Welcome to Chapter 7! I finished much sooner than I had hoped and couldn't wait to share it with you!
As always, thanks to everyone for the reviews! They always make me a little more motivated!
So, without further ado. Chapter 7!
The rest of the night went as well as you'd expect.
Once the fire was put out, swarms of bees dissipated and we managed to extricate Jessica from the glass coffee table, we had to explain the entire thing to a very confused Beca—who conveniently managed to miss the entire thing.
Soaked and some of us covered in bee stings, we waited as a group for the paramedics to get the glass out of Jessica's ass and the cops to finish questioning everyone.
"So, what's the plan now?" I wonder aloud, sitting on the edge of the marble steps outside of the hotel. "Impressing DJ Khaled failed horribly, no offense Em, so now what?"
I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the billionaire's shocked look and Calamity's smirk as they stepped off the elevator.
Emily ducks her head down in shame—not that it's her fault Aubrey nearly burned down the entire hotel, though she did accidentally push Jessica and nearly sent her careening towards he death.
"We really screwed up this time," CR agrees, squeezing out water from her braids. "This is some freshman year level Bella shit."
The group—minus Flo, Emily and I—give different sounds of agreement.
Moments later, Jessica returns from the ambulance glass free with Ashley, who went with her for emotional support.
"Okay, girls!" Chloe pops up from her spot on my right. "Let's get some rest because we have to be up early tomorrow to leave."
Her mood has significantly lightened after the previous hour of worrying. Once she made sure I wasn't hurt, she made her way to each of the other Bellas. Its in her nature to take care of her group of friends.
She'd stayed by Aubrey's side once we left the room.
Chloe herds the group across the street, arm in arm with her blonde best friend, leaving her girlfriend to walk with me and mine.
"Did I miss something between the fire and the bees?" Beca asks, indicating the tension between her and Chloe.
"I'm pretty sure ditching her at beginning of the party might've done it," is my sure-fire guess. "But you might have made it worse by ditching her to hang out with the British guy—ouch!" My second theory is cut off by an elbow to the ribs.
Emily shoots me a look, "I think what Grace means to say, is that Chloe's probably really stressed about winning, like with World's, and she wants us to be a united front."
She's obviously trying to sugarcoat the situation because she still idolizes the music producer; however, I don't have the same patience my beautiful girlfriend has.
Opening my mouth to deny her statement, I'm met with another blow to the ribs done conveniently when Beca glances over at her redheaded girlfriend.
"I'm not interested in Theo!" The short brunette's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "He was just showing me Khaled's sweet setup for mixing."
"Keep it in your pants Beca," I snicker, holding the door to our hotel's lobby open for the both of them. Then, in hushed whisper, "We don't need anyone talking about toners again."
"No," she frowns at the memory of the Bellas teasing her about Chloe, "we don't."
"C'mon Beca!" Chloe bounces between the three of us, grabbing her girlfriend's hand rather roughly and dragging her out of the lobby.
"Something tells me there's going to be some very angry sex going on in their room," my comment causes Emily to make a face and stick out her tongue. "Or, Beca's about to be brutally murdered and dumped in the river."
"Alright," Emily sighs, reaching out to grasp my hand. "Let's go to bed before this conversation gets any more uncomfortable."
Shrugging my shoulders, "I tell it like it is, babe," I remind her with a smirk.
She pushes my shoulder playfully, "Okay, Jiminy Cricket. Let's go."
I'd love to say we followed Chloe and Beca's lead, but as soon as we made it back to our room, my girlfriend passed out in the middle of the bed, snoring softly. It's not like I'd have it any other way.
Crawling into bed so that my back was pressed to her front, I felt her arm drape over me and pull me flush into her.
Her soft breath tickled my ear. "I love you."
"Love you, too, Em." I'm compelled to add, "I'm sure the Bellas are gonna kick ass with our next set. DJ Khaled won't know what hit him until we open for him on his tour."
Emily giggles, "Goodnight, Grace."
"Night."
The morning comes with the depressing reminder of how badly we messed up last night.
Since we never showered and went straight to bed, our hair and clothes—well, just our hair, I guess—smelled like a campfire, which meant the entire room smelt the same.
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though.
It meant that we got to take a quick shower together and ended up doing a little more than getting clean. We couldn't completely indulge ourselves in fear of one of the other girls bursting into the room and discovering us.
We'd never hear the end of it and we're kinda on a schedule.
The Bellas—no worse for wear than the fiasco performance where CR got set on fire—sit lined up on benches in front of the hotel with our luggage littered around us, waiting for the van to drive us to the airport.
The best thing about traveling on the USO tour, besides traveling Europe with my girlfriend, is the private jets to each location. No waiting in long TSA lines or planes being delayed for stupid reasons.
"Spain was nice," I interrupt the tense silence from my spot, criss-crossed on the cobblestone. "I've always wanted to see a hotel, casino, and a military base. Now I can cross those off of my list."
My attempt at lighting the mood falls short when Ashley shifts with a pained whimper, reminding me that she took a tumble last night, too. Jessica puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, while Chloe and Emily turn to give her sympathetic looks.
It's a rare moment when anyone besides myself or Emily acknowledges two of them.
At the exact same moment, Saddle Up exits the building wearing equally annoying smiles.
