A/N: The only warning I have for you is Beca's asshole father. Happy reading.
Beca flops out of bed at the screeching of her name. The groggy brunette stares up at her furious dad through blurry eyes, and then back up to the pouting and tired redhead sitting up in her bed. The freshman tries to rack her brain and think of why her father is so angry. That's when her brain clicks, she must've overslept and didn't go to their 10:00 am meeting.
"So this is why you missed our meeting this morning? Because you were in bed with a girl?" He spits out the word girl like it is venom.
Ah, so it's the homophobic aspect of her father that is mad. Beca finds herself starting to freak out from what she has been preached and screamed to as a child in a conservative state. She finds herself scared and defensive, "Dad, it isn't that at all."
"You were cuddling with a girl! What have I told you, Beca? Never do that! It is wrong and terrible, do you want to go to hell?" (A/N: FYI I DON'T AGREE WITH THIS ASSHOLE)
"Jesus, friends do that cuddling thing now. It is nothing more than that!" Beca yells, because she feels so attacked.
He nods, satisfied. "Okay, you better mean that. Meet with me at the Barden Café in an hour." His eyes trace to Chloe, "Make sure your friend doesn't come."
The door slams, and Beca slumps on the floor. She feels misty, because of the verbal attack. She isn't even gay, she's been trained not to be. It just hurts to have such an unaccepting family. And the weak spot to her is her dad, he has always been a verbally abusive man, and him leaving her so young makes her a mess. She suddenly feels arms wrapped around her.
"I'm so sorry," Chloe whispers into the freshman's hair.
"We were just sleeping," Beca mumbles to herself.
"I know, I know, Becs. Don't let his words get to you, he's wrong." Chloe voices.
"I've been trained to believe otherwise," Beca sighs. "It's not like it even matters, we barely just became friends and his homophobic mind jumps the gun."
Chloe gives Beca an unreadable smile, "Yeah, it was nothing at all, so don't let his words bother you."
Beca ponders the words and feels weird, she sighs and manages to stand up. She looks awkwardly at Chloe, "I'm sorry for that conundrum. But I need to go get ready to go to lunch with him. I'll see you at practice later?"
Chloe smiles, and wraps Beca in a hug. A hug that Beca totally doesn't just sink right into. The ginger gives a large smile and exits the dorm. Beca finds herself sitting back on her bed, looking at her phone. She opens up a new iMessage and smiles when she sees Chloe put her name in Beca's phone with a bunch of crazy emojis.
Beca: Text me when you get home so I know you don't get kidnapped. – Beca
Beca sees the message turn to "read" and Chloe starts typing back immediately.
Chloe: Of course, but what is this some action film? Kidnapping here at Barden only happens at night, lol. ;p
Beca reads the message with a large smile, and sets her phone down and grabs all her shower stuff. The brunette slouches around the communal bathroom, while trying to get as ready as quickly as possible. Upon perfecting her smoky eye, the brunette drags her combat boot clad feet across campus in a plaid top and dark jeans.
Chloe: Safe and sound!
Beca reads the text from twenty minutes ago and smiles to herself and puts her phone away. She has never quite been one to manage to text back. Beca enters the small café and plops down across from her dad in a booth. A plate with a large sandwich and a tall coffee cup sits next to it.
"I ordered you lunch," he announces.
Beca looks at the sandwich in distaste, "Thanks."
"So about this morning," Beca's dad begins.
Beca sips on her drink and coughs it back up, when the bitter taste of tea rots in her mouth. Her own father truly knows nothing about her.
"What's wrong?" He quizzes.
The freshman wipes at her mouth with a napkin, "Tea."
"I thought you liked tea?"
"Nope, that's probably one of your step monster children," Beca sasses.
Dr. Mitchell's face turns a deep shade of red, and the college student tries to prepare herself for the verbal abuse. She prepares herself to flinch. But then her father calms and exhales, probably because he can't verbally demean his own child in public.
"Rebeca," he states.
"Oh here we go," Beca rolls her eyes.
