"You've got to be kidding me," Beca heard herself say as she stared out the window as the rain trailed down the glass panes.

After graduating from Barden, Chloe invited Beca over to her and Aubrey's on-campus apartment to celebrate Chloe's graduation. The day before, Aubrey allowed Chloe to have the apartment to herself for the weekend, since the controlling blonde was going across state after receiving a job offer. Aubrey left a couple hours before Beca arrived at the apartment after Chloe called her, asking her to come over for the night to hang, since the two won't be seeing each other every day for Bella rehearsals anymore. An hour or so later, a dangerous thunderstorm hovered over Atlanta. It was too dangerous for Beca to leave and take a taxi back to her dorm. Chloe insisted that the brunette should stay until the storm passes over. Although Beca wasn't willing to stay with Chloe all night, she said yes anyways. She would rather be with a good friend than alone out in the pouring rain.

Chloe walked back to the living room from the kitchen with tea for her and Beca, a deck of cards, flash lights, and a large bag of pretzels for them to share. She set everything down on the coffee table in front of the couch Beca was sitting on and glanced at her brunette friend, seeing a sad expression on her face. Chloe frowned and sat down on the couch next to Beca, causing Beca to turn towards her.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Chloe asked, handing one of the mugs of tea to Beca. Beca's eyes wandered to the tea Chloe made her and shook her head. "I know this isn't what you planned to happen. I know you had plans with Jesse and-"

Beca stopped her for a second before protesting what Chloe had said. "No. It's nothing like that, Chloe. I'd rather be with you out of all people during something like this," Beca explained, resulting Chloe to blush. "I just really hate thunderstorms," she admitted.

"You're afraid of thunderstorms?" Chloe asked, laughing at Beca's admission. "I didn't expect a person like you to be afraid of thunderstorms."

Beca sighed. "I didn't say I was-"

Chloe's laughing broke the brunette in mid-sentence. Beca only glared at her, getting annoyed at the redhead's foolish, yet adorable laugh. "This is so weird! You're afraid of thunderstorms!"

Beca's glare turned into a frown after Chloe has laughed for a couple of minutes. She had a really bad past with storms. She was being serious about hating thunderstorms. To Chloe, it was only just a joke. "Chloe, I'm being serious. I really do hate thunderstorms. There is nothing you should be laughing about."

The slightly taller redhead stopped her laughing and let her eyes meet her best friend's. "Sorry, Becs. I thought that you were making a joke." Chloe wrapped her arms around the small brunette, the brunette declining to hug her back. She let go of Beca and grabbed the deck of cards off the coffee table. "That's why I got these," she told her, showing her the deck of cards in her hand. "Just in case you were afraid of thunderstorms, which you are. These will keep your mind off the storm. Trust me."

Beca nodded. "I trust you."

"I also have some pretzels in case we're hungry and some flash lights incase the power goes out. I also have some candles in the kitchen too. And if it gets cold, there are blankets in the hallway closet that we can use," Chloe explained, causing Beca to giggle at Chloe's preparedness.

Beca looked at the cards in Chloe's hands. "So, what game are we going to play? With the cards I mean?" A smirk crept up on Chloe's face as she took the cards out of the box.


"You bitch!" Beca yelled playfully as Chloe put down a 2 of hearts, skipping Beca's turn.

Chloe set down an 8 of hearts and giggled. "Hey! At least I didn't make you pick four cards!"

Beca stuck her tongue out at her redheaded friend, putting down a 5 of hearts, leaving her with one last card. Chloe changed the suit by setting down a 5 of diamonds on top of the 5 of hearts. Beca smirked at what Chloe had put down. "Why thank you." Beca put down her last card, her last card being an ace of diamonds. Chloe frowned at the brunette's move. "Boom."

