A/N : Okay guys! I'm late, but like, not a whole day late, so that's progress, right? RIGHT! anyway, there's not much to say about this chapter; you get to see more of Beca's coping with her new solitary life and also, a bit of Jesse and Benji together! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, feel free to tell me what you thought of it! ooooh and for those reviewing with a lonely "update" (sometimes in caps, sometimes simply repeated twice or thrice) with a bunch of exclamation marks; I update once a week so, although I appreciate your wish to read more (which I take as a great interest in this story and a liking too), I would rather you not review the story if it's to only pressure me into writing faster by asking me to update with so little manners because, well, it might have the opposite effect. See, I don't work under pressure, I work under encouragements, so if you like this story and want more, give me constructive reviews or encouragements, not rude (well, to me they sound rude) one-word review almost ordering me to update as soon as a chapter is out.
Please, be patient with me as I don't have all the time I used to have to write and I'm leaving in two weeks. Updates might become less organized once I'm away, but I will finish this story, don't worry about it!
So, now, enjoy this chapter y'all :)
Beca had always liked her sleep, especially when she had been mixing all night and had just managed to fall asleep, but her dad seemed to either ignore that or simply not care about it. Poking her thigh, he called out her name a few times before she actually grunted and turned around.
"Funny, this doesn't look like your intro to philosophy class." He said, rising his eyebrows, demanding answers.
"I'm posing an important philosophical question here: if I don't actually go to that class, will it still suck?" She retorted, giving him that look he knew meant he wasn't going to win an argument with her.
"Funny, but it's not the point. This is college, Beca, join in!" he added, still shocked that his daughter didn't enjoy college like he thought she would have after a month.
They talked a little bit more, and out of things to say that could possibly make Beca blend in more and actually try at college life, her dad suddenly told her that if she tried hard enough, by the end of her school year, if she was still unhappy and wanted to become some kind of famous artist in L.A., he'd pay for everything. Beca was dumbfounded, especially since the deal was a year of college for a free pass to L.A., but she had to pay by herself (another reason she got the job at the radio station). She told him she'd have to think about it, but really, she simply wanted to go over all of the activities and clubs available and find the least engaging one and get in so she would be making an effort and her dad would pay her way to Los Angeles.
She managed to get him out of her dorm by telling him she needed to shower, having already given up the idea of sleeping after that encounter. She was still trying to find a way to get her dad to believe she was trying without actually being involved in any clubs or groups on campus when she arrived at the showers. The one way she had found she could think straight was to sing, so she started to hum softly the lyrics of "Titanium" by David Guetta. It was a song she had wanted to mix with something else for a while now, and singing it aloud made it easier for her brain to match another song with it.
She had just started her shower, testing the water with her bare shoulder, when a tingling sensation made her frown. She didn't turn around, thinking it was only her mind playing a trick on her, but when an unknown hand reached for the shower handle and a voice she only faintly recalled spoke up behind her, Beca jumped and spun around. There stood the same redhead that had tried, a month prior, to enroll her into some singing group. That day, she had lied, saying she couldn't even sing, and the look of utter deception on the redhead's face almost made her feel bad.
Still, she was relentless and wouldn't leave until Beca sang for her. The brunette had to admit this was coming at some convening time since her dad had asked for her to join in. What dorkiest thing to do than to join an a capella singing group, females only? That would be a great way to let her dad see just how ridiculous 'joining in' was since it was so out of her element. Also, she was trapped, so there was really nothing she could do to make the ginger go away beside singing, although (and she would never admit that even under torture) she thought her passion for such an activity was kind of respectable.
So, taking a deep breath and holding her washcloth and soap bottle as close to her naked body as possible, she averted her eyes from the redhead and sung the first lyrics alone. Soon, though, the other girl joined in and her soft yet firm voice made Beca's gaze lift up in surprise and a small smile crept up her face. This girl can sing! She didn't know why she was so surprised, but she was, and before she knew it, her hands were down and it didn't matter if they were naked in a shower stall. A part of Beca instantly lit up when their voices instinctively adjusted to each other and she could feel, now, why the redhead seemed to love a capella so much.
They finished their duet and the awkwardness, well on Beca's end, was back at full force, only this time, it was because the brunette was trying really hard not to let her change of mind show. Beca's eyes wandered shortly over the other woman's body and she smiled shyly, silently pointing out that she was still in her stall.
"Oh, yeah, I'm pretty.. confident, about all this." The redhead said, gesturing to her toned and naked body.
Beca nodded, mostly to try and end this kind of conversation but also because she couldn't deny that the girl was stunning.
"You should be." She added with a little smile, and when the girl wouldn't stop staring at her like she was the messiah, she said in a small voice "I still… need to shower."
A guy suddenly peeked in the stall, smiling at the redhead, and Beca shot her a puzzled look before the girl's eyes lit up and her mouth formed an 'o'. The brunette realized why the guy was in the ladies shower room and her confused face turned into shock, then a somehow form of amusement, and she watched the redhead walk out of her stall like this had been the least strange thing to ever happen.
"See you at auditions!" she heard her call out from the other end of the room, and a dubious smile ran across her lips.
