Chapter Four:
So it had been a dream. She stared at the other side of the bed and couldn't help but to think...of course it was. Like…of course it fucking was. That had literally been too good to be true. Thinking for even a moment that there had been this super hot redhead who was kind of into her, had taught her how to kiss and then stayed up all night talking with her...how had she even fallen for that? Movie scenes like that didn't happen to her in real life and that wasn't her being grumpy or pessimistic, that was just the truth.
Plus, women didn't just appear. Even ones like that...like Red. Especially one's like that.
She touched her lips, ghosting them over theirs curves and dips.
It was only a dream.
Heartbreak like she had never felt before crashed over her, swallowing her whole. With a glare, she reached over and purposely messed up the blankets just so she could pretend for another second that she had spent the night with another body against hers.
She had felt...
"Fuck." She flopped backward with her hands pressing against her forehead, trying to rub the tension away.
She wasn't surprised.
It had been too good to be true.
And it hadn't even made sense.
Red had been a dream… a very weird, bizarre, vivid, erotic, wet, detailed dream.
Maybe she had malaria.
Shit. And then it hit her.
If Red had been a dream then that meant...
The sun was up far too high.
Why was the sun up that high?
SHIT!
She was fucking late.
She knew it! She knew this was going to happen! Fuck! She knew it!
She launched herself at her bedside table, grabbing her alarm clock but the stupid fucking thing must have broken at some point in the night or something. It wasn't telling her the time. Instead all the numbers were zeroed out, all four of them lined neatly and fucking uselessly in a row. Great. Super fucking great.
She dived out of bed, tripping and falling into a heap before she was up and out the door.
"MAAAAM!" She shouted as she ran to the bathroom.
"MAAAAAAM!" she shouted a little louder as she ran back to her bedroom, "WHY DIDN'T YOU FUCKING WAKE ME UP? WHAT TIME IS IT? MOM!"
Her mother didn't answer.
Oh god, she was home, right? She was home? She had to be home!
Fuck it, she threw her headphones back into her bag, if she needed to she would call a cab. She was going to do that once she was in Georgia anyway so that she didn't have to deal with her dad and the step-monster. She just couldn't stand the stupid smug look she knew they would both have about the fact that they had gotten her down to Georgia. No thanks.
So...freaking fuck it, she could do it on both ends if need be.
Would it be nice not to have to? Yeah, but whatever.
Apparently Rudy needed a lot of company.
"Gross." She grimaced at that as she threw on her clothes.
"MAAAAAM!" She bellowed, running down the stairs at top speed. "MAAM! WE HAVE TO FUCKING GO! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHERE ARE YOU?"
She stopped so fast just inside the kitchen door that she nearly toppled over, her jaw hitting the floor.
"You're mom isn't home yet, Becs."
"Errrr…"
Red was sitting in the breakfast nook, clad only in one of Beca's tank tops and a pair of Super Mario underwear - also Beca's, and reading a magazine with an empty plate across the table from her. "Good morning, by the way." She grinned, one eyebrow high.
"You're here!" Beca didn't know what to do with her hands in that moment. She crossed and uncrossed them twice while her heart slammed in her throat. "Like...you're still here. You're, um, still here?"
You were supposed to pinch yourself at times like this, right? Whenever you were having a weird psychological break you needed to pinch yourself to make sure you were still...she didn't know, functioning, maybe?
She did, catching a chunk of skin between her nails and jumped, annoyed by the pain.
"Of course I'm still here!" Red laughed, holding her hand out for Beca to take.
"But, uh, the bed? It was all -"
Red blinked, looking confused, "You don't make your bed when you get up?"
Beca frowned, not sure how to respond to that.
"Come sit down."
Beca didn't move, "But uh, my flight."
Red rolled her eyes, exasperated.
Beca's head swam when she saw that on Red's neck was a small hickey...a hickey that she had put there...when they were making out...in her bed the night before. Her grin came slowly, one corner at a time but it came all the same.
"We've been over this, Beca, you -"
"Right, don't have a flight. Not until I wake up. But, uh," running her hands through her hair she fidgeted in place for a moment, "didn't I just wake up?"
