Chapter 11

We Won't

2 years ago

"Oh god, bitch wake up! Look at the time! We have to go to work!" Stacie comes barging in Beca's room waking her up from her precious slumber and yanking out her blanket harshly. Beca helplessly groans and glares or at least try to give out a glare her sleepy face could make.

"Why?" she whines as she realizes how early it still is and gets dragged just as harshly out of bed that she thought she lost an arm.

"Today's the day Calvin Harris and Chloe Beale are going to be at our radio station!" Stacie almost screams excitedly as she pushes a disoriented Beca in the bathroom and before Beca could even turn around completely she has her towel thrown at her face. Taking the cloth off of her head she faces her smirking best friend who then slams the door in front of her face before she could say 'Don't'.

"Hurry up and don't you dare go back to sleep! I don't want to be late so if you aren't out in 15 minutes I'm coming in and scrubbing you from head to foot," Stacie threatens rather seriously and Beca sighs heavily, looking at her reflection in the mirror drearily.

Kidding aside, she did thought of sitting in a corner of the bathroom and getting some more sleep.

It's been almost three months since the music festival and ever since then Beca had been following the blue-eyed superstar in social media—yes Beca has Instagram and Twitter which were almost non-existent until three months ago. By now, Chloe has dropped singles off her album, one of them being that amazing collaboration with the said DJ. Of course, relationship rumours sparked from the collaboration and T-Swift fans aren't happy about it. Beca chooses not to believe in it though and thinks the stupid gossip was just created by those annoying paparazzi to create scandals regarding the beautiful singer.

Shaking her head, Beca finally discards all her clothes and enters the shower stall, with the hopes that the warm water coursing through her skin clears her mind of things. However, that special memory from the music festival unconsciously plays through her thoughts like a broken record on repeat.

She was going to see her again.

There's no denying it, her heart thumps excitedly at the prospect of bumping into Chloe once more. In contrary to that, her mind keeps telling her that there is no way she would even remember her. She was easily forgettable to anyone if she were to base it on experience. But it wasn't bad to hope, right? Even though hope wasn't a friend of hers. The only kind of hope she is very familiar with is false hope which has been her constant companion ever since she was a child.

Her thoughts are cut short at the sudden loud knocking coming from the outside followed by her best friend's incessant prodding, "10 more minutes, Mitchell!" and Beca's heart almost leaps out from her chest. On the other hand, her soap flies out of her grasp which earns a big fat crispy string of curses.

"I know where you keep your sex stash!" she yells back threateningly which Stacie counters with a, "I'm holding your laptop hostage right now!" earning a frustrated growl from Beca.

"I hate you," she mutters only to be replied by a very assertive, "I heard that!" and Beca could only shake her head.

Needless to say, she safely got her laptop back before her psychopath best friend starts doing physics experiments with it from the balcony.

Currently, Beca is just about to do her usual morning military exercise as she and Stacie navigate through the early morning traffic because every day is certainly a battle. After parking their dying car a couple of blocks away, they quickly jog to the radio station. Beca hurriedly rolling up her earphones around her iPod before placing it in her jeans pocket while Stacie checks her appearance on anything that has reflective glass. When they near the entrance however, Beca almost makes a quick turn and jog back home at the sight of fans, lots of overly excited and enthusiastic fans waiting for their idols to drop by in a couple of hours.

For some reason, security has only started barricading the entrance with crowd control barriers, and this leaves them to fight their way through countless bodies in front of them. Beca gets pushed and almost shoved to the ground if it weren't for Stacie who literally grabbed her to safety.

"Make way bitches! I have a 5 year old child with me!" her best friend yells and Beca instinctively nudges her best friend's side with her elbow for the undying height joke. Once they enter the safety of the station's glass doors they heave a sigh of relief and Beca almost kisses the floor, happy to have survived the war.

"Hey Allan, quiet morning we have today," Stacie breathlessly greets the head of security who gives her a tired smile. "Just wait, it's going to get more peaceful later," he scoffs before eyeing Beca, hunched over with her hands on her knees.

"Yo, panda, need an ambulance?" he asks jokingly calling his nickname for her while she throws another glare at him, her dark blues almost reflecting her heavy black eye make-up. "You get funnier every day, baldy," she replies, throwing shade at the shiny spot on the middle of his head.

What a peaceful day indeed.

Getting down to work, Beca manages to run here and there, serving coffee, plugging and unplugging wires, fetching material for today's morning show while Stacie works on her PR skills as she handles the numerous phone calls they get every day, a job Beca couldn't do for a long period of time since she'd surely end up breaking the phone in frustration—it's surprising how stupid people are nowadays.

