Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. While I was writing this, I was listening to the Lana del Rey song "Body Electric" so credit for the title goes to her. But since she took the line from a Walt Whitman poem, credit goes to him too.
"Sing the Body Electric"
Beca agrees to let Jesse plan their first date so she already knows they'll be going to the movies. She doesn't mind as much as she might lead him to believe, mainly because she's starting to turn into a little movie buff and if it's because of him he doesn't have to know that. She never cared for movies before, mainly because she doesn't dig the way that movies present life: like everything can be tied up nice and neat in ninety minutes and that all life's problems will end with a happily ever after. She doesn't dig that. But now that she's been hanging around Jesse and making friends that actually seem like in-it-for-the-long-haul buddies, she's not opposed to a happy ending every now and then.
Besides, Beca doesn't want Jesse to get the wrong idea or anything. It's just a first date, after all, not a promise for eternal love or something like that. Going to dinner and a movie is casual, a sort of ambiguous evening. Though she already knows they have great chemistry and he's a great kisser so…maybe it's not your usual first date. But Beca still plans on going for causal. And if she spends nearly an hour picking out her outfit and getting ready, well, no one has to know that but her bedroom mirror.
Jesse shows up at her dorm room right on time and gives her a big smile that she's so far only seen when he gets started talking about movies and is trying to rein himself in. Beca refuses to believe that this is adorable, even though it kind of is because she's not against the idea of a guy being excited to go out on a date with her. Yeah, she's had boyfriends before but nothing serious and they've mostly been guys who wore more makeup than she did and who made a career out of being so apathetic that talking to them made her want to bash her head against the wall. And she feels like that's saying something coming from her because she can have her moments.
"So what do you have planned for the evening festivities?" Beca questions, a slightly teasing tone to her voice.
Jesse gives her a slightly guilty look. "Well…I know it might not be your first choice but I was thinking…mini golf." Beca looks at him, eyes widening slightly in surprise. "What? You thought I would take Miss I-Hate-Everything-Good-and-Wonderful-in-the-World-Especially-Movies to the movies?" Beca rolls her eyes at his long-windedness. "I'll save that for the next date."
Beca smirks. "What makes you think they'll be a second date?"
"Still playing hard to get I see." Jesse remarks, shaking his head. "Though, I guess that is a fair question because after I beat you so badly at mini-golf that you'll go home crying, you might not be up for a second date."
"So we're really going mini-golfing?" Beca questions, trying to decide if that's ridiculous or adorable. Like most things about Jesse, it's probably both. "I've never been."
Jesse gives her a shocked look. "What?! You don't like movies and you've never played mini-golf…are you a robot?"
"You caught me. I'm actually an emotionally stunted cyborg." Beca informs him, her face expressionless.
Jesse slings his arm around her shoulder. "Well lucky for you I know how to reach your robot heart."
Beca arches an eyebrow. "Why does that sound like the plot of one of your movies?" She questions. She's trying not to pay too much attention to Jesse's arm around her or the brief jolt of electricity that seemed to run through her when he touched her. Because she's not the type of girl that gets butterflies over the opposite sex. She's not.
"You'd already know the answer to that if you were a normal human and watched movies." Jesse points out.
They take the school-provided shuttle off campus to the mall which is close to Barden but definitely somewhere that Beca was never been because…well, it's the mall and she doesn't like to rub elbows with pre-teens and grumpy old women shopping at department stores. There's not even a record store in the whole place (she Googled the place once) so there's no reason for her to ever set foot inside the behemoth of American consumerism. Except for, apparently, now there is because there's a mini-golf place on one of the levels ("Seriously, inside the mall?") and Jesse swears there's a great Italian restaurant nearby he wants to take her to after he dishes out his ass-whooping.
Beca tries not to roll her eyes (too dramatically) when they step inside the mini golf place and there's a bunch of kids running around and stressed out parents and high schoolers clearly enjoying a few awkward first dates of their own. But Jesse seems completely oblivious to the fact that they are the oldest people here by choice as he saunters up to the counter and pays for their tickets and gets the balls and clubs.
"There are a lot of kids here." Beca remarks when Jesse walks back over to her, handing her a golf-club like it's Excalibur or something.
"Yeah…it's mini-golf." Jesse points out. "If there weren't kids here, it would be real golf and it would be boring." He says this like it makes perfect sense. "Plus sometimes they hit each other with balls or get stuck trying to climb the little windmill and that's worth the price of admission."
Beca looks at him like she's trying to decide if he's being serious or not and she honestly can't tell. Jesse just rolls his eyes at her. "C'mon, loosen up a little. Have fun. You do know what fun is, right?"
