Beca stood at the bar waiting for her drink when she felt a hand on her ass and the distinctive forms of another woman press into her from behind. Her surprise, however, instantly vanished when she heard a familiar voice gush into her ear:
"Hey, Beca." It was Chloe, of course, and she seemed already beyond tipsy.
"Hey, Chlo. So, is that your hand on my butt?" Beca asked her friend good-naturedly.
"Uh-huh. I like your butt," she said and as her hand moved slightly from its place, Beca turned quickly. This brought Chloe quite a bit closer, now from the front.
"Oops," Beca mumbled as they bumped into each other and she peeled Chloe's hand from her behind. Chloe simply grinned at her before her eyes lowered to Beca's as usual pronounced cleavage.
"I like your boobs, too," she told her friend and moved her hands accordingly but Beca caught them before they could attach themselves to Beca's body parts.
"That's nice," the flustered brunette said.
"I really like you," Chloe whispered as if it was a secret.
"I like you, too, Chlo. You're very likable," the brunette assured but Chloe looked at her slightly crest-fallen.
"Yeah, you like me but you don't like like me," she said sadly and instantly her eyes filled with tears.
Beca now started to panic a little. She had never learned how to deal with very drunk, slightly needy people and she looked around the darkened party room for some help. Luckily for her, Aubrey didn't stand very far off, talking to Jessica. The tall blonde had lost track of Chloe after they had arrived together and she hadn't read the warning signs of an ealier conversation about Beca that her best friend might get hammered badly. As she now saw Chloe invading Beca's space and the brunette's panicked look, she reacted instantly.
"Oh, my," she breathed and came over to the bar, dodging a couple of dancing people. "Hey, Chloe," she said and pulled the redhead from Beca. The brunette looked relieved but Chloe tried to hold on to her.
"It's okay, Aubrey, Beca likes me," she said.
"Of course, she does. We all do, you know that," Aubrey reassured her friend. "Come with me. Let's go somewhere where we can talk and get you a coke, maybe?"
"I've been doing shots with Bumper," Chloe said and Aubrey rolled her eyes at the Trebles captain who, of course, would try to get some Bellas as drunk as he could get them.
"Come on," the tall blonde said and pulled Chloe behind her from the Trebles' party room in the cellar of the BTM-house. They went upstairs and Aubrey didn't realize that Beca was following them. She was, however, and as Aubrey pushed and pulled Chloe into one of the bedrooms, she waited infront of the door. It only took a minute for Aubrey to emerge again and she almost ran into the DJ.
"Is Chloe okay?" she asked the Bellas captain.
"Yeah, sure, she's good. Bumper, he always tries to get some of the girls drunk, otherwise nobody would even look at him. He's that kind of guy, you know, so be careful how much you drink with him. I'm going to get Chloe a coke, excuse me," the blond told Beca curtly and wanted to dismiss her but Beca touched the other woman's arm.
"What Chloe said…," she started but Aubrey interrupted her instantly.
"Oh, don't take her too seriously. She comes from a family with five kids and is sometimes a little needy. It's important for her that people like her," Aubrey explained quickly, in truth you could call it hasty. It became clear to Beca that Aubrey didn't want to talk to her and for once it wasn't even about her, it was about Chloe and what she'd said.
"That's not what she said, though, Aubrey. She said that she wanted me to like like her," Beca put the emphasis on the second 'like' as Chloe had done. "Is Chloe into me?"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Beca. Chloe is not… into you, okay?" But they both knew that she was lying, there was an urgency to her voice that told Beca plainly that Aubrey knew better than herself what Chloe felt for her.
But Beca wasn't sure if she wanted to know one way or another. What if Chloe actually did have feelings for her? Beca had never entertained the thought of anyone liking her much, she had always kept to herself mostly. Having someone liking her - having a woman liking her… she already felt overwhelmed by the possibility.
Aubrey looked at her, waiting for a reaction. Beca broke the eye-contact and took a step back.
"Okay, then," she said. "That's okay, I mean good… I mean… I mean…" she stammered and Aubrey rolled her eyes.
"What you mean is that you're not woman enough for someone as amazing as Chloe, Beca," the blonde told her, dismissing her once again as someone not suitable. And this time, Beca didn't have any arguments to the contrary.
Aubrey brushed by her and left her standing infront of the room where Chloe sat on the bed, thinking about Beca. The door between them seemed an impenetrable barrier to both women, though Beca knew that she would just have to turn the knob, open the door, see Chloe - really see her. Yet she wasn't ready.