As if on cue, thunder roared outside, lightning flashed. Beca jumped at the sudden noise and looked over her shoulder at the one window by the front door. Chloe gave her a concerned look and frowned. She set her cards down on top of the other cards beside the deck and brought the two piles together. "You okay?" At the sound of Chloe's soothing voice, Beca turned back around to face her friend and nodded slightly, watching Chloe shuffle the deck of cards, preparing to play another game. "If you want, we can listen to music, so it can drown out the thunder?" Chloe suggested.

Beca smiled. "Don't you mean, we can drown out the thunder?" Chloe laughed at Beca's correction to her suggestion. "We can listen to music and sing along to it. That way, it will drown out the thunder even more than with just the music."

The redhead nodded as she continued to laugh, then setting the cards back on the ground and standing up. "I'll go get my IPod and speaker," she told Beca as she left the living room.

Beca began waiting for Chloe to come back. Occasionally, she would look back at the window behind her and just stare at the rain pouring down it. She would just stare at the window and think to herself. She would think about sophomore year and graduation. She would think about what songs she should involve in her new mix for the Bellas to sing for Regionals. Her thoughts wandered to her bubbly, redheaded friend. She started thinking about Chloe. Her perfect curls. Her bright blue eyes. Beca just couldn't get the redhead out of her head. Well, that was until she came back with her IPod and speakers like she said. Chloe set the two on the coffee table and plugged the IPod into the portable speakers. She scrolled through the songs on the IPod before picking the first song to play. She decided to pick "Titanium" by David Guetta because it reminded her of the time when she invaded Beca's shower. Chloe sat back down in front of Beca and started shuffling the cards again.

Hearing the first couple of seconds of the song, Beca's eyes widened. She did not- but she just did, didn't she? Beca thought as "Titanium" played loudly throughout the apartment. "Really Chloe?" the brunette asked in a sigh. Chloe let out a small giggle and dealt the cards out to herself and her friend sitting across from her, seven for the both of them. Beca looked at the cards in her hands. Three 7's (diamonds, cloves, hearts), one 2 (spades), one queen (diamonds), one 6 (spades), and one jack (hearts).

Chloe flipped over the first card from the deck, the card being an 8 of diamonds. "You can go first since you the won last round," Chloe told the brunette. Beca nodded and set down her 7 of diamonds. As Chloe set down her 7 of spades, the song changed to "Bullet Proof", one of Beca's favorite songs.

Beca looked at her hand one last time before putting down her 6 of spades. "If we were playing President, I would most definitely lightning that." The redhead laughed at Beca's statement. She had no idea that Beca played card games like President.

"Dream on, Becs," Chloe said, setting down her queen of spades. "We're not playing President, DJ. This game, I'm going to win."

The DJ laughed. "Chlo, I've won the last three games. What makes me think that you'll win this one?" Chloe rolled her eyes. Beca set down her queen of diamonds.

"Dammit," Chloe muttered. "I don't have any diamonds." The brunette smirked and watched as Chloe picked out cards from the deck until she picked up either a card of the diamond suit or a queen. She ended up picking five cards before getting a queen of cloves, placing that card down on top of the queen of diamonds.

"I told you, Chloe. I'm going to win this one. It'll be four wins in a row," Beca bragged.

Chloe glared at her. "You'll see, Beca. You'll see."

After that, their thoughts were stuck on the card game. Neither of them talked to each other, only playing the cards they had in their hands. Beca and Chloe were becoming serious about this round of Crazy Eights. The two would glare at each other after one skipped or made the other pick four cards. Or when the suit was changed and the other player didn't have a single card of the same suit or number.

After playing that round for fifteen to twenty minutes, Chloe was down to one card, Beca at two. This was it. Either Chloe's next move or Beca's next move was going to finish off the game. In Beca's hand, she had a 2 of spades and a 5 of spades, a card she fished from the deck. In Chloe's hand, she had an 8 of hearts. It was Beca's turn. The card that was in play was a 2 of cloves. Chloe had skipped her turn last turn, resulting Chloe to having one card instead of two. Chloe thought that Beca had to either pick a card from the deck or set down a card that matched with the cloves suit. Instead, Beca set down her 2 of spades, skipping Chloe's turn, then her 5 of spades, winning the game for the fourth time.