"Not that kind of wake up."
"Um. 'Kay. So then last night really did happen then?"
This time Red was the one to grin, her hand pointedly shaking, demanding Beca's.
She reached for it, letting herself, slightly disbelieving, be pulled in for a kiss.
Red sighed, letting out a small, "Mmmm. Last night definitely happened."
Beca grinned, "'Kay."
"Come sit?"
Beca did...because what else was she supposed to do?
"Dude, you have to change. My mom, she will totally shit when she sees you. She's still not over the whole her daughter likes girls thing and she might freak if she caught a random girl in my underwear...in our kitchen."
"Mmm." Red hummed, sipping her coffee.
"Also like...my underwear?"
"I like it."
"Right." Okay. Beca decided not to question it. "Right, okay. But um, my mom?"
"She's not home."
"Yeah, that much I gathered. Is she still with Rudy?"
"For now. She won't be home for a few more hours."
"Right. 'Kay." She sighed, eyeing the empty plate in front of her. Breakfast was needed but she was 90% positive that she didn't need the plate. Red had said that the Twinkie was up there, right?
"Don't even think about it." Red muttered, not looking up from the magazine.
"What?" Beca jumped, caught. "God, that's so fucking freaky, you're so weird!"
Red just put down the magazine, "What are you in the mood for?"
"What?"
Red sighed and pointed to her plate. Suddenly in a shock of blue energy the plate was a bowl of cottage cheese and fruit.
"Dude!"
"Not in the mood for that?"
A flash of blue and it was a steaming bowl of oatmeal.
"Whoa!"
"No?"
Another flash from Red's fingers and suddenly it was a plate full of an American Slam, eggs, bacon, fruit, pancakes, and toast.
"Ooh!" Beca jumped and Red gave her a very satisfied grin.
She loved breakfasts like this but being entirely unable to make them herself she almost never got them. Totally psyched Beca dived in, "So what's the plan, um, for today?" She asked around a mouthful.
Red just gave her a slightly patronizing look that read 'don't talk with your mouth full'. "What do you want to do today?"
Instantly the sight of Red under her flashed through Beca's mind and she swallowed, guilty, "Um."
"All day, huh?"
"I mean," she flushed, "I wouldn't be against that."
Red laughed, a simple happy sound that Beca liked, "I was hoping that maybe you would let me hear some of your music today. Your mixes?"
Beca felt her cheeks go cold as she balanced, "Um, my...my mixes? You want to hear my mixes?"
"Of course I do!"
Beca frowned, pushing her eggs from one side of the plate to the other. "I've never really, um, I've never played them for anyone before."
"Not even Hayden? Or your mom?"
Beca scoffed, "I never really got the time to play them for Hayden and as for my mom," she let out a rude snort, "She is, I dunno, she's never been really interested."
"Have you tried playing them for her?"
"Yeah, of course. Just, uh, no luck mostly. She's um, she's busy...I guess."
A small crease formed between Red's eyebrows.
"Well, I guess I did play some for Conner once but whatever."
"Well." The magazine hit the table with a flop, "There's a first time for everything. Come on!"
"Wait!" Beca frowned, looking at her half-finished plate.
Red groaned, "You're taking forever!"
Baow. Ba - Ba - Ba - Ba Baow, was all she could think. 'Do you believe in miracles?' The annoying voice sang in Beca's head. 'Where you from? You sexy thang'.
Beca had protested, once her breakfast was done, that they just needed to go up to her room and grab her Mac because she had packed the basement away. It was no longer filled with her makeshift gear. As a matter of fact, her mother had started using it as a storage unit the week before last for her pyramid scheme beauty product business. Still Red had just pushed her, arms wrapped tightly around her and pinning her own arms to the side.
And of course, to no one's surprise at all, the basement had been back to normal when they got down there. Boxes gone. Shitty insulation back up. Shitty sound equipment set up in the corner on her desk.
"Of course. Why not," was all Beca had said upon seeing it.
