A/N: So I apologize another short chapter. This is really chapter 1 part 2. And had I known where I was going this would have been part of chapter one, so let's just call it an extension of that. Chapter 3, which answers some questions and moves everything along, is in progress. For now I hope this sparks interests and temporarily satisfies those that have been reading.
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This is why she's hasn't been here in years. Him finding her sitting here alone, her not having a clue what to say or do, it's the exact scenario she's been avoiding all these years. She just didn't realize until right now. He's standing there in front of her. He's real. And he's here, and she feels completely paralyzed. She should get up and leave. She should quickly walk away without another word. He's here, he's healthy on appearance and that's really all she wanted to know so she should leave but... "Jesse..." This time it's softer and his name gets whispered from her lips.
He lifts his hand and holds his finger out to hush her. "Right here," he says as he walks forward a few steps and stops before rocking back on his heels. "Is where I told you we were going to have Aca-children." She opens her mouth to speak before she can get anything out he shoots up a finger to shush her. His hand drops as his feet shuffle. In the time it takes her to blink, he's back at the top of the seating area. He stamps his foot down and cocks his head, "You know what happened right here?" His eyebrow lifts but he doesn't wait for her to answer him. "Right here, is where I told you I loved you for the first time. You tried to hide it but you were completely freaked out." He grins and starts to slowly walk down the steps, his foot echoes with each step. "I expected that though. What I didn't expect," he stops and sits down on the concrete just in front of her. "What I didn't expect was that right here is where you broke up with me."
"Jesse-" She tries to speak but all she can manage to say is his name again. It's starting to get really annoying that even after all this time she can't full collect her thoughts around him. And while she's still trying to wrap her head around that he cuts her off.
"You didn't call it that. You didn't call it breaking up. But I knew what it was the moment you opened your mouth. I didn't expect it but I knew what it was even if you didn't call it that. Instead you gave me some speech about the stress of long distance and needing us to always be friends... We both know how that worked out."
He doesn't turn around to face her while he talks. Which is a good thing because her eyes are closed? She's been reliving those memories with him. It's just the way he talks, the melancholy in his tone, it's very unsettling for her. It's unsettling and bringing up a bunch of stuff she isn't ready to deal with yet. She knew that chances were at some point this weekend she was going to have to answer questions and face things she hasn't dealt with, it's just... He didn't expect her to break up with him, the same way she didn't expect him to show up here tonight.
"I should go." She states as she stands up. Her motions are so fast that for a moment she's dizzy. She blinks and lets her surroundings come into clear focus before she repeats her statement, "I should definitely go."
"Some things never change." He mumbles so low that his voice almost gets drown out by the sound of her footsteps. Almost.
"Excuse me?" She slings herself around to face him, unable to hide the expression on her face that says she wants to know exactly what the fuck he means.
"Just go." The tone in his voice is no longer melancholy, it's cold and guarded. There's something in it that tells her he expects this from her and it pisses her off.
"No." She folds her arms across her chest and stands her ground. If he's going to speak like he has expectations then he's going to explain to her what he means. "No. I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what you mean by some things never change."
His head shakes and a harsh sigh comes out, "I meant exactly what I said, Beca. Some things never change. Here we are together and there's things we could and should say but you're getting up and leaving like you always have. Some things never change. And I said it because it's the truth." He stands and finally turns to face her. "The truth is that no matter how much you wish things were different, no much how much you wish some things could change they just don't." His eyes are dead locked on hers for a moment before he continues on, "Some things never change... This place, maybe it's not exactly the same but all of the things I know here none of them have changed. They're all exactly how I left them... I thought..." He pauses to close his eyes and shake his head, "So much has changed I thought that... I thought I wanted to come here and find out things change. Then I saw you. I walked up and I had to blink. I had to shake my head, I had to make sure what I was seeing was real because I saw you here. And as soon as I realized it wasn't my imagination and you really were sitting there I thought... I thought if you're here and that if this place stayed the same..." He stops again to blow out a breath. "When I walked up and realized it really was you sitting there, not some figment of my imagination, I thought maybe the things you don't want to change, don't change. Like I was in a movie and..."
She doesn't wait for him to finish, "Life isn't a movie, Jesse."
"I'm beyond painfully aware of that at this point in my life."
She watches his face as he pauses with his statement, like he's carefully planning his next words because he's waiting for her to ask a question. She's not going ask a question because she doesn't have one to ask, at least not one she wants him to honestly answer. And she thinks he knows that so she doesn't wait for him to come up with something to say. "Life isn't a movie, Jesse," she repeats then lets out a sigh. "It's life."
He cocks his head to the side and gives her a bittersweet half smile, "Again I'm aware of that right now."
The half smile on his face fades slowly, and she knows this isn't about her, at least not completely. She wants to comfort him, but comfort would come with too many questions. And it's those questions that make up the reason she can't stand there any longer. She's not ready to have to answer questions about her own life, and she can't stand there without asking questions about his life. She didn't expect it yet, so she's not ready answer questions about her life and she sure as hell isn't ready to hear about his. It's all she can do to get out a shrug and, "I'm sorry."
They're the last words she says to him before she turns walks away as fast as she can.
She walks away as fast as she can and does look back until she's sure she won't see him. When she finally looks back she realizes that she walked away without any direction. In a way it's kind of funny that in her hurry to get away she's ended up in front of her old dorm building. Her eyes close as she remembers... Really if Jesse wanted to play the memory game, then maybe he should have followed her since now she's walking the sidewalk where she first saw him playing awful air guitar in an attempt to get her attention...
She throws her hands up and shakes her head. All of this, all of these memories, all of these things she hasn't wanted to face... She didn't know it until now but they're why she's never wandered the campus. It doesn't matter where she walks; every place has a memory attached. Just a few steps along the sidewalk would be where she met Fat Amy. A little further down, her first introduction to Chloe and Audrey... Back then she didn't know then meeting them would lead to so many great things. She leans down and traces her fingers along the sidewalk... Back then she didn't even want to be at Barden... Her head lifts up and she fights away other memories as she rises up and looks back to the sidewalk in front of the dorms... Back then she didn't think anything she could learn here, or anyone she could meet here would impact her life. She was beyond wrong. She never realizes how much those moment, that are now just memories, impacted her. It's those moments and those memories that lead her to end up back here.
She's never shared it with anyone but it was the memories she's kept to herself, and the moments she doesn't speak that lead her back here. She's kept those moments and memories locked away. Locked inside the bar that she's unlocking the backdoor of and walking inside. This bar, it's her comfort, it's her savior... Jesse was right, some things never change. But this bar hasn't changed... It hasn't changed and she's made sure of that. She's taken it and created stability. She knows exactly what to plan for and expect. Despite anything, anyone could ever say the one thing she's managed to do with the bar is create something. And it's that stability that allows her to curl up on the futon in her office and close her eyes to sleep.
