Barden's Passion Play

A Bechloe Fanfiction

Part 2: Think of Me

Day one of rehearsals was tense. The leading roles paired up for duets and practiced songs with the guidance of Ms. Tripenny. Aubrey sang "Think of Me" about fifty times, and actually made the song sound really good, so she had to be instructed to over-sing the lyrics instead in order to make the role of Carlotta more believable. Amy and Meg worked together to ensure they were hitting their notes, and Jesse and Benji free-versed their numbers together by the door.

But the lead Treblemaker couldn't get keep his eyes off of Beca Mitchell. She was standing center-stage with Chloe Beale, wearing jeans and Aztec-stripe-print sweater. She had her hair pulled back into a long dark braid and she was intensely focused on the redhead, who was currently singing her "Music of the Night".

"Benj," Jesse said, and pushed his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants. "Tell me why I'm not as excited about Chloe being the Phantom as everyone else?"

Benji, who had been belting out his few musical lines as Piangi, stopped mid lyric and looked at his best friend. "Well," he said, "You're jealous."

"Jealous?" Jesse tilted his head to one side. "You think that's what it is? I"m jealous that Chloe gets to kiss her?"

"Yeah. Probably. I mean that's how it goes when a finds out his girl is gonna kiss another girl. He either gets excited, or he gets jealous. You're not excited.. So. You're jealous."

"Maybe," the other guy nodded. "You're right. I know you are. I mean, she isn't even my girl. I'm just really into her. I mean she's standing over there wearing the most hipster outfit of her life and I'm just drooling over the way her hair lays on yher back, and her cheeks get a little rounder when she grins. It's bad, man."

Meanwhile, Beca was entranced. But then, she always felt that way when Chloe sang to her. Honestly, where was no one on the Earth that Beca would rather listen to. It was actually kind of overwhelming. Just listening to the redhead's voice handle the Phantom's songs made Beca forget about everything else.

Life had gotten pretty confusing lately. Since the cast-list had been posted, the brunette had been flustered. She knew that any other person would have handled the news completely normal. Yeah, some of the guys high-fived, but that was to be expected. But, Chloe was Beca's best friend. So why was it awkward? Why was it driving her kind of crazy to think about the way it would feel to have Chloe's hands on her during the Don Juan scene?

Chloe sang the final words of the song she was rehearsing and then she ran her hands through her auburn curls. "Bec," she said, "You alright?" She was aware that her best friend had been kind of spacey lately, and she couldn't begin to imagine why. Or, maybe she could. Things had been sort of weird since the day the roles were revealed. It seemed that the decision to cast the Phantom as a female had been a pretty big shocker for everyone, including Beca. But, ultimately, it was up to her. She'd been the one to convince the drama department to allow them to put on the play, and so if she really didn't want Chloe to play Erik's role, she could have said something. Only she didn't.

"Hmm?" Beca's eyes locked into Chloe's. "Yeah. Of course I am. Why?"

It was kind of obvious that something was up, but if Beca didn't want to talk about it, Chloe wasn't going to make her. But, the truth was, Chloe was on edge too. Playing the Phantom had seemed like a great idea before she actually landed the role. But now she was actually feeling anxious. She was a confident, self-actualized person, but Beca made her lose her footing. It was her last semester, and she had so many questions about the younger girl that she needed answered. Landing the leading male role in the play alongside Beca was the only way she could think of to get any of the questions answered. Even still, she wasn't exactly ready to admit her true intentions.

"I was just worried, Sweetie," she reached forward and squeezed Beca's hand. "Why don't you sing to me now, hmm?"

"Worried?" Beca couldn't deny that her pulse increased when the other girl took her hand, but she pretended like it wasn't a big deal anyway. "Why worried?"

"Well. Honestly, I just wanted to make sure that you're okay with this. With me playing the Phantom, I mean."

