I dedicate this chapter to Audrey. She is the strongest and bravest little girl I have ever had the honor and pleasure of meeting. She truly lived up to her nickname "Little but fierce." Even at only a little more than a year old I've learned more about strength and courage from her than I could have ever imagined. I know she's in a better place now and will watch over her brothers and sister, but everyone who was able to see her and hear her story will miss her dearly. "It's just a spark, but it's enough to keep me going, and when it's dark out, no one's around, it keeps glowing." Rest in peace Princess Audi we all love you. 3
Emma123: It was seriously the most boring test I've taken in my entire life! I didn't understand how there were people still taking it all day! Although maybe that would be better than going to actual class haha.
thecurlingiron: I'll have to admit that the first sentence was my favorite (: Hahaha seeing as I was shaking just writing her reactions to meeting them you can imagine what it would be like if we actually met them haha. I liked the flashing arrow touch (:
jessicayip792: Thank you very much ma'am!
Lover-Bug: Thank you very much first off and second hopefully you'll like this chapter! It's all Beca and Jesse (:
Anika Swan: You're embarrassing me! (; hahaha jk but thank you so much! You just have to wait til 2015 and then all of us are getting pitch slapped again haha OH MY GOSH YOU COULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SAME SET AS ANNA AND THEN I WOULD WORSHIP THE GROUND YOU WALK ON BECAUSE YOUR FEET WOULD HAVE WALKED ON THE GROUND SHE WALKED ON...do I sound creepy yet? hahaha that seriously would have been so cool though!
Two weeks, many conversations with Hayley Williams, many times spent screaming after said conversations, and a nasty case of sunburn later and the four of us were finally at the island in Greece to spend 2 and a half weeks with Jesse's cousins before we went back to Barden.
Greece was beautiful and Jesse's cousins practically gave us our own house next to their own to stay in, we'd been there for four days.
I woke up with the fluffy cotton comforter wrapped around me, I laid with my eyes closed listening to the sounds of the Grecian town waking up in the early morning. Ugh, why am I up this early? I cracked my eyes open the smallest amount possible and squinted around the white room, I saw the steady rise and fall of Jesse's chest as he slept on beside me, the corners of the blue shutters that were opened out to the world, and the faintest sliver of orange on top of the water in the distance outside our window.
I heard a bump outside and Amber laugh before the front door was opened and then closed with a faint snap. I rolled on my back and tried to get back to sleep, right then Amber and Lincoln walked under our window, "You want to go on a tour of the island at 5:30 in the morning?"
"Yes, that's the best time to see everyone! Plus we can get mopeds," I strained my ears as the sounds of Amber and Lincoln's flip flops slapping the stone street died away.
I rolled over so I was right next to Jesse, so I could listen to him breathing. I propped my head up on my hands and just watched him, a little smile was twitching on his face while he continued to dream, his right hand was curled around the white sheet and the left one was open, palm up, next to me. I was in love with Jesse. There was no way I could deny that to myself anymore as I watched him in his most calm state.
If you had asked me a year ago if I could spend 15 minutes straight just watching someone sleep and breathe I would have laughed in your face and walked away. But it was different now, I could be happy for the rest of my life knowing that he was comfortable and happy and knowing that I could see him like that.
I took my index finger and lightly traced shapes down hist chest and abs, I drew circles around his belly button. My finger grew warm as it continued its path around his chest and arms, I could feel his muscles tense slightly and then release as my finger moved through its course. Jesse was perfect, and kind, and smart, and right in that moment I decided I was going to take him up on his offer to have aca-children when he finally asked for real. I smiled at the thought.
What was happening to me? I was supposed to be Bad Ass Beca Mitchell, the DJ. Now I was laying here planning something other than just becoming a world famous producer, I was planning my life with Jesse.
The sun had climbed up high enough into the sky by 6:20 to pour into our room and bring to light all the little dust particles floating through the air. I finally stopped tracing random patterns and looked out the window to the ocean and the sun that was waking up the other villagers who had slept in a little later that day. The sun splashed over Jesse's face and I watched while his eyelids fluttered at the new brightness.
He smiled as he saw me near his shoulder watching him, he squinted his eyes against the sun and then gave up and decided to turn so he was facing me and blocking the sun's rays. I resumed tracing patters along his arm and smiled up at him, "Good morning, beautiful," his face brightened the longer he watched me.
"Jesse...I love you," I was nervous, but it wasn't like that was the first time we had said that we loved each other. This time it meant more to me because I'd never meant it so much before in my life. My heart tugged in my chest as I took in his smile with the sun streaming over his shoulder, he was blocking it enough so I didn't have to squint at him.
"I love you too, Beca," he wrapped his arms around me and I buried my face in his chest, breathing in the smell of him and memorizing the sound of his beating heart.
"No, I mean like, Jesse Swanson, I love you. You make me nervous in all the right ways and you make me happy and I love you," he looked a little surprised that I had just opened up this much to him.
