A loud scream wakes Beca from her deep slumber; frowning she sits up and looks around her room, there are clothes strewn across the floor and the sheets on the other side of the bed are rumpled. Beca runs her hand over the sheets and notices that the bed is still kind of warm. She frowns more as she realises that she doesn't really remember the night before, the last thing she remembers is dragging her roommate to a club with her.
She drags herself out of bed and throws on some clothes hoping her roommate will be able to explain who was screaming and maybe what had happened the night before. Walking into the kitchen in her apartment she sees Jesse exit from his room looking like he was freshly showered.
Jesse had been her roommate for two years after he graduated college and got an entry level position at a movie production company. Essentially he was the assistant to a movie score and soundtrack artist, he followed him around learning the ropes all the while bringing the man his coffee. Beca and Jesse had briefly dated starting after the ICCA National competition their freshman year. The relationship hadn't lasted mainly because neither of them could really handle a long distance relationship after Beca had dropped out of college and moved to LA.
"Morning Bec," Jesse said as he turned on the coffee maker.
"Morning," Beca replied groggily, "correct me if I'm wrong but was I or was I not woken up by someone screaming like a girl. Please tell it was you screaming when you saw a spider or something 'cause I can never get over that."
"Once, Beca," He replied moodily, "That happened once."
"You jumped about ten feet in the air screaming you pretty little head off, I'm just bummed I didn't get the reaction on video. I mean the spider was about the size of a quarter, you're a grown man for Christ sakes."
"It's the way the scurry across the ground and walls and ceilings at high speeds, it freaks me the fuck out." He said pouring himself a cup of coffee. "And to answer your original question yes there was a scream and it wasn't made by me, it was made by your one night stand as she snuck out of the apartment."
"Okay," Beca replied with a quirked eyebrow, "and why exactly was she screaming?"
"She may or may not have seen my junk as I moved from the bathroom back to my room."
Beca burst out laughing at the reason, "why, for the love of God why were you walking around our apartment naked. 'Cause I so don't want to see that and I'm fairly certain, as you found out this morning, that nobody I bring home is going to want to see you naked."
"You guys were up pretty late Bec, I thought it was safe to assume that neither of you would be up this early."
Beca just smiled as she poured herself a cup of coffee, he hadn't been wrong, she hadn't had much sleep and was probably still slightly drunk from the night before.
"Man, I really got to stop drinking."
"You don't say," Jesse said looking seriously at his roommate, "You've been in doing this for the last year, don't you think it's about time to stop with the random hook-ups that you barely remember and maybe look for a girlfriend or at least cool the partying for a bit."
"Who are you? My Mother?"
"No," he replied shaking his head, "I'm your best friend that has been watching you run your life into the ground because your first girlfriend dumped you, it's been a year Bec, just cool it a bit."
"Whatever," was the only reply that Jesse got as she grabbed another cup of coffee and headed back to her room to work on some mixes. She had been in a slump for a while now; it was really starting to bug her. If she could still mix music well it just wasn't up to her high standards, it also wasn't coming as easily as it used to. This meant she hadn't sent any demos off to record labels or night clubs because if they weren't to her standards how were they going to be to theirs?
Beca spent the rest of the day struggling over her mixes until it was time to get ready for work. Beca's main employment was in the form of bartending and occasionally waiting at a local restaurant. She also performed music for the guests on selected nights of the week. She had gotten the position when she had performed at an open mic night at a small club when she had been dared by her friends. The owner of the restaurant had been there with his wife and had been impressed with her piano playing and singing skills that he offered a position at "A Minor Place".
The start of her shifts was going to be really boring; she worked behind the bar until the "dinner rush", where she would alternate between bartending and singing. However until the guests picked up she was mainly stuck cleaning the bar. She had to make sure the glasses were cleaned, she had to make sure that the alcohol was fully stocked and had to make sure that all the surfaces were clean.
It mindless, repetitive and above all else tedious, but Beca didn't really mind as it kept her busy. She wasn't thinking about how much mixing music sucked these days, she wasn't thinking about her failed relationship and she wasn't thinking about whether or not she regretted leaving college at the end of her freshman year and not staying on to complete her degree. However the time did drag on and it had felt like days rather than hours before more guests started to turn up and before Jesse started his shift at the bar.
Beca had gotten Jesse the job as just a way to make some extra cash as he wasn't really making much as an assistant. When Jesse had finally arrived for his shift, Beca went off to find the owner, John, to discuss what songs he wanted her to perform and when her sets and breaks were.
The man wasn't hard to find as he was usual in his office going over the paper work for the business, he wasn't hands on really. The man couldn't cook, the waiting staff bitched about his ineptitude when he tried to help them and he couldn't mix a drink to save himself. He was however good at the business end, and he had good instincts when it came to hiring his managerial staff to run the various areas that made up the restaurant.
"Hey John," she said as she knocked on the door, "What's the plan for tonight?"
"HI Miss Beca," he greeted with a smile, "the bar looking spotless?" Beca simply nodded in reply, "good, good. Well when we finish here you can go on a break and then when you come back you can perform your first set. We should be pretty busy by then so I'll get you back behind the bar for a bit, then at around ten I'll get you to do you're second set and then it's bar work for the rest of your shift. You can have another break sometime before your second set."
"Sweet, sounds like a plan to me." She said with a smile, "Any requests for songs or is it fair game tonight."
"No requests tonight, just you know keep it light nothing to outrageous this is a restaurant not a nightclub."
She nodded as she left the office, heading out the back to start her break.
After her break, time seemed to pick up exponentially and before she knew it she was sitting down at the piano for her second set. As was pretty usual she had gotten a few requests while she had been working the bar and luckily enough they were songs she knew.
"This first song was requested by Stanley and it is dedicated to his wife for their two year anniversary," she said into the microphone as she started to play Bruno Mars "Just the way you are." It was a song that never failed to bring a smile to her face as she thought about the Bellas and their semi-impromptu performance in the emptied out pool.
"I have another request by a charming young Australian couple that just want a little bit of home, they asked if I knew anything by Missy Higgins and luckily I knew one song and I think it is fitting for the tourists." There was a slight shout near the door as she started singing "Ten Days". It wasn't long before she found out who the slightly rude person was as she noticed a familiar group of women being seated at a table near the slight stage that Beca was on.
As she finished out the last lines of "Ten Days" she worked out what her last song was going to be. "Okay everyone this is my last song for the night, hope you haven't been to put off by someone singing while you ate and if you have any complaints or complements for me I'll be behind the bar." With that she started playing Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA".
After she finished playing a song she still wasn't that big of a fan of she hopped down off the stage and headed over to the group of women closest to the stage.
