"HEY MILLION DOLLAR BABY!"

The holler across the quadrangle of Barden University, a week before classes started, made Beca Mitchell roll her eyes. But then she grinned, and began trotting just a little faster across the concrete. And before she knew it she was jogging a little, as Jesse sprinted towards her.

He caught her in his arms, swinging her around and making her shriek, before she smashed her lips against his, something she had been imaging since the last day of school months earlier.

"Admit it", he whispered against her mouth, setting her down. "You missed me".

"Nah", she said with a straight face.

She had missed him like hell.

"Shawshank!" another shriek echoed across the quadrangle and Beca rolled her eyes. "Get that Treblemaker out of your mouth!"

Fat Amy was back.

"Hi Amy, how was your summer?" Jesse asked pleasantly as the Australian barrelled towards them, grinning.

"So clearly I've interrupted this", Fat Amy announced. "Beca is the Bellas house free?"

"I can't believe you guys got yourself a house", Jesse chuckled and Beca frowned slightly.

"Aca believe it nerd, we won that shit".

"Anyway I'm catching up with all of my boyfriends-"

Beca almost shuddered. "Go ahead- make good choices".

(She'd be burning those sheets.)

"Cool. Bye Shawshank!"

And Fat Amy almost skipped away, grinning cheerily.

"Use protection!" she added as an afterthought, and Beca rolled her eyes heavenwards, making Jesse chuckle.

"What are we watching weirdo?" Beca greeted him, as he opened the door to the Treblehouse.

"Welcome to my humble abode", he replied. "Well at least until everyone else arrives". He led her up the stairs to the room that he and Benji would be sharing, swinging open the door. It smelt like popcorn and Jesse, and there was no Star Wars memorabilia on the walls as of yet. Beca could live with that, she reasoned. She could probably even live with the memorabilia, because Benji was a good guy and one of the Trebles that she liked.

She plopped down on the bed, wiggling a little to make herself comfortable (Jesse grinned, because she too was doing what she had laughed at him for, all those months ago). Pulling the laptop onto the bed, he turned to her, Beca waiting expectantly.

"St Elmo's Fire", Jesse said, holding up a DVD case. "1985, directed by Joel Schumacher. Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham. A prominent Brat Pack film- you like the Brat Pack, Bec".

After the finals the year before, Jesse had forced Beca into watching The Breakfast Club with him, and he was amazed when she shed tears (hiding her face from him, but he saw those shiny eyes. He saw the emotion). Apparently that little alcohol filled birdie that had left him two a.m voicemails during spring break ("I watched The Breakfast Club and I cried, I fucking cried like a little girl and what have you done to me? I miss you Swanson and you're not even here for me to tell you that") had been telling the truth.

They'd spoken, in some way, shape or form, every day of the summer. Whether it was through text, Skype or on the phone, they'd made contact every day for the three months they were apart. While Beca spent her days working at the godamm movie theatre (which Jesse had found so funny he had laughed until he gagged, and Beca had glared at him through the webcam of her laptop and told him that karma was a bitch) and three months was a long time for the movie hating girl to spend in the movie theatre.

The two had talked about everything together- from Beca's parents' divorce (which maybe wasn't as painful as watching The Breakfast Club) to Jesse's whole extended family (they came to stay with him in New York for the fourth of July, and a cousin or five had popped up behind Jesse on the webcam). They'd spoken about friends (Beca had shamefully admitted to him that she was the girl with not a lot of girl friends, but she had the Bellas, which was kinda cool) and past relationships (where Jesse admitted that while he had dated, he had never had a real girlfriend- not even with his juice pouches and Rocky) and Beca had told him that while she had had boyfriends, she'd never gone all the way with them.

She had found herself acting differently. Subtle differences that she hadn't even realised had happened. She wasn't as heavy with her eyeliner as usual. Her replies weren't as sharp. She found herself smiling more.

"Let's do this", she said and Jesse pulled the bowl of popcorn closer, Beca nestling into the crook of his arm.