Tonight, Beca's final hood night at Barden, felt like an important milestone. There were going to be a lot of lasts this year and this was one of them. They had had some really great hood nights, but all of her memories always came back to Chloe. Chloe had made all of it special. When she saw her best friend run at her, she got butterflies in her stomach, and equated it to knowing this would be their last one together. Chloe had now failed Russian Lit 3 times and was in her seventh year as a Bella. Beca was glad, as bad as she felt for saying she was glad that Chloe hadn't passed yet, she would get to be with her again this year. "OOF," Beca shouted when Chloe slammed into her.
"Where have you been? I've been waiting for you all night," Chloe whined in her ear, her breath tickling her face and smelled thickly of vodka.
"You look really beautiful tonight, Chlo," was Beca's response, knowing that it would get Chloe off of her back. A soft pink rose to Chloe's cheeks as she blushed at the compliment.
"C'mon let's party!" Chloe shouted, completely forgetting that she was mad at her best friend for disappearing all day.
When Chloe danced with Beca, the world seemed to melt away. It was just the two of them. It felt so right. That was until Chloe realized that Jesse was lingering at a table glaring at them, now it felt really wrong, like she was in trouble. When Jesse saw Chloe notice him, he moved into the crowd of dancers, and started grinding on Beca. Chloe was not about to back down from a challenge, oh it's on, she thought. Chloe grabbed Beca's wrist and spun her around so Beca's ass was pushed up against her. Chloe grabbed onto Beca's hips and they swayed in time with the music. Jesse pulled her back to him, but Chloe moved with her. Beca spun around to put her back up to Jesse facing Chloe. She started to feel completely overwhelmed by her best friend and her boyfriend, so she quickly excused herself to go to the bathroom. She ran up the stairs of the Treble's house and slammed the bathroom door taking deep breaths. She went over to the sink, turned on the tap, and splashed her face with cold water. As she walked outside she could hear raised voices. Great, now what? We were just all having such a good time. It was Chloe and Jesse yelling, but as she reappeared, Chloe pushed past her away from the dance floor looking really upset.
"Seriously!?" She shouted at Jesse above the loud music.
"What did you say to her? Why is she so upset?" Beca didn't wait for Jesse to answer. She ran quickly to catch up with Chloe. Jesse pulled her arm to stop her.
"Really? You're going after her right now? Beca, you're my girlfriend. I want you to stay with me."
"Dude," she shrugged his hand off of her arm. "She's obviously upset. I want to go talk to her. Why are you being like this?"
"You always do this. You always go to her."
"She's my best friend and you're being a dick!"
"And that's always your response. Open your eyes Beca. I have been telling you for years. It's more than that to her. Until you figure it out, I'm done." He walked away. Beca looked around to see who all just heard their conversation. The Bellas and the Trebles quickly pretended to be occupied in deep conversations even though Beca could tell they had all just witnessed the argument.
"Beca, I'll go talk to him and get him to bed. I think he's reached his limit tonight." Benji gave Beca a reassuring smile.
"Thank Benji, you're a good friend," she turned and ran in the direction Chloe went, knowing exactly where the red head was going to be.
As soon as Beca had walked off the dance floor, Jesse narrowed in on her.
"I know what you're doing. Just stop. She's with me," he said.
"I don't know what you mean," Chloe tried to play dumb.
"Don't do that! Don't make me seem like I'm crazy, that I don't realize you're in love with her," Jesse's voice was raised and his hands were starting to shake. Chloe was getting a bit scared. The Bellas and Trebles nearest to them had stopped dancing to see the argument unfold.
"Jesse, I don't…Beca's my best friend. If you've got a problem with that then you need to settle it with Beca," Chloe's voice was catching and there were tears forming in her eyes as she shouted back at him over the party noise. She pushed past him and away from the dance floor, she needed to get away as the tears started to fall. She didn't even notice that she had run past Beca on the way. She was going to get some fresh air away from prying eyes to her favorite spot on the lake.
She was sitting on a large boulder near the water's edge throwing pebbles into the water when she heard her favorite sound. "Hey, are you ok?" Beca asked.
"I'm fine," Chloe said, wiping her eyes hoping that her makeup wasn't totally smeared on her face.
"What happened in there? I thought we were having a good time?"
"Yeah. I was having a good time too," She smiled thinking back on their dance moves. "That was until you went to the bathroom. Jesse started yelling at me about how 'you're his girl' and I need to back off."
"Grrr, ugh, I'm so sorry Chlo. Sometimes he just gets so possessive. I told him to back off. He's got this idea in his head that we are more than friends. He just doesn't get female dynamics. Just because he wouldn't dance with any of the Trebles the way we do…." She trailed off remembering how close Chloe was dancing with her. She got goosebumps on her arms.
"Are you cold?" Chloe asked, taking off her sweater wrapping it around Beca.