Entering the booth, Beca places the coffee next to one of their main FM radio jockeys, Dan 'The Man' Fletcher, along with the papers filled with announcements, sponsors, endorsements, invitations and promotional game questions. She then continues to place water bottles in front of the empty seats where their guests will be sitting later on. She lingers for a moment at the seat that Chloe would supposedly sit on before getting back into motion and slipping out of the main booth and into the control room. Taking her place behind their radio director who then starts signalling the time towards Dan through the see-through glass. Beca stands anxiously, ready to do whatever she'll be told to do as always. After some last minute check-ups they are finally on-air.

The clock ticks and everyone is just filled with tension and anticipation for the arrival of their main guests. Based on the number of people tuning in, they'd surely get a good rating today. It's the Chloe Beale magic and Beca isn't even surprise. The girl has conquered not only the radio waves and the gigantic billboards all over the city but also the big screen. Not to mention, a very strong fan base which has even doubled after the sudden change of genre.

Surely, anyone who can win Beca Mitchell's attention is undoubtedly a goddess.

But when their director turns to Beca and asks her to go down to the stockroom on the 3rd floor to search for an extra stuffed toy of the radio mascot, the hopes of getting front row seats to see Chloe again plummet down hard to the ground. Their room was already filling up with staff from all the departments who all want a glimpse of the famous redhead—and okay maybe the 'hot' DJ too. By the time she returns she'd be lost in the forest of tall people hovering around the booth.

So yeah, Beca is pissed and disappointed. If it wasn't for her iPod providing comfort in music, she would have created havoc. Instead, there she was diving in boxes and boxes of stuff in search for a stupid toy that one of her bosses' kids would be throwing away later. When she does find the object of her suffering smiling mockingly at her, she realizes that she looks like somebody who has wrestled lions and bears while rolling around dust.

This is totally one of the worst days of her life.

Deciding not to head back up just yet—because what's the point anyway?—Beca drags her feet to the restroom to try to make herself look human again. Placing the toy on the sink's counter she proceeds to wash her hands. Checking herself on the mirror she runs her fingers through her hair, getting rid of a few knots here and there. She pauses for a second, her eyes slowly falling at the toy, a radio cartoon character.

"What's so funny?" she asks monotonously.

"It's not like it's such a big deal to see some popular singer," she continues, shifting her weight on one foot.

"I can always see her on TV, listen to her songs on the radio and there's Youtube too," she bites on her lip as she stares longer before flicking the toy with her fingers, a small frown forming in her face.

"Fine, I really do want to see her again. Happy?" she snaps at the toy now laying on its back. "I just… wish that she remembers… me,"

A thought slowly starts to sink inside her and that's when it hits her. In a second, she quickly grabs the toy before dashing out the restroom. Running to the elevator, she hastily presses the button before throwing her hands up in the air in frustration as she sees the elevator already ascending upwards. Making a quick decision, she finally races up the flight of stairs instead, her whole body was close to collapsing on the floor as she makes her way up to the 12th floor. How she miraculously made it up 9 floors by foot is creating records for the generally lazy Beca.

By now, she regrets her decision to bail on the elevator but despite feeling like dying, she picks herself up and turns to the corner only to be met by people gathering on that very floor.

Like, a lot of people.

Coughing and heaving, she squeezes her way around, jumping up and down to even catch a small detail of the famous redhead who is now inside the booth, promoting her new album. Her eyes see red locks swept to one side but unfortunately, the singer had her back towards her. Chloe wore a beautiful white form-fitting dress that ran up to her knees. Beca could tell that she was having a good time, laughing, singing and chatting animatedly with Dan—and okay yes, Calvin Harris too.

Somehow, this happy vibe coming off from the star brings a smile on Beca's lips. It was such a far cry from the first time they met. Now if only she could see her face. Using her small built to her advantage and some stealthy ninja moves she learned from Benji, Beca finally manages to get a better view from the side. It's a little cramped being in between bodies and she couldn't hear anything from the inside but at least she has a visual. This time Chloe has placed down her headphones as she signs her CD and gives it to Dan. After a few more lighthearted chatting, Dan is back on air to name some of their sponsors as Chloe looks around the booth, her hands tapping on the chair's armrest while her head lightly bobs to nothing but the beat in her head which Beca found to be cute.

Whatever melody Chloe was creating in her mind, Beca wanted to listen to.

When their radio director, Jill, comes in to give some reminders, Chloe listens intently and just before Jill leaves, Beca observes the singer quickly stopping her to ask a question. Jill seemed to be deep in thought for a while, looking around before answering Chloe who nods and looked a little disappointed. Soon the singer's focus is pulled back on air as she answers some questions from fans who called in, her lips breaking into another dazzling smile.

