You all still with me? Haha
It's All About Finding Yourself - Chapter 17
The glee club members had been getting along so well lately that for the past few days they had all been sitting together at lunch. Mr McKay was loving the new attitude the kids were bringing to the table.
"That looks pretty good, what is it?" Beca asked as she leaned over to get a better look at the pasta in her girlfriend's plastic container.
"It's my dad's pasta he always makes for me and Emily. You wanna try it?" Chloe stabbed a piece of pasta and held it out to Beca. Beca leaned forward with her mouth opened but stopped herself short.
"There aren't any nuts in that are there?" Beca asked, pointing to the piece of pasta on the fork Chloe was holding.
"Mhm." Chloe hummed "Why?" She added.
Beca pushed Chloe's hand down gently and laughed slightly. "If I eat it, I'll choke and die." She said with a straight face but the way Chloe raised her eyebrow as she popped another piece of pasta made Beca laugh again. "I have a nut allergy." She finally said after she composed herself.
Stacie laughed but started choking on her water she had just taken a sip of. Jesse slapped her back a few times until she recovered. "That's how I knew you were a lesbian all along!" She pointed with both hands at the brunette before she coughed again with a laugh. Everyone at the table laughed including Beca and Chloe.
"Well there seems to be a lot I don't know about you." Chloe smiled.
"Not everyone's an open book like you." Beca smirked, leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed.
"I've got stuff you don't know about me." Chloe said in defence.
"Shoot."
"You'll just have to wait and find out." Chloe winked with a smirk.
"Dead brain cell alert." Stacie mumbled, slyly pointing at Tom and some other football players walking towards their table.
"Hey guys, why don't I introduce you to the different types of people in gay club." Tom's friends laughed at him as they stood behind him with their Letterman jackets swung over their shoulders.
"Why don't you just piss off Tom?" Beca growled, refusing to look up at him.
"Oh why don't we start with you then? You see these two here, boys?" Tom motioned to Chloe and Beca. "These are the lesbians of the pack."
"Hot." One of Tom's friends commented making Beca and Chloe shudder.
"These three here." Tom walked around the table and stood behind Benji, Donald and Bumper. "No one gives a shit about them anyways." He shrugged before walking round a little more before laying his eyes on the two other boys who were glaring at him and ready to jump up from their seats. Jesse and Luke. "Ah here we have the gay of all gays. They used to be half decent basketball players but are now singing and dancing for homo explosion." His friends laughed harder and Jesse's hand impatiently fidgeted with his black jeans.
"Use gay as an insult one more time and I swear to god." Beca threatened, finally looking up at the boy.
Tom ignored Beca and looked down at Stacie. "You already know who she is, she's probably actually slept with all of you."
"I'm sorry, I have class." Stacie scoffed, rolling her eyes at Tom.
"Two left I see." Tom smirked as he walked around the table some more and rested his hands on Aubrey and Rachael's shoulders.
"Get your hands off them." Jesse growled from beside Aubrey. Tom just ignored him and looked down at the two uncomfortable girls under his grip.
"Jesse and Luke's big gay beards."
"That's it." Jesse pulled Tom's arm off of his girlfriend and twisted it making him stumble back with a wince. Luke got up too and stood by Jesse's side. "Say what you want to Beca, she doesn't need me to fight her battles because she could punch the living daylights out of you herself. Say what you want to me but if you ever dare to lay a finger on my girlfriend again I swear to god Tom." Jesse finally let go of Tom's arm and the said boy grabbed it himself, rubbing the damaged area.
"You know what dude? Why don't we settle this the proper way. Me, you after school in the parking lot." Jesse just laughed at Tom as he squared up to him.
"Jesse." Aubrey said warningly.
"I'll see you there." Jesse said, ignoring his girlfriend's protest.
Tom motioned for his friends and turned away before walking off with his hands in his pockets.
"Jesse what the hell are you playing at?" Aubrey smacker Jesse's arm as he sat back down at the table.
"Aubrey chill, he trains in MMA." Beca shrugged, she knew Jesse had this in the bag, Tom was all talk.
"Not to mention constantly watches the UFC." Stacie rolled her eyes.
"I don't care, what if you get hurt?" Aubrey placed her hand over the top of Jesse's on the table.
"I take it you haven't seen Tom fight?" Luke scoffed. "He's slow and only tries to tackle you since he's a stupid football player." He added, reassuring Aubrey.
"I promise I won't get hurt." Jesse smirked but Aubrey was having none of it so her leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Trust me." He whispered.
As decided at lunch Tom was standing inside a circle of people as Jesse arrived with his friends.
"You're an idiot." Aubrey said with a straight face, folding her arms. Jesse sighed and turned to her, rubbing his hands up and down her forearms.
"If it really bothers you, I won't go through with it." Jesse said quietly but Beca overheard.
