"You're listening to ninety-five seven WBUJ, music for the independent mind."
Beca had entered the radio station and rounded the corner. She quickly scanned the dimly lit room and was impressed by the massive collection of CDs and vinyls that were shelfed arbitrarily. Her eyes took a long moment to admire a large wooden turntable at the far end of the room; it was just like the kind she always wanted but decided against buying because it didn't suit her technical needs as a musician.
She turned to her right and noticed the glass booth- rather, she noticed all the beautiful musical equipment in the booth. She practically drooled at all the knobs and dials and the various computer monitors displaying the Ableton logo; she had never gotten the opportunity to use the over five hundred dollar program before and began to imagine all the music she could manipulate with that resource. It was Beca's wet dream.
Beca noticed the older man with his hands folded behind his head in a computer chair barely a second before he saw her, too. He got up and made his way toward her. Leaning out of the booth's doorway with one eyebrow cocked, he asked, "Have you been standing there long?" It was then that Beca realized how much of a creep she must've looked like, staring through the glass, agape and awestruck.
"No, I just got here, I was just standing here looking at all the..." The disinterested man with cropped blond hair spun around and went back into the booth to get something. Beca made to follow after him, yearning to be closer to the equipment.
"No freshmen allowed in the booth," he said brusquely. Beca obediently side-stepped to exit the booth and allow him to walk past her. "Anyway, I'm Luke, station manager. You must be Becky the intern." he said.
"Uh, well it's actually B-"
A new voice interrupted her.
"Hey man, wassup? I'm Jesse." Beca turned to see a strangely familiar face approaching. She didn't remember where she saw that face before, but she registered that she should be concerned, or at least wary. Or amused?
"You're late," Luke said. Jesse gave an apology, which Luke was very disinterested in hearing. He was even more disinterested in the bout that took place between Jesse and Beca about whether or not they knew each other. Beca did start to remember him as the passionate jokester singer she saw her first day at BU, but denied that she knew him as well as he was letting on. Luke's mouth flattened as he lead the bickering freshmen toward a table of disorganized CDs. "Right, you two can figure it all out while you stack CDs." He saw Beca look uneasily at Jesse, and Jesse smirk mischievously back at her. "Now you guys are going to be spending a lot of downtime together. Please, just no sex on the desk." He thrummed his fingers on the wooden tabletop. "It's been done before," he said over his shoulder. Within seconds he left Beca and the boy named Jesse alone with the clutter of disks and awkwardness that only seemed to be apparent to Beca. Giving Jesse a quick look, she registered that he was indeed a handsome guy but couldn't help but cringe at the idea of him bending her over that desk.
Jesse watched Beca move to the other side of the table with a constant smile on his face. "I do know you, though. I know because I was singing to you when you were in a taxi." He paused to see Beca's reaction. Her face conveyed only disinterest while she remained silent. "Wait, is your dad a taxi driver?" Jesse pushed on enthusiastically. He decided he was going to make this girl talk, one way or another; he'd just give her some time to warm up to him.
Beca began boredly dropping CDs into more orderly stacks. After a long stretch of silence and a sigh, she muttered, "This sucks. I wanted to play music." Beca had never wanted to go to college, especially the one her dad worked at, though the idea of making music and playing it on a radio station made the thought bearable- more than that, she kind of looked forward to getting some kind of formal musical experience before making her move to L.A. Now she wasn't even allowed in the booth where all the saliva-inducing machinery was; the fact that she was saddled with the monotonous task of stacking CDs just salted her wounds.
Jesse internally celebrated his tiny victory of getting the brunette to talk to him, even if it was only a complaint. He took the opportunity to jest. "Oh, not me. I'm here for one reason only: I really love stacking CDs." He met her eyes with a playfully innocent smile that etched dimples in his jowls. Beca just tilted her head down and continued stacking CDs.
"So what's your deal, anyway?" Jesse ventured. The brown-haired boy made his way behind a shelf to examine its collection of disks while he spoke to her. "Are you one of those girls who's all dark and mysterious? And one day she takes off her glasses and her amazingly scary ear-spike..." Beca's jaw stiffened. She could tell that Jesse was trying to be an innocent comedian, but she had heard about her "scary ear-spike" throughout her high school career and didn't come to college to hear about it any more. Jesse didn't notice Beca's annoyance, so he continued. "... and you realize that, y'know, she was beautiful the whole time?"
Is he mocking me? Beca asked herself. "I don't wear glasses," she said simply.
"Then you're halfway there."
She looked up at him. His smile was genuine, if not a bit smug. Okay, he's not an ass, she admitted. She didn't have a reply to his comment, so he changed the subject before the silence could drag on.
"So what kind of music are you into?"
Beca smirked. "You sure you're ready for that answer? It's never a short one."
"Hit me with your best shot," he said in a voice a half octave higher, much to the brunette girl's amusement.
"Is that a Pat Benatar reference?" Beca was fully grinning now.
"Only if you like Pat Benatar."
Beca chuckled brightly. "I do."
"Then yeah, it was a Pat Benatar reference."
A/N: Thanks for reading. Review, pretty please :) It keeps me motivated and makes me update faster.
Oh, and if you have any questions about the story (like, 'Where's it going? What's the next chapter going to be about? When are we gonna get some Bechloe up in this bitch?' check out my ff-net profile for the link to my tumblr for fanfiction, where you can ask me.
But before I sign off I will let you know that the next chapter will include singing Titanium in the shower ;)
Have a good day everyone.
Oh, PS: First time I published it the paragraphs didn't work out, so I had to space them out like this. Sorry if the format looks annoying.