All right, I had written the first three chapters on a whim, really, and this just took much longer than I expected. But thanks for the follows/favs/reviews, it means a lot!

Chapter Four

It wasn't necessarily that Beca eaves drops intentionally, she just always seems to be in the right place at the wrong time.

When she was around eight she always over heard her mother on the phone with some man that she had referred to as, 'mom's friend'. Beca knew 'mom's friend' wasn't a good man. He was always taking her mom away; in the other room, or her mom's bedroom, or outside, maybe in the backyard for a few hours.

'Sweetheart, go upstairs, okay?' seemed to be the catch phrase her mother constantly sported. Beca always obeyed and went into her room and sat on her bed. She sat alone for the better part of three hours before her mom would come in, rather weirdly. She would stumble a bit, slur her words. Beca would have to help her mom into bed because by the time Beca herself was ready for bed; her mom seemed incapable of doing humanely tasks.

It was always quiet during those few hours she spent alone. Sometimes muffled noises could be heard but other than that silence was Beca's best-friend. Beca always wondered what they were up to downstairs. Sometimes Beca would watch her mom and 'mom's friend' stagger upstairs and she eventually would grow worried and always went to help them because her eight year old mind just wanted her mom to be okay.

'Mom's friend' would slur unknown words and flail his arms at her. Sometimes she made out an unclear, 'beat it, kid' but she didn't like to dwell on the words too much due to being immensely afraid of the creepy man. Then 'mom's friend' would leave only to return in the next couple of days; sober and then leave a slobbering drunk.

Beca was around ten when she overheard her grandmother yelling at her mom with force every few days. It was hard not to hear the curses; she was told to go to her room which she didn't. She hid by the stairs as she listened to the chastising that seemed to go on for hours upon hours.

They fought a lot, though, Beca realized. Sometimes it was about money, or about someone named 'Steve' (Beca came to realize 'Steve' was 'mom's friend' with time) or the fact that her grandmother would refer to Beca's mom as a 'deadbeat' and then a somewhat louder screaming match would roll through before her grandmother's departure.

Beca never understood what any of the words meant until she grew older, with reflection she began to feel resentment for her mom, and every once in a while she would just wish her mom cared more about her than alcohol and 'Steve'.

It's been nearing eight years since she's even had contact with the woman and she doesn't feel much at all when she thinks back to the time.

Presently as she walks through the front door after a long day at school and hears voices that she has come to decipher as Chloe's parents, she decides to put her skills to test.

It has been a while since she had seen Chloe. The redhead hadn't come by with her parents in the past month, and even though they were barely even friends, she found herself missing the few quick minutes they had conversed with each other.

But maybe it's a good thing Chloe hasn't come around since she regrets telling Chloe about her parents. She isn't sure what prompted her to reveal the information, but once she uttered it, the regret flew in and hit her over the head like a damn brick. Beca not-so-stealthily walks closer to the kitchen; she stops herself near the walkway into the room and remains silent.

"How's Chloe doing with school?"

By that question Beca infers that Chloe is not present. She always assumed Chloe was smart, everything about her screamed intelligence to Beca.

"She could be doing better. She's only taking two classes and she's barely got an A in both of them."

That's good, isn't it? Beca thinks. Yeah, Chloe is smart. She may be a little over barring with emotions with the 'you can tell me anything' spiel but she is smart.

Her thoughts drown out the talking as she starts to think about Chloe. The hair tie occurrence pops in. Beca hasn't really thought about it too much, but she does wonder what that's about. Maybe it's just a bad habit, because those are normal. Everyone has a bad habit. She thinks about how nice Chloe seems, and her stomach flips once she thinks about Chloe's infectious laugh or her sweet smile. She hasn't witnessed any of that in a while and it's beginning to annoy her. No one should be deprived of the sunshine Chloe entails.

Her thoughts are broken as she hears, "How's Beca doing in school?"

Beca scoffs lowly. It seems like that's all grown-ups care about is school.

"She seems to be doing fine. The kid is rather smart."

Beca smirks and nods to herself because she knows she's smart, she knows she's doing fine in all her classes and she knows-

"Are you eaves dropping on them?"

Beca jumps up and her face flushes. Her arms flail to her sides and she nearly trips over her own two fumbling feet before she realizes that was Chloe's voice.

Beca realizes she's missed that voice as she fixes herself up, she flattens out her faux-leather jacket before huffing. She then looks up and blushes as she becomes reacquainted with Chloe's sky blue like eyes.

Beca realizes she's missed those eyes.

"I was… listening." Beca whispers.

Chloe laughs gently and Beca realizes she's missed that humble laugh.

"So you were eaves dropping?" Chloe quirks an eyebrow and crosses her arms dramatically while waiting for Beca's answer.

"No." Beca mutters.

"What do you call it then, Beca?"