Beca punches his shoulder. "Yes, I was programmed to know the meaning of the word fun." She snarks back. "Fine, let's go. But if I don't see a kid-on-kid brawl, I'm demanding a refund.
The fact that the golf course is inside contributes to the claustrophobic feeling that Beca gets when they leave the indoor area to enter the course itself. The fact that everything is small, including the vibrant green paths only makes her feel even more like a giant.
"Who puts a golf course inside a mall?" Beca questions as she follows Jesse to the first hole. She seriously underestimated how big this place is, because not only are their two floors of stores and a movie theatre but on this level there's also a carousel and a little motorized train that drives kids around. Not the mention that golf course itself is fifteen holes and she can't see the end from where she's standing.
Jesse shrugs. "I blame it on the whole college town thing."
"Then shouldn't the mall be full of bars?" Beca questions. "Isn't that more appropriate for a college town?"
Jesse snaps his fingers and mimes hitting himself in the forehead. "I knew I was forgetting something. Drunk mini-golf."
Beca smiles and nods, playing along. "Now that would have been the perfect date."
The presence of dozens of children is keeping Beca and Jesse from moving through the course with anything resembling speed, but that gives Jesse plenty of time between holes to start smack talking Beca and boasting about his apparently unbeatable swing. Beca has never really been a competitive person, she's always considered her personality way too laid back for that, which was why being part of the Bellas was such an adjustment. Especially when it came to Aubrey. But after standing here and listening to Jesse and his smack talk, Beca has decided that more than anything she really wants to beat him at mini-golf. She's just not entirely sure how one wins at a game that requires shooting neon colored balls through miniature Eiffel Towers but however it happens, she's going to win.
They're about halfway through the course when one of the kids falls into the tiny lake by the Everglades themed hole and the parents around go into over-drive like the little rug-rat is actually in danger of drowning or something. Beca snorts out a laugh as she watches the kid flail around in the ten inches of water and one of the mothers shoots her a look like she's laughing at a car accident or something.
Jesse steers her away from the scene, trying to hide his own smile, his hand on her hip. Once again Beca has to fight to ignore the sizzle of electricity that she feels when he puts his hands on her. Seriously, it's not like they're moving into racy territory or anything here. It's a completely innocent touch in the middle of a mini-golf course.
"I told you," Jesse remarks, bringing Beca back to the present, "having all the kids around just makes everything even better. There's usually crying and destruction of some kind."
"I think the same can be said about some of the parties I've been to." Beca remarks and Jesse laughs. In the time that she's been at Barden, she's seen enough drunk coed antics to blackmail the entire freshmen class with and several of the upperclassmen as well. Who knew that the aca-freaks would be such party people.
By the time they come to the last hole, Beca isn't sure exactly who's winning but she's pretty sure that she is. She doesn't really know much about golf aside from the fact that the goal is to get hit the ball into the hole and she's definitely got skill at shooting the ball through crocodile's mouths and windmills.
"Okay," Jesse says as they stand in front of the last hole, which features some sort of miniature replica of the mall they're currently standing in, complete with a zigzag of stores that they have to shoot the ball through, "this is all that's left between one of us and the mini-golf companionship." Beca rolls her eyes at his theatrics. "This is the hardest hole on the course. You have to hit it at exactly the right angle to send the ball through the maze and into the hole."
Beca snorts out a laugh. "Why do I get the feeling that you've done this before? Like too many times."
"I do have a life outside of watching amazing movies and performing in acapella championships." Jesse informs her as though this is a perfectly normal thing to say. "A guy's got to have hobbies."
Beca rolls her eyes at him but she's thinking god why is he so adorable? "You're such a dork." She tells him to avoid giving him a peak into her inner thoughts. She's not sure he's earned it quite yet.
Jesse winks at her and Beca feels electric again. Clearly, no touch is needed. It's a little frustrating. "Watch and learn." He spends several seconds setting up the shot, crouching down so he can study the ball and nodding thoughtfully to himself like he's a regular Tiger Woods. Beca laughs, shaking her head at him. Finally Jesse raises his club with dramatic flare and hits the ball, which connects with the edge of the maze and goes pinging backward into the recesses of the course.
Beca laughs with her whole body, throwing her head back and laughing until she feels tears in her eyes. If Jesse didn't think that she looked absolutely beautiful like this, he might be a little annoyed at her reaction. Though, even he has to admit that it's pretty funny.
"Oh yeah, you're a real professional." Beca says in between laughs as she tries to get herself under control. She wipes at her eyes, careful not to smudge her makeup.
Jesse sticks his tongue out at her. "Well, I'd like to see you do better."
