A/N: So, after the feedback I got from the first chapter, I've decided to carry on with this. Enjoy! :)
We walk back to the house hand in hand, content smiles on our faces. After my speech, and then all the kissing, we remembered the situation that we had left, and knew that the Bellas would want an explanation. For now, an unspoken decision was made to leave having the inevitable conversation about our feelings until later, and for now concentrate on the fact that we had completely left our best friends - our weird little family of misfits – without so much as a goodbye, never mind any indication of where we were actually going.
We come to a stop outside the house and take a deep breath, not entirely sure how the next few minutes are going to pan out. Beca squeezes my hand as I turn to her,
"Ready to face the music?" I ask, trying to read the look on her face, which seems to be a mixture of fear and amusement. This girl never fails to amaze me.
"Is this the part of the movie where I say something like 'as long as I'm with you, I can face anything'?" she replies cockily.
"You're such a dork," I say, pulling her towards the door.
It seems as though we must have worried the Bellas a little too much with our sudden exits this morning, since when we attempt to get into the house, we find the door locked and with no sign of life through the windows, meaning that they're probably out looking for us. Thankfully, we had made the smart decision when we moved in to leave a spare key hidden outside – mainly due to the fact that the girls are all exceptionally forgetful. I now realise that it would probably have been a good idea to at least pick my phone up before rushing out of the house. God, the Bellas are gonna be so pissed with us, I think as I watch Beca struggle to reach the hanging basket where the key is hidden.
"Need a hand there Becs?" I ask innocently, trying to suppress my laughter.
"No, I need a foot," she huffs, seeing my confused face, she elaborates, "you know, like a foot added to my height."
At this, I can't help but laugh hysterically, as her face remains indignant. She tries again, and fails, the basket swinging wildly as she jumps around flailing her arms in an attempt to reach. I decide to step in before any damage occurs to either the hanging basket, or the idiot underneath it.
"Becs, let me just get it so that we can get inside and you can stop looking like a complete lunatic."
"No! I refuse to let it win!" she shouts, being stubborn. Knowing that I won't get very far with her acting like this – and worried that we may well be out here all day otherwise - I change my tactics.
"Fine, at least let me assist you in beating this inanimate object," I reason patronisingly, "jump on my back and then you'll be able to reach it properly."
She growls, but agrees, as I turn around, in theory allowing her to hop up onto my back. Of course, I should know by now that nothing involving Beca Mitchell is ever simple, and as soon as I catch her legs, she somehow falls backwards, letting go of my neck, but keeping her legs firmly in place around my waist so that she takes me falling back with her.
Luckily, her arms break her fall, as I miraculously manage to twist around mid-fall, despite the vice-like grip of Beca's legs, so that I'm able to brace myself don't squash her as much when I land. I can't help but think about the fact that this is the second time in the space of hours that we've been in this position, although this time, we're pressed flat against each other on account of the fact that the DJ's legs are still wrapped around me.
We stay like this for a moment whilst we catch our breath - not realising quite how inappropriate it must look to anyone walking past - and I lean down to peck her on the nose before beginning to slowly get up and allowing her to move. Clearly I didn't move fast enough, though, as I hear the screech of an unfortunately familiar voice from behind me.
"What in the name of the aca-gods is happening here?"
Brilliant, I think, as I see Beca roll her eyes, now we really are in deep shit. I take a deep breath as I stand up fully and turn to face my best friend.
"Bree! I've not seen you in forever! How're you doing?" I ask with what I hope is a cheerful smile, as I notice the rest of the Bellas grouped together behind her, and feel Beca's hand slip into my own, giving it a small squeeze.
"Chloe Beale, do not try and distract me from the matter at hand! Why the hell are you and the hobbit all over each other on the front porch, when there's a perfectly good - and empty, might I add – house right there?" before I can even begin to answer, she continues, "and don't even get me started on the reason for the house being empty, you two had better have a great explanation for this lot," she gestures behind her, "fetching me in a panic because they couldn't find you or contact you…either of you!" she finishes with a flustered flail of her hands.
There's a beat of silence before Beca pipes up,
"Okay…I don't know about anyone else, but I really don't feel like having a puke shower at any point today, so if one of you could kindly let us into the house, we can explain everything calmly and avoid Pukegate 2.0." This earns a scowl from Aubrey, but clearly has the desired effect, since Fat Amy pulls out the key and allows us all to file uncharacteristically quietly into the house.
