Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect or the characters

Benji was getting concerned. He hadn't heard from Jesse since he got off the phone with him, and four days had passed. It wasn't like his best friend to go so long without contact, and after several unanswered voicemails and texts were sent, Benji decided to take action.

He knocked on his movie obsessed friend's door for a good five minutes before he heard a slight shuffle inside.

"Jesse! Open up! I just need to know that you're alive man! Come on I've been standing out her for hours!" he yelled through the door with some exaggeration. However, as Jesse finally turned the doorknob open, Benji wished that the guy had just stayed inside.

He looked awful.

It was clear that Jesse hadn't slept in days based off of the dark bags under his eyes, and to Benji it also looked like he hadn't bothered to shower as well.

"What do you want?" Jesse asked, "I'm not really in the mood to talk."

Immediately Benji flashed back.

Flashback: At Barden, the day before Graduation

Benji was begging Jesse to move or at least talk, but nothing would work. He had made countless bowls of popcorn and offered to watch any movie under the sun but still, nothing. Jesse sat on his bed with the look of a broken man on his face. The emotion in his chocolate brown eyes, however, would let anybody see that he was suffering of wounds of a broken heart and not a broken body.

To put it simply, his whole world had crashed down around him. He and Beca were over and at this point it was apparent that she wasn't even going to attempt to fix things between the two of them.

As Benji pestered away saying that he should at least try to enjoy the last few days he had in college, Jesse looked up. On his face was the most depressing expression Benji could ever recall. He stopped talking when Jesse looked him in the eye and very softly, Jesse's voice could be heard,

"She's my life Benji. She's my everything. She's my oxygen, she's my other half, she's the one I was planning on never letting go. How am I supposed to just move on?"

End Flashback

That day Benji saw the same look in Jesse's eyes that was there in those last few days at Barden. It was a look that screamed "I need her" but more importantly it was a look that pushed an idea into his head. Sitting quietly Benji glanced at Jesse. He was almost positive he knew what the response would be but he decided to ask anyways just to make sure,

"Hey Jesse," Benji asked cautiously, "If I could get her to come willingly, would you want to talk to her again?"

Jesse looked up from his position on the couch, clearly not expecting the question. Yet it only took him seconds to reply with a response of, "You know I would Benji, I would do anything to see her again."

And with that, Benji set his plan in motion.

"Keep yourself free for Saturday night ok?" he told Jesse, and without another word Benji was out the door.

Benji Basically sprinted all the way back to his apartment and didn't waste any time once he got there. He got onto the internet and went to the page that Beca had mentioned to him that was for the label she was currently working at. He quickly jotted down it's address and hailed a cab to go into downtown LA.

As he rode in the cab he took a moment to collect himself and work on a game plan. Benji knew that he would have to go see Beca in person otherwise she would find some way out of what was going to be an emotionally draining meeting. He told himself that he just needed to get her to agree to a dinner with Jesse and the rest would work itself out from there. He was sure of it.

Benji arrived at the label and told the receptionist that he had a meeting with Beca Mitchell and that she would be expecting them. Surprisingly, that was all he needed to say to be directed to a back office with block letters on the door stating, "Beca Mitchell: Producer".

After knocking lightly on the glass portion of the door, Beca herself appeared.

"oh, hey Benji! Was I expecting you?" She questioned, immediately worrying that she had made plans with him and completely forgotten about them.

"oh no, don't worry," he replied, "I just wanted to ask you something."

She looked at him questioningly and with a deep breath he spoke,

"I was just wondering, if maybe, you might possibly want to have dinner with Jesse this Saturday," he got out the words straight and to the point.

Beca's breath had hitched when he said Jesse's name out loud. It was definitely not something that she was expecting Benji to say when he showed up in her office only moments ago.

"Benji, I don't know about that," she started out, but Benji stopped her sentence,

"Beca you don't understand. You two never had the chance for any source of closure after what happened, happened. I honestly think it would be good for you, and I know for a fact it would be good for Jesse."

She looked at him and saw the hope in his eyes, and really, who could say no to that?

"Fine." She told him shortly "Does he know about this yet?"

"Yeah, and he said he's more than willing to go."

With a few short details exchanged about when and where Beca would be meeting Jesse on Saturday, Benji was gone.

This left Beca to wonder what would happen when they saw each other. It scared her when she realized she no longer knew Jesse and the type of person he was. For all she knew he could have become bitter with age and this whole evening could be a mistake just waiting to happen. But another part, inspired by the dream she had had almost a week ago, let her hope that maybe things would go better than she expected.

Saturday afternoon came and both Beca and Jesse were feeling the nerves set in, but in very different ways.

Jesse had a dull butterfly feeling in the pit of his stomach and was hoping that he would be able to control his emotions long enough to show her that they could still have a chance. Or maybe at the least that they could be friends. He just wanted some form of contact with the girl that at one point made his life so enjoyable.

Beca, on the other hand, was full fledged flipping out. She had resorted to calling Courtney and asking her what she should say when she first saw him. Should it be a simple 'Hi' or was 'hello' more appropriate? Did she just jump right in and ask how he's been or did she wait for him to take the first step in the conversation. Beca was very aware of the fact that this was not something she should have agreed to and normally would have flat out refused to go to. It brought up her past and all of the emotions that came along with it. She was scared.

But seven o'cock was fast approaching and she knew that if she didn't leave soon she would be late for her date. NO. "Its not a date," she told herself, "it's just some casual catching up between two college friends. Who used to date. And hadn't spoken in 6 years. Oh boy." It was certaintly going to be an interesting night.

The restaurant was a nice place and had a good atmosphere to it. The lighting was dim enough to create an evening mood, but not too dark so that you could still read the menu in front of you.

Jesse got there first, just like he normally did when they were dating in college. The hostess gave him a table in the far back corner and placed two menus down in front of him. And then he waited. In fact, Jesse was fully prepared for her to be running at least 2o minutes late. But then he saw her.

She was just walking in the door when his eyes landed her, and his breath was taken away. She was wearing a plain black dress with a deep V in the neckline. The fabric hugged her body and Jesse couldn't believe how good she looked. As the hostess began to bring her over to their table he observed her face. She had clearly changed since their time in college, but it wasn't something that Jesse would describe as aging. She had simply gotten more mature and at the same time more beautiful. Her hair fell loosely in curls down just past her shoulders and framed her face perfectly.

Beca saw him as soon as the hostess began leading her towards the back of the room. She kept her face neutral on the outside but all she could think of on the inside was "damn". Jesse looked great. His features were more defined than they had been 6 years ago and even through his shirt Beca could see that he worked out regularly. The closer she got to the table the more and more she wished that she had gone to the gym more than that one-time trial almost 4 months ago.

All thoughts were erased from each of their heads as Beca got to the table. Being the ever gentleman that he is, Jesse stood up and pulled out her chair for her. She smiled shyly and took her seat.

"Hey," she said. It was a loaded word, with six years of mystery all woven in between the simple three letters.

"Hey" He replied back somewhat awkwardly. He didn't even know where to start so he thought he'd go with something simple,

"so how've you been?"

As she heard him say the words she had just been about to let out, she smiled. Maybe this night would be all that bad.