Okay so I'm exhausted and this chapter isn't very good but you know what, that's okay. The next one will be better. And sorry if there are mistakes. It's late yo.

Chapter 25

"Well?" Beca tapped her foot impatiently. Chloe was going to get there any minute. She'd gone to Bryce for advice on what to do about the redhead, who was currently invading every whisper and every image in her poor throbbing head.

"Well, Beca, if I were you, I would, gee, I don't know, ask her on a fucking date." Bryce rolled his eyes.

"Okay, but how?" Beca sighed. This whole 'romancing' thing was overrated.

"What do you mean 'how'?" he hissed. "It's so stupidly easy Beca, just ask her."

"Okay, I know that, but like, how would you phrase that?"

"Jesus Christ Beca!" Bryce tossed his hands up in the air. "How about: Will you go on a date with me!" he yelled exasperatedly. As expected, a few heads turned. The siblings burst into a fit of laughter.

"Awkward." a voice giggled from behind them. Beca froze.

"It's actually not as weird as it seems." Bryce turned to meet the taunting smirk of the redhead.

"Yeah. I'll take your word for it." Chloe smiled.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you guys to it, then." Before Beca could protest on the abruptness of his departing, he sped back into the kitchen.

Chloe placed her butt on the bar counter, sliding herself over to be on the same side as Beca.

"Hi." Chloe laughed. Beca never understood why the redhead felt the need to laugh over things that weren't funny.

It was now or never. And besides, all she had to do was ask her. It was easy. Like reading from a book. Simple. Yet her stomach was turning back flips, and every bone in her body was telling her not to open her mouth.

"Uh . . . Chloe?" She managed to squeak out. Oh God. What was she doing. Of course Chloe knew she was talking to her.

Chloe looked at her questioningly in the same way a baby animal would, eyes bright and wide, pupils dilated, head tilted visibly to the right, eyebrows risen. Beca bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. She was just so adorably stupid looking, it was all Beca could do to try and restraint her self from cooing at her and tapping at her nose.

"Is everything alright?" Chloe asked in her sweet girlish voice. Her eyes shifted suddenly to an almost sad look.

"No! I mean, of course not! That's not- sorry. I'm just being weird right now. Me. I'm a weirdo!" Beca chuckled nervously, wiping her palms on the sides of her jeans.

Chloe smiled unsurely. "Okay . . ."

"I was just wondering if you'd wanna go out with . . . uh . . ."

Beca couldn't form words. For a long time now she had been wanting to talk about "them", about the "us", about whatever the hell she and Chloe were. And now here she was, at the tip of the ice berg about to delve into the ocean of mystery, and she had no fucking idea what to say.

What if Chloe rejected her? What then? Would they still be where they were now? She doubted it, and Beca didn't know if she could handle that kind of awkwardness on a daily basis.

The redhead stared up at her, waiting to hear her next train of words.

"Uh . . . uh go out shopping with me, because I really like that skirt and you have a really good sense of style." Beca finished uncomfortably. What had she been thinking? She wasn't going to ask the redhead to go out with her. Going out implied a relationship. Beca didn't know what they were, but they sure as hell were not that.

"Oh." Chloe frowned, averting her gaze to her shoes. "Sure. I'd, uh, love to." She smiled weakly up at the brunette, then back down again.

Beca said nothing.

"You know, I should actually probably get going." Chloe started walking in the direction of the exit, still hopping over the counter.

"Well, bye." Beca called after the redhead, walking back into the kitchen.

Bryce was waiting expectantly. "So, how'd it go"

"Funny you ask . . . I didn't ask her. I mean, I almost did. I said the 'will you do out with', part, but then I just . . . like dude, what if she says no?"

"Wait, lemme get this straight. You said 'will you go out with' and then stopped?"

"I asked her to go shopping with me instead. I kinda got the feeling she knew what I was gonna ask though, because she left right afterward. So, its a good thing I didn't ask." The statement should have filled Beca with relief. She didn't ask Chloe out. She saved herself some major embarrassment. Wasn't that a good thing?

"Rebecca Mitchell, can you please stop being such a fucking coward?!" Beca had to stop herself from taking a step back. That had not been the reaction she was looking for. "She left, because she thought you were gonna ask her out, but you decided not to. Not because she didn't want to, stupid. And you know it Beca! You're just looking for any excuse to not give her a chance!"

"Stupid?" Beca jibed. "What, are we in fifth grade?"

"Beca, I love you, but you are the fucking densest person I have ever met. Seriously."

Beca rolled her eyes. "Enough with the 'fucking' Bryce. I get it. I . . .screwed up." she leaned her head back. Bryce better hope to God that he's right about Chloe. If he wasn't- Beca didn't even want to think of the things she'd do to him if he wasn't.

"Well, now what?" Beca asked. The one thing Beyonce forgot to add in "If I were a boy" was the part where she'd go crazy because of fucking girls.

-xxx-

Her mind was running around in circles. She knew this was an awful idea. She knew it. And yet Beca was gonna do it anyway.

