A/N: Guitar Hero-based.
Recommended soundtrack: Crushcrushcrush - Paramore
"I swear to God, Chloe," Jesse insists, sitting down on the edge of her bed. "I met my soul mate today."
Snickering, she replies, "Soul mate, huh? What's my soon-to-be sister-in-law like?"
"She's a bit shorter than you, brown hair, I think brown eyes and she's so fucking amazing!"
She tries to stifle her laughter, she really does, but it comes out anyway, "Did you even talk to her?"
"Of course I did," but he won't meet her eyes and Chloe just knows he's hiding something. "I…uh…said hi to her."
"And?"
"She told me to shove off," he raises his voice to yell over her giggles, "But she was busy so it was just bad timing!"
"You've picked a real winner," Chloe pushes him lightheartedly.
"You know the TV in the lobby of Sherman's Hall?"
Who doesn't? "Yeah, with the Wii and Xbox or something."
"Yeah, she's there sometimes playing like Halo and COD and everything," he grins, "My kind of girl."
"So let me get this right," she sits up, setting her textbook aside. "You've got a crush on someone just because she plays video games?"
"Well, not exactly like-"
"If I had known that was all it took to get a guy's attention, I would've spent more time on games instead of studying."
"She's also got these killer looking tattoos up her left arm," Jesse offers. "And she smokes, or hangs around people who do."
"Sounds like precisely the type of girl that Mom and Dad would disapprove of," she smirks knowingly.
He coughs, "Mom and Dad don't like any girls I date."
"I wonder why…oh, maybe it's because you have terrible taste in women."
"Come on, Sis, let loose a bit. Any guys in your life?" Jesse fiddles with the zipper of his coat as he tries to change the subject.
"Oh no," she shakes her head, pushing him off her bed, "That subject is off limits. And I have class, so get out of here before my roommate gets back and presses charges."
"Please, Chloe," he acquiesces to her request, but backs out the door with his hands held up defensively. "Aubrey's got a major crush on me, she would never."
"Crush? In your dreams, ladies' man!"
But even though Jesse changes women like she changes songs (and that is often), Chloe's kind of intrigued. She's not curious enough to go stalk the girl or anything, her interest has just been piqued is all. So a week later when her roommate and best friend, Aubrey, is on her way to Sherman's Hall to pick up her boyfriend, Chloe tags along.
Aubrey calls Benji ahead of time requesting that he meet them in the lobby prepared to have luncheon at a casual restaurant. Honestly, their relationship dynamic is equal parts fascinating and weird. However, Chloe is just relieved that Aubrey's found someone who treats her well. The girl's had enough of heartbreak from high school, so college has been a drastic improvement.
They arrive at Sherman Hall five minutes earlier than the agreed time and as they wait, Chloe heads towards the large TV set in the corner. It's always surrounded by gamers, usually a group of guys who are too loud and too focused on the game. As luck will have it, she spots a girl (who is exactly how Jesse's described) amongst the throng of guys yelling at the screen excitedly. It seems she's playing Guitar Hero, a plastic guitar slung around her, her left hand around the neck of the guitar and her right strumming up and down furiously.
"Fucking bitch! I swear, if you beat my high score…"
"Shut up, Lenny. Just 'cause a girl's better than-"
"Shut the fuck up and watch!"
It's not that the display is disgusting (well yes, actually, it kind of is), but Chloe turns away instinctively from the pure noise they're making. The cheering just escalates and escalates as the girl's fingers move faster and faster across the five colored buttons, her other hand never breaking rhythm.
Finally the song ends and it ends in the loudest and most raucous racket Chloe's ever heard from the lobby.
"Take that, Norm!" The girl whoops and tosses the fake guitar across the room and into a guy's arms. "Girls can't play video games? Yeah? Wanna say it again to my face? I just beat your score playing right-handed!"
Suddenly, a guy stumbles down from the nearby staircase announcing, "Fight on the third floor!"
The guys surrounding the TV scream again in profanities and coarse language before all scrambling as one group up the stairs. The lone girl stays behind kicking the beer cans on the floor to the side. Maybe it's the approachability of just one person instead of a large gathering of strangers that causes Chloe to walk forward and talk to her.
"That was cool," Chloe cringes at how lame she must sound.
