"Come on Beca, please?" Stacie is practically begging. "You spend all of your time with Jesse. Just for one night, come out with us?"
"You know frat parties aren't really my thing," Beca replies.
"It'll be fun! All of the Bellas are going. You're our leader, you have to go!" Stacie insists.
"Ok, fine, I'll go," Beca finally caves. Stacie is right, she hasn't hung out with them much since sophomore year began, choosing to spend most of her free time with Jesse. But tonight Jesse has to study for a big test the following day. Beca didn't have classes on Friday, and apparently the partying starts on Thursday nights now. "Soon it'll be every night," she grumbles to herself as she climbs the stairs to her dorm room. She picks up her phone to text him.
Stacie talked me into going to a frat party tonight. Jealous?
He replies a moment later.
Insanely. There's nothing I love more than drunk guys grinding up on me. Have fun!
She rolls her eyes at her phone, and sits down to work on her music until it's time to leave. She gets ready around ten, and then around eleven that evening she hears a loud ruckus outside her window and looks down to see all of the Bellas yelling at her to come downstairs. They walk across campus together to the frat house which is about a fifteen minute hike off campus. As soon as they enter, she knows it's going to be a long night.
The house is dark and dingy, and it reeks of cigarette smoke and alcohol. The place is packed with people, and there's barely any room to move, let alone dance. Stacie and the freshman Bellas immediately disappear in the crowd in search of guys. Beca stands there awkwardly for a moment, and her boots stick to the floor as she turns in the direction the music is coming from. She doesn't see anyone manning the laptop, so she bends to look at the playlist when someone taps her on the shoulder.
"Hey," a guy wearing a fraternity t-shirt says to her.
"Hey, sorry," she smiles at him sheepishly, "I was just checking out what you've got playing here."
"No problem," the guy says, "I'm Rob."
"Beca," she answers.
"Wanna dance?" he asks.
"No thanks," she smiles at him politely until he's out of sight. She tries to maneuver her way through the crowd again, but after a bunch of people bump into her, a beer is spilled down her back, and a girl wearing stilettos stomps on her foot, she's had about enough of this party. The Bellas are already mostly drunk it seems. She taps Fat Amy on the shoulder and says, "Hey, I think I'm heading out."
"We just got here!" Fat Amy replies.
"Yeah, I'm really tired though, long week," Beca explains. Really, she wants to be as far away from this place as humanly possible. It's around one thirty in the morning before she finishes saying goodbye to her friends and begins walking back to her dorm. The yard around the frat house is busy with people, but as soon as she gets about a block away the streets and sidewalks are deserted. As she walks, she can't shake the feeling that she's being watched, but chalks it up to just being tired.
She continues walking, and when she swears she hears the sound of footsteps behind her she snaps her head around to look. She catches the tail end of something dark disappearing behind a large tree.
Shit, she curses inwardly. Yes, someone is definitely following her. Profanity slips from her lips again when she realizes her rape whistle is hanging on a hook in her room. She pulls her cell phone out of her pocket and calls Jesse.
"Hey," he whispers when he answers, and she assumes he's in the library.
"I'm being followed," she says quietly, not wanting to draw attention to herself.
"What?" he shouts and she can hear books being slammed shut and papers rustling in the background. "Where are you?"
"I left the party. I'm walking alone down Magnolia Street back to campus."
"I'm on my way," he says. "Stay on the phone," he tells her.
"I'm scared," she admits.
"I know, I'm coming. I would have picked you up. Why didn't you call me earlier?" he wonders.
"You were studying, I didn't want to bother you. That test is important," she adds.
"Are you still being followed?" he asks, and she can hear that he's running.
She tentatively glances behind her and makes out the shape of someone darting behind a parked car. "Yes," she whispers, "He's about a half a block away, I can't see who it is."
"Keep walking," he urges. "I love you, Beca," he says, the fear evident in his voice.
"I love you too," she replies. "Hurry!"
She turns around again, and this time the cloaked figure ducks behind a mailbox. "Uh," she says into the phone, "I think the guy is wearing a cape or something."
"What?" she hears Jesse's confused voice. A moment later he comes into view, running down the street towards her. When she sees him, she breaks into a run herself.
