'You're making me sexually confused.'
Beca had failed multiple times at intimidating their opposition, but that one line specifically hung around in Chloe's mind for the rest of that day. She wasn't really sure why. It was almost like having a song stuck in her head.
All the way home from the riff off house she would just randomly hear Beca's voice saying it again.
She caught herself staring at Beca a few times when this happened. Something about it was odd, maybe just because it didn't seem like something Beca would say. Maybe it was something else though.
'Chloe? You're awake right?' Beca's voice followed a soft knock at her door.
'Yeah, Becs, come in.' Sleep wasn't coming easy for Chloe, she felt kind of anxious or stressed, which was frustrating because she wasn't really sure why. Maybe it was the idea of no more Bella's. It's true that she doesn't deal with change very well, and that's putting it lightly.
Chloe shuffled over in her bed, knowing Beca would sit there as she usually does, talking rapidly about some new arrangement she was working on. Chloe really liked when Beca did this, she got so passionate and caught up in her own thoughts. She also liked that Beca only did this with Chloe. It was just their thing. It was nice.
'Please tell me you've worked a Beyoncé song into our next performance, you know how much I'm dying to- Are… are you okay?'
Beca's face was tear streaked. 'Yeah,' She sniffled. 'I just.. No.' She slumped down onto Chloe's bed and Chloe sat up immediately to pull her into a tight hug. Comforting Beca was her forte.
'I saw that you were just on Facebook, and I knew Stacie was out. Amy's out somewhere too, and I just… I'm sorry I just really need some company right now.' Beca squeezed Chloe as she apologised then let go. The two of them were sitting with lazy crossed legs, facing each other.
'Hey, don't apologise. Wanna talk about it?' Chloe asked. She always asked this first, because sometimes it was better for Beca if they just ignored the problem at hand. She has her own weird way of dealing with things. Chloe preferred to just vent everything when she was stressed, she couldn't understand how Beca managed to bottle things up the way she did.
'It's nothing really. Jesse and I just had an argument.' Beca fiddled intently with her sock, avoiding eye contact.
'What about?'
'God, what don't we fight about?! We argue over everything these days. I just don't feel like putting up with it right now.'
Beca turned herself around so she was next to Chloe, and slouched back against the beds headboard.
'So that's me… What are you doing up?'
'I just couldn't sleep.'
'That's it?' Beca sounded suspicious.
'Yeah. Hey, I'm not the one that needs to do the talking right now. C'mon, you know you can complain all you like, I don't mind.'
'No, I'm okay. I kinda just don't want to feel lonely tonight.'
Chloe nodded to show that she understood. She pulled her duvet over the both of them and wriggled into a more comfortable position. Beca thanked her in the form of a small smile.
'Hmm… How about a back rub?'
Beca looked like she wanted to say no for a second, as though she was having an internal debate over the question. After a moment she gave a little shrug.
'That sounds kind of nice, actually.'
Her voice was really quiet and she sniffled again. Chloe couldn't help thinking that she was kind of cute when she was sad.
Beca rolled onto her side and Chloe began rubbing circles with her thumbs into Beca's back. She slowly began applying more pressure and used the pattern on Beca's plaid shirt to measure the areas she'd covered.
Beca didn't say anything, but she sighed, and Chloe felt her shoulders start to relax.
After a while her hands started to ache, so Chloe slowed down to just gently tracing patterns. She assumed Beca was asleep, judging by her deep breathing. But conscious or not, what the brunette did next surprised her.
Beca's hand grabbed Chloe's, pulling it closer to her. Chloe's arm wrapped around Beca's waist, and Beca just held her arm there. Chloe assumed this was subconscious or something, but she still liked it, although she was in a bit of an awkward position, so she scooted forward slightly, turning it into a proper embrace, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath.
Chloe couldn't help noticing how nice she was only a faint trace of perfume, and yet it was still a very sweet, homely kind of smell.
Sleep didn't seem so hard now that Beca was there, and as she was drifting off she felt almost proud of the fact that Beca came to her. She loved how close they were as friends. She knew for a fact that that girl would not open up like that for anyone else, and something about knowing that comforted Chloe.
But just as she was falling, she realised something that brought her back to consciousness. She realised what had been bugging her all day, and more importantly, why it had bugging her.
'You're making me sexually confused.'
Chloe kept hearing it because, Chloe wished Beca had said that to her.
It seemed so obvious once she realised it. Friends don't think about friends that way. Friends don't hold hands and spoon in their bed, friends don't think about how nice they smell, or how cute they look. Friends don't wish they made their friends sexually confused.
'Oh, crap.' Was all Chloe thought when she realised how much she liked Beca in that moment. Because her feelings were so accidental they actually surprised her. They confused her too, but eventually she couldn't fight off her heavy eye lids,so she let her head rest in the crook of Beca's neck as sleep consumed her.