The girl looks up, greyish blue eyes meeting hers (Jesse's assessment of her eye color proving to be wrong). She seems a bit surprised at the comment.
"Yeah, it was rad," she sounds a bit sarcastic, but Chloe can't really tell. And on that note, how does anyone get away with using rad? "What's your name?"
"C-Chloe." Why does she stutter?
"Nice to meet you, C-Chloe," the girl smirks, and it kind of makes Chloe feel…derailed. "I'm B-Beca."
"My brother has a crush on you," Chloe blurts out awkwardly and then winces internally. Wow. Did I really…? "Wow…I don't know why I said that."
"Hey, it's cool," Beca laughs, setting the plastic guitar next to the drum set. "I don't know who your brother is anyway."
"Are you going to clean up this stuff?" Really, by now Chloe's just looking for anything to say.
"Nah, it's not my garbage. The guys can clean up their own shit." The brunette raises an eyebrow at her before deciding to ask, "Do you play Guitar Hero?"
"Oh, not really," Chloe shakes her head, glad for the smooth transition back to the original topic. "I've watched my brother and his friends play before."
"Want to learn?"
She laughs before realizing that Beca's serious. "Oh, I don't know, I'm not good at video games."
"I'm a good teacher," Beca teases, her mouth still in a smirk. "Unless you have somewhere better to be."
Maybe it's the easy confidence that the other girl displays that causes Chloe to nod.
"Yeah, okay. If it's not too much trouble, of course," she sets her purse on the floor next to the couch. Chloe walks over to Aubrey and quietly explains to her that she and Benji should go on to the restaurant without her.
"Trouble? Well that's to be determined," Beca winks when she arrives back in front of the screen.
For no real reason, Chloe finds herself flushing at the words. What's wrong with her? She's acting crazy.
"Okay, are you right or left handed?" Chloe holds up her right hand and Beca loops the strap over her head, her fingers brushing by the taller girl's neck. "Now, your left hand is gonna wanna grip the neck of the guitar like this," Beca moves Chloe's fingers purposefully over the colored frets. "Pointer finger on green, middle finger on red, ring finger on yellow and pinky on blue."
"But what about orange?" Chloe looks at their fingers splayed over the colors.
Beca moves behind her, her left hand never leaving Chloe's and reaches around the redhead to rest her hand on the right side of the guitar. "You can either move just your pinky to cover that bottom button," she demonstrates, "Or you can shift all four of your fingers down so that the top green button is uncovered."
Her breath is warm on Chloe's shoulder and strangely, her gut tightens. It must just be the close proximity.
"Now, your right hand," Beca's hand covers her free one and Chloe jumps a bit. "Whoa, calm down."
Blushing, Chloe apologizes, "Sorry, you startled me."
"So your right hand has three jobs, but for now just use it to strum," Beca moves Chloe's hand purposefully down over the strumming bar causing it to click. "Yeah, like that."
"Okay, and I just strum and press down on one of the colors?"
"Yeah, it'll tell you on the screen which fret to press," Beca sits behind the drum set, pulling out the drumsticks casually before selecting a song. "Don't worry, I've put it on no fail and easy mode."
"I'm a professional please," Chloe laughs, finally feeling a bit more normal now that she can breathe again.
But it's trickier than it looks and Chloe stumbles on the first few notes before getting the hang of it. Beca skillfully hits the drums, purposefully missing some notes in favor of singing along with the song.
"Shot through the heart, but you're to blame! You give love a bad name!"
An unbidden smile makes its way onto her face.
"Hey," Beca's voice makes her snap back to attention, "I'm doing all the work here, darling."
Chloe sticks her tongue out, but actually puts some effort into getting the notes right.
When the song ends, the screen fades out to "You rock!" Two percentages flash across the screen quickly, but Beca hits one of her drum pads and skips it. She pauses the game with a quick look towards Chloe.
"Not bad," she says approvingly. "I'm a damn good teacher, aren't I?"
"You barely did anything," Chloe mocks. "Was all me."
"Please."
"I do have a question though," she takes off the guitar and gently props it against the wall.
"Shoot."
"I saw you spin your drum sticks mid song, does that give you extra points or something?"
Beca laughs at that, "No, no it doesn't. It's just me having some fun."