About half an hour has passed when the whole thing ends and now Chloe is posing for the cameras with Dan—and the other DJ. But then like all disappointing events in Beca Mitchell's life, meeting the beautiful singer was like reaching for the stars, literally.

Before Beca knows it, she is pushed to the far end and whatever hopes she had of seeing the redhead crumbles pathetically. As soon as Chloe comes out of the booth, everything just went crazy. The security personnel formed a human shield around the singer who was kind to squeeze herself in a couple of photos with some of the staff upfront despite the wall of bodies trying to escort her to the elevator and out of the building.

With slumped shoulders and heavy feet, Beca walks back in the booth after the chaos dies. Of course, a smug looking Stacie gets a photo of her with Calvin—that, and a kiss on the cheek—and Beca tries to be happy for her before fixing the mess that was left. Cleaning up would be her job. Intern life is basically the current term for slavery after all. Throwing away empty coffee cups and water bottles, she walks out again to the Administration department for another errand but as she pauses for a short water break and reaches for her pocket she finds her fingers reaching in to nothing.

Her iPod is missing.

Panic fills Beca from head to foot. Everybody who knew her knows that one does not mess with any of her three favourite things, her electric guitar, her laptop and her iPod. Right now one of those precious things is missing. Slapping her forehead with her palm, she remembers placing it on top of the toilet on some small mounted wooden table. She placed it there since pulling down skinny jeans when you do your business requires you taking out gadgets from your pocket, as every woman knows. It's just usually she wasn't forgetful and stupid as today.

Rushing down back to the third floor's restroom, Beca was close to flipping the whole restroom when she finds nothing. Breathing out loudly in frustration and shaking her head with dread, she walks out only to be stopped by one of the security.

"Did you lose something?" he asks as Beca stops abruptly and quickly mutters a 'yes' before anxiously describing her iPod. The security personnel, Jack, nods and when he pulls out Beca's iPod from his jacket pocket, Beca feels relief wash down on her.

"I was about to take it to Admin but thought that maybe the owner would probably be back for it so I had to check one last time," he explains and Beca thanks him profusely. She could almost kiss him right then and there—that's how important this is.

Finally breathing calmly, Beca plugs in her earphones into her ear and opens her iPod to see that somebody seemed to have been listening to one of the songs in her upbeat 'I want to go drive to the beach but can't' playlist. She'd know. It wasn't what she had been listening to earlier—it is the 'I hate life right now so I'll wallow in angsty music instead' playlist. Anyways, she'd let Jack's nosiness slip once since he brought back her life.

But as she presses play on the song, Beca finds that Jack has good taste and maybe she needed something a little bit upbeat today.

With her thoughts drifting to a certain redhead, Beca figures that once she gets a day off she'd head to the beach and just watch the sunrise or the sunset. Either way, she needs to relax. Maybe find a pretty bright blue-eyed babe who loves the same music as she does and simply have fun.

Oh, how she wishes so.

But when those bright blues come with a face and a stunning smile, that's when Beca realizes one thing.

She has a crush on Chloe Beale and its growing, rapidly.


There are things in life Beca has yet to fully comprehend. Meaning, there had been instances when some certain life events still confuse her. An example of which is, cheating. Yes, cheating. Not the ordinary cheating in class kind but the one where a person who is already in a romantic relationship with someone suddenly thinks it's okay to sleep with another. Said person would then go and repeat the 'mistake', as they would famously like to call it, for as long as weeks or months even until their significant other eventually finds out. But why keep the relationship when you're 'unintentionally' enjoying nights with somebody else? Wasn't the point of having an affair a clear sign that you no longer want to be with your 'legal' partner? And please don't even think of waving the sympathy card or the 'But-I-don't-want-to-hurt-him/her' card. To Beca that's complete cow poop. Whatever the answers are, reasonable or not, it's still wrong and in the end, Beca still doesn't understand.

But then maybe if 'cheating' was the only topic Beca had to be confused about then maybe it would have been easier. Because at this moment, Beca Mitchell has found another situation to be confused about and this one could possibly take the cake.

Growing questionable feelings for your best friend.

Beca knows attraction, she knows what it's like to have a crush but when her best friend of more than 10 years, the one person she considers as family, makes Beca's heart beat in a weird rhythm she has never felt before then what do you call that?

It's confusing.

