Your Love is the Best Sound
Chapter 2: then
A/N: So, it's been, like, five months since I posted Chapter 1. Sorry about that! I promise that the third and final chapter will not take that long to be posted. For now, I hope you enjoy Chapter 2 and it keeps you held over until the conclusion!
"Remind me why I agreed to help you again."
Chloe slaps at Beca's knees with a dish towel. "Because you love me and you owe me."
Beca rolls her eyes. She's perched on the kitchen counter, which adds significantly to her height. They're in Chloe's kitchen: granite countertops, chrome appliances, mahogany cabinets, and a sink the size of a small dog's bathtub. It's modest in a classy way but just fancy enough to let Beca know that this family has money. The fridge is adorned with crayon drawings (that Beca knows come from both Aubrey and Chloe) held in place by magnets shaped like flowers. Sunlight floods in through the large windows. Baking supplies and ingredients cover the kitchen table.
"Okay, better question," Beca reprises. "Why do you have to bake cookies for choir? We're not even in school right now."
Chloe sighs impatiently as though speaking to a child with a short attention span. "I have vocal camp every Wednesday, Beca, and it's the sopranos' turn to bring cookies this week. We've been through this." She shakes her hand in disappointment.
A smile tugs at Beca's lips. "Right," she drawls, nodding. "How could I forget? It's the one day of the week where I don't get to see you." She puts on an exaggerated sad face. "And yet, I still get regular updates throughout the day of what new song Patrick learned on piano and the vocal exercises that you and Emma came up with. I resent you for forcing me to get a Snapchat, by the way."
"Snapchat is glorious."
"You do realize that it's basically an app designed for sexting, right?" Beca says, raising an eyebrow. "Target demographic is aimed at horny teenage boys who wanna ja—"
"Aubrey!" Chloe squeaks as her sister hops into the kitchen with Jesse on her heels. "Look, Beca, the children are here!" She shoots a glare at Beca over her shoulder before turning back to the kids with a bright grin.
Beca snickers as she hops off of the counter.
Aubrey looks up (though not by very much) at Beca with narrowed eyes. It's painfully obvious that she doesn't like Beca and pissing Aubrey off quickly becomes one of Beca's favorite hobbies. Chloe chastises her for it, of course, but that just makes it more fun. "Why do you have to be here?" she asks Beca in that annoying, squeaky voice of hers.
"Aubrey!" Chloe scorns.
Beca shrugs. "Just to piss you off, I guess," she says. "I feed off of people's negative emotions to survive."
Despite the upturned corners of Chloe's mouth, she nudges Beca with her elbow. "Shut up."
"You're lying," Aubrey says, not even sounding 100% sure.
"She does that a lot," Jesse sighs from his position on a barstool. He smiles when Chloe slides him a juice box, chuckling as she does so. "But that bit happens to be true."
Aubrey shoots him a disgruntled look. He raises his hands innocently. "I'll have you know that I hold Chloe's friends to a very high standard," Aubrey says, folding her hands on the countertop. She suddenly appears twenty years older, resembling a professional business woman.
"Excuse me?" Beca raises an eyebrow.
"Aca-scuse you," Aubrey corrects.
Beca turns to Chloe, gesticulating wildly, trying to mentally communicate What the fuck?
"Aubrey's really into a cappella," Chloe explains.
"As I was saying," Aubrey continues, "all of Chloe's friends must meet certain standards of mine in order for them to receive my approval. You don't meet any of these standards."
"Are you serious right now?"
"Dixie Chicks serious," Aubrey says, sticking her bottom lip out.
Beca shakes her head in disbelief. "Where the hell did she learn that phrase?" she whispers, leaning into Chloe's ear.
Chloe's face pales at the curse word. "Not in front of the children!" she hisses, swatting at Beca's arm.
"They can't hear me!"
"Cursing is one of the standards," Aubrey informs her. "That'll be one dollar for the swear jar."
Beca's eyebrows shoot up into her hairline. They have a fucking swear jar.
Biting on her bottom lip to keep her giggles in, Chloe turns to her sister and gestures to the living room. "Aubrey, why don't you take Jesse and watch some cartoons, okay?" she suggests. "The cookies won't take too long."
