"Now, if I understand correctly, you two have known each other for a while - in fact, I have here that you've been best friends for about thirteen years?" The interviewer, Alvin ("Call me Al!") Collins, asks Beca and Chloe with a warm smile after quickly consulting his notes.
"Um, yeah, I guess it has been that long," Beca says with a small laugh and glances at Chloe. "We pretty much grew up with each other."
The redhead smiles and adds, "Yeah, I moved to Beca's neighborhood when we were kids - I was about nine, and she was eleven." She then turns to Beca and asks with a wide grin, "Do you remember how we first met?"
"No, of course not," Beca says innocently enough but she's wearing a small smirk that tells Chloe otherwise.
Chloe directs her attention back to Al and explains the encounter. "The dummy has never been very good with bikes, and there happened to be a pretty rough gravel patch right outside of my house and she hit it in just the right spot and it sent her bike skidding and herself flying off of it as a result. But, don't worry, I was there to come to the rescue."
"It was our very first meeting and she was already trying to be a mother hen to - "
"Beca, you are so much worse than me at the whole being a mother hen thing, you - "
"Shut up, Beale! I have street cred to uphold!" Beca exclaims, quickly covering Chloe's mouth with her hand so the redhead doesn't have a chance to continue ruining the good name Beca has worked so hard to establish for herself. She's very street. Everyone knows it.
They hear Al laughing at them and Beca removes her hand from Chloe's mouth but not before Chloe gets a quick lick of it, effectively making Beca gag and wipe her hand down the redhead's arm.
Gathering himself, Al looks at the pair fondly. "Was it like an immediate connection thing or one of those deals where you kind of hate each other at first?"
"Oh, no, I would say it was pretty immediate. We hit it off really quickly - we were really fast friends. I think the very next day after we met, we were hanging out actually," Chloe explains, smiling when she catches Beca shaking her head next to her out of the corner of her eye.
"No, I hated her," Beca deadpans, no evidence on her face that would indicate she's joking. "I still do, honestly. I really don't know why I'm even here with her."
Chloe turns to her and gives her this look and it's like Beca just all of a sudden can't keep up the facade or breathe and then she's laughing again (so much for that Academy Award nomination). "I'm just kidding, Red. You know I love you like I love chicken salad sandwiches." Then Beca winks and now Chloe is the one trying to breathe.
They share a soft smile, and Chloe is the first one to break and look back at Al. The young man, who can't be much older than the two girls with his red plaid button-up and dark skinny jeans (an outfit that Chloe thinks looks too similar to one she bought her best friend a few weeks ago), is looking back at them with a gleam in his eye and a knowing smirk on his face. "So, have you two ever had any huge fights or arguments or knock-down-drag-outs before?"
The two women laugh and Beca looks at Chloe, silently offering her the lead on this one. Chloe smiles and says,"Um, no, actually. It's pretty weird to me that we haven't but also it's really cool and kind of a testament to our relationship and its strength. We've never not gotten along and we pretty much agree on everything and when we don't, it's not a big deal - it's completely trivial and we just move on. We were never, you know, like those best friends who are always kind of spatting and are kind of catty with each other - you know the kind, the ones that are saying they love each other and they're best friends one day and then the next they're taking each other down for everything they're worth. That seems to be a pretty popular thing to do as 'best friends' and I don't understand that at all. We were never like that. We - even early on, like probably from day one - just always had this very mature understanding of each other and what we were to each other so we never really had to voice any feelings because we always just knew who and what we were to one another and where we stood. And I've always loved that about us. No matter what happens or how long we go without seeing each other, we know without a doubt that we have each other and that sounds so cliche and bad but it's the truth, really."
Chloe then looks over to find Beca smiling at her and it's funny because her heart races a little more than it was from talking about them (she's never been good at that) while seeming to slow down at the same time.
