Prompt: "Chloe and Aubrey are road tripping and Beca is a hitchhiker - who else would pick up a gothy looking girl but Chloe?!"
A/N – I do not own Pitch Perfect or any of its characters. All words and mistakes are those of my own.
Now I've got that disclaimer out of the way – thanks for the stream of reviews lately! It's really cool to hear back from everyone and find out if I'm doing an almost decent job at this one shot business.
On a completely different note, I was a little bit worried about posting chapter thirty, as shit got deep and I thought I might scare you all away, but then I saw people viewed my latest update and a breathed a sigh of relief, so cheers for sticking with it :).
Anyways, I'll let you get to reading because as interesting as this authors note may be (it's not, I know), I'm aware you didn't come here for me to ramble on.
Yes, I'm going now...
Hitch
Chloe was stretched out on the back seat with her bare feet partially resting out of the car window; the sound of The Beach Boys' "good vibrations" pouring out of her headphones.
When she first agreed to go on a road trip during summer break with her best friend Aubrey, Chloe thought they would have the time of their lives but so far, the redhead realised how much she had overlooked Aubrey's constant need for control.
The entirety of their trip so far had consisted of strict schedules, limited bathroom breaks, and a daily fixed budget and basically everything that sucked the fun out of the "epic roundtrip" Aubrey had proposed in the spring.
Chloe was a free spirited and impulsive person; she wanted to take a left instead of a right just to see where the road led or close her eyes and point to a state in the morning and just drive until they got there. Aubrey, however, had dismissed all of those ideas, deeming them dangerous and irresponsible. This was partly the reason Chloe was sat in the back and giving her best friend the silent treatment.
Well, maybe Aubrey wasn't speaking to Chloe either.
The redhead had sneaked out of their motel room late last night and hadn't returned until twenty minutes after the arranged time to leave in the morning. Chloe had spent the night in the bar across the street and had a little bit too much to drink. It's safe to say when she rocked up in the clothes from the night before and still drunk, Aubrey had well and truly; for the lack of better words; lost her shit.
Chloe jerked in her seat for what felt like the millionth time; she was sure Aubrey was purposely driving over the pot holes in the road in order to worsen the other woman's hangover. She caught Aubrey's eye in the rear mirror; they shared a pointed stare before Chloe let out a long sigh and closing her eyes in an attempt to catch up on some sleep.
XXX
"Are we going to stop with the silent treatment now?" Chloe asked as they both took a seat in a empty corner booth.
Aubrey pulled at the straw in her milkshake before answering, "That depends, are you still drunk?"
Chloe shook her head, "Nope, but the hangover kicked in a while ago, does that sway your decision?"
Aubrey let out a laugh as she picked up one of the laminated menus with the diner's logo printed on the top, "Yes, it does. I was only angry because I was worried about you, you know?"
Chloe hadn't really thought about that. She didn't sneak off out of spite or to rebel; it was just she really wanted to let her hair down without Aubrey telling her what she could and couldn't do. Deep down, she knows the blonde means well but sometimes Chloe just wants to have that fifth vodka and coke and dance on the bar without Aubrey cancelling her drink order or pulling down on her arm.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't think how it would look but I swear I wasn't intending on staying out all night."
"I'm sorry for driving down all the potholes on the highway" Aubrey mumbled into her glass.
Chloe smiled with the shake of her head as she leaned over the table and lightly swatted her friend's arm, "I knew you were doing it on purpose!" she yelled, letting out a giggle at Aubrey's guilty expression.
They ordered their food and spent the next thirty minutes falling back into their usual chatter. Ever since they had met in their first year of college, the two had always found it too easy to slip back into regular conversation after a slight disagreement. The root of their bickers were always silly little things like leaving dirty laundry on their shared dorm room floor or being too loud when one (mostly Aubrey) was studying for an exam but it was always quickly resolved and forgotten; so by the time they had settled the bill and were making their way back to the car; both women were already laughing and joking.
