"Dude, I swear I will not get on that plane."
"Come on Beca, you have done it already at least 5 times in the past 2 years. It's not a big deal!"
"It is, since two planes crashed within a few days from one another."
"This is ridiculous, you can't possibly be that superstitious! And anyway, it's not like we have a choice. Nationals are in NY and we live in Atlanta, in case you haven't noticed. So unless you wish to drive all by yourself for more than 13 hours, I suggest you get over all of this non sense and get on that damn plane, Mitchell."
Beca vigorously shook her head, "Nope, not gonna happen Stacie."
Beca had never been the kind of person that loves to travel by plane. It is actually safe to say that she hated it, like she has for most of her life. It all started when she got on a plane for the first time and during the flight there had been some trouble with turbulences and she had freaked out crying and yelling that she wanted to go home. She didn't know how her mother managed not to choke her that day. Hell, she was five but it had still been a trauma to her.
She hadn't had particular problems with planes for many years now. She could get on a plane without losing it but that didn't mean that she actually enjoyed flying.
That was until she heard of the two defective planes that crushed only a few days before.
"Beca please. What do we have to do to convince you? Those planes have been accidents and now every single flying company is running tests and checking everything, each engine and each piece of metal of each plane."
Stacie was giving her puppy eyes, just to convince her. Beca returned her look with an almost impassive one and held her gaze and for a second the taller girl thought she might have changed the DJ's mind. Just for a second.
"Not. Going. To. Happen."
Stacie's groan rang out loudly through the Bellas' house while she walked towards the kitchen counter where Cynthia Rose and Jessica were sitting. Both girls chuckled at the exchange they had just witnessed, which earned them a glare from Stacie.
"I can't believe this!", Stacie exclaimed, "you are the most stubborn person I've ever known! I literally spent the past 45 minutes trying to put some sense into you and nothing! It did nothing!"
Beca simply shrugged, grinning at Cynthia Rose and Jessica who seemed to be about to choke with laughter.
"Ugh, you're impossible", Stacie stated with a hint of a smile, infected by the laughter herself.
"Who's impossible?"
Chloe walked in that moment and gave Beca a confused look, waiting for an explanation. "And why are these two suffocating?", she raised an eyebrow at the two, without losing her never-fading wide smile.
"Shortstack here doesn't want to travel by plane because 'it could crash and maybe even fall on a almost desert island in the middle of nowhere, where crazy scientists run tests on polar bears and boars and they'd kidnap us one by one and put us in cages or eventually leave us at the mercy of the black smoke.' "
Beca frowned and glared at Stacie, which made Chloe laugh aloud and shake her head, looking amused at the Bellas' captain.
"The way you said it, you made it sound ridiculous and it is so not ridiculous", Beca shot back, "and I don't like being called shortstack". Beca pouted and that made everyone laugh even more and harder.
"I'm starting to regret making you watch Lost. That show is seriously messing with your head". Chloe walked over to Beca, put her arms around the girl's waist and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Aww you're so cute when you pout", she said placing another kiss on her cheek.
"I'm not cute, and I'm not pouting", she said unconsciously pouting even more, which earned her another big laugh from everyone in the room.
Chloe sat down on the couch, dragging Beca with her and facing the smaller girl. The redhead was smiling widely, her face was beaming and the piercing blue eyes were staring at Beca's navy ones. The DJ couldn't help gazing into those perfect bright eyes in awe and most of all you couldn't stop her mouth from dropping slightly. "Whatever you say, boss. Now, what's this non sense about you not getting on a plane all of a sudden?"
The question shook Beca out of her trance. She stopped staring, although everyone had noticed her weird behavior.
"It's no big deal, I just don't trust airline companies and most of all I don't like the idea of being 30.000 feet up in the air in a possibly defective plane."
"Oh come on! This is what this is about?"
"Brace yourself, red. She's not backing down", Stacie interjected.
Chloe eyed her and then shifted her eyes to Beca. The redhead had now a weird look on her face, suddenly determined and defiant. She shifted on the couch and moved closer to Beca, then gently leaned her arm on the smaller girl's shoulder.
Chloe felt the DJ stiffen next to her. Beca's breath caught in her throat as the redhead brought her face a little bit closer to her. When she started talking, Beca felt Chloe's hot breath gently warming her skin, sending a shiver down her spine. Chloe noticed and a grin appeared on her face, causing Beca to blush.
