It's the next day at work when she texts you again.
r u fre 2 hav a L8 lunch w/me?
Her writing is terrible. You can barely understand it. Why couldn't she type out the words like a normal person? It's entirely endearing. Jesse sees you smiling as you turn away to reply.
I don't know, my shift just started
You work from one to nine each day, with a break around five for dinner. It's only one-thirty now. The shift started a half hour ago. You don't think Luke will let you have two breaks, and it's not fair to Jesse to work alone or to ask him to cover for you. It'll look like a bad work ethic. Plus, you'll probably be starving by the time nine rolls around if you plan on eating now. There's still a stack of boxes waiting to be sorted through.
prtty plez?
Fuck it. You can just imagine her looking at you with those wide, blue, puppy dog eyes. Why does she have to be so- No. Don't finish that thought.
Okay, you say helplessly, let me see what I can do.
In return, Chloe sends you a picture of her happily blowing a kiss at you. You ignore your face flushing, turn around, and knock on the door to Luke's booth.
"WKJB, music for the independent mind..." you hear the tale end of a set before he cuts the station to commercials. When he opens the door, he stares down imposingly at you with an eyebrow raised in question. "What?"
"Can I take my break now?" you ask, betraying none of the emotions you feel on your face. Not hope, or mild guilt, or impatience to hear his answer. You don't show none of those. Your face is a blank slate. Except, maybe mild impatience.
Luke looks a little amazed, as if he can't believe you have the audacity. "You want to take your break... now," he says it more like a statement than a question, but you nod assuredly nonetheless. You're not exactly confident that he'll say yes, but couldn't help asking because Chloe asked. He looks at a watch on his wrist, checking the time. "It's only one thirty," he says.
"I know," you press. "I won't take another break later if that's what you're worried about."
His eyebrows furrow, mildly confused. "What's so important that you want to take a break so early? Your shift just started."
You don't really have a good excuse, so you shrug and say, "Life's calling me. You know how it is."
He blinks.
You blink.
Then your phone rings, which is kind of coincidental when compared to your earlier statement. When you glance at the caller ID, you see Chloe's name pop up. Luke sees who it is too, and understanding seems to cross his face.
He gives you a knowing smirk before saying, "Yeah. I know how it is." He waves you off, "Go ahead. Jesse can handle things here." Jesse opens his mouth to say something. You're still holding the ringing phone in your hand when Luke slams the door to the booth in your face, stopping Jesse's objections. On the sound system throughout the station, you hear the commercials end and Luke say, "Welcome back to WKJB, music for the independent mind. Up next is Pompeii by Bastille..."
You answer the phone just in time, sure she was about to hang up. "Chloe?"
"Beca!" she squeals excitedly. Honestly, you're not quite sure how she sounds so energetic. She's just talking to you. "So, lunch?" she asks.
"Yep. Lunch. I'm free for the next hour or so if that's good with you," you confirm, glancing at Jesse who's not trying to hide the fact that he's listening in. You resist the urge to flip him the bird when he waggles his eyebrows. "What did you have in mind?"
"Well..."
This is not what you had in mind. She picked you up from the station early on during your shift for a late lunch at an ice cream parlor. To eat ice cream. For lunch. You're going to be starving later, but you don't say anything about it when you order a large hot fudge sundae with whipped cream, extra fudge, chopped nuts, and cherries on top. Chloe has a mischievous smile that plays on her lips when you order, which garners a confused look from you that she ignores in favor of ordering a small strawberry milkshake.
When you sit down, you immediately start eating. You have a habit of eating very slowly (you like to savour the taste) but you don't want to waste the time you have when you're on your break, or risk being late when you return back to work. Not to mention that the large sundae they gave you was actually huge. Despite hastily taking multiple spoon-fulls of the freezing sweet you'd barely knocked a hole in it not five minutes later. You just happen to glance up at some point, as you shove a particularly grotesquely large spoon-full towards your mouth, to see Chloe watching you intently with her head tilted to the side, lazily stirring the straw in her milkshake.
Face flushing, you ask behind the bite, "Whaa?" You swallow it, and lick away some stray chocolate from your lips.
"I'm just wondering how good your ice cream is," she says carefully, watching your lips. "For you to be eating like that."
"Oh," is your genius reply. You wonder what she means, mildly self-conscious about how you eat. You scoop some more ice cream on your spoon, this time a rather healthy bite size, and take another bite. She still hasn't moved her eyes away. She's still lazily stirring around her milkshake, as if she has all the time in the world to watch you eat. "Would you... would you like to try some?"