"Beca, are you sure? You're not just saying that because it will make me happy?"
"Jesse, I've never loved someone so much in my life, not even my dog Samson and that was the best damn dog in the world," I smiled while I laughed at comparing my love for Jesse to a dog. "I mean I know we've had our problems and we fight and argue over movies, but I still feel the same way I did when I kissed you at the ICCA's except it's so much...muchier."
He burst out laughing and pulled me as close to him as possible, "Well my love for you is so much, muchier too," he leaned his head down and kissed my forehead for a few seconds, I could feel his breath hot against my skin. "I have something to show you! Get dressed, um, put a bathing suit on under your clothes too, and I'll pack us breakfast and lunch!" He jumped out of bed then stared down at me all wound up in the sheets, he leaned over and picked me up in his arms. "I love you," he kissed me lightly then set me on my feet.
I could hear him moving around the kitchen for about 15 minutes before he joined me in the bathroom to get dressed. I got him to tie the straps of my blue bikini before I slid on a pair of cut-offs and a tank top. He put on his board shorts and a striped wife beater and grabbed my hand to pull me out of the bathroom. We got our shoes on and he picked up a picnic basket off the kitchen counter. "I'm hungry," I whined.
"When aren't you?" he asked as he intertwined our fingers and smiled up at the bright sun out side the white stucco house. "Hey, Trip!" Jesse called out to his Greek-god-look-a-like cousin who was walking on the balcony above us. His real name was Triptolemus but seeing as none of us could pronounce it he told us to call him Trip. "Tell thea Beca and I are probably gonna be gone until dinner, I'm gonna give her a tour of the island."
Trip turned around and glanced down at us,"Ah sure, Jesse. Do you know where your other friends have gone?" he had taken a liking to Amber and he hadn't been hiding it well.
I spoke before Jesse could, "I heard them at like 5:30 Amber said she wanted to ride mopeds around here today with Lincoln."
"Ah, I hope that Amber and Lincoln," I could hear the jealousy in his voice and tried hard not to laugh, "know their way around well enough for that. Well, have fun today, I'll tell my mom what you said," he turned around and walked back into the house.
Jesse led me up the narrow white steps to a path that went along the mountains surrounding the water. "Don't trip, Beca," he laughed at me as I stumbled along the earthy path. It was cooler under the shade of the trees along the edges of the path, Jesse and I talked about everything.
"Jesssse, I'm hungry!" I trudged along after ten minutes of walking. My stomach was twisting and growling from the lack of food.
"We're almost there, okay, just hold your horses," he stopped so I could jump on his back. I turned my head to the right and placed it on his shoulder so I could watch the ocean from my perch, I'd noticed the ground had been sloping down for awhile. "Alright, we're here," he said excitedly as we reached rocks that jutted out into the ocean. "Come on," he made his way carefully across the rocks after he placed me on my feet.
I stood there trying to figure out the best way for me to not kill myself when he disappeared behind a rock, "Shit, Jesse, where'd you go? This isn't funny, I'm really hungry!" I wobbled along the rocky surface to the place where he had disappeared, there were makeshift steps in the rocks that led down to the water. I clung to the side of the rock as I slowly climbed down to meet my boyfriend.
"Look!" he pointed excitedly into what I thought would be solid rock but was actually a little cove with water and a rock which served as a little picnic table. "Apparently my great great grandfather and his brother worked years to carve this out when they were younger. Trip and I used to come here all the time and play when I visited." He sloshed through the shallow water and started to unpack the picnic basket.
"I have juice pouches!" he threw one to me and I caught it and joined him at the rock.
"And you actually have a girlfriend this time," I smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. "This place is cool!" I sat down on the rock and started to devour the yogurt he pulled out of the picnic basket. "Is that thing insulated? Because it doesn't look like it is," he showed me the inside while I continued to shove more food in my mouth. He laughed at me and then started eating too.
"So I was thinking we should go swimming today, and I want to take you out on the boat, and we'll eat lunch on the water," he raised his eyebrows to ask if I had any questions. I nodded my head and took a chunk out of an apple.
"There's no food for lunch," I pointed out after looking in the basket again. "Was your great great grandfather's name Perceus?" I was looking on the wall where the name was carved deeply in the stone walls.
"Yep!" he looked happily at the name on the wall. "Lunch has been prearranged to be on the boat," he winked at me.
"You're such a weirdo."
We spent the morning swimming and taking the boat all around the island. At one point we thought we saw Amber and Lincoln, but then whoever it was sped off on their mopeds. At around noon Jesse pulled me out of the water and we laid out in the sun until we dried off. "Lunch time!" Jesse rolled over and then jumped down the steps that led to the little room under the boat. He came back out with another basket.
"We have home made goat cheese, some sparkling grape juice per request, and a whole bunch of other stuff I don't feel like listing," he sat down on the boat next to me and started doling out food. These are the days I like the most with Jesse, the days where we just hang out and talk about everything possible.