And of course Red had stopped just inside the door and stared around the room like it was the greatest thing she had ever seen. "It's just so you," she had said.
Beca had assumed it would take her a while to build the courage to actually play the music for red but instead she had found she...kind of wanted to. She had scrolled through, looking for her favorite mixes, constantly glancing up at Red and blushing, both nervous and excited.
And that was how they had gotten to this place; Beca sitting on the futon that lived down there for guests, her mouth hanging open while Red, little Super Mario undies and all, danced around the basement. She had Beca's huge headphones on and seemed to have forgotten that Beca was there at all, too busy listening.
She watched Red's hips roll in a circle, happily bouncing and couldn't help but to think: 'if this were a movie Hot Chocolate would be playing in the background right now.
She didn't think Red had any idea what she was doing. She was pretty positive that Red just liked the music so much that she needed to dance; she couldn't just sit and listen.
"This is amazing, Beca!" Red cried, flashing her a grin.
Beca just smiled back, a little overwhelmed and not totally sure that she could handle what was happening right now. Red was listening to her music. And she was dancing. That was crazy! How was that even real?
Red reached for her, trying to pull her up but embarrassed Beca just shook her head. "I don't dance. Not in front of people anyway."
Red gave a little snort that sent Beca's eyebrows high.
"Okay, and what does that mean exactly?"
"What?" Red jumped, her eyes going overly innocent and wide.
"Uh huh. What was that little sound you just made?"
"I didn't make a sound."
"Yes, you did! Oh my god!"
"Okay, okay!" Red gave in, rolling her eyes, "I just think - that I am not people, so come on!"
She was sure that had been a last minute diversion. Still, she let Red pull her up and soon the two were hopping around the room and while maybe Beca couldn't totally let go, it was kind of fun.
"Oh god, change it, hurry! Blegh, I hate that one!" Beca cried as one mix changed to another.
"What?" Red cried, offended, "But this is amazing!"
"Yeah, well, it's not really my favorite." Beca frowned, plopping back on the futon.
"Why not?"
"I dunno," she shrugged, entirely uncomfortable, "I just don't. It's stupid."
She knew why. Of course she did. She had made this stupid track for her mom.
"So how did you get all of this stuff?" Red asked after the next track ended. "Your parents?"
"Yeah right. My mom would never get me anything that insightful and my dad, yeah fucking right, he would never get me something music related. He keeps hoping that I'll come to my senses and do something a little more reasonable."
"So how then?" She flopped down on the couch beside Beca, her thighs resting lightly against Beca's own.
"Me, mostly. I got a job at Starbucks."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yup. I'm surprised you can't still smell the caramel syrup and coffee beans in here. I swear I smelled like that for a year straight."
"Mmm." Red grinned, waggling her eyebrows. "Yum."
Beca laughed, tickled and a little embarrassed.
"Did you like it? The job I mean."
"Uh, yeah, for the most part. Everyone there was older so they didn't really care much about my high school drama. Which, I guess that was good. Sometimes it kind of pissed me off because I just wanted to talk to someone! I knew a couple people there were gay too but it was kind of the same thing. You know, kind of don't ask, don't tell. Some of them used to take trips to Chicago to go clubbing and stuff but I never went. Anyway," she ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, "yeah, it was good."
"What drink was your favorite to make?" Red asked, slipping her hand into Beca's and beaming when Beca stumbled for a moment, flustered.
"Um," Beca started to rattle on, constantly worrying that she was being boring, though each time the thought crossed her mind Red just smiled and asked another question. And it was great. For once in her fucking life she didn't feel invisible.
Red was back up, dancing around the room again to the mix she had liked the most when from upstairs came the slam of the front door.
Beca's face fell, her heart instantly panicked, "Shit!" She scrambled, up, "Shit, that's my mom!"
"What?" Red yelled over the headphones.
"Duuude, shhhh!" She had no idea how she wanted to play this. Would her mom think she missed her flight? Would her mom just not remember the flight? If there was no flight in the weird world she was in right now then we she still grounded? Would her mom freak if she had someone over? Oh god, would her mom freak if she found a girl in the basement walking around in her underwear like that was totally normal?
