AN: Hello! I'm so sorry that this update has taken a while. I was away on holiday for a week and then I planned to update as soon as I got home, but a lot of personal/family things happened (break-ups, illness, dementia & cancer in the family, results day, university), so I haven't been able to write for a long time. The important thing is I'm here now! And I'll be updating a lot more frequently to make up for my lapse last month. I hope you enjoy it! Jen x
"Could you be any louder?" Chloe hissed at Beca as she practically fell out of bed.
"I'm sorry! It's not my fault I wasn't blessed with your elegance and grace…"
Aubrey was awake and in the main room – standing right in the way of where Beca needed to go. "Can't I just walk by her?" Beca asked pleadingly.
"No! I really want you in the Bellas, and if she knows we slept together then she won't let you in. She'll think I have a 'biased opinion' or whatever."
Beca pouted grumpily and proceeded to grab her clothes from Chloe's floor, trying her best to tiptoe around the bottle of tequila. Chloe couldn't help but watch the smaller girl as she got dressed; she was too mesmerising to ever take her eyes off of. Once she was eventually clothed again, she leaned down to give Chloe a kiss goodbye but found herself being pulled once more on top of the redhead.
"You know, you could just stay here until she leaves… I'm sure I could keep you entertained," Chloe whispered before pulling Beca in for a long kiss. Beca could feel her hands aching to roam all over Chloe once more, and so she reluctantly pulled away before she got too distracted. "I really, really want to, but I have to get to class. Plus I have a hangover, so I want to stop by my dorm room first to change… get some aspirin… curl up in a dark corner…"
"Hmph… Fine," Chloe said, "Guess I'll see you in a few days then."
"Why not tomorrow?"
"I have stuff to plan for the Bellas with Aubrey and I need to get to my own classes as well."
"We could always skip class for a couple of days…"
"You're such a bad influence!" Chloe said mockingly, giving Beca a light shove so she almost fell off the bed.
"I thought you wanted me to be quiet – not fall on the floor again!" Beca hissed as she picked up the last of her belongings. She took in a deep breath and rested her hands on her hips. "Okay, let's go over the plan one last time. You call Aubrey in and I'll hide behind the door. Once she's on the other side of the room I'll sneak out before she sees me."
"Exactly."
"Just make sure you keep her attention on you. I'm really not in the mood for her to make my headache any worse."
"I'll try my best," Chloe said with a wide grin. She waited until Beca was positioned against the wall where the door would swing open and then called out, "Bree, can you come here for a sec?"
Moments later the door opened and Beca held her breath and her bag as tightly as she could. Much to her annoyance, Aubrey didn't move from the doorway and it occurred to her from the expression on Chloe's face that the other girl hadn't thought up a reason to get Aubrey to move any further inside. "Morning," Aubrey said brightly. "You okay?"
"No…" Chloe replied slowly, clearly formulating a plan in her head as she spoke.
"What's wrong?"
Chloe fidgeted in her bed slightly and sat up, giving herself more time to think until she finally said, "There was a spider right next to my bed and I am not getting up until it's gone."
"I don't see it."
"It ran underneath my bed," Chloe said with a lot of concern in her voice. Even Beca was starting to be convinced that there was a spider running around the floor. "Can you get it for me?" the redhead asked innocently.
Thankfully, Aubrey took a few steps into the room and crouched down by the side of the bed, looking thoroughly amidst the clutter underneath Chloe's bed for the non-existent spider. "I think I see it," she said, carefully reaching her arm out, and Beca took the opportunity to slide out from behind the door and back away into the main room. She gave Chloe one last wink and then turned around, tiptoeing to the front door as quickly as she could. Slowly she clicked the front door open and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door quickly behind her.
As she walked to her own dorm room she got her phone out and text Chloe straight away.
Never would have guessed you're scared of spiders.
Several days passed and Beca was sitting at her desk working on a new mix, watching the clock slowly tick passed midnight. There was the usual noise coming from the corridor but nothing her headphones couldn't block out. Just as she moved them from her neck to her ears, there was a sudden knock at the door. She turned around to look at her roommate, Kimmy Jin, in the hope that she would open the door and allow Beca to keep working on her mix uninterrupted, but the other girl was already fast asleep (or at least pretending to be).
With a heavy sigh, Beca stood up and rested her headphones on her desk, wondering who the hell would be knocking at this time. Part of her hoped it was Chloe, but she couldn't help but doubt that hope as she hadn't heard from the bubbly redhead all afternoon. She was so used to texting Chloe on a frequent basis that she had significantly noticed her absence that afternoon, and she was already starting to miss their conversations.
Beca opened the door only a crack, but her efforts at maintaining boundaries from the unannounced visitor were pointless. Whoever stood behind the door forced it open even further, catching Beca off guard as a black hood was hurriedly pushed down over her head. She screamed loudly and starting thrashing out at her mysterious attacker, but it seemed nothing could stop the strength opposing her.
