"Come on in!" Beca's words were muffled by the door of her dad's house being shut, but Chloe caught them anyway. She turned the knob and stepped through the doorway, sliding her sunglasses up onto her head and blinking in the darkness of the entryway.
"Beca! It's pitch black in here!" She chided, walking trough the hallway and into the living room. Beca was sitting on the couch, her eyes locked on the tv screen, her thumbs dancing atop an Xbox controller.
"Yeah. Dad and Sheila are gone."
"I know that," Chloe was exasperated, "You told me you were 'house sitting' while they went to Florida."
"Right. Common in and sit down," The words were accompanied by a brief smile and glance in Chloe's direction.
"I thought we were gonna day-trip to the beach," Chloe protested, but obliged her friend anyway, taking a spot next to her on the couch.
Her comment caused Beca to press something on her game controller, and a menu screen to come up on the tv.
"Yeah . . ." Beca turned her full attention to Chloe, who felt relieved as she finally got full recognition from those dark blue eyes, "but Chlo, I can't stop in the middle of this!"
"What are you even doing?"
"Playing Xbox!" Beca waved the controller in her hand in Chloe's face, "Lego Harry Potter! I just got it."
"Beeeeeecc," Chloe whined, disappointed that her plans to show Beca how summer SHOULD be spent looked like they'd be spoiled.
"Okay, just play with me! Here," Beca said, passing Chloe a second controller.
"I don't even know how."
"I'll help you," Beca's focus was already back on the tv, "It's so fun, you'll love it. Now, you just have to press start to enter the game. You'l be player two, in the right corner, see?"
Chloe didn't see, "Where's start?"
"Oh, here," Beca reached over and pressed a button on the controller in Chloe's hands, "Now you're Hermione. I'm assuming you know the story."
"Yeah, I do."
"Okay, so right now we're on the fifth book, and we have to learn this spell. So basically, go to all the red things and hold B."
Chloe had no idea what to do, and Beca wasn't going to be any help. She looked down at the device in her hands, and found the "B" button, then up to the screen, fiddling with the joysticks and arrows until she figured out how to move Hermione around. She looked at the screen, ready to join Beca's Harry figure in his mission, when the screen went black and showed the loading symbol. Chloe looked around in confusion then the graphics returned, and Beca started making Harry follow Nearly Headless Nick.
"I finished the thing in the classroom, so, now we have to follow Nearly Headless Nick."
Chloe didn't respond, she just tried to make sure Hermione kept up with Ron and Harry.
After around fifteen minutes of confused gameplay on Chloe's part, Nick passed trough yet another a wall, and Beca and Chloe's characters couldn't follow. Beca made Harry look around for a moment, then turned to Chloe.
"Chloe, Hermione has to do this. Or, here, press Y."
"What? Why?"
"It'll make you become Ron. Then I can–" She stopped at Chloe's expression, "You have no idea what's going on."
"I have NO idea what's going on."
"Okay, here," Beca set her controller down on the coffee table, and scooted closer to Chloe. She pulled the second controller, along with Chloe's hands, over towards her.
"Look, you need to become Crookshanks, the way we do that is by shifting to it in the Spell Wheel and pressing B," her hand shifted over Chloe's and she pressed the button with her thumb, "Okay, now the cat has to go through that tube, see it?"
Beca leaned close to her, pointing, and Chloe nodded. She made the cat move into the tunnels, and Beca took the moment to reposition herself so she could help Chloe more comfortably. She climbed behind Chloe, who was sitting rather forward on the couch, so that she was mostly behind her, but partially on her left, reaching around the ginger's shoulders, her hands finding Chloe's controller again.
"Good!" Beca exclaimed, as Crookshanks pushed the lever and the door opened.
Chloe smiled in triumph, and Beca pointed out the button she needed to press to turn back into Hermione. She made Hermione walk towards the recently opened doorway, and when Harry didn't follow, she paused.
Before Chloe voiced her confusion, Beca spoke, "Hand me the player one controller."
"Oooh," Chloe grabbed it off the coffee table and settled back against Beca. Beca took the remote, and dropped out of the game, opting to help Chloe learn to play.
"Wait, what did you just do?"
"I dropped out of the game, now focus," Beca pointed at the screen, causing Chloe to look away from Beca's face and back to the screen. Beca's eyes, however, lingered on her friend as concentration set in across her face.
About twenty minutes later, Chloe was sitting forward again, yelling at the tv, and Beca was hovering on her knees behind her shouting out tips.
"NO! No, don't attack me, you can't win that! I DID IT RIGHT! WHY AM I DIEING?"
"Chloe! No, you're alive again, do it again!"
Chloe immediately focused on the screen, and tried again at her duel.
"Yes! Good, Chloe!"
"YES! NO!"
"You got this! . . .No, to the left! . . . NOW! OH YEAH!"
"Yes! SUCK ON THAT!"
Chloe had almost risen off the couch, but plopped back down once she finally passed the level. Beca relaxed too, laughing behind her. Chloe kept watching the screen as it counted their coins and gold bricks, telling them they were 9% True Wizard.
"What? I thought we were way better than that," complained Chloe jokingly.
Beca chuckled, "Yeah . . ." She was watching Chloe's face again.
"So, do you think we could still have our beach day now?"
Beca let out a sigh, putting her hands on Chloe's shoulders as the older girl leaned back, "Maybe."
Chloe sighed too, beginning to relax after the excitement of the Lego World of Harry Potter, and Beca leaned closer to her back, an odd, thoughtful expression coming over her face. Though Chloe didn't see her friends face, she felt it. A new mood set in as if it had been hiding and finally decided to come out. Chloe was about to turn around to speak to Beca again when Beca's lips met with the back of her neck, slow and light.
Chloe inhaled ever so slightly, but didn't fight it, she smiled softly. She turned slowly after Beca's mouth had met her skin a couple more times, each firmer than the last.
"Bec?" She didn't really know what she was asking, there were too many questions that came to mind for her to know which one she wanted answered first.
Beca looked at her for a second, eyes darting around her face. She looked like she'd surprised herself as much as she had Chloe.
"I'm sorry," she looked down.
"Don't be sorry."
Beca looked up and Chloe kissed her mouth. Beca kissed back without hesitation, and after a moment, Chloe found a smile in Beca's kiss. She smiled too before Beca pulled away.
"Still wanna go to the beach?"