There a lot of possible culprits for this confusing situation. The romantic beach, with the upcoming sunrise bathing the waters in a deep orange glow, the comforting warmth of bodies sitting next to each, and even the perfectly warm cup of coffee that has got her heart pumping loudly. But she figures that the biggest culprit would have to be the damn song that is currently stuck in Beca's head like super glue. As mad sexy as it sounds, the evil song is now, as she concludes, severely illegal to Beca's ears. It makes her feel all sorts of things which involves her best friend, of all people. It doesn't even help when that soft, smooth voice flows in and out of her head which then eventually triggers all the other body parts that aren't her head. Unbelievably, this predicament is currently testing her self-control. To those people whom she can count on one hand, those who know her, if it involves things outside the heart Beca is someone who has reckless sense of control,—turn to pages 2014-2015 of Mitchell & Conrad's epic college years. It's a different story when it comes to matters of the heart and that, Beca insists she has perfect control of. Which is why, despite the numerous relationships she's tripped in to, the truth is, Beca Mitchell has never really fallen in love, at least the reckless kind of love, the one that you have no control of. All these years Beca has built boundaries and limits around her heart out of fear, fear that if she did she'll only end up cooking a recipe for a broken heart. However, as it seems, said boundaries and limits are currently being in danger of being shattered. Reason being, if she wasn't mistaken, her mind is clearly fogged up for her to want to kiss her best friend in a way that wasn't just sexual but would certainly leave cracks all over the walls she built. Which is weird, strange, disturbing and disgusting.

Did she really just want to make-out with family?

True, Stacie is pretty, sexy and smart, all the qualities of an awesome girlfriend, that, Beca admits, but never ever in her life has she thought of her more than just a sister or doing all these other illicit thoughts to her. It was extremely absurd that Beca wished to whack her head with any blunt object but that would obviously kill her so she resorts to something less physical.

Avoidance.

The very thing, Beca has perfected all these years. Other than, masking the pain, hiding her real emotions, keeping her guard up, pushing people away and leaving, avoiding the problem is one of Beca's best defence mechanisms.

So she averts her eyes away from those intense orbs, compliments the fresh track beautifully sung to her, clears her throat, drinks coffee, and awkwardly turns off her laptop. All the while, cracking sarcastic jokes about how Stacie's head trauma awakened her sleeping brain cells and produced a good song, which also happens to be Beca's birthday gift—probably the best she's ever received. Also about how it just might be their ticket to Hollywood. Seriously though, it just might be. She doesn't speak of the song after that and she was thankful that Stacie never brought it up for the rest of the day either.

Speaking of which, except for a few bumps along the way, the day turned out well. The view of the sunrise was breath-taking and Beca felt good that she made Stacie happy. Her best friend looked really delighted with the way she smiled as bright as the sun and Beca still found it strange. She knew Stacie's smiles, the flirtatious smiles she gives off to someone she finds cute, the mischievous smile she shows when she is daring Beca to do something that would get them in trouble, the fake smiles she throws to an annoying costumer in the bar or to the boys who are as greasy as that ass, Tyler, the sad smile she gives whenever Beca tells her that she broke up with her girlfriend or boyfriend—in a way that is similar to someone talking about how they got a bad grade in their exam—and that happy smile whenever they celebrate a certain occasion. But this particular radiating smile she is currently wearing? That, Beca has never seen before.

Another strange thing that Beca still hasn't fully gotten used to is the sudden bursts of open displays of affection Stacie gives. Today, it seems her best friend is not holding back at all with all the kinds of hugs she's given Beca—the surprising back hug, the countless bear hugs and the protective side hug. The more lighthearted Stacie got, the more the affection she shows and unfortunately for the anti-hugging Beca, it seems her avoiding tactics are alarmingly failing in dangerous levels for the first time.

Strangely, her body isn't cooperating with her mind.

Like that time earlier when they are strolling around Solana Beach, Stacie's fingers intertwined with hers. And if you ask Beca how they ended up looking like lovers on vacation—which she's never going to admit because, no, they aren't—she'd laugh to disguise the fact that she is unable give out a concrete explanation. It just happened. Childishly, they've ran around barefoot on the seashore—Stacie's idea—, scoured a couple of vintage shops, ate some snacks at food stands and gotten matching henna tattoos—'Trust No Man' on Stacie's inner right arm and 'Fear No Bitch' on Beca's inner left arm—because for some reason unknown, after coming out of the accident Stacie suddenly fears needles which is unbelievable since she actually has a real tattoo on her lower back. A violet flower tattoo which happened to be her mother's favourite. She got it last year on her birthday and Beca was present to make sure the tattoo artist didn't mess up. Beca on the other hand, had a couple of all black tattoos. An artistic musical staff with the first notes of the first song she composed around her ankle, stars lined on her instep, metal headphones on the back of her neck with the headphones' wires connected to a sexy minimalistic electric guitar that stretched from her upper to her lower back and the bird tattoos on both her wrists which Stacie is now absentmindedly running her long fingers on.

