"Aubrey stopped me in the hall today," Jesse says as he tests shades of red paint for the kissing booth on a piece of scrap wood in the woodshop classroom. "Said she's coming to the party tonight and wanted to make sure I'd be there." It's obvious he's about to burst with pride over it but trying to act cool.

Beca tucks the pencil she's using to trace letters onto plywood that someone more skilled with a saw than she will cut. "I wish you the best of luck with that." The alarm on her phone interrupted her intended continuation of ribbing him about the total lack of possibilities with Aubrey. "Shit, I have practice. Can you still give me a ride home later?"

Jesse's regretful inhale makes her shoulders droop. "I can't, I'm sorry. I said I'd take my parents to the airport." He pauses and makes a face and then offers, "But Chloe could give you a ride."

Normally, she'd be a little excited about that but instead, she's reminded that she made a promise to Student Council - one that is quickly spreading through the school - that Chloe would be participating in their kissing booth.

"You're going to have to ask her eventually," he says, reading her mind. "If I ask her, there's no way she'll do it, just to spite me."

Beca grabs her backpack and stalks off. "Yeah, yeah."


When Beca meets up with Chloe in front of the school after practice where Jesse said she'd be waiting, she's not surprised to find her entertaining the attention of two boys from the football team and one of the cheerleaders. She's saying something about her party - inviting them, probably.

"Hey," she says loud enough to interrupt.

Chloe turns at the sound wearing a half-smile. She turns back to her audience and explains she has to leave and they scurry off chatting excitedly.

"Hi," Chloe says once she's decided to actually give Beca her attention.

Beca tries to be unimpressed by Chloe's tight-fitting navy blue uniform pants, but she can't help but notice they're definitely tighter than what is allowed by the dress code. "Jesse said you could give me a ride?"

"Yeah, totes!" Chloe says with a brighter smile.

"Where's your car?"

Chloe tilts her head, gesturing behind her; they're at the top of the parking lot reserved for motorcycles, and Beca sees Chloe's bike parked and waiting.

"Yeah, dude, no that's not going to happen."

"What, are you scared?" Chloe teases. She starts walking and doesn't look back to see if Beca's following, because of course she's following.

"No, I'm not scared! But I'm not getting on there like one of your - your," ew, "make out partners."

Chloe stops and laughs to turn back. "I don't make out with all of them."

Beca just crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow at her and it makes Chloe wither a little.

"Okay, so maybe I make out with most of them, but I'm just going to take you home, okay?"

Beca shakes her head; there's something about getting on a motorcycle with Chloe Beale that is setting off all genres of alarms in her brain and she can't figure out if there are more good or more bad bells ringing. She pulls her headphones out of her backpack and puts them in to make sure Chloe knows this conversation was over. "It's so nice today; I think I'll just go for a run."

"It's like five miles."

"What?"

"It's five -"

"Can't hear you! See at the party, okay?" She starts walking before Chloe can say anything else.

"No you won't; it's going to be full of creeps so you better not be there."

"Better get used to disappointment!" She starts running.

"I knew you could hear me!"


Beca knows she needs to convince Chloe to be part of the kissing booth lest she is forever exiled by the Barden student body. But that's only one mountain to climb on what she's discovered to be a bit of an Everest.

Because despite texting roughly half of said student body, no one at Barden wants to work at her kissing booth.

They only want to visit it so they can kiss Chloe Beale.


Chloe's house party is nothing new for Beca; she's been to them many times, though she's always only passing through on her way to meet up with Jesse in his room for an all-nighter of Grand Theft Auto or Halo. The massive lawn is always full of people she knows to be in Chloe's class, or even older. There's a fire pit that gets going and people sit around it and kiss and roast marshmallows. Everyone always has red Solo cups and Beca remembers swiping a couple for Jesse and her to drink Kool-Aid out of last year.

This year she shows up with full intent to participate in the party, though she's not quite sure what that means.

