Jesse was laying on the couch, drumming a pen on the music sheet he was holding. He had re-written the same part 3 times and it still didn't seem to fit right with the prior part. He huffed and reached for the beer that was on the coffee table, picked it up and brought it to his lips. He rolled his eyes when he found out that it was empty and got on his feet. He kept looking at the music sheet as he made his way to the kitchenette, dropped the empty bottle in the trash, pulled the fridge door open, grabbed a beer and kicked the door shut. He put the sheet on the counter to remove the cap and brought the bottle to his lips, gulping down some beer. He burped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and picked the piece of paper.

He was making his way back to the couch when he heard a knock on the door. Knowing it was late for anyone to be on the other side of the door, he glanced at the time to double check and saw that it was almost 2 am. He put the beer and music sheet on the coffee table then walked to the front door.

"Wha—what are you doing here?" he asked opening the door wide-open and stepping back as he eyed the very nervous looking Beca.

"I can't do this anymore," she shrugged and stepped forward, throwing her arms around his shoulders and pulling him into a kiss.

Pulling away to ask her what was she doing didn't cross his mind. He kissed her back and pinned her against the door after shutting it with his free hand as his other hand was on her waist.

"Oh, Beca," he mumbled, sighing against her lips then pulling away when he heard a distant beeping sound. "What's that?" he asked, tilting his head to look around for the source.

The beeping got louder as he rubbed his eyes in exhaustion then groaned opening his eyes.

"Not again," he huffed, reaching for his phone, i.e the beeping source, and grabbed it. He turned off the alarm and tossed it on the coffee table.

He buried his face in his hands and groaned loudly as he rubbed it before he got up. He kicked the empty can he stumbled on then started to make his way to his bedroom while stretching. He rubbed his sore neck and cursed himself for falling asleep on the couch. He started gagging so he ran to the toilet and dropped on his knees, puking his guts out. Getting up, he turned to the sink and ran the water to wash his face. He glanced at the shower and decided to skip. He brushed his teeth then made his way out of the bathroom.

"Oh, god," he exclaimed once he set foot into his bedroom and got overwhelmed by the sun rays coming from the window. He quickly drew the curtains and felt much better when he wore his sunglasses.

He threw a sweatshirt over his t-shirt, slipped on his shoes, wore his coat and headed out for work.

"Good morning, Swanson," Jesse heard the school's headmaster greet. He forced a small smile, meeting his gaze and greeted him with a nod.

Stepping into the teacher's room, he walked straight to the coffee machine and served himself a cup of coffee then made his way to a vending machine that was in the hallway to buy an energy bar.

He was walking back to the teacher's room when he saw one of his co-workers leaning against a wall, looking behind Jesse. He glanced behind him then frowned seeing that it was a couple of girls standing not far away from him.

"Jesse," his co-worker called.

"Oliver," Jesse stopped when the man, placed a hand on his shoulder and sighed. Jesse followed his gaze and saw that he was still looking at the girls. He brought the coffee to his lips and gulped it down in one breath then threw it in a trashcan.

"They're hot, aren't they?" Oliver glanced at Jesse when he saw that he was also eyeing the younger girls.

"They're kids, Oliver," Jesse looked back at him.

"They're, like, 17," he shrugged. "You still work at that bar, right?"

Jesse nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking you could let them sneak in— you know how teenagers love to go where they're not allowed. We take them then you know..." he clicked his tongue and looked at Jesse suggestively. "I call dibs on the small one, though. You can have the other one."

"You fucking asshole," Jesse spat out, his hands were shaking when he fisted them and threw a punch that landed on his co-worker's face. It was the first time Jesse had ever raised his hand on anyone. He was disgusted by his co-worker and couldn't stop himself from landing several punches on his face until other workers came and broke them off.

"Stop staring," Chloe whispered into Beca's ear. Beca looked away from the bar, realizing that she was staring at Jesse. She had been watching him ever since he got in. He caught her a few times and just nodded her way before shifting his attention back to his work.

"I'm gonna go get a refill."

"But..." Chloe looked down at the half empty pint of beer that was in front of her friend. Beca grabbed it and drowned it down before she got on her feet and started to make her way to the bar. Placing her empty pin on the counter, Jesse picked it up and the refilled it then put in front of her.

"Wow," Beca grabbed his arm before he could pull it away. "What happened?" she asked in concern as she eyed his pretty swollen hand.