If the DJ was going to be absolutely honest, she wasn't really okay with it. But, it wasn't because the idea of kissing Chloe freaked her out. Well not really. It was because she wasn't exactly sure what kissing her friend would do to their friendship. She'd thought about it before. Chloe had really perfect lips, and the girl always smelled so nice and Beca felt so comfortable with her, and sometimes, when the redhead was talking to her, and always when she was singing to her, she kinda just wanted to reach forward, put her hands on either side of her jaws and bring her forward into a kiss. She wanted to run the tip of her tongue along the girl's bottom lip. And THAT freaked her out. But none of that was Chloe's fault, and it was actually really cool that the girl had thought to try out for a male role and change the dynamics of the play. There was no way that she was going to ruin that by being insecure. "I think you'll be a great Phantom," she finally said, and gave her friend a big smile. "I mean, I'd listen to you sing fucking Home on the Range, or something. So. You're already the best Phantom I've already heard."

The redhead couldn't help but shine when Beca complimented her. It was just unavoidable. "Thank you," she said. "Now sing to me?"

When rehearsals were over, Jesse waited for Beca. He got her bag from the floor where she'd sat it and stood with it on his shoulder. When she crossed the room to meet him, a huge grin spread across his face.

"Hey Bec," he said.

She smiled back. Jesse really was a sweet guy, and he obviously cared about her. There was no reason why she couldn't give him the attention he wanted. She liked the attention he gave her, so returning it was only nice. Right? "Hey Jesse," she said. "You heading back to your dorm?"

He shook his head. "Actually, I had another idea. You hungry?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Are you?"

"I could eat," he grinned again and then he reached for her hand and she let him link their fingers together. "How about I take you out for dinner?"

It was a nice night. It was still chilly out and so Beca pulled her coat back on and stayed a little closer to Jesse than normal just for the body heat. Anyway, he did all the right things; he pulled her chair out for her and complimented her like a dozen times. Then, when the bill came, he refused to let her pay, even though she'd ordered two appetizers as her meal, and an icecream cookie brownie and a huge Coke.

When they got up from the table, he put her hand on the small of her back as they left and then held the door of the restaurant open for her to exit, and then the door to the passenger side of his car open so she could get in. Then, once he was in, and the heat was on and the car was warming up, and he was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, he turned to her and said, "Listen, Bec, I wanna talk to you about something."

The brunette was cold, and kind of absent-minded. Well, really, her thoughts were just elsewhere. She could have sworn that when she left earlier, she saw Chloe sulking from the stage where she was talking to Aubrey. Things were sort of strange between them, and she knew the redhead could sense it too. However, there really was nothing she could do about it. She knew that with her playing Christine and Chloe playing the Phantom, things would be sort of tense between them, but it was a wonderful opportunity and the tension would just have to work its way out by itself. Beca blew hot air into her cupped hands to warm them, and then shook her head to bring herself back into focus. It really wasn't fair that she'd spent the entire evening mentally elsewhere when Jesse had been trying so hard to make everything perfect. "Yeah, okay. Shoot," she said, trying to maintain a casual tone and not give herself away.

He was smiling anyway, or at least looking totally chipper. "So we've been doing this date thing for a while, right?"

"This date thing?" Beca looked at him curiously. She went out to eat with him occasionally, and sure, they flirted a little here and there, but besides the kiss on the cheek earlier and hand holding before dinner, things were pretty neutral.

"Yeah," he continued. "Or I mean we've gone on a few. I think. At least that's what I think they are." He rubbed the back of his neck. She could tell he was nervous. "Anyway. I like you Beca. And I like going out with you. And I was wondering..." He paused, tried to read her expression before continuing.

"You we're wondering...?"

"Well maybe we could make it.. You know... Official?"

The DJ was kind of stunned. She had never thought that Jesse would actually go so far as to ask her out. She didn't know what to say. "Um," she blinked a couple of times. "Are you asking me out?"

He reached over, and took her hand, rubbed her knuckles with his chilly thumb. "Yeah. Kind of."

Beca took a deep breath, looked into his dark eyes, and then leaned forward and kissed his lips lightly. "Can you give me a little time to think about it?" She asked, pulling back to look again into his face. "It's just a big question, you know?"

Jesse's heart was pounding. Kissing Beca felt so right. He just wanted to bring her face back to his and kiss her again and again and again. But of course, he didn't. It felt so right to him to be with her, and if she needed time then he wanted to give her time. So he nodded, and stroked her jaw with his right hand. "Yeah, of course," he said. "Anything you need.