Third Time's a Charm
The Bella's decided it was in their best interest to go on a retreat to, as Chloe puts it, find their sound again. Chloe had seemed a little weird for a few days after the riff-off and she wasn't exactly sure what to make of it. But, within a few days, everything seemed decently normal: Beca was off to class, internship, and rehearsal, all while trying to be a decent girlfriend to Jesse and make arrangements for the team.
Jesse was pretty caught up in his last year too so it wasn't hard to be on the same level. He was a good guy and she really loved him. They had been through a lot over the past three years and only ever fought about like two things. They were both pretty chill. They always did have a very interesting time around Nationals time, when they had to compete against each other. For them, it was all in good fun. For the rest of their respective teams, it was a pain in the ass because the pair was pretty competitive but in weird, lovey-dovey way.
"Anyway," she snapped out of her thoughts during the long bus ass ride to the middle of nowhere. "I really think this is gonna help us out, huh Beca?" Her seat partner Chloe was going on.
"Yeah. Hopefully." She gave a halfhearted smile to the girl. "I just don't know what activities in the woods are gonna do for us." She continued.
"Ohhhh, you'll see." Chloe gave a twisted grin. After a pause, Chloe went back to talk about World's and the Bella's for the next hour.
When they arrived, Beca soon found what Chloe's grin was about. Standing if front of them was none other than Aubrey, who had graduated a few years back. Everyone was excited to see her… until she started yelling at them.
"There is the Aubrey we all know and love…" one of the girls said from the back row.
After a long day of singing and getting dirty, Beca was super excited to just relax for a bit before bed. She sat outside their barrack type tent they were going to be staying for the night and stared off in to the night. Beca had a love-hate relationship with being alone with her thoughts. They always seemed to do more good then theyre worth and yet, she couldn't seem to do anything about it.
After thinking about everything under the stars for about 25 minutes, she heard someone coming up beside her, which snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Hey Bec," Chloe said smiling and taking a seat next to Beca on the bench she was on.
"Hey Chlo." Beca returned, returning herself from the depths of her mind,
"I think this retreat is really helping." Chloe offered. "The girls seem to be bonding a lot and we have a pretty good harmony and rhythm coming back to us." She waited but Beca let her continue. "I think this is what we needed. We all kind of have strayed from each other recently."
Beca went to reply but she could only manage a whispered, "True."
"I miss you Becs." Chloe said as she hung her head a little.
"I miss you too, Chlo, and I'm sorry I've been so dejected lately. I'm just under a lot of stress with graduating and making arrangements and World's and Jesse and that internship… which I'm still sorry for not telling you about." She stammered off to silence as she looked away from the girl beside her.
"It's okay Beca, I just wish you would have let me help. We used to be so close and now I don't even know what we are. Like… nevermind." She looked up at the stars and fell silent.
"What?" Beca now wondered what was going on. "What's running through that beautiful mind of yours?" Beca gave a small laugh and put her hand on Chloe's knee and rubbed it a bit.
"I was just thinking about your freshman year and how close we were after our first national title. But then that stupid party the next year where everything seemed to go downhill after and anytime I try and say something about it you just …" Chloe caught herself from rambling any more. It was just in time.
"Chloe." The girl was not looking at her now but seemed as if she was getting emotional. "Chloe, I." Beca lowered her head she remembered the party that Chloe kept referring to.
~~/\/\~~
After winning a national title, the Bella's became the stars of Barden University. They were invited to literally every party. Some of the Bella's took those invites to heart and went to like 99 percent of them, cough, Stacie.
Beca didn't completely care for the party scene. Bunch of drunk college making stupid decisions, definitely not her style.
However, there was one rager her sophomore year that she agreed to go with because Chloe really wanted to go.
"Mama wants to ger her jiggle on, Beca!"
Beca laughed at the remark and replied with a "Fineeeee." Chloe instantly responded with a few thank you's and an enveloping hug.
That night, Beca dressed in her typical party outfit of skinny jeans and a fake leather jacket. In a way, she was excited for the party. She did enjoy the occasional stress release allowance that a party supplied.