They've been waiting for their pizza at a chic brewpub downtown and unknown to her best friend, the small actions are sending goosebumps on Beca's arm which travelled up to the back of her neck. Stacie had her head resting on Beca's shoulder, a growing habit of the tall brunette's as she continues to trace small circles on Beca's tattoos.

Avoidance.

Beca clears her throat and coughs up an excuse to get away, "I have to go the restroom," she voices out before walking off to splatter cold water on her face and exhaling out loud.

"What's wrong with me?" Beca mutters in frustration to her reflection on the mirror with a frown, scaring off a mother and her child who looked at her like she had gone insane.

Maybe she has.

It takes Beca a while to return but when she walks out, what greets her is a sore for the eyes. Some persistent guy seemed to be hitting on her best friend who in turn doesn't look comfortable at all with how close the dude keeps hovering near her. She sees Stacie shake her head no with a pursed smile that Beca could tell doesn't reach her eyes. Having had enough, Beca walks towards their table, eyes boring through the guy as she stops in front of him. It baffles her how boys just don't know what 'no' exactly means.

"Hey, do we have a problem here?" she asks in a tone that tells one to be cautious. Her venomous spikes were up and the guy looks back at her in surprise.

"No, none at all. I was just saying 'hi' to your lovely friend, over here," he explains before motioning over to two of his friends in another table and asking them if they'd like to join in on their little party.

Beca squints her eyes, nodding slowly in understanding with a smile dripping with sarcasm, "That'd be fun but I'm here on a vacation with my girl… friend, my girlfriend and you're kinda' being a disturbance right now so," she waves her fingers haughtily to motion him to back off. Also very much aware that she had just lied about her best friend being her girlfriend. How she even thought of such lie out of all the other things she could have said is baffling indeed—or maybe she just doesn't want to admit certain things.

The guy looked stunned for a few seconds, pointing his finger back and forth between them, "Girlfriend? You mean, you two…" he prolongs, looking at them in confusion and Beca sighs internally. She could feel Stacie's eyes on her and it's burning her skin.

"Yes, we're together, together as in fucking each other. Do you get that now or do you want me to call your parents so they can explain what that means?" she bites back and whatever her best friend's reaction to that lie was, she does not want to know.

"Oh," he says before smiling like an ass. "That's hot," he comments and Beca's blood starts to reach boiling point at the way he licked his lips as he looked at Stacie. "We could give you girls a free ride and some scratch if you'd, you know, do the explaining for us yourselves, give us a good show," he adds, rubbing his forefinger with his thumb for emphasis and that's when she snaps.

"You know what's hot?" she asks with a sardonic smile before reaching for the bread knife on the table and holding it up in front of his face. "This, up your ass," she says venomously as Stacie finally stands up behind her and places her arm around her shoulder to stop her.

"Becs, it's not worth it," she whispers in her ear as one of the friends finally walk over to pull the guy who had his hands up in the air in surrender. They laughed irritatingly as they reached their table and Beca eyes them murderously.

Unknowingly, her best friend had managed to get the knife from her grasp and sit her down while she hisses a bunch of curses. It's a bad habit, Beca knows, having such a bad temper that would result with someone in jail or the hospital but she's working on it. Truthfully she has got it to tone down a few notches ever since high school. Still, there are times like this when assholes make her bombs go off and when it happens nothing can ever stop—

That feels… good.

She'd been too wrapped up with the whole thing that it takes her a while before she finally realizes what was happening. Gentle fingers massaging the back of her neck, slowly travelling upwards to the back of her head and it was soothing enough for her to unconsciously hum in satisfaction.

"Harder?"

The question said in a way that makes Beca's eyes grow wider, has her brain shutting down unexpectedly before rebooting back up, her cheeks heating up with the air around her getting thick. So Beca immediately stands up, stuttering a lame excuse of checking up on their order but not before turning back to her concerned best friend and ordering her to yell and use the knife if ever the douchebags return.

Trying to breathe evenly, Beca shakes her head to get her mind to throw off strange thoughts, again earning her wary looks and people protecting their loved ones from her. She even almost forgets why she's in front of the counter and only snaps out of her daze when asked if she needed anything. She lifts up her receipt and asks about their order which would take five minutes more before being served. Nodding absentmindedly, she turns back towards their table when a poster hanging on the wall catches her eyes. She checks the time and date of the performance and slowly, a small smile forms on her lips.