Beca nods slowly and adds her own explanation. "Exactly, yes. Chloe is quite simply a fact of my life. I mean, after thirteen years, how could she not be? Gosh, after two years how could she not be, you know? She has always been there, she always will be there, and I quite literally would not have life without her just because she is such a crucial part of it. And like she said, we've never really been ones to bare our souls to each other and to constantly be in this moment of telling one another how we feel for each other just because we always know. I promise, we have some weird sixth sense telepathy thing going on - it is ridiculous all the crazy stuff that happens to us. But as for fighting or arguments or anything like that, no we don't really have them. Nothing she does gets on my nerves and we can't stay mad at each other anyway because there's always something else we want to talk or laugh about or do."
"There was this one time though," Chloe starts, looking more at the ground than anywhere else. Beca furrows her eyebrows at the redhead, waiting for her to continue. "Before we got into this business and got our show, Beca kind of went through this phase when she was nineteen where she was thinking she wanted to be in the military, and I did not take that very well at all."
Beca sighs softly, knowing it's a touchy subject for the redhead, and whispers a small, "I'm sorry."
Chloe turns her head to the brunette and gives her a soft smile, letting Beca know it's all okay now. She turns back to Al. "I just...I've had family in the military, and I know what it does to some people and how it is when they come back. I just never wanted her to go through that. And I couldn't even think about the possibility of her not coming back at all."
Five Years Earlier
Beca looks across the table at the cafe they've met up at and tries to gauge Chloe's reaction by the very neutral expression on her face. She's just told the redhead that she's signing up for the military and she's not quite sure how she's taking it. But when Chloe suddenly stands up and exits through the glass doors of the small shop, she has a pretty good idea.
Later that night, Beca's about to turn in when she hears a knock on her apartment door. She already knows who it is because no one else has those four signature knocks, so she doesn't bother looking through the peephole. She opens the door and is met with a runny-nosed redhead with eyes to match and Beca notices that she's dressed in one of the brunette's own gray sweatshirts (so that's where that went) and a pair of black sweatpants. Beca doesn't like that Chloe looks so small right now and she briefly and very fleetingly thinks that it's not fair how beautiful she still looks with her eyes swollen and puffy and her hair tangled and flying all around her from the slight breeze.
It is when Chloe wordlessly steps into Beca, wrapping her arms around her waist and burying her head into the crook of the brunette's neck, that Beca knows she isn't signing up for anything without Chloe doing the same thing beside her.
"How did you two end up getting into this business together and getting your own television show?" Al asks, making the mood a little lighter with the question and his smile.
Beca laughs for the thirty-second time in this interview and throws yet another look at Chloe. "It started out as a bit of a joke, really. We've always had that kind of relationship where it's really witty and sarcastic and there's a lot of banter going on and I'm pretty sure most people we come across think we hate each other but I guess a lot of people really liked us and thought we were funny because we started to get suggestions from a lot of our friends to make a YouTube channel, and to, you know, just do stupid video stuff on it. And we did it just as a… like a 'what the heck' kind of thing, you know, and we ended up really enjoying it so we started to do some skits and different scenes of stuff which was all really just a bunch of improvised lines and before we knew it, we were pretty huge and popular and an actual television producer contacted us about having our own show, which is The Bond of Friendship or Something. and now we're in our third season and it's crazy, man. Crazy stuff."
Chloe chuckles at Beca's explanation and smiles warmly at all the memories they've created together. They used to play school or house or pretend to be chefs in a restaurant (she'll never let Beca live down that one time she got mad at the redhead because there were too many imaginary people giving too many imaginary orders for food for the brunette to sufficiently cook and prepare the imaginary meals). She never would have thought they would be here sitting across from a man who is interviewing them about their television show. Crazy stuff, indeed.
Al nods his head and looks in between the two."So, you two are no strangers to the limelight or to the paparazzi, for that matter. Normally, most celebrities get a bit of a break, but you two are like flames for these moths! They are always all over you! You could be stepping out at 7 a.m. for a cup of coffee and they would be waiting outside your door! How do you handle that?"
"I don't handle it well at all," Chloe says sheepishly. "I'm someone who gets really bent out of shape pretty easily and that is one thing that almost breaks me. I can barely be around paparazzi if Beca isn't with me. She's the person that's like always calm and cool and level-headed and she just keeps me sane and focused and relaxed. It makes me so mad because she's so freakin' good with them. She will have the most civil conversations with them and like ask about their day and what their favorite movie is or how they cook their steak and stuff, all the while trying to lead a freaking out me to wherever we're trying to get and she will never lose her cool. It's ridiculous. I hate it. I'm just like 'break already, dang!' But she doesn't, I mean look at her."
