A/N: time jump(s) ahead!
When Beca asked Ashley about college seven months ago, she didn't think she meant college in another country. Honestly, she was kind of hoping she could (somehow, having dropped out of high school in her junior year) get into UCLA, but it turns out she didn't actually like how they structured college in America anyway. Tristan had been the one to suggest she look at something elsewhere, as his best friend from high school had ended up at a college in Germany and loved it.
Beca was not going to Germany (she was bad enough at conversing in English, let alone having to learn a whole new language to study and converse in), but as she folded the final documents she'd had to collect and put them in the envelopes with her applications, she couldn't help bouncing on her toes a little in a combination of nerves and excitement. She now had four complete applications to colleges in Australia, and all she had to do was mail them off and wait for a response. The admissions staff had told her it'd be at least two months – December – before she heard anything back, but at least she had a final small-venue tour with Seven Keys to pass that time.
Two hours later, Beca slid the oversized envelopes into the post box outside the LAX International terminal, before meeting Chris, Dylan and their manager inside to fly to Toronto.
Toronto was bloody cold.
Okay, so Chloe had settled into the city as easily as she possibly could have after arriving here in late August. She loved her classes, the campus, all the things to do, the dorm she was living in. Most importantly, she loved the group of friends she'd made. They were making her time living in an entirely foreign city feel like home. But it was October, so it should have been autumn, and it was snowing. She knew what she was getting herself in to with Canada, but regardless, it was cold.
Quickly working out that the closest Starbucks to spend the two hours she had between lectures in was actually the one just off campus, Chloe changed direction and started trudging towards it through the white slush starting to pile on the sidewalk. Honestly, she hadn't really minded the snow before today, but today was actually more sleet than anything and it was gross and cold and she needed caffeine and sugar to deal with it.
Ten minutes later, Chloe had a caramel latte and an hour and fifty minutes still to kill, so she navigated the busy café to find somewhere to sit. She manages to grab a seat at a two-person table in the back corner, thanking the god of café spaces (she wasn't quite sure who that was, none of her classes had identified a culture with such a god just yet) as she watches others get increasingly frustrated as they struggle to find somewhere themselves. She really needs to respond to some messages she's got over the last couple of days from her friends in Australia, though, so she pauses her people-watching and pulls out her phone. She's partway through typing out a (mostly meme-filled) message to Amy when she hears a hesitant voice beside her and looks up.
"Any chance you'd be okay with a stranger sharing that table?" The small girl, definitely about Chloe's age, asks, and Chloe hopes that the sudden thundering of her heart when she recognises her isn't audible to anyone but herself.
"Oh, sure, go ahead," she answers quickly, and the girl thanks her before pulling out the spare seat and sliding into it, promptly looking down at the table away from Chloe as she sips at her drink. Chloe's eyes don't leave her, though, and she must sense it, because it's not long before she looks back up.
"Yeah?"
"Sorry, I just swear you look like the lead singer from a band I like. Seven Keys," Chloe explains, shrugging and trying to brush off her staring when she notices the mildly fearful look on the girl's face.
"Oh, yeah. That's me. Beca Mitchell," Beca responds with a sheepish smile, never sure how to respond when someone recognises her. As the redhead across from her smiles wildly in response, a wave of recognition moves through her own mind. "Wait… I feel like I've seen you before somewhere too?"
"I definitely haven't met you before, I swear I saw you at Disney in California once but I didn't say anyth-"
"Wait, was this like January last year at a breakfast place in Main Street?" Beca cuts her off, her mind working faster than she can keep up with it.
"Yeah, actually, why?" Chloe tilts her head as if to emphasise her question.
"That's where I remember you from! I knew I'd seen you before," Beca replies, and Chloe laughs, Beca making a mental note that her laugh matches the brightness of her hair. If Beca is the raincloud she always refers to herself as, this girl is definitely sunshine.
"I'm Chloe. Why'd you remember me?" Chloe asks, and Beca goes to refuse the question, because this girl is a total stranger so why on earth would she- but she supposes she'll have to talk to random strangers if she's moving countries next year, so maybe she should practice?
"I don't know, probably your hair," Beca finally answers, realising she's not totally sure herself, but the striking red hair definitely had to be part of it. "So, you live in Toronto?"
"Nope, doing an exchange semester at the university here. I'm from Sydney," Chloe answers, "what brings you to Toronto?"
"I thought I noticed an accent. And, um, we're doing a show Friday night."
"Oh, yeah, sold out, didn't it? That'd be pretty cool," Chloe answers.
"I guess so, yeah," Beca shrugs, "are you going?"
"Didn't hear about it until after it was sold out, so nope."
"Oh, that sucks," Beca pauses for a moment, "I mean, that came out way too conceited, but like-"
"Don't worry, it does kind of suck, I like your music and I doubt I'll ever see you guys perform back in Australia. But hey, you sat with me in a starbucks, so that's cool too," Chloe reassures her, "not that I'm going to go and be all weird about meeting you-"
"It's fine, you're not being weird," Beca takes her turn to reassure Chloe, before quickly pulling out her phone and throwing a text to her manager as she feels Chloe watching her, intrigued. "I could maybe get you some tickets, like I can't promise anything until my manager replies, but I can usually get some…"
"You don't need to do that, it's totally fine," Chloe replies quickly, feeling a little guilty as she watches Beca look back and type something else on her phone.
"No, consider it thanks for letting me sit here. I can get three tickets, I don't know if there's anyone you want to go with…" Beca trails off
"I've got a couple friends from my dorm here that'd be keen," Chloe answers carefully, and Beca nods.
"Could I have your number so I can get them sent through to you?"
