Benji Makes A Friend

I was lying on my bed on my stomach.

My fingers moved expertly over the buttons on my game controller. I was playing my all-time favorite game: The Legend of Zelda. It's a game I've loved since I was a kid and I still play it when I'm feeling lonely or sad. I guess I'm usually a pretty happy guy, but lately I've been playing The Legend of Zelda a lot. So far my roommate, Jesse, was the only person at Barden who had been kind to me. But between classes and his nearly constant rehearsals with the rest of the Trebles we rarely get to hang out.

That was why I was caught by surprise by the sudden knocking on the door. It was probably just Jesse; maybe he forgot his key or something. I quickly saved my game and padded over to the door in my stocking feet. My eyes widened in surprise when the person outside the door turned out to be a small brunette girl.

"Oh, umm, hi. You must be Benji, right?" the girl said with a slight smirk.

"How'd you kn –" I stopped abruptly when realization sudden dawned on me. "Ooh! You must be the famous Beca Mitchell! Jesse talks about you, like, all the time,"

"Sorry about that," Beca apologized through gritted teeth. "Jesse's told me a lot about you, too. Is he in right now?"

"He's at Trebles rehearsal, sorry," I replied regretfully.

"Oh, it's fine. I'll just come back some other time. It was nice to finally meet you, Benji." the girl said as she turned to leave.

"Wait!" I exclaimed with a bit more fervor then I probably should have. It had just been really nice talking with someone other then my parents, older sister, or roommate. Beca turned back towards me, an eyebrow raised in confusion and something like amusement.

"Uhmm," I stammered for a moment, "Y'know, Jesse will probably be back pretty soon. If you like, you can always wait in here for him. Of course, you'll have to put up with me,"

"You seem fine to me. Now, my roommate on the other hand, is insane. I kind of think she's planning on killing me in my sleep." Beca replied. "I just don't want to put you out, I mean, I'm sure you've got plans and stuff,"

"Believe me, I don't." I said. "I was just playing some video games."

"Oh, what were you playing?" she asked with interest.

"C'mon in and see!" I tried not to be over-enthusiastic as I led Beca over to where I had been laying. I have trouble with sometimes being too over-the-top. When I first started learning close-up magic I would practice from morning to night, sometimes even forgetting to eat.

"Wow you're side of the room . . . has a lot of character." the brunette said as she examined some of my figurines.

"Yeah, it's kind of an eyesore," I admitted sheepishly.

"I'm sorry! That didn't come out as the compliment I had meant it to be." Beca said quickly.

"It's okay." I smiled. "When Jesse invites his friends over they say much worse."

"And Jesse doesn't stop them?" the girl asked in surprise.

"Oh, he tries, but they aren't really great listeners."

"Well," Beca said, "they're just idiots. Are these R2-D2 and C3PO?"

"Umm – yep, that's them." I nodded as I saw the figurines the brunette was looking at. "Have you seen Star Wars?"

"Sorry, no," Beca said guiltily. "I'm just not much of a movie person." Then she noticed the TV screen. "Hey, I know that game! Is that The Legend of Zelda?"

"Yeah, it is. Do you, umm, play video games?" I asked.

"I used to play games all the time with my cousin. This one was his favorite." Beca replied.

"Well, tell your cousin he has awesome taste in video games." I said approvingly.

"He's dead." the girl said, a deadpan expression on her face.

"Oh my God!" my hands covered my mouth in shock. "I'm so, so sorry, I didn't –"

Beca stared at me for a moment before her face broke out into a wide grin.

"I'm totally messing with you, dude."

"Phew, that's good!" I sighed with relief. Then I added, "I completely knew you were joking."

"Sure you did." she smirked as she sat down next to me on my bed.

"Mind if I ask you a question?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.

"What?"

"Do you like being in the Bellas?"

"Its okay, the girls are sort of odd, but nice. Our leader, Aubrey, can be a pain." Beca replied.

"Well, I'm sure Aubrey is still a pleasant person." I said a bit too quickly.

"Benji, do you like Aubrey?" the brunette gave me a suspicious look.

"I – no, I do not." I stammered, trying to fight the blush that creeping up my cheeks.

"Dude, you totally have a toner for Aubrey!"

"A – what?"

"It's a – oh never mind!" Beca said dismissively. "The point is you are in love with my mortal enemy. If we are to be friends that cannot be."

"It sort of happened last year." I finally admitted. There was no point in continuing to deny I sort of had a crush on Aubrey Posen. "I went to Nationals last year to watch the Treblemakers. I was kind of blown away by how pretty she was, puking incident and all. Oh well, it doesn't even matter. She'd never go for a guy like me."

"Ugh, fine," the girl said in exasperation, "if you want I can try to help you with Aubrey. Just stop with the sob story, and don't expect much because Aubrey loathes me."

I looked at Beca in astonishment.

"You'd do that for me? Wait, does that mean we're friends?" I asked.

"I guess it does." the brunette said, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"I could help you too, if you want. I mean, Jesse already likes you so I don't think it should be too difficult to convince him to –"

"I don't like Jesse." the girl said simply.

"Oh," I said, confused, "I just thought,"

"Well, you thought wrong." she shrugged. "Look, I think that he's a cool guy, but friends are all we're ever going to be. That's actually kind of why I came over here, to tell him that."

"Okay, well, is there someone else I could maybe help you with?"

"Well, there's this girl, Chloe, she's – oh shit." I watched as Beca's eyes widened in fear and realization.

"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.

"It's just . . . I've kind of never told anyone that. I mean, I've never really admitted that to myself even. Oh God." The brunette's face had gone ashen and she looked rather faint.

"Wait, are you talking about Chloe Beale? The redhead who's best friends with Aubrey?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said rather shakily. "I, umm, have to go."

"But Jesse –"

"I'll come back tomorrow or something," Beca said quickly, getting up and moving to the door.

Before leaving, she paused in the doorway for a moment.

"Dammit, do you have a pen?" she asked hurriedly.

"Umm, yeah, here," I jumped up from my bed and went over to my desk, and grabbed a pen. I didn't bother asking what she needed it for.

"Can I use this?" Beca indicated the yellow notepad that was also on my desk.

"Go ahead. Are you, y'know, okay?" I asked, still worried.

The girl took the pen in her left hand and scribbled something on the paper that I couldn't see. When Beca moved out of the way, I saw that she had written a phone number on the paper.

"I'm fine. Look, this is my number." she said. "I figure you'll need it for Operation Aubrey."

"What about Operation Chloe?" I asked.

"I don't think I'm ready for that one yet." Beca gave me a sad smile. "Please don't tell Jesse about this whole Chloe thing."

"I won't, scout's honor." I promised.

"Thanks, weirdo." the brunette gave me one last thankful smile before disappearing out the door.

I stood rooted to the spot, reeling from the events that had just taken place. A smile spread across my face. I think I just made a friend.

Thank you so much for reading my stories so far! So I, for some reason, decided to write this one-shot from Benji's POV. I don't know how well it worked, but I really love Benji. Anyway, I hope you still enjoyed it! And thank you guys for your wonderful reviews, they are awesome! If you have any ideas for one-shots you want to send my way, please do so! :)