A/N: Hello, first off, thank you all for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites. The support for this fic has honestly blown me away. I still cannot believe so many people enjoy it.
Secondly, through the reviews, it was brought to my attention that Bechloe has been nominated for 's femslash tournament. Voting for round one ends on the 20th (Next Tuesday) and apparently you can vote once an hour for each pairing. If Bechloe's dominance over all other ships is not enough incentive to vote, the actresses playing the winning pair will be interviewed at the end, if the pairing wins. As Fleumione mentioned in their review, it would be epic to see Brittany and Anna talk about Bechloe, together in the same room. So go vote if you are not already!
Now that my PSA announcement is over, I hope you enjoy the new chapter. There is showers and aca-tryouts.
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Chapter 3: Real Events
Beca's first few weeks went by pretty smoothly. Jesse and she had both been hired for the internship at the college's radio station. They spent most of their time stacking CDs and vinyls, in between goofing off and dodging Luke, the disk jockey. It wasn't exactly what Beca had in mind when she had applied. She had wanted to be in the booth that Luke occupied, playing her mixes and creating playlists. It wasn't so bad though with Jesse at her side. Not that she would ever admit that. It almost felt like they were back in high school again, flinging Cheetos at each other during study hall. Only at the radio station they played hide and seek amongst the stacks or Jesse would try to egg Beca into singing a ballad off of the CD he was putting away with him. Usually without much success, but he could always get her in on a game of name that tune.
When she wasn't at the station, Beca was spread out on a patch of grass in the quad or in her room mixing. Sometimes Jesse would stop by with refreshments and snacks. On occasion, he'd try and get her to watch a movie with him. She would feign interest for all of ten minutes before trying to not so subtly go back to mixing. Sometimes Jesse would bring Benji with and the two would discuss various films while Beca scoffed at them in the background. She often found herself trying to hold back a smile, settling for a smirk instead. Life seemed almost equal to something perfect, everything related to Chloe Beale almost completely forgotten, the pull of the tether settled once again. Beca was too absorbed in her own world to bother taking in the various shades of blue eyes around her. For once her itch was gone and she felt content.
Of course her momentary bliss did not last. Although she had perfect attendance at the radio station and several mixes completed, the same could not be said for her classes and accompanying assignments. Apparently her Dad had been keeping track of her progress because instead of slowly coming back to the living world around 1 pm, she was abruptly jolted awake by her father's voice around 9 am one morning. He kept going on and on about some philosophy course, which really who cared. It was not like philosophy was going to help her with DJ-ing and it's not like she had any interest in the subject matter. Her dad had taken the liberty of signing her up for all the classes she was taking without her input. Which, given, Beca would admit if he hadn't she probably wouldn't be enrolled in any classes. But still did he really expect her to attend classes she wasn't the least bit interested in. Apparently so.
Beca let him finish his little rant before firing back with her greatest weapon, sarcasm. He came prepared though, adding new requirements onto their little deal. Now instead of attending Barden she had to attend classes (because apparently that wasn't clear), pass the classes with a "C" or greater, and join a group if she wanted to go to LA with funds at the end of the year.
"What? That's not fair!" was the best that she could come up with.
"No, what's not fair is you attending this university for free while other students take out student loans and work multiple jobs! You don't even have the decency to show up to class. I didn't raise you to be so disrespectful."
"Well that's great because you didn't raise me. You left. So good job you."
Before he could reply, Beca grabbed the nearest stack of clean clothes along with her shower caddy and stalked out of the room. She headed straight for the showers, not bothering to look back. She felt empty and useless, but the space was quickly filled up with anger. More than ever, Beca wanted to go curl up in her grandpa's old leather jacket and put on one of his LPs, but that meant going back to her room. Her room that probably still contained her dad. So instead she settled for a shower, taking advantage of the items she brought with her. As she went she tried to refocus on the mix she had been working on recently. Titanium quickly came to mind, the notes floating through her mind soothing her.
Once at the showers, Beca stripped in one of the changing stalls before wrapping herself in a towel and grabbing her shower caddy. She locked her clothes in a locker before heading to the area that held all the shower stalls. She selected one, happy to see no one else appeared to be in the room. Letting her towel fall, she turned the shower on. As beads of water ran over her skin, warm streams massaging away all the tension in her muscles, she let herself sink further into the song on her mind. Beca hadn't even realized she had been humming the opening to Titanium until the lyrics started slipping from her lips. She felt full again as her diaphragm expanded and contracted to accommodate each note she sang.