"Right, we've got another six hour drive ahead of us, which means we'll arrive at around nine pm. It's later than I would have liked, but after this morning..."
Aubrey stopped herself as Chloe offered a half hearted glare and a smile.
"So..." the blonde dragged out the word, "...I thought we could take it in turns to drive. I'll do the first three and you do second, if you're not still intoxicated?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yep, I'm all good; sounds great!" Chloe sing-songed opening up the passenger door and sitting in the seat.
The blonde nodded, before following suite and turning the key in the ignition.
"Jackson here we come!" Chloe cheered before instantly playing Johnny Cash through the stereo hooked up to her iPod.
XXX
As planned, at the three hour mark of their journey, Aubrey pulled up at the side of the road and let Chloe take over the drive. Driving all day had been quite exhausting and the minute she got situated in the backseat, the blonde could feel her eyelids drooping.
It wasn't long until the soft hum of the engine lulled her to sleep.
Aubrey awoke to the sound of voices.
At first she assumed it was the radio and turned her head to rest in the crook of the seat and the door, taking note of the now dark road through the window before closing her eyes again. That was until she realised one of the animated voices definitely belonged to Chloe and the other one didn't seem to be a muffled voice through the phone.
The minute she focussed her eyes at the front of the car, the blonde was sitting upright with a jerk and widening her eyes at the new and very random person sitting in the passenger seat.
"Chloe, what the fuck?" Aubrey spat out quickly, pulling on the back of the redhead's seat and shouting very close to her ear.
Her eyes darted to the small brunette who mumbled a not too quiet, "the general is awake."
Aubrey furrowed her eyebrows together, unsure of how to respond, before finally frantically tapping her best friends shoulder, "Pull over right now!"
"Bree, just let me explain" Chloe reasoned before she was interrupted.
"Chloe, pull over the damn car!"
Her tone was angry and authoritive; it was the voice Chloe knew not to challenge, so she did as she was told and flicked the blinker before slowing down and gradually bringing the car to a halt. Before the vehicle was even fully stationary, Aubrey had whipped her door open and was purposefully making her way to the passenger side of the door and pulling at the handle.
"Out!" she demanded to the shocked brunette in the front seat, "Get out of the car or I will physically pull you out."
Before Aubrey could deliver on her threat, Chloe's hand was stilling her arm and pulling her away from the door, "Bree, just calm down for a second, will you?"
"Calm down?" she questioned throwing her hands in the air, "I let you drive for three hours and I wake up to a random Goth in the car?!"
The woman in the passenger seat let out an amused scoff, causing Aubrey's anger to peak. "Who even is she?"
Chloe gave her pointed stare before letting out a long sigh. "Can you please just stop shouting and let me speak?"
When Aubrey nodded, Chloe made her way to the opened door and closed it with a quiet, "Excuse us, Beca" and steered her best friend to the back of the car.
"Beca?" the blonde questioned, shaking out of Chloe's hands that were guiding her away and out of ear shot from the other woman.
"Yeah" she shrugged.
When Aubrey didn't say anything, Chloe seized her opportunity to finally speak a full sentence without being interrupted.
"I pulled over for gas and she was by one of the pumps asking people for a ride. All of the guys looked really shady, Aubrey, I couldn't just fill up the tank and let her get in a car with a potential serial killer."
Aubrey jerked her head forward, as if to say "Keep talking and you better make this good."
"So I asked where she was going and it wasn't too far out of our way so I asked if she wanted a lift."
Chloe paused, "Besides she has killer taste in music and is totally working that sexy and mysterious vibe" the redhead added with a wink.
"Wait, not too far out of our way..." Aubrey repeated, "Where the hell are we, Chloe?"
The other woman dragged her foot along the dusty road and defensively folded her arms over her chest, "We're like an hour away from Biloxi" she mumbled quietly.
"Biloxi."
Just as Chloe brought her eyes back to her best friend, relieved by the calmness in her voice, Aubrey was slamming her hands down on the trunk of the car, "Where the fuck is Biloxi?!" she yelled, startling Chloe.
