hello! lol so i'm having the time of my life writing these rn not gonna lie. Also I reread almost all of my OG stories and my little nerd heart was so happy. so if you haven't read my three part story with accompanying one shots that started with pitch perfect posens then idk maybe do that with your quarantine. what else are you gonna do? I mean its just seven year old fan fiction. no big deal. I was FIFTEEN AT THE TIME.
any way This chapter is 100% a giant acid trip, so if you don't know how acid works now is the time to learn. Also It takes place all over Manhattan, so if you're unfamiliar pull yourself up a map so you can get proper scale of the shenanigans that commence. hope you guys enjoy it!
Alexa64: thanks for continuing to read after a four year hiatus! That's awesome you're super cool and I'm glad you're reading!
zephyrcove: Survivng just enought to put out chapters from an archaic fanfic!
Nare: gracias amigo. Me alegro de que te encante la historia. Gracias por leer desde Argentina!
notthecurlingiron: I LOVE YOU THE MOST. and I know you know that. But also thanks for being so supportive of me for almost eight years now, you really pushed me to believe in myself when I was 15 and you've been just as kind with my writing at almost 23. I know I could probs just text you this but its more poetic if I do it via our first form of communication. maybe one day i'll make it big at something and be able to thank you properly at an award show or something idk but until that day this will have to do. love you mean it.
Beca
2:43 am
"Aubrey, what do you think he's-" Beca looked around and realized the blonde girl was nowhere to be found. "Aubrey?" she called again, straightening up and squinting down the dark empty street. Most of the shops near her were closed, it was late after all, nearly 2:45 in the morning, Beca supposed that maybe to the people who went to bed at a normal hour and hadn't hosted SNL it was early.
She glanced up at the building she had been staring at when Aubrey disappeared, most of the windows were black, but a few were glowing from the lamps within. Her eyes came to rest on one of the windows about 10 floors up. Jesse was sitting in it, his head leaned against the glass, his laptop in front of him, busy working on something Beca couldn't make out from the street far below. The window swirled in her vision and she shook her head trying to concentrate.
What was she doing here anyway? It was bad enough she and Aubrey had spent the better part of the last hour talking only about Jesse, but she couldn't remember making the decision to cross Manhattan just to stare at him through a window. And she wasn't quite sure what she thought she would achieve from it. Come to think of it she wasn't too entirely sure where Jesse's hotel even was compared to hers either or how they had gotten there.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw something run by, she spun on the spot, searching around for the source of the movement. The street was dead. She headed down it while underground a subway rattled by, shaking the cement under her feet. It wasn't an earthquake she reminded herself, steadying her breathing to help keep calm, just a subway. You're just in New York she told herself.
Great, this is just what she needed, to be tripping balls in the middle of the night in the streets of New York with Aubrey who was now conveniently missing. Aubrey, who out of all of her friends, was the last one she would have ever assumed would be accompanying her on this adventure.
"Aubrey?" she called again. A door opened to her left and Beca scurried away from it as a rowdy and obviously intoxicated group of people filed out into the street. She searched their faces quickly, disappointed when she didn't recognize any of them as her friend.
Continuing down the street she stopped suddenly. Her phone! Why didn't she just call Aubrey? Excited at her own genius Beca dug around in her pockets for a few moments but found only two joints, a lighter, a chapstick, and the key to her hotel room. Shit.
"Okay, think, Beca," she encouraged herself, looking around the street for what felt like the millionth time hoping Aubrey would just have reappeared. The more she looked around the less familiar it looked. How long had she been walking? This was the street she had been on right? Remembering that Jesse's hotel had been behind her she turned around and walked back the way she thought she had come, at least then she would have a landmark to go off of.
Only the landmark never came.
Beca reached the end of the street and stopped again. Okay this wasn't good. She slowly turned on the spot and looked back down the street she had just been walking on, it seemed to stretch for miles into the distance, disappearing in a pinprick at a point too far away for Beca to comprehend. There was no hotel in sight and definitely no sign of Aubrey. She glanced up, buildings were rising for what seemed like miles all around her.