Looking smug, Aubrey saunters off to the living room and Jesse follows her like an obedient puppy.
"Your family is weird," Beca mutters as she watches them go. She walks to the kitchen table and begins examining the ingredients that they'll be working with.
Chloe laughs. "You haven't seen anything yet," she promises. "Just wait until you meet my grandparents—you'd love them. They're that cute old couple who have old black and white photos of them in their teens. They just celebrated like their fiftieth anniversary or something. They got married when they were super young, like when they were twenty-one. I've done the math, believe it or not, and I'm pretty sure that it was because my grandma was knocked up with my mom."
A puff of flour flies into the air as Beca chokes on a laugh.
The cookies come out two hours later, half of them burned and harder than rocks. The kitchen turns out a total mess and Aubrey scolds them while Chloe's mom only laughs and asks them to clean it up. They end up running to the twenty four hour grocery store to buy cheap cookies at eleven o'clock at night. It's an adventure and Beca realizes that she really enjoys spending time with Chloe.
Beca's been hanging out with Chloe for one month when her name pops up in the Mitchell household. Her parents ask about this new girl that she's been hanging out with (new, as if there'd been someone before Chloe) and Jesse tells them all about Aubrey's pretty older sister who makes Beca blush a lot. Beca throws a pillow at his head as soon as the words come out of his mouth and her parents send her up to her room. She knows that they would've grounded her if they weren't so enthusiastic about her having a new friend.
It's not that Beca's ashamed of her friendship with Chloe, not at all. There's nothing to be ashamed of. It's just that she's not used to a friendship that's so intimate. Beca's had good friends before, but none of them ever clung to her the way that Chloe does. She's not even really clingy; there's just no better word in Beca's brain. They hang out a lot and they text and Beca finds herself missing Chloe every once in a while, but it's no big deal.
She's just never had that friend who she can text whenever and always receive a response from. Chloe says "I love talking to you" and "I'm here for you" and Beca somehow never doubts that she means it. It's new and strange but really nice at the same time.
Jesse looks up at her with wide eyes during breakfast one morning. "Do you have a crush on Chloe?"
Beca chokes on her cereal and sputters, splattering the table with milk. She's thankful for the fact that her dad is at work and her mom is out shopping. "No," she says firmly. "I do not have a crush on Chloe."
He doesn't look convinced, but his face is always pretty blank, so Beca's never really sure. "Then why are you always hanging out with her?" he asks. His genuine curiosity is strange. Usually, he doesn't care about Beca's life at all. It's unsettling.
"You're always hanging out with Aubrey," she shoots back at him.
He goes as red as the Power Rangers T-shirt he's wearing and his eyes lock onto his toast.
Beca narrows her eyes. "We forget this conversation ever happened. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
They shake hands and eat the rest of their breakfast in silence.
School is two short weeks away when Beca's dad decides to begin working at Barden University. He announces this at dinner one night and Beca couldn't care less until she sees the look on her mom's face. She's slowly turning red, jaw locked, and Beca realizes that her dad hadn't discussed this with Beca's mom.
Jesse can sense their mom's anger and tears begin to form in his eyes.
"Come on, Jess." Beca shoves her plate away and takes Jesse's hand. Neither their dad nor their mom try to stop them as Beca walks Jesse out the front door and slams it behind them. As they make their way off the porch, Beca can already hear her mom's voice rising to a yell and she speeds up her steps.
They go to the park. Beca used to always take him there after school. She'd push him on the swings and he'd tell her about his day. Beca grew out of this habit when she hit freshman year of high school. They haven't gone to the park together in nearly two years.
Somewhere on their way to the park, Jesse climbs onto Beca's back, sniffling and wiping his nose on Beca's hoodie. She doesn't have it in her to scold him for it. She does her own laundry, so it's fine.
"Why do mom and dad fight so much?" Jesse mutters into Beca's hair.
Her chest heaves with a deep sigh. There are several answers that she could give him—many of them being sarcastic—but she settles with, "They're just having problems right now, Jess. It'll get better soon." It feels so, so fake to her and she hates herself for lying when she doesn't know any more than he does, but it stops his sniffles.