If the scene was unfolding in a movie or the two women were watching another pair arguing on the side of the road from afar, they would probably laugh. Aubrey was currently pacing up and down with her head in her hands, whilst Chloe looked on, timid and guilty.
They'd look back one day and laugh about this, right?
Before either of them could speak again, the hitchhiker was out of the car and making her way over.
"You know you've left the engine running?" Beca asked, gesturing to the front of the car with a thumb over her shoulder.
When she was met with an uncomfortable silence, the smaller woman leaned on the car door and shoved her hands in her pockets.
"Look, how about I just get my stuff and go?" she offered.
"No, we can't just leave you in the middle of nowhere" Chloe rushed out.
"Yep, good idea, apparently we're an hour away from Biloxi..." Aubrey interjected, "...where ever the hell that is" she said through gritted teeth and glaring at Chloe.
"You'll be fine. You can walk or hitch another ride, thanks for being so understanding" she finished, tossing Beca's backpack out of the foot well of the front seat.
The redhead rushed over, retrieving Beca's bag from the sand, "Aubrey, surely you can't be serious?! It's ten o'clock at night; we can't just leave her out here!"
The blonde flared her nostrils as she let out a long sigh.
She knew Chloe was right, they couldn't just leave this alt girl by the side of the road; it was irresponsible and immoral. Her eyes wandered to Beca before landing back on Chloe, "OK, we drop you off at Biloxi and that's the end of the line" she said defeated, using air quotes when she named the city.
Beca nodded her head with only a hint of appreciation and took her bag off the beaming redhead.
"And I'm driving" Aubrey warned sternly, pointing an accusing finger at her best friend.
Chloe nodded in agreement before bounding over to the back door and sitting down in the seat beside Beca with a light shoulder bump and a cheeky grin.
XXX
Turns out Aubrey had no idea where she was going and without the aid of an atlas or service on her phone, they were left to drive around aimlessly looking for any landmarks and keeping an eye out for road signs.
They weren't having much look.
Eventually after both women in the backseat exhausted all opportunities to help one very frustrated blonde behind the wheel they had resorted to silence. Beca and Chloe were leaning against one another's shoulders, both sharing a pair of earphones.
The tension in the car was becoming too much for the brunette.
Beca had been hanging around the gas station for five hours before Chloe approached her. At first she wasn't sure what the other woman's intentions were, her mind instantly jumping to the worst.
She got a firm grip on the handle of her bag before hoisting it over her shoulder, "I know, hitch-hiking is illegal, I'll move on, OK?"
"No, I wasn't going to say anything like that. Um, where are you heading?"
From that moment on Beca realised how very wrong she had assessed the situation. Chloe had introduced herself with a bright smile after that and welcomed her into the car. They had been driving for around two hours until Aubrey had woken up in a bitch fit and demanded Chloe stopped the car.
Beca felt weirdly disappointed.
Getting to know the redhead behind the wheel was more than just a pleasant experience; she felt with every mile, she grew to like Chloe a little bit more. The redhead seemed smart and funny; the brunette had already decided she was kind and caring giving the way she had offered her a ride, but there was something more there. Beca wanted to get to know even more and Aubrey was doing a very good job of preventing that.
Every time the pair fell back into natural conversation in the back, Aubrey would clear her throat or "shhh" them loudly in order to indicate she wanted silence. In all honesty, Beca really wanted to wind her up, but there was something about the way Chloe had spoken about her earlier.
The redhead had described their friendship and filled her in on the events earlier that morning, but she never once spoke a bad word, always jumping to the other woman's defence. Beca could see Aubrey meant a lot to Chloe and she didn't want to upset her new friend – if she could call her that?
"Hey, Aubrey, do you want my headphones?" Beca asked cautiously, after the blonde had killed their conversation, yet again. She tapped the spare headset on the driver's shoulder, praying she would take them.
She did, but not without the roll of her eyes and a mumbled "whatever."
