"Beca!"

Beca looked up, a waving hand in front of her face finally catching her attention. The hand belonged to Jesse.

"What?" she snapped.

"I've been talking to you for the past twenty minutes. You like, being all mysterious on me again?"

"No - I just- I'm fine. I'm just busy." she said. As if trying to convince him, she folded her arms, pursed her lips, and nodded. She felt better for it, as though she had convinced herself.

Jesse seemed less impressed.

"Right, ok, well, can you be 'fine' and like, concentrate a bit more? You've put all the twelve-inch vinyls with the sevens, and you mixed up 'David Bowie' with 'Janice Joplin'" Jesse waved the misplaced records in each hand. Beca's bottom lip twitched. He looked at her with a furrowed brow. "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? No smart-ass comment? Should I check if you have a fever?"

"I'm fine. Leave it." Beca said, and snatched the records from his hands. After her brain had cleverly told Chloe in the auditorium that she was late for her next class - which wasn't even running that afternoon - she had called Luke and asked if she could drop in for an extra shift. She had to do something to keep her mind away from Chloe. So far, it hadn't really seemed to work.

"Easy tiger." Jesse laughed, turning back to his pile of unsorted discs. Beca put the Bowie record in the right place, then glared at him through the gap between the 'B' and 'C' shelf. He didn't notice. She took a deep breath, and realised she was going to have to work harder and shake this whole 'Chloe' thing off. It was driving her up the wall. She'd just deal with it when she saw her for this stupid runway thing she'd agreed to go watch with her.

She turned back to her pile of records, and began filing through to find any more that could be shelved in the 'B's. 'Buzzcocks… Bradshaw… Beale…' Beca dropped the record sharply on the table. "For god's sake…" she muttered, realising how stupid she felt.

"So." Jesse's voice suddenly came from the other side of the room.

"So, what?" she said, without even looking away from her assigned crate of jumbled discs and records. Her face was flushed after having her unexpected panic at seeing someone have the same surname as Chloe, and she wasn't about to give Jesse any more ammunition.

"You gonna tell me what's wrong?" he called.

"Just in case you missed it last time - still nope."

"Ok."

Feigning shock that he was to abandon his argument so quickly she leant around the side of a shelving unit to glare in his direction. He was facing away from her, rifling through a crate. She watched him for a moment, with a raised eyebrow. "I just thought, y'know. I could… I don't know. Sort it out." he didn't look up. "Make you.. like… Feel, a little better, maybe?"

She folded her arms again, and leant on the shelving unit. "Oh really? Make me feel better? Why would you want to do that?" she snapped. He looked up from his pile.

"Wow, Captain Mysterious is acknowledging my existence once again. Isn't that a surprise?"

Beca laughed at him, out of pity more than anything. "Look, Jesse - what's your pro-"

"I don't have a problem." he said, walking towards her. As he passed he waved a record in front of her face. She swatted it away. "Seems like you're the one with the problem."

"Really? Go on then, Captain Sherlock, do care to explain?" She stayed where she was, watching him trail around the radio station, shelving records and cd's up quickly.

"First off - Sherlock wasn't a captain. He was an inspector. So let me inspect."

"Wow. This is awkward. I thought Sherlock was actually a detective, so, er…" Beca chewed on her thumb nail, and tried not to laugh.

"Thought you didn't watch films?" Jesse said, with his eyebrows raised and his arms folded across his chest.

"Ah. See, the great Sherlock thinks he caught me out, however, before there's a film, there's usually a book. You should read one one day." she pointed, and jabbed him in the chest, just above where his arms crossed. "They're good."

"Funny." Jesse nodded. "Real funny."

Beca nodded, and curtseyed, before returned to her crate. "Finished with the interrogation then, Mr Holmes?"

"Give me time." he said, and walked to his box backwards, still facing her with a furrowed brow. "I'll catch you out." Beca shook her head. As she did so, her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a message, from Chloe;

"Hey. need to finalise some details with you about picking up this dress for the weeknd, can you call when you get out of class? C x"

Oh god, Beca thought, the dress. She quickly typed a message back, explaining she would be quite late ('the class was running on a bit, useless lecturer!') - so if Chloe didn't mind waiting until then - then realised she was blatently lying to the poor girl. If nothing more, she liked her as a friend. A great friend. Best friend? Perhaps.

She deleted everything, and decided it was time to tell her the truth.

"Hey. Sorry, I shouldn't have bailed on you so quick. Not actually at class. Working an extra shift at the radio station. Give me an hour, can I meet you somewhere after work? x"

Send.

Beca hopped up to sit on the table and crossed her legs beneath her. Her phone was cradled in the palm of her hands, and she tapped the back of it impatiently waiting for a reply. It came soon enough;

"Sure :-) xo"

Beca beamed, but tried to bury her face in the curls of hair that bundled past her cheeks. She couldn't help it.

—-

"Sure :-) xxx"

Chloe typed out the message, then scrutinised her decision with one eyebrow raised

Three x's.

Too much?

She deleted them all.

Now there's not enough, she thought. After a good few minutes of furious deliberation between combinations of 'x's, 'o's - and even contemplated at one point a face with one eye winking - she stuck a single 'x' and a single 'o' on the end of the message and hit send and threw her phone onto her bed before she got the chance to change her mind.

She shook her head at the thought of her - Chloe Beale - struggling to flirt with someone. It made no sense! Mind you, Beca made no sense. First she was at class, and now she wasn't? Strange. Either way it didn't matter. She knew exactly where to go now, the radio station was only round the corner from her dorm.

She looked at her reflection in her dorm room bad, she thought, and winked. Her phone buzzed again - and she turned and leapt in an incredibly ungraceful manner onto the bed to try and find it in the piles of pillows.

"Ace. I finish around 6. I'll call you. B xx"

No you won't, Chloe thought, with a smile; I'll find you at the station first.