Jesse is going to go bonkers! Wait. Where did that thought come from? Beca finished her shower still stunned by her own brain betraying her like this. She wasn't supposed to want him around anymore, she was supposed to be hermetic to his childish grin, supposed to be insensible to his mischievous eyes. It was odd for her to miss someone, especially Jesse, and it was even odder that she missed sharing things with him. She thought she was over him, thought she had moved on and didn't need anybody. At least, that's what she told herself, and until now, it seemed like she had convinced her mind of that, but now her heart was pounding as she ran back to her dorm before she did anything stupid. Like the last time, a little voice snickered in the back of her mind and she flinched.
Beca had been living with her mom for four years now, and she had moved on from Jesse, but sometimes, she'd still get hit by a memory with him and with the years passing by and her mother trying to reconcile the pieces she had broken in her daughter, the urge to see him and be his best friend again would get stronger. Today, especially, was a hard day for her because she was changing school. She had just visited her new scholastic buildings and had found out they had a bigger music room than anything she'd ever seen. The first thought that came to her mind was to tell Jesse, and she stopped dead in her tracks when she realized what she had just thought of.
She had no right of telling him anything anymore. She had abandoned him, she had refused to see him every time she went to her dad's new home, and she had shut him out completely. Now, though, she missed him like he was the only thing keeping her alive. It hit her just how much wrong she had been, and she felt so utterly desperate to get him back, right at that moment, standing in the doorway of the music room, that she ran away. She sprinted towards the emergency exit, crashed through it and continued to run until her legs gave way under her and she fell on her knees in a muffle "thump". That's when she realized she was in a forest but had no idea just how far she had ran.
Curled up in a tight ball and freezing in the cold air, Beca was still crying and mumbling apologies to Jesse when they found her. They being two policemen part of a searching team that went looking for her when she ran away from the school for no apparent reason. One of them picked her up, and Beca clung to his vest like her life depended on it. She was wrapped in a wool blanket to try to warm her up because she was shivering from the extensive time spent on a cold and humid ground. She was still delusional and kept trying to push off the paramedics that wanted to examine her, saying she had to find him, to make it right. Nobody understood until her mother finally made her way to her and threw herself on Beca, her arms fiercely wrapped around her tiny frame.
"Mom, I miss him so much, I want him back." She said, and her mother thought she meant her father, so she held her daughter a little closer to her heart, stroking her hair back and whispering comforting words in her ear until she calmed down.
"I know baby, I know, it's okay. We'll get through this." She soothed, holding her hand while the paramedics cleared her for a good night of sleep at home.
At that time, Beca had thought her mother knew she was talking about Jesse, she thought she was telling her she was going to stop missing him, she wanted her mom to understand that she couldn't forget the boy, that she actually wanted to be best friend with him, she wanted to follow through their promise to get married as soon as they were old enough.
Shaking her head, she walked out of the shower rooms, and eyed warily the closed blinds of the other stalls, afraid she might get forced to sing her way out of here. There were no more signs of the redhead, but she found a Bellas flyer taped to the door with a handwritten note on it: 7pm tonight at the auditorium. She looked at her cellphone and sighed: it was only nine in the morning, she still had time to make an excuse for it if she didn't actually go.
Jesse looked at himself in the mirror, putting the final touch to his hair when he caught a glimpse of Benji pacing nervously in the background, mumbling over and over the little speech he had prepared. The brown haired man turned around and smiled gently at the man who had quickly became his best friend over the last month. He knew how much those auditions meant for Benji, and he was also that much aware that the chances of the Trebles letting him in were almost as slim as the chances he had of getting hit by lightning. Indoors. It's not that he didn't believe his friend had the vocal potential; it's that he had seen how the Trebles had snickered and made fun of him that very first day of college at the activities fair.
He couldn't tell that to Benji, though, because the boy was convinced he could get in with his singing abilities. Technically, he was a great singer and he would've been a great addition to the group, but Jesse knew better. The Treblemakers weren't looking for amazing singers, they wanted guys with an attitude, guys that would perpetuate their image of bad boys from the a capella world. Jesse simply hoped they'd go easy on his best friend, although there was nothing he could do, really, because to be honest he truly wanted to get in himself. Maybe after that, then, he'd be able to talk to Bumper and some of the others.
"Benji, calm down. You've sung your bars in your sleep all week, you're gonna be fine." Jesse said, putting his hands on his best friend's shoulders and pushing him down to a sitting position.
"I'm just really excited, because you know, I'm going to sing in front of Bumper for the first time and it's a little stressful. What if they don't take me in?" Benji spoke up, looking directly in Jesse's eyes when he said his last words, making the taller man's heart tighten in his chest.
"Relax dude, they have to like you. You're all kinds of awesome. If they don't want you, it's their loss." He said, patting him on the back before hearing the opening theme of Star Wars start playing. "Come on, it's time. Wouldn't want to be late to auditions, right?"
Benji jumped on his feet and gave Jesse a confident nod and a nervous but happy smile. They walked out of their dorm with their chests pumped with confidence and their head held high. It was still early in the evening, but Benji had insisted they got there at least an hour before auditions started so they could maybe try to catch the Trebles and chat a little bit.
