The Bella's Beach Bonanza. That's what Amy names this particular outing, proclaiming it loudly from the front of Stacie's bright yellow jeep as they screech onto sand. She's not actually at the front, she's more above the car than she is sitting in it. Standing on the seat - socks only, Stacie had insisted - with her hands gripping the bars of the roll cage as she excitedly rocks her body back and forth.
She reminds Beca of a drunk guy she'd seen hanging out of a limo sunroof on the night of her prom. A night that she had chosen to spend shut up in her bedroom mixing music. The only reminder of the apparent significance of the night coming in the form of more drunk teenagers passing by in limos, a sight she could see from her window.
Thankfully for Beca, she's not actually in the jeep with Amy. She's sitting on a cooler a few feet from where Stacie had pulled up, beer already in hand, while Chloe gathers up beach towels from the back of her car before shoving them into Beca's lap. Beca glances up in time to watch a lock of hair liberate itself from the messy bun Chloe has her hair pulled into and bounce delicately into her line of sight. She's wearing a thin, loose fitting dress over, Beca presumes, her bikini and the sun behind her creates a halo effect around her.
For a second, Beca forgets how to breathe.
"You promised you'd help me if I let you ride with me." Accusation drips from Chloe's tone and she's wearing a frown to match, but Beca can hear the playfulness in her voice.
"I am helping," Beca says, sweetly, smiling at Chloe and shaking her beer bottle. "I'm making the cooler lighter." She stretches her smile into an overly wide grin that's met with Chloe's deadpan stare. A stare that holds fast until Beca breaks it with a roll of her eyes. "Fine." And she thinks Chloe's smile is worth her submission.
"Why aren't we all on the beach yet?" Amy asks the question like she's demanding an answer and Beca turns her head to find that the Australian has somehow whipped off what she was wearing over her one-piece and made it a third of the way down to the beachfront during Beca and Chloe's short conversation.
"Because we have things to unpack!" Stacie hollers after her.
"Sorry, what? I can't…." Amy points to her ear and turns away from them, high tailing it to the ocean. Stacie rolls her eyes and Jessica and Ashley jump out of the back, grabbing as much as they can carry before heading off after Amy.
"Beca." Chloe snaps her fingers in front of Beca's face to get her attention and the brunette jerks back, startled. "Take the cue." She jabs a finger into Beca's shoulder and heads for the trunk of her car. Aubrey is already back there, unpacking things and stacking them neatly on the ground beside her.
There isn't really a lot, but they brought a few collapsable beach chairs and three coolers. Two for drinks, one for food. Beca is slightly worried about that ratio but no one had seemed to care when she brought it up.
Stacie is stuck carrying the inflatable lounge chair and giant rubber ducky - the kind with the hole in the middle that lets you just kind of peacefully float along - that Amy has insisted on bringing, and she grumbles as she tries to juggle them and the large umbrella she'd brought.
"Whose idea was it to inflate these things before we got here?" Stacie asks, peeved, as Aubrey falls in line beside her carrying one of the coolers.
"Amy's." Beca and Chloe answer at the same time, right before the redhead sweeps in to take the inflatable lounge chair out from under Stacie's arm.
"I got this," Chloe announces, confident, then strides off ahead of the two of them with renewed purpose and managing two coolers, some extra towels, and the umbrella. Leaving Beca with a bunch of towels and some sunscreen, and her beer.
"Girl's got some pipes." Stacie draws out the last word, elongating the first vowel to about thirty times its needed length.
"Mm," Beca hums, distracted until she feels a shoulder roughly smack against her own. She looks up with a frown, ready to spit questions and accusations, but Stacie is grinning at her like she knows some big secret and is dying to tell someone.
"You finally going to hit that or what?"
Beca almost trips over her own feet. Nearly drops the cooler she's carrying and falls flat on her face. She releases a strangled sound from the back of her throat, gasping and gaping like a fish out of water, and halts all movement before staring at Stacie.
"Dude, what?" It comes out high and meekly outraged, and Stacie just shakes her head with a laugh.
