A/N: I apologise in advance for any mistakes in spelling and such...
Get out. Now. I needed to leave in under a minute, preferably like twenty seconds. Basically it was a "get out now or she'll roll over and spoon me or something equally terrifying and then they'll be no way out" situation and I was running out of time. Oh, and then after the spooning she'd probably go and do something ridiculous like ask for my number or email or whatever and then I'd be even more trapped in this situation then two seconds before when I was having sex with, what I'm fairly sure turned out to be, female Christopher Walken in a supermodels body. So it was roll out and dress. Smile. Be slightly mean so that she wouldn't think to approach me again in a bar and then run. Solid plan. Annnd go.
Jeans on and buttoned I turned and caught her eye. Damn it. She was still incredibly hot but all I could think is that I finally understood what PTSD sufferers experienced because the flashbacks of this event were going to haunt me (and not in the poetically beautiful way) for quite some time. Say something.
"Well, thank you" One step. Two step. Door…
"You don't want to stay?" To say I flinched would be the understatement of the century; I all but ripped the handle from her door in my panicked jerk. She was pouting when I turned back round to look at her and while I imagined it was supposed to be cute or sexy or... something more than off kilting - it certainly was not. Be mean.
"No, that sex was bad enough without having to awkwardly pretend that I actually like you. Thanks for trying though. Gold star and all that" Too mean? Probably, but I needed out. She visibly choked on air and I almost laughed until I realised that she'd probably never been openly told this before, though she probably (read:definitely) was straight and she seemed the type who'd be rather good at missionary so maybe she didn't usually need to be. This time however…
"I don't know what to say" She finally settled on and I turned back to the door, opening it in my escape before speaking again.
"Cool, have a nice day or whatever"
"Yeah. Bye." Door shut. Phew! I laid my forehead against the wood for a second because thank goodness that was over. The solace of being alone only lasted for around three seconds though because an amused laugh harmonised with my deep sigh as I began to push myself upright. Lifting my head I saw it belonged to a redhead who was watching me with a grin and raised eyebrows while she'd apparently burritoed herself in blankets to watch… Real Housewives?
"Something funny?" I asked, meaning to be menacing but the happiness of finally being free from that room had me laughing along with the girl in the blanket. The ludicrously pretty girl in the blanket. The faint light of the screen was shining on her pale skin and I could hear the beats of a new mix running through my curls haphazardly thrown into a bun on her head created the base line. The crazy cerulean of her wrinkled eyes the drop - in both the song and your stomach. I all but shook my head to think straight. I was trying to escape, not stare at the redhead on the couch. A redhead who had undoubtedly clocked my lingering gaze because only a singular eyebrow remained cocked in question now.
"You look glad to be out of there" She stated conversationally and I wondered how she something makes an offhanded comment seem like a conversation starter that I really want to take.
"You look cosy," was my simple reply and she smiled.
"Couldn't sleep with all that going on" She nodded her head back to the hell mouth and I found myself blushing self consciously and fumbling for remnants of an explanation.
"That wasn't me" I stuttered out. "Well, it was my doing but the sounds weren't me. Unless you heard an incredibly startled laugh towards the beginning, in which case, definitely me" She laughed again and I smiled in return because it's oddly hard not to with this girl. Maybe she's a siren; luring girls back in so that Christobel Walken can eat them, in the literal way.
"I kind of assumed that by the distraught yet relieved look on your face when you escaped. It was so funny I think it actually overpowered my shock that a woman was leaving Jenna's room"
"I knew she was straight" I blurted suddenly and the girl giggled laugh was louder than before which is how I finally noticed that I had somehow unconsciously wandered closer to her. It must have occurred to her too in that moment because let her eyes roam curiously over me before she shuffled along the couch and tapped the space behind her invitingly.
"You wanna watch?" Head tilted. Small grin. Open blanket.I wanted to say yes. So badly did I want to say yes but I just had sex with her roommate, and getting in blankets with beautiful women whose friend you just slept with is definitely not a good plan. Opening my mouth to speak, I almost felt my lips betraying my intelligence with a yes before floorboards sounded from the danger zone and I felt panic rise through my chest. I allowed myself the happiness of her somewhat forlorn look for a second until I realised that she was pouting slightly but this time it was completely adorable and somewhat(read: totally) hypnotic. Annnd I need to be running.
"Sorry, Red" I started running to the door.
"It's Chloe" She called and I turned just before shutting the door and thoughtlessly let my mind betray me.
