Chloe
Why did I even come to this party? She thought to herself, sipping idly at her red plastic cup full of alcohol. Normally she would have been dancing, socializing, or flirting. But that night, something was just eating away at her. Even though she had no idea what it was, this one thing was ruining her entire time.
Tom was noticing her weird behavior. As soon as they walked into this house that was absolutely packed with people, she had flocked to the nearest corner with seating and sat down, not once getting up. Tom was the one who had gotten her drink, if he hadn't, she wouldn't be as mildly tipsy as she was. Their relationship had been getting... tense, and she didn't really know why. She just wasn't as motivated to put as much effort into it. She didn't know why that was, either.
If Tom hadn't dragged her here she wouldn't have gone. But she had been avoiding spending any sort of time with him for too long, and her excuses were becoming more and more ridiculous each time. Tom knew that this was one of her days off work, and he knew that Aubrey was out of town, and he knew that her family was on vacation. There was literally no fake excuse that she could conjure up to be convincing enough.
He sat at her side, much more wasted than she was. Tom tended to drink to get confidence and to maintain his happiness whenever he sensed a fight coming on. Chloe knew that. She hated the arguments that they got into but it wasn't like she didn't think they were necessary. The entire time she was only expressing her opinions, and he disagreed. The odd thing was that throughout the disputes she felt as if Tom was skirting around saying something he thought would surely either alter or end their relationship. It scared her a little. How else would she ward off sleazy guys at the bar if she didn't have a formidably sized boyfriend at her side?
Chloe was yanked from her thoughts abruptly, almost choking on her drink, when she spotted someone among all of the people partying in the house. She felt her eyes widen a bit. This girl was so different from everyone else there. For one, she was smaller. But despite her tiny size, she was greeting everyone she walked by and they in turn responded with something equally as enthusiastic. It was as if this girl literally knew everyone there, or even if she didn't, she made friends with complete strangers immediately.
Chloe knew what Aubrey would say if she was there: "She seems cool, I guess, but a little too... alternative for my taste." The redhead could never have disagreed more.
The girl had brown hair, pulled up in a sloppy ponytail, bulky headphones slung around her neck and spikes in her ears as accessories. If Chloe had seen her anywhere besides a party, she would have doubted that this girl would be very sociable, but there she was, having the time of her life surrounded by dozens upon dozens of people. She wasn't dancing though. Chloe had a feeling she wouldn't like to dance.
Tom nudged her with his elbow, snapping her out of the trance she had been thrown into. Jumping a bit in surprise and blinking, she looked at him with a quirked eyebrow. He didn't look too pleased.
"What the fuck, Chloe?" He asked, words slightly slurred together.
Chloe resisted the urge to fan the air - Tom's breath seeming to be pure alcohol fumes, "What?"
He gestured with his head towards the girl Chloe had been looking at. She still didn't understand why he was getting so angry, though, and she looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate.
Sighing in angry irritation he eventually complied after a very tense silence, "You just checked that girl out for like five minutes straight." He gestured to his watch, "I counted." Apparently he was sober enough to keep track of time.
Feigning confusion she pretended to be oblivious - in truth she honestly wasn't sure what she had been doing, staring at that girl for so long, "What are you talking about?"
He rolled his eyes at his girlfriend, the two having dated long enough for him to tell when she was lying. Besides, she was slightly tipsy, which made it a bit harder to make her lies sound legitimate, "You're such a..." He trailed off, not saying what he planned to.
Chloe found her mood becoming worse and worse throughout the night, and she definitely wasn't in the mood for Tom's vagueness, "A what? What am I?" Her tone was cold. She glared at him.
He just laughed. That's what he usually did to avoid conflict. But Chloe wasn't having that tonight.
"What the hell am I, Tom?!" Her voice was increasing in volume. If they were anywhere else it would have caused a scene, but because of their environment nobody even remotely looked in their direction.
"Just forget it-" He tried deflecting her questions to no avail.
"-No!" She set her cup down on a side table next to the couch.
"Whatever." He took a long swig from his cup. Maybe he was trying to get more drunk so that he could answer her questions with less tension on his part.
"Fucking tell me! What am I?!"
"A dyke!" He shouted. The words startled her, the angry expression falling immediately from her face.
"What..?" Was all she could manage to say in response.
Tom scoffed, "Seriously Chloe, stop fucking pretending like you don't know what I'm talking about! I can't tell you how many of my friends have told me that you were gay, I just didn't want to believe them, but it's pretty fucking obvious!"
Chloe was at a loss for words, her cheeks becoming red. Thankfully the dim lighting hid her blush, "Obvious how?"
He wasn't looking at her, "All you do is check girls out! When you're with my friends' girlfriends and they talk about boys and shit, you show no interest at all. I've never seen you get jealous when a girl openly flirts with me, you've never done anything particularly nice to me even when you do ridiculous shit for all of your girl friends, and it seems like this relationship means nothing to you at all!"