Beca tries not to reside too much on how Chloe sounds while saying her name. It's annoys Beca how much Chloe affects her. As Beca thinks of a suitable answer, her eyes are pulled to Chloe's crossed arms. For a moment she is positive Chloe is about to do something, but that something doesn't happen so Beca continues to think of her answer. She certainly doesn't want to sound stupid in front of Chloe.

How did Chloe even come in without a noise, anyway?

"I call it listening to a conversation that I want to know about without having to join in."

Chloe nods and Beca mentally assesses Chloe's thinking face, she is trying to not laugh at her half-assed answer that seriously makes no other explanation than eaves dropping.

"So eaves dropping," Chloe reiterates.

Beca huffs, "Whatever."

Chloe giggles.

"Are you busy tonight?" Chloe tugs the sleeves of her black coat then re-crosses her arms and Beca sticks her tongue out slightly and glides it over her lips (a habit she has, she realizes as doing so) as she waits for Chloe to touch her right wrist because she knows it's coming.

But again it doesn't happen. Beca sighs, the chatter in the background has been drowned out, the only thing she is focusing on his waiting for Chloe.

Beca's eyes narrow as the redhead actually snaps the black hair tie twice, instead of three times. It seems to change every time Beca witnesses it.

"Beca?"

"Huh, what?"

Chloe laughs lightly and drops her arms while stepping forward, a little too close for Beca's immediate comfort but she soon relaxes as she takes in the welcoming unfamiliar scent of Chloe.

"We should do something tonight." The way Chloe says it so low and drawn out like is definitely not a question. Beca takes the words in. Chloe wants to hang out. She doesn't get why. Why has Chloe been practically M.I.A. for nearly three weeks and now she comes around without another word? But then again, Chloe isn't obligated to. Beca is confused. But Chloe wants to hang out. This isn't because she walked into the wrong room, or ran into a bloody nosed Beca or opened her front door to see a short brunette girl baring food. Chloe was asking Beca to hang out on a Friday night.

Beca wants to ask where Chloe had been but she feels like it's none of her business. She also doesn't want to sound… creepy.

"Okay." Beca squeaks out.

Chloe smiles widely. "I'll just go tell them we will be out and then we can go."

Before Beca can say anything, ask any questions regarding what they're doing or even agree, Chloe is practically skipping into the kitchen. Beca can't seem to mind as she remembers that she is going to hang out with Chloe.

Beca listens in because really she feels likes eaves dropping is the one thing she's exceptionally good at. But she can't hear Chloe. She can't hear her aunt and uncle, but she can clearly hear Chloe's mom.

"You want to do what with Beca?"

Beca narrows her eyes at the words because this woman is making Chloe's question (whatever it may be) sound awfully more than what it truly is. Over time Beca has grown to have a large dislike for the woman. She is the total opposite of Chloe because she is rather over baring with her words and Beca thinks the woman is quite rude with the way she insinuates most things.

Like right about now, she is the only person Beca can hear speaking and the words aren't pleasant. She hears something along the lines of, 'shouldn't you be studying?' and then a few moments later she hears, 'would you stop that?'

Eventually she hears Chloe's voice. It sounds dull almost like she is speaking with no emotion whatsoever.

"I'm sorry."

Beca furrows her eyes brows at Chloe's apology. Why was she apologizing? It grows quite so Beca decides to take a leap of faith and she walks inside of the kitchen. She immediately sees Chloe standing near her mom looking embarrassed with flushed cheeks and her teeth chomping at her lips. Everyone else's eyes are on Beca and she really doesn't know what to say so she stands awkwardly for a moment before deciding to speak up.

"Is everything okay?" Beca looks around the open kitchen and eventually her eyes stay planted on Chloe. Everyones eyes fall to the ground and no one says anything and Beca can't figure out what's going on. Why in the world is Chloe asking to go out such a big problem? Why is everyone acting so weird? She wasn't sure what to do so she stood and waited until someone said something.

The fact that it took so damn long before anyone even looked up was just plain odd so Beca merely said, "we don't have to go anywhere."

"You guys can go." Chloe's dad unexpectedly says which earns a rather cruel glare from Chloe's mom, but Chloe takes it and practically bolts out of the kitchen grabbing Beca's wrists along with her without a second opinion.

They don't stop until they hit Chloe's car and Beca can see the reluctance as Chloe let's go of Beca's wrist but she tries not to think about it too much because it's probably just because of her evident embarrassment in whatever just conspired and not because she actually wants to hold her damn wrist.

Chloe hastily staggers into her car and unlocks the passenger door. Beca wearily steps inside and clasps her hands together as she sits down. Knowingly, silence washes over as Chloe only visibly tightens her grip around the steering wheel. Beca glances at the emotionally confused redhead and she feels bad, almost like this is her fault. But she knows it isn't. She feels responsible for the slight frown on Chloe's lips and she wants to turn it into a smile but she doesn't know how to. Beca's never been one for cheering up.

"Want to hear a joke?"

