For a long moment, the three of them just stare at each other. Skylar is the one who finally breaks the silence.
"Camp?" he asks, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to talk to you," she explains, "I was starting to think that maybe I'd made a mistake breaking up with you, but obviously you've already moved on."
"I'm sorry if it hurts you to see me with Anna so soon after our breakup, but weren't you the one who said I should follow my heart?" he is visibly agitated, and Anna instinctively reaches for his hand.
"Oh, so she's Anna to you when all you've ever called me is 'Camp'?" Camp scowls.
"You were introduced to me as Camp. Everyone here calls you Camp. If you didn't like it you should've told me," Skylar says, trying to keep his voice calm.
"Maybe I should go," Anna says quietly to Skylar.
"No, stay," Camp says to her, looking at their joined hands, "I was a fool for thinking you cared about me, Skylar. I was obviously only ever your second choice."
"That's not true. I did care about you. I still do. I just want you to be happy," Skylar insists.
"I should have known," Camp says, more to herself, "When you wouldn't get rid of her GQ edition, or how you kept obsessing over whether she'd do the sequel, or how you would always mention where she was filming." She trails off, and Skylar gives Anna's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"My feelings for Anna never diminished my feelings for you. It's just different, is all. I don't regret the time we were together, and I hope you don't either. It made me who I am today, and I'm better because of it. Please don't soil what we had together because you're feeling hurt now. You'll find the right person for you, because you're great," Skylar tells Camp.
Camp rolls her eyes, shaking her head at him. She turns to Anna. "I hope he doesn't bore you in the sack like he did me."
"Camp!" Skylar warns, "I think it's time that you go."
Camp turns to open the door. "Don't worry," Anna tells her, "It's not like that with us." She gives her a warm smile, and Camp is seething as she leaves.
Skylar locks the door firmly behind her. "Lesson learned," he points out to Anna, who laughs. "I'm sorry you had to witness that."
"It's ok," Anna replies, "She's just hurting right now, but she'll get over it. Break ups are hard."
"I feel awful," he says, "Because in a way she's right. I have always liked you, but you weren't available, and I never thought you'd return my feelings. It's not like I thought I was settling for her at the time, but when you look back it sure seems like it."
She walks over to him, hugging him tightly. "Is it true what she said about the GQ magazine? Did you really keep it?"
"Keep it?" he replies incredulously, "That thing is like my Bible. I remember when it showed up in the mail, I had no idea you had done a photo shoot. And then at first I almost didn't recognize you, because it was so different from your usual photographs. Holy hell, Anna. You were smokin' hot in there. Camp kept trying to recycle the thing and I kept fishing it out of the bin. I finally hid it under my mattress."
"Like a teenager hiding porn from his mother!" Anna teases, laughing. "Want me to recreate a few poses for you?" She jumps up on the arm of the couch, sitting and leaning back while chewing on her finger suggestively. He gapes at her.
"Not fair," he says, "Because my break is over and I have to head back to the set and finish up with the Trebles."
"Yeah, I have to head back to the Bellas," she replies. She gives him a slow, lingering kiss before turning to leave. "Will I see you tonight?" she asks hopefully.
"I'll be there, if only just to sleep," he promises, and she smiles as she leaves.
There's a murmuring on the set when Anna returns. The girls are huddled together, talking about something, but as soon as one of them sees her it breaks up immediately, no one willing to make eye contact with her. "Ok guys, spill," she tells them, "What's up?"
"Camp was just here," Rebel says, coming forward, "Ranting and raving about how she walked in on you and Skylar making out."
The girls are all looking at Anna expectantly, their curiosity evident. "Ok, yes," Anna begins, "Skylar and I are together, and have been for about a week now. It's new, and we know that a lot of you are friends with Camp, so we were trying to keep it private for now. We were going to tell everyone once things got serious."
"So are things serious?" Alexis wonders.
"Well…yes," Anna answers. "We really care about each other."
"Do you love him?" Hana Mae asks.
Anna pauses. It's not the first time she's thought about this question, but she's never vocalized it before. "Yes, I do," she replies.
"Awwww," the girls say in unison, and Anna rolls her eyes at them.
"Is he good in bed?" Rebel asks.
Anna blushes a dark red, and covers her face in her hands. "I'll take that as a yes!" Rebel yells happily, and they all laugh.
Meanwhile, across the set, Skylar is facing a similar scene. The guys are a little bit blunter about it than the girls. "So dude, we hear you and Kendrick are hooking up!" Adam says.
Skylar notices that Ben backs off a little from the group, and won't look at him directly. "Yeah," he says, "But it's not just hooking up. We're together. We've been seeing each other for about a week now."
"What's she like?" Michael asks. "She's hot, that's for sure."
"She's amazing," Skylar replies.
"You lucky bastard," Utkarsh says, smacking him on the back, "None of us could get a woman like her."
"And believe us, we've tried!" David exclaims, and everyone laughs.
