Hey, I'm back! Same as last time, no idea what I'm doing, and I do not own pitch perfect, as much as that would fill my broken little heart. Reviews appreciated! (I should really move this along quicker, sorry that I'm dragging this out, I'll try to next time)
Five people occupied the cramped hotel room, dimly lit by the single lightbulb overhead. There was one man, who was standing by the door to the bathroom, his hands shoved in his pockets. He was planning on just coming back to his tiny room to consume his take out, which was currently sitting in a plastic bag by his feet, but had been shocked when opening the door and finding 3 strangers standing around. He had cast a confused glance to his roommate, who had told him to 'relax'. Which had consequently, made him a lot less relaxed.
The tallest of the girls, and, also, the smallest, was fiddling nervously with her shirt sleeve, her eyes never leaving the tiny woman across from her. She sat on the edge of the bed beside a redhead, who, upon seeing her so distraught, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. The smallest was a brunette, who was playing with a silver cigarette lighter, the small flame flickering upwards for a few seconds before being diminished by the release of the owners thumb. The last, a tall blond, looked like she was about to burst in anger as she passed her distressed glare between every person in the room, her moss green eyes lingering on the small brunette girl who was slumped lazily on a chair in the corner of the room. She herself was stood tightly and rigidly by the exit. It wasn't very clear if she was there, ready to run at any point, or to stop others from fleeing the scene.
Soon, the tension in the air was suffocatingly high in the early evening warmth, a slight breeze floating in from the open sliding doors, that lead to a balcony overlooking the street below, a few neighbouring rooftops, and not much else.
"Can someone please tell me what's going on!" The blond finally exclaimed, her back tense and her fists clenched into tight balls. Everyone jumped slightly at her sharp tone cutting through the silence like a knife, apart from the girl that continued to fiddle with the lighter. Ironic, as the question was mostly aimed at her.
"Aubrey, calm down." The redhead had stood, approaching her stiff friend slowly.
"I can't, Chloe! You've stuck me in this room with two complete strangers and you've said nothing about it!" Her voice was still rise, and she was gesturing wildly to Beca and Jesse, who exchanged looks at the behaviour or the blond.
"Okay, okay, maybe your right. Aubrey, this is Beca Mitchell." Chloe sighed, looking towards the brunette on the bed with a soft smile.
"That hardly helps, Chloe."
"No, but, seriously, Becs, who are these people?" Now it was the young man's turn to speak, his question directed to Beca. Slowly, and with a discomforted grunt, she slipped the light back into her pocket and answered in a lazy tone.
"These people are gonna help us find Benji, we're gonna help them find the medallion."
"Can we trust them?"
"I'd like to think so." Beca shrugged, and that seemed enough fro Jesse, for now he was smiling again.
"Cool." The three other girls looked at the pair in shock, clearly astounded at how relaxed they were with the new development in there plan. The brown haired man had no trouble trusting his friend, and, therefore, no trouble trusting these three strangers. The quick, cool exchange seemed to bring the tension in the room down a lot, and, for the first time since she had arrived, the brunette sat on the bed looked like she had begun breathing again.
"Oh... I guess I'm good with this. I'm Emily, by the way." Emile introduced herself with a small smile and a slight wave of her hand. The two other friends returned the gesture, Beca with a slight pull of her lips on the left side and Jesse with a full on goofy grin. Chloe could barely hold back a chuckle. It was astounding that these two majorly contrasting personalities could ever come together to from a friendship. From what she had seen so far of the two, they got along well, but were different in every possible way. It was calming, sort of, maybe even refreshing to see something so bright and positive in this horrible world of there's.
"Well, this is Aubrey. She helped me search for all the information I have and helped me wherever she could. She's one of my best friends and I couldn't have done any of this without her. She's really important to me." Chloe grinned at Aubrey, who couldn't help but return the smile.
"I suppose that this is in our best interest." Aubrey sighed, nodding curtly at Beca and Jesse in greeting.
"Becs, aren't you going to introduce me?" Jesse poked her shoulder.
"Oh, sure. Everybody this is my manservant, douchebag. He's a raging alcoholic and he hasn't had a bath in three years so don't get too close." Beca smirked, receiving a small punch in the arm from 'douchebag', "Ow! See, I told you!"
"Alright, you two, enough fooling around. We're leaving now but meet us tomorrow in the lobby, 8:00 AM sharp. Don't you dare be late." Aubrey warned with narrowed eyes, striding out of the room only a moment later. With apologetic smiles, and a quick wave goodbye, her other two friends exited after her.
It was 8:10 AM when frantic knocking could be heard, firm and fast, against the door of Beca and Jesse's cramped hotel room. The brunette moaned lazily as she was ripped from her pleasant slumber, and shoved into the harsh reality of day. She thought, for a moment, that is she merely ignored the insistent knocking, the person behind the door would get the hint and leave soon enough. She was wrong. With a loud, inhuman-like groan, she pulled herself from under her warm sheets and dragged her feet to open the door.
Relying on Jesse to answer it would have ended miserably, considering the brunette boy's deep sleeping habits. Seriously, she would need to physically jump on him in order to even slightly drag him from his sleep. Something that, although entertaining on some occasions, was rather a nuisance in situations such as this.
The door flung open abruptly, and Beca, squinting slightly with a furrowed brow, glared at the tall blond who returned the harsh look all too easily. One might find it easy to assume that she had already been wearing the unpleasant look.
"What?" Beca deadpanned, clearly unhappy to be disturbed.
"You were supposed to meet us at 8:00." Aubrey snapped
"Oh shit, yeah, what time is it now?" Beca replied, but clearly not that bothered by disappointing the girl.
"8:10. Do you not have a watch?"