"Please, Becs. There's nothing to worry about. It'll last only a few hours, then we'll go check in the hotel and we'll go clubbing at night." Her voice was low but not that the others could hear. It was just above a whisper and it was mesmerizing Beca.
Chloe gently tucked a lock of brown hair behind the DJ's ear, lightly brushing her fingers against the cheek.
"I'll buy you a drink when we go out, too". Chloe grinned widely at the reaction she was getting from Beca. The girl's lips were slightly parted, her eyes fixed on Chloe's light blue ones. It took her a few seconds to realize that she had been asked a question and had to give some sort of answer.
She opened her mouth but the only thing that came out of it was a low moan. Words, Beca, try to process words.
"Ugh, I mean- I could- fine". Way to go. What a wonderful sentence.
"Fine?", Chloe raised an eyebrow and stared intensely at Beca.
The Bellas captain cleared her throat, hoping to regain some composure, and shrugged pretending the exchange hadn't had any effect on her.
"Yeah, I mean, I guess I can try and get over that fear. After all it's a matter of a few hours, right?"
She got up and with an awkward expression on her face, she made her way out of the living room.
"I can't believe it. You got her to come with us in what? 5 minutes?", Stacie looked astonished.
"What can I say, I'm pretty good at convincing people. Maybe I should major in Law instead of Literature."
Stacie's expression shifted and a smirk appeared on her face. She exchanged a look with both Cynthia Rose and Jessica, who had been watching until that moment.
"And also, do you mind telling us what was that about?"
"What was what about?", she replied keeping an innocent face on.
"Your little flirtation with Shortstack of a minute ago."
"I don't know what you're talking about. I was just trying to convince her to travel by plane and avoid us a huge problem", she said smiling widely as if nothing happened.
"Uh-uh", she eyed her suspiciously, "I'm not buying it. Something's up, shoot."
Chloe opened her mouth to object but closed it right away because of the glare Stacie shot her. She sighed and rested her head against the back of the couch, closing her eyes and drawing a deep breath.
"..I enjoy her company", she whispered checking the entrances to see if someone was about to come in.
Stacie let out a loud 'yes', while Cynthia Rose groaned. "I knew it. Pay up, bitches! You owe me quite some bucks."
"It's not it, yet! There's the second part."
"Wait- what? Someone cares to explain what's going on here?", Chloe crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, glaring at the fellow Bellas.
"We may or may not have a bet going about your possible crush on Beca and viceversa", CR explained tentatively with a guilty expression on her face.
"You did not- and what's the second part you were talking about?"
"..either one of you acting upon it sooner or later?"
While Stacie had a wide grin on, CR looked more like she was now scared of the redhead. Especially since said redhead did not respond right away. She looked pensive at first, then she looked directly at the girls in front of her and opened her mouth to say something, but she closed it right away.
Stacie eyes grew wider. "Oh my god, you really do have a huge crush on her! And do not give me that 'I enjoy her company' bullshit, Beale. We have to do something about this."
"Will you keep quiet, please?! There's no need to shout it out loud! We are not alone here", she said trying to muffle her voice as much as possible. "And we don't have to do anything about it. I don't even know if I will do something about it."
All three girls looked at her surprised, without saying a word.
"What?", but none of them answered. Not verbally. Their looks were quite eloquent, though, and Chloe noticed.
"You can't be serious", she started, "Beca is my best friend and I absolutely won't put that friendship at risk by telling her that I have feelings for her when said feelings are surely not even returned!"
"And who said they are not returned, Red?", Stacie injected. "Maybe you haven't noticed Beca's reaction a few minutes ago, because she froze when you got near her."
CR and Jessica nodded in agreement, "It's true, Chloe. She was paralyzed, literally. That's what made it fun, tbh. I've never seen Beca that flustered", CR added with a smile.
Chloe found herself smiling thinking about it. Beca did freeze before, but Chloe had assumed it was because she wasn't used to people invading her personal space and not because she might have similar feelings to Chloe's. The thought alone made Chloe's chest tighten, hope bursting through her like a tidal wave causing her to smile even more widely.
"Chlo? Chlo, you zoned out", CR said snapping her fingers in front of the redhead. Chloe shook her head, realizing she had drifted away for a couple of minutes.
Stacie smirked at her, "Gee, you are so into her! You spent the last few minutes reveling in the possibility -more than just 'possibility', but anyway- of her returning your feelings!"
"Uh, shut up- I'll think about it, okay? Just leave it for now, you all."
