Today was the day.
She was going to do it.
She had to do it. It had been two weeks since her discussion with Cynthia Rose, two long weeks of over analysing conversations and biting her tongue at times when an inappropriate comment seemed to materialise out of nowhere. Beca had been so stressed about the whole thing that she'd barely spent any alone time with her best friend. Chloe was suffering, she'd confronted Beca, wondering what she'd done wrong, why she was being avoided. It broke Beca's heart to lie to her but she just couldn't bring herself to say the words that were so often at the forefront of her mind. Chloe bought the feeble excuse that Beca had given her, saying that she'd give Beca the space she needed to work through whatever was bothering her. If it was possible for Beca to fall any harder for Chloe, she would have.
It was that thought that made her call CR back up to her room.
"Come on B. You're prolonging the inevitable. What are you so afraid of?"
Beca sighed and dropped back onto the bed, "I'm… What…" What was taking her so long? The questions flooded to the front of Beca's mind, leaving her completely stunned. She wasn't afraid of the girls rejecting her. She wasn't afraid of Chloe's reaction. She wasn't afraid of the ribbing that was bound to come from Amy. "Nothing. I'm just… Procrastinating or whatever."
CR smirked at Beca, she knew exactly what that was like.
"You know if you're stuck, you can make a cake."
CR spun around to face the added voice, missing the groan that slipped from Beca's lips. She shook her head, and gave Beca an apologetic glance when she realised that she probably should have closed the door for this type of conversation. "What? Have you got supersonic hearing?"
Fat Amy walked into the room, dumping the laundry basket on the floor beside the bed, "Are you for real? You gotta be blind as a bat not to know. Hell I don't know how short stuff managed to keep her lezzie hands off me…" Whatever Amy was going to say was cut off by the pillow that hit her square in the face. "Oof… You bloody knob head. I'm trying to help."
Beca heard CR chuckle from the foot of her bed, "What?"
"You gotta admit… Everyone loves cake B."
Beca snorted, the image of her presenting the Bella's with a brightly iced pride cake was a little too much. "So what? I make a cake filled with funfetti and frost it with hooray I'm gay!?" Beca actually saw Fat Amy's face light up at the idea. It was ridiculous. She'd better shoot that idea down immediately. "It's not happening."
"Aw come on Becs."
Beca held up a hand, attempting to shut the two laughing women up, "I'm out. I can't deal with the two of you right now." The laughter swelled again as Beca swung her legs of the side of the bed and onto the floor. "I'll make you a deal. If I haven't told the Bella's by tonight, Fat Amy, your cake idea… Maybe. Okay. But… Let me… Just… I have something to do, okay?"
Fat Amy gave Beca a salute from her bed and CR clapped her on the shoulder, "You'll be fine B."
Beca nodded and quickly left the two women to their own devices. She made her way into the kitchen, following the sound of Chloe's voice as she sang along to one of the more recent mixes that Beca had made. She watched as Chloe's face lit up when she tugged one of the ear buds out, "Hey Becs!"
Beca smiled and asked, "Are you busy for like… an hour?"
Chloe nodded and closed the notebook that she'd been doodling in. "I'm all yours for the afternoon if you're up for it."
Beca felt her cheeks warm up, she decided that Chloe should definitely not be allowed to wink at her like that, damn it. "I was just hoping that I could buy you a coffee to make up for being an absent asshole for the last two weeks?"
Chloe quickly jumped from her place at the breakfast bar. "Lead the way, Captain! Unless… Do you want me to drive?"
Beca shrugged, "It's entirely up to you. We can walk three blocks down to campus or we can go to the city."
Beca watched as Chloe contemplated the decision. "Jeez, don't hurt yourself there, babe…"
Chloe rolled her eyes, "I'll drive. That way you can't run away if you decided to have one of your breakdowns…"
Beca scoffed, "You know… I can change my mind…" She saw the slight flash of panic that was quickly hidden by Chloe's usual sunny demeanour. "Hey. I was kidding." Chloe's smile brightened again, "Let me in the car so you can stop worrying that I'm gonna run away."
"Sounds great."
The car rid to the café was comfortably silent. It was one of the things that Beca loved about her friendship with Chloe. Even after two weeks of Beca being completely off base, there was no awkwardness, no bitter snipes from Chloe, even though Beca thought she deserved it. It was just… Easy.
Easy was good.