"Beca?" Her mother called from upstairs, "Are you home, sweet pea?"
"Dude!" Beca all but tackled Red, grabbed her and wrestled her to the couch so she could rip the headphones off of her, "My mom is home! You have to get dressed! Where are your clothes? Dude, she's going to shit if she sees you in your underwear!"
"Oh, so then seeing us like this would be better?"
Beca looked down and realized that she had her half pinned to the couch and despite herself she grinned and gave a stupid, "Oh."
"Mmmm, maybe let's stay here, though." Red grinned, giving the back of her neck a little tug.
Beca almost gave in and kissed her. Fuck it, right? But then her mother called again, sounding much closer and she was back to panic. "Seriously, dude, you have to get dressed! She's about to come down here!"
"Becs, take a chill pill-"
"No, really tho!"
"Beca?"
Beca felt her head swim as the door to the basement opened and her mother started down the stairs.
"MOM!" Beca yelped, scratching to get away and head her off, "I can explain, I-"
"Becs!" Red gave a snap and something very strange happened. Beca froze, unable to tell exactly what it was at first. Everything had just sort of...stopped. The track blaring from the headphones had paused into silence, her mother's footsteps on the stairs had stopped altogether...even the sound of the clock on the wall had stopped ticking. Craning her neck around Beca looked at it to see the second hand stuck, no longer making its way around the clock face.
"What the shit?
Red gave a giggle, "We have time."
"Um," she felt Red's lips press into hers and though she half responded a moment too late, she was still glancing around. "uuuuuuuuum…Red?"
"Hmm?"
She felt Red peppering kisses around her jaw but Beca's lips remained slack as she stared at her mother's frozen feet, mid step. "Did you break her?"
Red huffed, "Nooo! I just liked that position, that's all. Come back? Just for a minute."
"But uh, my mom is right there."
"Hmmm. Should I send her back upstairs? I can send her back to Ruby's like she hasn't even left yet."
"No!" Beca cried, not sure that she liked the idea of this weird voodoo stuff happening to her mom.
She pulled herself up and walked to the edge of the stairs, gaping at her mother frozen entirely in time. "Dude!" She let out a laugh, "She's okay, right?"
"Totes."
"'Cuz, like, this is weird even for you, Red."
She climbed up a few steps, marveling at how even her hair was frozen mid-air in the act of swinging as she descended. "Fucking wicked."
She heard let out a giggle and there was a snap.
All at once her mother finished the step, glancing up and letting out a startled yell that pulled a genuine scream of terror from Beca.
"DUDE!" Heart racing she threw her hands out, ""It's not what it looks like!"
Her mother paused, looking at her like she was sure Beca had just done something wrong, "Oh I didn't know you had company." Her mother paused, glancing behind Beca. "And what does it look like, sweetie?"
"I uh," she flipped around, sure she was going to see Red still lying in that slightly provocative pose that Beca had accidentally pinned her in. She was sure of it and then her mother was going to kill her. Fuck Barden, her mother would ship her off to the moon where she could live out the many years of her grounding in solitude. And yeah, Beca would try to protest, try to swear it wasn't what it seemed like and that she couldn't ground her since she was eighteen...but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that before she had even finished speaking she would be on that shuttle.
But Red, it turned out, was sitting on the futon, the headphones in her hand, wearing a pair of jeans and a comfortable looking tee shirt. The clothes made her look far too normal for a fantasy come true and the effect was discombobulating.
"Uuuuh," Beca stuttered, seeing that both Red and her mother were looking at her as though worried after her outburst.
"Hi!" With a wink Red unfolded herself and stood, hand outstretched, "It's nice to meet you, Miss. Mitchell. I'm Red, a friend of Beca's from school."
The look of concern on her mother's face only grew as she hesitantly shook her hand, "From school, you say?"
Beca let out a high awkward laugh, "Yeah, of course! Like, where else would I know her from. Besides work, I guess, and work, yeah that would have made more sense because everyone there was older!"
Red just stared back at her as if Beca had randomly broke into song.