She's never been to a house party as a partygoer.

She spots Jesse when she arrives and hustles down the staircase to the lower level to fill him in on their dilemma. "No one wants to work the kissing booth. We're going to have to up our recruiting game if we're going to make any money."

Jesse is only half-listening and Beca doesn't need to ask why because the answer is right in front of them when they turn the corner toward the kitchen where Stacie, Flo, and Aubrey are dancing with each other near one of what is undoubtedly many beer kegs. "See, I told you she was coming!" He's grinning so wide it makes her elbow him but he waves at the girls anyway.

To Beca's surprise, they wave back, but then -

"Becky! Come here!" Aubrey says and they both realize they're waving at Beca, not Jesse.

"The OMGs are talking to me twice in a week? What is happening?" She stares at them, stunned and confused and a little intrigued, and decides to see what's up.

"Tell Aubrey I'm awesome!"

"Sure, dude," she says with a laugh. She's definitely not telling Aubrey he's awesome, because Aubrey is a bitch. A bitch that, for some reason, she wants to go talk to.

"Hey, what's up?" she says and is taken aback by their enthusiastic greetings.

Stacie hands her a tiny plastic cup. "You'll love this; it tastes like green."

It might be Beca's first official high school party, but she knows a thing or two about alcohol. Namely, how after the one time she and Jesse decided to try a little bit of everything from her dad's liquor cabinet, how far she's actually capable of vomiting.

"Oh, no thanks, I don't really drink."

"There's barely any vodka in it," Aubrey says in an oddly friendly way. "Just toss it back."

She's not quite sure why she does it and her brain is yelling at her for giving into peer pressure so easily because Beca Mitchell doesn't need validation from these girls, but for some reason, she does toss it back and shudders. "It does taste like green. Gross."

They all laugh but Stacie interrupts to ask, "Have you asked her yet?"

"Asked who?" Her eyes are burning and there was definitely plenty of vodka in that.

"Chloe, duh!" Stacie says, pointing past Beca toward the balcony where Chloe's locked in a heated lip-lock with someone she doesn't recognize. "About the booth."

She has to look away. "She looks busy; I'll ask her later."

"Oh, she's funny," Flo says with a laugh as she pokes Beca's stomach like she's a teddy bear or something. "Go ask her."

"No, I -"

"Go!"

Again, Beca's not sure why she's going; she actually hates these girls but some gross teen movie part of her brain has her wanting to be accepted and liked by them so she finds herself standing awkwardly behind Chloe and her make out partner and with the encouragement of her "friends," reaches up to tap Chloe's shoulder.

She hopes she doesn't look too taken aback by the way Chloe's lipstick has a tiny smear in the corner and how blue her eyes look and how soft her hair must feel and how pretty her sparkly little black dress and stilettos are when she turns to see who's interrupted them.

"I thought I told you I didn't want you here?" Chloe says when she sees her. "And no, I don't know where Jesse is." She's a little breathless and Beca hopes the effect that has on her doesn't show either. She goes right back to kissing her date (if you could even call him that; he's probably one of many to cross her path tonight), so Beca, now annoyed and definitely not jealous, taps her shoulder again. "What?" Chloe asks, and this time she sounds irritated.

"Um…" Every ounce of bravery she had a second ago evaporates. "The OMG Girls want to know if you'll do our kissing booth."

"Pass," Chloe says without even a second's thought.

It's not until much, much later that she wonders what Chloe would have said if she'd been honest and said it was she who wanted to know and not the OMGs.

"Fine, you win. Do you want me to wash your motorcycle? Polish your -"

She doesn't even see it coming until she's stumbling backward thanks to the hand that's shoved her, belonging to the guy Chloe's been kissing.

"Whoa, hey!" Chloe jerks the guy away from Beca and steps between them. "You need to leave. Right now."

The guy laughs. "Because of this scrub? No way."

"She's important to my family and that makes her important to me."