Perfect.

"What do you mean no? It's easy," Beca asks incredulously as she eyes her best friend in disbelief.

"I haven't done this before!" Stacie cries out in reply before shrieking. "Slowly! Becs!"

"Alright, we're going slowly and gently," Beca says calmly. "Everyone is a little unsure on their first time so it's okay, although, I have to remind you that technically this isn't your first," she adds once she sees Stacie's shoulders slump dejectedly.

"I suck at roller blading, those children are better at it so, you can go ahead and laugh at me," Stacie pouts, planting herself in one corner of the ring and eyeing the others while Beca chuckles.

"Aww, such positive little ball of joy, you are," Beca smiles before turning around and holding out her hand from behind, "Here, hold on to me," Beca offers and soon she feels her best friend's hand guiding hers. Another round of squeals, unintentionally cursing and a bruised butt—err ego—and soon she sees progress.

They've accidentally stumbled at a rollerblading rink while wandering around and thankfully her best friend's ankle injury is completely healed so she can laugh internally at how adorable the taller brunette was grumbling about this and that.

"Now, slowly, right then left, okay lean forward a bit. That's it," Beca releases her hold on Stacie as she watches the taller girl's face light up in amazement.

"I did it!" Stacie squeals before re-connecting her hand with Beca's. They circle around the rink slowly but much better than the turtle pace earlier.

"Hold up," Stacie suddenly says, tugging on Beca's hand as she eyes the music booth. Apparently, they take in requests and if her best friend is to change the boring sounds blaring in the speakers then Beca wouldn't stop her. She'd been thinking of requesting something more pleasing to her ears ever since they arrived but was pre-occupied with teaching Stacie how to rollerblade. She waits for her best friend who whispers her request before giving out a playful smile towards her.

That can't be good.

Beca frowns a bit, feeling the excitement from best friend who steps back in with her.

"What song did you request?" she asks almost immediately but was only answered with an innocent shrug and a smile. However, she didn't have to wait longer because as soon as Bruno Mars' 'Uptown Funk' ends she groans at the voice she hears.

"Beyonce?" she eyes her grinning best friend. "You can't even get more cliché than this, Conrad," she mutters, suddenly remembering that talk they had about going to the Grammy's. And again for the millionth time, Beca's cheeks tint a shade of pink especially when her best friend looks at her mischievously, dancing lightly to the beat.

"Keep me humming, keep me moaning," she sings and Beca suddenly feels dizzy.

The pink and orange lights sway around the dim room and those hips sensually swaying in front of her are making Beca's heart pound.

"Can you eat my skittles? It's the sweetest in the middle,"

But then she makes a mistake of looking up at those eyes. Those blue-green eyes look so dark in this dim room and for a couple of seconds they seem to turn a more prominent shade of blue, mesmerizing baby blues.

"Make sure you clean that. It's the only way to get the… flavor,"

Beca's heart almost stops completely as soon as their fingertips touch, warmth creeps up all over like ink spilled in a clear glass of water, slowly invading her whole system.

"I want you to turn that cherry out… turn that cherry out,"

She couldn't hear any of the sounds around her as those lips her eyes are focused on smile happily, moving with every lyric she sings. They were so close to each other now. Gliding closer and closer.

Closer.

Except the world spins as they topple and hit the floor messily and unglamorously. Beca had never been more thankful for the perfect timing. It hurts but that's better than another kind of hurt that would be too hard to mend. So she laughs it off, like always, shaking her head instead and helping her best friend up while making jokes about bruised butts and Beyonce.

Time to flip to the next page then.

"Where are we going?" Beca smirks at the question she'd been asked for about the thousandth time as she pulls Stacie along by the hand. Somehow, after the accident, her best friend just can't stand anything unplanned as if her life has been dictated by a series of well-scheduled activities and step-by-step instructions.

"Somewhere great," Beca answers shortly before suddenly stopping as her best friend plants her feet in place.

Beca turns around and is met with a suspicious look, "You're not going to take me to get a piercing or a real tattoo, right?" Stacie's tone goes up a bit and Beca could feel her tense up.

"Oh c'mon why'd you have to spoil the surprise? I heard friendship tongue piercings are the trend nowadays," she says teasingly but before she could say anything else she finds herself dragged to the opposite direction.

"Believe me, I'd do anything for you, Becs. Maybe I can handle a simple tattoo but the piercings are a definite no! I'm fine with the ears but other than that—just, I can't," her best friend rambles on and finally Beca smiles, this time resisting the taller female's pull.