After a lot of fuss about people wanting snacks and drinks before we speak, and a multitude of glares from Aubrey, we all manage to finally convene in the living room, Beca and I stood in front of everyone, ready to make our apology.
"So…where do you want us to start?" I ask, knowing that Beca would be of no use whatsoever in this situation, as she stands quietly next to me, tapping out a beat on her thigh with the hand that isn't clinging onto mine for dear life.
"Well, an explanation of what the hell happened this morning might be nice! One minute you get my hopes up by making out on the bedroom floor, only to crush them minutes later by running out of the door! You can't do things like that to me!" Stacie shouts, and after seeing Aubrey give her a sympathetic look and a pat on the back, I look around the room, wondering why on earth nobody else seems weirded out by the fact that she is so invested in the relationship status of 'Bechloe' as she so fondly calls us.
"Well," I begin, casting a glance over to Beca, "what you saw this morning actually took us by surprise, so when you came in we still weren't quite sure what had happened, how it had happened or what would happen next, so your reaction kind of didn't help with the confusion Stace," I say, with an attempt at light-heartedness.
"I'm sorry guys, I was just so excited, I've been waiting for this ever since I saw you both together at hood night," she replies, the sincerity in her voice once again scaring me slightly, but I go along with it – it's not the weirdest behaviour I've witnessed over the years with the girls.
"Believe me, I know exactly how you felt, I was feeling the same, but I just wasn't as vocal as you," I say, chuckling.
"Don't worry, Chlo, I'm sure that Beca will make sure that you're very vocal later," Fat Amy stage whispers towards me, earning herself a glare from Aubrey and a high five from Stacie, as I feel myself start to blush and see that Beca's cheeks are almost as red as my hair.
"Yeah, I can only imagine how talented those DJ hands are," Cynthia Rose adds with a wink.
At this point, I think that Aubrey is about to puke, the rest of the Bellas are laughing uncontrollably, and Beca is ready to run again. It's Amy that notices this first, and manages to compose herself for long enough to say,
"Guys, that still doesn't explain why you both went AWOL this morning, leaving us with no choice but to go fetch the dictator."
When Aubrey scoffs and turns to give her another glare, she looks at the floor and adds in a whisper,
"Sorry, Sir."
"It's kind of all my fault guys," Beca speaks up, surprising us all, "you know how weird I get, and then all the stuff that happened this morning just took me by surprise, and then I couldn't process it all, and I really didn't mean to worry anyone, I just really needed time to figure it all out, but then Chloe was there, and then we got caught up in everything, and we completely forgot that we left you all behind, and then we got here and you weren't here, and then you were, and know we're all here and-" I stop her rambling, pressing my finger to her lips, noticing the same look of confusion painted on the faces of every Bella.
"Becs, breathe," I say quietly, looking into her eyes.
"Okay, so Beca being an awkward idiot is the reason for all this," Aubrey summarises, "but I'm still going to need an explanation of what the hell was happening on the front porch when we arrived."
At this point, Beca seems to have regained some sense of composure, since she replies with a smirk,
"Well Aubrey, you see, when two people love each other very much, they-" is all she manages to get out before I lightly slap her arm, giggling at the look of sheer mortification on Aubrey's face.
"Bree, chill, it's definitely not what it looked like," I pause to laugh, "we were locked out and tried to get the key, but then we fell. You just happened to turn up while we were still catching our breath," I explain, "although, I'd like to add that it was also Beca's fault that we ended up falling, so you can blame her," I say, making the Bellas laugh once again.
"I'm glad that my life is such an amusement to you all," she deadpans, making everyone laugh harder.
When everyone has calmed down, it is Stacie that speaks,
"So just to clarify, and be careful how you answer this, because my heart is still fragile, is Bechloe canon, or not?"
I look at Beca and we both share a questioning look, not having discussed properly what's actually going on between us, so I decide on the safest option at the minute.
"Bechloe is the only ship that we can see on the horizon with a canon at the moment, but since you're such a big shipper, and we, therefore are the authors of the fanfiction of this ship, we'll let you know in the next chapter!" I say with a wink, as I grab Beca's hand and we run upstairs giggling, leaving Stacie with a dumbfounded expression on her face.
Well, I think, if she insists on being so emotionally invested in us, we might as well have some fun with it.
A/N: There'll probably be some kind of deep conversation about feelings in the next chapter, along with more Bechloe shipper Stacie! Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think either on here or Tumblr: narwhalsarecooltoo. Hope you're all having a good day! :)