"Seriously?"

"Leave. Before I call the cops."

He leaves with a huff and narrowly misses shoulder-checking Beca as he does so, and only because Chloe pulled Beca out of the way in time. As soon as she realizes Chloe's hands are on her bare shoulders, they're gone. "Are you okay, Becs?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Um, I'm...sorry I ruined your, uh...kissing."

Chloe scoffs and busies herself with fixing her hair. "It's fine. He tasted like Cool Ranch Doritos anyway."

"Ew. Anyway…" She wants to tell Chloe about her smudged lipstick but Chloe's smiling at her in a way that feels like an odd mix of amusement and pride. Maybe she can get her this time now that she's not so distracted. "So...kissing booth?"

"That's a no for me. Sorry, kiddo."

Crash and burn. "Awesome. Cool, thanks." She turns in defeat but the OMG Girls are waiting a few feet away and start squealing at her return.

"That was so savage!" Stacie says with a laugh. "That guy totally left."

"Here," Aubrey says as she hands Beca another tiny plastic cup. "You'll love this. Tastes like pink."

Beca's not sure why (it's the vodka from the last drink) she does it, but she takes it; she kind of feels like she needs it after that.

"So, Chloe's doing the booth?" Stacie asks.

Beca's really, really not sure why she does it.

"Between us girls," she says as she tilts her head back to swallow the pink drink, "Chloe Beale basically does whatever I tell her."

Things get blurry after that. She dances, usually with Jesse, sometimes alone or with the OMG Girls or with whoever asks her to. Someone challenges her to a game of Mortal Kombat and she discovers she's even better at it drunk than she is sober and dominates challenger after challenger. Someone else challenges her just to drink. There was counting involved while she drank. She couldn't hear what numbers, but there were a lot of them.

She learned she had a great view of the party outside if she climbed onto the pool table, and that if she took off her dress, she wouldn't be so damn hot.

The table under her feet feels like it's tipping and she feels herself falling and suddenly she's moving, but her feet aren't. She's being carried but doesn't know how or by whom but they smell good.


When she wakes up, it feels like there's a demolition derby going on in her brain. The room is too bright and her mouth is dry and gross and...and it's not her room.

She looks around trying to figure out where she is and reality snaps quickly into focus. There's a field hockey stick in one corner and a lacrosse stick with a helmet hanging from it in another, and between them is a wall full of trophies interspersed with dozens of framed and free-standing photos of Chloe.

Shit!

She looks down at herself in Chloe's bed and realizes she's wearing Chloe's T-shirt. She knows it's Chloe's because it's blue and yellow just like Beca's soccer jersey, but this one has been cut into a crop top (because, of course, Chloe would make it a crop top) and says BARDEN LACROSSE on it in big white letters over her boobs.

Her boobs.

She grabs them, fear coursing through her, but her bra is still on. She has to check under the covers, too and breathes a sigh of relief that her underwear are still on, too. She's in Chloe's bed, and while all signs point to having slept with her, it seems probable that she didn't sleep with her. She might maybe, definitely have a crush on her, but something like that isn't something she was okay with happening when she was blackout drunk.

Wow, her bed smells amazing.

The night feels like a blur. Every time she tries to remember something, it's only there in fragments. She remembers pink drinks and green drinks and so very many drinks, and dancing, and video games, but not much else, though she has a distinct feeling that she made a total fool of herself.

She lets the covers fall back over her legs and holds her throbbing head in her hands. It's not two seconds later that she sees movement to her right. She looks up to see Chloe, who seems to be freshly showered and wearing nothing more than a towel around her middle, wet hair now a deep, dark red as it hangs down her back while she rummages through a dresser a few feet away.

Sweet Jesus.

She must have made a sound because Chloe turns as soon as the thought passes through her mind. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I was just grabbing some clothes."

"It's okay." Beca's voice seems to skip an octave and she clears her throat. "Um, how...bad was I?"

