They passed parked cars and trees that cast long shadows that doubled their length on the pavement. The streetlights dipped with drunk steps and the sidewalk had so much unkempt grass overgrown on either side that there was barely enough room for two people to walk side by side without touching. The group filed into a line "ducks in a row" style, two by two. Beca and Chloe took up the back.

"I feel like anything could happen tonight."

"That's how you should feel every night. Good," Chloe said, smiling at the warmth the alcohol had fueled and at the invincibility she was beginning to feel.

"I feel like we could take the night."

"THE NIGHT IS OURS" Chloe shouted to the sky, throwing her hands up, in a half spin until she was facing Beca. She dropped her arms when Beca giggled at her to shut up, you'll wake up the people sleeping in the houses. After all, not everyone in this neighborhood was a college student, so it was pretty unfortunate that adults had to put up with rowdy drunk students screaming in the streets every weekend.

"I feel bad. Oops. But I haven't felt like this in a while either.

Beca smirked mischievously, but said nothing.

"Hell yeah, I'm ready for tonight to get WEIRD," Chloe said, pumping a fist confidentally.

"Weird? I've gotten pretty weird before."

"Reallllly? You? You seem so docile. What's the craziest thing you've ever done?"

"Well, I ate out my best friend once. But only because she had never had that done before."

"Wha- whoa. Okay. Definitely not gonna get that weird tonight." Chloe couldn't lie at the stupid little flutter she felt low in her stomach.

Somehow Beca had taken a step closer without her noticing.

"Yeah? I've still done some pretty weird shit though!"

"You? What? You seem so nice… And good. I bet it's not even bad," Beca winked at her. Oh, that classic wink, it threw her for a curveball every time.

"Oh really? Well just so you know, I've made out with a girl once. At a rave."

"Are you serious? Wow, maybe I was wrong about you."

"Y'know, it wasn't bad. It was kind of fun...I wouldn't be opposed to doing it again actually."

They had been barely shuffling along but were falling behind the group. They slowed to a stop in a shadow, the streetlights framing Beca when Chloe looked down to her.

"You… wouldn't want to do that again would you?" Beca looked up to her, her face not giving anything away.

"Do you want to make out?"

Beca chuckled and her smirk returned. "Yes." Her eyes twinkled as she pulled Chloe in with one finger under her chin, her left hand on her shoulder. Chloe cupped her jaw and tilted her head. The kiss moved quickly, eagerly open-mouthed, which was initiated surprisingly by Beca. Her tongue was resting on her own bottom lip, bridging the distance to the other girl's bottom lip, before meeting Chloe's tongue which was more than ready to receive it. It was a tango and the older girl's eyes were heavy as her body begged to sink into the feel of Beca.

But Beca paused and pulled back a second with Chloe's hand still on her jaw. "Am I good at this?" she asked, feigning innocence.

"Mmm, don't worry babe. You're great," her words had barely finished forming as her smile met Beca's lips. She deepened the kiss again, wanting more, tipping her head the other way. She pulled the shorter woman's waist closer so they were standing flush together, and she tried not to moan at the pleasure she was feeling. Beca's other hand found the curve of her neck, her thumb caressing the skin over her pulse point -her turn on spot- and the warmth of her skin was more than welcome.

Eyes still closed, she interrupted them again after only a minute. "We should catch up, we'll lose them."

Chloe knew it was true, damn it all. She pulled Beca's face in one last time, both hands on her cheeks, three more seconds of bliss. But she obliged and the pair ran to catch up.

"Where did you guys go?" Stacie asked with suspicion flashing in her eyes between the girls.

"Oh I had to… Tie her shoe." Chloe blurted. Wow, you couldn't have said you tied your own shoe at least?

"...Right."

"She was too drunk to tie it herself!" Chloe ducked her head to the side to hide her blush which likely would have been apparent, even in the low light. The other members of the group didn't seem to notice, but Stacie looked between the two with an element of distrust still in her eyes.

"Well, whatever. We're close to the house now, so let's just get our shit together." The pack surged onward, Chloe deciding to take the lead, emboldened by the events of the previous few minutes. She was experiencing a full-body blush that wasn't fading (despite her faded state). She had no idea whose house they were going to, but truthfully didn't care. She couldn't think of anything else but Beca's lips. She turned around occasionally and found Beca's eyes in between the shoulders of her other friends, between their bodies she could get a glimpse of her mouth, her face in a flash framed by the other people. Her smile was challenging, daring her to fall back again, to join her in taking up the back of the crowd again… perhaps for another chance at mysteriously falling behind.

Chloe stepped harshly off the curb, lost in Beca-charged thoughts, not noticing that Stacie had led the group to take a left. She corrected Chloe's direction. Beca smirked because her mind could be read easily through her actions, and she sheepishly allowed herself to be led onto the yellow-grass lawn of a bass-pumping house. Drunk kids stood around the porch with red Solo cups and the din of the party could be heard from within.