And with that, Chloe and Al both turn to look at Beca who is leaning back in her chair with a lazy smile on her face and her chin resting on her fist - relaxation personified.
Al chuckles and looks at his computer screen. "Okay, we have a question from a fan! Becky from Atlanta asks 'Can you name one thing that you love about each other?'"
Beca and Chloe immediately look at each other thoughtfully for a few seconds and then simultaneously shake their heads, respectively saying "No, I can't." "I don't think so."
Beca is the first to break into laughter and she looks back at Chloe. "No, just kidding. Um… I love how Chloe is, hands down, the best person I know. Seriously. I really love how effortlessly and readily Chloe loves and accepts people. She doesn't try to make people who they aren't to try to fit her standards - she kind of molds her own standards to fit them while still being true to herself and that's a really admirable thing. I also really love that she refuses to drink coffee after 11 a.m. That's just a fun, quirky fact about her. She's also painfully beautiful at all times of the day and I don't know if I love that about her or hate that, so do with that what you will."
Chloe raises her eyebrow at Beca and puts a hand over her heart in mock shock at Beca's kindness (when she really is in shock at how attentive and thoughtful the brunette is) and then straightens up, folding her hands in her lap and squinting at Beca, seemingly studying her. "Beca is extremely charming without knowing that she's charming," she finally says after a few seconds of intense analysis. "She has this crazy charm about her that's so rare and so much fun to see and to be a part of. I love how pretty much all of her qualities - her sarcasm and wit, her kindness, her humor, her hospitality - seem to mesh together to form this charm. It's so much fun to watch her interact with people because she can say one word and you can visibly see whoever she's talking to instantly get hooked on Beca Mitchell… Oh my gosh, and she has this wink that she does and it's like you can literally watch people fall all over her when she winks at them. It's quite impressive."
"Is that how I got you?" Beca asks with a hint of sarcasm behind her trademark smirk.
"Baby, you still don't have me," comes Chloe's quick retort and the way that Chloe has just called her 'baby' and then the way that she says the last part both have Beca's throat closing and heart hurting for completely different reasons. She never thought it was possible to be murdered by a sentence.
Beca's really not sure when it happened. There was just a very slow progression of her feelings for the redhead during the course of their relationship and she knows that the way she feels for her best friend now was the inevitable outcome of their friendship because what they have together has always been too beautiful and easy for it not to be. Because you can't be friends with someone like Chloe Beale for thirteen years and not eventually fall for her, and the more Beca thinks about it, the more she realizes that they were never just friends in the first place. There was always a deeper level, one that she never understood nor one that was really even revealed to her until just recently - thanks to their television show.
One Month Earlier
Beca walks into her New York City apartment, grocery bags in hand and cellphone resting between her shoulder and ear as she listens to her mother relay the weekly drama at her workplace. Placing the bags onto her kitchen island, she goes to remove her phone from her shoulder and holds it by her ear instead. "Well, I'm sorry that - oh, hang on, Mom, I'm getting a beep, someone's on the other line."
Beca quickly looks at the phone's screen and sees that it's "Princess Chlo" calling her. She chuckles and brings the phone back to her ear. "Hey, Mom, I'm sorry but Chloe is calling me. I should probably see what she needs… Okay, yeah, I'll tell her… I love you, too, Mom. Bye."
Beca ends the call with her mom and answers Chloe's with a grin. "Hey, Chlo, I see that you're up to your usual shenanigans with changing your name in people's phones. Tsk, tsk, Miss Beale. Oh, Mom says 'hey,' by the way, and she wants you to call her more. She misses her Chlo-worm."
Chloe laughs at the nickname Ms. Mitchell gave her when she and Beca were kids and Beca can practically hear her rolling her eyes. "I call her every week, Becs."
"Well, apparently she needs you to call everyday," Beca hears Chloe laugh again and can't help but do the same. The redhead doesn't understand how infectious she is. "So, what's up, Red?"