Chloe chuckles and turns to lean back against the dresser (still only wearing a towel). "Well, let's just say you were going to give everyone a little peep show and wanted to go skinny dipping."

Beca drops her head back into her hands. "Oh, God."

"I might have carried you up here before too much came off."

She groans again.

"And you threw up on your dress."

She feels humiliated. "Chlo, I am so, so sorry. I never drink like that. I never drink at all."

Chloe shrugs and for some reason oh, my God she's so close and smells so good, she walks over to the bed to lean against one of the columns of her four-poster bed. "It's okay. But this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about when I say you're not ready or that you don't know what it's like."

"I'm so embarrassed. Did I snore?"

Chloe laughs again. "Becs, I slept in the guest room."

Beca feels her face flushing, now embarrassed for assuming Chloe would want to share a bed with her, and suddenly she needs to get out of said bed. So she does, scrambling out from the covers only to realize once she's standing that she's standing in front of Chloe Beale in her underwear and a tee that is too short to hide them.

She tugs at it and tries to play it cool. "I'm assuming since I'm wearing this, you saw me pretty much naked?"

"Yep."

She groans an, "Oh, my God," and runs her hands through her tangled hair and then realizes the motion has lifted up the shirt to show too much and, "Oh, my God! Okay!" She spins for cover and ends up hiding her lower half behind one of the curtains in front of a floor-to-ceiling window. Then she sees them, her salvation - a pair of shorts (Chloe's, obviously), on the floor near the bed. "Shorts, please?"

And for some God forsaken reason, Chloe giggles and shakes her head.

"Chlo."

She just smiles.

"Really? Fine," Beca clings to the curtain and hopes it can reach while she makes a move for the shorts.

"Okay, okay, fine."

She hears Chloe say it but is so focused on being quick like a rabbit that she doesn't see Chloe stooping to pick them up and runs right into her, pretty much tackling her with a shoulder to Chloe's stomach.

The curtain rips from the window to follow her as she and Chloe hit the ground with matching shouts of surprise.

It's chaos and confusion and when she tries to roll off, Chloe tries to, too, and the curtain gets tangled and it wraps them up like a burrito.

"Stop pulling!" Beca shrieks; she's literally half naked and somehow Chloe, in a towel, is on top of her.

"I'm not pulling anything!"

She struggles but Chloe's pinned on top of her. "My arm's caught on the curtain, let me just reach down and -"

There's a gasp. And then Beca gasps.

Oh, my God! That's her boob!

There's more chaos as Chloe rolls them back the way they came until the curtain unfurls so Beca can scramble to her feet, grab the shorts, and yank them on.

"I'm sorry!" She doesn't realize Chloe's laughing until she's fully clothed and heading for the door.

"Beca. Aren't you forgetting something?"

She turns and tries to not look as horrified as she feels while Chloe tightens her towel around her chest. "Hmm?"

"My T-shirt."

"Oh, right, yeah." She starts to lift it over her head, too hungover and panicky to realize that she'd be back to being half-naked if she took it off.

"Beca!"

She freezes with it half over her head and is acutely aware that she's flashing Chloe.

"Stop, I'm kidding," Chloe laughs. "Keep it."

"So, I should -"

"Get out, dork."

She tugs it back down and dives for the door. She doesn't bother to say goodbye.


By the time she makes it to Jesse's room - it takes several minutes thanks to the size of their house - the adrenaline of rolling around mostly naked with Chloe and accidentally touching her has passed. She drags herself in feeling half-dead; Jesse's awake and at his computer.

"Never let me drink again," she says before falling face-first into his bed.

"Gotcha covered, boo," he says and she turns over to see him holding up a shopping bag as he rolls over on his desk chair. "Made you a hangover kit. Granola, Gatorade, Rolaids…" She sits up to take it from him. "...and a major dose of high school shame."

She manages to laugh. "Thank you."

