CHAPTER THREE
As soon as Beca walks through the living room door, the mansion becomes dead quiet and all 25, gorgeous heads snap towards her. All the courage she gained from the little pep talk she gave herself on the way in is instantly ripped away.
"Ah.. hi?" The tiny brunette gives everyone an awkward wave and they all laugh.
"Alright, I'll throw you a bone Shortstack!" Amy calls out as she comes walking through the doorway not too far behind the singer. "Ladies, as you can see here, my best friend is not the smoothest when it comes to social interactions and that's putting it nicely. If she wasn't trying to impress you all, I would've said her social skills are about as useful as a shrimp is to 10 hungry Great White sharks…"
"I have a pet Great White, his name is Gerald" a tall Asian woman puts her hand up and explains although no one actually hears her. Confused looks are shared between all the women present in the room.
"Right, as I was saying. Why don't you ladies throw my Beca dog a bone and come up one by one and steal her away? I'll say this once and once only. Don't overwhelm her, she's as fragile as a day old joey in his mum's pouch. So definitely keep it one at a time until she warms up to you" the Australian explains with a firm, serious face.
"In my country, we usually just fight until death and the last one standing wins the love of the Princess" a young Guatemalan woman stands from the couch and begins to cross the room towards Beca. A certain smirking redhead catches the singer's eye as the word 'Princess' is mentioned.
"But in America, you don't do that so I'll just take Beca somewhere to talk… unless you all want to fight to the death? Because I've done it before" every single eye in the room becomes wide and scared as they all avoid eye contact with the Guatemalan woman.
"I know where several dead bodies are if you want to go looking for them after this?" A mouse-like voice asked the room but it falls on death ears.
The beautiful, short (but not as short as Beca) woman gestures for Beca to follow her out into the backyard by the pool. The Grammy winner hesitantly follows, making sure to keep a safe distance from the woman.
"I think here will do" Beca suggests a bench located in a place that is still visible from inside. Beca's not scared or anything… it's just in case. Or so she keeps telling herself.
"Flo, right? Sorry I have to ask but I've met a lot of new people tonight and I'm not the best when it comes to names"
"White privilege. Back in my country if we forget someone's name they are allowed to take a body part from us. If someone needs a kidney transplant then they don't pray to God for it. They pray to God that someone forgets their name"
"Ahh…"
"But don't worry you got my name correct. I won't be taking a kidney from you… yet" Flo smiles but Beca's unsure if she's being serious or not.
The small brunette has managed to sneak away from the cocktail party for a minute. She really needed to catch her breath because it's all been a bit overwhelming. Beca finds herself leaning against a brick wall down in the garden quite a bit away from the mansion. She just needed some time alone with her thoughts. She's slowly starting to get the hang of this and remembers a lot more names. There are a few people she's stuck on though. There are two women she keeps getting confused with, their names are Jessica and Ashley and she doesn't know which is which. She tried to sneakily ask Amy for help but she didn't know either. Then there are 4 women who all have similar names, they're all friends too which Beca finds strange. What if she picks one of them? Will the other 3 get annoyed and then will they lose their friendship? Their names are Calamity, Serenity, Charity, and Veracity. Ahh! I swear Amy chose them just to mess with my head! The singer knows the more time she spends with them the more she'll be able to tell them apart. But, for now, she's just going to stand here and embrace the peace and quiet. She can hear faint laughter in the distance and can't help but smile when she hears her best friend telling some stories of her jelly wrestling days. She can't hear Chloe's laugh though.
Wait. How do I even know that?
"Beca, are you back here?" The soft voice of the very person she was thinking about calls from a few feet away. The brunette stands up straight and pokes her head around a rose bush and meets two ocean blue eyes filled with concern.
"Are you alright?"
"Hey Chlo, yeah sorry I just needed a little air"
"That's fair enough. I can't begin to imagine how daunting this all must be for you"
"You have no idea" the brunette laughs nervously and gestures with her head to the white, wooden bench located at the back of the garden.
"You've had everyone pushing and pulling you everywhere since the moment you walked through the door. So a break from it all is totes understandable" Chloe explains as they both sit down on the bench.
"Not everyone…" Beca surprises herself with how disappointed her voice sounds. The beautiful redhead smiles softly.
"I didn't want to overwhelm you. I wasn't too sure whether or not to go looking for you either because it seemed like you wanted alone time. I noticed all the girls were up by the pool but you weren't. But as much as my brain was telling me not to go find you, I needed to make sure you were ok"
"That's very thoughtful of you Chloe" the brunette smiles sweetly but then her smile drops instantly.