"Can we get ice cream?" he asks timidly.
Beca huffs out a laugh. "Sure thing, kiddo."
"Beca?"
They've reached the park and Beca nearly stumbles at the sound of Chloe's voice.
"Aubrey!" Jesse jumps down from Beca's back and runs to the playground where Aubrey is swinging from the monkey bars. Chloe is standing by, arms outstretched to make sure that her sister doesn't fall.
"Hey, weirdo," Beca says, stuffing her hands in her pockets and walking over. "What are you doing here?"
"Aubrey and I always come to the park before dinner," Chloe explains. "We used to walk our dog here all the time. What about you?"
"Um…" Beca glances over at Jesse for a moment. He's smiling and laughing as he attempts to pull Aubrey from where she's hanging on the monkey bars, but the tear stains are still faint on his cheeks. She lowers her voice and says, "My parents are…having a disagreement at the moment."
Chloe nods, looking over Beca's face carefully.
Beca hasn't told Chloe about all of the problems that her parents have been having these past few months, but she has made multiple remarks about how often they fight. Chloe's a friend—a good friend—but Beca's not quite ready to tell her everything. Chloe hasn't pushed the subject either, and Beca appreciates that.
"Well," Chloe says, her tone light, "their loss is our gain."
Beca grins. Her chest swells with something that she can't place a name to and the weight in her stomach eases a bit. She hesitates for only a moment before asking, "Do you want to come with us to get ice cream? I know you said you're about to have dinner, and I don't wanna spoil your appetite, but—"
Chloe places a hand on Beca's arm. "We'd love to," she says reassuringly, "as long as you're buying."
"It'd be a good trade-off if we could borrow your car?"
"You got yourself a deal."
Aubrey ends up making some remark on how they can't possibly eat ice cream before dinner, but Chloe calls their parents and gets the green light from them. Beca watches Chloe speak in a hushed voice while she's on the phone, hearing the words 'parents' and 'fighting' before turning away. She swears that her arm is nearly jerked out of its socket when Chloe takes her hand and yanks her towards the parking lot. Aubrey does the same with Jesse.
Beca looks between herself and her little brother, knowing deep down that they're both whipped.
i'm dying, is the text that Beca receives in the middle of doing her homework. She doesn't even have to look at the name to know who sent it. She selects the contact and hits the 'call' button. "Aside from the obvious, what's wrong with you?" she drawls.
"That is no way to treat a sick person," Chloe scolds through a stuffed up nose.
Beca smirks. She leans back in her chair, her homework already forgotten. "So, you're sick. What do you want me to do about it?"
"Come take care of me?"
Beca looks down at her unfinished homework. It's a Saturday afternoon. Jesse and Aubrey are in the kitchen with Beca's mom, making lunch. The little twerps are giggling and yelling at each other. SpongeBob SquarePants is blasting loudly from the living room, despite the fact that no one seems to be watching. Her entire calculus study guide is due on Monday and it's not going to do itself.
"I'll be there in ten."
...
"Eat up, weirdo." Beca tosses Chloe a thermos, warm from its contents. She drops down onto the sofa, not objecting when Chloe places her feet into her lap. Then, Beca grabs the remote and changes it from The Notebook to America's Next Top Model. "That's better."
Chloe's draped across the sofa with a fluffy purple blanket cocooning her. Her stuffed dolphin from the carnival is tucked into her arms (Beca smiles against her will when she sees it). Her hair is pulled into a messy bun. She cracks the thermos lid open and takes a long whiff. "Chicken noodle soup," she notes, clearly impressed. "I didn't know you knew how to cook."
"I don't." Beca reaches into her bag and offers her a silver spoon. "But, I know how to work a can opener. I told my mom it was for you and she literally jumped at the chance to do it herself. She must really like you because when I'm sick, she won't even get me a blanket."
Laughing, Chloe scoops a spoonful into her mouth. The pleased moan that she emits makes Beca blush a bright red all the way to the tips of her ears. "You are my favorite person ever right now."
"You mean I'm not always your favorite person ever?"
Chloe laughs, but she's cut off by three violent sneezes in a row.
