A/N: Prompted by an anon (you should come off anon so I can give you proper credit). Thanks to Brooke for beta-ing this. Any follows/favorites/ESPECIALLY reviews are much appreciated. Enjoy.

Chapter 1

Beca Mitchell doesn't really know what she's doing here.

It's loud and obnoxious and there are way too many people to keep track of, and she knows that the first thing she's going to do is find a drink, sit on the couch, and play around on her iPod all night. It's just how she is.

Her best friend, Jesse Swanson, somehow managed to get her to come here. "This is the last party you'll get to go to a party with me before I leave for San Francisco," he had said over the phone, a slight whining tone to his voice, "Please? For me?"

"Who said I wanted to see you before you leave?" she had said, half joking, half not, but she came anyways, because she had flaked on him at every opportunity she could get whenever he asked her to come out with him and sort of felt bad about it.

She walks over to the drink table, shoving past a ridiculous number of people (who would even want to have this many people in their house?) and mixes a simple drink of coca-cola and rum into a red solo cup and walks over to the nearest couch not covered with people practically eating each other's faces and pulls out her iPhone and a pair of earbuds, sipping at her drink, when Jesse walks over and stands in front of her, crossing his arms.

"Seriously, Beca?" he yells over the obnoxiously loud music (god, everything is obnoxious here, including the guy standing in front of me, she thinks). "I didn't invite you to this party so you could just sit here and be anti-social."

"You didn't specify what I could and couldn't do at this party, dude," she says, smirking and inserting an earbud into her left ear and pressing "play," "Just that I had to come."

Jesse reaches over with his foot and nudges her leg with his toe before moving to sit beside Beca, swinging his arm around her. "I bet if you looked hard enough, you could find at least one good-looking lady here who'd be interested in you."

Beca groans and wriggles out of his grasp. "You're such a weirdo. Who even says that? Also, why does everyone seem to think parties are only good for hooking up?" she gestures towards the couch on the opposite side of the room from them, where two different couples are making out in the same space. Beca cringes. "So gross," she mutters, taking another sip of her drink.

"A guy who's trying to get his best friend laid, because she's been so sex-deprived that she's been a total ass to me and flaking out on everything I invite her to," he deadpans. "Also, parties are, like, 90% only good for hooking up with people. It's a meaningless interaction where you probably never have to see them again but you still get good sex out of it. Depending on whom you hook up with, that is."

Beca rolls her eyes at this."I'm sorry I've been a jerk," she says, "But it's not because I'm 'sex deprived'. Seriously. How much have you had to drink?"

"I'm sure it isn't," he says sarcastically, grinning wide, "I don't know. I had a few shots at the beginning and I think I'm pretty drunk."

She throws the pillow next to her on the couch at him. "I take that apology back. Also, you're a budding alcoholic."

He throws the pillow back, about to say something, before someone comes up behind him.

"Hey," they say, "I'm all for pillow fights, but try not to break anything..."

The two of them turn to see what Beca thinks is probably the most gorgeous girl at this entire party.

She's got wavy, auburn hair that's loose around her shoulders and eyes that are such a bright blue that Beca's pretty sure they might have little lights behind them, and she's wearing a Vampire Weekend crop top with the sleeves cut off and shorts to show off her extremely toned/tanned stomach and arms and legs.

Beca takes out the earbud that was in her ear and stammers. Her mouth is dry all of a sudden."Um-"

Jesse stares at Beca, then back at the girl for a minute before throwing on a wide smile. "Sorry," he says, "Beca here just gets a little aggressive when she's drunk-" Beca punches Jesse in the arm for that, and he mutters out a faint "ow," rubbing his arm. "Case in point."

"I'm not drunk," Beca protests. The girl lets out a soft giggle, and Beca's eyes immediately snap to hers, because it's probably the most adorable sound she's ever heard, and this girl makes her heart feel like it's pounding out of its chest and her palms clammy and creates an entire family of butterflies in her stomach (plus its extended family).

"I'm Chloe," she says, extending a hand towards Jesse, who shakes it briefly. "Chloe Beale."

"You must be the host. I'm Tom's friend." he says, "He invited me to this and I brought this lady along." He thrusts a thumb towards Beca.

Chloe nods and smiles again, perfectly straight, white teeth showing behind really soft-looking pink lips, making Beca even more nervous about the fact that she's probably going to reach out and shake Beca's hand, too.