Once again something flashed by the corner of her vision, she turned her head quickly hoping to see it, but was met only with an empty street. The blood pounded in her ears, her heart beat sped up as she searched for something, anything that would either point her towards Aubrey or her hotel. She looked hopefully up at the street sign on the corner but was met with something that looked like hieroglyphics, that wasn't going to help.
Another subway rattled underneath the street, this time taking Beca off guard, "Fuck," she panicked, running down the street, away from the noise, and further losing herself in the massive city.
Aubrey
2:43 am
"Aubrey?"
Aubrey could hear Beca calling her name, but it didn't register in her mind that she should respond. Instead, she allowed her attention to be caught by the pattern the street lights were making on the pavement. "Wow, that's so pretty," she sighed as she walked into the circle underneath the nearest lamp post that was throwing a pool of light on the ground.
From her position in the middle of the light, the rest of the world around her looked lost in darkness, she squinted at her surroundings trying to make anything out. She had no clue where she was. The only thing she could see was the next street lamp over, which was throwing the patch of sidewalk in front of it into stark contrast.
Making a decision to keep moving, Aubrey held her breath and sprinted the short distance to the next lamp. She continued in this fashion until she had reached the end of the block where she realized the severity of her mistake.
"Beca, I don't know where we are-" she glanced around, before it finally struck her that not only did she not know where she was, she also had no clue where Beca was either. "Oh no," she groaned, "oh no, no, no."
She was not tripping on acid for the first time alone in the middle of New York. This wasn't happening.
"You okay, sweetie?"
Aubrey jumped a foot in the air and looked around wildly for the source of the gravelly voice. At the base of a building to her right Aubrey realized what she thought had been a pile of trash was actually a reclining homeless man, and this was who had spoken to her.
"Um, yeah," she murmured back.
"Are you sure? You don't look so good," that was rich, being told she didn't look good by a man who was using a ripped and dirty kimono as a fashion statement.
"You know what," Aubrey rounded on the man, but quickly drew back when she saw who was laying on the ground at her feet. "Dad?" There he was, in a dirty kimono, days' worth of stubble on his face, a few teeth missing, but there was no denying it, this was her father Alexander Posen, lying on the streets of New York.
Aubrey dropped to her knees beside her father, "Dad, what happened to you? Do you need help? Where's mom?"
Her father looked back at her curiously, a look of confusion spreading quickly over his face, "I don't know you, chicky, you're bat shit crazy."
It was Aubrey's turn to look confused, "Dad, stop it's me, Aubrey." She took the man's dirtied hand in her own, "What happened to you, dad?"
The man pulled his hand away from her, this time when he spoke it wasn't with her father's voice, "I don't know who the fuck you are, crazy lady, now get off my corner!"
Aubrey scurried back unsure of what was going on. She looked up and down the street and when she glanced back at the man lying in front of her she was no longer met with the face of her father, but of a random stranger in need of a shower, a shave, and some dental care. Rather than waiting for him to speak again, she turned on her heel and jogged up another street, before turning onto yet another and continuing her task of putting as much space between herself and her fake father.
It had been years since she had been to New York and as she wandered nothing began to look even remotely familiar, the last few times she had come had been with the Bellas for the ICCAs, but even then they never had much time to explore the city.
Just as the thought crossed her mind she came to a stop outside of a building she was very familiar with: Lincoln Center.
The Bellas had saved her! Now all she had to do was call Beca and have her meet her there, before they even knew it they would be back in the safety of their hotel rooms.
Pleased with herself, Aubrey plopped down on the steps of the Lincoln Center and pulled her phone out of her back pocket dialling Beca quickly. There was a cool breeze on the air that ruffled her hair as a few strangers walked by into the night, making their way to parties, or jobs, significant others or drug dealers, Aubrey didn't know, but she sat patiently while her phone rang and rang and rang.
No answer.
She tried again.
No answer.
She tried over and over again, forgetting after a while what her goal had been as she fell into the habit of listening to the dial tone, followed by Beca's voicemail, followed by the beep at the end of whatever message she left her.
Was she leaving her messages?
Who was she calling?
Why weren't they picking up?
Aubrey absentmindedly clicked redial for what felt like the millionth time, in the middle of the dial tone her phone went black as it died. She stared at the blank screen for a few moments before getting to her feet and wandering off into the night.