Beca flattens her palm against Chloe's forehead, her fingers brushing away red hair. "Well, you're not quite dying," she says, "but you've definitely got a fever."
"It's the flu," Chloe groans. "I feel like shit."
"That's a dollar in the swear jar, you potty mouth."
Chloe smacks Beca on the arm before cuddling into her side. Her chin rests not uncomfortably on Beca's shoulder, the warm breath from her nose fanning away the hair that falls on Beca's collarbone. "Shut up," she sighs, "or I'll have to kick you out to the dog house."
"I thought you didn't have a dog?"
"We used to." Chloe pulls out her phone and shows Beca a picture of a tiny Beagle. "Lucy died last year. She got really sick and we had to put her down before it got worse."
There's a rustle at the front door as it opens, a jumble of keys clanging and shoes scraping the floor.
"Look who's home," Chloe says as her smile grows. "Hi, mama!"
The door shuts with a dull slam. "Hi, Chloe!"
"Rest your voice," Beca reprimands softly, lightly bumping Chloe's thigh with her knuckles.
"Hush." Chloe waves Beca off. "Mom, Beca's here!"
"Oh!" Chloe's mom waddles past the living room and into the kitchen, her arms full of groceries. "It's so nice to see you, dear." She sets her groceries down on the kitchen counter and wipes her brow.
"It's nice to see you too, Mrs. Beale," Beca says. She shifts as much as she can with Chloe practically glued to her side to look over her shoulder into the kitchen. "Do you need any help with your groceries?"
"Oh, it's alright, dear." Mrs. Beale waves her off, resembling her daughter just enough to make Beca do a little double-take. "And call me Karen, Beca. Mrs. Beale is my mother-in-law."
"Okay," Beca says, half-laughing. She's never called a friend's mom by a first name before. It's one of the many firsts that Chloe Beale introduces to her life. Beca's been mentally keeping track, and it shouldn't surprise her at this point, but it does.
Karen stands on her toes to stack cans of tomato sauce in her cabinet. Chloe definitely inherited her height from her mom, but it's not like Beca can tease her for it. "Will you be staying with us for dinner, Beca?"
Beca stiffens. She bites her lip, looking to Chloe for approval and receiving a reassuring smile in response. There's a tug in her gut that tells her to say no, to run home where she's most comfortable, but something stronger keeps her seated next to Chloe. "Um," she says, "sure—if that's alright with you."
"Of course it's alright!"
Chloe makes a delighted little sound and cuddles further into Beca's body.
It's Saturday, which is, apparently, Taco Night at the Beale household. Dinner consists of chicken tacos with homemade salsa and guacamole that Chloe and Beca help Karen make. Aubrey sits across the table from Beca, fixing her with scrutinizing eyes throughout the whole meal. It makes Beca squirm until Chloe gives her knee a supportive squeeze.
That tug in Beca's gut is gone and she smiles.
Beca goes home later and tries to find a way to work So Contagious by Acceptance into her newest mash-up. She doesn't even regret it when she spends the whole afternoon the next day finishing her homework.
Three days later, Beca comes down with the flu. She texts Chloe, laying all of the blame on her. A mere fifteen minutes after she sends the text, Chloe replies with a picture of herself in a slutty nurse costume, captioned with only a winky face. Beca feels her entire body heat up, but it's probably just because of her fever, right?
Right.
Beca's always known that their high school had a choir. She was in band, after all, even if it was just to be done with her required one year of art. Band and choir had a sort of rivalry despite the fact that they're treated equally as badly by the school. Chloe's given Beca several lectures on how the music program's funding is complete shit in favor of sports, particularly football. It's pretty much the only thing that Chloe complains about and it amuses Beca.
Their first choir concert of the year, the one that they prepare for over summer, is in a week and Chloe's invited Beca
("You don't have to go!" Chloe assured her the moment that Beca's brows pulled together in a frown. "I don't want to pressure you into doing anything that makes you uncomfortable, but…it'd really mean a lot to me if you came."
Beca had paused for a long moment before she said, "I'll think about it."
It was obviously not the answer that Chloe wanted, but she had smiled nonetheless.)