"No. I have a phone." The girl offered lamely, with a slight shrug. Unimpressed, Aubrey huffed in annoyance, her fists clenching.
"Just hurry up and get ready or we're leaving with out you."
"Morning, Beca!" A cheery voice called and the brunette poked her head out to see a fast approaching Chloe coming up behind her blond friend. In her hand, she clutched a tray of coffee's, quickly leaning over Aubrey's shoulder to deposit one in Beca's hands, "didn't know what you liked, so just got you black."
Surprised, Beca blinked down at the takeaway paper cup in her hand, feeling the heat radiating off of it pleasantly. The smell, surprisingly nice for hotel coffee, drifted up her voice alluringly. Beca was reminded once more of how much she loved coffee and should definitely appreciate the hot beverage a lot more. This girl, this almost stranger, whom she had literally only met in person the other day, had just spent her own money to get her a coffee. Not that she was complaining but the gesture was just so... Nice.
"Um... Uh... No, that's fine... Thanks." Beca commented lamely, looking up to meet the gorgeous eyes of the grinning ginger once more and, like every time before, having the breath practically knocked out of her thanks to the sheer colour. That had to get old soon, because, seriously, Beca really liked breathing.
"No problem," She smiled sweetly, then added "cute pyjamas," with a wink.
Looking down, the professor really hoped her face wasn't burning as red hot as it felt like right now. The short woman had completely forgotten about her sleeping outfit that consisted of a white baggy shirt with 'I'll be your breakfast bagel' printed across (and there was totally not a picture of a kawaii bagel winking underneath), accompanied by a pair of very fashionable spiderman shorts.
"Um... Thanks. Again. Ok, bye." With that the history teacher slammed the door shut. Chloe grinned wildly, but soon sipped innocently at her caramel latte. Aubrey raised an eyebrow at her redheaded friend.
"What?" The ginger fought to keep the smirk off her face, but soon let it slip on with a giggle, "She's cute!"
Twenty minutes later - much to Aubrey's dismay - Aubrey, Emily and Chloe were occupying the small set of sofa's in the corner of the lobby, just as the two professors stumbled from the elevator, a piece of toast hanging from Jesse's mouth and the back pocket of Beca's denim shorts stuffed with tiny nutella sachet's after their quick stop at the free breakfast buffet on the way down.
"Hey guys!" Jesse called cheerily, hopping as he tried to do up his left shoe lace. Aubrey stood quickly, throwing her bag over her shoulder and rolling her eyes at the two of them.
"Well, it's about time! Come on, we are already so behind!" She ordered, already making her way towards the door, where the harsh sunlight streamed in, lighting up the whole room.
"Dude, does she ever stop?" Beca whined to no one in particular, tying the sleeves of her plaid short loosely around her waist, in a tiny effort too look somewhat acceptable for the outside. Chloe was right there beside her, however, answering her question with a little chuckle.
"That's just Aubrey. She likes schedules."
As the other four trailed behind a leading Aubrey, Beca took a moment to appreciate the redheads attention to her outfit. Similar to her, she had on a pair of high-waisted, light, denim shorts, but instead of a black top which she tucked in, the woman had let her canary yellow vest hang loose over the top. Paired with some circular white sunglasses perches atop her head, and a small brown shoulder bag which she gripped the strap of loosely, and she looked like she had just jumped out of some sort of magazine. The brunette was in silent awe of how damn perfect this girl could look when she had, apparently, gotten up before 8:00.
"You know, you're pyjama's really were cute." Chloe piped up suddenly, making Beca snap back to reality and groan at the comment.
"Oh god, please shut up."
"I'm serious!" The redhead giggle, nudging her slightly with her shoulder, "you looked down right adorable."
And Beca was - was - going to blush. She could feel it, but she forced down when she remembered who she was. Beca effin Mitchell. She was the one who blushed in there scenarios.
"Bet you look cute in your pyjamas." Beca fired back. Nice.
"Oh, you have no idea." Chloe smirked with a wink. Fuck.
The five of them squeezed into the tiny rented convertible car, Aubrey at the steering wheel, Emily in the passenger seat, and Chloe accompanying Jesse and Beca in the back. There was, of course, come grumbling from the short brunette, because being squished against a car door and a gorgeous brunette was not how she was planning on spending her time, but, hey. After a few attempts, the car sputtered to life and Beca was pretty sure it was going to blow up and they were all going to die. Which wouldn't have been a great conclusion to the epic tale of how she followed the trail of her missing best friend halfway around the world.
The young professor expected the ride to be quiet and awkward, the group having not had a proper conversation before now, but Emily's ecstatic personality that made her laugh at everything, mixed with Jesse's stupid jokes and too vast knowledge of movies, meant the drive was easily casual. It was as if they had all been friends for years, and the upbeat environment made Beca a lot more comfortable with being stuck in this car with Chloe practically on her lap.
They were already passed the city walls now, venturing deep into the desert, and Beca would have been nervous for their destination and if they were ever going to make it back, were it not for Aubrey confidence behind the wheel. It occurred to her that she and Jesse had no idea what they were going to do, had it not been for these three girls. What was there plan, even? Walk around asking random people questions? Stroll aimlessly out into the desert and most likely die? Wow, she was more of an idiot than she realised.
It was at this point that she realised it might be a good idea to actually read into Benji's book. So, hesitantly, she retrieved it from her backpack and began leafing through pages. She really wasn't expecting Chloe to lean incredibly close to her face in order to study along with her. In surprise, she turned her head, coming face to face with the redhead.
"Oh, sorry, you don't mind if I read some do you?" She asked, and Beca was unsure if she just didn't care, or was unfazed by their close proximity.
"Y-yeah, that's fine, go for it." She mumbled, quickly facing back to the pages. Oh god this girl was going to be the death of her.