That night, she and Chloe pounded shots back like none other. A few of the other Bella's had come with them but, once they got there, they were nowhere to be found.
Beca was definitely enjoying herself and the redhead even got Beca to dance for a good portion of the night. The drinks and the dancing made Beca lose thought of all of the other things she was being all angsty about previously. She even forgot all about missing Jesse, who was currently out with the Treblemakers who were making sweet treble somewhere in New York currently.
So, they danced and they danced and Beca laughed at Chloe numerous times for announcing, approximately every other song, that, "THIS IS MY JAM!"
Then, all of a sudden, Chloe about lost her shit when the beginning of 'Titanium' played from the stereo system the frat house had set up.
You shout it out. But I can't hear a word you say.
I'm talking loud, not saying much.
"Oh my God, Beca! It's our song." She started dancing around the girl.
"You shoot me dow-own. But I get up." Beca heard the low note that Chloe's node-free voice could hit and she smiled.
The two girls danced and sang their heart out to that song. Grabbing on to each other by the neck or the hips and shaking it down. Their voices fell into perfect harmony during the chorus' and their hips in perfect sync to the beat.
At this point, Chloe knew she was getting in to a danger zone with the brunette girl. She had had a crush on her for the past six months and this moment, combined with alcohol, only made it worse.
When the song came to an end, Chloe announced, "Gotta pee!" and grabbed the slightly shorter girl by the hand. On the way, they ran into Stacie who was currently in the process of sticking her tongue down some guy's throat. The tall girl stopped for a second when she saw them go by and smiled to Chloe who smiled back.
When they got to the bathroom, Chloe pulled Beca inside and closed the door, the music instantly diminishing.
"Chloe, don't you want me to wait outside?" Beca said a little nervously as Chloe started to unzip her jeans.
"Beca, one, you've seen me naked before. Two, we're best friends, and three, you know how comfortable I am." Chloe smiled before Beca turned around to face the door.
Beca deemed it safe to turn around when she heard the sink water turn on. Chloe washed her hands and dried them. But, as Beca turned around to leave, Chloe placed her hand on the door, keeping it shut.
Beca laughed and turned around to meet Chloe whose face was close to three inches away from her own. "Chloe, what are you doing?"
"Oh please Beca, what do you think?" and with that, Chloe took the biggest leap of faith of her life and, before Beca could respond, she closed the gap between her and her best friend.
Beca didn't know exactly what to do. It's not that she had never considered anything between her and the redhead. She knew for sure that she thought the girl was absolutely gorgeous and that she loved being around her as much as she could.
So, whether it be her intoxicated mess of a brain, her actual feelings or just the heat of the moment, Beca returned the kiss, sliding her hand up into a mess of soft red waves.
When the kiss broke, Chloe moved back and looked Beca in the eye. "I've always wanted to do that: ever since you came up to the Bella table last year. Beca, I, I think you are the most talented, most beautiful, and most amazing person I have ever met and, God, I just wanna be around you all the time and I…" She trailed off, unsure if she should proceed.
In the few moments of confessions Chloe was spitting out, Beca smiled at her. She was cute when she was all frazzled. "Chloe, I've kind of always wondered what that would be like." Beca smiled at the girl before giving her another quick peck on the lips. "And, you know I think you're beautiful and I love performing with you. Like, when I was nervous about Nationals last year and trying to be the Treblemakers, I…"
"Aww fuck." She thought. For a brief moment, she forgot all about Jesse and the mention of the Treblemakers brought it all back.
Chloe watched the girl's face fall before her eyes. She knew what had just happened too. Beca was now thinking of Jesse and was going to start feeling like a terrible person in 3… 2… 1…
Beca could not physically go anywhere but, with how worried the girl now looked, Chloe took a step back. "I.. Chloe I'm really sorry. I just.. oh God. Jesse... he doesn't deserve this. He is such a good guy and.. I… Fuck I'm terrible and an awful girlfriend… and..." She was getting worked up now.