Beca was just starting to get comfortable, losing herself in the music, when a gust of cool air hit her warmed skin. Her eyes shot open meeting that perfect shade of blue, framed by a few locks of red curls falling from a bun. A tug was instantly felt at Beca's heart at the other woman's sudden appearance. She tried to cover herself as Chloe quickly barreled on about singing, Prince, and Lady Jams. The whole time Beca easily combated the other woman's words with the appropriate comments, only letting her eyes dip once to the other woman's very nude form. She was proud of herself as butterflies started to savagely attack her stomach because Beca was in a very intimate situation with her childhood crush. 12 year old Beca's best friend. A situation she never thought would happen. Ever. And she was handling it pretty well, not turning into a pubescent teenage boy.
Then somehow they were singing together, harmonizing. The calm Beca had felt before was settling around her again as she took in the beaming woman before her. Those bright blue eyes full of such warmth. Everything felt so right, even though Beca felt like she could drown in those eyes. She felt herself slowly slipping as the butterflies in her stomach turned into a warmth that flushed her skin before settling in her gut. All too soon it was over and they were smiling at each other, a light genuine smile on Beca's lips. It felt like something so familiar Beca couldn't quite put her finger on it at the moment, it had been so long. She found herself wishing there were more notes left over to put together and sing, but there weren't. Reality quickly sunk in and the fact they were both naked resurfaced. Chloe was handing Beca a towel, as Beca's eyes slipped down over Chloe's well-toned body for the second and final time. Beca really hoped Chloe wouldn't notice, but she did.
"Oh, Yeah, I'm pretty confident about this." Chloe nodded.
"You should be." Chloe beamed.
Beca added, "You've always been…" She trailed off and her eyes widened, realizing what she was saying. Chloe's brows furrowed in the same way that they had when she asked Beca if they knew each other at the fair.
Chloe looked like she was going to say something when a very nude boy showed up behind her. His appearance shutting down any further conversations. Luckily Chloe was decent enough to quickly shoo the boy away and followed him, leaving Beca alone to finish her shower. Suddenly the warmth and tranquility brought about by the shower and melding of voices vanished. Beca really didn't know what she was thinking was going to happen between her and Chloe as her heart seized at the thought of that boy. She had not even wanted to see Chloe again, let alone pick up where she left off when she was 12. At least that's what Beca had been telling herself.
Of course Chloe had a boyfriend. She always had a boyfriend. Well to be fair in the time they had known each other there had only been Jason, but there were plenty of boys that were interested in Chloe. Chloe just hadn't seemed to be interested in any of them, well… until she was. At least with this one, unlike Jason, Beca could dislike him. After all with the way he was looking at Beca and Chloe it was clear he thought some sort of scene from a porno was going to take place. Wait, was Chloe into that? The thought didn't exactly sit well with Beca. She was all for experimentation and exploration. Hell she had done enough of her own over the past few years, but she never thought of Chloe being that way. She thought of sweet beautiful Chloe and always thought she deserved the world. Not just a few steamy or kinky hook-ups, but if she was into that then that was… well it was something. After all a lot can change in six years.
Beca put anymore thoughts about Chloe, showers, and a certain brunette boy too the back of her mind. She finished her shower and dressed before going back to her dorm room. She spent the next few hours searching Barden's club page for potential candidates that would appease her dad's new requirements for her stay at Barden. There really weren't any that interested her. She wasn't into chess, robotics, or any of the sciences. She thought about joining a gaming club, thinking that it would involve Xboxes and PlayStations. When Beca walked into the first meeting only to see it was a group of extremely nerdy guys, most of them looking like they hadn't reached puberty yet, surrounding a map for dungeons and dragons, she immediately turned around and left.
She spent the next week or two attending classes and getting caught up on assignments. Occasionally Beca found her eyes flitting over the flyer for tryouts for the Barden Bellas, the flyer having a home at the corner of her desk. She didn't know why she had kept the stupid thing. It was not like she was planning on going, but as days pass and Beca's searches for a club to join continued to come up empty, the flyer looked more promising. Then it was suddenly the day of Bella tryouts and Beca was still club-less. Still she hemmed and hawed for several hours about going until she looked at the clock, saw she had less than a half an hour to get to the auditorium on the other side of campus, and realized any music club was better than something without music. Not quite believing her own conclusion herself, Beca sprinted out the door towards where the tryouts were taking place, hoping she wouldn't be too late.