"Beca" One last smile and I shut the door.
Everything the next day was completely normal. I sat at home in the morning while Jesse berated me into doing the paperwork that I always leave until the last minute, all the while recanting me with tales of his flavour of the week – Sorry, the love of his life (if his life had the same span of a fruit fly) before I went into the studio and make mediocre beats into a masterpiece. It was also normal in that my perfectionist ways meant I sat there for way longer than I should have, trying to conjure the exact thing I pictured in my head the first moment this new piece started coming to life. So, in my normal day I found myself standing at the counter of a coffee shop at eleven at night, wondering why I was choosing to caffeinate myself so late but doing it anyway.
In a completely new turn of events, after collecting my coffee and turning around I ended up face to face with the redhead - Chloe - from last night who even through clouded eyes and a slouch sparked in recognition at the sight of my face.
"Well if it isn't Beca, or as Jenna is calling you – 'The Gay Mistake'" I gasped in feigned disgrace and she laughed through her order to the barista. I mutely acknowledged that it was the stupidly long kind of order that I would usually mock as I stand behind the hipster who searches for their wallet whilst telling the (completely uninterested) server about their screen play. I didn't even think to mock her however which is even more terrifying than her roommate's whale calls.
"You know I've probably heard worse but that one cuts deep. Especially as she got her friend to stalk me just so it could all be carried out in public where all my other stalkers can hear and decide I'm not really worth it"
"Okay, firstly this place is dead and I would totally have orchestrated something more elaborate than this to humiliate you. Secondly I'm not stalking you, Beca" She poured an extreme amount of sugar into her drink for someone who had already picked the coffee with the most ridiculous name known to man (It's still stupidly adorable when she tears the packets with her mouth and grins around the wrapper).
"You're not stalking me? I wonder what that shadow in the alley earlier was then" She rolled her eyes and it's an odd look on her face but at the same time it's the best thing that I'd ever seen. The whole crush thing had gotten completely out of hand.
"You'd never know if I was stalking you"
"Maybe the shadow was your ego" I threw back jovially and she threw her head back in a laugh that I didn't think my joke deserved but were more than happy to receive when it comes out in her voice. It was in that moment that I really took the time to look her over and was startled to find scrubs tucked under a scarf and jacket. This wasn't helping. As if being beautiful and funny wasn't enough, she had to be some kind of medical professional which is undoubtedly hot for no apparent reason and I was having incredibly inappropriate thoughts because I had sex with her friend and this wasn't a thing that could happen, so why was I still standing there?
"You're a doctor?" She looked down at herself almost like she'd forgotten what she did for a living before she nodded oddly self-consciously and took a slow sip from her diabetes in a cup.
"Yeah, paediatrician mostly, sometimes I work in the ER but people in there are also pretty childlike so…" She trailed off and her sudden nerves were adorable in contrast to the confident smirk that was in place the night we had met. Last night. When I had sex with her friend. I needed to leave. She smiled. I stayed. Shit.
"Fitting"
"How so?"
"Well, you kind of look like a Disney princess so I bet all the kids love you" She blushed and I stared unabashedly for a moment. Just a moment and I could walk away and never see her again because that's the right thing to do in this situation.
It was longer than a moment.
So much longer than a moment.
The sound of the door is what finally broke my spell and I smiled one last time before beginning my exit.
"Nice to see you again, Princess"
"You too" And I was gone.
I saw her again. Apparently God could not have mercy on my soul and instead decided to torture me in the most delightful way possible. Probably my punishment for all the escapades. And you, Rebeca Mitchell, for all of your mistakes will have a perfect being placed in front of you but you can never touch for thou hath already touched the body of another, or something along those lines. The punishment could have also been the car that ran into me as I tried to cross the road, because that hurt like a bitch. Probably the former because it was somehow hurt more, and also was making me sound like Jesse in love sick puppy mode which went against every (still sane) bone in my body.
I hadn't thought anything of sitting in the ER waiting for someone to come and fix what was probably a concussion and something else that would waste far too much time in fixing, especially at an hour where the night seemed to have veiled the world enough that everyone decided to do something inherently stupid. Take the dude next to me, who while passed out himself, had been escorted to the hospital by his mother – a woman who loved talking very loudly to her husband about their demonic son and how his 'nightly video' had ended up with his computer electrocuting him. Getting hit by a car didn't seem so bad next to that I had to admit.
So for a second everything had looked up until a stomach wrenchingly familiar voice called my name.
