A/N: This took a little longer, but hopefully it's worth the wait. Let's get this party started, then.
The rehearsal was a brief affair, everybody knew their place, their role. Beca handed CR the imaginary ring at her clue and later they went on to the dinner where mostly everybody was already present and accounted for.
Chloe had saved her a seat and reminded her that she still needed to write that speech for the next day. Then she proceeded to hand her pen and paper, note cards and highlighters.
"You're so prepared, it's scary," Beca told her.
"I'll help, we all will. It's gonna be written before the dinner is over." She looked around the table where all the Bellas were assembled. Most were smiling at her confidently, Amy gave her two thumbs up. Beca felt inclined to be hopeful about this, but her stomach didn't allow for much food during the meal.
Chloe had been mostly right because between Beca and the Bellas her speech was almost written when they entered the last part of the day: the Bachelorettes Party.
All the folks, whether male, female, or other who felt young enough to party through the night entered a club of Casey's choosing. Chloe suspected it was the only place like this in Bangor, Maine. The music was good, though, as were the drinks and Chloe suspected that Casey had called ahead to announce their arrival, because both bars were staffed.
Chloe was holding Beca's hand as they entered, it quickly had become their new normal. It still gave her chills, though, to think that Beca was hers. Even if she didn't know how their relationship would progress, if it would beyond this weekend wedding date, she would have her now. She was just looking over at Beca - Beca was saying something to Emily - when a new song started; and it was Titanium.
The fingers that were interlinked with hers twitched, then Beca turned to her.
"They're playing our song," Chloe said, her face almost splitting with a smile.
Beca smiled back a little shyly, but pulled Chloe away from everybody else onto the dancefloor. And Chloe couldn't have gone more willingly. This was their moment, this was their first dance.
And as they moved together - losely at first, then closer, always closer - she could hear Beca's voice, singing with. And the song built and they both let lose, arms around each other, eyes locked. And as the song ended, they kissed. And finally, everything was at it should be.
"Hey, DJ BJ, how's business?" Amy asked Beca, sitting down next to her in the VP section. That's how Beca thought about it, since the bar people had closed off a reserved section for them. Made them look cooler than they actually were.
"DJ BJ?" That doesn't even make sense, Amy," Beca said, but smirked.
"Beca, we've been through this. When we were living together, I went through your stuff, you pretended to hate it, but I know things about you that nobody else does. For example, that your middle name is Jol-" That was when Beca put a hand over Amy's mouth.
"Shhhh, not another word, Fat Amy, or I swear."
But, of course, Amy instead of being intimidated started licking Beca's hand. Not just one quick lick, either, she basically turned into a dog.
"Urgh, Amy, what...?"
"Don't even start with me, BJ. You try to restrain this free ranging puppy and you get licked. Mhm, now that I think about it, maybe licking wasn't the best plan of action, considering..." She seemed to look at Beca a little shifty-eyed.
"Considering, what?" Beca might already have had two glasses of wine with dinner, but she felt she was still fairly sober. Still, Amy didn't make a lot of sense at the moment.
"Considering that licking is your new bj, BJ."
Beca looked at Amy who started grinning saucily. Then the penny dropped. "Amy, no. No! Absolutely not. Seriously, please, no. We're not talking about this."
Amy seemed to think this was the most hilarious thing she'd heard all day. She was laughing outright at Beca who kept on shaking her head.
"Serves you right," she told her. "Anyway, you're not the only one who's turned gay on me. It's like the gaypocalyse, I feel like I can't even tell any dick jokes anymore with you lot."
"That bears the question, why you thought dick jokes were okay in the first place."
"Now, I'm not joking. Look at that! Aubrey's got herself a girl. That is a girl, right?"
Beca rolled her eyes. "Yes, I think Terri defines herself as a girl... woman. But, you do know that Aubrey's not gay, right? She's asexual. I know she sent that mail to everyone, the one with the long-ass text and the links?"
"I rarely read emails that are longer than fucking War and Peace, but I had Flo summarize it. I'm still not sure I understand how anyone can not have sex, but if it rocks her boat, that's good enough for me. Still, I mean, she could have no sex with men, right?" Amy was frowning watching Aubrey and Terri dance.
"Well, she probably has no sex with men, too, but she has a romance with Terri. It's not really bothering you, though, is it? Some of us being... queer?"
