A/N: So I wrote this in honor of the blizzard that caused the cancellation of school today. It sort of sucks, so sorry about that. Also, I'm aware that this is not very realistic seeing as it doesn't snow much in Georgia, so humor me.
Chloe awoke with a start. Feeling a weight on her chest, she confusedly batted at what proved a moment later to be her psychology textbook, landing on the floor beside the couch with a thud.
"Easy there, tiger." Grey-blue eyes peered at the redhead over the lid of a silver laptop. Chloe jumped; she had momentarily forgotten she'd invited Beca over to study. She realized her legs were resting haphazardly over the brunette's lap and quickly extracted them.
The redhead rubbed her eyes and yawned. "How long have I been asleep?"
"Long enough for me to realize that, no matter how much I study, I'm going to fail this math test," Beca said, sliding her headphones down around her neck and shutting her computer.
"At least you didn't fall asleep trying to take notes," Chloe grumbled, retrieving her book from the floor and setting it on the coffee table.
"Because I know when to quit," Beca said, pointing a pencil at her friend. "Before I start drooling on my notes and smudging them." Wiping the back of her wrist self-consciously across her chin, Chloe grabbed the nearest throw pillow and chucked it at the brunette.
Beca put her hands up to block the pillow and stood, feigning annoyance. "I can see where I'm not wanted," she said, sliding her laptop into her backpack and checking her watch. "Also, if I stay out any later Kimmy Jin will lock me out of our room."
"Don't you have a key?" Chloe asked, running a hand through her hair in an effort to tame it.
"She has her ways." Beca shrugged. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Chloe blew Beca a kiss. "Bye." She leaned back into the couch and cracked her psych book once again. Almost too appropriately, she was reading a chapter titled The Five Laws of Attraction. Chloe shook her head and skimmed the page.
1. Beauty was the first section. Chloe smiled as she pictured Beca in her mind, the second time they had met in the dorm showers. While not quite traditionally pretty, Chloe thought that Beca was one of the most beautiful people she had ever laid eyes on,
2. Mental Attraction. Beca, for all of her class-cutting glory, was actually very intelligent. She made Chloe laugh; Chloe considered this one of the most important traits in her friends (or significant others).
3. Proximity. The redhead almost had to laugh at this one. During the first week of rehearsals, Beca had stretched her arms out in either direction. "This," she had said, "is my personal space." Chloe had laughed and staunchly ignored that, and eventually, Beca did too. She still relished in the way Beca shrugged Jesse hands off of her shoulders or insisted on giving him a high five instead of a hug.
4. Exposure and Familiarity. This also applied to her relationship with the pint-sized brunette. They were almost always together, inseparable, and both Jesse and Aubrey had expressed their annoyance at the two's constant togetherness (Aubrey, however, had changed her position on this after Chloe came home after some frat party, cuddle-buddy Tom in tow, and drunkenly cried and babbled about Beca for two hours).
5. Similarity. This was where Chloe and Beca did not fit the model Chloe's book outlined. Not conventionally, anyway; while Chloe was bubbly and outgoing, Beca tended to hang back with the people she knew, and was known to occasionally hole up in her dorm room for three days straight. But underneath the surface, Chloe mused, they shared so much. Their love of music, for one thing, was oftentimes enough reason to drag themselves out of bed and get through another day of facing the world. Sometimes, Beca would come over to Chloe's apartment after a spat with her dad and the two would just sit and listen to music. And cuddle, which Beca had eventually warmed up to and, if Chloe was lucky, reciprocated. Sometimes they wouldn't talk at all—other times, they could crank out hours-long venting sessions about anything and everything or nothing at all.
This book was making a very good case for her and Beca, Chloe thought. The only reason Chloe was holding back on making an advance, however cheesy it may be, was the classic I don't want to ruin our friendship. Aubrey had called her a chicken (actually, that wasn't quite the she had used), but Chloe knew Beca was wary of any type of commitment. ("Fine," Aubrey had said, throwing up her hands, "but don't complain to me any more about it." This, of course, was not at all adhered to.)
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door of her apartment. Chloe pushed herself off the couch (with more exertion than should be needed from someone of her physique) and opened the door to reveal Beca, white specks dotting her hair and jacket.
"Slight issue," the brunette said, stepping into the apartment. "The snow is taller than me."
Chloe smirked. "So it shouldn't be too tall, then."
"Laugh it up, Beale. You won't think it's so mild when you can't get out to go to Dunkin' Donuts tomorrow," Beca said, kicking off her shoes and laughing when the redhead's eyes widened and she rushed to the window.
"Shit," Chloe said, aghast. She could barely see anything through the swirling snow, and what she could see was blanketed in white.
"I told you," Beca said, coming up to stand behind Chloe. "Looks like I'm camping out here tonight."
Chloe squealed and clapped her hands. "Slumber party!"
"That's not what I said," Beca said, taking a step back and holding up her hands.
"It's close enough," Chloe said, grabbing Beca's wrist and dragging her towards the couch. "We're watching Mean Girls."
"Again?" Beca groaned.
"It's an essential—"
"Part of the life of a female, I know," Beca finished, rolling her eyes and setting her backpack down next to the couch. She sank into the cushions and crossed her arms over her chest. "At least make me some popcorn."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "You're so pushy," she said, starting in the direction of the kitchen.
