca. She had strawberry-blonde hair and had it tied back with a scarf. She even just at first glace was clearly an artistic person. We drove back to her family's house, she was staying with them for the summer. She was only a few months younger than Beca.

"So how do you know Beca?" Cathy asked.

"We met in college."

"Oh! You're Chloe! Like Bellas Chloe!" She smiled enthusiastically.

"Yeah. How'd you...?"

"Beca would spend her summers here with us. She talked all about the Bellas."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She loved telling us about all of Fat Amy's shenanigans, whatever you guys had done, and you."

"She told you about me?"

"Yeah. All the time." She led me upstairs. She opened the door to a bedroom. On the door was a large "B" that was dark purple and covered in black music notes. The room itself was the same purple. There were various posters of musicians on the walls, a mostly empty bookshelf, blackout curtains on the window, and a bed with black sheets shoved up against the wall.

"Is this...?"

"Beca's room? Yeah, it is. When things got rocky with her parents right after fifth grade she came and lived with us."

"Wow. I never knew she lived in Ohio..."

"She doesn't like to talk about it. She basically became part of the family. She was here from the summer before 6th grade till the summer before junior year. That's when she went to live closer to her dad."

"So this is middle school/half of high school Beca?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Wow."

"Feel free to look around the house. If you want to learn more about tween/early teen Beca you can go through her stuff. I don't think she'll mind."

"Okay. Thank you." Cathy nodded and left me in the room. There was a desk in the corner with an old desktop with 2 CD players plugged into it. There was a layer of dust on the keyboard. In the closet, there were some clothes and things. A few nice dresses that I guessed Beca had only ever worn once. There were also 3 boxes stacked on top of each other. I pulled the first one from the closet and set it on the floor. In it was a black pullover hoodie that was 2 sizes too big for Beca, a photo of her and a guy smiling in a cracked picture frame, a stuffed bear missing an eye, a necklace still in its box, and a ring. I realized this must of been a box of things from her past relationships. The next box was just full of papers. Old math homework that was incomplete, some old sheet music, and notes and things. The last box had a label. It read BECA'S KEEP OUT. I opened it anyway. There were journals and CDs in it mainly. That's when I saw a flash drive taped to a pack of cigarettes. I carefully grabbed it. The pack was missing 2 cigarettes. I went over to Beca's computer and set the flash drive on the desk. I brought the pack of cigarettes to Cathy.

"Did Beca smoke when she lived here?'

"No. I don't think she ever smoked."

"I know she started when things got bad with Jesse, she uses them as a stress reliever..."

"What do you think it means?"

"I think she was here. There was a flash drive attached to the pack."

"If she was here, she was here from something. She wouldn't have come just to put a box of cigarettes and a flash drive in a box."

"Do you think you could pinpoint if anything was missing?"

"Definitely." We went back to Beca's old room. Cathy looked around the room. "Her camping bag is gone." She pointed to a shelf in the closet. "We each had a bag that was always packed for camping. Dad like to just randomly take us to one of the cabins he got from his dad."

"Is it possible that she's there?"

"She might be at one of them yeah. Do you have any boots with you? Like hiking boots?"

"No, I don't..."

"That's okay. You can borrow a pair. I'll go get some. Change into something you won't mind if it got dirty. I'll go pack some hiking bags. Cathy said. I nodded and she left the room closing the door behind her. I went over to the computer and plugged in the flash drive. There were 3 folders on it. One with the name "For Theo", one named "For Family", and the last one named "For Chloe". I opened the one for me. In the folder, there was a video file and a few audio files. I clicked on one of the audios and pulled out a pair of jean shorts and a t-shirt from my bag. The audio was of Beca singing. Clearly her working on a draft of a song.

"Fucked it up again I guess but then that's what I do. Told too many times that I should think my actions through..." she sighed. I closed my eyes to picture her. Sitting alone in a cabin somewhere in Ohio. Running her hands through her hair. I see her eyes. All the pain and hurt that is in them. The regret too. I wanted to hold her and tell her that I love her. I hear her grumble and end the recording.