Chloe didn't know why, but she felt her eyes stinging with tears. Turning her head away, she begged herself not to cry, not here, not in public, not in front of Tom. His words were already branded into her head permanently, it seemed, but he kept going. One of his friends had walked over after Tom beckoned him.
"Bumper," Tom said, "She's gay as fuck, right?" He really sounded drunk now. When he got drunk, he got more inconsiderate and cruel. Chloe bit her lip.
Bumper was even more wasted than Tom, "Wha...? Chlo? Yeah man that girl's the biggest friggin dyke," He dopily laughed, clearly too inebriated to care how much his words were both confusing and hurting Chloe, "She won't be able to get any... any uh..." He was wrecked, "...girls! Yeah, girls. She's too... too uh..." Not being able to find the proper adjective in his disoriented state he instead substituted the word with an undecipherable hand gesture, "Tom you should drop this bitch, dude, nobody's gonna want her s-so neither should you..." He staggered off, hiccupping to himself, chuckling at nothing.
Tom and Chloe sat in the most awkward silence of her life. The entire time she was just trying desperately not to burst into tears.
Finally, Tom stood up, "Bump's right. We should just end this..." Even though he was drunk, he did sound very slightly guilty for what had just happened.
Chloe tried to convert her sadness into anger, and she got to her feet, screaming in his face, "Fine! I don't want to go out with such a fucking loser anyways!"
He didn't look offended at all. His eyes just showed pity. But he pushed against her collarbones with a calloused hand, shoving her away as he meandered off. Chloe stood there for a few more seconds, tears rolling down her cheeks now, before grabbing her purse and frantically walking out of the house with her head aimed at the ground.
Why the hell did I even come to this party?
Beca
Whoa, drama. Beca thought to herself when her attention was briefly drawn away to a couple, fighting. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but the guy seemed to be acting like a dick and the girl seemed to just be a mess.
Even though the girl was crying, and angry, and upset in general, Beca was mesmerized by how gorgeous she was. Her hair was red, curly, down to her shoulders, and so inviting. Her skin was tan and absolutely flawless. The guy next to her was being so rude, Beca just didn't understand how anyone could be mean to a girl that beautiful. Not to mention her eyes. Jesus Christ, her friggin eyes. They were so blue! Even on the other side of the dimly lit room, they stood out and were nearly electric! Beca was drawn in immediately. She couldn't concentrate all night, she wanted to introduce herself to that girl (She had started calling her "Red", since she didn't know her actual name) so badly, but then out of nowhere her boyfriend (she assumed they were dating) started screaming at her, then she stormed off.
I hope she's okay... Beca thought, finding herself ridiculously worried about this person she didn't even know.
The party was alright. Jesse was the host and everyone there she knew, at least a little. But everyone she said hi to greeted her like they had known each other their entire lives. Jesse must have told them to be extra enthusiastic. Beca appreciated the effort but found it slightly unnecessary. Jesse had even asked her to DJ but she politely turned him down. For some reason she wasn't in the mood for any kind of performance, at least not that night. Though he tried to hide it she could tell he was disappointed.
Overall, she was having fun. Talking with people and socializing usual wasn't her thing at all, but she pushed herself out of her comfort zone and it really wasn't as awful as she had anticipated. Her chest seemed to be constricting more and more with every conversation and social interaction, but she managed to keep her cool, badass demeanor throughout the night. It was just seeing Red run off like that, crying to herself, that seemed to throw her entirely off kilter.
Eventually, she was so distracted it was pointless to try and continue partying. After finding Jesse in the crowds of people and saying goodbye without too decent of an explanation, she got into her car and headed home.
It was pouring rain when she got outside. When the hell did it start raining? Beca asked herself, turning on her windshield wipers once she got onto the road. It was really late at night so thankfully the roads were empty, for the most part. Woods were on both sides of the pavement and there were no sidewalks. Even though she had taken this same route a million times to get to Jesse's place, it seemed really creepy at night during this storm.
Beca suddenly spotted something on the side of the road; a flash of red standing out like a sore thumb in the rain. She slowed her car down, hoping that whoever it was didn't think she was some rapist about to abduct them. Squinting through her window, trying to decipher the person through the rain, she gasped to herself when she saw who it was.
Red stared back at her, mascara stains tainting her tan cheeks. The poor girl wiped them away frantically, looking confused and a bit frightened at the random car that had pulled up next to her. Beca continued staring, in awe for a few moments, before finally clearing her throat and rolling down her window. The wind was really strong and some rain blew into her face but she didn't even register it.
"Hey!" She had to shout to be heard, "It's pouring! Do you want a ride?!"
Red opened her mouth as if to say something, but then glanced up at the sky when a roll of thunder ominously echoed around them. A flash of lighting made Beca jump slightly in surprise, the flash extremely bright. Right when she was about to insist that Red got into the car, she ran from the side of the road and got into the passenger's seat.
