Up in the Club
It's hot
It's close
loud
sweaty
dark, smoky, unhinged unstoppable electricecstaticsexydrunkloosehazyfunkyperfect
Chloe's been drunk before. She's partied before. Done the white girl at a club thing.
This is different. She's never been high. Not that she's on drugs or anything. Chloe Beale knows how to draw the line (even if it gets really fuzzy sometimes).
But still, she's high and she knows it. High in the fast, electric, lightning bolt to the brain way that pot smoke doesn't explain. The kind of high that blows the world up to maximum size and turns the dancefloor into her universe. The kind of high that jumps to four-on-the-floor and scratches with the space. The kind of high that lets her sing to songs with no lyrics (and they all do, because they're the best in the whole fucking world right now). The kind of high that doesn't come with a low.
Because this is dancing, and this is singing, and this is four straight years of work, and this is winning, and this Aubrey Posen smiling a real smile.
And it isn't enough, won't ever be enough. She's right there, and even the parts of her that are touching feel like there's still ten thousand miles between them because she can always hold her Aubs closer somehow. But Chloe will make do with what she can manage. Tonight's not the night for thought anyway.
It's a night for feeling. Blonde hair tickling a cheekbone. The scratchy frayed polyester where Aubrey's scarf has been tied in the same spot (four and a half inches above the seam. exact.) for every single performance. Tightness across her shoulders as she tries to stay balanced and press herself further into the body in front of her at same time. Smooth warmth under her fingertips as she slides them a hair's whisper up into the gap between Aubrey's black tank and stupidly tight jeans. A hand with long fingers and expensive nails reaching back to tangle itself in her hair and play melodies on her scalp.
Chloe doesn't wake up until she's a bare inch from the side of Aubrey's neck. The blonde hasn't noticed yet, so she just angles her lips upwards and laughs into her ear. At this, Aubrey takes a step forward and turns. Chloe is burning in the new distance, but when Aubrey clasps her hands and asks her "Isn't this just perfect?" and gives her that smile all she can say is
"Yeah. Perfect."
When Beca takes over for the DJ and mixes"We Can Make the World Stop" with "Crazy", Chloe Beale has never wished so hard for something to be true.