Title: Yellow Bird
Rating: T
Summary: Beca didn't believe in happily ever after. She never has. To her, happy endings were really just stories that hadn't ended yet. But one encounter is about to shape all of that disconnect into something ever growing. And maybe, her story didn't have to end here. (TWO-SHOT)
A/N: Just a short two-shot. It came to me when listening to Bright Eyes' Poison Oak. It probably won't extend past the two chapters. Second will be up in a few days.
"Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other." – Paulo Coelho
Beca huffs out a loud breath as she looks in her rear view mirror to see the smoke and steam rising from the crunched in hood of the vehicle behind her. She had just been rear ended. She closes her eyes and counts to ten, trying to calm her nerves before she gets out of the car and hopes she won't lose her cool.
Today was not her day. You know, if being rear ended a minute ago or being left at the altar a year ago to this date was anything to go by. So, Beca was still bitter. Could anyone blame her? She wasted years of her life on Jesse, just to have him throw it all back in her face in front of everyone. So, yeah, she was still extremely bitter. And now, this debacle. This mess of a thing that continued to keep her shitty mood, well, shitty.
Fingers run through disheveled brown hair before unbuckling the seat belt and gripping the door handle. A sharp inhale breezes through her mouth, bracing herself for what may unravel in the next fifteen seconds. Okay, so maybe Beca shouldn't have just braked in the middle of the highway to look out on the overpass and contemplating for a split second what she was contemplating.
Maybe she was asking for it, a snap back into reality. A way to somehow allow her mind to come back to her body and stop being so disconnected from real life, from her life.
She steps out of her car, waiting for a scream fest to ensue after her stunt. But she's not met with that. Instead, she's met with a soft expression of worry, a cut on a forehead, and icy blue doe eyes. For a second, Beca thinks she's delirious. There's no way this person shouldn't be mad at her for randomly stopping in the middle of the road.
For seconds, there's no words exchanged between the two. Just gazes with soft eyes. Maybe Beca is suffering from her disconnect between mind and body again. Maybe the woman is yelling at her and Beca's mind is too far gone, too dead set on what it wanted, for her to hear her.
Right?
"Are you okay?"
Wrong.
"Uh..." Beca kicks her Converse on the ground, looking between the accident scene and the redhead in front of her. Beca didn't know how to reply. Of course, she wasn't okay. She was far from okay. She was thinking about jumping off the overpass for Christ's sake. No. "I should be the one asking you that. This was my fault."
Beca knows damn well by this point that she was avoiding the question. It's painfully obvious, just like the sun setting at night.
"It's just a cut, I'll be fine." A sincere smile. Beca's heart just about stops.
"Look, I'll give you my information and I'll claim responsibility for the accident and any injury you sustained."
"There's no need, really." Why was this girl being so nice to her? "I'll just go get it fixed. It's not as bad as it looks."
"No, I feel bad. I shouldn't have stopped randomly. Please, let me just make it up to you somehow." Beca insists, partially because it was her fault, partially because she wants to potentially see the redhead again. She's not sure which is anchored to her thoughts at the moment, but she's going with the latter.
"Okay." And in a swift second, the girl is extending her hand towards Beca. "Chloe."
Beca shakily reaches her hand out to connect with Chloe's, a spark of electricity flowing through her veins.
"Beca." Beca's lips are pressed together, her eyebrow knit in confusion as she drops Chloe's hand. "I'll uh, call you a tow truck."
Beca doesn't know why she stuck around while they waited for the tow truck to come pick up Chloe's car. They had managed to push it to the shoulder to allow traffic to continue its flow. And that was dangerous. Because Beca now had a view of the overpass, looking below as she watches her own body fall from one highway to the next.
She closes her eyes, trying to get the image of herself smiling and waving at her before leaping off the highway out of her mind. To rid of this out of body experience she was currently dealing with. Get it together, Mitchell. He was just a stupid boy. Yeah, your life is shit, but there's no need to off yourself. Just get your shit together.
But she could hardly do that as her hands find their way on to the concrete ledge, gripping tightly as the image replays in her mind. Calling to her, begging for her to just end it.
"Is it weird to believe that every encounter has a hidden message?" Chloe's voice comes from beside her. "Like, each encounter is destined to become something, it just doesn't always show?"
"Uh..."
"Okay, so like..." Chloe's eye shift to lock with Beca's. "You stopped in the middle of the road due to something, some halt in reality. I crashed into you and now you're staring out over the overpass like you've just seen a ghost."
Beca feels her skin set itself on fire when Chloe's hand grabs a hold of her arm.
"I know what you're thinking. My brother had the same look on his face when he did what he did." Chloe sighs. "I'm just telling you, it's not worth it. No one's story has to end like this."
"Then tell me, how does it end?"
"With you walking away from the ledge and freeing yourself of the bad things. Realizing that you're meant for something more. Savoring every new encounter, maybe trying to find some meaning in it." Beca steps away, her hand leaving the ledge as she turns to look at Chloe. How could someone, a regular person, a stranger, talk her down so easily?
"So what is this encounter destined to be?"
"Have you ever read Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood'? Beca shakes her head in disagreement. "There's talk of this yellow bird that saves Pete from a prison cell. It's symbolism, really. To free you from things that keep you captive, that hold you back from really living. Maybe, you just need to find your yellow bird. Maybe, this encounter happened so you could realize that."
Beca took in all of the words Chloe had just carefully and delicately explained. And her heart broke, shattered into a million tiny pieces. Here was this girl she hardly knew, telling her to not think about all of the shit she had gone through, but rather to find something or someone to free herself from it. This girl who had just stopped her from throwing herself off of the overpass. Beca's eyes flicker to Chloe's, hopefulness filling cerulean orbs. Beca feels a smile tugging at the corner of her lip, as a thought passes through her brain and settles in back of her mind. Maybe, Chloe was right. Maybe, Beca was trapped in the past. Maybe, Beca had just found her yellow bird.