Here's chapter 12...enjoy!
"You know," Jesse began, "I'm getting you to dance." Beca just waved him off, moving a few more slides with her fingers. She was just tall enough to reach the DJ booth, concentrating intensely on the song. It was like the rhythms were pulsing through her fingers, like she was solely the one with the power to make the music. It didn't come from the laptop or the buttons her fingers were pressing; it was her. She was the music.
He couldn't bear to pull her away from the mix, but he really wanted to do something other than swirling around on the chair next to the booth. "It's inevitable, Beca. You should just appease me now so you don't have to deal with my pleading later." Beca turned towards him, shaking her head back and forth. Not taking no for an answer, Jesse got off the stool, gingerly taking one of her hands off the soundboard, doing his best to give her his famous puppy-dog eyes. Her hand in his, he gently tugged it towards the dance floor. Sighing, Beca looked to Luke who was already taking over her spot.
"Go," he responded, motioning for her to follow Jesse. "I got it from here."
With a look of defeat, Beca followed Jesse as he guided her down the platform and towards the lighted floor. Seeing a flash of red hair as it bounced up and down, covering the girl's face, they immediately recognized it as Chloe. Squeezing past bodies, trying not to get blinded by the flashing lights, Beca and Jesse made their way to Chloe. In an instant, Chloe turned towards them, taking Beca by the hands. It wasn't a secret; Beca wasn't one for dancing. She was usually the one to stand in the back of the room, listening to music or ignoring the desperate boy trying to talk to her, offering her a red cup full of liquid sloshing around.
Back in 2nd grade, Jesse and Beca had attended a dance,though, they didn't go together. Jesse was just her friend, her best friend, but still just her friend. Plus, he was a boy and boys were gross. Still, he wouldn't go without getting her a corsage. He had his mother help pick it out and everything. When they went down to the florist, pulling his mom behind him, Jesse ran from flower to flower. It was no easy choice. He was going to...he had to...find Beca the perfect corsage. Running down the rows, sneezing a couple of times as a result of his allergies, Jesse peered into the display case.
Right in the middle was a perfect, purple flower. Jesse forgot the name; many of the flowers looked pretty similar to him, but the purple flower was just so beautiful. It smelled so good and he could easily picture Beca wearing it. His mom pointed to the one, showing the attendant. With his hands on the counter and he went on his tippy toes to see just over the counter. Taking the money from his mother (he wanted to be the one to pay for it), Jesse left with a smile, awaiting the end of the week when the dance would take place.
Beca hadn't been entirely sure if she wanted to wear a dress. They were just too frilly with too many flowers. She hated the white shoes her mom had picked out, opting for the gladiator sandals that were towards the back of the shoe store. Dress shopping with Beca, even when she was younger, had been a nightmare. She didn't like this dress because it was too poofy or she didn't like that dress because there were too many jewels. Why, mom, can't I just wear jeans? After the numerous times Beca stormed off, stomping her little feet and heading towards the music store in the mall, Beca finally found something she didn't hate. It was a dark, navy blue, but at least it was a dress. It was simple, nothing too fancy. With tiny little jewels doting the top, Beca didn't think it was too over the top.
"Yes, mom. I'll take it. Let's just go," Beca had pleaded, putting her tiny fingers into her mother's hand and leading her to the register.
When Jesse met her in her house the day of the dance, his hair all spiked up, he thought she looked like one of the princesses he watched in the princess movies. No, he would never admit to Beca that he watched the Disney princess movies, but he did enjoy the singing. (Shhhh….don't tell Beca.) With a pout, she had come down the stairs, hoping down each step. She was saying that the dress was too big and the zipper itched her back, but Jesse hardly heard anything. He just saw his best friend come down in a beautiful dress.
He tried to recount the last time he saw her wear a dress and nothing had come to mind. Taking the corsage out of the box, he placed it on her wrist. It looked big for her hand; the flowers were the size of her wrist, but she thanked him anyway with a hug. Their moms acted as the paparazzi, pushing them together and urging them to smile. Jesse swore that they were more excited than himself and Beca combined.
Since it was a second grade dance, their parents had to stay, watching their kids run around like maniacs while grabbing a handful of cookies on their way. Soon enough, Jesse had chocolate stains on his suit and Beca had tossed off her shoes in the corner, both of them running off and playing tag with Chloe. Cathy Mitchell and Elizabeth Swanson watched their children jumping up and down in the corner of the school gym. Even though Beca had loathed wearing a dress, she finally came to accept it around the same time she saw how Jesse's face lit up when she came down the stairs. Chloe was wearing a pink dress with matching pink heels, all tied together with a bow going around her waist. Sometimes Cathy couldn't believe how her daughter and Chloe were friends. It seemed like they couldn't be farther apart, but looking at the chasing Jesse around, she knew that in some ways their opposite personalities somehow seemed to attract. The three of them were an unlikely team, but it made their friendship stronger.
Back in reality, Beca was no longer in her purple dress and Chloe was dancing to the beat, not just jumping as she had back in second grade. Some things were the same, like how Beca would pretend that she didn't want to dance, and then she would later loosen up once Chloe took her hands and puppeteered them to make Beca dance. Jesse, just laughing at the two of them, tried his hardest to keep up. Looking at him from the corner of her eye as Chloe tried to make her do some crazy dance move, Beca let out a laugh.
If anyone saw them then, the three of them would have looked pretty similar to their second grade counterparts. Chloe's energy was the same and so was Jesse's laugh. Beca still looked to Jesse for help when she got tired of all of Chloe's jumping, just like she did when they were younger. Asking Chloe if he could cut in for a second, Jesse took Beca's hand. All of a sudden, the music changed to a slower song. Beca knew what Luke was doing, and she paused to shoot him a death glare from the dance floor. In retaliation, he just pressed the button to change the pulsing strobe lights to a soft, bluish glow. Chloe was already being swept away by some handsome man, pulling her away from Jesse and Beca.
"And then there were two," Beca said sarcastically.
"Please?" Jesse pleaded, placing his hand out in front of her. He looked down at his hand and then back up at her.
"What the heck," Beca responded, finally giving in whilst putting her hands in his. "Let's do this, nerd."
His hands moved down to her waist and hers moved to clasp together behind his head. Everything was just so peaceful, so nice. Knowing that the length of the song was short (after all, people came to a club for fast music and loud beats), together the two of them just savored the moment.
"I'm so glad you invited us," Jesse said, looking her in the eyes. Nodding in agreement, Beca responded, "Well, I'm glad you came."
For a second, he forgot the blonde girl in the back of his mind. He forgot how the girl's face turned bright red like a tomato when she was mad or how she used to throw grapes at him during their study sessions, for he was too busy staring the girl in front of him. He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something that clicked when they were together. It was like all those years seemed to slip away. Being around her felt strangely familiar, strangely comfortable.
Before anything could happen (not that Jesse would ever let anything happen while he was still with Aubrey), the tempo quickened and the multicolored lights began to move across the dance floor again. Beca released her hands from behind his head, rushing off to man the DJ booth. Jesse was shocked for a second at how much he liked the feeling of his hands on her waist, clutching her tight so that no one or thing could take her away from him. Jesse relaxed once again as he caught her eyes for a split second, watching as she turned her lips into a smile before pushing her hair back and returning to the mixing board. A smile on his own face mirrored hers as the night slowly came to an end and he began to feel his head dropping lower with every song.