"Jess, you can't be a pussy now." Beca interjected, motioning to the group of people surrounding Tom.
"Beca, Aubrey means way much more to me than risking getting myself hurt over some douchebag." Jesse said making the corners of Aubrey's mouth turn up slightly.
"Duuuuude kick his ass." Beca groaned.
"Hey Swanson! Since you like dick so much I guess that leaves your girlfriend all to me!" Tom yelled over the crowd.
Jesse let go of Aubrey and shrugged his backpack off his back aggressively; he pushed through the people and pushed the sleeves of his hoodie up to his elbow. Everyone formed a circle around the boys and a few people brought their phones out to video the fight. "I told you to stop talking shit about my girlfriend." Jesse growled; running at Tom and grabbing him by the the neck, pulling his head down slightly so he could land a few punches to his face. The crowd 'Oooohed' apart from Aubrey who was nervously chewing on her nail.
Tom managed to wriggle out of Jesse's grip and swing a punch which Jesse managed to dodge and grab Tom's arm, twisting it around to his back making the boy cry out. Some of the crowd laughed at the football player. Jesse put enough pressure on Tom's arm that he managed to push him down onto one knee as he continued to wince.
"Not such a tough guy are you?" Jesse smirked, grabbing Tom by his hair before kneeing him in the face. "Stay the fuck away from me and my friends!" Jesse started to get a bit carried away as he continued to smash his knee against Tom's face, not even noticing the blood that was gathering on his jeans.
"Jesse stop!" Beca yelled, running forward to push Jesse away. "Dude chill out, he's got what he deserved." Beca placed her hands on Jesse's waist and drew his attention to her face. Beca took Jesse's left hand in her's and inspected his cut knuckles as people started to clear off, including Tom who scurried off in embarrassment, holding his burst nose. Beca pressed the sleeve of her hoodie to the cuts of his knuckles as they walked back over to their friends.
"Dude that was awesome!" Donald slapped Jesse on the back but he was still a bit lost, he didn't quite understand what had just come over him.
"Are you alright?" Aubrey asked with concern, pulling out a tissue from her bag and taking his hand from Beca so she could clean up the cuts on his knuckles.
"I dunno." He looked over Aubrey's shoulder at Tom storming away. "I'm not quite sure what happened." He pressed his other hand to his forehead. He looked down at his knee and noticed the patch of blood soaking into the fabric.
After the fight, Jesse and Aubrey had went to the gym together whilst Beca brought Chloe back to her house.
"I told my dad that I was bringing you over to help you with homework." Beca explained quietly as she opened her room door, throwing her bag onto the floor before kicking her shoes off.
"I don't have homework." Chloe replied slowly, dropping her stuff beside Beca's. "Why are you whispering anyways?" She asked, throwing herself onto Beca's double bed and rolling over so she was sprawled out on her back. "I love your bed."
Beca laughed at the redhead "That's the point." She walked over and closed her door quietly "Although he knows we're dating, I feel like I need a reason to have you over so he won't be checking up on us every five seconds." Beca rolled her eyes as she sauntered over her bed and climbed on top of Chloe making the girl laugh. Beca pressed her finger to the redhead's lips. "The door's supposed to be open so no inappropriate giggling."
"Inappropriate giggling? Why are you such a weirdo?" Chloe bit her lip to suppress a laugh.
"I hope that was rhetorical."
"Did you swallow Aubrey and her words?" Chloe wasn't doing well at the no noise rule as she couldn't keep herself from laughing at her girlfriend. Beca leaned down and kissed Chloe's smiling lips.
"I'm sure she'd taste like textbooks, hair dye, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle and maybe a hint of vomit." Beca narrowed her eyes, shifting her weight on top of Chloe.
"Why the hell would she taste like vomit?" Chloe asked with a furrowed brow.
"Oh you haven't seen Aubrey stressed then." Beca chuckled and finally rolled off the top of Chloe, cuddling up to her side instead. Beca loved hugs and it was only really Jesse and Stacie who knew that. Stacie gave good hugs but Beca loved Jesse's the most, she thinks it's because of his big arms and how he's much taller. "One year we were studying together for finals and Jesse forgot to bring the biology notes...It was projectile." Beca shuddered at the memory.
"Gross." Chloe muttered. "Hey do you think Jesse's alright? He seemed pretty crazy when he was fighting Tom." She added after a moment of silence.
Beca draped her arm over Chloe's midsection and sighed. "Yeah he'll be alright, he just gets too carried away when he gets angry. Ever since his mom died he got way too angry at the slightest things so he went to see a councillor for a while. He's totally calmed down nowadays but it still doesn't take a lot to set him off and when he gets angry, he gets angry. That's why I had to pull him off Tom today, that could've been a lot worse."
"Oh wow, poor Jess. I take it Aubrey knows, that's why she was so reluctant to let him go through with it?" Chloe felt the brunette nod against her arm.