No, she thought, Red would probably like if she did that.
"Yup!" Red grinned back at her mother, "I was a senior last year."
Beca wanted to snort. Red looked like she was at least in her early 20's but whatever.
"And…Red was it?"
"Oh! Yeah," Red laughed, shaking her wavy hair out, "been my nickname my whole life."
"I guess I can see that," her mother chuckled. "So, what have you two been up to?"
"Just listening to some of Beca's music!"
"Oh, that's nice."
"It is!" Red grinned, turning and curling back up on the futon, "I'm crazy about the Eurythmics/Elle King one. What's your favorite Miss Mitchell?"
Beca let out a dry laugh that earned her a scowl from her mother. She didn't really care much, though. Her mother had never once listened to a single mix of hers. She always found a way to be busy or just waved it away saying something like 'you know the only music I like is Joan Jett, sugar mouse'. Red knew that. She had just told her that a few hours ago. Had she not been listening? She tried not to be hurt by that.
"Oh, I'm sure they are all great."
Red frowned, looking between them confused.
So, then she hadn't really been listening. Okay, that was no big deal really, right? "Oh that," Beca dryly replied, covering her hurt with a learned Band-Aid, "is her way of saying she's never listened to a single one." She groaned, flopping indignantly down on the futon.
"Beca!" Her mother hissed.
"What? It's true!"
"Beca, behave please."
Beca's arms crossed, her head hitting the back of the futon as she stared at the ceiling.
"That's okay," Red chirruped, "Miss. Mitchell, come sit with us. I bet you would really like this one." She patted the futon between them, scooting over to make room.
Beca didn't bother to move. She knew that there was no way her mom was about to come and sit down and listen. Literally none.
"Oh, thank you, Red but I had better head upstairs. I only just got home, sweetie. I need a shower and a cup of coffee!"
"Yeah, I can still smell his aftershave," Beca mumbled.
Her mother ignored that and instead sent Red a stiff smile.
"But wait," Red called just as her mother was turning, "five minutes won't kill anyone, right, Miss. Mitchell? It's just five minutes."
Beca refused to look at her mother. She could only imagine what her face looked like just then and she didn't want to see it.
"Red-" her mother started in a tone that Beca knew too well, the 'I'm sorry but…' tone.
"Did you know she has a Joan Jett mix?" Red interrupted. "Joan Jett and the Beastie Boys."
Her mother paused, one foot on the bottom stair, "Joan Jett and the Beastie Boys? Now how is that possible? You put two songs together?"
Beca groaned, her hands dropping from her face and into her lap, "Mom! That is literally all I do! That's, that's literally my whole freaking thing! How do you not know that by now?" She felt Red's hand gently brush her wrist and blew out the rest of her anger in one giant huff.
"Well forgive me, Beca, for not knowing everything about you! I gave birth to you, is that not enough? I'm sorry, Red, but I don't have the time right now, I need to-"
"But maybe you do have the time," Red said, her voice light and sweet...a little too sweet. "Plus," she shrugged, "it's really cool. Why don't you come and listen to it for a minute? The way she spliced the two together was amazing. She even added a little bit of Queen to it."
"Queen, huh?" Her mother asked. She had a strange look on her face. It was a little vague, like she had a little too much to drink recently. As Beca watched the scowl that had been on her mother's face melted into a small smile under Red's insistent gaze. "Who taught you about such good music?" She teasingly asked Beca and to Beca's immense surprise, she started toward the futon.
"Move." Red hissed, shoving Beca out of the way.
Beca toppled over face first before she realized what was happening and scrambled to the far end of the futon, staring at her mother as she sat next to Red, aghast. What the fuck was happening right now? She had literally never, not once, seen her mom sit down here. She usually hovered by the door like she was afraid she would catch something and disappeared as soon as she could.
"So how does this,"
"I got it!" Red grinned, pushing herself up so she was up on her knees and could reach to put the headphones on over her mother's poofy hair.
"Ready?" Red sent Beca a quick wink and then hit play.