Beca arrived just as tryouts were finishing. She stayed back, half covered by one of the stage's curtains. Now in the auditorium, she didn't know what she was thinking. Beca was half hoping no one would notice her as the call for anyone left to go went out. She figured she could tell her dad she had tried, but had failed to make the Bella's team. Surely that would suffice. Beca knew it wouldn't, but she could hope, right?
Relief was slowly settling over Beca, until it was stripped away as a smooth silky all too familiar voice was calling her forward. She was seriously thinking about protesting and leaving, but then those crystal blue eyes met hers and all protests on the tip of Beca's tongue evaporated. She was suddenly sitting before Chloe, who was looking at Beca like she was the greatest thing to ever exist, while she sang an old song and kept the beat with a clapping motion involving a cup. Aubrey, the blonde from the fair, looked just as unimpressed as she had at the fair. Beca didn't really notice, her full attention on the beaming redheaded woman that she was still getting use to existing outside of her dreams. Beca didn't miss the few slips of those bright blue eyes to the cleavage on display as Beca hunched forward as she sang. Then it was over and whatever trance she had fallen into she snapped out of, handing back the cup and scurrying back to the safety of the curtains.
"BeCaw! I never thought I'd see the day. Why didn't you tell me you were trying out?" Jesse pulled Beca into a bear hug, that she quickly swatted her way out of. "We could have practiced together. This is so exciting. We could be aca-boys and girls together."
"First never say that again and secondly this wasn't exactly planned."
She was going to elaborate further about her dad's plans to suck any fun out of her time at Barden and push Jesse towards the exit, when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Beca jumped slightly at the touch, not expecting anyone to approach her, before turning around. Of course the hand had to belong to the one and only Chloe Beale. The same woman smirking at her, as she swayed back and forth, buzzing with excitement.
"Hey, I just need you to fill this form out. For when we- I mean, if we call you back."
Beca rolled her eyes and smirked slightly, "Eager much. First the shower now this."
Wait, did she just flirt with Chloe? That definitely sounded like flirting. She was ready to berate herself, but Chloe's smile somehow became even bigger as she handed Beca the form and a pen.
"We just need to know where to find you."
"Because that's not weird…" Beca muttered to herself as she began to fill out the form.
"If it makes you feel any better everyone was included. For the form, not the shower. That was just you."
Beca chanced a glance at Chloe, thinking maybe she had finally caught her old best friend off guard, only to be met with a wink and that ever present smile. Beca gulped wondering if that was flirting. It seemed like flirting. She filled out the last thing on the form and gave it back to Chloe. Beca turned back towards Jesse, who was currently talking to Benji, leaving Chloe to glance over the form. She only took two steps before she heard Chloe gasp.
"OH MY GOD! Beca! Beca Mitchell!"
Beca turned to Chloe and saw the recognition in her face. Shit! She was hoping this wouldn't happen.
"That's my name." She almost grimaced.
Chloe glanced back at the form again. "From Seattle?"
"The one and only." Beca sighed audibly.
Chloe just became more animated almost squealing as her body shook with excitement.
"Did you use to live in Miami, Florida?"
"Yep!" Beca ran her hand through her hair, her nerves building, several eyes were on them.
All the sudden Beca was being crushed in a big hug and rocked from side to side as Chloe squealed in her ear. Beca just stood their stiffly, her arms trapped between their bodies, slightly in shock. Then Chloe pulled back from Beca, holding the smaller woman by her forearms at arm's length. The biggest smile was plastered on Chloe's face.
"I totes knew I recognized you from somewhere! Oh my god Beca what has it been? Five, six years?" She practically twirled Beca around. "Oh my god! Look at you! All like grown up and stuff."
Chloe was looking expectantly at Beca for some sort of reply, but before she could come up with anything, Aubrey was calling Chloe over.
"Okay well," Chloe took Beca's hand in hers and started writing a series of numbers on Beca's hand. Beca was trying to ignore the stupid butterflies that were buzzing in her stomach at the contact. "Here's my number. Don't lose it or whatever happened last time. Besides I have your's and know where you live." Chloe shook the form Beca had just filled out in her hand. Aubrey cleared her throat, causing Chloe to glance in the blonde's direction. "Well I'll see you later. This is so aca-awesome!" Chloe squealed once more as she pulled Beca into a quick hug before bouncing off towards Aubrey. Beca just stood there frozen for a moment, not quite believing that just happened.
Jesse came up to literally knock her out of her shock, nudging her arm.
"Hey, Beca! Benji and I were going to go get something to eat. Want to join us?"
"Um… Yeah. Sure, whatever."