"So, are you going to go?" Kelly, Beca's mom, asks her. She stands at the stove, stirring a pan of spaghetti sauce in her stained apron. Her hair is tied up in a messy ponytail and Beca can see the grays sprouting in her roots.
Beca refrains from rolling her eyes as she sets her pencil down. She's sat at the kitchen table, attempting to do her homework, and she had offhandedly mentioned the concert. Reluctantly, she mutters, "I don't know."
"Why?" Kelly inquires. "You're allowed to go, just as long as you get all your homework done beforehand."
"I know, it's just—" The lead in Beca's mechanical pencil snaps as she puts it back to her paper and she grunts a little in frustration. She runs a hand through her hair. "I don't know if I want to go," she says hurriedly, hating herself a little bit once she's said it.
Kelly puts the lid on her pan. She takes off her apron and pulls up a chair next to Beca. "What's wrong, sweetie?" she asks patiently.
Beca gives her a look because her mom's always known her better than most people, that is, until Chloe came long. Talking about Chloe with her mom may just be one of the most uncomfortable things ever.
"Beca looooooooves Chloe!" Jesse sings as he skips through the kitchen, jumping around the kick that Beca aims at his crotch. She scrambles out of her seat to chase after him, but her mom pulls her back into her chair.
"Leave him," Kelly says, slapping Beca lightly on her wrist. "Now, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing!" Beca groans. She sinks down into her chair. "I just—I don't think I'll be comfortable at some choir concert. I won't know anyone, sitting in an audience of a bunch of choir parents. It's not that I don't want to support Chloe or anything, but I just don't know if I'm up for it."
Kelly nods and her eyes crinkle with a smile. "I can't imagine it would be too different from one of your band concerts," she reasons.
"It's been over a year since I've been to a band concert," Beca points out, "and even then, I was performing."
"I could go with you if you want."
Beca internally groans at the thought of spending a Wednesday night at her high school, watching a choir concert, accompanied by her mom. "I don't think so, mom."
Kelly laughs and pats Beca's hand. "I think I get it," she says. "If going to the concert will make you anxious at all, then just explain it to Chloe. She loves you, so she'll understand. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do." She stands and makes her way back to the stove. "Come on. It's dinnertime."
Sighing, Beca sinks back down into her chair and slams her textbook shut.
Beca fidgets with the zipper of her jacket with her free hand. She's standing awkwardly in the middle of an aisle of the school's auditorium. The lights are just coming back on and people are shifting around her, either making their way toward the exit or chatting idly.
Her occupied hand is holding a bouquet of flowers. Chloe had mentioned irises once, so Beca bought purple irises. Chloe's family had picked her up. Karen had smiled when she saw the flowers and Aubrey had frowned.
The concert was about as long as Beca remembers her band concerts being. It was comprised of mostly solos and Chloe sounded amazing. It occurred to Beca that she's never actually heard Chloe sing before despite all the talking about choir she does. Chloe also looks stunning in a deep red dress with white polka dots and purple lace.
Especially as she runs towards Beca and throws herself into Beca's arms.
"You came!" Chloe says with Beca's hair in half of her mouth. She pulls back and Beca's never thought of her as more beautiful.
"I did." Beca laughs before clearing her throat and thrusting the flowers forward. "And I—um—these are for you."
Chloe takes the flowers and her smile softens. "You got me irises."
Beca inspects a spot on the carpeted floor and scuffs at it with her shoe. "You sounded really great," she mutters. She panics for a moment, thinking that she hadn't said it loud enough and that she'd have to say it again, but Chloe's kiss on her cheek reassures her of otherwise.
It also sends a weird thrill through her entire body and simultaneously makes her feet feel like lead and her head light.
This is new, but Beca's not complaining.
After the choir concert, Chloe sings around Beca all the time. They watch Disney movies together and Beca learns that Chloe knows the soundtracks of Hercules, Tangled, Pocahontas, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid by heart. She has them, plus several more, downloaded on her iPod. If it were anybody else singing around Beca as much as Chloe does, Beca would've punched them in the face long ago.
(Beca still wonders if Chloe had been too insecure around Beca to sing before she'd heard her at her concert. The thought gnaws unpleasantly at the back of Beca's mind.)