When she reaches him, she jumps up, wrapping her arms and legs around him tightly. She's trembling and he holds her close as they stand there on the sidewalk. "Beca, thank God," he whispers into her hair as he kisses her forehead, her cheek, and finally her lips as he lowers her to the ground and takes her hand in his. She looks up at him, her face a mixture of terror and relief. "I know," he says quietly before he begins turning in every direction, looking for the perpetrator.
"Hey!" he shouts into the darkness, "I know you're there! Show yourself!"
"Jesse?" they hear a distant voice say, and none other than Benji appears out of the shadows of the night.
"Benji?" she says incredulously, "What the hell were you doing following me? You scared me half to death! Why didn't you just tell me it was you?"
"I thought you'd be mad," he explains, walking over to them, hanging his head. "Jesse asked me to look out for you tonight, and I knew you'd be mad at him if you found out, so I hid. I didn't mean to frighten you. Guess I'm not as stealthy as I thought."
"Dude, what the hell?" she says to both of them, punching Jesse in the shoulder.
"I'm sorry Bec," Jesse is so relieved, and the situation is almost comical, "I didn't realize he'd follow you. I just wanted him to check on you to make sure some asshole frat guy wasn't trying to manhandle you again."
"Jesse," she says, her voice softening. She knows with the drama of this year that he has every right to want to protect her. After all, she's been bruised, almost drugged, and once almost froze to death in a car during a horrible rainstorm. "I'm fine. There's nobody out here besides you two weirdos."
They laugh as they turn to head back to campus. Jesse reaches for her hand as they listen to Benji prattle on about some new magic trick he's learning. When the reach the campus he turns to his friend and says, "Thanks man, I'm going to walk Beca back to her room. Don't wait up."
He shifts his backpack on his shoulder as they continue down the path to her dorm and Benji heads in the direction of the Treble house.
"Don't you need to study?" she reminds him.
"Yeah, but after tonight, I don't want to let you out of my sight," he replies, squeezing her hand.
She squeezes back, "Ok. I can help you study, you know."
"I know," he whispers. When they finally reach her room and open the door, she's never been so happy to see her bed in her life.
He sits at her desk, spreading his books across it, being careful not to touch her mixing equipment as he starts to study. She changes her clothes and collapses onto the bed, facing him on her pillow.
"Ok," she tells him, her eyes closed already, "Tell me what you need to know."
He starts talking, but before he's even through the first page of his study guide, he looks over at her to see she's fast asleep. He smiles at her sleeping form before standing and pulling the blankets up over her before pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.
He sits back down at the desk, trying to concentrate, but his mind keeps replaying the events of the evening, the fear that something could have happened to her still nagging at him. He looks back at her, the desk lamp illuminating her face. She's so beautiful, it always takes his breath away, but that isn't what made him fall in love with her. It's the fact that she never ceases to amaze him. Just when he thinks he knows everything about her, and that he's learning to anticipate what she might say or do, she throws him a curveball. And he never knows when one is coming.
She's exciting, and fascinating, and wonderful, and his. He still can't believe it. It isn't how she looks that makes her different from every other girl he's ever met, it's who she is. On some level, he knows he's always afraid of losing her, as he did once already when she pushed him away freshman year, but it's moments like these when he allows himself to face the magnitude of what losing her would really do to him, and suddenly he's terrified.
"You know that Revolutionary War shit isn't going to learn itself," she mumbles sleepily into her pillow, startling him out of his reverie.
"Beca," the way he breathes her name conveys all the fear, anxiety, and love he's feeling in this moment, and she blinks her eyes several times, trying to focus on him.
"I'm sorry," she whispers, "You should be studying, not worrying about me. I'm fine, Jesse."
He doesn't say anything; he just looks at her with an expression full of love and concern. And she gets it, the way he's looking at her is how she feels every single time he walks away from her, and she can't help but fear it's for the last time.
"Hey," she reaches out to him, "Come here." He stands and climbs into bed, his head facing hers on the pillow as she strokes his hair. "I know," she whispers. "We're here together, that's all that matters."
He presses a soft kiss to her lips before curling himself around her.
It's another thing he loves about her, that they can communicate without ever having to say a word.
A/N: Shall I continue? I have more chapters already written. Not really feeling the love here... Love it? Hate it? Let me know, please!