Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. Not Pitch Perfect and not John Denver's Leaving on a Jet Plane
The morning after the disaster that was Semi-Finals, Beca awoke to her phone dinging. It took her a few seconds to recognize the alert signifying she'd gotten an email. Beca was up in an instant, surprising her Korean roommate as Beca was not even a sort of early riser. Dragging her ass out of bed in time for her 11 a.m. Intro to Psych class was a battle in and of itself. So when Beca's white tattooed ass went tumbling out of her bed with her blankets wrapped around her like some sort of cocoon, Kimmy-Jin was shocked. Beca dove under her bed, scrambling to find her phone from where it had fallen from her bed in the dead of the night. With a few clicks, Beca's email was open and she was flicking through the few promotional emails that she'd received that night, along with an email from a one Manny Ramirez.
"Yes!" Beca threw her hands up in the air and started doing a weird little happy dance that was rudely interrupted by her blankets tripping her up.
"What are you doing?" Kimmy-Jin snapped at her roommate.
"Shut up," Beca smirked, an unnatural grin stretching her face from her crumpled form on the floor. Kimmy-Kin wanted to be offended but she was frankly more ruffled by the fact that Beca was smiling. Which, in all of the Korean's experience with the white girl, had NEVER happened. Instead, Kimmy-Jin just got out of bed and headed to the awful community shower.
Beca couldn't stop smiling as she read the email Manny had sent her. She was booked for a flight out of the Atlanta airport tomorrow morning at 9:30. Beca honest to god couldn't remember a time when she was happier. Now she just had to decide what she was going to do today. Obviously she had to get all of her shit packed up and put away, but other than that, she had nothing to do and nowhere to be.
Beca was about to start doing something that she sure was going to be productive when there was a loud insistent pounding on her bedroom door. Beca tried to wiggle her way out of the blankets, gave up when it became obvious that that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, and hopped her way over to the door and managed to maneuver the doorknob open. The door swung open and revealed a very startled Jesse.
"Whoa, Beca, uh, hi…" Jesse trailed off.
"Hey Jesse," Beca nodded to her friend and hopped back into her bedroom with Jesse following cautiously. He had never seen Beca look so… not doom and gloom, he supposed.
Jesse took another moment to appraise his normally dark best friend and couldn't help when he blurted out, "Are you high?"
"Am I what now?" Beca asked, looking up from her battle to untangle herself from the sheets on her bed.
"High," Jess repeated bluntly. "Are you high right now?"
"No," Beca shook her head as she finally managed to squirm her way out of the blankets. "Why do you ask?" she asked her head cocked curiously to the side.
"Because you look… not you," Jesse struggled to say what he was thinking in a way that wasn't COMPLETELY insensitive. He wasn't coming up with a whole lot of options. He couldn't describe what was different about Beca because he couldn't put his finger on what he thought was different. Beca's hair was thrown up in a loose bun, her makeup from semi-finals was still on and slightly smudged, she was wearing that god-awful Bellas' uniform, and she looked happy. Oh that was it!
"Why do you look so happy? I thought you'd be all stressed out and upset after what happened last night between you and Aubrey," Jesse said, studying his best friend's face intently. Then, the surprise to end all surprises, Beca smiled. Not like that little half-smile of hers, or her patented smirk, it was a full blown grin. Jesse didn't even know why he was smiling, but something about Beca's dazzling grin made him grin too. Beca didn't say a word; she just grabbed the boy's hand and yanked him over to her desk. She sat at the computer, clicked a few times until her email was up and gestured for Jesse to read. He did just that, his eyes getting wider and his grin getting bigger the more he read. When he got to the end, he didn't even hesitate as he grabbed Beca by the shoulders and gave her a lung-crushing hug.
"Beca this is amazing!" he said as he squeezed her tighter. He felt Beca squirm slightly in his grasp and he released her.
"It's awesome," she said with a small smile. "I mean I wanted it to happen, but I never really thought that it would, you know?" Jesse's only answer was to pull Beca in for another bear hug.
"When do you leave?" he asked. Jesse knew Beca better than a lot of people. He didn't know everything about her, frankly Jesse doubted anybody knew everything about her, but he knew enough to know that Beca wasn't giving up this opportunity. Beca's happiness diminished ever so slightly and she mumbled. "What was that?"
Beca cleared her throat and said, "Tomorrow."
"Oh," Jesse's face fell. "Oh."
"Yeah…" Beca trailed off.
"So you're just going to go? Just like that?" Jesse asked, more than just a little hurt seeping into his voice.
"No, not just like that," Beca shook her head firmly. "I've got a whole day here at Barden and Kimmy Jin is going out on some Korean club excursion, so you and I are going to play music and movies as loud as we possibly can while we pack up my shit."
Jesse raised his eyebrows and he said in shock, "But you hate movies!"