Beca's right in her assumption as Chloe moves her eyes to Beca's and extends her hand towards her. Beca hopes to god that this girl can't feel how sweaty her palms are or how she feels like she's shaking slightly at the prospect of actually touching this girl's hand as she gently slides her hand into hers, smiling weakly as she shakes it.

"I'm Beca," she says nervously, quickly releasing her grip and instinctively wiping her hands off on her jeans.

"Nice to meet the two of you," she says, still looking at Beca with a smile on her face, "How long have you guys been together?"

Jesse's been taking a sip out of his own drink when she says this, and he chokes and starts making this weird sound between choking and laughing.

"Gross!" he splutters, as Beca stares at him with a mixture of disgust and pure embarrassment to be associated with him, "I mean, no offense, Beca," he says, grinning and turning to her, "But we've known each other since we were five. Also," he says, turning back to Chloe, "This chick's gayer than Ellen DeGeneres sitting on top of a rainbow with Skittles-"

"Jesus, Jesse!" Beca shouts, turning bright red and punching him again, and turns back to Chloe. "I'm so sorry about him. He's a really bad drunk."

"I'm not drunk, you're just blurry," he mutters, rubbing his arm.

Chloe's laughing at their interaction, though, and she's back to looking at Beca again. "Huh. So you guys are both single?"

Beca can't help but feel like Chloe's directing the question to her, because Chloe's still looking at her with those godforsaken blue eyes. "Yeah," she says, smiling weakly again, "Definitely not dating this weirdo over here."

"Single and ready to mingle!" Jesse yells, getting up and walking (more like stumbling) off into the crowd.

Beca shakes her head. "Sorry about him," she says, wrapping the cord of her earphones around her iPhone and tucking it back into her bag.

"He's funny," Chloe says, sitting next to Beca. Beca stops breathing for a minute because oh my God she's sitting right next to me and our legs are touching before she manages to nod, still not quite breathing.

Chloe gestures to Beca's bag. "What were you listening to before I got here?"

"Mix-I-" Beca stammers before she exhales, running her hand through her hair. "Just a remix of a song that I was playing around with before I got here."

"What? You mix songs?"

Beca can see that Chloe's looking at her through her peripheral vision but she refuses to make eye contact because she might actually end up passing out. "Mhm," she says, nodding again.

"That's so cool! Can I hear?"

Beca freezes, unsure of how to respond, because she's never shown anyone her mixes except for Jesse and a few others for business, and all the ones she showed them weren't personal mixes like the one she had just been listening to. It's a remix of "Titanium" that she had been planning on mashing with another song.

Then she realizes that Jesse was probably right by saying that she'd probably never see anyone at this party ever again, and decides to pull out her iPhone again, subconsciously wanting to show off to this strikingly beautiful redhead. "Here," she mumbles, still not making eye contact with Chloe as she holds up her earbuds, pressing "play". "It's not that good—"

She doesn't finish her sentence because Chloe's grabbing the earbuds and sticking them into her ears. Beca bites her lip nervously as she watches Chloe allow the music to take over the external music blasting out of the various speakers in the living room, and then Chloe slowly starts nodding her head, smiling wide. "This sounds amazing!" she shouts, making Beca flinch after a long while of silence from her, "This song is my jam!" Chloe takes out the headphones, her smile now turned into a smirk as she leans in close to the side of Beca's head, her breath tickling her ear as she says the next words significantly quieter than the previous ones, "My lady jam."

Beca flushes immediately, her fingers slipping around the earbud cord as she tries to wrap them around her phone again.

"That's nice," she stammers, completely unsure of what to say, because Chloe's tracing her fingers along Beca's leg and any coherence Beca might have had before Chloe came is almost completely gone because the butterflies in her stomach have been stirred again and are fluttering around in her stomach.

She quickly leans over to place the iPhone back in her backpack and sits back up again, only to have Chloe's hand move up and brush against Beca's jaw, tilting her face slightly towards hers, and before Beca even knows what's happening, she's kissing Chloe Beale and her hands are suddenly tangling in the auburn hair that she had been wanting to touch since she had first seen them.

She feels Chloe's tongue slowly attempt at parting her lips and she obliges without hesitation, a small noise of pleasure sounding out of the back of her throat as she feels Chloe's hand slide around her waist and the other hooking around the back of her neck, pulling her closer, before she realizes that she's in public and she literally just dissed everyone else hooking up in public to Jesse and pulls away, letting out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. "People are probably watching—"she starts, before Chloe's hand is in hers and she's being tugged somewhere.