Chloe was a social butterfly and loved to meet new people. "A new friend is just a handshake away," she often said. The thought of meeting so many new friends excited her buzzed brain, and she literally jumped up and down before advancing forward to enter the house. What she failed to see was the slick mud near the steps and the next hop took her heel out from under her, a long leg shooting forward while her other knee was jammed into the ground. Embarrassed for the second time in less than sixty seconds, she sprung up off the ground, declining the help of the frat boy who stood nearest to her. Damn it, she had ruined her new white shoes already. She quickly scraped the mud off her knee with the heel of one hand before catching up with her crew who had already gone inside, feeling lucky that Beca hadn't witnessed her idiocy.

Her little incident was immediately forgotten the moment she passed through the cracked-paint doorway. The house was filled with coeds ecstatic over the basketball team's big win tonight and no one was immune from the celebratory mood. A Corona was immediately thrust into her hand as she was loudly greeted by friends and acquaintances. The yellow lighting made her vision even fuzzier, and since she had already pregamed five shots of vodka with the girls before arriving. When she scoped the house for more friends to chat with, she found Stacie in the kitchen with a fifth of Raspberry Smirnoff. They took pulls straight from the bottle and continued to wander their loop through the party, ascending into a drunken euphoria.

The party was in full swing with rowdy games of beer pong occasionally overpowering the trap music mix playing in the background. Thirty or so minutes later and in between conversations, Chloe looked down and was shocked to find a bloody patch there. Oh that's right, she had slipped a while ago. For some reason, she found this hilarious.

"Look guys! I'm bleeding and I can't even feel it!" She shouted to Lilly and Denise. Their drunken smiles turned to shock when they saw her leg.

"Chloe! Are you crazy?" Denise shouted.

"I can call my vampire friend if you want, I'm sure he'd be happy to help," Lilly said in a small voice.

They narrowed their eyes at her, trying to decide if Lilly had really just said that. Just then, Stacie swaggered up.

"Whaddup bitches," she said casually, eyes shifting around the scene.

"Look Stace! I'm invincible!" Chloe shouted, pointing to her bloody knee."

"Chloe what the fuck! What did you do?!"

She giggled. "Heeheehee, I fell outside. I didn't mean to but I was just so damn excited to meet new friends!"

"These people aren't your friends. Let's get you fixed up."

She took the other girl into the bathroom, searching for peroxide and a bandage. Not many people knew that Stacie had a maternal side like this, but she was always holding the show together behind the scenes.

"You're such a great friend. I love you so much!" Chloe reached to pull her into a hug.

"Love ya too, drunkie. But stop trying to hug me, I need to find something for you so that you don't get an infection."

"I'm pretty sure that you could just pour some of the Smirnoff on me, that would do just fine," Chloe laughed uncontrollably at her own joke.

"Jeez. What's gotten into you tonight?"

The smile disappeared from her face as the Band-Aid was smoothed over the gash. A lot had happened tonight already, actually. She got the feeling that Stacie knew more than she was letting on, given away by the fact that her leggy friend wouldn't meet her eyes. She thanked her quickly and went back to dancing in the front room with the girls.

An hour or so later, no one was really keeping time anymore, and Chloe's awareness and memory was more than spotty. She had taken tons of group Snapchat selfies, danced, wandered a few laps around the house, and still the night showed no signs of slowing down. But she wanted more. And her inhibitions were nowhere to be found.

So she wandered outside where the air was clear. Luke, Stacie, Cynthia Rose, and a few other guys were sprawled out on the couches on the patio. Chloe slid into the space next to CR.

"How are you doing, girl?"

"This party is great, so I'm pretty great."

"True that, homie. True that. What time is it?"

"It's almost midnight. The night is young, my friend!"

"Haha. You're always willing to party, aren't you Red?"

"You bet your ass I am!"

"Man, tomorrow's gonna suck."

Didn't she know it. "Nope! Don't mention that while we still have tonight."

Just then, a short haired Hispanic boy walked onto the deck, followed by Beca. "Is there a Chloe B. out here?"

The redhead's eyes shot to him. "Yeah that's me! How come?" she chirped.

"That's who Chloe is?" The boy asked, jerking his thumb towards her as he looked down the bridge of his bespectacled nose. She looked between Beca and the boy, as more people turned their attention to him.

"So you're the one that kissed Beca earlier tonight?"

The rest of the conversation on the porch ceased completely. This would have been an impossible feat even if the world ended, but of course they all keyed in to the juicy accusation. All eyes were on her.

"Wait what the fuck, Chloe?" Stacie blurted out, breaking the silence. Chloe broke her stare with the boy and her eyes darted. To Stacie. To Cynthia Rose. To anyone who could help save her.