Beca rubs her hands together before picking up her club and setting her ball down on the appropriate grove. She does a little hip shimmy, clearly mocking his earlier theatrics but Jesse can't bring himself to care when she presents such a pretty picture. He's seen her dance and he knows what it's like to kiss her, so he's no stranger to her sexiness. But there's something even more endearing about this Beca, the one who's let down some of her guards and has lost herself in the moment.
Beca finally hits the ball and while it goes into the maze, it gets stuck about halfway through and she can't bring herself to care enough to try and fish it out. She turns to Jesse and shrugs. "I think I win." She informs him.
Jesse gives her a look. "How do you figure that? You didn't make the shot either."
"No, but at least my ball is still on the course." Beca points out. "You don't even know where yours is." Jesse starts to protest but she cuts him off. "Just accept that you're a loser."
"Well, you only won because I let you." Jesse says with a pout.
"Oh whatever!" Beca gives him a playful shove. "You're just a sore loser."
They turn in their clubs and the attendant behind the counter gives them a dirty look when Jesse tells him that they lost the balls and they leave the mini-golf course before he can decide to send them back in to retrieve them.
Even though she has to admit that she's had a great time, Beca is glad to leave the mall behind. She's never been one for large crowds and mass money spending. "So where to next?" She questions, looking over at Jesse as they step out onto the sidewalk. "I think I was promised Italian food."
"And Italian food you shall have." Jesse promises, extending his elbow for her to loop her arm through. Beca rolls her eyes but she does it anyway and they walk down the sidewalk like that for a few feet before they both realize that it's a little bit awkward to try and walk like this and Jesse manages to transition into holding her hand, which he considers a pretty smooth move. He looks at Beca out of the corner of his eye in an attempt to gauge her reaction and though her face is unreadable, she doesn't pull away so he figures she's not going to threaten him for being all touchy feely.
There's a nice breeze ghosting through the air, carrying with it the smells of the city and the approaching summer. The cicadas have started their humming and it all reminds Beca of being a kid, when she used to play outside until one of her parents practically had to drag her in. Those were the days when life wasn't complicated and she always felt happy.
They walk a few blocks in a comfortable silence and Beca enjoys the warmth of Jesse's palm pressed against her own and the way that their hands seem to fit together. And yes, she realizes how that sounds. She's become one of those girls, who think about things like that. Ugh.
When they finally come to the restaurant that Jesse had in mind, he lets out a disappointed groan. "I forgot they were closed on Sundays." He shakes his head, looking genuinely disappointed. "I guess we'll have to save the life-changing lasagna for another time."
"There you go with that second date talk again." Beca remarks, raising an eyebrow. "You're awfully full of yourself.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that I saw you having something that pretty closely resembled fun." Jesse points out.
Beca shrugs, going for nonchalant. "You're not wrong." She admits. "Though this lack of Italian food is definitely making me rethink my impression of this date."
Jesse tugs her back in the direction they had just come from, abandoning the dark restaurant for the time being. "Oh, I can still get you Italian." He promises. "But if it doesn't change your life, you can't blame me."
It turns out that Jesse's backup plan involves getting slices of pizza from a food cart on the corner and sharing a bottle of soda while they lazily walk back toward the mall and the shuttle stop.
"I don't think this is real Italian." Beca points out as she takes a huge bite of her equally huge slice. She doesn't think she's ever had a piece of pizza this big before, or admittedly this delicious. This is almost better than the restaurant, because there's less formalities and they both seem more at ease, as though the act of walking down the sidewalk eating dinner somehow makes it easier to be themselves.
"Oh, pizza was totally invited in Italy." Jesse assures her and Beca gives him a doubtful look. "Haven't you ever read Eat, Pray, Love? She totally eats pizza in Italy."
Beca laughs. "No, I haven't. But the fact that you have definitely answers a lot of questions that I had about you."
Jesse knocks her hip playfully with his own and Beca laughs as she stumbles, careful not to drop her pizza. "My mom went through a phase." He tells her defensively. "She thought we should have a mother-son book club. Thankfully she gave up on that idea before we made it to Nicholas Sparks."
Beca laughs around a bite of pizza, reaching out to take the soda from him. "She sounds fun." She says for lack of anything better to say. She's never really been the type that was good at making conversation about other people's families, mostly because she hated talking about her own so much. She was more adept at changing the subject than actually contributing.
Before she can work her subject changing magic, however, Jesse questions, "Your mom ever try and get you to do crazy bonding stuff?"
Beca wrinkles her nose and takes another bite of pizza, hoping that he'll get the hint without things turning awkward. Because she's been having fun and she doesn't want thoughts of her family to put her in a bad mood.
