hello everyone! my name is flora, and i hope y'all enjoy this story. i'm bechloe trash and also shawn mendes trash, so that's pretty much why this exists. it's based off of treat you better (because that song is the best?) and also my love for beca mixing lmao
with that, i hope you enjoy give me a sign !
Beca Mitchell was many things. She was witty, tiny, and usually grumpy. She was warmhearted, passionate, and accepting. She was also rude, snappy, and jealous. The latter had been bubbling up in her chest far more frequently than it should have, and, quite frankly, she was getting sick of it. It had been a long time coming, she supposed. After all, Chloe had been blatantly upfront with her attraction to Chicago. The redhead had been staring at him with a far off and dreamy look in her eyes. She'd been asking the Bellas if they thought he was nice, and even if they thought he'd be good in bed.
So really, Beca had no right to complain. She felt incredibly selfish for wishing that things had turned out differently. She felt selfish for wishing that Chloe's beautiful blue eyes were focused on her. She felt selfish for wishing that soldier would spontaneously combust. (Okay, maybe she felt guilty for that last thought as well.)
When the time with the Bellas had ended, things quickly took a turn for the worse. Amy had moved out of the shared apartment with a final hurrah of "I'm rich, bitches!" Chloe had been increasingly spending less and less time with Beca, with any free moment spared to FaceTime Chicago. It made Beca sick to her stomach, and she ignored the voice in her head that told her that she'd been replaced. The redhead had even taken Amy's bed, further solidifying that her friend was no longer needed.
With everything weighing heavy on her mind, Beca had taken to mixing again. Every time she'd sit down to work, she was transported back to working on the Freedom! '90 beat on Khaled's equipment. The file was saved on her own computer, and playing it in the background always seemed to quiet her thoughts enough to where she could get some decent sleep. Sometimes, she'd wake up for a brief moment and catch Chloe looking at her sadly from across the room.
It had happened again tonight, and Beca found herself sitting up to finally confront her best friend about the sudden distance that had separated them so easily. Unfortunately, Chloe seemed to have other ideas, because she promptly pulled the blankets back over her and turned away from Beca's hopeful gaze. Normally, the younger woman would've started working on another mix to take her mind off of it, but her equipment was currently settled in the backseat of her car after an impromptu visit to her mother's.
With a sigh, the brunette stood up and looked for a jacket to prepare for the surprisingly chilly night; she quickly tied up the laces of her sneakers, not bothering to check if the shoes even matched in the first place. Already wearing a pair of leggings, Beca pulled a hoodie over her small frame, grabbed her phone, and slipped out the door.
Her car was parked in its usual spot, at the far end of the parking space allotted for the residents of their apartment building. Beca clicked the button on her keys, the headlights flashing on to signify that the car had been unlocked. She grabbed onto the cold handle and yanked the door open, sliding into the driver's seat with practiced ease. She hurriedly started up the vehicle, hoping that the heater might warm up the chill settling in her chest.
"God, Chloe." she found herself muttering, putting the car in reverse and pulling out of her parking spot. Shifting the car into drive once she was in a good position, Beca drove out onto the street and turned the radio on to fill the silence. The end of a song she didn't recognize filled the air, and the voices of the radio hosts quickly took over.
The drive itself had no destination, especially since New York was so far from the place that the brunette called home. At one point in time, home was just a place she called the house she lived in. When her parents divorced, home was two separate places always fighting for the top spot in her heart. When she started her first year at Barden, home became the room where the Bellas rehearsed. Then it became the Bella house that'd been passed on to Emily, and then it was the shitty apartment that she was living in now.
"I won't lie to you. I know he's just not right for you."
Beca slammed on the brakes, effectively earning a few honks from the angry drivers behind her. She quickly rolled down her window, effortlessly flipping them the finger before she accelerated again. The song continued to play, steadily making the ache in Beca's heart grow.
"And you're spending all your time in this wrong situation, and any time you want it to stop…"
With what had to be her thirtieth sigh of the night, she turned on her blinker once she spotted the nearest exit that would lead her out of the large city. As the chorus blared through the speakers, Beca absentmindedly harmonized with Shawn's voice.
"Baby please have mercy on me, take it easy on my heart."
And as the song faded into another, and many more after that, the bright lights of New York City settled behind Beca, no longer illuminating the road ahead of her. Buildings were far and few between, but one road sign displayed the name of a small motel about a mile from her. It was too late to head back to her apartment, and since she didn't feeling like dealing with more of the cold shoulder from Chloe, the former captain of the Bellas decided that this would be her best bet.
She turned off the radio once the music turned to static, and the rest of the drive was silent.
Upon arriving to the motel, Beca noted that it was fairly packed. Hopefully she'd be able to even get a room. She bit down on her bottom lip as she looked into the backseat to see what she had. She was almost surprised to see her mixing equipment, and now that she had an idea for a new mashup, having it was nothing short of a miracle in her eyes.
She managed to gather her things before she headed inside, which consisted of a duffel bag with emergency clothes, two water bottles, a couple of granola bars, and a throw blanket.
The door chimed above her as she pushed it open, relief flooding through every fiber of her being because it wasn't locked.
"Hi there, welcome to Georgia's Motel! You need a room?" The voice that greeted Beca sounded awfully similar to Chloe's mother's voice, but she wrote it off as lack of sleep.
"Uh, yes. Do you have any?"
"Let me check, I'm sure I can find one."
The woman, who Beca assumed was Georgia, quickly started typing at the computer sitting at the front desk, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Beca took a moment to take in her surroundings; the motel was mostly decorated in shades of red and brown, miscellaneous figurines sitting along the shelves and the fireplace.
"Well, you're in luck. I've got room in 4b." Georgia smiled at Beca as she grabbed a key from the rack behind her. "That'll be forty-five dollars, sixty if you want breakfast provided in the morning."
Without putting much thought into it, Beca pulled out three twenty dollar bills, along with a few ones, and handed it to the woman.
"Alright, here's your key. Do you need help getting your things to your room?"
Beca takes the key, shaking her head. "No thanks, I can manage."
With that, the two women exchanged goodbyes and the younger of the two quickly stepped out to find her room. Once she did, she shoved the key into the lock and twisted it, pushing the door open once the click met her ears.
While it was a struggle, Beca managed to get everything inside and lock the door behind her. It'd been such a long time since she'd lifted her equipment on a daily basis, and her arms were tired after she managed to set everything up on the single bed. Thinking back on it, this was the most active Beca had been with her mixing since become co-captain of the Bellas, and her heart ached again as she was reminded Chloe.
The brunette set the pillows up against the bed frame, taking a seat and leaning back against them so she could work comfortably. She pulled her headphones over her ears and got to work, falling back into the mentality she had during the year that started it all.