They spend the next few hours filming, and it's around dinner time when they finally wrap for the day. Skylar picks up his phone to text Anna, and there are a zillion missed calls, voicemails, and texts from practically everyone he knows.
"The cat's out of the bag," he says out loud before typing his message to Anna.
Want me to bring dinner to your place in a half hour or so?
She picks up her phone as it buzzes, and is met with a similar display of calls, texts, and messages.
Sure thing, sounds great.
By the time he arrives, even her publicist has called her, asking about details of her relationship with Skylar. She gives the woman vague answers, saying that yes they are dating, but that she wants to keep the details private.
"I think we blew up Tumblr and Twitter simultaneously," she tells him as she opens the door.
"News travels fast," he agrees, shaking his head. "I guess we'll just have to wait it out. It will die out eventually when something juicier comes along."
"Have you seen my Twitter?" she asks him, "I have about a hundred people with names almost identical to mine telling the world they're dating you. I tried to check it a few minutes ago, and there were so many messages it crashed my phone!"
"So take a little hiatus from everything until things calm down. We're the romantic leads in two big movies now, people are going to be excited about it," he replies, handing her the bag of Taco Bell that he brought for their dinner.
She looks down at it and smiles, "Oh my God I love you!" she says throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. "How did you know that this was exactly what I needed?"
He freezes, wondering if she meant what she said, or even if she realizes it. Anna pulls back for a minute and looks into his eyes. "I meant it," she says, seemingly reading his mind yet again, "I love you Skylar."
"I love you too," he says, kissing her softly.
"You do?" she asks.
"Yes," he replies. "I was waiting for the perfect time to tell you."
"Sorry," she smiles at him. "But Taco Bell is clearly the way into my heart."
He laughs, reaching into the bag and handing out the food.
"The girls asked how you are in bed," she tells him, and he nearly chokes.
"And what did you tell them?" he says, still coughing.
"I didn't say anything, and Rebel just assumed from my expression that you're great. Which you are, for the record," she adds.
"Why thank you. The guys were asking me questions about you too. They all think you're hot, by the way, and said I was lucky to have you," he winks at her.
"Yeah right," she shakes her head, tossing her hair playfully around, "You know me and my constant entourage of men following me around. Ah, woe is me."
They're both laughing again. "I'm glad you're here," she tells him.
"Me too," he says. They finish eating, trading stories of the day.
"Are you staying over?" she asks as she gets up from the table and starts clearing it off.
"I guess I can now that everyone knows about us," he replies. He kicks off his shoes and sits on the sofa, patting the space beside him.
"I'm going to go change, I'll be right back," she tells him, disappearing into the bedroom.
He switches on the television, flipping through the channels as he waits for her to return. It seems like she's taking an awfully long time, so he stands and knocks on the bedroom door. "Anna? Are you ok in there?"
"I'll be out in a minute," she calls to him, so he settles himself back on the sofa. A minute later, she emerges, wearing black stilettos, a black blazer, and nothing else. She's done her makeup differently, and teased her hair out so that it has more volume than usual. He swallows hard as she perches on the edge of table they just finished eating on and crosses her legs, letting the blazer fall open and revealing something lacy underneath.
"So," she says, her tone sultry, "A tall blonde ex-birdie told me that you might have enjoyed those GQ photos, so I thought I'd recreate them for you."
She leans forward, giving him a clear view of her cleavage, and he can't take his eyes off her. "Besides," she adds, "We didn't get to finish what we started this afternoon…unless, you're too tired?"
He's on his feet in a flash. He walks over to her, running his hand up her bare thigh and fingering the soft lace underneath her blazer. "Definitely not too tired," he smiles, uncrossing her legs and standing between them. He leans down, capturing her lips with his own, kissing her breathless.
"Those chumps are right," he smiles into her lips, "I am one lucky guy. Hopefully you won't grow bored of me. Apparently I have that effect on women."
"We'll just have to make sure to keep things interesting," she replies, trailing her fingers down his chest. He shivers under the sensation.
"I think we'll manage," he breathes, returning his mouth to hers. As she wraps her legs around his waist, he pushes her blazer off her shoulders and to the floor. "I love you, Anna Kendrick," he whispers into her ear as he carries her in the direction of the bedroom.
"I love you too, Skylar Astin Lipstein," she returns, and he chuckles as he lowers her to the bed. "Death of me," he murmurs as she pulls him on top of her.
But what a way to go.
A/N: For those of you who've asked, there's a reason why I'm not mentioning specific songs in this story. It's because I can't even begin to imagine what songs they might use for the movie, and I have no ability to mix/mash-up songs Beca style. And so, for now I'm going to let you, my readers, decide what songs you think they're singing.
There is no relationship between Stephanie from my other stories and Beth from this story other than the fact that they are both tall and blonde. I make my antagonists tall and blonde because I am neither (and Camp is).
If there's anything you'd like to see happen in this story, let me know!