"Don't call your step siblings monsters. Now, I'm sorry I forgot, okay? But can we get back on topic?" When Beca doesn't respond, the older Mitchell continues, "So about this morning, I don't want you sharing beds with your friends anymore."
Beca scoffs, "Are you serious? I'm an adult."
"And I'm also an adult. An adult who will be paying your way to LA," he reminds.
Beca scoffs again at the ridiculousness that is her father. She rolls her eyes, "Don't get your panties in a bunch, it only happened because it was late and I was responsible and didn't want a girl walking campus alone at night."
"Well thank you for being responsible," he says. "Now you need to be more responsible with your classes."
Beca sinks in her seat. "Ew, school."
"Rebeca, if you want to go to LA in a year. You need to get above a 3.0," he adds yet another standard to the agreement.
"That's all A's and B's!" Beca exclaims.
"Your mother said you did it in high school just fine," he reminds. Beca just remains staring at him, angered by this whole situation. "Now, I talked to your English professor and she said her TA would help catch you up. Her name is Chloe," her dad trails off trying to remember the last name.
"Beale," Beca announces. "Yeah, she's on the Bella's with me. Nice girl."
Beca decides to leave out the fact that she was the girl caught with Beca in her bed this morning. It may change her dad's ideas just a bit. Beca feels the dread of what a long year is to come with this whole school thing.
"Okay, good," the professor voices. He pulls out his phone and sees a text, "It's Sheila, family emergency. I will talk to you later."
He throws a fifty dollar bill on the tabletop, leaving Beca alone with her untouched sandwich. Beca stares at the table with a frown. The idea of surviving a year of good grades in schooling she doesn't want seems just nasty. She pulls out her phone and types out a text to Chloe.
Beca: I guess you're my tutor now.
Beca gets a reply in thirty seconds.
Chloe: I know! I just saw the email from my prof! This is awesome!
Beca: Hell is awesome?
Chloe: WE WILL HAVE FUN!
Beca: At least the company will be nice. :)
Beca stares, surprised at her text. Beca Mitchell never uses emojis, and here she is. She scoffs at herself and brings her cup to her lips. She ends up spewing tea all over her lap, and she curses herself for her stupidity of forgetting her father ordered her tea.
"Beca?"
Beca looks up as she helplessly tries to press at the steaming hot liquid on her pants. She looks into the eyes of her teammate, Stacie who is wearing a waitress uniform and a nametag.
"You work here?" Beca asks.
The tall brunette nods, "Apparently, I'm your waitress too. I'll go get you napkins."
Beca smiles thankfully at the brunette. She looks back down at her phone when it vibrates.
Chloe: I'll make it worth your while. ;p
Beca stares wide eyed at her phone and gulps. The awkward brunette jumps when Stacie reappears at her side with a stack of napkins. She notices the brunette blatantly read the text on her screen, and Beca is quick to shut the screen off.
"Why does Chloe have hearts by her name in your phone?" Stacie inquires, while handing Beca napkins.
"She put that in there," Beca blushes and starts drying her pants off.
"Whatever you say," Stacie winks.
Beca looks back questioningly. She doesn't want to know what Stacie is thinking. Let alone herself. "Okay," she drawls out the word. "Can I just have a box for this nasty sandwich and a piece of pizza and a coffee to go?"
Stacie salutes and walks away. Beca turns her phone back on and stares at Chloe's response. She blushes re-reading it. Why does she feel so weird? Beca concludes to herself that she is just getting excited about actually having a friend.
Beca: We study at dawn.
Chloe: Haha, you can just come over after Bella's rehearsals tonight.
Beca: But ew, Aubrey.
Chloe: You two are actually really similar! You will love each other.
Beca: On that note, ew bye.
Chloe: See ya later!
Beca sticks her phone in her pocket, and smiles when Stacie returns with what she ordered. Beca grabs the fifty and hands it to Stacie, "Keep the change for the tip."
Stacie looks at her with wide eyes, "That's like a thirty dollar tip."