Chloe started to make her way to her stairs, heading to her bedroom. "And stop with the bets!", she yelled over her shoulder trying to sound as much threatening as possible, although she couldn't stop a wide smile from appearing on her face.
She could hear the three Bellas chuckling and she was pretty sure she heard a highfive.
Beca in the meantime had not fully recovered from the weird exchange she had had with Chloe minutes before. Chloe, her best friend. Her gorgeous, solar, fun, perfect and caring best friend, the one whose face beams when she's happy and whose smile could make Beca's legs go weak and Beca's brain melt in a blink of an eye. Chloe, with her red hair and amazing shockingly blue eyes and body that-
Stop it. She's your best friend. But best friends can appreciate each other's features and qualities like this, right? Even though that very best friend was one of the main causes of her break up with Jesse.
She rapidly shook the thoughts off her head and headed out of the bathroom, only to run into what looked like an overly-happy Chloe.
"Hey Beca, I just wanted to tell you that if you really don't want to travel by plane, we can work something else out. I don't want to force you if you feel too uncomfortable, you know". She looked straight at Beca, with such a pure expression of joy on her face that made it almost impossible to the tiny DJ to refuse the redhead anything.
"It's cool, Chlo. Really, you don't have to worry. I'll be fine, or I'll manage at least."
Chloe smile grew wider as she pulled Beca into a hug. Both girls took their time before releasing the other, both too lost in each other's scent to realize that they had prolonged the hug over the friendly-standard-duration.
"Okay, then pack your stuff" Chloe disentangled herself from the hug, "we're leaving tomorrow morning and we both know that getting ready in time is not your forte".
Chloe winked at Beca and slapped her lightly on her hip before walking to her own bedroom, leaving the DJ standing frozen in the middle of the corridor. Again.
While walking away, Chloe noticed the reaction she pulled from Beca and the flustered expression now reigning on her face and made a mental note to put all of herself into making the younger girl look that way any time she could.
"Beca, what the hell! We are gonna be late! If we miss the flight because of you, I swear I will make you regret to be born!"
"A bit harsh maybe, Stacie?"
"Shut it, you'd be yelling too if this wasn't about your incredibly small girlfriend, which will suffer so much if she doesn't come down in 2 minutes!", she increased the volume of her voice in the second part of the sentence so that she could be heard even from upstairs.
"Stop it!", Chloe slapped Stacie on the arm muffling her voice while speaking to the taller girl, "she's not my girlfriend! And if you yell, she won't get ready any faster". Chloe glared at Stacie, who was smirking at her so the threatening look Chloe tried to give her couldn't hold long and softened in an instant.
Chloe groaned and rolled her eyes. How come she couldn't stay mad at anyone?
That moment Beca stumbled out of the door, dragging roughly her bag behind her and almost tripping over herself going down the steps.
"Finally, Munchkin! We have to hurry! Come on girls, let's move!"
It was noon when they arrived at JFK airport in New York, they rented a truck and started the drive to their hotel that was supposed to last about forty-five minutes. After putting all the bags in the trunk, Amy positioned herself in the driver's seat and they took off.
Once at the hotel, everyone went to the check in desk, while Beca was put on what CR called "bag duties" since she was late that morning.
"You were late, you get punished by getting the bags out of the truck and take them inside."
"What? Dude, it's like 10 bags! 10 heavy bags, and in case you haven't noticed they are probably heavier than me!"
"I'll help you out, Becs", Chloe offered with a wink that made Beca blush and moving right away to take a bag out of the trunk.
"See? You even get help. Stop complaining now", CR added grinning, then turned around and headed to the hall.
Once every baggage was taken care of, Beca and Chloe walked up to the rest of the Bellas, who were now chatting among each other. When Amy saw the two approaching, her expression shifted and a smirk appeared.
"Hey pitches! While we were waiting for you -again, I might add- we sorted things out about the rooms. And since you are the last ones, you will room together."
Chloe noticed that along with Amy, all the other Bellas were smirking. She narrowed her eyes and shot dagger looks at Stacie, because it was as sure as hell that she was the mind behind all of this. Chloe mouthed "you're dead", still looking at the taller woman, and then wiped her expression so that Beca wouldn't notice anything weird going on, she hoped.
The girls grabbed their stuff and headed each couple for their room.
When Chloe opened Beca's and her room door, her eyes widened at the sight of a queen size bed. The only bed in the room. That she would have to share with Beca.
By the look on Beca's face -resembling a ghost-, she had had similar thoughts.
It would be two long nights.