She grins immediately and reaches over for your spoon, "I thought you'd never ask!" Her fingers brush your hand as she gently takes the metallic utensil and scoops up her own bite. None too shy about germs, it's your turn to watch, mesmerized, as the bite goes into her mouth and she slowly pulls the spoon out. The spoon rests for a moment, there, on her lips as she she contemplates the flavor of your sundae. You find yourself waiting anxiously. She's looking for something in your face. Chloe smiles, "This is pretty good." She hands you back the spoon and motions between your sundae and her milkshake. "Care to share?"
You bite your lip as you take it, considering what she's asking. A stray thought points out that you'd be sharing saliva, like you were kissing, because you'd be eating off the same spoon. But what's wrong with that? The sharing the spoon part. Not the kissing part. Though there's nothing wrong with kissing either, and there's especially nothing wrong with kissing Chloe. Except there is. Because you're friends. Just friends. Dammit Beca this meal is platonic! Get it through your head. You don't like Chloe like that. It's just a spoon. One that she's already eaten off of.
You realize that you'd been off in your own thoughts and Chloe's still waiting on a reply.
"Sure," you find you can't say no to Chloe. "We can share."
The two of you strike up a slow conversation about nothing in particular, swapping the spoon back and forth between you. She asks about your tattoos and she shows you hers. She talks about her college classes, how she's involved in the Bellas, and how she's graduating this year. You mention your dad's a professor, but that you'd never really had an interest in college, that you'd preferred to find your own way. You think a capella's lame, but do your best to give Chloe the benefit of the doubt. You talk about your best friends, hers is Aubrey, yours is Stacie, and the crazy things you'd get up to together.
"That's actually a lot like me and Stacie," you say. "She always goes nuts at frat parties. Sometimes she'll drag me along, and I always stand in the corner looking stupid."
"That's no fun," Chloe grins. "Where's your inner party animal?"
"Hibernating," you say, hesitating a moment before reaching over for her milkshake. Your lips slip around the straw and you start to drink it. You do your best to ignore the fact that Chloe's still watching you, looking oddly satisfied. It's weird when people stare. No one ever really does. The fact that the entirety of her attention is on you makes your face hot and your stomach flutter in a funny way. The milkshake's pretty good. "I'm not really big on parties," you say after you swallow, sliding the cup back over.
Chloe bites her lip. "Maybe that's because you haven't been to the right kind of party," she says, and there's something in her tone that sounds suggesting. It completely goes over your head.
"I doubt it," you snort. "I don't often get drunk, I'm not really big on drinking, but the one time I got myself plastered I woke up at home with a clean bedroom. Everyone was complaining the next day about how boring I was." You shake your head. "Trust me," you smirk. "I'm much more fun when I'm sober."
Chloe's eyes darken, "Whatever you say." She goes back to swirling the straw around, "But I'm still going to get you drunk." Her eyes light up, "Oh! In fact, I have a great idea!" You have a feeling you aren't going to like it all that much, but she tells you anyway. "Why don't you come over tonight? After you're done working, I mean. We're having a little get together with the Bellas, and it'd be great if you could be there." She sees the look of trepidation on your face, and rushes on. "You could bring some friends too, if you want. I mean, I'll be there so you won't completely be alone either way..."
She's pulling the face that you'd imagine she'd make earlier. Well, not quite the same face. This one's about eighty five billion times worse. Why does she have to be so compelling?
"Okay," you spit out suddenly, haltingly. "If you're sure."
"Oh I am totes sure!" She halfway lunges over the table, reaching you and pulling you into a hug excitedly. Her breath is hot in your ear. It gives you shivers. "This is gonna be so much fun," she whispers, lips brushing against your ear.
What did you just agree to?
It's nine thirty when you walk through the door to your apartment, cursing for the hundredth time that you live on the sixth floor and your apartment maintenance is crappy. The elevator's still broken. Hobbling up the stares with crutches and an empty stomach is not fun. Chloe's "get together" started about an hour ago. You sent her a text to let her know you'd be a little late, and she'd said it was fine (with three smiley-faces and one blow-kiss emoji). You're a little exhausted. You still have yet to speak to Stacie to see if she wanted to go with. Not to mention maybe Amy or Cynthia Rose. Who knows if you'd even get around to it.
You have half a mind to bail. It's not that you don't want to be there, but... you really don't want to be there. Chloe's face comes to mind and you know that she'd be heartbroken if you didn't go. So you suck it up.
