The Plaid Shirt Thief

College life sucked. She didn't mean the going to classes part, although that sucked too. But living in a dorm with dozens of other people wasn't her idea of fun.

She had accepted her roommate and she could deal with the noise. But the one thing she could definitely not deal with was the disappearance of her favorite plaid shirts.

Shirts as in plural.

She had already lost three of her favorite shirts to the clothes thief. She had tried guarding her stuff after the second time one of her shirts had disappeared but unfortunately her dad had called her and she needed to step out of the laundry room for three minutes to take the call.

Three minutes!

When she had come back, another one of her shirts had vanished from the clothes line. She had looked around wildly but she only saw some older guys half sleeping on their chairs while they waited for their clothes to finish washing.

After that, she started waking up extra early to wash her clothes at 5 in the morning. She had never met anybody who washed their stuff so early so she felt quite safe in leaving her clothes in the laundry room while she took a quick shower.

She was just putting her wet hair in a high bun when she walked through the door of the laundry room.

"Hey!" She exclaimed loudly and took a few quick steps into the room.

A redheaded girl turned around. "Huh?"

"Don't 'huh' me! That's my shirt!"

The redhead looked down at the white tank top she was wearing. "No, it's not. I've just bought this last week."

The smaller of the two girls rolled her eyes. "Not your tank top. The plaid shirt you're wearing over it!"

The redhead grinned. "No, that's mine too."

"No it's not! I can see the ink on the left sleeve. I accidentally spilled a little on it a few weeks ago!"

The ginger shook her head but continued smiling. "It's mine now."

"But... Why did you steal it? And why did you steal the rest of my shirts? I love them."

"They are extremely comfortable!"

"I know! That's why I made them!"

"Don't be stingy and share. You still have more of them."

"That's not the point! You stole them!"

"Borrowed."

"But why? I mean, who does that? You can't just walk in here and grab the things you like. This isn't a store."

"But I wanted them. And there was nobody around when I took them."

"You could have waited for me to come back! Or, you know, just washed your own clothes and left mine alone!"

The taller girl shrugged. "You wouldn't have given them to me."

"Damn right I wouldn't have. Please give them back."

"Nooo." the taller girl whined. "They are the most comfortable shirts I have ever worn. Where did you get them? I couldn't find a label anywhere on them."

"I made them. Now give them back."

The redhead shook her head and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "No."

"No? You can't just say no! They are mine!"

The ginger shrugged. "I just did."

"But..."

"Deal with it. And please tell me where you really bought them. Otherwise you'll probably have to walk around naked on campus for a few weeks. But..." She looked the other girl up and down. "That wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. You're kinda hot."

The smaller girl was blushing brightly by now. "You can't just say things like that!"

The redhead shrugged. "Of course I can."

"But... my shirts..." She looked at the redhead a little helplessly.

"Don't look at me like that. You look so cute, I'm actually considering giving you your shirt back"

"You can give all of them back. That would be the right thing to do."

The redhead shook her head. "No. I want them. Did you really make them yourself? You don't look like someone who is interested in sewing."

The brunette rolled eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I'm not. But yes, I made them. My grandma made me one when I was younger and I loved it so much that I made her show me how to do it. I've made my own plaid shirts since then. Please give them back."

The redheaded girl looked a little conflicted. She could tell that a lot of work had gone into making these shirts but they were seriously the most comfortable shirts she had ever worn.

She sighed in defeat.

"OK I'll give them back to you. But only if you make one for me."

The brunette raised her eyebrows. "Why would I do that? I don't even know you."

"I'm Chloe."

"That's nice. But me knowing your name doesn't mean that I know you."

Chloe shrugged. "Sure it does. What's your name?"

"Beca. Please give me my shirts back."

Chloe grinned and skipped over to where Beca was standing and grabbed her hands in hers.

"I will. After we've bought some fabric and you've made me a shirt or two."

"You've said one shirt 30 seconds ago!"

Chloe shrugged. "Yeah, but you refused so I made a better offer. Two is always better than one, right?"

"Not in this case!"

"Oh well you can always make me more later on. I can already tell we are going to be fast friends."