Beca paused one of her mixes playing through the earphones and turned to face Chloe, "So I didn't get you in too much trouble, right?"
"No, course not, Aubrey is just, well, being Aubrey" she laughed, pulling the earplug from her ear. "Besides you never told me what you're doing in Biloxi" Chloe hinted, changing the subject.
"I've got a session booked it at a recording studio there. I think it's, like, sort of an unofficial audition but I don't want to jinx things."
"Wait an audition?" Chloe shouted, excitedly tapping at Beca's forearm. The brunette nodded, glad Aubrey had taken her headphones.
"Beca, that's awesome."
Chloe smiled, looking into the other woman's eyes a bit too longer than she should have.
"Yeah, well we'll see" she breathed out, pulling her eyes away and playfully poking Chloe's arm with her finger.
It seemed Aubrey was finally making sense of the road signs, as they passed a post marking ten miles until Biloxi.
Beca glanced at the time, a dull two am shining back at her. "Hey, do you want to maybe get a motel room when we get there?"
The minute the words left her lips, she was sure her face resembled the colour of tomato – she so did not mean it like that.
"I didn't mean a room to do- I didn't just ask to – I don't want to have sex with you!" she rushed out in one long winded sentence, all jumbled and barley coherent.
Chloe's face dropped, signs of hurt on her face, "Why wouldn't you want to have sex with me? Are you calling me ugly?" she questioned.
Suddenly Beca was back pedalling, fast.
"No, no, not at all. I'd totally have sex with you, you're hot and I think you're cool and-"
Beca stopped, letting the sentence die in her throat as Chloe bust into a fit of giggles.
"Beca, I was joking."
"Oh" was all she could manage, as she nervously wrapped the wire of her earphones around her thumb.
"But I thought we'd all share a room anyway, it's really late. Don't worry about Bree, I'm sure one mention of the word cheaper and she'll cave quicker than a kid at a birthday party."
Beca laughed, as Chloe pushed play on the device in the brunette's hand with a smile and put her earphone back in.
XXX
After a whisper shout of protests from Aubrey in the office, the three were sharing a room in the first motel they saw.
Beca turned the key in the door labelled seven and moved aside to let the other two in before her. Aubrey shot her another dirty look – Beca was seriously losing count – whilst Chloe smiled a warm smile and uttered her thanks.
"I'm going for a shower" Aubrey announced grabbing some items from her suitcase and locking the bathroom door behind, leaving an amused Beca and Chloe alone.
The redhead immediately reached for the remote of the TV and threw herself down on one of the beds, "What do you want to watch?" she asked as Beca perched on the end of the same bed.
"You can choose" she hummed out, kicking off her shoes and getting comfortable on the double bed. They continued to talk about everything and anything until Aubrey walked out of the bathroom in her pyjamas.
"So I'm having the single" she said firmly, sitting down on the bed almost protectively, as if Beca was going to jump to her feet and dive on it just to spite her – well it did cross her mind...
The blonde woman pulled the duvet under her chin and pushed a pair of bright pink plugs into her ears. As if a last minute thought, Aubrey sat up abruptly wagging a finger at the two women on the other bed.
"And no funny business!" she barked, laying back down and aggressively turning the light off and covering the room in a sheet of darkness.
Beca and Chloe looked at each other in disbelief before bursting with laughter.
Once they had calmed down, the brunette took Chloe's hand in hers and got to her feet. She was slipping her feet back into her worn chucks when she noticed Chloe's confused expression, "Come on, let's go for a walk, I'm sure there is a bar across the street" she winked referring to Chloe's previous night of mischief.
The redhead was already up, quickly following Beca's lead; her mind wandering to how perfectly Beca's hand fit in hers.
"You're already such a bad influence" Chloe whispered into Beca's ear before she was pulled out of the door and into the dimly lit balcony with a chuckle.
XXX
A/N 2: I'm genuinely joking right now, I just thought I'd make you read this like you did the first one. If you didn't and you skipped it - well played, sir, well played!