Chloe drops her arms so they sit on her lap. She turns her head and she can't help but laugh at the question.

"What?"

"Whatever happened in there made you pretty upset, obviously, and jokes are for cheering up." Beca says with a shrug and she feels a bit more confident as Chloe's lips tug into a half smile.

"Okay."

Beca racks her brain for the best joke she can think of, one that will make Chloe double over with laughter, one that with cheer her up because she doesn't deserve to be sad.

Beca shifts so she is facing Chloe but Chloe's eyes stay in front of her as her hands lay limp on her lap.

"Why do ghosts love elevators?"

Chloe sighs and she begins to laughs. "Why?"

"Because they lift their spirits," Beca says with apprehension. She grows worried as Chloe doesn't say anything. Beca turns her body back to the front and claps her fingers together but then she hears Chloe laugh again.

When Chloe turns the car on she says, "You're cheesy," and Beca watches her with confusion as she suddenly starts to rearrange things. Chloe starts to fix the cup holders prongs, and then she moves the rearview mirror for no apparent reason. The redhead scans over the dashboard, what Beca can tell three even times, before she begins to drive.

Chloe doesn't say anything more so Beca doesn't either. The brunette isn't sure where they're going but she can't bring herself to ask. She looks down at the time displayed on the dashboard and realizes it's barely even five.

Every two minutes her eyes find the clock and every two minutes her eyes wander to Chloe quickly before she looks out the window. Buildings passed, and then it became pure road. Chloe is still not speaking. There wasn't even any music, which made it rather awkward. It seemed like a lifetime before Chloe stopped driving. They step out; Beca reluctantly follows Chloe, not liking how fast she was walking. Chloe soon halts herself and Beca opens her mouth to ask why they are standing in the midst of large pine trees, but Chloe shakes her head, so she closes it.

It never occurred to Beca that she wasn't well versed in conversations. It wasn't something she dwelled on. Sure, if someone tried to hold a conversation it proved slightly hard for her to keep it steady, but she merely decided it was not a big deal. Now as she realizes asking Chloe important questions, like what the hell they're doing, is seemingly very hard, she thinks back to all the awkward times she's had fluke sentences spew out of her mouth when talking. The uncanny thoughts are drawn to a pause, noticing Chloe's pace has started up again. Chloe must run marathons or something because her stamina is killer. (Or maybe Beca's just dreadfully out of shape, either or.)

"This is it." Chloe abruptly stops while resting her hands on her hips, looking rather smug.

Beca nods as she takes in a few large breaths trying to regroup. Maybe she shouldn't eat so many chocolate chip cookies. She scans the pine trees, the shrubs, the branches scattered throughout.

"I'd never been here before so I thought we could go." Chloe explains, draping her arms across her own chest and continuing examining the area.

"It's… nice," Beca begins, "pretty."

They walked around for a while, not saying much. Chills of air rang through their bodies, making it slightly hard to walk slowly. It began to grow dark, so they opted on walking back. It was a mundane walk back to Chloe's car. The only noise illuminated was the crunching of leaves under boot clad feet and every once in a while an unknown sound. Chloe would jump as if she heard a definite animal noise. Beca thought it was quite cute Chloe was startled so easily. The largest animal in this area was no bigger than a medium sized dog, Chloe had nothing to fright over.

"Why was your mom mad at you earlier?" Beca notices Chloe visibly tense, and open her mouth reluctantly.

"She thinks I like you."

Beca's jaw slowly falls and her eyes momentarily shoot up to Chloe, they don't make eye contact and Beca's very glad they don't.

"After you brought me food that day she was afraid that we had something going on," Chloe claims, they continue to walk, "I told her we don't, but she doesn't believe me."

A breath of what Beca would like to claim not as relief leaves her body as Chloe utters those words. She is glad it wasn't her that deterred Chloe, rather her mom.

Beca feels her stomach twist and flutter and she feels Chloe smiling at her while they walk. Once inside the car, Chloe turns the car on and as she begins to drive asks Beca if she'd like to get some food which Beca inevitably agrees.

"Can I ask you a question?" Beca says after a while of driving in another silence alike to the one on the earlier drive.

"Ask away."

Beca fumbles around with her thumbs before deciding to out with it and taking a breath.

"I don't know if you notice or not but that hair tie in your right wrist, you seem to, well you know?"

Beca almost doesn't go on as she sees Chloe's whole body tense and her face flash red but she manages to garner up enough courage and continues.

"You snap it, a lot-kinda."

Chloe nods with a clenched jaw while her grip tightens on the steering wheel, her knuckles becoming white.

"Is there a reason?"

"Nope," Chloe pops the p, almost as if she's trying to signal she doesn't want to explain further. For the odd occurrence in their small amount of time friendship, Beca has heard what she can tell nothing but genuine words from Chloe. Beca decides not to pry, instead she infers that that uttered 'nope' marks word number one.