Beca shrugs, "And you had to deal with the asshole called my father. You earned it."
Stacie smiles, "Thanks, Becs. See you at practice later!"
The small brunette finds herself outside the tiny café in the brisk wind, carrying boxes and a cup which are too much for her stupid baby hands. Beca is a mess of trying to walk to the radio station with two boxes and a coffee cup. She stares down at her feet so she doesn't trip over them or a crack in the sidewalk or something stupid. She feels her phone vibrate in her pocket and she tries to reach for it with her coffee clad hand, and that's when the shit hits the fan. Beca stumbles over her feet, and crashes into a hard body. Subsequently spilling coffee all over the front of her outfit.
"Seriously?!" Beca exclaims at herself. Beca looks up, ready to explode on the culprit, when her eyes meet shockingly blue ones and a gasp escapes her mouth. "Chloe?"
Chloe takes the end of her sleeves and starts wiping the front of Beca's outfit, "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, Becs! I was just going to class, and I saw you and I was going to ask how lunch went with your dad and then we fell into each other! I'm so sorry!"
Beca doesn't fully register the ginger's rambling, but she does realize the sheer awkwardness of Chloe feeling up the front of her body with her wrists. Beca manages to grab both of the redhead's wrists, "It's okay, Chlo. Go to class; I'll be fine."
Chloe looks into Beca's eyes, "Where are you going?"
"Radio station," Beca announces.
Chloe sighs and unzips her Nike sweatshirt, "At least take this to cover it up."
Beca sighs and takes the offer, "Thank you. Here, take this sandwich that my mindless father bought me."
"What a loving gesture!" Chloe jokingly exclaims. "Alright, now I'm running really late. Text me when you get to work so I know you don't get kidnapped." Chloe quotes Beca's words from earlier in the day, and winks at the brunette upon walking away.
Beca smiles to herself as she walks to the radio station, wrapped in the warmth of the sweatshirt. Beca quickly chastises herself on her thoughts and begins stacking CD's. She snacks on bites of pizza in between stacking genres. The station is silent. She and Luke are the only ones here, and he is in the booth with headphones on. Inwardly, the freshman wishes Jesse was there for mere entertainment. Beca exchanges lighthearted texts with Chloe throughout the shift. And she catches herself smiling at her phone a lot. Luke lets the freshman leave early, so Beca quickly returns to her dorm to change clothes before the Bella's rehearsal.
She is the last to arrive to rehearsals, and she gets a glare from Aubrey. And a smile from Chloe. "You're late," Aubrey scolds.
Beca plops down in a seat next to Fat Amy, "Sorry I was changing out of my clothes that had coffee all over them. You can thank your co-captain for that," Beca winks at Chloe.
"And you had tea on your pants," Stacie adds, in a matter-of-fact tone. All of the Bella's turn and give Stacie an incredulous look. "What? I was her waitress and she spit up tea all over her pants. Like a little baby, it was adorable." The Bella's all give Stacie another incredulous look, and Chloe frowns a little bit, which slips Beca's attention.
"Well the Cup Master is so awkward, she's like a little toddler learning how to function, I imagine her mistakes would be adorable to others, humorous to me," the Australian Fat Amy voices.
Beca rubs her hand over her face and sighs, "See. I've had my struggles today."
Aubrey glares into Beca's soul for a few moments, and then exhales. "Cardio, aca-bitches!"
"Is eating pizza cardio?" Fat Amy jokes.
"No, now laps," Aubrey announces.
"She said naps," Fat Amy injects. "I'll be behind the seats of the bleachers if you need me."
The second Bella's rehearsal is just as hellish as the first, to Beca's dismay. When Beca is walking out of the gym, she feels a hand on her elbow. She turns to see a smiling Chloe, "You didn't think you'd get out of studying so easily, did you? And don't worry about Aubrey, she is staying after and planning rehearsals for tomorrow."
Beca sighs, "Ugh fine. What do I need?"
"Your textbook and laptop. Silly," Chloe says, and loops her elbow through the freshman's, "Actually, you can just borrow my laptop and email yourself from it and borrow my textbook."