Beca
4:39 am
She had to be close to the hotel now. She had spent what felt like hours wandering the streets of New York, occasionally spotting a landmark that would point her in the right direction, but more often than not having no clue where she was. She had no cell phone, no wallet, no Aubrey, and was tripping mad balls still, meeting New York in a way she never thought she would.
After all, how often do you talk to a city and it talks back? For Beca, that night, the regularity with which she conversed with the city and it conversed back was high. "Okay where to next?" she mumbled to herself as she reached another intersection, her hotel was by Central Park, she knew that much, but where she was in relation to the park she had no clue.
"Just take a stab and start wawhking," the mailbox to her right suggested in a heavy Brooklyn accent, its door opening like a mouth to speak.
Beca rolled her eyes at it, "Yeah, sure and then end up somewhere in Harlem, no thank you."
"Yous in Harlem, smartass," it retorted, spitting letters towards a building Beca hadn't noticed before.
"Oh shit," Beca recognized the marquee from the Apollo theater, amazed that she had managed to walk from midtown to Harlem without realizing where she was. "Fuck, how the hell did I get here?"
"Don't ask me, sweet cheeks, I'm just de messenger," Beca slammed the door shut on the mailbox and it retaliated with an echoey yell as she started to walk away. "Hey, don't do dat! Come back, I can help yous out. Okay? Help yous get back tuh ya hotel."
Beca stopped, turned around and walked slowly back to the mailbox considering it carefully. "How? You're a mailbox?"
"And yet here yous is conversatin' wit' me on dis fine evening, er, morning," the mailbox shot back, Beca couldn't argue with this, so she remained silent. "So yous gonna let me help you or nah?"
Beca sighed, what was the worst that could happen, the advice she takes from an inanimate object gets her further lost in the city, she finally finishes tripping in a few hours time and eventually makes her way back to the hotel? At this point in time, she couldn't come up with any better options, so what the hell. "Fine, whatcha got for me...sir?" she added at the end, uncertain of how to address her new friend.
"Alright, kid, listen real careful, ya dig?" Beca leaned in to listen to what the mailbox had to say over the sound of his creaking hinges, "Yous gonna start wawhkin' down dis street tuh my right, once yous reach dat intersection yous gonna turn right again. Okay? Follow that street all da way until yous hit Central Park. Right? It's massive yous won't be able to miss it. Ya dig?"
Beca nodded as she made mental note of everything the mailbox said.
"Once yous gotten to the park yous gonna turn left and follow the edge of the park all de way tuh de statue of Duke Ellington, turn right one mawh time. Alls yous gotta do is keep straight, wawhk de whole park and yous gonna find yawhself safe and sound back at home. Yous got that, Beca?"
"How do you know my name?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Yous Beca Mitchell, everyone knows ya, kid," the box flapped back quickly. "Now listen here, whatever you do don't go into de park, yous hear me? Don't go into de park. Yous only gonna lose yawhself again, make it to Duke and you'll get home."
"Thanks for all your help…"
"Angelo, de names Angelo."
"Well, thanks, Angelo," she finished, patting the mailbox affectionately, "ah hope you have a good...um life."
She walked away listening to the sound of the mailbox chattering to itself about meeting her fade into the distance.
4:39 am
Aubrey
Aubrey's feet dragged loudly on the ground, after leaving the Lincoln Center she had wandered around until she found herself on the banks of the Hudson. She had spent the better part of two hours trying to correct her error and finally she thought she had some success. There it was, right in front of her, hopefully her ticket home.
Central Park.
If she could get through Central Park she would find her way back to their hotel, it was on the very edge of Central Park after all, and Aubrey was 99% sure she knew what direction she needed to be going in. She entered the line of trees, leaving the early morning sounds of New York behind her as she plunged down one of the paths in front of her. All she had to do was follow this and she would be at the Pierre ready to get into bed in no time.
She had long ago given up any hope of finding Beca, the little brunette would be okay, she was spunky and had gotten herself out of worse situations, now was the time for Aubrey to focus on herself on what seemed like a never ending trip.
5:30 am
Beca
Silence pressed in on all sides. The sky above was pitch black, she wasn't sure, but with each passing second it seemed to be getting darker. Beca slowly revolved on the spot straining her eyes to make out anything in the heavy darkness that surrounded her. Trees, paths snaking their ways away from her, somewhere an owl hooted.