"Well... Yupp. That was me Idon'tgiveafuck" she blurted back, punctuated with a forced laugh that would have been a sob if she let any other sound escape.

"Damn, girl," was all Cynthia Rose could say.

The porch people laughed with her, seeing that there wasn't going to be some type of catfight or extension to the awkward confrontation. Chloe looked past the boy and to Beca, who was looking at her feet deliberately not meeting her eyes. Chloe smiled to the other to try to illustrate her carelessness about it all, but inside she had collapsed. Already people had found out what happened? She hadn't even deciphered the encounter herself, but strangers knew about it now? In addition to her friends? This was spiraling to a worst-case scenario, one that sobered her up. Chloe hid behind her phone, pretending to watch Snapchats while her mind raced.

"Did that really happen tonight, Chloe?" Cynthia Rose asked, leaning towards her. Her voice was lowered politely.

"Oh. Um, yeah. Before we got here."

"Wow. I had no idea that you had that type of crazy in you," she said with raised eyebrows, expecting more juicy details.

"It's no big deal, really," she said casually, putting every ounce of effort she had into keeping her voice from shaking. She stood up abruptly and reentered the house, taking the last two pulls of Smirnoff in the bottle before ambling over to the beer pong table.

Even drunk, it was the most impressive setup she had ever seen. The surface of the table gave way to six inches of transparent glass, like a giant box on legs. Inside the table were rows and rows of alcohol cans and bottles in the shape of an American flag with strands of LED lights lining the edges of each row. The centerpiece in the table was a street sign reading Shinto Avenue. At least she knew where she was now.

Chloe called the next game before staggering to one end of the table, failing to notice that Beca was one of the players in the current game. Her partner was quite cute but she felt a surge of jealousy at seeing the two together. So, against her flimsy better judgment, she sidled up to him and introduced herself. It was a douchey move, but after the scene Beca had caused on the porch, it didn't matter. The notions of betrayal would be set even with this. They had kissed and Beca had ruined the privacy of the memory, and it couldn't be undone.

These were the thoughts that spurred her on to flirt with the beer pong boy. She kissed the ball before his shot, getting his attention. Brushed up against him in just the right way when the bass dropped. Pretty soon she had taken Beca's spot in the game, and the small brunette tried to push her way back in. But the boy had lost interest in her, solidified when Chloe nuzzled his neck. He kissed her in front of Beca and the opposing team. Chloe felt her eyes on them, but kept going anyway.

"Do you want to go upstairs? he whispered huskily into her ear.

Fuck it. She was drunk, she needed to stop thinking about Beca, and it couldn't hurt to get laid. So when he offered his hand, she took it. He guided her up the stairs, her staggering not slowing him down, and they tried the handles of the bedrooms. They were all locked and already occupied.

"So much for keeping people out of my room tonight, we can't even fucking use it" he muttered.

"You live here?"

He confirmed this with frustration in the vein on his forehead. He finally pushed on a door that gave way, immediately pushing her against the closed door and the dialogue disappeared. It was dark. He kissed her hungrily, not hesitating to push his tongue into her mouth. She responded just as roughly, pushing back and tugging on his black hair, her other hand scratching the back of his neck. He growled into the kiss, sloppily making his way down her neck as he shed the girl of her leather jacket.

She flipped them so that he was against the door, his hands fumbling their way down her slender body. She separated her legs so that one of his was between hers, grinding into him. Telling him that she wanted more with the action. His hands were at her hips now, pressing her body harder into him, both of them relishing in the friction. They continued this way for a few short minutes of heated and handsy making out, both wanting dominance but neither obliging. He eased her backwards onto the tile floor, his knee still between her legs as he mounted her. The tile was cold and shocked some sobriety into her. Flickers of the night played through her mind, even though she tried to push them out. Dancing in the front room, running through the dorm hallway, the way Beca's eyes looked in the lowlighting of the streetlamps. How much better the kiss with her had been than with this guy now.

The ginger grew feistier at the thought, working her hands under his shirt, bringing his body closer. He apparently liked it, because his tan hand moved to the inside of her thigh. He pushed her dark skirt up around her waist. Butterflies erupted in her stomach. He kept kissing her as his fingers slipped under the thin lace of her thong, stroking her folds quickly before plunging two fingers in without warning. Her back arched off the floor as she gasped, simultaneously squeezing her eyes shut. He pumped into her ruthlessly, kissing her faster now as she rode his fingers.

She moaned and he kissed her neck, growling again.

"Don't… leave… a hickey," she breathed out to him. He made no move of obedience, so she jerked her neck away. His fingers still pumped away without variation, and she was beginning to feel sore. He was also neglecting to involve her clit, which made things far less fun for her. So she flipped him so that he was on his back, hovering over him on all fours. After removing his shirt, Chloe trailed one hand down his body and could see him grit his teeth in the light that filtered in from the crack under the door when she neared his waistband. She wasted no time in moving her hand underneath the fabric of his clothing before engaging in the task at hand. He groped for her breasts in the dark, anchoring himself.