Beca stepped out of her car, grabbing the three plastic Target bags from her passenger seat.

She wondered if anyone would ask what she was doing out so late, or what the hell she was doing period.

She stared at the front of the apartment building, trying to remember which window was Chloe's.

Eenie meenie minie moe. Once Beca pinpointed the window's location, she started walking towards the part of the cement that would be visible from said window.

She set down her bags, and reached into one, pulling out a miniature candle. This is going to take forever.

Never-the-less, Beca began to work, singing quietly to herself as she did so.

Will

You

Go

Out

With

Me

?

Once all the candles were in place, she walked around her set up, lighting each one.

What she hadn't allowed herself to think about in her previous attempt to ask Chloe out, was the possibility that the redhead may say yes?

Beca wasn't sure what she thought of that option. What would that mean for them? Beca wasn't very good with friends, let alone relationships. The word tasted almost bitter.

How the hell was she suppose to figure out what Chloe wanted if she didn't even know what she wanted.

And not to mention the fact of how Chloe would interpret this little gesture. Beca hadn't thought about it at the time, but this seemed like what she'd call . . . romantic. That word definitely tasted bitter.

What if Chloe took it the wrong way, and not as the apology Beca had intended it to mean?

Would Chloe think it meant, God forbid, that Beca loved her?

She swallowed, and pulled out her phone. Don't think about those things now.

She flipped through her contacts until she found the redhead she was looking for.

After three rings, the girl answered.

"Hello?" she asked sleepily. Beca realized with a bit of ignorance that it was pretty late, and the redhead had probably been asleep.

"Look out your window." she said simply.

"What? Beca, why-"

"Just look out your God Damn window Beale." she laughed.

Beca could hear bedsheets shuffling as Chloe got up.

"This better be important Bec- Oh my . . . Beca, did you this?"

Beca smiled up at her form in the window. "Yeah. I was meaning to ask earlier, but I, uh, got weird and didn't? So this is my way of wondering if you would wanna like, get something to eat?"

"Beca, this is beautiful. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. And yes, of course I'll go out with you. I'd love to. And I just . . . Gosh. Sorry I acted like such a kid earlier. I shouldn't have just left . . . you didn't deserve that. Okay, so anyways, yeah. You're amazing Beca, and I'd love to go out with you."

"Yeah." Beca said quietly.

"Wait, you did mean, like, a date right, because if you . . .er didn't, then . . ." Chloe's voice trailed off.

At this point, Beca knew pretty well how she felt. She was down right infatuated with Chloe. She was incoherent, ridiculous, when ever she was around. Was that really a good thing? She was okay with how life was now. Wouldn't a "date" make everything so much harder and confusing? Wouldn't "together" make her fall apart?

"I, uh, would you like that?" Beca was positive Chloe could tell how nervous she was, how jumbled and improvised her words sounded.

"I'd love that, Beca." Beca could almost hear the beaming smiled through the phone. "Well, it's really late Beca, and-"

"Oh. Yeah. Okay, I'll see you later then." Beca was about to hang up when she realized Chloe was still talking.

"No! No, that's not what I meant. I meant, it's late, you should spend the night here because, you know, it's late and dark and you really shouldn't be driving."

Beca smiled at the idea. "Uh, yeah. I guess I could do that."

Chloe laughed. "I'll see you in a bit?"

"Maybe a little more than a bit, I have to deal with these candles now."

-xxx-

"Hey!" Chloe answered the door. "How're you doing?"

Beca caught a long shuddery yawn, suddenly and irresistibly. "I'm all right."

"You about ready to crash?"

The brunette smiled. "Pretty much." Chloe took her hand and led her across the cramped room to her bed.

Beca leaned over, peeling her socks off. She didn't feel the need for pajama pants and sure as wasn't stripping, so she just climbed into the bed fully clothes.

Chloe slid under the covers beside her, curls standing on end in a riot of cowlicks.

Without thinking, Beca slipped her arms around the redhead, feeling her body curl into hers.

"Thanks for letting me stay here." Beca mumbled drowsily. She didn't know why she so suddenly felt fatigued.

"Goodnight Beca." Chloe whispered.

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours.

"Are you awake?" Beca whispered.

"Yeah."

They lay very still, the only movement was the banging of her heart against her chest.

She didn't know why she did it. Maybe it was because her mind was fogged, or maybe it was just another weird happening. Those happened a lot around Chloe.

Beca turned the redhead in her arms so that their foreheads were pressed together.

She had never felt like this with anyone before. This inexplicably wonderful feeling of affection, happiness, and care all at once. And yet at the same time it wasn't a feeling at all. It was . . . a part of her. A trait, almost. There really were no words to describe it.

Beca was a coward. She hadn't seen it before, but that's exactly what she was. She knew what she wanted, she just wasn't brave enough to go after it.

Which was why it shocked her when she closed the space between them and pressed her lips against Chloe's.

Despite her cowardice, her denial, her unsureness, her insecurities. She would always know that one night, one time, she had been brave.