She heard Kimmy Jin sit up from her side of the room and Beca hoped desperately her roommate would rescue her, but the only support she received was an angry mutter of, "For fucks sake…"
Beca knew she was on her own with this one and so put all her might into fighting back against the hands that were dragging her out into the corridor. Just as she was about to scream again, a hand moved over her mouth and she felt warm breath on the side of her face as her attacker moved their mouth right next to her ear. "Shh… You don't want to wake everyone up," a female voice said, and it took Beca a few moments to identify who it was.
She stopped struggling and allowed herself to be pulled along, and as she stopped resisting her mouth was finally released so she could breathe better again. "Chloe?" she hissed angrily, but no one responded. Instead she was walked further down the corridor, into the elevator, and soon she was met with the cold rush of air as they stepped outside. "Come on, these are the last two," she heard another voice say, and she realised that Chloe wasn't alone.
Her feet were starting to freeze as they walked on the cold pavement seeing as she didn't have any shoes on, but she realised things could have been a lot worse if she hadn't been up working on her mix. She could have been dragged from her nice warm bed and walked outside in her pyjamas, but thankfully she had remained in jeans and an old t-shirt as she sat working. They turned around a corner and Beca strained her ears to hear any sign of other people with her, but all she could hear was her own breath filling the black hood over her face.
"Careful, there's a step," a voice said, and Beca felt Chloe's hands move so that one was resting on the small of her back, the other holding her hand as she guided her up the step. The warmth surrounding her told Beca that they were now inside another building, but she couldn't fathom which one. Before she had time to focus on the smells and sounds around her, Chloe's mouth suddenly appeared next to her ear again and whispered, "It's good to see you."
"You can't see me. There's a hood over my face, remember?" Beca replied quietly.
"Well, it's good to touch you again," Chloe said, making Beca even more aware of her hand that was resting at the base of her spine. "And this whole me being in control thing, it's kind of hot, don't you think?" The husk in her voice made Beca slightly weak in the knees, which didn't help as they were still walking further into the building.
"I'd find it a lot hotter if I didn't have a bag over my head."
"Don't like confined spaces?"
"You're scared of spiders; I'm scared of the dark," Beca confessed.
"Shit, sorry," Chloe said genuinely, and held Beca's hand a bit tighter. "We're almost there now, I promise."
Soon enough they came to a standstill, and Chloe gave Beca's hand one final squeeze before letting go and walking away. Two sets of footsteps walked around behind her and a little off to her right, and finally Beca heard the other girl say, "Congratulations – you've made it. I'd like to welcome the sopranos: Jessica, Mary-Elise, Lilly."
The voice came closer as she continued, "The mezzos: Cynthia-Rose, Stacie, Kori." Accompanying her words was the sound of what Beca hoped to be the hoods being taken off their heads, and sure enough she was finally able to see light as the girl announced, "And our altos: Fat Amy, Denise, Ashley, and Beca." She looked around and noticed that they were in the auditorium, surrounded by hundreds of candles. Chloe and her friend, who Beca now recognised as Aubrey, stood in front of the row of girls with a table of scarves in front of them.
"We shall begin by drinking the blood of the sisters who came before you," Aubrey said proudly as she raised a goblet up before them, and then passed it on to Chloe to bring around to the new initiates. She came around to Beca first who was wearing a very stubborn look on her face as she said, "Dude, no," but Chloe passed it to her anyway with a reassuring wink. Just before Beca sipped it she explained, "Don't worry, it's Boone's Farm."
Once they had all drank from the cup, Aubrey came around and handed out blue and gold scarves to each one of the girls, and Beca took that time to look at the other poor girls standing around her that she assumed had also been dragged from their rooms. Several of them were in their pyjamas, one was clearly dressed up for a night out, and the rest were luckily like her – in warm everyday clothes, although missing items you'd usually grab before you left the house of your own accord, such as shoes or a jacket.
They recited a bizarre ritual after Aubrey, and then the lights were all suddenly switched on as the blonde announced, "Congratulations – you are all Bella women now!" A few of the girls cheered, the others looked around confused at what they had got themselves into by standing up to audition a few days ago. Beca's eyes searched for Chloe and she eventually saw the older girl looking at her with a smug grin before walking over in her direction.
"Sorry for the whole theatrical kidnapping beforehand, it's kind of a tradition," Chloe explained apologetically.
"It's okay. Just tell me I can please go home now?"
"Not yet, there's still the initiation party!"
Beca groaned, but Chloe grabbed one of her hands and pulled her towards the door where all the other girls were heading. "It's going to be fun! I promise there will be no candles or drinking blood, it's just all the acapella groups hanging out with their new initiates and drinking as much booze as possible."
"Fine…" Beca agreed reluctantly, stepping as cautiously as she could the whole way to the party as she grumbled to Chloe about not being given chance to put shoes on.