She had done something wrong.
She was supposed to be almost back to the hotel by now, yet here she was standing in the middle of Central Park. She was trying to remember what paths she had taken when a Brooklyn accent floated through her memory, "whatever you do don't go into de park, yous hear me? Don't go into de park. Yous only gonna lose yawhself again."
"Ahh," Beca said out loud, slapping a hand to her forehead in frustration. There was a chorus of protest from the trees which she ignored and instead ambled down a path to her right. "Don't go into the park, so what do I do, go directly into the park. Fucking idiot. Oh, the trees look cool," she mocked herself.
It had been a long night, it had been a long trip, Beca's feet were aching, her body was sore, her spirits were low and her stomach was empty. She thought back to almost six hours ago, she had been getting ready in her dressing room at 30 Rock, a simpler time. Four hours ago, she had gotten back to the hotel with Aubrey and decided to have a nice relaxing night in their hotel. 3 and a half hours ago she remembered she had acid and convinced Aubrey to drop with her after what she thought was an amazingly convincing argument. 3 hours ago and they had both started tripping and from there the rest of the night was a blur.
She had no concept of what time it was, of how much had passed, of how much she had left on her trip. Instead of worrying, she pushed herself forward through the park, hoping against hope that she would stumble upon something familiar.
After awhile a bridge popped up on the horizon of Beca's line of sight. Hey she knew that bridge! That was pretty famous! She jogged over to stand just in the shadow of the Gothic Bridge in front of her. She had to admit it was cool as hell, but she didn't have a clue where it was in the park so it might as well have been just another tree. She sighed, exasperated with being lost when she heard something.
Her breath caught in her throat, was that...singing?
She looked around, the darkness around her was slowly losing some of its heaviness. The inky black was slowly draining out of the sky as darker blues and greys made their way into the vast expanse. She couldn't see it yet, but she knew the sun would be rising soon.
Even with the ever lightening sky on her side, Beca couldn't locate the source of the melody she had heard. Deciding it was all just a part of the trip, she was just about to walk away when she heard it again.
"And I will spend the rest of my days searching for that home I found in your eyes."
Wait, was that her song? The person singing repeated the same line again. Beca furrowed her eyebrows. It made no sense, she hadn't even released the song yet. The next line floated out to her from behind a bush, the person singing hit a familiar note and excitement flooded her brain.
Hurrying around the bush she saw a familiar pair of Adidas sticking out from the other side as the owner continued to provide the melody to the song.
"YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY HOME!"
Beca took a step back laughing at the scene that was laid out before her. Aubrey Posen, flat on her back, laying in a bush in the middle of Central Park, her eyes clamped shut, singing one of Beca's unreleased songs loudly to the world at large.
The sound of her laughter caused Aubrey's eyes to snap open, she saw Beca and scrambled away before getting unsteadily to her feet. They stared at each other for a minute in the greying morning air, both not speaking. Aubrey leaned in and looked closely at Beca studying her face carefully.
Beca held in a chuckle, whatever Aubrey was doing seemed to be important to the blonde and Beca didn't want to upset her by laughing at her. Aubrey took a step closer to her, reached out a hand and tugged on one of Beca's ears. This time the brunette looked curiously at the hand that was still pulling on her ear.
"Can I help you?" she asked after a minute.
Aubrey's face split into a massive smile and she threw herself at the smaller girl, "it is you!"
"Who else would it be?" she asked, rubbing Aubrey's back softly in the most comforting way she could think of. She was still supporting the blonde's full weight and her legs were beginning to cramp.
"I thought a homeless man was my father early," Aubrey responded earnestly, standing up straight and looking at Beca with wide eyes. "And half of your face is melting off right now, but it's you!" she hugged Beca closely to her again, almost dancing on the spot in excitement.
Despite how close they had gotten over the past year, Beca was always shocked when Aubrey acted like a normal human with normal feelings rather than a bitchy robot, so seeing her be this affectionate while on acid was something she just couldn't wrap her mind around. She patted her back again and was relieved when the taller girl stood up straight again, taking all of her weight off Beca.
"How did you find me?" Aubrey asked excitedly, "Must have been the vibes I was putting out while I was singing. I brought you straight to me."