"Doesn't that mean you miss some of the notes though?" Chloe's genuinely curious how a serious gamer can bear to lose points.
"Well," the brunette is a bit serious now, looking her straight in the eyes, "It's not always about hitting all the right notes."
"That's very deep," Chloe comments.
Beca shakes her head and shrugs it off, "Just how I am. So, C-Chloe, why don't you give me your number and I can teach you more Guitar Hero stuff."
"Only if you stop calling me C-Chloe."
"Not a chance," Beca wets her lips.
"364," Chloe says, "You'll have to work for the rest then."
"Alright, alright. Chloe, it is."
It'd be easy to give Beca her number, but there's something just fun about withholding. "Too late." Chloe grabs her purse and jogs out of the lobby calling out over her shoulder, "Bye!"
"Your crush is capital G gay," Aubrey announces to Jesse as he bursts into their room.
"What?"
Chloe shoots a glare at her roommate, "Shut up!"
"What's this about?" Jesse scrunches his nose, confused.
"Nothing," Chloe says with an air of finality.
Evidently, Aubrey doesn't pick up on the hint, "The video game girl is gay."
"Did she say that?"
"No," through narrowed eyes, Chloe slaps Aubrey's shoulder reprimanding her, "Aubrey is just jumping to conclusions."
"Wait, you guys talked to her?"
"Sort of-"
"Please, she was hanging all over Chloe," Aubrey rolls her eyes and flips through her magazine absentmindedly.
Jesse looks to his sister for confirmation. She resists the urge to slug her roommate, "We talked. We played Guitar Hero. That's it."
"Wow, so you're a babe magnet?" He looks at her in awe. "You should introduce me to her, like officially, since you're friends with her now."
"No," Chloe snorts. "Literally, we're acquaintances, if even that, okay?"
"She asked for Chloe's number," Aubrey interrupts, nonchalantly raising a hand waving Chloe's rage off. "If that's not flirting, I don't know what is."
"It was not flirting." Although, now she does wonder. Was it flirting? Was she flirting back? Oh God, what?
"You didn't even see how hard video game girl tried to play off as cool," the blonde girl finally looks up at the two siblings.
"Beca," Chloe states, "Her name is Beca."
Jesse flops onto her bed and grins, "Wow, you got her name? That's amazing. You should totally like go covert ops and find out about her for me."
"What? No!"
"Come on, Chloe, I'm your favorite brother!"
Shaking her head, Chloe scoffs, "And only brother."
"Precisely! Think of how happy you'd make me," he pouts, trying his best to adopt a puppy dog look.
"No! Do your dirty work yourself."
He sighs, "What good is a baby sister if I can't boss her around?"
Chloe grabs him around the neck and pecks his cheek, "Aw, you're so cute. But still no."
"I still think she's gay," Aubrey fakes a smile towards Jesse.
"You also thought Luke was straight," Chloe points out.
"He seemed pretty straight, okay?"
"My point has been proven."
About a week later, Chloe gets a call from a contact she's never seen before. B?
"Hello?"
"Hey," comes through her phone clearly, "So you want to hang out some time?"
"Uhm, who is this?"
"Beca," is the response, "Guitar Hero, you remember, yeah?"
"How did you get my number? Wait, why are you listed as a contact in my phone?"
"Trade secret," Beca sounds smug. "Come on, you know you want to learn more Guitar Hero."
"I don't know, dude," Chloe is dubious. "This is pretty creepy. I think you're stalking me."
"Says the girl who watched me beat some loser gamers' asses from the corner?"
"That was a public area!"
There's a laugh from the other side before Beca speaks, "Well, I figure I've got a knack for teaching video games, so come on."
"Fuck," Chloe swears. "Okay. Sure. I'm insane," she chuckles.
"You and me both, dear."
"So see this bar underneath the strumming bar?" Beca points it out for her.
"Yeah, it spins."
"Uh, well, that's not what it's meant to do," the brunette presses down on it. "It's a whammy bar, it does this like vibrato on the note."
"Okay, vibrato I know. I played violin for a few years," Chloe shares without really thinking about it.
"Really?" Beca's actually genuinely interested, something that takes the redhead back a bit. "What other instruments have you played?"
"Just violin and flute."
"Wicked," she grins.