"God, you're so dumb." Stacie chuckles and starts walking again.
"Hey!" Beca sounds slightly more sure in her outrage this time, readjusting what she's carrying and then scurrying after Stacie.
"Everyone already knows, just get on with it." Their feet hit the sand and Stacie gently nudges Beca in the direction of the others. Because she's staring at Stacie in horror. "You're giving us all second-hand sexual tension. It's frustrating and confusing. Deal with your toners."
"Wait, what? Toners? Plural? What is happening?" Beca's eyes are wide and wild. Like a frightened squirrel.
"You're asking too many questions, that's what. Just… shut up and stop thinking so hard." Stacie's last piece of advice is hurriedly whispered, right before they reach the group. Chloe is shaking out beach towels for everyone to lie on while Aubrey stabs the umbrella into the sand and Jessica and Ashley break out the sunscreen.
Beca just kind of stands there for a while as the girls mill about around her. She's shocked, but not surprised, and she's thinking about that when Chloe suddenly appears in front of her.
"Hey," she says, a little breathless, and Beca can't help but notice how a few more twisted curls have worked themselves free of Chloe's bun. "You're taking too long." She flashes Beca a wink and then liberates her of the cooler and towels she'd been carrying.
Beca has no idea what happens over the next half hour. She's aware that things are going on around her, manages to maneuver onto one of the beach towels and even acknowledges people when they talk to her. But some part of herself has checked out for the moment.
It's probably the part of her that's staring at Chloe as the redhead pulls the dress she's wearing over her head, revealing a baby-blue bikini that Beca's never seen before. Her gaze sweeps and lingers without conscious effort, drinking in bare skin and toned muscles, and Chloe is shaking her hair free of her bun. In slow motion. Beca blinks a few times.
"Close your mouth before you start drooling." Stacie warns without looking. She's wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and is stretched out beside Beca with a book open in her hands. She's also wearing a bikini, if you can call it that. It's mostly varying thicknesses of floss.
"What?" That seems to be Beca's question of the day and Stacie heaves a sigh, like Beca's ignorance is the biggest inconvenience in the world to her right now, before snapping the book closed.
"You're looking at Chloe the same way Amy looks at the Thunder From Down Under guys." Stacie lets her head loll to the side as she speaks and uses a finger to lazily slide the sunglasses along the bridge of her nose. The sunlight catches emerald eyes as they peer over top of the rims and bore into Beca in an unyielding sardonic stare.
"I-" Beca doesn't get very far.
"Look," Stacie interrupts with a sigh that borders on exasperated. "If you're afraid of being rejected, trust me when I say you don't need to worry. Seriously."
"But how-"
"Beca, please don't question my sexual tension barometer." Stacie's words silence Beca immediately and for a moment, her expression is conflicted. Uncertain. Stacie decides she needs another nudge. "If you're not going to make a move, then I will."
Suddenly, Beca's a flurry of awkward movement, almost falling over her lounge chair in an effort to get to her feet. She goes down on one knee in the sand and hears Stacie laughing behind her.
"Shut up," Beca grumbles, finally managing to stand up straight, and she shoots Stacie a glare before looking out towards the sea.
Chloe is staring right back at her, wearing a warm, amused smile, and for a second Beca thinks she might hit the sand again.
"You coming, Becs?" Chloe calls out, sounding hopeful. Behind her, Beca hears a snort and a muttered, "Not yet." She pivots and kicks her foot out, tossing sand in Stacie's direction. Stacie just laughs and pushes her glasses back up, then opens her book again.
Beca turns to Chloe again and finds herself being pulled towards her by the redhead's smile and laughter.
"Shirt off, Mitchell." Chloe's order is accompanied by a wave of her hand and Beca complies without thought, dropping the garment to the sand as she walks towards Chloe. The redhead waits for her, then grabs her hand once she's within range, tugging Beca - by hand and stomach - towards the edge of the water.
And toward the edge of something else that neither one of them has trouble falling over.