We looked out over the water as we ate contentedly under the sun, "Trip really likes Amber," I said as I sipped my glass of grape juice. I watched as a little boat with two people was making it's way past our boat.
"Yeah, my thea likes her too. Lincoln better make sure he's got a good hold on her," he laughed and slung his arm over my shoulder and brought my head over so he could kiss my forehead. The little boat was getting closer now.
"I've had fun today-"
"Oh, we thought that was you two!" Lincoln yelled as the little boat pushed its way through the water towards us. "Whatcha doing?" he brought the boat to as much a halt as he could, Amber was sitting towards the end of the boat in her bikini and a big sun hat with her head in a book and her foot trailing in the water.
"Lincoln, they're having a romantic day, keep moving," she looked up from her book for a fraction of a second to wink at me before her eyes were dating back and forth on the pages again.
"My sentiments exactly," I said with a laugh.
"Fine I'll go. Ooh give me a sip!" He reached his hand up for Jesse's cup who handed it down to him. After he was satisfied with the amount he'd consumed he made a grand exit with a whoosh of a paddle. When they were a little farther out I hear Lincoln say "Amber, look," he was balancing the paddle on his hand, she rocked back and forth and it fell over. "Hey, that was awesome and you messed it up," she leaned over and quickly fished the paddle out of the blue water with a laugh.
"I'm sorry," she shakily got up and kissed him. Then he dragged them both overboard, I burst out laughing as I watched them. Amber came up first laughing just as hard as I was. It took them forever to get back in the boat, they obviously didn't do that a lot. Before Lincoln started rowing again Amber curled up and relaxed against his legs with her book. Pretty soon they were a speck out in the distance.
I had been laying on my side watching Jesse again as he laid on his back soaking up the sun. I crept over to him and kissed him, his eyes sprang open and he grabbed me then rolled us over. He smiled down at me as he pushed my hair behind my ears and kissed me lightly. "You're beautiful," he kissed me again but this time I held him longer.
"How many kids do you want?" I asked out of the blue. He looked down at me in shock then rolled off so he was at my side with his arm still around me.
"Um...four, just like my family-"
"I like four," I agreed with him.
"Why? Aw, fuck. Beca, you're not pregnant are you? Shit my mom's gonna kill me-"
"What? No!I was just wondering!" I replied hastily while it looked like he was searching frantically for the nearest cliff to jump off.
"Oh," he relaxed some, "Okay. Then four definitely four." he kissed me one more time before he got up and jumped in the water.
The rest of our days passed the same way while we were in Greece. We got up early but I started to like it because it meant I could spend more time with Jesse. By the time we were set to leave we had explored the whole island, swam at our favorite spots, and we carved our names in the little cove Perceus and his brother made.
We'd rarely seen Amber and Lincoln, they were always just as busy as we were, much to Trip's annoyance. He was still trying to make a move on Amber whenever Lincoln left her side, which was very rarely. Every night the whole family gathered at Jesse's thea's house for dinner so that's when we caught up with the other two.
On our last night Jesse's family threw us a big goodbye party, most of the island showed up and there was a ton of dancing and drinking. Trip had finally gotten the courage to kiss Amber and she'd run away real fast after that with Lincoln, I'm still not sure if he saw it or not. Most of the islanders had hobbled off to their houses and now there was a huge mess to clean up. Aubrey would have had more fun cleaning than at the party I thought and laughed to myself.
"Hey, Sophie," I walked up to Jesse's thea. She was his father's sister but she had decided to go back to the place her parents had grown up when she started her own family. She still had her American accent so very much unlike her son and husband who both had thick Greek accents. "Do you need any help?" I motioned to the aftermath of the party.
"Oh no, Beca, sweetie. You and Jesse can just go off to bed, you have a lot of traveling to do tomorrow. Tell Amber and Lincoln I said goodnight...I didn't see them leave, I must have been busy." I guess she didn't know what her son had done.
"Thank you for everything, Sophie, it's been so great!" she leaned forward to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"It's been a pleasure to have you four here! You're welcome to come back whenever you want! Just, Beca," she leaned in a little more, "take care of Jesse. He really loves you." I nodded my head and walked across the moonlit patio to our little vacation home.
I walked through the kitchen past Amber and Lincoln's room to Jesse's and mine. The rooms were on opposite sides of the house, I was thankful for this tonight because Lincoln and Amber didn't seem to be having a problem with Trip kissing her. "Jess?" He lifted his head up from where it was on the pillow, the room was filled with moonlight when I walked in.
"I'll be right there," I went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, I came out in a tank top and a pair of his old boxers. "I don't want to go," I mumbled as I slid under the sheets to cuddle with him.
"Me neither, I love this. It just being me and you," he kissed me and I saw his eyes start to close slowly and open even slower.
"I love it too, we need to go away just you and me sometimes during the school year okay?"
"Yeah," he whispered as he failed to open his eyes that time. I smiled up at my sleepy boyfriend and kissed his jaw.