Aca-Awkward

Needless to say, the rest of rehearsal was pretty awkward after that less than auspicious beginning. Aubrey spent most of her time glaring at me when she wasn't yelling at us for every mistake. Chloe was uncharacteristically subdued. I caught her looking at me a couple of times like a kicked puppy when she thought I wasn't looking. A development I thought was promising, but a little worrying. Stacie just looked confused, and a little bit grateful. Mary Elise, however, was following me around like a baby duckling and kept giving me these looks of over-the-top gratefulness that were making me severely uncomfortable.

"Beca, a word?" I heard Aubrey call out as practice was ending.

I took a long sip from my water bottle and nodded my head as I said, "What's up?"

"You know you'll have to take those ear monstrosities out for the Fall Mixer."

"You realy don't like me, do you?" I asked challengingly. Seriously, what was this girls problem?

"I don't like your attitude."

"You don't even know me," I say incredulously.

"I know you have a toner for Jesse."

I was confused. Who the hell is Jesse? "Who the hell is Jesse? And what is a toner?"

"A toner. A musical boner. I saw it at Hood Night. It's distracting."

"Okay…" I said with furrowed brows. "I don't even now a Jesse, so that's not a thing."

Now Aubrey looked confused and a little taken aback. That is, before she straightened her back and the scowl returned with a vengeance. "Don't lie to me Beca," the way she said my name made it sound like an accusation, "I saw you talking to him!"

I returned her scowl, "I didn't talk to any guys that night Aubrey," and then it came to me, "except for when Stacie abandoned me and that stalker dude got overly familiar again. Is that who you're talking about? God Aubrey, that is so not cool. That guy keeps showing up and acting like the two of us hooking up is inevitable and I keep telling him to fuck off! He's driving me nuts! And it is extremely unfair of you to treat me like this because of it. I'm here putting in the time and effort just the same as the rest of these girls. I'm here because I want to be. And I don't appreciate this. I don't deserve it. And don't worry, I'll leave my 'ear monstrosities' at home."

After having said my piece, and glaring for good measure, I turned on my heels and marched out. I completely missed Aubrey's abashed look as I stormed away.

I'd barely gotten through the door when I was accosted by Mary Elise. She stood in front of me with a huge smile on her face. "Hey."

"Umm…hi," I said suspiciously.

"Thank you for what you did. I know it probably wasn't easy, but I appreciate it. I really, really didn't want to leave."

"Don't mention it. Like, ever," I said with emphasis on the 'ever'. She must have gotten the message because she quickly nodded her head and left, still with that smile on her face and waving over her shoulder.

"What the hell Stacie!" I shouted at my roommate later that day after classes. "Why didn't you speak up at rehearsals today? You could have saved me a ton of embarrassment and her too!"

She looked suitably chastened and mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that? You sounded way too much like Lilly there Stace."

"I said, I'm not ready to come out yet!" she shouted at me, and I was stunned. Also, now I felt a little bit guilty.

"Oh. Sorry Stace. I just assumed… sorry."

She looked up at me, and after studying my face for a few moments and seeing what I guess she wanted to see, she stood up and wrapped me in a hug.

"Ugh, get off! You know I hate being touched!"

She just giggled into my shoulder where she'd buried her face. "You didn't look like you hated being touched when you were hugging Chloe last night!" She almost sung Chloe's name and made this whole situation even more embarrassing as I could feel my cheeks redden. She looked up at me with a teasing smile on her face. "Oooh, are you embarrassed? Aww, that's so cute Beca!"

I pushed her off of me and grumbled, "Shut up," under my breath. She just laughed at me.

"So, did you see Chloe's reaction today? She was so totally jealous," she grinned at me mischievously. "She may not know it yet, but she is yours Becs."

I tried to suppress the grin by biting my lip and turning away, but I'm sure Stacie saw it if the little chuckle I heard was any indication. Her words left me too warm inside to feel embarrassment over it though.

"I saw it too. I was hoping I didn't imagine it."

"Trust me babe, you didn't. She is going to be putty in your hands before you know it."

With my back to her I finally allowed the huge smile to take over my face, and let myself hope a little bit as I remembered the way her body felt molded to mine. I kept the smile on my face as I turned back to my roommate.

"Hey, you want some pizza or something? I'll go get it."

"Why don't you just have it delivered?" Stacie asked me.

"I kinda want some air, so I thought a walk would be nice," I replied. "So, pizza or no?"

"I'll never say no to pizza, you know that Mitchell. Get me pineapple and pepperoni," she grinned evilly at me, knowing by now what I'm going to say.

"Eww, I don't know how you eat that shit. It's a crime against food," I said as I grabbed my wallet and walked out the door.

"Don't knock it till you try it!" I heard as I was closing the door.

I popped my head back in and said, "Never!" Before making a swift exit.