Chloe could definitely see the distress in the girl's features and she felt bad for being the cause of it all. Not able to take it anymore, Chloe wrapped her arms around the girl, which silenced her. She felt Beca stiffen in her arms.
"Shhh, Beca. It's okay. I'm drunk and doing stupid things and so are you. This was all a mistake and no one has to know. It will forever be our little secret… Assuming we even remember it in the morning." She gave a little squeeze and released the girl.
Beca could tell it was not all a mistake or a drunken mishap for Chloe. She knew it wasn't for her either but she couldn't do this. So, as with everything else that was hard in the world, she was gonna run away from this feeling and fall back in to the comfort of Jesse. Beca gave a little laugh and whispered 'yeah.'
Once both girls had their composure, they left the bathroom and eventually, the party.
~~/\/\~~
Unfortunately, neither girl was drink enough to forget the events of the night.
"Chloe." Beca started again.
"It's okay Beca." Chloe didn't really wanna want to hear whatever was going to say about that night. "I get it. You and Jesse are good together. I'm glad you guys have been happy for so long." Chloe smiled. "I really am."
Beca looked at the ground and smiled. "Thanks, Chloe. Thank you."
Beca didn't know what else to say after that so she suggested they go join the other girls in the tent. They stood and hugged before going to the barracks. Even then, Chloe made some comment about experimenting in college, and Beca was sure there was some undertone toward her in it. But, she also thought it could be due to the fact that Chloe was lying in a roomful of girls, not even two inches from two girls' face, which was probably like her fantasy or something.
"You're so weird." She said to cover it. She knew most of the girls could hear her right now and she didn't even want to get into it.
~~/\/\~~
And World's Makes Four
Part 1
Unlike any of the girl's thought, the retreat definitely helped them all out and made them closer. Beca felt a little better now that she wasn't avoiding Chloe's remarks and she thinks, for the most part, the other girl understands the situation. Beca loves Chloe and she would do anything for her but that doesn't necessarily make her in love with her and that just isn't enough to leave a happy home.
With that, things between them slowly moved back to the way they once were and they were hanging out and talking about the Bella's routines and shopping and listening to music and gossiping about people and boys and their future and how the hell they were gonna kick DSM's ass.
Chloe ran in to Beca's room one night while Beca was trying to finish a report for her music technology class.
"Woah, dude, calm down!" Beca said laughing as Chloe ran up the stairs and jumped on her bed.
"I've got it! I have an idea of how to kick Das Sound Machine's German asses!"
Chloe told Beca her idea and Beca loved it completely. From that, she knew exactly how to work what Chloe had envisioned in to the arrangements and routine. She was now super excited to tell and show the Bella's what the two leads had come up with.
~~/\/\~~
About a month of nonstop practicing and dancing and singing later, the girls were ready to get on a plan to fly them to Copenhagen. They all were excited and they knew that their routine was gonna blow minds. The only problem being that they had no clue what DSM was gonna have up their sleeve. Even only have seen them actually perform once, the girls knew they would have an amazing show will pinpoint precision and insane harmony. They were nervous, but who wouldn't be.
Once in Copenhagen, the World's set them up with a hotel conference room that had been converted in to a dance studio.. For this, they were thankful as they didn't all want to try and do their routine in hotel room or a parking lot somewhere.
This was available whenever, as long as they signed up in time. They noticed when they got there that a few teams had already signed up for times. While they were there, they might as well sign up. They picked two times a day for two hours each. One in the morning and one at night. This gave them plenty of time to explore this interesting country while still being able to perfect their routine.
For the rest of the first night, the girls all went out to dinner and walked around by The Sound. They then found a cute little bar that had some really good sounding music coming out of it so they decided to venture in.
The girls found a few open tables near the outskirts of the bar. Some hipster looking band was playing on the small stage the band had set up on the stage. There was a decent amount of people jumping around in front of them. The girls watched as the lead singer, equipped with bangs that covered his entire face shook around the stage singing some alt. rock song in Danish.