"I thought our friendship is important to you? What happened to together forever—"

"Together forever doesn't include tongue piercings!" Stacie exclaims and finally Beca stops holding back her laughter. This earns her a smack on the shoulder. Clearing her throat, Beca finally stops laughing and stares at her pouting best friend. She steps closer and places her hands on both the other female's shoulders.

"Let go," she says which is answered by a confused look.

"Of what?"

Leaning closer, Beca smiles, a lot more genuine this time, "of everything," and now this time her best friend looked lost so she elaborates.

"Let go of everything that's holding you back,"

"How do I… do that?" comes the unsure tone.

"Stop thinking and just do it," Beca simply says before taking hold of Stacie's hand once more and pulling her as she walks to a specific direction, this time without any interruptions from the other female.

Beca walks towards the destination she wanted to go and as they get near, she hears Stacie's gasp from behind causing a triumphant smile on her own face. She feels the excited tugging before having the taller brunette squeeze her hand.

"An a cappella concert!" Stacie squeals in delight, lightly bouncing on her feet as Beca leads them to a nice spot. The show was near the beach so you just had to sit anywhere comfortable and Beca has always liked a laid-back style performance where you can just chill anywhere. The show was just about to begin any moment now.

"I promised you I'd take you to one so," Beca shrugs and in a second is engulfed by another bear hug.

"You remembered," Stacie says in awe. "You're the best, Becs!" she adds and Beca smiles before looking at her teasingly, "Again, you only realize that now?" she says, feigning hurt as she clutches her chest and shakes her head.

"You clearly don't know how awesome I was all this time and that kinda' hurts," she continues on.

But if Beca was waiting for a playful shove, a witty reply or a defeated sigh she was mistaken because this kind of reply was something she would have never guessed in a billion years.

A kiss on the cheek.

If a heart can explode, Beca's heart would have done just that, maybe even her currently malfunctioning brain along with it too. Her whole body had just frozen before heating up as the thought sinks in. She almost doesn't hear Stacie's soft and sincere "Thank you, Becs,"

It takes a couple of moments before Beca can glance at her best friend who gives her a huge smile before looking back towards the stage, swaying her head and tapping her hand on her lap to some kind of beat which was strange because there's no music at all, at least not yet.

"You're… weird," Beca mutters, wanting to break the awkwardness that she feels before faking a cough and taking a gulp from the water bottle she bought earlier.

"And I'm going crazy," she mentally tells herself.

"…crazy in love" the thought breaks into her head and before she knows it she's choking and coughing, for real this time, from the water she is drinking with Stacie patting her back.

Beca never hated Beyonce more.


2 years ago.

"We'll be back with more of Chloe Beale and Calvin Harris after a short break, stay tuned," Chloe watches Dan press a few buttons as the radio station's theme plays before cutting into a series of commercials. She takes off her headphones and quickly signs her album before handing it to him.

"God, the whole building is going crazy because of the both of you today!" Dan exclaims his face filled with a combination of amazement and disbelief after graciously receiving the hottest album at the moment.

"They are all here for her," Calvin says with a smile, pointing towards Chloe who waves her hand at him in denial.

"Shut up, the women are all over you, if you haven't noticed," she laughs before turning to Dan. "This is why I made sure to include him in the album,"

"Oh so that's the reason why!" the radio jockey chimes in before adding, "But Chloe you can't deny being well-loved by the women just as much. We've actually had surveys here and you always top the list for the female celebrity girls would want to date or make-out with," he reveals and Chloe's eyes go wide.

"What?!" she asks in disbelief as she hears Calvin laugh and say "I told you so!"

"We're definitely going to talk about this on air later," Dan excitedly says as Chloe smiles, covering her face with her hands, getting flustered at the thought as the radio jockey goes on air again to mention their sponsors.

Being lost in her own thoughts for a moment, her body swaying to a tune she's been composing in her head—a habit of hers—Chloe's attention only diverts back to reality when the radio director steps in to give them some small reminders on what to include in their interview.

"Hey I have a question," Chloe suddenly utters when the director starts to leave. She looks at Chloe expectantly and at this point, Chloe knows that her question may come off as a little weird.

"Of course," the director quickly says, looking at her intently.

"You guys were at the Love Sound music festival three months ago, right?" she asks and the director whose name is Jill, nods.

"Yeah so, uhm I kinda' met one of your staff and I was hoping to meet her again today—it's nothing bad, I just want to thank her for something," she quickly adds before continuing, "I think she is one of your female interns?" she looks hopefully up at the other female who seemed deep in thought.