"And why is that?" Beca asked dryly.

"Aw, don't be like that. You are hot, I am hot, we are destined to be friends. Can you imagine how hot we would look walking on campus together? It will be great."

"Okay you are clearly high. Or drunk. Or just crazy. Please don't call me hot when my hair is wet and I don't have any make up on. And this is not high school. Nobody cares if two hot girls walk together on campus."

Chloe grinned brightly. "Why, thank you!"

"Huh?"

"You called me hot. Thanks for that!"

Beca closed her eyes for a moment. "That's not what I meant. Ugh... Seriously, what do you want from me?"

"A shirt."

Beca sighed. "Right. Will you leave me alone if I make one for you?"

Chloe thought about it for a moment. "Probably not. But I still want the shirt. Let's go and buy some fabric. I want to pick it myself."

"Um, no. It's not even six in the morning, I'm going back to bed." Beca replied, freed her fingers from Chloe's grip and went to the washing machine to gather her clothes. They were still wet but Beca didn't care. It was way too early to argue with the perky redhead.

"Where are you going?"

Beca rolled her eyes. She had just told the redhead where she was going.

"Okay, never mind. Can I have your number? We have to schedule a time when we can go shopping."

"I don't want to go shopping with you."

"But why? Everybody loves to go shopping with me."

"Well, I don't. Don't take it personal. I just hate shopping in general. I just order the stuff I need online."

"Well, can we do that then? Look up some fabric online and then order it? I won't bother you much, I promise. But I want the shirt. And I want us to be friends."

Beca sighed. "Come on then, before I change my mind. My roommate isn't here at the moment so we won't disturb her."

"Great! Let's go!" Chloe said excitedly and followed Beca.

Four flight of stairs later, Beca opened the door to her room and plopped down on her bed face first. Chloe slowly followed her into the room and closed the door behind her.

Beca's hand pointed at a desk and a laptop that stood on top of it. "That's mine. The fabric store I always order from should be open. Choose something and show it to me. I'll catch a few minutes of sleep until you are done." She mumbled into her pillow and turned her head so it was facing her wall.

"Um..." Chloe said but did what the brunette had told her to do. She quickly found some nice fabric in different shades of blue. It was checkered and looked extremely soft.

Chloe turned around to look at Beca who was still lying on her bed and hadn't moved in the past few minutes.

"Beca?"

"Hm?" She mumbled but didn't move otherwise.

"I found a fabric I like. Can you maybe take a look at it and tell me if it's a good one or not? I don't really have a clue what to look for."

Beca slowly started moving and stretched like a cat before she stood up. It looked extremely cute. Chloe was sure she had never seen such an adorable human being before. That she came in a pint sized package only made her cuter.

Beca was standing next to Chloe now, who was sitting on the brunette's desk chair and blinked at the screen a few times, looking like a cute little owl. Chloe had to keep herself from squealing.

"It's okay. This fabric is soft and easy to work with. I'll order it for you and make you the shirt. Please don't bother me until then."

"But I want to be friends!"

"Okay, first rule about being friends with me. If you want me to like you, don't talk to me before 9 am. Ever. Scratch that, make that rule number two. Rule number one is, never mess with my shirts. And don't steal them."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You are really moody in the morning. But I think that's cute. I'll leave you alone for now, but I'll be back later today to give you back your shirts and the money for the fabric. Want to hang out in the afternoon?"

"No. Leave me alone now." Beca said tonelessly and opened the door for Chloe.

The redhead only smiled and wrapped the shorter girl up in a tight hug. "Okay then, thanks Becs. See you later."

She let go of Beca and skipped out of the room with a big smile on her face.

"Oh god, you already started with the pet names! Don't bother coming back!"

"I know you like it!" Chloe shouted over her shoulder and turned around a corner.

Beca looked after the taller girl for five seconds before rolling her eyes and closing her door. She flopped back down on her bed and closed her eyes. Chloe was a strange girl. But she would get her shirts back so that was something. And despite her behavior from earlier, she kinda liked the nickname Chloe had given her.

One thing was clear, Beca's life would get a lot more interesting from now on.