"Oh yeah, and good work last night."

She sighs, resigned to the fact that her stupidity knows no bounds. "What did I do?"

"Nothing major. Just told everyone that Chloe and the OMGs are doing the kissing booth."

"Come on, man!" she says as she collapses back onto Jesse's bed. She hears him roll back to his desk and debates leaning over and puking on the floor. Instead, she can't stop thinking about Chloe and their accidental groping and what Chloe had said about taking her up to her room before she did any more damage. And how Chloe got in trouble on the first day when Bumper groped her. And how Chloe told everyone at school not to ask her out on a date. And how Chloe says she thinks of her like a little sister, but...as crazy as it was to think it...maybe she had a different reason for always protecting Beca.


School on Monday isn't as bad as she thought it would be; she does overhear herself as a topic of conversation now and then as she walks the halls, but apparently the recently arrived exchange student who calls herself Fat Amy had done something ridiculous enough to overshadow her own drunken shenanigans. Something about a donkey in a police car…? She'd ask about it later.

She had more important things to deal with first, namely, her public promise to get the OMG Girls to participate in the kissing booth.

"Remember the plan?" Jesse asks as they shuffle through the lunch line together. "Get them to join and so will everyone else. Because teenagers are lemmings."

Beca grabs a slice of pizza and plops it on her tray. "We're teenagers, Jess."

"And we, too, are lemmings." He gestures at the line of students in front of them as though making his point.

"You're so weird. Yeah, I remember the plan."

"Good, go get 'em."

Beca takes a breath and her tray and walks down the row between the lunch tables, slowing as she approaches and then passes the OMGs' table, hoping that they'll -

"Becky!" Aubrey calls just before she's too far away for it to be awkward.

Bingo. She turns and tries to play it cool. "Um, it's Beca, actually…"

None of them acknowledge her correction. "Why are you standing and talking instead of sitting and talking?" Aubrey snaps. She's the fakest person Beca's ever met because she's barking orders with a smile like Beca's her bestie.

She glances at Stacie who nods for her to sit down. "Oh, yeah, okay." She makes nervous eye contact with Jesse sitting a few tables away as she takes a seat and sees him mouth his request. "Jesse wants to know if you like him."

"Chloe's brother?" Aubrey asks, and Beca nods. Aubrey looks over her shoulder to where he's sitting and Beca watches him attempt to play it cool and nod in her direction, giving her a little tilt of his milk carton in acknowledgment. "Yeah, he's cute. Could dress better, though."

The girls laugh at her apparent joke and Beca tries to join in but it ends abruptly. "More importantly," Stacie interrupts, "everything's set for the kissing booth, right?"

At least they're playing right into her plan. She lowers her voice and leans in. "Okay, so here's what I just heard." The other girls lean in, too, intrigued. "Chloe likes one of you." They all gasp. "Rumor has it that if the person she likes is working at the kissing booth, then she'll be there, too."

This time they all squeal and grab each other's hands across the table and in front of Beca.

"Wait, didn't we tell you?" Aubrey says after a moment.

"Tell me what?"

Stacie takes her hand. "Now that we're besties, we would totally do the kissing booth. Just for you."

Check and mate. "Really?" she says with a swoon.

"Duh. You're one of us now."

"Wow, thank you, guys!"


Barden's annual fundraiser is impressive. Everyone went all-out for their booths and it feels like a real carnival (it might help a little that the local amusement park let them set up in one of their empty midways): Chess Club with their strongman competition, Swim Team and their dunk tank, Film Club's ring toss and Drama Club's photo opportunity complete with props and costumes, and of course, the Gamers Club's kissing booth.

Their booth is decked out to the nines, and they have the OMG Girls and most of the popular kids, but Chloe still hasn't agreed to participate and, selfishly, Beca thinks about how her reputation is on the line. She spots her on the other side of the midway pitching a softball at a target to successfully dunk one of their classmates and crosses the walkway to get her attention.