"Well, hey!" The lead singer—who's name I can't remember and don't want to—walks down the steps. "Heard you guys really lit it up last night," The banjo player makes a sad plucking noise on his instrument.
They walk past the group with a laugh.
"That's a great joke, it's really funny," Beca mutters in a monotone.
I feel Emily shift uncomfortably behind me where my back rests against her legs.
"Like a phoenix rising from the ashes," of course Evermoist follows next, Calamity leading them. "Only, a really sad version, where there's no phoenix and only…ash."
Amy, in what might finally be her psychotic breakdown, proceeds laugh as if the woman had just told the funniest joke she's ever held. The Bellas—and Evermoist—watch in a mixture of concern, confusion and shock as the blonde Australian literally chokes on her laughter, causing her to cough wildly. I seriously think she's hacking up a lung as she leans behind Beca and spits.
I have to look away because I can feel my breakfast creeping back up.
"Sorry, I forgot where we were in the conversation."
"Next time, when you're trying to impress DJ Khaled, try to have some dignity." Serenity suggests.
I don't think the Bellas understand the meaning of the word and obviously Fat Amy feels the same because she informs the other group that, "We never do anything with dignity, so…"
"Hey," Beca cuts in before Amy can continue, "where'd you go last night?"
"What, you mean when you were burning down the hotel?"
Honestly, I have to give it to her. That was a seriously good burn.
The music producer doesn't feel the same way. "Dude, where were you?"
"I don't think we really need to hear about Amy's sexual conquest," my words are ignored when Amy informs the group that she was with her father. "Wait…you had sex with your father?!"
Emily nudges me from behind, effectively knocking some sense into me.
"He's been trying to track me down for years and last night he found me!" She looks less-than-pleased about the news.
Aubrey asks the question we're all thinking, "Why are you running from him? I wish my dad would pay attention to me!"
Maybe the Bellas should have a daddy issues support group. Aubrey, Beca, Amy and I could meet every second Friday of the month to discuss our fathers, or their-lack-of.
"Because my dad wasn't a very nice man," Amy swallows, "so when I was eighteen I had to run away. Which was a real bitch because of the chaffing," I doubt she's ever run farther than in Bella cardio sessions—barely, "and now, he's found me and I don't know what to think,"
"I mean, I-I think that's amazing, and so should you," Emily states, supportingly. "I mean, it's a crazy thing that he's finally found you after all these things. Now you can rekindle the relationship and it will be stronger than before. And maybe he was not a nice guy before, but maybe he is now and maybe he's amazing—,"
I'm not sure what's more surprising, Emily trying to recreate a hallmark movie plot, or how Aubrey is being really happy for Amy and not raging with jealously.
What isn't surprising, is how Fat Amy reacts to the advice.
"EMILY, YOU ARE SO SHRILL AND INARTICULATE!"
She lunges towards the girl in question, causing the rest of us to react simultaneously. Beca and Aubrey try to hold Amy back, while I get to my feet quickly and leap onto the blonde's back, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. The others stand near Emily.
"Amy we've talked about this!" I can barely hear Chloe shouting something as I scream at the Australian.
"Stacie's calling on FaceTime!" Chloe says a little louder, which results in the commotion dying down in order for the group to gather around the woman with the phone.
We're all standing on the stairs so we can be in view, myself standing on the step above Chloe and looking over her red hair.
Stacie's face appears on the iPhone, looking tired but happy.
Everyone speaks at once:
"Where are you?"
"Stace, it's going terrible here!"
"Yeah, we gettin' our asses handed to us!"
"Guys," Stacie's soft voice cuts through the noise, "I had the baby."
The…baby?
Holy shit, she had the baby!
The camera pans to an extremely small alien-looking baby, laying on Stacie's stomach with it's eyes wide open.
"He's so cute," Fat Amy comments.
Stacie corrects her, "She's a girl."
"Oh, okay, then average."
I roll my eyes at her response. Only Amy could judge a newborn on looks.
Beca then asks her name, which causes all the Bellas to remind the new mother how much she loves them and that she should name her baby after them. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Aubrey with a pained smile, making me remember my plan to get the two back together at some point.
It might be difficult with the new baby in the mix, but still very possible.
"Guys, I named her Bella," she enunciates the name, drawing it out for emphasis.
It's both cheesy and perfect at the same time, and I can't help my heart melting at the fact. The other's seem to feel the same way, if the chorus of 'aws' is any indicator.
"I think I would make a wonderful godparent," I imply, causing the brunette on the screen to smirk. "Just saying."
"I'll consider it, Grace," she laughs, "I love you guys."
"We love you, too."
"We love you so much! "
"We miss you!"
As Chloe ends the call, Emily steps down and turns to the rest of us. "Guys, can we stop trying to win this tour and just sing together? I mean that's why we're all here right?" She asks.
She's met with silence.
"Yeah!" Aubrey smiles like a shark, "But also, let's still try and win this thing because I don't know how else to live."
Wow.
Aubrey seriously needs to get laid.
Preferably by Stacie.
"Ciao, Bellas!" I've never been more thankful to see Chicago. "Who wants to go to Italy?"
So, with a renewed sense of vigor, the Bellas board the van to the base, excited and ready for the next leg of the tour.