Chloe frowned at Beca's win, but told her "good game" anyways as if it was some kind of competition. The redhead put her one card on top of the deck and brought the two piles together again. While Chloe was shuffling, neither of them said one word to each other.

Suddenly, thunder crashed, had it not for awhile, lightning coming right after it. Then thunder again. There were a couple flashes of the lights in the apartment before the power completely went out. Beca blinked a couple of times, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the dark, Chloe doing the same. "C-Chloe…?" Beca asked, her voice shaking.

"It's okay. I'm right here," Chloe replied softly, grabbing Beca's hand. Beca jumped at the touch of Chloe's hand to her's. Although, it immediately calmed her down. Still holding on to Beca's hand, she grabbed one of the flash lights off the coffee table and turned it on. "See?"

The brunette nodded. "I thought I would have to stay in the fucking dark for the rest of the night," she said sarcastically. "Thanks Chlo." Chloe smiled softly and started shuffling the cards again. As Chloe shuffled the cards, thunder roared again, causing Beca to cringe. The brunette put her hand on top of Chloe's to stop her from shuffling the cards. "I don't really want to play another round, Chloe." The redhead rose her eye brows. "I mean, I just…" Beca sighed, "I just want to talk a little. Catch up maybe? You know?" Chloe frowned at Beca's suggestion. "I just... right now, I feel alone... and I... I just..."

Thunder and lightning roared, causing Beca to start shaking. Chloe noticed this and slid the cards back into the box. The redhead then turned off the blasting music. She set the deck of cards on the coffee table, then making her way over to Beca. She grabbed Beca's hands and helped her stand up. "I understand. We can just sit and talk, okay." Beca nodded and allowed Chloe to lead her to the couch. The two sat down next each other, Chloe wrapping her arms around the shaking brunette. "You're okay, Becs. I'm right here." The redhead held the brunette close to her, hoping that she would stop shaking at her comforting touch.

"Chloe?" Beca asked suddenly, looking up at her redheaded friend.

Chloe ran her fingers through Beca's chestnut curl. "Hmm?"

"Thank you," Beca whispered tiredly, her shaking finally stopping. The redhead smile softly at Beca. "Thank you, Chloe..." she repeated as her eyes started to close tiredly.

Chloe gently kissed the top of Beca's head. "You're welcome, Becs. Anything for tiny aca-bitch." The brunette laughed sleepily.

"That's so original, Chloe," Beca yawned. The brunette rested her head on the redhead's shoulder. "Can I call you my hot ginger aca-bitch?" Chloe widened her eyes, hearing the word hot escape Beca's lips. Seeing Chloe's wide eyes, Beca then realized what she had said. "Chloe, I didn't mean… I was just kidding... sorry I-"

"You think I'm hot?"

Beca tried to hide a smirk. She thought it, but didn't think the word hot would leave her lips. Beca's smirk came over her innocent smile and nodded. "Yeah, I guess..."

Chloe blushed at Beca's comment. "Well, thank you, in the least awkward way."

"You're welcome, in the least awkward way," the brunette sighed sleepily.

The redhead pulled Beca closer to her. "You should get some sleep, okay?"

"Please stay, though? I don't want to be alone," Beca whispered, embracing Chloe's comforting and long-lasting hug. The brunette hasn't ever felt so warm before. It was like Chloe has some effect on her emotions. It was like Chloe had missed her more than Beca had thought.

"Of course I'll stay. You said that you didn't want to be alone. I respect that," Chloe whispered back, tucking a stray curl behind Beca's ear. "You're my best friend, Beca."

The DJ smiled tiredly. "And Aubrey?"

"I don't love her, like I love you," Chloe admitted and kissed the top of Beca's head, watching her slowly fall asleep.

"I love you too, Chloe..." the brunette sighed, drifting off into a deep sleep.