"Jesus," Beca said, trying to lighten the suddenly heavy tension that had formed when Red sat down, shutting the door behind her and buckling her seatbelt, "When did the weather say it was gonna rain like this?"
The girl said nothing, looking so damn sad, staring at her hands that were held tightly together in her lap. She was drenched. Her hair was more flat and stuck slightly to her face. Beca felt awful.
Realizing she was still referring to her as "Red", she decided to introduce herself as she stepped on the gas, "I'm Beca."
This time the girl's amazingly blue eyes flitted to Beca for a moment, just a second, but it made the small girl feel chills all over her body.
"Chloe." The girl's voice was shaky and small.
Chloe... Beca repeated that name over and over again in her head, so as not to forget it. Like you're going to forget it.
"So, where do you live?" Beca asked, remembering that she was giving Chloe a ride. She felt pressured, the sort of pressure she felt when she was on a date. It didn't make any sense to her, though. She had just met Chloe. Beca didn't think too much of it and focused on driving.
"Keep going straight. It's an apartment building. Willamette." Even though Beca hadn't heard this girl speak before this car ride, she had a feeling that normally she sounded more enthusiastic and her voice was now lackluster and listless.
"Oh, I know that place..." Beca trailed off, not sure how to continue the conversation and not sure if Chloe even wanted conversation to be continued.
They rode in silence for at least five more minutes, the only sound being the rain that steadily hit the car's roof in torrents. Chloe didn't look at her again, didn't speak, didn't make a single sound, she barely even moved. Beca felt terrible for her. She had a growing feeling that Chloe's dick of a boyfriend had broken up with her at some point during that argument. She also had a feeling it hadn't upset Chloe much and that it was something else, eating away at her.
Right when Beca was about to say something else, her words were cut off when Chloe sniffled quietly. Beca looked over at her, mouth slightly agape, hoping that this girl didn't start crying because she wasn't sure if she could comfort her without it being weird. They had just met, barely. And even though the DJ wanted desperately to become friends with her, she had no confirmation that the feelings were mutual.
"So um..." Sometimes Beca wasn't in control of what she said - usually when she was extremely curious. This was unfortunately one of those times, "...I saw you arguing with someone at the party..." She trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.
"Yeah... that was my boyfri-" Chloe stopped abruptly, clearing her throat to steady her voice and correct herself, "-ex-boyfriend."
So, Beca had been right about the dick breaking up with her. She felt abruptly protective and she had no idea why.
"Oh... I'm sorry." She replied lamely, cursing herself internally at the stereotypical response.
There was another silence. Beca gripped the wheel tighter to ease her nerves, though it didn't work very well at all. They were getting closer to the apartment building Beca drove by a lot to get to Jesse's. It was really tall and kinda stood out. It was practically impossible to miss.
Just as the roof of the towering building was becoming visible above the tops of the trees, Chloe abruptly just started sobbing - hysterically - into her hands. Beca looked at her in helplessness, not sure what to do.
"Hey... don't cry, I'm sure he was a total dick," She pushed down on the gas pedal harder, desperate to get to the apartment building soon. Going past the speed limit was harmless when there were no other cars anywhere on the road. Or at least that was what she kept repeating to herself in her head.
Chloe didn't say anything in response, her entire body was shaking from how violent her tears were. Beca wasn't sure what else to do except drive faster.
Finally, when the building came into view, she spotted a convenient parking spot directly in front of it and parked there. Turning off the ignition and unbuckling her seatbelt, she turned where she sat to better look at the weeping redhead.
"Um, we're here..." Was the only thing she managed to come up with, cringing to herself at how it sounded. When Chloe still did nothing, Beca simply exited the car and walked around to the other side, ignoring the fact she was getting soaked, and opened up the redhead's door for her.
Hesitantly and awkwardly, the DJ reached forward and tapped Chloe on the shoulder, the contact successfully pulling her from her hysterics for a few seconds. Beca felt herself shudder when those blue, glossy eyes met hers, and she felt her heart breaking at how much hurt was displayed clearly in them.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the distraught girl lunged from the car, wrapping Beca in a tight embrace, still crying her eyes out. Needless to say the DJ was both confused, surprised, and slightly pleased all at once. She barely engaged in physical contact with people she had known for years, and now this girl she had met ten minutes ago was hugging her. Not wanting to be rude, though, she pushed her own reluctance aside and cautiously wrapped her arms around Chloe, never having felt so sorry for anyone in her entire life.
When the DJ attempted to wriggle from Chloe's grasp for a second to close the car door, the redhead simply tightened her grip. So instead Beca had to awkwardly maneuver around and kick the door shut with her foot before proceeding into the building. She managed to ask a very confused receptionist where Chloe's room was. Thankfully the man recognized Chloe's name and directed Beca to "room 302", which she hastily got to, still holding a bawling redhead in her arms. When she stood at the door, managing to get a key from Chloe's purse (this girl simply wouldn't let her go), she unlocked it and stepped inside Chloe's apartment.
Well this night sure took a turn for the unexpected.