Beca hoped that Jesse did not notice whatever had just happened with Chloe. He honestly didn't seem to. He didn't say anything about it, but they were heading to the diner on campus and Benji was with them. Then they were at the diner. Jesse and Benji spent a large amount of time geeking out over acapella. Jesse occasionally nudging Beca with his elbow to get her involved in the conversation. To which she just rolled her eyes and scoffed before smiling. Then there was Benji's magic tricks and some awkward flirting, on Benji's part, with a cute exuberant brunette on the other side of the diner. Everything was good. Beca could forget about Chloe. Well that was a lie because no one forgot Chloe Beale. Especially not Beca. She had had six years to try after all and failed before she even knew it. She could at least shove the thoughts to the back of her mind. Forget about the tug at her heart and the comfort she found in her childhood friend's arms. A feeling she hadn't registered yet and certainly wasn't ready to surrender to. So, yeah those thoughts being pushed away to the back of her mind were exactly where they should be.
Eventually they had to leave the diner though. Benji went off on his own, Jesse insisting he walk Beca back to her dorm because apparently chivalry wasn't dead. Then it was just the two of them. There was complete silence for the first part of the walk. It was nice. Moments of silence didn't come often and Beca liked to bask in them if she wasn't filling them with music. Silence had it's own rhythm and beat that was easy to fall into. Which is what she was letting herself do because finding out the girl you were in love with at age 12 was not only real, but just a few buildings away was a lot to take in on top disappointed absentee fathers and being stuck in a place far away from your wanted location.
Jesse didn't handle silence as well as Beca. After all he was in love with an art form that filled the silences between scenes and characters and hung around in the background, even when not necessary, to create the mood of a scene. The boy lived to calculate and find the perfect moments to fill silence. He was always thinking about it. So it made sense he wouldn't be able to go more than five minutes without talking. He started out innocently enough, but he still chose a topic Beca had no interest in, a direct link to all the thoughts she was trying to keep safely barricaded in the back of her mind.
"So, you excited about initiation night? I hear they come in and kidnap you in the middle of the night and put a bag over your head. Pretty cool!"
He made it sound like being kidnapped was something to strive for in life. Like the whole thing would turn into another sequel of 'Taken' and his life would turn into some action packed adventure. She just scoffed at the idea.
"Yay! I'll have a reason to use my rape whistle." Was all she said with mock enthusiasm.
She let her thoughts drift. Beca figured what Jesse was talking about was a false rumor because only crazy people and terrorists kidnapped people. Then again sane people did not interrupt people's showers just to hear them sing. Chloe had never really been rational though. The girl always preferred to act on impulse and walking into someone else's shower was pretty impulsive.
Jesse, realizing that was all he was going to get out of his friend on the subject, asked the question he was more interested in.
"So what was that all about earlier?"
Beca had no idea what Jesse was talking about and made as much clear when she shot him a 'what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about' look. It was most definitely the real question he wanted to ask because when she looked at him he had one of those shit eating grins on his face. One of those grins he got when he thought he was on to something Beca wouldn't want to admit, but was obvious. His hands were also tucked into his pants pockets, as if by doing so all of his excitement would be contained. It really just made her want to hit him.
"At acapella tryouts." She still looked confused, not finding anything out of the norm with anyone's tryouts. She hadn't seen any of them after all. Jesse raised his eyebrows, his excitement growing.
"With the redhead from the Barden Bellas?"
"Oh, Chloe?" She stated it so nonchalantly, Jesse knew there had to be more.
"Yeah, Chloe." When Beca didn't say anything and seemed to be really interested in the sidewalk ahead of her, Jesse put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side, jarring her body a few times. She quickly shoved him away with a scowl.
"Oh my god! I knew it! The way you were looking at each other at the activities fair. Then at tryouts. Did you get her number? No, no don't tell me you hit it and quite it? And she wants more! Man, you're so lucky! She's such a-"
Beca cut him off there with a glare and stopped walking. "Ew! Dude, it's not like that. We were- we were childhood best friends okay. And we didn't exactly-" She rubbed the back of her neck roughly. "We didn't end on the best of terms." Beca looked Jesse square in the face. "I haven't talked to her in six years. Okay?"
He nodded. When it seemed to fully sink in, they started walking again towards her dorm. It wasn't quiet for long before Jesse was talking again.
"You know Becs even though it's been a while-" She cut him off again stopping where she stood and facing him again.
"I know what you're going to say, okay. That it could be like one of those rom coms. Where after six years a part everything is hunky dory." She made her arm into an 'L' shape, her hand into a fist, and swayed it as if in an old 50s sitcom. "We'll become best friends again like no time passed. We'll braid each other's hair, have sleepovers, skip across the quad arm in arm, and shit like that, but my life is not a rom com. That's not how life works. So just leave it."