"Could you repeat that about five times slower, Chloe?" Aubrey asks when Chloe starts their facetime call later that evening with a rush of excited sentences that Aubrey evidently cannot piece together.
"Sorry, I'm excited. I had coffee with Beca Mitchell today," Chloe answers, trying to look serious, although she can feel her cheeks burning so she's either blushing or smiling too hard. Probably both.
"I need way more detail than that," Aubrey grins, and Chloe laughs before she starts to explain how Beca ended up sitting at the table with her.
"…and she gave me tickets to her show, I'm taking a couple of the girls I know from here – Katie and Jasmine, I told you about them – and then we just kept talking about everything. Like, music, definitely, but a bunch of others things too, and she was actually really nice to talk to and we were talking for like two hours and I missed half of a lecture because I got distracted by her…"
"Wait, she made you miss a lecture? I don't think I like her anymore," Aubrey interrupts, and Chloe raises her eyebrows.
"No, she was super apologetic, it was totally my fault. Are you not going to comment on the fact that I totally have tickets to see my favourite band that I got for free from the lead singer that I have a ridiculous crush on?"
"You're still on that crush thing, are you?"
"I mean, yeah… She's so small and cute in real life! And I always thought maybe if I met her it'd be weird and the crush would disappear but it wasn't the slightest bit weird and she was super nice and-" Chloe stops abruptly, taking a moment before she looks straight at the camera on her phone. "Is this bad?"
"I mean, if you're never going to talk to her again, maybe a little," Aubrey replies carefully, "but are you ever going to talk to her again? Did she seem interested in anything?"
"I mean, I'm pretty sure she's straight, Aubs."
"Is she still with that dude we saw her with at Disneyland?"
"She mentioned that they'd broken up, actually. Just in passing. It must have been a while ago, I hadn't seen him on her Instagram…" Chloe looks off to the side, seeming to get lost in some other train of thought.
"Chloe?" Aubrey drags her attention back, "see if she tries to contact you around the show, but please don't read into anything too much. She might just be being a nice person."
"I know, I don't think it's anything more. It was just a nice couple of hours. Besides, she lives in America and our lives have nothing in common, nothing would ever work anyway."
Of course, Katie and Jasmine are – much like Chloe – the type that get to a concert early to try and get as close to the front as possible, and it works: the three girls end up only one row of people away from the barrier below the stage. It's cool, except Chloe feels awkward staring at Beca even though that's totally what you're meant to do at a concert. She hopes.
The first eye contact between them is awkward, because evidently this venue is just small enough that Beca can make out individual faces in the crowd and Chloe isn't quite sure how to react. She swears Beca winks at her the second time, so she grins at her the third time. She doesn't want to mess with her too much while she's on stage, but the wink gave her way too much confidence. Still, when she notices Beca mess up one of the words in the next line she sings, Chloe starts trying her hardest to look away from her at least occasionally.
There's a short break partway through their performance, and because it's a small enough venue that weaving through the crowd isn't impossible, Jasmine goes to get a water while Chloe and Katie wait, still near the front of the crowd.
"So you literally met the lead singer to get these? Did you ask for them?" Katie asks, although not too loudly.
"Yeah, didn't ask though. She offered first," Chloe answers, knowing she's smiling a little too much at the memory, and Katie nods.
"You totally have a thing for her, don't you?"
"Oh, definitely, but it's silly and I'm sure I probably won't even talk to her again," Chloe answers, and Katie shrugs as they move on to other topics.
It's only a couple of minutes later, though, that Chloe's text tone goes off and she lifts up her phone to see she wasn't right about the not talking thing in the slightest.
"She asked me if I wanted to hang out after…" Chloe tells Katie, and it takes a moment before her friend realises who she's talking about and grabs Chloe's shoulders.
"Oh my god, dude, really? Are you going to? What did she say exactly? What are you going to reply?"
"I don't know! I don't want to get my hopes up but she's really nice… Read it," Chloe turns the phone to Katie.
Beca points out a section of the monitor backstage during the only interval in the show where they actually had time to pause, her band mates listening intently. They were getting on better now that they all knew they were approaching the end of their run, and Beca needed advice, after that little incident where she couldn't help looking at Chloe in the audience, again, and forgot what she was meant to be singing.
"That girl with the red hair… Chloe. She's the one I got tickets for, the girl I met at Starbucks," she explains, going to continue when Dylan interrupts her.
"You like her?"
"No! I'm not- that's not-" Beca responds, instinctively, met with disbelieving looks from both of them, and Tristan when she glanced over to where he was sitting across the room. "I might," she relents.
Beca did not want to think too much in to that statement while she was partway through a show, because she had never considered the possibility of having a crush on a girl before, but clearly something was going on…
"Does she want to see you?" Chris asks, and Beca shrugs, earning yet another pointed stare from the others. "Okay, fine, she said it'd be nice if we could catch up again," Beca relents, "but I don't know how to arrange that while we're performing"
"Text her now? You've got like three minutes before we have to head back out," Chris nudges her over towards Tristan, who's got her phone, and Beca sighs, reluctantly walking over to her brother and holding her hand out for the phone, leaving the others to go back to spending the break in their own ways.
"Ask her back to your hotel," Tristan tells Beca when she takes her phone, but she quickly shakes her head.
"Wrong implication. I just want to hang out with her."
"Sure? Because it seems like you want to have-"
"Tristan!" Beca cuts him off, "I'm not talking about this with you."
It takes her ten seconds too long to work out exactly what she's texting Chloe, but she finally settles on 'Want to hang out backstage after? Side door to the right of the stage if you do', hoping it's casual enough. She sends the message and races back to perform, only a tiny bit late.