"It's nothing," he watched her as she gently ran her fingers over his knuckles and hoped she wasn't feeling the goosebumps her gesture caused.

"Did you punch through a wall?" she looked up.

"No," he didn't draw his arm back when she let go of it and just held his hand instead.

"You punched someone?" she asked in disbelief.

"Beca, you should go back to your table." He forced himself to pull his hand away. Beca held his gaze for a few seconds then walked around the bar and got behind it.

"You can't be here. My boss doesn't want us letting people behind the bar," he pretended to look around for his boss. His boss didn't come on Fridays.

"Your boss can kiss my ass," she grabbed a cloth they used to clean the bar and dipped her hand in an ice bucket, wincing at the coldness and pulling some cubes. She put them on the cloth then knotted the cubes in it and grabbed his's arm.

"I don't know how long it has been but you need ice," she pressed it against his knuckles.

"Cool," he nodded, swallowing the pain he felt. "Thanks," he placed his hand over hers.

"A margarita, please." They heard a customer say.

"I got it," Mae, the other bartender working that night, got the order. "Oh, hi," she smiled at Beca.

"Hey, how's it going?" she smiled back.

"I'm working on a Friday night, amazing," she shrugged. Beca chuckled at the sarcasm in her words then looked back at Jesse. "I'll let you go back to your work," she pulled her hand from underneath his, grabbed her pint of beer, paid for it and walked back to her table.

"Were you making the beer?" Matt asked when she joined them.

"Yeah, how did you guess?" she brought the beer to her mouth.

"I put our names on to sing next," Bumper pointed at Beca as she sat down.

"Excuse me, you did what?" Beca asked, putting down the pint.

"You and I are singing next," he threw an arm over Amy's shoulder.

"Um—wow. Okay," she shrugged. "What are we singing?" she asked, taking a sip.

"Number one," he informed her as he held his index finger up.

"The R Kelly song?" she choked.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Why are we going to sing that?" she asked between coughs.

"Honestly, I think our voices sound great together and I like this song," he shrugged. "Look if you have something against this song we could sing Turnin' me on," he suggested.

"God, no," she shook her head, clearing her throat. "Amy should be up there not me."

"Amy?" Beca turned to her Aussie friend who shrugged.

"Liquid courage," Nick winked, pushing his whiskey her way.

"Thanks," she gulped from it then winced at the after taste. She washed it down by a sip from the Martini that Chloe was sipping.

"C'mon," Bumper got on his feet once it was their turn. "Oh, and you're singing R Kelly's lines," he said as they walked to take the mics.

"Why?"

"I like Keri Hilson's lines better," he shrugged.

Jesse almost spilled beer when he heard Beca's singing right after the first few notes that played and Bumper weirdly whispering, "Number one."

She sucked it up and embraced the very sexual song. She was there to try and have fun. And, being tipsy helped. Big time.

"Wow," Jesse murmured, resting his hand on the bar as he watched Beca nail her part and outshine a recording artist. Bumper jumped off of the stage once his part was over and left Beca to finish the song. She subconsciously kept looking at the bar as she sang the last few lines and smiled when Jesse dropped what he was doing to clap when she was done. "Woah," he hollered, grinning for the first time in a while and meaning it. He liked watching Beca cut loose and have fun with the song.

Beca gave back the mic and made her way back to the table.

"That went nothing like I expected," Nick smiled watching her take a seat.

"That was hot," Stacie exclaimed.

"I second that," Matt nodded, placing down a round of shots.

"Thank you," Beca sat down and picked her pint of beer.

"Where are Amy and Bumper?" Beca looked around the table.

"They bailed," Chloe informed her and winked.

"Gross," Beca said after swallowing.

"Drink up. You need to be really intoxicated to sing what I put us to sing next," he assured her as he sat down.

"What is it?" she arched an eyebrow.

"It's a Rihanna song, I'll tell you that much," he picked up a shot.

"What if I don't know the words?" she asked.

"I heard you singing it the other day at work. You know it," he smirked. "Drink up," he advised, taking another shot.

"You can sing too?" Nick asked him.

"Nope," Matt winced after swallowing.

"He's tone deaf," Beca nodded at Matt then tilted her head to look at the person singing Alicia Keys' Fallin' and was surprised when she saw Mae. She didn't know she could sing quite beautifully. She hit every note right and didn't seem to realize how amazing she sounded.

"Shit," Beca murmured.

"She got a great set of pipes, huh?" Chloe sad as she watched Mae belt out.

