Beca, shook herself from her daydream of her earlier Bella days. She heard a determined Chloe, from somewhere behind her, mention something about a retreat. Oh god! What does that even mean? Beca was afraid to find out. Chloe climbed her way to the front of the bus, sat in the passenger seat opposite Beca, and just grinned at her. Not saying any words, like a psycho. "Ok weirdo, what is happening with your face right now? Beale, what are you planning? I know that look, it means nothing good."
Beca was launched into another flashback from Sophomore year. She had seen a similar look on their 2013 victory tour. After Aubrey had left, "for work," Chloe had been inseparable from Beca. On their first weekend free, she took the girls out to a karaoke bar….on Disney night. It was literally hell to Beca. Jessica and Ashley sang a duet from Tangled. As they finished, Beca turned to Cynthia Rose, "ugh can you believe this…." she trailed off as CR jumped at the opportunity to grab the mic and burst out "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from the Lion King. She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help getting into it. As she finished Chloe got up from her other side, winking as she went up to the stage. Naturally the red head belted "Part of Your World." Her eyes locked with Beca's as she sang. The brunette pretended to not notice and occupied herself with peeling the label from Chloe's beer bottle. Amy, however, couldn't help but notice the extreme eye contact. As Chloe walked down the steps back to them, Amy leaned over to Beca from the booth behind, "Was it just me, or did Red seem to be staring this way while she sang? Hmm wonder who she's singing too?"
Beca pretended to look around as if she were going to spot some beautiful stranger that had caught Chloe's attention. While she was turned away, she was grabbed by the arm and yanked backwards. "Ahh!" she yelled, rubbing her arm.
"Common, we have to sing A Whole New World," drunk Chloe whispered in her ear, tickling the skin on her neck.
Beca began to protest, but Chloe stuck out her lip and began to beg. "Please Becs." How did she always manage to get Beca to do whatever she wanted?
"Sigh, fine, there's no resisting you is there?"
"You're finally catching on," Chloe gave her a smug and seductive smile.
"but I get to be Aladdin."
"Naturally," Chloe giggled, pulling Beca to the stage.
They always sounded so good together. This time, however, it was different that at Bella's practice, it reminded Beca of their shower incident together. Intense, eyes boring into each other matching pitch in perfect harmony. This time, however, Beca remembered, after a few verses, that there was an audience. She backed off a bit from Chloe but maintained eye contact.
As they finished, Chloe rushed into her, nearly knocking her over in a huge hug, squealing of pure joy. She was glowing like a kid on Christmas morning. She looked down at her short friend and said, "thank you." It was so soft and sweet, Beca reached up and kissed her on the cheek. She quickly turned and rushed off the stage. Oh god, why did I do that?
"What are you thinking about? Beca? Have you heard anything I just said? You should be more careful while you're driving."
Chloe's voice suddenly pulled her back from the memory. She shook her head again. "Sorry, Chlo, I'm just tired, that's all."
"Did you hear what I said? The retreat is next weekend, Aubrey can fit us in at her camp. Don't tell the girls though, I want it to be a surprise that Aubrey will be there."
"Next weekend? I was supposed to go with Emily to cheer on the Trebles at nationals. It's Jesse's last competition. Without us to steal the spotlight, this could be his year!"
"Beca did you forget? We are banned from the ICCA's, that means even attending a competition. I think they are worried that we would make a scene or something."
"Us make a scene? Never," Beca grinned, " Well I guess I'm free then." Oh boy! A weekend with the girls, and Aubrey, and zero electricity to work on my demo, perfect. She was back to being stressed again.