Chloe sings while she washes dishes, while she does her homework, while she drives. She has a really nice voice and Beca almost considers asking Chloe to lend her vocals to one of her mixes before she realizes that it's a stupid idea.
It's been about two months since the incident at the park. Beca can't forget considering that she still hasn't cleaned the pants that Aubrey "accidentally" spilled her strawberry ice cream on. Wondering whether or not Chloe remembers makes Beca's palms sweat. She wipes them on a different pair of pants, sitting on Chloe's couch while Chloe looks through her cabinet for another movie for them to watch.
No turning back now. "Hey, Chloe?"
"Hmm?" Chloe brushes her hair out of her face and turns to look at Beca. "What's up?"
Beca puffs her cheeks out in a long exhale. Her knee won't stop jiggling. "There's something that I need to talk to you about," she says flatly.
Something about the look in Chloe's eyes changes. "Okay," she says. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Beca says, a little too loud and a little too bright. She winces at herself as Chloe settles down next to her on the couch. "I'm fine, but… You probably already know about this, and I would've told you sooner, but I just never really felt ready. I trust you and I don't think you need me to tell you how big of a deal that should be for you."
Chloe smiles, laughing slightly, and gently wraps one of Beca's hands in hers.
"My parents fight a lot," Beca says finally and it's easier than she anticipated. Chloe has that effect on her. "It's been this way for a while. It upsets Jesse a lot, so I guess I'm actually grateful to Aubrey for being such a good friend to him lately. Don't—don't tell her I said that."
"Oh, of course not," Chloe says sarcastically, laughter bubbling up in her words. "Wouldn't want my little sister to know that you actually have feelings."
Beca pinches Chloe's side and Chloe retaliates by tickling the bottom of Beca's foot. They derail for a moment while they try to contain their giggles. Beca pins Chloe's wrists to the couch to keep her under control.
There are always beautiful moments like this with Chloe, where Beca can laugh and be laughed at without feeling insecure. Chloe is the safest place that Beca's ever had in her life. Beca's convinced that the amount of time she's spent laughing with Chloe is more time that she's spent laughing in the rest of her life combined. Her parents no longer comment on how she'll have prominent frown lines once she ages. Instead, they ask her what funny thing Chloe's said when Beca smiles at her phone.
(Chloe's the only person who Beca texts and her whole family knows it.)
It seems to Beca that Chloe is just one big, beautiful moment in her life.
Every moment ends and Beca feels like she's falling when she's forced to come back to reality.
"Anyway," Beca continues, once her laughter ceases, "that's why I never invite you over to my house and why I don't like to talk about my parents. That's—that's all I wanted to tell you."
For a little while, Chloe says nothing but looks at Beca with a gentle gaze. Slowly, she shifts in her seat and reaches out to wrap her arms around Beca's neck. Her hand rakes through Beca's hair and her lips press a kiss to the side of Beca's head. "I'm glad you could tell me," she murmurs.
"I'm glad I have you to tell," Beca says back. "Thanks for—for just being you."
Chloe hums a little bit and waits for Beca to pull away. "Anytime, Beca." She looks over her shoulder at her movie cabinet. "So, would that make this a bad time to suggest watching The Parent Trap?"
Beca laughs. It's a little sad, but it's also very happy and it makes her heart ache in a way that's anything but unpleasant. "I'll allow it," she says, "but only because there's no singing in it."
Beca watches Chloe with baited breath and her bottom lip between her teeth. Her fingernails anxiously pick at a loose thread on her jeans. She reaches up to fiddle with her headphones before pulling her hands back down. Her headphones aren't there; they're on Chloe's head, her head that is bobbing along to the music coming from Beca's MP3 player.
They're at Chloe's house because Beca never likes to have Chloe over at her place. Her parents would ask all sorts of uncomfortable questions that she would rather avoid. She's over at Chloe's enough to satisfy her parents, but they still ask questions that are easily deflected by headphones over her ears.
Chloe's been begging to hear Beca's mixes for weeks, and Beca eventually caved.
They were out for ice cream together and Beca had commented on the Taylor Swift song playing over the radio. She was working on a mash-up between We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and Here's to Never Growing Up by Avril Lavigne and Chloe had put on her best puppy dog eyes.
