Pining.
Chloe was good at pining.
In fact, she considered herself an expert at it. She was so good at it she barely had to try to do it. It was effortless to hide it, easy to mask it behind her sunny persona that invaded everyone's personal space, not only those at the center of her pining.
Though maybe she invaded Beca Mitchell's a little bit more frequently than others…
She started pining for Beca roughly 23 minutes after meeting her for the first time. Their encounter had been brief and laced with animosity and when she and Aubrey sat down to have lunch 23 minutes later, she realized how much she wanted to be sitting down to have lunch with the girl who mocked her choice in extracurricular activity.
The fact that it was pure chance that the angelic voice Chloe heard singing in the showers a week later belonged to that same girl felt like it meant something.
She'd never been able to let go of that. It felt too planned by The Fates.
She was attracted to Beca; she'd realized that in those first 23 minutes at the Activities Fair, but seeing her in the shower...singing with her in the shower...she'd been so turned on after that encounter that she'd let Tom do whatever he wanted to her.
She was grateful she didn't know her name yet; she didn't have to be careful to not moan it instead of his.
Beca Mitchell.
She learned her name when she filled out her registration form after her audition.
Chloe was genuinely surprised that she showed up to it. She thought maybe she wasn't the only one who'd felt the connection and fire as they found their harmony together in the shower.
Nonetheless, Beca had to be pulled into most things kicking and screaming. She was a ball of grumpiness and sarcasm who didn't take anyone's bullshit and would rather sit on a couch with a beer than run laps around a gym to increase her vocal support.
Chloe fell in love with her at their first rehearsal.
She asked Beca out for a drink a week later.
To her surprise, Beca agreed, and added, "You're buyin'! Let's go. I know a place that won't card me."
It was packed and the music was loud and they had to crowd together to hear one another, and Chloe was in heaven.
She learned that night that when Beca has more than a couple beers, she gets friendly. There were boring college boys that hit on her (well, both of them), and sometimes Beca entertained them for a minute or two which was longer than when they hit on her before the three beers.
But it was Beca's hand that kept finding a reason to rest on Chloe's lower back or Beca's arm that would slip around her waist to pull her out of someone's way (and closer to Beca) that made it clear Beca got friendlier when she drank.
Chloe wasn't sure if it was even a date - they'd never discussed it being one, and she didn't know if Beca even liked girls, and she didn't know if Beca knew that Chloe did. But it kind of felt like one while they were at the bar.
When they left, stepping into the cool autumn air, the closeness was gone. Beca was still drunk, and so was she, and though they held hands to keep from weaving into traffic as they walked toward campus, it wasn't the same as it had been.
Because it wasn't a date.
After that, they do a lot of things together that aren't dates.
Beca takes her to a concert. Chloe takes her to Six Flags. When Beca gets invited to some indie record release party, she asks Chloe to be her plus-one, and while Chloe's never heard of the artist, they're important to Beca and it feels like it's a big deal that she's the one Beca wants to bring with her.
Beca shyly calls Chloe her best friend when Chloe asks her who her best friend is.
Chloe says she's her best friend, too, but she doesn't want her like a best friend.
They go out again.
They go out often, in fact.
Always the same bar, because Beca can get in, and every night it's the same.
They drink.
They get close.
They leave.
The spell's broken.
They go out for Chloe's birthday - they have their own outing, separate from the rest of the Bellas - and shots are involved. Tequila shots.
It's how it always is - they step across the threshold of the bar and now they don't even have to be drunk before they get close. It's like the bar is their little secret. Their safe space. Within its dingy, grimy walls, Chloe's hands can roam a little while they dance, or while they wait at the bar, and Beca doesn't have to say anything about it.
It's just a thing that happens between them.
It's her birthday and Beca yells that she's buying them tequila shots and Chloe's laughter is cut off when Beca announces they are, "Doing them the right way," and holds up a salt shaker.
"The right way?"
"Yep!" Beca says with a grin and before Chloe can even react, she's leaning in to draw a line from Chloe's cleavage to the base of her throat with her tongue, sprinkling salt on it and retracing it. She's shoving a slice of lime into Chloe's hand while she throws back her shot and Chloe hears someone tell her she better be ready so she pops the lime to her mouth to hold it with her teeth and then Beca's kissing her.
It's brief, and probably not meant to be a kiss because when she steps back she's grinning with the lime between her own teeth before she sucks on it and tosses it onto the bar.
"Your turn," she thinks she hears Beca say - she sees her say it more than hears it - and a salt shaker finds its way to her hand. "It's your birthday."