Beca, being the music producer she is, looked at the array of mixing boards the bar had set up. There was quite an array of them for being such a small place. She noticed that one of the boards was one of the latest models of Allen and Heath and she knew the features it came with like the back of her hand. She always wanted to play with it, though this is probably not the time or place.
As Beca stared off at the tech, the rest of the girl's watched various things. Stacie's eyes were on the drummer. Cynthia Rose's were on Stacie. Chloe watched the group of people dancing. Jessica and Ashley were currently at the bar getting drinks a round of mixed drinks for the girls. Fat Amy had her eyes glued to her phone, probably talking to Bumper.
It was Lilly who noticed when a handful of tall, perfectly sculpted Germans walked in.
"Guys it's Das Sound Machine." She said in her barely audible voice. With the music being so loud and the girls all focusing on other things, none of them heard her and so,
"Well if it isn't the Bella's?" The tall muscular male lead stated. "Are we culturing ourselves in European nightlife?" He said focusing his attention on Beca and Chloe.
The girls pretty much took it as a rhetorical question because it was quite obvious that that is in fact what they were doing.
"Well duh." Chloe retorted. "It seems as if we think alike, however." She looked the man up and down, taking in the fact that the group was all color coordinated again. Of course, it was in black.
"Except for the fact that we all don't wear the same color that makes us look all chiseled and mysterious!" Beca blurted. Here comes that stupid shit she says when these people are around. "Seriously? How do so many people make the most dull color look good?" She half said to Chloe, half to Pieter and Kommissar who were naturally in front of the rest of them.
Pieter gave a small chuckle before he responded, "Actually, we are here to perform." He pointed to the sign outside the door. "åbent ydeevne nat." he recited, "I am sure that none of you know that that means, basically, open-mic night, as you Americans call it."
Most of the girls didn't even know what language they spoke in this country, let alone what the words meant. They also just thought open-mic night was a thing the US did so they didn't have to hire performers but instead would allow people to perform in hopes that someone would hear them and liked their sound. This was barely ever the case.
"You guys should sing." He said, "It seems you do much better without rehearsal… or blankets that hang from the ceiling." He looked to Fat Amy and chuckled, which was followed by more chuckles from the group behind him.
"And if that's not enough for you, they give a free round of drinks to the winner at the end of the night." One of the members said from being the leads. "That's why most of us are here." He slapped the guys arm beside him, which didn't even move a millimeter, it was so toned.
Chloe looked to Beca, "Do you want to?" her eyes said. Beca was a little hesitant. They hadn't heard anybody perform anything in English yet and she felt like they were gonna look stupid because they didn't know anything in Danish.
"Yeah, and we will even increase the pay." Kommissar jumped in. "If you win, which, as we have seen at the Riff-Off, you will not, we will buy you another round of whatever you want."
"And if you win?" Fat Amy chimed in from behind Chloe.
Kommissar looked to Pieter and back to Amy. They both had an evil smile on their face. "If we win, you trade us time positions for the rehearsal room at the hotel."
"You're at the same hotel as us?" Beca came out of nowhere.
"Actually," Kommissar took a step forward. "We are on the same floor as you. We asked the front desk so we could politely ask you to move your time position, but we will just take it from you instead." She smiled to Beca who had started turning a little pinker than she started out as.
"Well, you can take your beautiful, Danish-reading, eyes and go and see the bartender about opening a tab… for when you have to pay for our drinks. Yeah." Her insults were not getting any better in the presence of the German goddess.
"We shall see about that." She smiled and walked away, her herd of goats following at her heel.
"Welp, I guess we're doing this thing." Chloe said, looking a little nervous. "Beca, I don't think these people know English." She said looking around the bar.
"Yes, I thought of that. But they do have the same music we do. Just because they don't know the words, doesn't mean it can't sound good." Beca replied trying to talk herself in to this as well.
"Ok, I trust you Beca. Now, let's go get on the set list."
Hey everyone! Sorry to all the Bechloe fans (not that it's over or anything) but I needed to progress the story line a bit. I'll have the next part of the fic up in the next couple days, promise. Hope you guys are enjoying it... send me hate mail if you would like... or love mail? I don't know what the opposition would be lol