"We have a bunch of interns working for us right now and I wasn't in-charge that time so I don't know who we sent. I think it was Paul who was managing that event but he isn't here right now so I'm not sure if I could help you—but if you give me her name then I could bring her to you," Jill kindly says as Chloe's heart sinks.

"Oh, the thing is, I didn't get her name and… anyways, thank you," she says, wanting to ask more but the time is up and they'd be back on air in a few seconds.

The rest of the interview went well, there were some questions from the fans too and a little game. Chloe started off in a good mood but after talking with Jill there was just a part of her that felt blue. She chose to do this radio show without even blinking when asked but as it turns out, she won't even get to see the person she was hoping to see today.

As soon as it ends Chloe is hurriedly pulled out of the booth and into the elevator to avoid being crushed by the number of people wanting to see her. Her smile fades as the elevator doors close and Alex, her manager, briefs her of her next scheduled appointment, which is being on Ellen.

"I need to go to the restroom," she suddenly blurts out. "Now," she adds as the radio's staff member assigned to them quickly suggests that they stop at the third floor. Thankfully, this floor was empty as soon as they step out. Clearly, almost everyone had went up to see her.

"Chlo, please hurry we can't be late," Alex reminds her as Chloe hums a reply and enters the bathroom. She checks herself on the mirror before sighing heavily. After a moment, she enters one of the stalls and as soon as she turns around to flush the toilet, an object catches her eye.

A black iPod.

Stepping out of the stall, she looks around, there was nobody else which means the owner probably forgot about it. Chloe would definitely feel depressed if ever her own iPod went missing and that's what the owner surely would be feeling right now. Setting the object near the sink, she turns on the tap to wash her hands. Her eyes drift back to the iPod and out of curiosity, as soon as she dries off her fingers she plugs in the earphones and listens to the song currently on pause.

This person certainly has music taste similar to hers as she browses through the whole playlist—ooh 'Flume' and 'VHS Collection'! Whoever you are, we are going to be really fast friends. At some point, she lets out a small laugh as she sees the names of the playlists. This person seems to love pizza or food in general. Entering a playlist named, 'No pineapple in my pizza', Chloe finds that the songs in it seems like the one you could listen to when driving to the beach, at least that's what she feels like doing right now. She nods affirmatively before bobbing her head to the upbeat sounds.

Digging into her bag for her lip gloss, Chloe stops at the sight of the pink bandana folded neatly inside and sighs. Guess, she's going to have to hold on to it longer than expected.

A knock on the door makes her jump a bit and soon she hears Alex calling out for her. Hurriedly, she finishes up and closes her bag before heading out but not before doing one last thing.

"Uhm, by the way, I found this inside. The owner must be looking for it now," she tells Alex who then gives it to the security staff. Proceeding down the lobby, Chloe turns to her manager.

"I want to do another radio show here," she says.

"Okay, we can have you do one for your next album," Alex answers before checking his phone.

"No, Lex, I mean this year. I want to do one again," she firmly says and Alex looks up at her quizzically.

"Chlo, you are booked for the whole month—no actually the whole year. You are forgetting you have a world tour this year so after rehearsals we won't be in L.A. for months," he tells her in a matter-of-fact tone.

Sighing, Chloe's feet slow down as she looks back, her heart feeling heavy. She feels Alex tug on her, reminding her once more that they can't be late. Exhaling loudly, Chloe puts on her sunglasses, closing her eyes for a second before stepping out the radio station with a smile for the screaming fans.

Things may not have turned out as she hoped they would be but despite that, Chloe knew that even though life has threw her countless false hopes she remains devoted to thought of being positive and looking at the bright side.

Fate brought them together for a reason and Chloe may not know why but everything has a purpose and she is sure of a few things.

She wants to see her again.

She's going to see her again.

And no matter how long it takes, she will find her.


A/N: Okay that took quite a while. Why is that? Oh nothing big happened. It just involved a hospital, lots of anesthesia, a scalpel, other relatives of a scalpel and some painkillers, no big deal. And no, my precious hands are 100% in perfect condition, obviously. Still typing. I'm fine! Super fine!

Beca on the other hand, might just badly need medical help. I mean, I think she's having heart palpitations, excessive body heat and other symptoms that-are worse than mine-need to be treated immediately. Because I'm telling you, that is not normal. I think her sickness starts with an 'L'. Lassa Fever? Listeria Infection? Whatever. It could be ginger fever for all we know! What's worse is I think it's airborne or from some kind of bug. Guys, seriously, you gotta watch out for your health, this virus is so strong. Nobody is safe!

Thank you to those who followed, favorited, reviewed/commented-I can see all of you and bless you all for being so lovely.