"But you don't," Beca pointed out with her signature smirk. "And I want to spend my last day in cruddy old Georgia with my cruddy old best friend watching some cruddy old movies." Jesse felt a grin form on his face and he pulled Beca in for another hug, despite her aversion to physical contact. When Jesse felt like he'd made Beca sufficiently uncomfortable, Jesse pulled back and looked Beca in the eye.
"Get dressed, we've got movies to pick up!" he announced dramatically his arm flung in the air and pointing at who knows what.
Jesse lay with Beca on her dorm bed as they looked around her empty dorm room. The only thing that marked that someone other than Kimmy Jin even lived here was the stack of boxes on the side of the wall, her clothes for tomorrow on the desk and her laptop on the bed with The Breakfast Club playing. It was one of the only movies that Beca would willingly watch with Jesse and he made her watch it every chance he got. When the movie ended and Don't You Forget About Me started playing, Jesse shut the lid to the laptop and rolled to appraise Beca.
"I'm going to miss you like crazy Bec," he said honestly.
Beca smiled softly before she whispered, "And I'm going to miss you, you stupid nerd." Jesse merely grinned at her again and started riffling through his backpack for another movie. Beca shook her head with a smirk. "Do you always bring this many movies with you?"
"When THE Beca Mitchell actually offers to watch a movie with me, I have to capitalize on the opportunity," Jesse said with a mock-serious glare. "And besides, I've got a juice pouch in here with your name on it."
"Yes!" Beca cheered. If there was one thing, and only one thing, that Beca's friendship with Jesse Swanson had produced, it was a great appreciation of the pouches of juice he always seemed to have on him. Beca easily caught the juice pouch he tossed her way and speared the straw through with an expert jab. "So I'll leave you like a hundred dollars cash and can you mail all those," Beca gestured with her head towards the large stack of boxes stacked against the wall. "Out to me in LA when I get settled right?"
"Yup," Jesse nodded. They'd already gone over this plan several times, but he was guessing that as her flight time tomorrow morning rapidly approached, Beca was getting more and more jittery. "So you nervous pocket rocket?" Jesse asked as he nudged her shoulder with his. Beca rolled her eyes at the nickname and was quiet for a few moments as she pondered how to answer that.
"Yes and no," she finally settled on. Jesse quirked an eyebrow (a habit he had totally picked up from her) and said nothing as Beca kept going. "I mean this is everything I've ever wanted, right? But what if I screw it up or they don't like what I'm doing or it turns out this doesn't work out or-"
"Beca," Jesse cut off his friend with an exasperated sigh. "You're going to be fine. I've heard your mixes and they're amazing. You played them on air and everyone loved them. This guy Manny said he loved them. And of course it's going to work out; you've put your heart and soul into this. And so what if this one studio doesn't work out? There's more than one out there. You are going to absolutely kill this." Beca looked at Jesse appraisingly, trying to figure out if he was just lying to make her feel better or generally believed what he was saying. When she detected no misdirection in his voice, she gave Jesse a little half-smirk.
"Yeah," she croaked, her voice cracking just a little. She cleared her throat gently and tried again. "Yeah, okay."
"So is there anyone besides my gorgeous face that you'll be out saying goodbye to?" Jesse asked as he shifted slightly in a vain attempt to get blood flowing back to his legs. Beca moved over slightly to give the boy a little more room on her tiny excuse of a bed.
As they both squirmed, Beca said, "Eh, not really."
"Why not?" Jesse questioned as they both settled down more comfortably.
"Well the only things I really did here was the internship and the Bellas. I hated almost all of my classes. So that leaves you, Luke, and the Bellas. I'm sure I can just send Luke an email considering he still calls me Becky and you were there with the Bellas. Not a whole hell of a lot of goodbyes, you know?"
"Yeah…" Jesse let his voice trail off. "What about your dad?"
"Oh. Right. Him," now it was Beca's turn to let her words trail off. "I don't know what I'm going to do about him."
"You have to tell him," Jesse said firmly. "It's not even really an option otherwise."
Beca pursed her lips and practically whined, "Are you sure? Can't I just leave him a sticky note on his door or send him a nicely worded email?"
"No. No you cannot," Jesse snorted.
"But I don't want to talk to him Jess!" Beca protested. "He's going to go on a rant about how I didn't try and I really did. I just can't pass up this job, Jesse."
"I know," Jesse nodded. "So telling him to his face is out of the question and emailing him is just rude. What if you leave him like a letter or something like that?"
"Yeah," Beca drew the word out. "That could work. Maybe leave it with Kimmy-Jin or something."
Jesse nodded with a pensive look on his face and he said, "That could work. Becs, I think you should leave something for the Bellas too. It might make you feel better."
"Nope," Beca said quickly and shortly.