"Hey, Beca," Chloe says with a smile once she's turned and sees her. "Your booth looks awesome."

"Hey, yeah, about that…" She tries to smile in the most polite, groveling way possible. "I'm desperate. Please?"

Chloe seems to hesitate for a second, and in that second, Beca's hopes soar. But then they crash back to Earth with the shake of Chloe's head. "I'm sorry, Becs. But my answer is still no."

For some reason, Chloe's rejection his extra hard; maybe because this time, Beca was asking her earnestly, not as a joke or while being egged on by drunk girls at a party. It makes her eyes sting. "Yeah, no, that's cool," she says as she starts walking backward. "I get it. Don't worry about it."

"Beca -"

She turns and picks up her pace until she's on her booth and through its back curtain where their kissees are awaiting the kickoff.

She hopes everyone doesn't hate her by the end of the night.


"Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone step right up!" Jesse calls from his post in front of the booth. His personality lends itself well to being a ringmaster; Beca's far better suited to working the cash box. "Prepare to have your socks knocked off by the intensity of a kiss from one of our beautiful people! A ticket - and a mint, which I definitely encourage you all to use - is $5. All sales are final! We have a twist to our booth - the people you'll be kissing are blindfolded, so don't be afraid to go for it. First up, we have Luke Davies!"

Jesse had had strong reservations about allowing him to participate after what happened at the beginning of the year but after his apology and then confession about why he stood her up for their date, he'd been cool and respectful. Jesse finally relented and agreed to let him participate but grumbled that it was because he was popular and not because he was okay with how he'd treated Beca.

"And for those interested in something a little more feminine, on the other side, we have the breathtakingly hot Aubrey Posen!"

Beca masks her natural reaction to gag by hooting and clapping to try to help Jesse get the crowd excited.

People do step right up. They realize quickly they have a cash cow on their hands as word spreads about their kissing booth. Guys (and a dozen or so girls who Beca clocks and remembers for later) flock to get in line to kiss Aubrey. It's fun to watch people kiss her and Luke; some are hesitant and only deliver a peck to their lips. Others go all in and Beca's pretty sure there's tongue involved more than once despite the official rules declaring it a tongue-free zone.

The line doubles when Beca summons Stacie in for Aubrey. The new line for Bumper becomes embarrassingly small but somehow he still earns $100 for them thanks to that loud exchange student slapping down a crisp Benjamin Franklin and claiming him for 20 really, really gross minutes.

Beca feels like she needs to bleach her eyes by the time they finally break for air and she doesn't waste any time kicking Bumper off the stage to pull up one of the football players to replace him. Beca notices one of the boys from the student council - Kolio if Beca remembers correctly - doing an overly obvious shuffling from the line to kiss Stacie to the line to kiss the new football player. She seems to be the only person who notices, and he notices her notice him and she sees him start to panic and step back to the other line, but she smiles at him and he stops.

She gets it.

"We are killing it!" Jesse says, interrupting her knowing moment with her classmate while he entertains himself counting the cash in their box after making change for someone. "But we have one problem."

Beca's tried to ignore it all night, but she's heard the crowd.

"They're asking for Chloe. But I have an idea."


Beca leads Jesse onto the stage in his blindfold and does what she's tried to avoid all night: address the crowd. "Okay, folks! The moment you've been waiting for has arrived: as promised, the next kisser is a Beale!"

There's a moment of excitement followed by mass confusion and half the line - made up mostly of men - immediately vacates the area. The OMG Girls are next in line and the three of them stare at Beca and then at Jesse in confusion.

"That's not Chloe Beale," Stacie says with a frown.

Beca tsks and tries to sell it. "It is Jesse Beale."

More people leave and groan and Beca feels terrible because she knows Jesse can hear the disappointment.

"The only reason I ever talked to that dork was to make sure his sister would be here tonight. Come on, let's go."