"Yeah, that's right. That's right," he whispered.

"Mmm. Right there, bitch, mmmm."

She chose not to respond. She hated dirty talk, especially because it only ever ruined the moment. And besides, it was often insulting. Bitch. Had he really said that?

But she ignored it, continuing her ministrations. He kept up the talking, and she tried to block out his annoying audio. Her mind drifted again to who she'd rather fool around with. Ryan Gosling. That guy on the basketball team. Beca. Wait, what the fuck was she thinking about her for? She mentally reprimanded herself, feeling guilty that her mind had lumped the girl into the "would smash" category.

She was grounded again by this boy's lips on hers, his unskilled tongue writhing in her mouth. Her hand slowed, turned off now as he came, and he tried to push her on top of him again. But she was already pulling her bra back on, shaking her skirt back into place. She pulled her hand away and his hand on her wrist stopped her.

"Where are you going? We're not done yet."

"No. We're done here." She picked up her jacket off the floor. What more did he want? He already came anyway, did he expect a cuddle on the bathroom floor? He sat up from the floor and flicked the light on, zipping up his pants. In the harsh light, he looked small. Defeated. Confused.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No. Don't worry about it." She forced a shallow smile and turned to go. But she was stopped again when he called out to her. "Hey."

She turned and he was holding out her student ID, which had fallen out of her pocket during the encounter. She took it from his outstretched hand, looking down at him and seeing the pain of her sudden rejection in his eyes. She looked back, studying him. She could tell that he knew his mistake with the dirty talk, and with that look she knew he'd never do it again.

She swiftly descended the stairs, thinking how he'd never know the abrupt end wasn't solely his fault. That there was a vision of someone else in her mind, replaying over and over again and tonight just wasn't the time or place for him. Chloe never even got his name.

The party had pretty much emptied out, the music now at a lower volume, the pong table without any players but abundant with sad-looking Solo cups on their sides. She found Stacie and Cynthia Rose, thankfully they hadn't left without her even though the rest of the crew was nowhere to be found. Fortunately/unfortunately Beca was still there, turning towards her as she entered the patio.

Chloe felt numb. She had succeeded in getting so drunk that she no longer could comprehend her emotions, and now she was drifting like a ship without a rudder. But it was better than trying to sort out the events of the night. Stacie was on the confrontation boy's lap, exchanging phone numbers. The boys and Beca smoked while the girls talked, and the smell made Chloe nauseous. She had a weak stomach but throwing up here was absolutely not an option. She especially didn't want to draw any more attention than she already had tonight.

Eventually the girls rose to leave and the redhead wobbled up with them. Everyone was exhausted now and Chloe wanted to collapse in her bed, but they had damn near a mile to walk back to the dorms. They passed under the same streetlights as they had earlier, but this time the streets were quiet and empty. The group didn't talk much, feeling the weight of the two o'clock hour on their shoulders. When they got to the main road, the cars were few and far between. The bar was closed, and it's lifeless property made the world seem empty. She noticed that Beca had slowed and fallen to the back with her again, but she wasn't about to acknowledge it.

Then Beca stopped altogether. She was digging through her purse and Chloe inexplicably stopped with her, urging her feet forward. They obeyed after a beat too long, too long because the smaller girl grabbed Chloe's wrist, much gentler than the boy had earlier. She said nothing, but kept her tiny hand on the taller girl's arm, making her heart race. They were now facing each other, and Beca's face was tilted up to Chloe's. Had it been earlier, Chloe would have swooped in. A part of her still wanted to, but the stubborn (and sane?) part denied herself the action. Beca would have to initiate whatever it was she wanted this time, she wasn't going to be that easy.

Beca's eyes burned into her face. Beca slowly hooked her finger under her chin, drawing her face down before finally connecting their lips. It was slower this time, the passion still present, but not rushed. Chloe's eyes were cemented shut as her mind went blank of all thoughts beside kissing this girl, who gently guided her back against the outside wall of the bar. Beca's small body felt warm against Chloe's, and even the numbness of her feelings was being melted. She drew Beca closer by wrapping one arm around her shoulders- it wasn't a sexy move, but she wanted more contact. She felt a hand on her hip as she was leaned back further into the wall, and then her lips and upper body went cold. She opened her eyes to see Beca studying her solemnly, her hand still warm on hip. She said nothing as she headed in the direction that the rest of the group was in, leaving Chloe against the wall.

What had just happened?

I know I just finished A Guiding Light like two days ago, but I couldn't resist diving right in to another multi-chapter fic! Stay tuned, friends! xo