Beca literally couldn't move. She had made this mix for her mother six months ago and still her mother had never once listened to it. She found that now that she was, her whole body was one giant nerve. She wanted to pace the floor, she wanted to chew her nails and possibly just disappear. Instead she just sat like stone, watching every single expression of her mother's as they changed.
There were many. And they weren't all bad.
"Beca," her mother's wide eyes blinked a few times when the track finished.
"Oh and wait," Red interrupted, "check this one out!"
Three mixes later her mother finally emerged, eyes wide and her eyebrows high. Beca watched, anxious. She didn't look pissed or like she was only listening because Red was making her. She looked...impressed.
"Beca, I had no idea this was what you were doing."
"Um," Beca twitched in place.
"How do you do that?"
"What?" Beca blinked a few times. She had been expecting a 'that's very nice, dear' or a 'I'm glad you're so passionate about it, sweetie' but that was...that was like a real question.
"I mean, how do you - that's really very cool."
"Actually Beca," Red said casually, "I've been meaning to ask you how you do it. Will you show me?"
Beca stared, her mouth open as though she were the newest in a line of awkward and impractical fly traps. She barely noticed when her Mac was shoved into her hands, only catching it right before it fell right back out. "Errr," she opened it and opened her favorite editing software, "Right, so I-" she paused, waiting for her mother to get up and excuse herself, only she didn't. Beca couldn't believe it but she was fucking settling in looking all curious like she did when she was watching her cop tv shows. She looked up and saw that Red was grinning at her. Beca blinked, overcome and suddenly understanding...she had done this on purpose. This was because of her. She had been making this music for a long time now and it had taken Red to get her mother to pay attention. She grinned at her, knowing it was one of those stupid big goofy grins that were always super embarrassing in their sincerity.
She couldn't focus on that, though. She started in on her spiel.
They were there for two fucking hours, Beca showing them the ins and outs of her program, piecing together another Joan Jett song with a Prince just to show them how to do it. In that time her mother never seemed bored, asking questions and laughing, even dancing in place with Red for a minute once or twice. For the most part, though, Red had fallen into the background, smiling as Beca delightedly explained but otherwise giving Beca and her mother room to discuss.
Finally her mother looked at her watch and gasped, "Oh no! I have a hair appointment in fifteen minutes."
"Oh!" Beca set down the computer, waiting for her mother to get cross or yell at her for distracting her into being late.
Instead her mother stood and sighed, "Do you have any of this on CD?"
"She does!" Red grinned, grabbing a CD from the table that Beca was sure hadn't been there a moment before. "That's all of her favorite mixes, right Becs?"
"Uh, yeah. Right." She frowned a bit.
"This is perfect. You know what I'm going to do, Beca?"
"What?"
"I'm going to send this to your aunt. I bet she would really like it."
"You're gonna - what?" Beca cried, scrambling to her feet.
"Yup," she nodded, "I just bet she will."
"Uuuh,"
"This is really cool, Beca."
"Uuuum." She shifted in place uncomfortable and then suddenly her mother was hugging her.
"I'm so proud of you, honey."
She gave a squawk but didn't pull out of the hug. "You are?"
"Of course I am."
The hug was uncomfortable, totally foreign and weird. But when her mother's arms began to release Beca found that hers didn't, clinging tightly to her mother for just another second before she jumped away, embarrassed.
"Um, thanks, Mom."
Her mother gave her chin and soft pinch and then was climbing the stairs, CD in hand and calling, "Order a pizza if you girls get hungry."
"Thanks, Miss. M!" Red called back.
Beca waited until her mother had closed the door behind her before her entire body gave out and she flopped back onto the futon, lying across it with her hand on her forehead, "The fuuuuck just happened to me."
Red's grinning face appeared above hers, staring down at her, "I'd say she liked it."
Beca looked at her for a long second before she leaned up and caught Red in a long, deep kiss.
AN: The Joan Jett mashup is a real thing. Usually I like to make my own shit up but since this is not my thing, I just went with one. So full credit to Metal Open Mind on YouTube for the mashup idea. Look it up, that shit is pretty sick.