Beca watches Stacie and Flo leave and then notices Aubrey hesitating, still holding her ticket while her friends leave and then call for her when they notice she's not with them.

Only she keeps her eyes forward and then hands her ticket to Beca. "I guess I'm next," she says and strides up into the booth to face Jesse, his head hanging in embarrassment.

If Beca could feel any other emotion than shock she'd have said something, but instead she watches dumbfounded as Aubrey lifts his chin and pulls him in for a kiss.

And not just a little peck.

She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him in and Beca watches his arms flail in surprise. After a few seconds (they feel like an eternity to Beca), Aubrey releases him and Jesse reaches for his blindfold to pull it off.

"Whoa."

Beca's pretty sure he's smiling so big his face might crack. She fully expects Aubrey to make a rude comment or slap him, but instead, she smiles back and pulls him into another kiss.

"Great; I guess that's going to be a thing now," she says to herself before finally tearing her eyes away. "Okay!" she says to the crowd, still whistling at Jesse and Aubrey's steamy kiss. "In light of these developments, we're going to take a 10-minute break. Come back soon and find out who our next kissers are!"


"So...we're going to go hang out," Jesse says a little shyly when Beca finds him after she's secured the cash box. Aubrey's next to him holding his hand and Beca really can't believe any of it.

She checks her phone. "We still have another hour left." But Jesse gives her a look so direct and obvious she immediately follows it with, "But that's fine, I can handle it. You two go, have fun. Make good choices."

Rule Number 18: Always be happy for your bestie's successes.

Beca's still congratulating herself on sticking to Rule 18 when a shriek of disgust in a mix of Spanish and English breaks the silence. Flo shows up a second later, marching through the curtain with her blindfold pushed up onto her forehead; she might have stormed off, angry that she wasn't going to get to make out with Chloe as a customer, but she'd returned to work another shift at the booth with the hope that maybe Chloe would decide to pay a visit as a customer.

"What's wrong?"

"I will kiss almost anyone, but I'm not kissing him! ¡Nunca!"

"Who?" Beca moves to see who Florencia Fuentes could possibly refuse to kiss but Stacie cuts her off.

"Her ex," Stacie explains as she pulls Flo into a hug and pouts her lips. "I'd help her out, but I can't kiss him either after what he did to Flo." She slips the blindfold off Flo's head with care to not mess up her hair and holds it out to Beca. "You don't know her ex at all though, right?"

Beca tries to remember all the people Flo might have dated but it's a big list, mostly because Flo's reputation was that of a serial monogamist. "Um, no -"

"Great! Then it's settled!"

Beca's not sure what's even happening until she's been blindfolded and thrust onto the stage of her own kissing booth to kiss Flo's ex when she's never kissed anyone in her life.

Stacie doesn't give her the same courtesy she did and Beca has to make her way blindly to her post; she'd really rather run off but she knows that she's in deep with the OMGs after the debacle with Chloe not showing up to the booth so she quickly resigns herself to her fate.

"A little help would be nice," she says as she walks not unlike a zombie, hearing the crowd laugh, and the realization that she has an audience makes her trip.

Someone catches her though and there's a murmuring of surprise around her and she figures it's thanks to Flo's ex being heroic or some crap.

"Oh, sorry!" she says, laughing through her embarrassment as she lets Flo's ex-boyfriend guide her backward until she's at her assigned post. "Sorry, again. Um…" she feels like she's rambling and her palms are sweating; she has to kiss someone for the first time and she has an audience and she can't even see who it is. "You were probably expecting Flo. It's okay if you want a refund, I know we said all sales are final but I'm-I'm happy to change our policy for you. I've-I've, um, I've never kissed anyone before. It's not like I haven't wanted to, but it's always been awkward and weird and -"

She shuts up because she's being kissed.

She thinks she hears a reaction from the crowd - maybe a gasp or a whistle - but it's really hard to tell over the sound of the blood rushing in her ears and all she can really think about is the fact that someone is kissing her right this very second.