Beca started walking again, stomping as she went, her hands tucked into her jean pockets. It took Jesse a moment to catch up with her.
"Yeah, but Beca with how excited Chloe was to see you, I'm sure she'd be happy to reconnect with you. She seems nice." He stated tentatively.
"Jesse…" She sighed, almost sounding defeated as she ran one hand through her hair. "You do realize there are two people in every relationship, right? Did you ever think maybe Chloe's not the one who doesn't want to rekindle the relationship?" There was a pause to let it sink in. Jesse let out a soft, 'oh' before Beca continued. "Yeah, I didn't even want to join a club. My dad just tacked it on as part of my deal to go to L.A. a few days ago."
"That… Well that sucks."
"Yeah, so can we maybe talk about something else…"
"Yeah, sure! Just… You know if you ever want to talk about it you can talk to me?"
"I know and I appreciate that." Beca hesitated before tacking on, "I really do appreciate it."
They shared a genuine smile and there was a connection in that moment. Nothing romantic, but a connection between two people that care deeply about one another. Thankfully before it became too much, Jesse broke it.
"Wow! I never thought I'd see the day Beca Mitchell got soft."
She just punched him in the arm, trying to hide her smile, and he shoved her back lightly. It ended in laughs that followed them to Beca's dorm. Then it was just her walking back to her room and Jesse to his dorm.
The sun had set and Beca was thinking about either spending the night mixing or sleeping. She wasn't sure which. All she knew was she was in a pretty good mood and felt like nothing could get her down. Not even the tug at her heart and slight twinge of guilt when she caught sight of the number on her hand in loopy script. A little heart was written at the end. As she really looked at it, her hand on the door knob of the door to her room, all she could think is it was so Chloe Beale. She found herself smiling. As soon as she realized it, she wiped the look from her face and decided then she would wash it off before she did something stupid. Like use it.
With a clear plan in mind, she opened her dorm room and went to step in. There was a presence at her back that made her pause. Before she knew it, a black cloth bag was being thrown over her head and two hands pulling her out of her room. All she could think was 'Wow! So this is happening…' She was suddenly glad Jesse had told her about the initiation night because otherwise she would be freaking out a lot more. As is she was freaking out. Her breathing was heavy. She was just starting to thrash against the person, having come out of shock, when a very smooth jovial voice told her to relax that she would be okay. The person pressing the front of their body into Beca's side as their voice flowed into Beca's fabric covered ear. Then there was a familiar pattern of comforting fingers running up and down her back.
For whatever reason she believed that voice. She knew it. She knew who it belonged to. After all, she had dreamt about it almost every night for over the last six years. Beca found herself leaning into the touch of the other woman, feeling like she found where she belonged, her arm wrapped around the other woman's or the woman's arm wrapped around her waist. Beca felt stupid, but pushed away her annoyance at her compliance, half believing she was dreaming. It was the only way she could rationalize how her body was reacting because she hated people touching her unless it was a playful shove or involved nudity and a bed. Here Beca was letting this woman touch her and push however and where ever was needed, completely vulnerable, and she felt safe. The tug at her heart even blossoming to something warm and giddy.
Then suddenly she was being stopped and placed next to someone else, Beca could feel them. Whoever was standing next to her felt nowhere as comforting as the woman who had led her there, but Beca could still feel that person nearby. Her presence was somehow enough to keep Beca standing in place. A few more people were brought in and then the fabric over her head was being pulled away. And Beca felt dazed. She would say it was due to the change in light from pitch dark to sudden brightness, but that was a small part of it. The main part was due to the soft touches and tugs that had led her to wherever she was and that perfect shade of blue that came into focus in front of her. Those blue eyes that had the perfect shade of comforting softness that she hadn't seen in such a long time, confirming who those soft touches and tugs belonged to. Beca felt 12 again and she didn't know what to do.
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A/N: Don't forget to vote for Bechloe in the flemslash tournament. This will be the last time I mention it unless they are not doing well in the polls. I planned on posting this chapter sooner because the last chapter was shorter, but this week was crazy busy and my weekend is only going to get worse. So I hope you enjoyed it! If you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts feel free to message me or post a review. I will eventually reply if you have an account.
Oh! And if you enjoyed the music suggestions at the beginning of the fic, let me know. I have songs picked out for later chapters that will take a bit to get to. I would even be willing to take suggestions. I am kind of particular though.