"Uh, sure, Bree. But, I think...a mailbox told me? Or...something," Beca looked around confused more now than ever. "You know I don't really know, the important thing is at least we're back together, so let's try to keep it that way, okay?"
Aubrey nodded animatedly, "I wanna go home, I'm so tired but I don't think I'll ever be able to sleep again, how much longer is this gonna last, Beca?"
It was like having a toddler with her. Beca glanced over at Aubrey who was already wandering off again, maybe it would be easier to leave her in the bush she thought briefly as she stuck out a hand to grab Aubrey's wrist and drag her back to her.
"We're gonna try to find the hotel now," she addressed each of Aubrey's concerns as she led her down a path towards what she hoped would be the correct side of the park that their hotel was on. " I have no clue how much longer, I don't know how much time has passed, but given that the sun is rising im gonna say its either almost six or a little after so, I don't know anywhere from, three to seven more hours-"
Aubrey had stopped walking at this and Beca who had been holding her hand was dragged backwards while she had tried to continue forward. "SEVEN MORE HOURS?" Her mouth was open slightly and she was staring at Beca with horror. "This is going to go on for seven more hours?"
"Ah...yeah, did you not know how acid works?" Beca asked her, tugging at her arm to keep her moving.
"Well now I do," Aubrey grumbled.
7:53 am
They had made a few wrong turns, they had made a few right ones. The sun had climbed into the sky and thrown the world around them into bright color and Aubrey who had been previously complaining nonstop looked around her absolutely amazed at how the park looked in the day time.
"Beca...Beca...Beca…" she had been saying the younger girl's name incessantly with no response so she finally stopped walking, positively refusing to move unless Beca acknowledged her. "Thank you," she said politely when Beca finally turned to look at her. "It seems like a waste," she began, "to not look at how fucking cool this grass is!"
She dragged Beca over to the edge of the path they were on and pointed down to her feet. What should have looked like normal grass was covered in trippy patterns that were constantly swirling. Beca had to admit, it was cool, and she couldn't be annoyed at Aubrey forever for wandering off, it was her first time dropping after all and Beca knew it had been quite the eventful first experience.
"Alright, blondie, you want this trip to be worth it? Go have fun," she motioned for Aubrey to go out into the grass and enjoy herself while she laid down in the sun, couldn't hurt to spend a little time out in nature.
10:30 am
"Where in the fuck have you two been?"
Luke had ripped open the door to his and Aubrey's hotel room as she and Beca had tried to make it silently into her room. They stopped with their backs to him and ever so slowly turned to look at him, guilt all over their faces.
"Well?" he demanded, looking from his girlfriend to his client neither who seemed too keen to talk.
Finally Aubrey broke the silence, "Baby! We we're just out-" she had thrown herself into his arms excitedly, he stared down at her looking extremely annoyed.
"You've been missing since last night. I couldn't reach either of you. There's branches in your hair!" He pulled a few twigs out of Aubrey's locks and studied them between his fingers before looking expectantly at Beca. He knew that his answers weren't going to come from Aubrey this morning, she seemed incapable of forming an intelligible sentence, so Beca it would be then.
"Well, I didn't mean to leave my phone, Luke, trust me, I would have much rather had it-"
"And mine died! I tried calling Beca a million times after I ran into daddy on the street-"
"What is she talking about?" Luke looked curiously at his girlfriend who was currently trying to get herself as physically close to him as was possible given they were standing in the hallway of their hotel. "And what is wrong with her?" she had just looked down the hallway in fear and was glancing quickly between Beca and Luke who still had her in his arms.
"She's tripping mad balls right now," Beca answered, also looking down the hall to see what Aubrey was on about, there was nothing but an empty maid cart. "Bree, it's okay there's nothing down there."
In that exact moment she thrashed around wildly in Luke's arms while she tried to get into her room, she tripped in the scuffle and fell head first through the door with a thud. Beca and Luke stood on either side of her as she laid face first on the carpet.
"Maybe acid just isn't the drug for her," Beca offered lightly.
"Jesus, what happened here?"
Beca looked up, the smile sliding off her face, there standing in front of her, half of his face swirling in one direction, the other half swirling in another was Jesse Swanson.