Amy shook her head. "I love you all and I'm sure I've done a lot more fucked up shit in bed than any of you - except Stacie. I was just... I was a little blown away by Aubrey, I guess, but Terri seems nice and Aubrey is happy... very obviously so... What about you, though?"
"Me? I'm happy, Amy, can't you tell?" Beca gave Amy her widest smile, and it wasn't even forced. Thinking of Chloe, the fact that they were here together, that they were kissing and dancing and holding hands, it made her chest burn with love and pride and all that other good stuff.
"Then why're you not dancing with your lady friend? Why're you sitting here with the other losers?" Amy looked over at where Jessica and Ashley sat without their respective dates who were talking animatedly with some guys at the bar. The drinks they'd promised Jessica and Ashley stood forgotten beside them. "No offence, girls," she called over at the two and waved.
They waved back. Beca doubted they'd heard what Amy had been saying.
"I'm just taking a break," Beca said, shrugging. Her smile had vanished.
"You've been taking a break for almost an hour now and Chloe'd been dancing with every other Bella now. Look, she's now throwing herself at Benji. I doubt that is any fun for either."
Beca looked at her drink that stood almost untouched on the table, the ice had melted. Then she looked over at the guy standing with his friends near the bar, her eyes furrowing.
"Who's that dude?" Amy asked, probably she'd noticed Beca's dark look.
"Nobody."
"Right. Did he say anything? Do anything?"
"Amy, it's nothing," Beca told her, but a look at her friend's face told her that she wouldn't let it go. Amy was one of the most stubborn people she knew and she'd shared a room with her for three years.
"It doesn't look like nothing. It looks like he pissed in your frootloops... standing on a stool... showing you his pecker."
Beca closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.
"I also saw him lay his hand on Stacie's ass earlier when they were both standing at the bar," Amy said.
"What did she do?"
"Ah, she removed it and probably said something naughty to him. You know how she is when she's not into someone, she still kinda makes them feel like they could get lucky."
Beca could see that she was about to add something, but then thought better of it.
"Did he touch you too?" Amy asked.
Beca shook her head. She wasn't sure it was wise to tell Amy, she also didn't want to make waves, even though it had bothered her, was still bothering her. She didn't want to ruin CR and Casey's night.
"Beca?"
Another deep breath. "When Chloe and I danced earlier, he was staring at me. Not... sexually, more angry. And then..." She bit down on her jaw real tight, even thinking about it was hard. "Then he leered at Chloe, really leered, like she was just..." Beca shook her head.
"Sounds like he's in for a Bellas Special," Amy sat, rising from her seat.
Beca grabbed her arm. "Amy, please, this is CR's party. I don't want-"
"Do you think, CR would be happy knowing what'd happened? Do you think she wouldn't be the first to drown that fucker in his own blood?"
Beca sighed. Amy had a point, but Beca didn't want anyone to get in trouble or ruin the party.
"Leave it to me, little one, I'll teach him... with finesse."
Finesse? Amy? Beca was already seeing everyone get arrested, CR and Casey missing their wedding and them never talking to her again.
But she knew when she couldn't stop Amy who was already on her way toward the dancefloor. She motioned for Jessica and Ashley to follow her and they left Beca at the table. Beca was too fearful to even look. But a moment later she was distracted by someone else sitting down beside her.
"Hey, you're not still thinking about that speech, do you? I know you don't like talking in front of people, but you're not horrible at it. I have complete aca-faith in you." Chloe was smiling at her.
Beca pushed a lock of wild red hair out of Chloe's face, then cupped her cheek. "You're so beautiful," she told her.
"You're nuts. I'm sweaty and tipsy, I must look like something come out of the wilderness."
"Maybe I like the nature child look," Beca teased. She gave Chloe a chaste kiss on the lips.
"You must not like it too much judging from that kiss."
Their faces were still close and Beca took the opportunity to press her forehead against Chloe, staring a little cross-eyed into her eyes and then at her lips. "Chloe?"
"Hm?"
"I know I've only told you on the phone so far, but... I really am in love with you. My heart is beating like a nutter and I..." She stopped when Chloe put her hand over her heart. A gasp escaped her at the intimate touch.
"It's beating really fast," Chloe agreed. "So is mine." She picked up Beca's hand and put it over her own heart.