"Beca Mitchell" My heart jumped slightly when I stood and she grinned as she caught a glimpse of my face. I couldn't help but smile in kind as I rushed to follow her without tripping over myself in my haze. I almost cheered when I made it to the bed that she pointed to before she drew the curtain and my mind wandered elsewhere – otherwise known as a place it really shouldn't go because I had sex with her roommate/friend and no, Beca.
"You know, Beca, you didn't have to injure yourself just to see me again" I rolled my eyes which promptly makes me groan because shit my head it banging in my skull. Her easy smirk fell into a concerned frown as she stepped between my legs and shined a light into my eyes.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" I paused for a moment and not because I was confused. I could clearly see four fingers but I couldn't seem to find the words or really the singular number answer to her question because the smell of her was wrapping around me like silk. It was odd because it was exactly how I'd imagined it – not that I'd spent copious amounts of time thinking about it – it was just that she reminded me of Summer and she smelled like strawberries and raspberries and apples and-
"Beca, answer the question please" She looked worried and it was enough for my mouth to catch onto my brain.
"Four" She released a deep breath before she took a small step backwards, though not enough for her to not still be nestled between my legs as they dangle off the bed, not quite managing to reach the floor beneath them.
"Do you feel nauseous?"
"Yeah" But that could just be because you're close enough for me to kiss you and I really shouldn't but I really want to.
"Does it hurt?" She asked as she gingerly ran her fingers along my head and strangely it didn't so much anymore but it should've, it should've hurt so terribly bad because I was thinking about cute things like holding her hand and I had sex with her friend and this couldn't be a thing. She probably didn't even want a thing.
"Kind of a lot"
"I'll give you some painkillers but you'll have to stay here for a couple of hours, and then I'll take you home when my shift ends" I opened my mouth to protest but she seemed to be ready for it because she abruptly rushed off to collect something before I could even utter a sound.
The next thing I knew I was in my bed and the light pouring through the window told me it was the morning. Seeing a piece of paper next to my bed made my heart churn and flutter all at once because she took me home while I was high and I'd seen enough of those hilarious videos to tell me that whatever I said cannot have been smart – in both content or context. But she still left a note.
For the record, you're pretty swell too, Becatron.
(I hope no one reads this to learn of your secret identity)
Good luck with your secret robot alliance and
defeating that BumperBee dude you hate so much.
Chloe xo
P.S. You're totes adorable…
P.P.S. What does' P.S.' stand for?
P.P.P.S. I googled it. It means Post Script.
What a dork.
I hadn't seen her in four days but it was for the best because it couldn't happen. Although it was also driving me slightly crazy because it'd been four days and I was kind of addicted to everything that was Dr. Chloe Beale. And yes, I googled her when my mind stopped being fuzzy and I remembered reading her name on my discharge papers.
Thankfully, or unhelpfully I suppose, I bumped into her again. I had started to wonder how I hadn't somehow ran into her before this point because apparently we frequented the same places quite often - though I don't usually attend the ER or her own home, so maybe we don't go to that many of the same places. Not the point. The point is that, while I sat, hiding in a bakery with my headphones on, waiting for the rain to pass someone sat opposite me with a chocolate muffin and a smile that made me topple slightly and get my headphones caught as I tried to remove them from my head.
"Still a little out of it?" She chuckled and I rolled my eyes good naturedly with minimal effort.
"I'm sorry if I said anything weird."
"Nothing bad, you were ridiculously adorable actually and very intent on me understanding how I'm like the sunlight that pours through the clouds when everything finally starts to look up" I groaned because I was apparently cheesy, in addition to being a massive idiot.
"Once again, I apologise" She dropped her head to inspect her muffin before she dared to speak again.
"Don't be, I liked it. I was beginning to think that this whole thing was one sided" There was a blush creeping up her neck that was certainly mirrored on mine too. I wanted to grab her hand and intertwine my fingers with hers but I slept with her friend.
"This can't happen" Her head flung up sharply so that she could intently look me in the eye.
"Why not?"
"Because I slept with your friend" She scoffed.
"OK, two things. One, you barely slept with her and two, Jenna's not even my friend really she just needed a place to say and someone told her I have a spare room in my apartment that she could rent and I'm obviously too-"
"Nice to say no?" I finished and she nodded in affirmation. "Oh, thank God because this has honestly been killing me" We laughed together as, in a moment of confidence; I caught her hand in my own and ran my fingers along her wrist.
"Me too"
"Maybe we could go out sometime, on purpose"
"On purpose sounds good"