Chloe blushes, again, she's not sure why. It must be that she's letting Aubrey's comments get to her. It's extremely possible that Beca isn't flirting with her, she's just being friendly.
"So last time you played in easy mode. That only uses the first three buttons. So today we're going to try medium and that's the top four buttons, okay?"
"Can I choose the song?"
Taken aback by the random request, Beca hums, "Hmm…sure."
"That one."
"Paralyzer? Girl's got some good taste in music."
The redhead merely smiles.
Another week passes before she hears from Beca again. This time when she sees the caller is from B, Chloe lets it ring a few times, deliberating whether to pick up or not.
"This is ridiculous," she tells herself.
So she picks up, and from the other side, Beca starts talking right away, "You wanna hang out again?"
"Are we friends or something?" Chloe bites her lip, inwardly cursing herself for letting that question slip out.
"Sure, if you want to be."
It's a neutral answer and Chloe doesn't know what to say to that. So she does what she does best. Spew random crap. "It's just, my brother really likes you. I don't know why. Oh, not that you don't have good qualities, I mean, if I was a guy I would totally like you too! I mean that he's never talked to you or anything."
There's silence from the other side of the line and Chloe panics, "I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. Okay, I'm not gay. That's it. I just have to say it. I'm not. And maybe you're not gay either and you're just being friendly, but I just felt like, I don't know. Nevermind."
There's another long silence.
"Beca?"
"You're cute when you ramble."
She's relieved that Beca's still listening, but also horrified because she's still listening!
"Okay. You're going to have to be a little more specific than that, because I am dying here," Chloe says, a little out of breath.
"Dramatic much, Chloe?"
"It's just, I'm so confused."
"What are you confused about?"
"Like, what are we doing?"
Beca replies patiently, "We're two girls who play Guitar Hero together."
"Oh. Okay." She feels kind of silly now. And embarrassed.
"But yes, I am so gay that your brother would not have a chance with me even if he was Zeus himself. And I am really into you."
"Oh," Chloe says. "Okay."
"And if that's awkward, we don't have to hang out or anything."
She wonders how Beca's able to sound so casual after such an admittance. "No, no. It's not awkward."
"How can you possibly be into me?" She doesn't mean for that to be the first thing she asks, but it is.
Beca looks up at her, amused, "You're cool."
"No, I mean like we've only talked like four times," Chloe elaborates. "But thank you, I mean, I guess I'm cool."
"Well, your brother has a crush on me, yeah? Don't think I've even met him."
That's true. Well, they have met, but it seems Beca doesn't remember.
"He just likes you 'cause you're hot and you play video games," Chloe tries to explain her thinking. "And I don't-"
"So I'm hot?" A small smirk is playing on her lips.
"No! I mean yes! But not in that way!" She sighs. "I just mean, he likes what he sees on the surface."
"Maybe I like what I see on the surface for you," Beca shrugs.
"Oh," Chloe says. "I guess I just expected girls to be less shallow or something."
"Look," the brunette lays back on the couch, one arm hooked over the side, "I think you're gorgeous, yeah. I also think you're fucking adorable. And I like hanging out with you, even if we've mostly been playing video games and making awkward small talk. When I say I'm into you, I mean I think you're someone I could see myself dating and that in all of our conversations, you haven't raised any red flags."
That's probably the longest thing Beca's ever said to her. "Red flags?"
"Like you haven't said that you support Todd Akin or that your favorite band is the Spice Girls."
For some reason that makes her giggle, "Those are red flags for you?"
"Why? Do you have something to confess?"
"Well neither of those apply to me, so no," Chloe says honestly.
"Good."
"So where does that leave us?"
Beca shrugs, "Let me take you to a movie or something."
"Like, a date?"
"A movie. Straight girls do that, don't they?"
Chloe flushes, "I mean, yeah, I guess."
"Hey, you're straight, I get it," Beca says. "I just wanna hang out with you."
"I mean…can it be a date?"
That surprises the other girl, "Yeah, yeah, it can be."
"Am I doing this right? I've never asked out another girl before."
Beca smirks, "Life's not always about hitting all the right notes."
"Fine! I'll mash all the frets because I know it annoys you."
The brunette cuts her off with a swift kiss to her cheek, "As long as you hit some of the notes."