Beca caved.
Whipped.
Before long, Chloe is standing from the bed, headphones still plugged into Beca's MP3, and dancing around the room. Her shirt isn't low cut, but Beca's face still heats up watching her. Without any warning, Chloe's grabbing Beca and tugging her to her feet, fruitlessly urging her to dance with her.
"And you haven't even had any of your jiggle juice," Beca muses once the song ends and the headphones fall from Chloe's ears.
"I love it!" Chloe shrieks, a grin splitting her face.
"You like it? I mean—you really like it?"
"Beca, this is amazing." Chloe takes Beca's hands in her own and looks her right in the eye. "You're amazing."
The heat in her face is back. She smiles anyway and squeezes Chloe's hands. "Thanks. That really means a lot."
Chloe's eyes are really bright and really close and Beca has to fight one instinct to step back and another instinct to get closer. Chloe reaches up and brushes some of Beca's brown hair out of her face, soft fingertips barely sliding over her forehead. "Do you ever sing anything?" she asks. "Have you ever made a mix with your own voice?"
Beca scoffs. "No," she says, shaking her head. "I don't sing."
"You can't or you just refuse to?"
"I don't," Beca repeats with a tone of finality and Chloe doesn't push it. One day, she'll get past all of Beca's walls, but for now, she'll work slowly. She's just thankful that a wall doesn't go up whenever Beca pulls away.
"I should get going," Beca says, grabbing her jacket from Chloe's bed. "My parents are threatening to limit my "Chloe time" if I don't pull my calculus grade up before the end of the semester."
Chloe smiles, small and secret. "I'll walk you home," she volunteers.
Beca snickers. "Keeping chivalry alive, Beale." She nods in approval as she shrugs her jacket on. "Are you gonna start holding doors open for me now? Offer me your jacket when I get cold?"
"Only if you pay up with a kiss at the end of the night, Mitchell," Chloe retorts with a wink.
Beca scowls. She can never beat Chloe.
Christmas break is a godsend. Beca is stressed out about upcoming AP testing, Chloe is stressed out over college applications. They spend nearly every minute together once they go off for break. This lasts for only four days when Beca's parents make an announcement.
"Becaaaaaaa," Chloe moans from her facedown position on Beca's bed, "you can't leave me."
"Chloe." Beca attempts to shove the redhead over. "Dude, come on. You're laying on my clothes. I have to pack!" She slides her hands under Chloe's torso and attempts to roll her over to no avail. "You are so not making this easy for me," she grumbles.
Chloe tosses her red hair out of her face, somehow glaring and pouting at the same time. "You're the one who's leaving," she says, crossing her arms across her chest. "This was supposed to be the best Christmas ever and you're leaving."
"Not my choice," Beca reminds her for what feels like the millionth time. "It's not my fault that my grandma's a hundred years old and wants to spend the holiday with my dumb family. My parents think it'll be a good bonding experience." She shivers in disgust. "I'm not looking forward to me leaving anymore than you are."
"But do you really have to leave tomorrow?" Chloe whines. "We haven't even been off on break for a whole week and now you're being whisked off to some glamorous family vacation—"
"I'm going to Texas, not Hawaii."
"—and I won't even be there to see your face when you open my perfect present for you."
Beca freezes. "You got me a present?" Heat creeps up her neck in anticipation as she sits down on her bed.
Chloe smiles wickedly and crosses the room to dig through the bag that she'd brought with her. "Wait, wait, wait, close your eyes!" she commands.
"You're giving it to me now?"
"Well duh, I deserve to watch you open it. Now, close your eyes!"
Chuckling in disbelief, Beca obeys and waits. She feels the air around her face whip around, almost like someone's waving their hand in front of her face, and she snaps, "They're closed, you weirdo."
"Alright," Chloe says, still sounding slightly suspicious. "You can open your eyes in three…two…one!"
Beca opens her eyes and jumps back a little when she finds her present an inch from her eyelashes. She blinks, eyes going wide when she realizes what the two rectangle slips of paper in Chloe's hand are. "Concert tickets?"