Beca just keeps smiling at her and tosses her hair back and off her shoulders almost like she's offering herself up to Chloe's whim.
So she smiles back and steps closer to reach up and push Beca's chin up and to the side. "Stay."
She thinks the action makes Beca breathe a little quicker; she glances at her chest since she can get away with it with Beca looking at the ceiling. For a moment, she considers taking her salt off the curve of a breast; after all, Beca nearly did.
Instead, she leans in and draws a thin line up the curve of Beca's neck with the tip of her tongue.
She feels Beca swallow and it emboldens Chloe for a second and she backtracks to do it again, this time flat-tongued and lips sucking as she makes her way back to her jaw. When she leans back to sprinkle the salt, Beca's eyes are closed and her lips are parted and her fists are clenched. Chloe wants to spend hours doing it - tasting Beca's skin - but that can't happen in the middle of a bar so she sprinkles the salt, laps it up in a far more innocent manner than she'd started, and watches Beca come-to and fumble with shaking hands to get a lime in her own mouth while Chloe downs her alcohol.
Chloe wants to grab her by the back of the neck and throw away the lime and kiss her breathless.
Instead, she's quick and dainty about it and only lets their lips graze.
They seem to go out more often after that. It's unclear which of them is suggesting it more but they end up in their bubble almost every weekend. There's silent anticipation every time; it's like it's an exciting game to see how far they'll go each time. It's kind of like they dare one another to cross a line, and little ones get crossed.
Chloe's fingers seem to like tracing the soft skin just under the hem of whatever dress Beca happens to be wearing that night.
Beca's hands seem to like to play with Chloe's hair and they like to follow its entire length even when it means her hands graze over Chloe's chest as they do.
They're dancing together tonight and Chloe's daring to be a little dirtier than usual; her back is to Beca but their hips are joined, Chloe's ass grinding against Beca as they move together to some slow, sexy song.
It hasn't helped that Beca's wearing some tight black dress and stilettos that about knocked Chloe off her feet when she opened the door and saw her. And her make-up and her hair...Beca looks like a sex bomb and Chloe's never seen her like that before.
And it's Chloe's birthday.
Beca's hands are the ones roaming tonight and Chloe feels them at her waist and up her back until they're in her hair. They gather it into a low ponytail and pull it and it draws her head back until she feels warm breath on her ear.
"Chloe…"
It's the only thing Beca says but Chloe feels everything stop. The music disappears. The other revelers on the dance floor, gone. The laser lights and the smoke effects and the bartenders vanish.
She must have stopped, too, because something breaks the spell and her back is cold and she turns to see Beca disappearing through the crowd.
She follows, still breathless, and shoves her way past sweaty people and men who think her bumping into them means she wants to sleep with them until she spills out the other side. There's panic for a minute as she searches the dark club and she worries she did something wrong and Beca's left, but she spots her at the bar.
Beca has one foot perched on the small ledge that runs around the base of the bar and her stiletto is tapping to the beat of the music and she watches her lean into the bar to yell something to the bartender. She watches a guy stride up to Beca and lean against the bar next to her like he owns it and he blocks her from Chloe's view.
Less than a minute later he's walking away looking embarrassed and Beca's looking for something.
Her eyes, so dark and smoky tonight, land on Chloe and she lifts the shot glass that showed up when Chloe couldn't see and downs it, slams it down on the bar, and then she's striding toward Chloe with such purpose that Chloe actually stumbles backward a step.
Because Beca doesn't stop walking when she reaches Chloe. She walks right into her and pulls Chloe into a kiss.
It's not a lime-kiss this time.
It's a real kiss and Beca's hands are in her hair and Beca's tongue is at her lips and Chloe almost bursts into tears. Instead, she grounds herself by wrapping her arms around Beca's waist to pull her even closer and kiss her back.
Beca's hips press forward into hers and Chloe lets her in. Her tongue tastes like the tequila she just swallowed but she tasted like tequila the first time they kissed, too, so now it just tastes like Beca.
They part because someone drunkenly bumps into them hard enough to make them stumble but they don't let go of one another. They just stare and Beca's so warm in her arms and Chloe doesn't know what she should say, so she says, "I can't believe you're wearing that dress. You should be arrested for it."
Beca bites her lip and it's such an innocent move that Chloe feels like a perv for the comment because they are best friends who happen to be having a little too much drunken fun on her birthday and none of it means anything.
But Beca responds with, "I only bought it so you could take it off."
And everything stops.