"Thanks," Beca smiled at Chloe. Yeah, totally normal friendship dynamics. Then, their eyes locked, Beca's eyes darted to Chloe's lips but quickly back up to her eyes again. Get a grip Mitchell! Her thoughts changed over to Jesse and how weird he's been acting. In the car earlier, he seemed totally cool with Chloe and her being besties, and even at the beginning of the party, telling her to let Chloe know about the internship. It was like he flipped like a switch. Was it the booze or something else. The only other time she had seen him get jealous like that was last year when he caught them in bed together. The thought of that moment made Beca's cheeks start to burn and she realized Chloe was still staring at her.
"What are you thinking about? Are you blushing Mitchell?"
"Uh, no, what? Um, we should probably get back to the party, the girls are going to come looking for us soon. That is, if you're up for going back in. I'll make sure Benji took Jesse up to bed." Beca stood, held out her hand, smiling encouragingly at Choe who reluctantly grabbed it and headed back to the party.
The hood night party, post dramatic argument, had been a great distraction for Beca from her busy schedule. It had been some time since she had good quality time with the girls without Jesse around. After he went to bed, and she and Chloe rejoined the party, she had a blast with everyone, even the new girl. Emily seemed cool, for a freshman, and like a good fit in their squad. A little awkward, but she seemed eager to find her place, and she clicked well with most of the girls. Amy took it upon herself to do some hazing of the freshman, trying to get her to jump in the pool, little did Amy know that drunk Chloe was falling for her scheming as well and was the one who ended up jumping in.
"Everybody in the pool" Chloe screamed with enthusiasm. Dead silence, followed by many excuses, and Beca waving her over to give her the disappointing news that no one was joining her. Benji threw Beca a towel and several others grabbed whatever limbs of Chloe's they could to hoist her out. Beca immediately wrapped the red head up like a burrito, rubbing her body to dry her off. "Mmmh, thanks Becs," Chloe hummed into Beca's ear, making the air on her arms stand on end.
"Let's go get you home and dry you properly." Beca was pretty drunk herself at that point. It had been about two hours since the blow up with Jesse. Stacy had them all doing jello shots at one point. Beca knew it was going to be a rough morning after mixing who knows how many different types of liquor, but she couldn't think about that right now. She needed to focus on getting her friend home before she caught a cold.
It was a short walk back to the Bella's house. Beca was half carrying Chloe along as they went. They walked mostly in silence until Chloe started humming titanium. Beca joined in singing along softly. "I'm bulletproof…" she trailed off. Chloe whispered, "don't stop. I can't believe that was four years ago…where would I be without you Becs?"
"Hmm probably graduated, successful, and maybe married with kids" Beca teased her. She anticipated the slap of the arm that followed and countered with a shove. Unfortunately drunk Chloe was very unstable and it pushed her completely over on the sidewalk. She grabbed Beca on the way down who landed, body across her torso, heads next to each other on the grass. There was a mix of swearing (from Beca), giggling (from Chloe), and yelps of pain from both girls.
"Can't take you anywhere Beale," Beca said.
"Me?! That was SO your fault." Chloe responded. The argument about who's fault it was led to one of their notorious tickle fights. It had been awhile since their last, but always seemed the best way to settle an argument. This time when they stopped to catch their breath, there wasn't anyone barging in to interrupt. Beca was the one beginning to lean in this time, her eyes were closed, this is it, Chloe thought excitedly, but then stopped herself.
"Becs, why did you move out last year," she finally had the courage to ask her, now they were in a similar position to what had pushed Beca away in the first place.
"Chloe you know why," Beca whispered almost so quietly that Chloe wasn't sure if he had heard her.
"I want to hear you say it. Tell me why you moved out, without a word. That really hurt me, you know."
"I know." Beca said, looking down, pulling at the grace, unable to look Chloe in the eyes.
"Beca…," now Chloe was whispering.
It happened again. They locked eyes and Beca began to fall deeply into those sparkling blue spheres, feeling their gravitational pull. I need to fight it! Beca suddenly jumped up and raced off to the Bella's house, practically running away.
Ugh, so close. Chloe thought, again. C'mon Beale, go after her! With all her might, Chloe picked herself up off the ground, hair still dripping from the pool, and ran to catch up to Beca. She was determined this time that she was going to make her feelings known.
Ugh not again! Beca was starting to realize that maybe Jesse was right. Her and Chloe always seemed to end up in these intimate situations. She was walking so fast away from Chloe that she was practically running back to the Bella's house. She felt guilty, knowing that she left her friend drunk on the grass, soaking wet, but she needed to get away before she did something she would regret. Would I regret it? Beca contemplated, but resolved that it's not a decision that should be made while under the influence of alcohol. Chloe was even more sexy since she was all wet from the pool and Beca was in no condition to be making those kinds of choices right now. The best thing for her to do was to lock herself up in her room tight. Block out the world, possible until graduation, if she had to.