"We don't have to talk about it." Jesse says after a beat of silence. "It's not really my business." His tone betrays that he's expecting to be shut out and he's dreading the fact that her walls are going back up.
Maybe it's this fact or the fact that she really has had a great time tonight and Jesse is so unlike most of the people that she's known before that makes Beca say, "My dad cheated on my mom when I was fifteen. They tried to work things out but…he left anyway." She shrugs, trying to make little of this fact. "She sort of stopped doing any crazy bonding stuff after she found out he'd been having sex with his secretary."
Jesse looks at her and when he says "I'm sorry" it doesn't sound like the patented response that most people give in those sorts of situations, but he genuinely sounds like he means it and he understands how she feels. Beca knows that it's been several years since her perfect family came crumbling down but she still can't shake that bitterness that she feels toward her dad for messing everything up and the disappointment she feels toward her mom for imploding instead of taking care of her daughter. She knows that she's only hurting herself at this point and it's cost her a lot in the past. She's finally getting tired of letting her resentment dictate her life.
"When you asked me…if I knew why I pushed people away…" Beca looks down at her feet to avoid feeling Jesse's eyes on her. It makes it easier to talk somehow. "I lied. I do know why. Because the only people I've ever trusted have all let me down and disappointed me. I keep myself apart from people so I don't get hurt again." She shrugs, tearing her pizza crust in half absently. "It's not ground-breaking or…I know I sound like some stupid teen movie but," she shrugs, "that's why. I just don't trust people."
Jesse is silent for a minute and for some reason Beca really appreciates that. She appreciates the fact that he's not rushing to say any of the trite things that people would normally say in this situation or saying something he thinks that she'll want to hear.
"That sucks." Jesse says finally and Beca looks up at him. Whatever she was expecting to hear, it was somehow more understanding and profound than this. "I mean, it really does. Trusting people is hard. But you're an amazing person, even if you try not to let people see the real you. And I think that your life is going to be really lonely if you don't let people get to really know you. And I know, personally, my life would really suck if you weren't in it."
Beca feels that electric feeling of warmth spread through her body and she feels a smile tug up the corners of her mouth. But she tries not to let too much of this show on her face. "That was really cheesy." She tells him.
"It came from the heart." Jesse assures her. "Seriously, Beca. People might surprise you."
Beca surprises herself by pulling Jesse to her and kissing him, not caring that he tastes like sugar and pizza sauce. She just wants to kiss him again and again just to see if that electric feeling will ever disappear. She hopes that it won't.
"Well, that's a relief." Jesse says when the kiss is broken. Beca gives him a curious look. "I was sort of worried that the whole kissing thing was just some sort of side effect from giving a kick ass performance."
Beca smiles and shakes her head shyly. "Nope. No such luck." She kisses him again.
Jesse puts one arm around her waist and thrusts the other in the air, doing his best Judd Nelson impression. Beca catches this out of the corner of her eye and pulls away, laughing. "Did you just reenact the last scene of The Breakfast Club?"
Jesse grins. "You didn't expect me to pass an opportunity like that, did you?"
"Dork." Beca says, but her tone is endearing, suggesting that she wouldn't want him any other way.
Jesse holds her hand as they walk back toward the shuttle and their hips touch during the ride back to campus and Jesse keeps his hand on her knee, his finger tracing absent designs against the fabric of her jeans. So far, Beca can say with certainty that that feeling has yet to go away. She feels electrified.
When they get back to campus, Jesse walks her to her door but doesn't insinuate that he expects to come in or even that he wants to, even though they both know that he wouldn't be opposed to a little post-date make-out session. But Beca sort of likes the idea of keeping things sweet and chaste, at least for tonight and she likes that he's not going to push.
"So, how'd I do?" Jesse questions as Beca fishes her key out of her purse. "As far as first dates go."
Beca wrinkles her nose, considering her response. "Well, I've had worse so…"
Jesse shakes his head at her. "You had fun. Admit it. You had fun on our super cheesy date and you totally want to go on another one."
"Fine. I had fun." Beca says like it's killing her to admit it, even though it isn't. "Little bit." She holds up her fingers, measuring out the small amount of fun that she had on their date. Even though, in truth, it was the best date she's ever been on and she figures that one day she'll tell him this. Just not right away. A girl's gotta have her secrets.
Jesse leans in for another kiss and Beca smiles against his lips. The kiss is a little shorter than she would have liked but she figures they'll be plenty of time in the future for a little indulgence.
"So does this mean I get a second date?"
Beca hums, tapping her finger against her pursed lips, considering. "I suppose. But I get to plan it."
Jesse smiles. "Deal."