"Trust me, Stacie, Aubrey and me have had tough times trying to get him to calm down. At first it was so scary because he could literally push off the three of us no problem but as we got older we managed to pull him away and calm him down." Beca explained.
"You and Stacie were dying to see a fight today though." Chloe added with a furrowed brow, running her fingers over Beca's arm that was draped over her.
"Because Tom's an absolute dick head and deserved what he got. We knew the first sight of blood meant we had to jump in. He always seems so lost when he's made to stop because he never quite remembers what happens." Beca continued.
"That's scary." Chloe said quietly.
"Mhm." The brunette agreed with a hum. "He's gone to the gym with Aubrey so she'll make sure he gets the rest of his anger out by attacking the punch bag."
There were a few minutes of silence after that as they just lay together, enjoying each other's company. Chloe was the first to speak up with a random question.
"How far have you gone with a guy?"
"A guy? Uh just make out I guess, what about you?" Beca replied, rather confused with the question.
"Pretty much the same. I've had sex with a girl though." Chloe smirked as her girlfriend propped herself up on one elbow beside her.
"Should I be jealous?" Beca asked with a laugh and narrowed eyes. "We've only been dating for a couple of days and you already have a side hoe."
Chloe smacked Beca on her arm playfully. "It was my ex girlfriend you idiot."
"What was it like?" Beca asked after she finally stopped laughing.
"Well if you know what you like yourself then you have a rough idea on how to work another girl." Chloe shrugged. All Chloe has to do was kiss Beca and the brunette will writhing underneath her, wanting more. "Plus you don't get the whole awkward fumbling with the bra because both of you already know how to take it off."
"Well there's that." Beca chuckled, lying back on her back as Chloe pushed the hem of the brunette's shirt up slightly and began tracing patterns on her bare skin.
"Beca." There was a knock on the door.
"What?" Beca groaned and her father opened the door.
"I didn't hear you girls come in. Hi Chloe." He kept one hand on the door handle and the other on the doorframe as he smiled at the redhead. Chloe smiled back before awkwardly pulling her hand away from underneath Beca's shirt. John cleared his throat, finally tearing his eye away from Chloe's hand. "Remember what I said about the door, Beca." He pulled the door behind him as he left, leaving it half open.
"I'm sorry about him." Beca apologised.
"Don't worry about it, I've been in more awkward situations than that with my ex." Chloe shrugged with a smile.
Stacie walked into her house only to be met with yelling from her parents. "What the hell is going on?!" Stacie yelled above the noise as she pushed the living room door open forcefully only to have her younger siblings on the couch and no sign of their parents.
"They're fighting again." Ally looked up at her sister with watery eyes as she tried to restrain the screaming two year old beside her.
"Where's Elliot?" Stacie asked as she lifted Aiden up from the couch and held him close to her as she tried to get him to calm down.
"He ran upstairs as soon as they started. This is worse than last time Stace, Dad keeps threatening to leave." Ally stood up and threw her arms around her sister's waist as she began to cry.
Stacie mouthed the word 'fuck' as she realised that once again she was going to have to be the only adult in this house. "Take Aiden upstairs, I'll deal with it." She sighed as she set her little brother down on his feet and Ally grabbed his hand and led him upstairs. Stacie took a deep breath before bursting through the kitchen door to find her parents toe to toe, screaming in each others faces. "Guys!"
"How do you expect me to feel when you come home drunk in the early hours of the morning? We have four kids Leo and three of them can't look after themselves, I can't do this all myself when I've got a full time job!" Sarah exclaimed with a tearful voice.
"You think I don't care about my kids? I'm drinking because I'm stressed." Leo said slowly in a low voice. Stacie just stood there and watched, she had been woken up a few times by her dad coming home drunk but she didn't know it was causing fights.
"I'm sick of it Leo. I'm sick of fighting with you." Sarah wiped her eyes.
"If you're so sick of everything why don't I just leave?" Leo growled before turning around, ready to storm out the door before he was met by the watery eyes of his eldest daughter.
"Dad what's going on?" Stacie asked weakly.
Leo took his daughter's hands and looked down at his feet.
"Leo don't just leave without any word, I want a divorce."
"Mom what the hell?" Stacie's voice cracked with tears and her father lifted his head and looked into her eyes helplessly.
"It's for the best, honey." Sarah said softly from over her husband's shoulder.
"No it's not Mom, you know you guys will go to bed and then everything will be okay in the morning." Stacie desperately tried to find a way to sort things out but her mother was having none of it.
"Not this time Stace." Stacie turned to her father as he finally spoke up.
"Please never leave Dad." She threw her arms around her father and cried into his shoulder. She knew herself that her parents weren't just having one of their petty arguments this time around, they were being serious about the divorce.
Ooo Tom got beat up!
Question - What are your thoughts on Jesse's hidden anger problems?