"But Beca," Jesse tried to reason with the girl but she quickly cut him off.
"It's not happening Jess. End of story."
Jesse sighed dramatically but let the subject drop. For the rest of the night, Jesse and Beca sat on the tiny little sofa bed, watching movies, terrible YouTube videos, and scrolling through Beca's never ending iTunes Library. Eventually, Jesse traipsed back to his dorm in Walden Hall a little past midnight.
Beca pulled her legs up into a cross-legged seated position on her bed and looked around her now empty dorm room. She supposed she should feel more of a connection with this place, but to her it was just another stop on her way to Los Angeles. She couldn't believe that she was actually going out to LA tomorrow. And alone too. Beca had never been one to shy away from being alone; hell she'd practically lived it after her parents' divorce and her subsequent self-imposed isolation. Still in the darkness of her college dormitory, all of the fear that she hadn't let herself feel earlier came rushing back to her.
In a flurry of movement, Beca grabbed a pen and the notebook she'd shoved into her laptop bag that was going to serve as her carry on. She started scribbling furiously, desperate to get everything she needed said down on paper. When she was done writing her letters, she carefully ripped the two pages out of the notebook. With only the slightest twinge of guilt, Beca rooted through Kimmy-Jin's desk drawer. A few minutes later, she emerged victorious with two envelopes in her hand. She didn't bother addressing them to mail. On one she simply wrote 'Dad' in her loopy scrawl and the other 'Bellas'.
Turns out that Jesse was right and she actually felt a lot better when she got everything out and on paper. In a fit of inspiration, Beca grabbed one of her many flash drives (seriously she used an ungodly amount of the damn things) and dumped an unholy amount of files from her laptop onto the drive. It took a while, sorting through everything, but in the end Beca had over 60 megabytes of data stored on the flash drive. She slipped the slim black drive into the envelope for the Bellas and sealed both letters with a slight grimace. Seriously, the glue on the envelope tasted absolutely revolting.
Beca placed the two envelopes reverently on her now empty desk and fell back onto her sofa bed with a flop. An hour later she fell into a fitful sleep that had her waking up every half hour to ensure that she didn't oversleep and miss her flight. When the time had finally come and Tony honked his horn twice outside the dorm, Beca had already been up for an hour. She placed her dorm key on the desk next to the letters and specific instructions for Kimmy-Jin regarding said letters. As she slung her laptop bag onto her shoulder, she looked back at her room. She took a deep breath and shut the door behind her for the last time.
"Hey Tony," Beca said with a small smile as she slid in the backseat of the taxi, having already tossed her two suitcases and her carry on in the trunk of the cab. "How are you today?"
"Doing just great lass," Tony said with a wide grin, his Irish accent comforting and familiar to Beca. "How about you? You're looking a mite happier than the last time I saw you." Beca chuckled softly and Tony laughed along with her.
The two exchanged pleasantries and general conversation the entire drive up to the airport. Tony didn't ask where Beca was headed after the airport. All he needed to know was where he was taking her first. That and the girl did look significantly happier than when he'd last seen her. She still didn't smile that breathtaking grin that had stunned Tony, but her little smirks and sneers had become more light-hearted and even frequently replaced with a quirky half-grin. At the airport, Beca slapped the correct amount of bills into Tony's palm and thanked him again.
"Wherever you're going lass, I hope you're happy. You deserve it," Tony said sincerely.
Beca gave Tony her heart stopping smile and she said softly, "Thank you."
"For what lass?" Tony asked, his voice still conveying his awe.
Beca's smile was softer this time and she said quietly, "For giving me the courage to do what I always wanted to."
"You always had the courage lass," Tony said with conviction. "I just reminded you it was in there." Beca smiled again and stepped back and waved goodbye to Tony. Tony waved back and watched as the quiet girl with three suitcases and a laptop bag disappeared through the doors into LAX. "Beca Mitchell," the taxi driver mused to himself. He'd have to be sure to remember that name.
All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh baby, I hate to go
Thoughts? Also, the reviews I got from you guys at the start made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. I'm planning on releasing a chapter once a week, either Friday night or Saturday morning. If you all want I can try and move the date up, but the last couple of stories I wrote kind of blow up without anything planned out, so I'm trying a schedule this time around. I feel like I'm maturing...
Also, thanks for the reception of Manny and Tony! I know they're not vital to the story and some people positively despise the introduction of OC's, but they're not going to play a huge part in the story. Well... Tony won't. This was probably his last appearance so say Adios! However, starting next chapter Manny's going to be resurfacing. Sorta. A little. Maybe in two chapters...
There's also two ways that Chapter 4 is going to work out. Option A is skipping over the Bellas reaction to the letter Beca left them and instead the reaction being shown in flashbacks. Option B is I take an almost filler chapter to fill you all in. Drop a review with what you prefer.