Chloe sat in her favorite spot in the library presumably to study, but instead she was lost in thought tapping her pen against her chin over and over again like an adorable ginger haired metronome. She was having trouble understanding herself. And Chloe Beale was never one to have trouble understanding herself. Chloe Beale is a confident, bubbly, affectionate individual that gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, trusted in the innate goodness of people, and knew that a nice, warm hug could heal just about anything. And that was the problem. A nice, warm hug was at the heart of her current dilemma.

From the moment that she saw Beca for the first time, she'd felt a connection to the diminutive alt-girl. And when she opened her mouth to sing Chloe was blown away. Never before had a song touched her soul the way Beca had that night. She'd spent countless nights lying awake in her bed replaying that performance in her head.

But the hug. Oh. My. God. It was like she was made to be in those arms. It was like coming home. It wasn't supposed to be more than a quick hug to show her affection, like she does with all of her friends. But as soon as she was in Beca's arms, she didn't want to let go. So she didn't.

She couldn't do this to Tom though. She loved him. And he was great. Just about perfect even. She loved him. And she was feeling guilty even though she didn't really believe she'd done anything wrong.

Why was she feeling this way? She had the perfect guy and the perfect relationship. Beca had Mary Elise. Never in a million years would Chloe have called that one. After getting over the strange bout of jealousy she'd experienced at the revelation that they'd been together, Chloe watched the two of them for the rest of rehearsal. To say there wasn't any chemistry was an understatement. Heck, they didn't even talk to or even really acknowledge each other for the rest of that practice. Honestly, it was kind of aca-awkward.

Whatever! I am with Tom dangit! Tom is great. Tom loves me. I love Tom. That's it, she thought. Decision made, she packed up her belongings a little bit aggressively and left the library.

It never occurred to her to wonder if her decision would be different if Beca didn't actually have Mary Elise.

I saw her from across the quad as she was leaving the library and immediately forgot my pizza plans as I jogged over to her.

"Chloe! Hey, wait up!" I shouted at her. I saw her stiffen her shoulders as she stopped and turned to me and waited. "Man I'm out of shape," I panted. "Whew. Okay, hey, what's up?" I smiled widely at her still trying to catch my breath.

"Hey Beca." Uh oh. I know that tone. Nobody knows Chloe as well as I do, so I know she's uncomfortable.

"Umm, Chlo, is everything okay?"

Her lips tightened a little bit at my question. "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"Just asking because you don't seem very happy to see me."

Chloe sighed in exasperation. "Why should I be happy to see you Beca? I just saw you earlier today."

Ouch. I schooled my expression though so she wouldn't see that her words stung a bit. The silence between us became slightly uncomfortable as I tried to think of what to say to that.

"I gotta go Beca. I'll see you later," and she turned to leave.

"I'm sorry."

She whirled around and asked, "Aca-scuse me?"

"I said, I'm sorry. For whatever I did that upset you Chloe," and I let the hurt and genuine contrition show on my face.

Chloe was obviously thrown off by this. "You have nothing to be sorry for?" I'm sure by looking at her face that she didn't mean that to come out as a question.

"Is that a question or a statement?" I ask with my trademark smirk. Now she looks flustered and avoids meeting my eyes as she stutters her response.

"I- well- that is…" she runs her hand through her hair in frustration and forces her determined eyes to look at me once again. "Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend right now or something?"

I take a step back from the force of her words and frown in confusion. "Wait, what?"

"Mary Elise, Beca."

Understanding comes, but now it's my turn to be flustered. I knew this was going to bite me in the ass.

"That's not a thing," I say. I hope my conviction shows on my face because I happen to be telling the truth. "I am not with Mary Elise, I swear."

"That's not what you said at rehearsal!"

I run my hands through my own hair in frustration now. "Ugh! Stupid Beca and her stupid getting in the middle of things that aren't her business. You should have just kept your mouth shut." I'm mumbling to myself as Chloe looks at me like I'm crazy. I pull my gaze away from the sky where I'd been staring through that insane rant and look her in the eyes again. I almost lose my train of thought before it can get started when I gaze in the impossibly blue eyes in front of me, but I manage to get my words out. "I am not, nor have I ever been, with Mary Elise. I only opened my big fat mouth today because she didn't deserve to get kicked out of the Bellas. She wasn't with a Treble last night. I promise you that, but she also wasn't with me. I just can't say anymore without betraying confidences. Please believe me." As I said those last words I reached out and took her hand. She was biting her lip and avoiding my eyes as she squeezed my hand in hers.

"Thank you for being honest with me. I won't tell Aubrey," she said as she looked back at me. I saw her struggling to make some kind of decision as her eyes flicked back and forth between mine. After a moment I saw in her eyes that her decision was made. She squeezed my hand once more before dropping it and saying, "I'll see you later." She left me standing there staring after her replaying that conversation in my head wondering where I went wrong. Pizza long forgotten, I walked back home and stopped when I got to my room.

"God fucking dammit! I haven't been gone that long!" I shouted, as I gave my very best death glare to the sock on our doorknob.