She makes eye contact with Jesse along the way, who is staring, open-mouthed at her, before his face breaks out into a grin and he yells after her, "I'll take care of your stuff, text me in the morning!" and she's tugged around the corner and into a bedroom, possibly Chloe's (she can't really tell because it's dark and Chloe Beale is taking her to a bedroom), and she's pushed against the door, effectively slamming it shut.

She feels Chloe's lips on her neck and she's kissing it and sucking it and biting at it holy god and their hands are all over the place as clothes get discarded onto the floor.

"Bed," Chloe breathes, moving back up to attach her lips to Beca's, and they stumble backwards until the back of Beca's knees hit the bed and she's lying down. Chloe's on top of her almost as fast as she falls, and her leg is in between Beca's and Beca feels herself grinding her hips against it and she can't stop moaning because everything Chloe is doing right now—kissing her, biting at her lip, kneading her hands on Beca's breasts, and pushing her thigh against Beca's center—is making her feel like she's going crazy and her ears are ringing and she can barely breathe. Beca grasps at Chloe's back, Chloe gasping at the feeling of fingernails raking across it, and all Beca has to do is breathe "Please," before Chloe's kissing her way down Beca's body, stopping at her breasts to roll her tongue around each nipple until they're hard and Beca's arching her back towards her mouth, her breath coming in jagged intervals, and Chloe continues her way down Beca's body until she reaches her inner thighs, peppering light kisses around them.

Beca groans and shifts her hips slightly. "Please," she moans again, sliding her fingers into Chloe's hair. Chloe smirks a little and obliges to Beca's pleading, slowly trailing her tongue along Beca's wet folds. Chloe lets out a low moan at the back of her throat, attempting at ignoring the arousal starting in between her own thighs, and Beca's hands tighten their grip in Chloe's hair before she moves them to grasp at the bed sheets, already feeling like she's going to tumble over the edge. "Fuck," she hisses when she feels Chloe's tongue move up further and trace a circle around her clit before drawing it into her mouth, moving her hand up to easily slide two fingers inside of her. She starts thrusting, deep and hard, not taking anything slow as she curls and twists her fingers with each thrust. Beca turns her head and presses it into the pillow because she feels like she needs to scream because this feels so good, and she feels that heat settle low in her stomach as Chloe adds a third finger, thrusting even harder than before and tracing patterns into Beca's clit with strong strokes.

All that's in her head is white fuzz as Beca feels like she's not falling over the edge so much as she's been thrown and she comes hard, her heels digging into Chloe's shoulders and her eyes screwing shut as she releases a guttural moan that doesn't stop until the high is finally over. Chloe moves up and kisses Beca, open-mouthed and allowing Beca to taste herself, and Beca's still panting and almost shaking when she decides to return the favor, flipping them over and slamming two fingers into Chloe without any warning, sucking at the pulse point on her neck, their skin sticking together with sweat.

It doesn't take long for Chloe to come, and once she does, Beca slips out of her and collapses, half on top of her and the two of them are panting hard.

"Jesus Christ," Chloe breathes, staring up at the ceiling and licking her lips.

"Yeah," Beca mumbles back, her lips still against Chloe's neck, her eyes starting to slip shut until she realizes—

I'm in bed with a complete stranger.

She quickly hops up from the bed, stumbling a little as the blood rushes to her head. "Um, I—oh my God," she stammers, quickly picking up her clothes and shoving on her pants and shirt, already making her way towards the door. Chloe sits up quickly.

"Beca, wait—"

"I have to go. Um, nice meeting you," Beca says quickly, kicking herself internally. She doesn't know what she's doing; all she knows is that her panic switch has flipped on. She's never just hooked up with anyone before, and she's still mentally kicking herself because she actually wanted to get to know Chloe by talking to her and maybe taking her out for coffee, not basically take advantage of her for as impersonal as a one-night stand. She feels tears sting at her eyes for absolutely no reason whatsoever as she fumbles with the doorknob and she's out the door, vaguely aware that Chloe's saying something behind her, and shuts it, turning the corner and looking for Jesse, who she spots talking up some leggy blonde who looks too drunk to be standing upright right now. She walks past him, grabbing his arm.

"Yeah, and I— what the—Beca?" he says, stumbling back as she pulls him away and turns toward him, letting go of his arm.