And it feels so good with their hands on her waist that she can't help but reach out instinctively to at least touch this guy but her hands find hair way earlier than expected and she realizes it's because it's long and she can't help but curl her fingers into it and feel the way it bounces and it smells so familiar and -

Wait.

She pulls back and lifts her blindfold already knowing what she'll see but is still somehow surprised that the first thing she sees are Chloe's lips curved into a hesitant little smile that she can't seem to stop staring at.

Because Chloe Beale just kissed her.

She lets the blindfold slip from her fingers just in time for Chloe to wrap her arms around her waist and tug her close to kiss her again and this time Beca hears the crowd's reaction loud and clear - a chorus of hoots, hollers, and whistles that serve as the soundtrack to the way Chloe's kissing her as though she's waited her entire life to kiss her.

Beca wonders if maybe she had been waiting her entire life.

Beca knows she doesn't know what she's doing; she feels clumsy and uncoordinated but every time she thinks she's doing something wrong, Chloe just kisses her harder or, God, lets out this little whimper of a sound that makes Beca's knees weak.

They finally part and Beca rests her forehead against Chloe's; they're both breathing quickly and they exchange smiles. Beca cannot believe that just happened and Chloe seems a little surprised, too. Soon, though, Beca realizes they're in complete silence, which feels weird given the outburst a minute ago, so she turns her gaze toward the crowd to see them all staring, stunned, until they burst into applause.

Suddenly reality rushes back.

"Oh, my God, they all just saw that, didn't they?!"

Chloe laughs and drops her hands from where they'd been at her waist. "Sure did."

She hides her face in her hands and spins away from the cheering audience. "Kill me now. Please."

"Relax, Becs. It was just a kiss."

JUST a kiss?

"Right. Yeah."

Chloe clears her throat and fluffs her hair a little. "I'll see you later, okay? Keep up the good work." She winks and as quickly as she swooped in to sweep Beca off her feet, she was gone.

Good work? Okay. Nice.

And then it hit her.

What was she going to tell Jesse?!


She decides prompt honesty regarding her utter demolition of Rule Number Nine is the best policy and she begs someone from her club - Jessica or Ashley, she can never remember her name - to run the booth while she hurries to find Jesse somewhere in the carnival on his very unexpected date with Aubrey Posen.

She finally spots them at the ring toss, Aubrey throwing and Jesse cheering her on, and she flags him down.

It takes him a few seconds but he notices and excuses himself to let her play. He's glowing when he makes his way over to her. "Is everything okay?"

Suddenly, prompt honesty sounds like a terrible idea. "Um, yeah. The booth is hoppin' right now."

"Hoppin'?" he repeats with a questioning look; she knew that word, chosen in her moment of blind panic, gave her way in an instant that something was wrong.

She distracts him with, "Yeah! It turns out people really like to kiss!" Not that she would have known, having no first-hand experience until 10 minutes ago.

"No way!" Jesse says with a laugh.

"Yeah! And, funny story: I wound up kissing your sister!"

Jesse's face seems to freeze and she waits for the proverbial shoe to drop.

"What?" he finally says with a long blink.

"C'mon, Jess. It's seriously no big deal." Correction: it is a very big deal and she knows it.

"What?" he repeats.

It's like she can feel it, their lifelong friendship suddenly slipping through her fingers like a rope so quickly it's burning her palms. "It's for charity, right?"

"Yeah." He blinks again and she can see him struggling. "I guess so." He takes another breath and then, "Just don't end up bumping uglies with her, or I'll literally never talk to you again. Rule Number Nine, right?"

She laughs, not because it's particularly funny, but because that's how her body's chosen to react to the moment. "Yeah, of course!" she agrees, but something about the way Chloe kissed her and looked at her has Beca questioning Rule Number Nine a lot right this second. "Seriously, Jesse. As if. Me and Chloe? Pfft."