Chloe sighs, and Beca can hear some papers shuffling on the other end of the line. "Have you read the script for next week's episode yet?"
"No, I never read the script. We improvise pretty much everything, anyway," Beca chuckles and waits for Chloe's laugh, but it never comes.
"I think you better read this one," is all Chloe says and Beca can tell something is obviously bothering the other woman. "There may be a slight kissing scene."
Beca lets out a sigh of relief, glad that no one is being killed off or anything drastic like that. This is wonderful! The show needs a good love story! "Wow, that's great! Who is it?"
Chloe sighs again, and Beca doesn't understand why she seems so upset by this. This is good for the ratings and it will be a lot of fun to watch! "Who do you think it is, Bec?"
"Well, it's not us, so…" Beca says like it's obvious and pauses, waiting for Chloe's confirmation. When she hears nothing, it's all Beca can do to not cry because this will surely ruin them and everything they've built together. They can not kiss. That is not them and it never will be. They are best friends - kissing would be super weird. So what if Beca has caught herself thinking about what Chloe's lips would feel like and taste like on more than one occasion that doesn't matter she does not like Chloe she is her best friend she is her best friend she is her best friend not any more not any less there is nothing but friendship even though every time Chloe so much as looks at her in any way other than a glance Beca has to remind herself to breathe because the blue in those eyes is drowning her and even though every time Chloe hugs her and fits her arms so perfectly around the brunette Beca wants to throw up at how good it feels and even though every time Chloe flashes that 1000 watt smile at her Beca thinks she'll explode there is NOTHING more than friendly, platonic feelings there and Beca finally realizes that she can not kiss this woman because if she does then everything that she is trying to tell herself will suddenly be very untrue and she won't be able to hide anymore. Then it all suddenly makes sense - the jokes and wolf whistles thrown around on set from other cast members, the knowing looks and smirks whenever she and Chloe go somewhere together or when she grabs another cup of coffee for Chloe because she knows the redhead never seems to remember to get one for herself, the waggling eyebrows, the quick glances and the quickly quieting voices when she and Chloe make their way up to a group of people. They are not just friends, they never have been just friends, and everybody knows it.
Beca is pulled back in by Chloe's small voice asking if she's okay. Of course the redhead would worry about her when she was the one upset in the first place. "Yeah, hey, it's okay. Do you want me to maybe go talk to Gail in the morning and I'll see if I can get her to change it around or something?" Beca doesn't know if she wants Chloe to answer with a yes or a no.
"Yeah, that'd be cool. Thanks, Beca," Chloe responds and Beca knows that she wanted the other answer with the way her body kind of deflates.
"Okay, I'll talk to her when I get on set in the morning, deal?"
"Deal. You're the best, Becs. Talk to you later."
"Bye, Red."
Beca hangs up the phone and makes her way to her couch to lie down where she finds Chloe's hoodie draped over the arm from when she stayed over a few nights ago. She laughs humorlessly because of course it would be here, there are pieces of the redhead everywhere in Beca's life, and she picks it up and throws it on over her t-shirt and takes a nap. She'll need the sleep because tomorrow is going to be so wonderful.
"Gail, there's no way we can do this. There hasn't even been anything in the script leading up to this point - there hasn't been any buildup or anything to suggest this relationship forming. It's a bad idea," Beca explains to Gail, the director and writer for the show.
Gail looks up from her director's chair and gives Beca an incredulous look. "No buildup? You're kidding, right? That's a joke? Beca, the whole series has been buildup, since the pilot episode. It may not have necessarily been written in the script, but you've said so yourself on many occasions that most of the lines that air are improvised anyway. You two have been building it up for three years. Putting it on paper doesn't change what was happening already."
"But, that's just us! That's just us being us! We didn't mean for it to lead anywhere, it just happens."
"Exactly, it was just a natural progression."
"Ye- what?" Beca is slightly taken aback by the reality of those words. Natural progression? Is that was has been happening between herself and Chloe? Is that why the more she looks at Chloe now, the more she feels like she's burning and the more her hands itch to just reach out and -
"You don't think I see it?" Beca is broken from her reverie and brings her eyes up to Gail who is sporting a soft smile and a gleam in her eye that says she knows much more than she ever lets on. "You don't think everyone sees it, Beca?"