"Stacie?" you call out after you manage to get the door unlocked. "You home?" You hear an indistinct voice call out from somewhere within the deepest corners of your apartment, which you assume to mean that she is. After setting a bag that has some of your day to day stuff in it down on the counter, you start fishing around in the fridge, looking for something to eat. "Hey, how do you feel about going out tonight?"
"What do you mean? Like to a club?" her voice is still pretty distorted. There's some rustling coming from behind her bedroom door a moment before it opens. Her hair is mildly disheveled.
You find some leftover Chinese in the fridge and pull it out. "No," you say, dumping the shrimp lo mein on a plate and tossing the box in the trash. "Like out to a party."
She watches you as you slip the plate in a microwave, putting it in for forty-five seconds, as she leans against the counter next to you "What kind of party?"
"Well," you drawl, sitting on the counter and avoiding looking down at Stacie. "It's more of like a get together. With some of Chloe's friends. And Chloe. But there's going to be alcohol and some guys there, so it's still going to be fun." You peek up.
Stacie looks thoughtful. "Chloe's the redhead?" she asks. The cogs are turning in her mind.
"Uh-huh," you say nonchalantly.
Her head quirks to the side curiously, "Did you talk to her today?"
"Yes. She texted me while I was at work and we went out for lunch together," the alarm for the microwave rings so you jump off the counter and grab out the plate. "So?" you ask. "Do you want to go?"
Stacie grins, "Booze and boys? How can I say no! Just give me ten to get ready." She turns back around in her room to get changed, leaving you alone in the kitchen to eat leftovers.
"Take your time!" you call out. "We're already late. Not like five minutes is going to make a difference at this point."
"No way Mitchell! I'm not gonna keep you from your girl any longer than you have to be," she reappears a few minutes later wearing a black halter top and skinny jeans.
"Chloe's not my girl," you say as you roll your eyes. You take the last bite of noodles and start to chew before placing the plate in the sink.
There's a devilish look on Stacie's face, "Who said anything about Chloe? But now that we are talking about her..."
"We're not," you state firmly.
"You sure?"
"Positive."
"So you didn't flirt with her on the phone?"
"Nope."
"Right," if anything, Stacie looks amused. "Anyway, don't worry about it. You're not the only one who's being stupid about their feelings."
You feel a little alarmed, "What do you mean?"
In response, Stacie grabs you and your crutches and pulls you to the door. "C'mon Beca! We have a party to get to." You barely manage to stagger down the stairs as you go.
Author's Note, PLEASE READ:
Shorter chapter, sorry guys! Getting ready to head back to college in a few days, so I've been packing like crazy. I didn't have a lot of time to put more detail into this and, regardless, this one kinda needed to be shorter. It's like a prep for what's to come. Which, I'll leave up to you...
Am I going M rated, with a little drunken lovemaking going on? And, if so, do you want that I should imply that it happens and skip over the whole thing, or should I add it in and add a little detail?
Or do I go with some more heavy flirting, a little awkward mayhem, and the funny yet boring version of drunk Beca that Chloe somehow seems to change into something a little off the rails?
The voting, as well as maybe some reviews, starts now.
OKAY YOU CAN STOP READING NOW IF YOU WANT
Remix-This: More flustered Jesse to come (-trust me, it's kind of integral to the story-), no guarantees about Beca's texting skills right away, and Chloe's just waiting for Beca to be comfortable with her first. Thanks for reading, love the imput!
Luke 923 HA: ^^ !
WebsForevz: Thanks dude! Keep it hush hush, but more Staubrey to come.
Rubiksmaniac: Will do! I've already started the next chapter. Just waiting on some go ahead from you guys regarding the above.
Liptony: Thanks! I woke up like this ;)
Jada.T: Hope this chapter's okay! Glad you like it so far~
To GUESTS: Chloe will show up at the station soon, trust me (just not this chapter)! Glad you like it, and think it's cute, and I'm also glad to know that I'm not the only one who loves an adorable, socially awkward Beca. Lol, to the second to last guest, becky is the first thing that came to my head. I couldn't let the opportunity pass to take it. :) Also, Staubrey may have a heavy chance of likewise occurring in the future... More to come.
RadforR: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Glad you like it dude! ^^ (Also, the enthusiasm is fantastic. I give you the virtual, nonexistent in any actual tangible way but entirely real in spirit, cookie. Go well my friend.)
Anyone else who read this but might not have commented (you know who you are. i practically spelled it out for you.) THANKS FOR READING! I truly do appreciate it.