"Uh-Huh," Beca agreed. All she knew about Mae was that she was fresh out of college. She figured that she was in the "I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-my-life-phase" most recent college graduates go through since she was working at a bar.

"C'mon, we're up next," Matt drummed his fingers on the table once Mae finished singing.

"How did you get us on next?" Beca asked.

"I may or may not have bribed them with a couple of Rihanna tickets," he shrugged.

"Dude, we could have just waited!"

"I don't like waiting, most of the time," he winked at her then turned on his heels.

"Jesus christ," Beca rubbed her forehead seeing the title of the song on the screen; Birthday cake by Rihanna and featuring Chris Brown. She rolled her eyes then began singing, "Come and put your name on it. Come and put your name on it. Bet you wanna put your name on it. Come and put your name on it."

She ran her fingers through her hair and decided to make Matt as uncomfortable as she could for picking Birthday cake for them to sing.

"It's not even my birthday. But he wanna lick the icing off. I know you want it in the worst way. Can't wait to blow my candles out," she licked her bottom lip and smirked at the dumb look he had on his face.

She continued to sing while dancing around and occasionally laughing at Matt. He looked utterly dumb-fucked.

Beca pushed his shoulder when it was time for him to sing Chris Brown's verse.

"Girl I wanna fuck you right now (right now). Been a long time, I've been missing your body. Let me-let me turn the lights down..."

Jesse watched Matt sing for a while then couldn't handle looking at him eye-fuck the love of his life and turned to the bar filling a shot of vodka for himself and drowning it. He distracted himself with work and only looked back at the stage when he heard cheering and almost broke the glass in his hand when he saw Matt's arm around Beca as they kissed.

"Mae," Jesse called. "Take over. I'll be right back," he told her as he put down the drink he was making and walked around the bar and out of the place.

Beca pulled away. Confused and shocked by what Matt did. They were having fun with a song and he misread what she was doing.

"That's what you wanted, right?" he asked, frowning at her reaction.

"No, it's not," she shoved the mic in his chest and hopped off of the stage, making her way out of the bar, needing some fresh air.

Beca held her head once she was outside and looked up at the sky, humorlessly chuckling when she saw that sky was pitch black.

"Get back inside, it's cold," Jesse tilted his head to look at her when he heard her step out of the bar.

"It's fine," she wrapped her arms around herself.

"Suit yourself," he shrugged, looking away from her.

"Who did you punch?" she asked noting how he winced when he stuffed his hand in his pocket.

"Does it matter?" he asked back.

"No," she made her way to him and stood in front of him for a while then sighed and walked away and leaned against the wall next to him.

"I can't do this anymore," she said after a beat.

Jesse looked up, hearing the same words she said in his dream.

"Can't do what?" he asked, seeing that she was looking at the sky.

"Nevermind," she shook her head.

"You know you can always talk to me," he hesitantly threw his arm around her shoulder, seeing that she was obviously cold.

"Over the course of a year, my life has gotten way too complicated and I'm beginning to think that the big guy up there has a beef with me or something," she nodded at the sky. "Like, what's your problem?" she asked, directing her question to the sky. "Is this payback for the cat that I couldn't keep alive when I was 8? Well, newsflash: I WAS EIGHT!"

"You killed a cat?" Jesse asked in amusement.

"Not killed. More like, let him get killed—it's a long story," she tilted her head to look at Jesse and found him looking down at her.

"You know, with the dim lightening, you look like a creep," she scratched his beard.

"Can you do me a favor?" he put a hand over hers and pulled it down.

"What d'you want?"

"Stop coming here," he squeezed her hand then let go of it.

"Why?" she asked.

"You'd be doing yourself a bigger favor by not coming here, actually," he stuffed his hand in his pocket.

"Well, guess what? You're not the boss of me," she shrugged his arm off.

He ran his fingers through his hair then clench it. "You're complicating things for yourself."

"I know. I screwed up big time. Pushed you away. And, now you're doing the same to me. So, yeah, I know," she threw her hands up in defeat. She watched him let go of his hair and look back at her then froze when he cupped her face and kissed her.

AN: Oh them cliffhangers. *sigh*

Thank you for reading. Reviews help me know if you guys like this or are even interested still. Peace out.

Songs mentioned: Number one by R Kelly ft Kari Hilson, Turnin' me on by Kari Hilson ft Lil Wayne, Fallin' by Alicia Keys, Birthday Cake by Rihanna ft Chris Brown.