"Nice hickeys," he says, smirking, "So I'm guessing you—"

"Shut up!" she yells, her eyes starting to water.

His face quickly falls. "Beca?" he asks, taking her hand, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm leaving now," she says evenly, pulling her hand away to wipe at the tears forming in her eyes, "Where's my stuff?"

Jesse leads her to the guest room near the entrance, walking in and grabbing her bag. As he hands it to her, he pulls out his phone. "I'll get a taxi for you. Do you want me to come with you?"

"No," she says, shaking her head profusely, "I don't want to ruin your night."

"Ah, it's fine," he says, dialing the number for the taxi company, "I'm not in the mood for partying, anyway."

He takes her hand and leads her outside, where she inhales the cold air deeply at an attempt to get a hold of herself. After Jesse makes the arrangements, he turns to Beca, sitting them down and putting an arm around her shoulder, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder, and gently rubs circles on her back. "What happened?"

"I slept with Chloe," Beca says almost instantly.

"Okay," Jesse says, even though he probably already knows exactly what happened in that room. "And?"

"I—I just—I don't—"Beca's stammering again and she feels the tears start to come, and Jesse nods.

"We can talk about it whenever you want, Be-caw," he says gently as she starts to cry again. She nods, and they sit in silence like that for the five minutes it takes for the cab to pull up in front of Chloe's house.

As she's stepping inside of the cab, she hears a voice behind them. "Beca!"

Beca turns to see Chloe running toward them, and Jesse, who had opened the door for Beca, quickly ushers her inside. "Thanks for the invite, Chlo," he calls as he steps inside, "Tell Tom that I'm sorry I left so early."

Beca just sits there, refusing to look out the window, as Jesse tells the taxi driver what her address is. As they're pulling away, she allows herself to take one small glance out the window, and Chloe's just standing there, watching them drive off.

Beca could swear she's crying.

The next morning, both she and Jesse are hungover when they wake up. Beca walks out of her room to see that Jesse's sprawled out on her couch (she would have let him sleep on her bed, but the gentleman that (even drunk) Jesse is, he insisted that he sleeps on the couch). She nudges him awake. "Your flight's leaving in four hours," she says gently, handing him a glass of water and an aspirin, "I'll drive you home so you can get your stuff and we can go to the airport."

"What even happened last night," he mumbles as he throws back the aspirin and chugs the water, "I hate drinking."

Beca's heart clenches at that, and she only smiles a small smile. "No idea, dude," she says. Of course she remembers what happened last night, but telling him what happened last night requires telling him about the thing and there's no way she can do that right now.

She gives him a huge hug goodbye and a kiss on the cheek. "Glad I got to hang out with you last night before you left," she says. Jesse smiles at her.

"I'll see you soon, B," he says, squeezing her hand before he's walking into the terminal.

Beca can tell he remembered most of last night now, and she can't appreciate him staying quiet about it more.

She walks into work, and her colleague Jessica greets her. "Rough night last night?" she asks from her position stacking various CDs into alphabetical order.

Beca nods. "Terrible." She takes her backpack off and slides into the recording studio, ready to work with whatever comes at her to take her mind off of things. Jessica follows her, her arms full with a box full of CDs.

"Luke got us new talent," she says to Beca, setting the box on a shelf behind her with a small grunt, "She's supposed to be fantastic." She stares down at her watch. "And she's fifteen minutes late."

"Give her a break, Jess," Beca says jokingly, turning to poke her side, "I bet she had just as rough of a night as I did. You never know. It was a Friday night, after all."

"Guess you don't. So where were you last night, anyway? Partying it up?"

Beca freezes a little, unsure of how to answer; her and Jessica are pretty good friends, but not to the extent of her telling Jessica about her sex life. "I guess, yeah. Partying. You know the deal."

"Any awesome hook-ups?" Jessica asks with a wink.

Beca starts to shake her head and she starts to lie. "Of course no—"

She doesn't finish her sentence because Jessica's looking at something behind her shoulder. Jessica waves and smiles. "Hey, I'm Jess! This is Beca, you're going to be working with her and she's going to be mixing and producing your music. Nice to meet you."

Beca turns in her swivel chair, smiling and ready to greet whoever this new talent is, and she almost falls out when she sees who it is. Her heart plummets and her mouth goes dry, and she just stares, open-mouthed.

Standing at the doorway, looking a lot fresher than Beca feels, dressed in black skinny jeans with a long, light blue button-down shirt with cowboy boots, is Chloe Beale.