"Hey! Who's making whom watch Mean Girls for the fourteenth time?"
"The second time, and last time you fell asleep after half an hour."
"Whatever."
As Lindsay Lohan donned a bride-of-Frankenstein costume, and as Beca was just starting to doze off, leaning on Chloe's shoulder, the TV and all of the lights in the apartment snapped off.
"Dammit." Chloe went to the light switch on the wall and flipped it on and off a few times. "We lost power."
"What a shame," Beca said, gesturing to the TV. "I really wanted to know how it ends."
Chloe shook her head, smiling. She went into the kitchen and rummaged around in a junk drawer, retrieving two flashlights. "Here." She tossed one to Beca.
"Thanks," the brunette said, resting it on the coffee table. A beat of silence passed. "Now what?"
"I could paint your nails," Chloe offered, her face lighting up.
"No."
"I could braid your hair."
"No."
"We could take magazine quizzes."
"No."
"We could get drunk."
"Bingo."
Chloe smiled and went back into the kitchen and opened a cupboard, Beca following behind her, shining her flashlight.
"Jesus, woman. Do we need to visit an AA meeting?" Beca said, peering into the cabinet and poking at the dozen or so bottles. The redhead whacked her on the shoulder.
"These are left over from Aubrey's birthday party, or do you not remember?"
Beca's face flushed pink. "Actually, I don't, but you guys did such a good job of filling me in the next day." She grabbed a bottle of cheap vodka and plunked it on the counter. "Let's do this." Chloe got out two shot glasses from another cabinet and poured the liquor.
"What do you want to play?" she asked, following the brunette back to the couch and setting the glasses on the table beside the bottle and the two flashlights, which were on and pointig up towards the ceiling. They cast an eerie glow, throwing shadows across the room.
Beca frowned. "I thought we were just getting drunk."
Chloe shook her head. "The rules of slumber parties dictate that one must play a drinking game."
"Tell that to all the eight-year-old girls building blanket forts and watching the Disney Channel."
Rolling her eyes, Chloe picked up her glass. "We're playing Never Have I Ever. Okay?"
"No."
Ignoring the brunette, Chloe thought for a moment. "Never have I ever… been in jail." She smirked as Beca stuck her tongue out at her before throwing back a shot.
"Screw you." The brunette paused, thinking. "Never have I ever walked in on someone's shower."
Chloe laughed and took the shot, then refilled the glasses. "Never have I ever fallen asleep watching Mean Girls." Beca rolled her eyes and drank.
After several minutes of purposely naming things the other had done, both girls were past tipsy.
"Okay," Chloe said, giggling and slurring her words slightly. "Never have I ever had sex with a guy." She immediately downed the contents of her glass and waited for Beca to do the same. Instead, the brunette blushed and looked down at her glass, trailing her fingertip along the rim. There was a pause. "Never have I ever had sex with a girl," Chloe said, although it came out as more of a question than a statement.
Beca looked up. "You can't go two times in a row."
"Sorry." Chloe toyed with her glass and waited for Beca to speak again.
"Never have I ever had a one-night stand," Beca said, eyes on Chloe as the redhead took a shot.
"Never have I ever been a virgin," Chloe said, taking another shot.
Beca laughed. "Are you aware of what you just said?"
"Oh, right," Chloe said, smacking herself lightly on the forehead. The motion put her slightly off balance and she had to grab Beca's shoulder to keep from falling off the couch, placing their faces dangerously close together. A moment, both terrifying and serene, passed. Beca was the first to pull back. She licked her lips and then knocked back the contents of her glass.
Chloe frowned confusedly. "What was that one for?"
"That last one," Beca said, looking embarrassed.
"So you are a virgin!" As soon as the words left her mouth, she winced. "I'm sorry, it's—"
"Not a big deal, I know," Beca said, rolling her eyes and turning a little redder.
"It really isn't," Chloe said softly, resting her hand on top of Beca's. Another beat of silence passed before Beca cleared her throat.
"Never have I ever kissed a girl," she said, not meeting Chloe's eyes, instead looking at the wall behind her head. Chloe's stomach tinged in a sort of unprecedented anticipatory anxiety before she refilled her glass and drank. Beca's eyes met hers in a silent question.
"Girls can be hot, too, you know?" Chloe said, shrugging. Hesitantly, Beca nodded.
"I know."
Chloe opened her mouth and closed it a few times, unsure of what to say. "Never have I ever wanted to kiss a girl," she said, eyes widening as Beca paused before taking a shot. The redhead nearly jumped off of the couch, instead stumbling and almost falling to the floor in her drunken state. "What? Who?!"
If possible, Beca flushed an even brighter. "If you can't figure it out, then I question your intelligence." Chloe inhaled shakily. Fuck it, she thought, and slowly leaned in towards the brunette.
It was Beca that closed the gap, their joining lips setting off the cliché sparks-and-fireworks feeling all over Chloe's body. The brunette's lips were impossibly soft, and Chloe was just running her tongue along the seam of Beca's lips when suddenly the lights turned back on, and the television blared loudly. Both girls jumped, this time sending Beca tumbling to the floor. Chloe laughed and reached a hand out to pull the brunette up. Beca groaned, accepting the support.
"Never have I ever been cock blocked by electricity."