And just like that, Beca is sure she's dying.
"So, you two had a pretty big scene last week…" Al says, almost teasingly and both of the girls blush, slightly glancing at each other.
"Yeah, so we kissed? No big deal," Beca nearly squeaks, shooting down her best attempt at trying to keep it cool. She sees Chloe smile out of the corner of her eye, though, and that calms her instantly.
"What was that like? I mean, kissing your very best friend of thirteen years? Talk about awkward." Al is baiting them and they all know it.
Surprisingly and much to Beca's relief because she is not prepared to answer any kind of question like that, Chloe takes the lead almost immediately. "It honestly was not as awkward as I feel like it should have been for me. I was just super nervous, and there was just like a lot of pressure to get it right and to get it right the first time. Um…" Chloe chances a look at Beca and gives her a reassuring smile before continuing. "Beca's always been able to read me pretty well and I guess I was being kind of off with her for a couple of days before that scene, so the night before we were going to shoot it, she came to my apartment and she sat me down and we really talked about it and how it was going to go and what we thought it would and should be like - she was just so wonderful and so good about it. I couldn't have done it without her there to calm me like that and kind of put my mind at ease. The trust that I have in her played a huge role because I know that she would never do anything that would make me uncomfortable and really, it was just so sweet. The day of the shoot, she kept asking me if I was okay and if I needed anything or wanted to talk some more. She was just… I don't have the words, honestly."
Beca reaches over and lightly punches the redhead in the arm. "Weirdo," is her response but the huge smile on her face and the small squeeze she gives Chloe's leg say otherwise.
One Week Earlier
It is extremely safe to say that Beca is the definition of a nervous wreck right now. And she knows without a doubt that if she's a nervous wreck, then Chloe is a nervous wreck times one thousand. But that suddenly doesn't matter when Gail is yelling "Action!" and she's looking into her best friend's eyes and the trust that she sees in them is enough to make her want to cry.
They've just acted out a rather angsty argument scene that ended with their "characters" sharing how they really feel about one another (those are always the good scenes) and now they're supposed to kiss because naturally that's just what happens in angst-filled situations where palpable sexual tension is involved and with the way her heart is going to rip her chest open, Beca is sure that this must be what dying feels like.
The kiss is written to be soft and slow and kind of hesitant, and that's really how it is. Or how it starts, rather. Beca rests her hands on Chloe's waist, making the redhead feel oddly more secure, and her eyes stay on Chloe's until she gets close enough to start flicking them to her lips instead. When she sees Chloe doing the same thing while slightly turning her lips upward in a smile that only Beca notices, that's all the brunette needs to know it's okay.
The few seconds it takes for their lips to touch feel like hours, but when they finally connect, both sets of eyes immediately closing, no amount of time could have prepared them for the feeling. Having Chloe's lips brush against hers is equally the most chilling and most warming thing Beca has ever experienced and it's barely even a kiss yet. Chloe hardly has time to respond before Beca is pulling away slightly, eyes opening for one second to look at Chloe and within the same second, she's going in for another kiss and Beca feels more than hears Chloe's small gasp when their lips touch again - really touch this time. This one has more urgency to it and Beca unintentionally backs Chloe into the wall behind her as the redhead's hands come up to Beca's neck and snake through her dark brown locks, keeping her in place. She is overwhelmed with the scent that is so familiar to her and so undeniably Chloe - tropical hints of coconut mixed with warm vanilla - and the taste of her cherry lip balm and spearmint gum that she spit out right before the scene is still fresh and intoxicating and it's all enough to make Beca feel like she's going to faint. And when she feels Chloe's tongue slide across her bottom lip, she's sure that's what's occurred because there is no way that something like that would happen unless she was dreaming. But when Beca parts her lips to allow Chloe access and their tongues really taste each other for the first time, Chloe lets out a small whimper that Beca thinks is the sweetest sound she's ever heard (and it was too real to be an act right?). Then Chloe is nudging her thigh in between Beca's legs and Beca's stomach does flips and she wants to cry at how good it feels to have that kind of contact with her and then she's suddenly thrust into the reality of it all. Slowly sliding her hands up Chloe's sides and then shoulders to finally come and loosely rest around the redhead's neck, Beca reluctantly pulls away and rests her forehead against Chloe's. Chloe brings her arms down to circle around Beca's waist, almost pulling her into a loose embrace and they stay there for a few seconds, eyes never opening. They barely register Gail's soft "Cut," and it's only when the crew starts to move around that Beca remembers just where they are and why they were kissing in the first place. Her eyes flutter open and she sees that Chloe's face is flushed and she's breathing heavily. Beca turns her head to give one last, lingering kiss to the redhead's temple and pulls away softly before swiftly turning and walking back to her trailer. "It was all acting, Mitchell. Let it go," she mumbles to herself.