"Do they all know I'm gone?"
"No, they're too captivated by Amy's storytelling" the redhead giggled.
"She is quite a storyteller!"
There's a moment of comfortable silence before the Grammy winner speaks up again.
"Thank you by the way"
The redhead looks at her questionably.
"For calling Amy, Amy. I know she gave you all the 'call me Fat Amy' speech and I appreciate you not calling her that. I've tried so many times to make her stop but she insists. I feel horrible every time I hear someone call her that though. It takes me back to our high school days and I hate it"
"You don't need to thank me Becs. I would never call someone fat, even if they ask me too. I just feel mean and I'm uncomfortable by it" Beca finds herself smiling sweetly for the umpteenth time that day. Must be a record for her.
"Still, I just wanted to say it means a lot"
Chloe reaches across and takes Beca's small hand in her own, her thumb rubbing back and forth over the brunette's skin.
"You and Amy went to high school together?"
"Yeah our seats were assigned next to each other in homeroom freshmen year. She had just moved from Australia with her mum and didn't have any friends. I, who had lived there my whole life but death stared everyone and lived with my headphones glued into my ears, also didn't have any friends. I don't know how or when but one day we were best friends and I actually found myself liking it" Beca chuckles fondly.
"It sounds like you two were lucky to be assigned next to each other"
"Yeah, we were. Ask 14-year-old Beca and she might have a different answer though. What about you Chloe, how did you meet your best friend?"
"I auditioned for a tv show just so I could meet her" the redhead winks.
"Now who's the smooth one?" The brunette rolls her eyes but smiles widely.
"Just kidding Bec… for now at least" another wink. "I met my best friend on the first day of pre-school. I also married him that same day" the redhead giggled.
"Do I have a bit of competition here, Beale?"
"I think you're good, Mitchell" Chloe winks again. Man, this girl is flirty. "After that day we were inseparable. We spent our whole childhood thinking we were one day going to be married for real. That was until we grew up and both realized that we were gay" both women laugh.
"So, what does he think about you coming here?"
The redhead goes quiet and looks down at their now intertwined hands. When did that happen?
"Chicago died two years ago"
"Oh shit, Chlo. I'm so sorry!"
Watery, cerulean blue eyes meet stormy blue.
"It's ok. I mean, I miss him terribly but it wasn't unexpected. We got to say a proper goodbye which is more than most people"
"I can't wait for you to tell me all about him"
"Me too, Bec"
After some more mingling with all the women in the mansion, Beca calls everyone inside for an announcement.
"I just wanted to say, now that I've had a few drinks and am more comfortable" the other women laugh. "Thank you all so much for being here and coming on this journey with me"
The singer makes a vomiting noise.
"Did I really just say that out loud? I swear every person who has stood in this house before me has said it and I can't believe I just said something that cliche. I apologize". The room fills with laughter once more.
"Anyways, as I was saying before I made myself sick, thank you. I can't wait to get to know all of you and because I've only had limited time to do that so far there will be no rose ceremony tonight. I'm a bad bitch that doesn't follow rules in case anyone didn't know this already". She smirks when her eyes automatically find ocean blue ones staring at her.
"Instead, I will be giving out a single, lavender rose. This rose color symbolizes love at first sight. Now I thought this is a stupid color to give out because that's setting expectations very high but I can't win all my battles. No matter how badass I am. So the person I give this rose to will have the power to invite me on a date that they plan themselves. They also get to use this power twice!"
The silent room is filled with oohs and aahs.
"Now, the person I am giving this rose to is someone that I feel I made an instant connection with and felt comfortable around. We all know that's nearly a miracle right there. Chloe..."
The shocked redhead rises from her chair and walks towards the brunette with a wide smile on her face.
"Will you accept this rose?"
"Absolutely"
"Yeah, the ginger's got game!" CR hollers from across the room.
"Let's just hope she doesn't have herpes"
Beca whips her head around and death stares the blond Australian.
"Just looking out for ya Shawshank. Or do you already have that as well?"
AN: This chapter was more a filler before all the drama starts so bear with me. I've got my plot semi sorted now and there'll be another 5 chapters after this one.
Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed, faved, and followed. It definitely helps me get the motivation I need to write the next chapters! I'm going to try and write a chapter a day and hopefully posting not long after too. RJRMovieFan I appreciate your continuous support, even with my first fic too! I think I briefly answered some of your questions in this chapter and for the ones that didn't get answered... you're just going to have to wait and find out sorry ;)
Hope you guys are still enjoying it :)