Easy was what Beca needed to be feeling, because she had every intention of telling her best friend everything… Or at least, everything except the fact that she had fallen crazy hard for her. That part could wait.
They ordered their usual and found a table in a quiet back corner. Chloe thoughtfully gave Beca the seat facing the front door to give her something to focus on other than the conversation that she could feel coming.
"Is everything okay, Beca?"
Beca nodded, she took a sip of her latte, "Yeah, never better. I'm just seeing things a little clearer these days."
"Clearer?"
Beca watched the confusion cross Chloe's face, "We've been friends for a while right?"
"Yeah?"
Beca took a deep breath, and continued. "And like I could tell you anything and you'd probably wave it off right…?"
Chloe chuckled, "Did you kill someone?"
Beca snorted into her coffee, "Don't be a dick."
"Becs, I'm pretty sure you could come out and say that you're a lesbian and absolutely nothing would change," Chloe said. She smiled at Beca, who was staring at her with an odd look on her face. "What?"
"Nothing at all?"
Beca knew it was underhanded. It really was. Using her knowledge of the upcoming discussion to gauge Chloe's interest in the topic was not her most ethical move. But can you blame a girl for being curious?
"Do I look like the kind of person who'd disown someone for that reason? Seriously… I'm bisexual, I've never hidden that from you or anyone for that matter… Hell, I think the only thing that would change if you were suddenly not straight would be our sleeping arrangements. Because, I've seen you naked and in the interest of full disclosure, I'd totally tap that."
Beca fumbled with the cup as Chloe winked at her, "Well, that makes this next part significantly more awkward…"
Beca watched Chloe put the cup down and lean on her elbow. She extended her hand and linked her fingers through Beca's empty hand, "Hey, you're safe, Becs. It's just me…"
"I know Chlo." Beca squeezed Chloe's hand, "So, I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last few months. Like, a crazy amount and… I've found some things that… Have you ever just had an epiphany…?" Beca watched a soft smiled make its way across Chloe's face, "I just… When I had this thought… It just hit me in the face. Like, I didn't even know how I managed to convince myself for so long that Jesse was what I really wanted. Because he's not, he wasn't… He's the complete opposite to what I want."
Beca watched the realisation dawn on Chloe's face. The flush started at the neckline of her dress and rapidly engulfed her face, "So… Is this…?"
"Me coming out? I guess?"
"And I totally told you that…"
Suddenly the hand holding Beca's let go, dropping down with a soft smack, "You sneaky little shit! You asked that on purpose?"
Beca smirked, "Hey, I just asked if your opinion would change… You're the one who said, and I quote: I'd totally tap that."
"So, you're…"
"I won't say one hundred percent lesbian, but there is a good eighty-five percent of my that prefers women…"
Chloe took a deep breath, "Does anyone else know?"
Beca nodded, "CR helped me to work it all out, she's the one who convinced me to come out. And Fat Amy… I don't even know how she knew but…"
"You told Fat Amy before me?" Chloe said, her face screwing up playfully.
The rest of the afternoon went smoothly. True to her word, Chloe never once treated Beca differently. She felt so much better about herself not having that huge secret hanging over her, it really was liberating.
When they arrived at the house, all the Bella's were congregated around the kitchen bench, clearly waiting for something. "What's happening?"
Jessica frowned, "Amy said you'd called a Bella meeting but your phone had died?"
Chloe rolled her eyes, "I think you've been duped."
Beca shook her head and let out a groan as the front door of the house swung open loudly.
"I'm back, pitches!"
Beca watched Fat Amy back into the kitchen, a massive cake box in her arms as she attempted to navigate the kitchen, "All right guys. So Fat Amy is clearly dying to show you what's in that box. It's part of the reason why I actually was going to call a meeting tonight. Amy, will you do the honours?"
"Certainly," Fat Amy said flipping the lid on the cake box. "So… this isn't about me. My boyfriends are far too clingy to share me around."
"Hooray… I'm… Gay…?" Stacie said. She glanced from CR back to Beca before anything clicked, she held her hand up for a high five, "Nice!"
"For the record, I had nothing to do with the cake. I just wanted to… You know… Get it out, or whatever." Suddenly, Beca found herself engulfed by her entire group of friends, "Guys… I hate hugs…"
Chloe wrapped her arms tighter around Beca as she was squished in by Stacie, Flo and Ashley, "You also hate cake… But here's a big gay cake with…. Oh em gee! Is that funfetti?"