After the interview with Al, Beca and Chloe decide to order takeout and go back to Chloe's apartment. They're finished eating now (except for the mini oreos Beca keeps snatching from the bag on Chloe's coffee table) and they're watching You've Got Mail, a movie that quickly became one of Beca's favorites just because Chloe loves it and has made her watch it so much, ever since they were kids. Chloe is lying on the couch with her legs draped over Beca's lap and the brunette's left hand rests on Chloe's knee, idly drawing circles on the soft skin there every now and then. It's the same position they find themselves in almost every time they watch something together, but the domesticity and intimacy of it all abruptly hits Beca in the gut and she suddenly wants to leave very badly. "Hey, Chlo, it's getting pretty late. I should probably head home."
Chloe doesn't take her eyes off of her television screen, not daring to miss the ending scene that she's watched 743 times and knows by heart. "But it's almost over and you've stayed way later before, Becs."
And it's in the way that she doesn't tell her to just stay the night like she normally would that Beca knows something is different. And she knows that Chloe knows. "I know, but I've got a big day tomorrow so I should probably just go on now and head to bed."
Chloe's ocean-blue eyes meet her cobalt ones and Beca knows that she knows that's a lie without even actually knowing Beca's schedule for tomorrow and she's never minded it before but in this moment, Beca hates that the redhead knows her so well. "Okay," Chloe responds softly, dejectedly, and there it is - the acknowledgment that something is different and bordering on wrong and the resignation to do anything about it, and it's capitalized by the way Chloe removes her legs from Beca's lap and seems to close in on herself, drawing her knees up against her chest and circling her arms around them in a very fetal-like position. It's enough for Beca to feel like breaking.
"Okay," Beca repeats it with a sigh as she rises from the couch and heads to the door, because she thinks that word is the finality that she needs when of course it isn't. The finality that she needs is telling her best friend how she feels, really feels, and how she has felt for probably almost thirteen years but she knows Chloe absolutely does not feel the same way. Right? Right. And having that is not worth the real finality of losing her very best friend over some stupid feelings. But the closer she gets to the door, the stronger the urge to turn back around and just explain already grips her and when she places her hand on the doorknob she is warring with herself harder than she ever has and -
"I wasn't acting."
It's small, almost a whisper, but Beca knows she heard it and she is sure - she is positive - that her heart stops. She turns around as slowly as she can, trying to coach herself back into breathing, but when she meets those eyes again, the attempt is futile. Chloe is looking at her from the couch, obviously trying not to cry, because she knows and she knows that Beca knows.
"What are you talking about?" Beca asks (No, her voice does not waver at all, that is ridiculous.) and it's cruel, really, that she's asking Chloe that when she knows exactly what she's talking about but the absolute need that Beca has to physically hear it come out of Chloe's mouth is too much for her to care.
Chloe only raises an eyebrow and offers Beca the smallest chuckle she's ever heard before she gets up off of the couch and makes her way to stand right in front of Beca. The brunette visibly swallows and she briefly wonders when the person she knows the best in the whole world and who has practically been her whole world for thirteen years suddenly became able to make the Beca Mitchell so nervous.
"You know," Chloe husks. And she does know. And she knows that Chloe knows. And she knows that Chloe knows that she knows. And she knows that when Chloe presses her lips to hers for their first real kiss ("The first one doesn't count - that was on screen and we were in character!" "Whatever you say, Becs."), she never wants to not know the feeling building up inside of her ever again.