"You went on a date with video game girl?" Aubrey and Jesse accost her afterwards.
Chloe shrugs happily.
"You totally did!"
"And you said I had terrible taste in women!" Jesse shakes his head, "Oh, I'm telling Mom and Dad."
"No you aren't."
"Yes, I am."
"Only one way to solve this, Jesse," Chloe throws her hands up.
The two of them nod seriously, "Guitar Hero showdown."
The day before the Guitar off, Beca and Chloe go on a date at a local restaurant.
"So you're having a Guitar Hero showdown…?"
"Yep."
Beca quirks her mouth, "To prove what exactly?"
"Sibling rights over you."
"Sibling rights? Sorry, I'm an only child, you're gonna have to explain that."
"Well, this is going to sound weird, but Jesse saw you first, so technically he should be the one to take you out," Chloe clarifies. "But you asked me out before he asked you, so it's equal footing right now."
Slightly irritated, Beca coughs, "So isn't it basically just who I choose?"
"Well, if he wins, I can't rub it in his face that you chose me and if I win, he has to promise to back down completely and not tell Mom and Dad until I decide to."
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Beca's annoyance fades slightly.
"Beale-Swanson tradition."
"So you pretended to be shit at Guitar Hero so you could talk to me?"
Biting her lip, Chloe admits, "Yeah. Are you mad?"
"I mean, if you wanted to hang out with me, you totally could've just asked," Beca chuckles dryly, "I guess I'm not mad, just kind of sad that you thought you had to pretend to be something you're not."
"You know some people you meet that just make you nervous right away?"
"Yeah, like professors."
"Well, it might be because they look like a serial killer or they're really intense or something."
Beca raises an eyebrow, "What are you trying to say here?"
"You make me nervous, you might've noticed," Chloe plays with the hem of her shirt. "But it's because I like you. Like a lot."
"Well, I guess I can't be mad when you say it like that," Beca says, "Especially since I paid your friend Aubrey to steal your phone and add me as a contact and text me your number."
"What!?"
"Nothing," she plays innocent.
"How do you even know Aubrey?"
"Trade secret."
"Heads or tails?" One of Beca and Jesse's mutual friends, Donald, has a quarter held in his outstretched palm. "Ladies first."
Chloe decides, "Tails."
Donald flips the coin and as it spins in the air, the crowd surrounding them watches it with bated breath. It lands on heads.
Jesse fist pumps and says, "Young Funk."
Watching the events from the corner, Beca wonders just how good Chloe actually is. The song starts and she watches Chloe hit the first few notes perfectly, even using the whammy bar liberally. Even though Beca should really be seeing how Jesse is faring against his sister, she can't peel her eyes away from Chloe's fingers flying up and down the colored frets.
Beca whispers out the side of her mouth to one of her friends, "Is it wrong to be turned on by this?"
He laughs and tells her, "No, I get it completely."
Jesse's fingers fumble over a hammer on and pull off, and he swears as he tries to regain his equal footing.
In an early celebratory gesture, Chloe knocks her shoulder against his, "You made first mistake, I win!"
"You bumped into me, disqualified!" He yells back.
"Oh fuck this," Chloe says, slipping the guitar off and she runs over to Beca and tugs her to her feet. She lifts Beca off her feet and slightly into the air and kisses her fully on the lips.
Caught by surprise it takes Beca a moment before she wraps her arms around Chloe's neck and deepens the kiss. Even though everyone around them is hollering and cheering, she ignores them.
"Was that a forfeit?" Jesse asks.
Chloe sets Beca back on the floor and grins down at her.
The brunette is blushing, the first time Chloe's ever seen her do so, "Geez, when I said hitting all the notes isn't what's important, this is not what I meant."
"Hey," Chloe interjects, "I hit some of them and that's what counts, yeah?"
In response, Beca kisses her.
A/N: Thanks for reading, you guys are great. I love you so you should leave a review ;) See you next chapter! Spoiler: Author.
Extra notes:
1. I looked for pictures/diagrams of the guitar online but couldn't find any. So I took pictures of my own Guitar Hero guitar and labelled it for those of you who don't know what the parts are called. You can find it under FF Extras on my tumblr.
2. My tumblr: amiphobic . tumblr . com. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
Cheers.