"David Guetta," Chloe says, bouncing with excitement. "March 27th, you and me, front row at the kickoff of his tour in Atlanta."
"No way." Beca takes the tickets into her hands—they're real—and stands. "You did not, Chloe."
"I did! Love me?"
"Love you lots!" Beca throws her arms around Chloe and hugs her tight. She grins through the red hair caught in her lips. "Thank you so much, Chloe. You're the best."
"Don't you forget it, Mitchell." Chloe winks as she steps back. "Come on. You've gotta pack for that luxurious family vacation of yours."
Beca groans. "Don't remind me."
All things considered, Beca's had worse Christmas Eves. Her parents refrain from fighting in front of their family. Jesse has a good time playing video games with their tween cousins and Beca occasionally joins in to kick their butts. Their aunts and uncles don't pester her with questions about what colleges she plans on applying to due to the fact that her cousin just graduated with college. He gets bombarded with questions of when he's going to start working and Beca laughs on the sidelines.
Her grandma, the woman who just beat breast cancer, is too old to care about anything. She offers Beca a sip of her beer and they toast to nothing.
Beca wakes up Christmas morning and finds the guest bed next to hers empty. Jesse must already be up and waiting eagerly by the Christmas tree. The clock on the wall tells her it's 7:30, meaning that it's 8:30 back home in Georgia. She grabs her phone from underneath her pillow and sends Chloe a text: Merry Christmas. She wonders if Chloe's opened her present yet.
Before long, Beca can hear Jesse and her other cousins running around the living room. They're giggling and, judging from the dull thuds that she's hearing, wrestling.
"Come on, Beca!" Jesse shouts from the hallway. "It's Christmas! Get up!"
She's about to respond when her phone starts vibrating. Chloe's face appears on her screen and Beca grins as she answers the phone call. "Hello?"
"BECA MITCHELL."
Beca laughs. "I take it you like your present." She swings her legs over the edge of her bed and runs a hand through her tangled hair. "Merry Christmas, by the way. You know, people typically open with that on December 25th—"
"YOU GOT ME A DOG."
"Well, that's awkward. I thought I got you a cat."
Chloe can feel Beca's grin over the phone.
"He's a Labrador-Border Collie mix. He's only three weeks old, so he's not ready to have all of his shots yet, but I talked to your parents about this like, two weeks ago, so they arranged everything like his dog license and stuff. He's all yours."
"You kept this from me for two weeks and my parents knew about it?!"
"I can be sneaky when I want to. You underestimate my abilities, Chloe Beale."
"I leave for college next year," Chloe reminds her, as if Beca could forget. "You do realize that, right? I can't bring a dog into a dorm with me!"
"Well then, I guess you'll just have to come home every weekend to take care of him," Beca says nonchalantly. "He'll miss you and everything, so…"
"Oh, he's the one who's going to miss me?" Chloe's beginning to get the feeling that Beca had a hidden motive in getting her a dog. She laughs and shakes her head. "Beca…"
"Do you like it?" Her tone of voice is uncertain, but Chloe can see right through her.
"I love it," Chloe says. "I love him so much. Beca, he's the sweetest thing ever! Thank you so much! I love you."
"Love you, too," Beca says, smiling. "So, what're you gonna name him? Do me a favor and don't give him a stupid name or anything, okay? I don't want the little guy to be the laughing stalk of the dog park or something equally stupid."
Chloe hums in thought and Beca knows that she's going to regret saying that.
...
Eddard Stark-Mitchell-Beale's name doesn't fit on his nametag, so Chloe settles for Ned. His eyes are brown but just as big as Chloe's. He runs into glass doors and pees in his own bed, but Beca still muses that he often acts more intelligent than Chloe. They train him together and take him on walks together; he essentially becomes their baby. Beca will never admit that out loud, of course, but that doesn't mean Chloe won't say it behind her back.
Both Ned and Chloe give Beca several kisses when she returns from her trip. So, Beca really can't complain.
A/N: Thanks for reading! The writing for Chapter 3 is around 60-70 percent done, so I'll have it posted as soon as possible. Sorry again for not updating for five months!
You can find this story and future updates on my tumblr: .com!