The soft material of Chloe's dress felt impossibly hot to her touch. A moan wanted to escape her, but she suppressed it and it came out as a whimper. Her brain seemed to shut down, she could only see Chloe, feel her, inhale her scent. It was intoxicating. She could already feel Chloe's breath on her lips when the song that was currently playing was killed mid-word and another started. It was Titanium, once again.
Beca's concentration of Chloe was broken and she looked to where the DJ was currently talking to Amy. "What's happening?" she wondered aloud.
Then she noticed Emily dancing... with that creepster who'd leered at Chloe.
"Looks like Flo overreached with the shots. We're not that many," Chloe said.
Beca's eyes found Flo who was carrying a tray of shots, jello shots, by the looks of it. And she was walking toward the dancefloor.
"What?"
The creepster was getting handsy with Emily, but she evaded him sneakily. She twirled under his arm and then made to turn him around. He did and twirled right into Flo. All the jello shots emptied onto his lower torso and crotch, red and green and blue all mixing as the jello hadn't been cooled apparently.
"Oh, my God, what...?"
Beca stood as the Bellas closed ranks around the creepster. Chloe pulled her toward the dancefloor to see what was happening up close. It all felt so surreal.
Amy had put herself between Flo and Handsy-guy, her Australian hunk of a date behind her, together with Ashley's date, also a big guy. The music had stopped.
"Are you nuts?" Creepy raged.
"Quite possibly. I'm Tasmanian, we're all pretty nuts," Amy answered.
"That little bitch ruined my suit, she's gonna pay for it."
"That little bitch could probably buy your ass, loser, not that she would want to. Nobody does, 'cause you're a creep."
There were a couple of women who agreed with her.
"And creeps don't get to ruin my friends' evening. Going 'round the room touching women and leering at them is not cool, uh-uh."
"Like you don't want that, dressing like you do," the Creepster answered.
"We're not dressing like that for your sorry ass," Stacie said. "We're dressing like that for ourselves, for our girls, for feeling sexy without the need to have a guy tell us we are. We know we are."
"That's right. And we don't dress like that for you to get your nasty hands all over us, 'cause we don't know you. And we didn't gave you permission to touch us," Emily piped up.
"You were the one who wanted to dance with me," he gave back.
"That doesn't give you the right to touch her however you want to." Chloe stepped next to Jessica, still holding Beca's hand. "And don't think I didn't see you looking at me earlier. My skin's still crawling."
"Yeah, well, you're a lesbian. Big surprise, you don't like guys."
"One, I'm not a lesbian, I'm bisexual. And I do like some men looking at me, but the way you look makes me feel like less than a person. So, two, it's not me it's the way you treat women that's not okay."
"Whatever," he said, lifting his hands as if in surrender.
"Dude? Don't you get it? You were harrassing us. We could get the cops in here and seriously file a complaint against your ass." All the Bellas stopped and stared at Jessica who'd said that, her voice so cold Beca was sure the guy now had frostbite on several important extremities.
"I'm sorry, okay? Man, don't get all radical feminist on me for having a little bit of fun."
"Your fun is somebody else's nightmare," came the resentful southern twang of Aubrey over all their heads. She was walking past Amy, almost regal in the way she build herself up before the creepy guy. And despite the fact that he was taller than her, she was looking down on him. "Women are allowed to decide who touches them. And if she tells you to NOT touch her, it's because you make her uncomfortable. That's not on her, that's on you. The fact that we're all radical feminists has little to do with that."
"Whatever. Guys?" He was talking to his friends who stood just outside of the dance floor and looked rather uncomfortable. "Let's go. This place has been taken over by lesboes."
"Oh, right, I talked to your friends about you. They hate how you treat women, it gives them a bad rep. I think they wanna stay and party with us, but WE definitely want YOU to leave."
Some people actually gasped at this burn. Creepster's face turned the shade of red jello mix on his shirt. "You fucking-"
"Don't even!" Amy pushed forward as it looked as if the creepy guy was about to raise his hand against Aubrey. But Aubrey grabbed Amy's arm, still cool as ice. Beca had never been as impressed with their former captain as in this moment. She was indeed the born leader, hell, Beca would vote for her if she wanted to be POTUS one day.
Anyway, Creepster took a step back, looking around at all of them as if they were about to jump him. They weren't but would stand as one if he started anything. He must've felt that, too, as he pulled at the lapels of his jacket, trying to muster some pride it seemed and turned. Ashley and Lilly made way for him as he got his roasted ass out of the bar.