The two walk in silence for a few moments, until Chloe speaks up, "So how did the thing go with your dad today?"
"As bad as you could imagine," Beca says.
"What did he say?" The ginger asks in a very concerned tone.
"That I can't sleep in a bed with friends anymore," Beca chuckles, "he's such an idiot. Oh, and I have to get above a 3.0 GPA."
Chloe smiles, "With my friendship, you will accomplish the second one."
"What about the first one?"
"Hell no," Chloe states.
The duo laughs loudly as Chloe leads them though the entrance of her apartment complex. They scale a few flights of stairs, and Beca finds herself in a cozy two bedroom apartment. The living room has a plushy couch and an overwhelming amount of pictures of Aubrey and Chloe taking selfies.
"It's excessive, but I love taking pictures!" Chloe notes. "Let's study in my room."
Beca groans and slouches behind the ginger into her bedroom, which has a pink zebra duvet, to no surprise to the freshman. Heaps of clothes sit on the carpeted floor, and Chloe blushes at the mess. Chloe grabs onto her laptop and plops onto the bed, motioning for Beca to follow.
"Sorry, my dad said I can't," Beca jokes.
"Because you're such a rule follower," Chloe smirks.
Beca smirks, "You know me." She follows her statement by plopping down next to the ginger on the bed, leaving considerable space between the two.
Within the next hour of studying, Beca has learned to be advantageous of Chloe getting distracted easily with certain quirks. Like if she initiates contact by brushing her arm or other shit, she distracts the ginger from schoolwork. Beca, extremely bored of reading excerpts from the Bible and comparing it to book pieces huffs.
"I know this like the back of my hand, may I remind you I grew up in Texas," Beca complains and jokes.
"Do you believe in it?" Chloe suddenly asks.
"Someone is getting philosophical," Beca announces, "but yeah."
Chloe smiles, "Another thing we have in common."
Beca bumps her shoulder with Chloe's, "Good to know, now, may I take a break?"
"Beca," Chloe warns.
"We could watch Grey's Anatomy," the freshman offers.
"You sneaky bitch," Chloe laughs. She starts clearing the notes and textbook off the bed, and opens up Netflix on her laptop. "You already know me so well."
Beca smiles to herself, and wants to respond something along the lines of that being a good thing. But she's a badass, they don't show emotions like that. But she really does like the ginger so far, a lot. She's been smiling more in the last 24 hours than she has in the past 24 months.
"I'm going to go grab something to drink, do you want anything?" Chloe says.
"No thanks," Beca says.
The brunette watches the ginger strut out of the room, and the senior leaves the door open a crack. Beca drums out a beat to a mix on her thigh upon awkwardly waiting. The brunette suddenly hears the front door open, and the high pitched voice of Aubrey.
"Hey, Chlo, what's up?"
"I'm watching Netflix, with," Chloe pauses, "someone."
"Someone better not be Tom, stay broken up with his sorry ass."
"Trust me, it is definitely not him," Chloe scoffs.
"It's Beca, isn't it?"
Beca hears silence, and grows more interested in eavesdropping on this conversation. Chloe obviously nodded or something, and Aubrey continues talking.
"She's a bad influence on you, you're supposed to be tutoring her, not cuddling up for a movie night!"
"We already did our homework, sorry I like her, she's a good friend," Chloe sounds defeated.
"You don't usually act this way with good friends, you forgot to text me last night and tell me you were sleeping at her dorm. I thought you got kidnapped!"
"Stop being so dramatic. I would invite you to watch it with us, but now I'm not so sure."
Beca tries to pretend to be preoccupied when Chloe walks in. She stares at her phone and responds to a text from Jesse, so she doesn't look like she was just listening. Beca looks up from her screen and smiles at the bewildered ginger.
"Let's watch some Grey's Anatomy," Chloe breathes out and cuddles next to Beca's side.
A/N: Boom. And sorry, this will get better, I swear! I'm still getting used to this third person thing! Please tell me what you think! :)