A/N: Another one! Huzzah! So it's my birthday today, and I had this need to get something out there for whoever is reading this. 20 sure is making me feeling more adulty and mothering.
Also, many many thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed, or did all of the above! Thank you, you're all beautiful people! I just hope it's as good as the first chapter.
Now go; read, enjoy, and maybe say something about it!
Headphones
In hindsight, Beca regrets letting some people know where she lives.
It's her birthday and all she wants is a quiet night in with her friends, ordering obscene amounts of food and jamming to ridiculous pop music behind closed curtains. Because while she loves hanging out with her awesome weirdos, she's still not willing to do more damage to her (non-existent, as the Bellas insist) "street cred" – being in an Acapella group does enough of that, thank you very much.
But it's the Bellas, and more specifically, it's Chloe and Beca just knows that it's wishful thinking of her to assume she'll get away with getting what she wants just because her birthday falls in summer and everyone should – in theory – be away for the holidays.
So that's how Beca finds herself sitting on the living room couch, between Stacie and Fat Amy, pinching the bridge of her nose as she listens to the girls brainstorm themes for the birthday party they're throwing her.
Her hand slips into her hair to pull at it (as she so often does when her nerd herd is having these Bella debates) because Stacie is discussing the pros and cons of a sex-themed party. Beca's not even sure what that would look like when Stacie makes a sweeping gesture with her hand, enunciating her words like they're holy, and painting a picture for the girls.
"And strippers. Strippers everywhere."
Much to Beca's terror, Stacie is seemingly winning some of the girls over because she sees some of them nodding – Cynthia Rose more vigorously than others – and she's mentally leaping with joy when Flo comes in with the mail, throwing something towards Beca.
She's almost ecstatic with the interruption until she spots the emblem on the envelope.
Beca's too occupied with deciding what's more horrifying: the fact that they've found her, or the fact that people are still sending letters as communication in this day and age, so she doesn't move fast enough to snatch the envelope off the table before any of the girls notice it. And how could they not, it's a black envelope with flaming white headphones printed on them. Damn the senders and their flare for the dramatics.
So Beca finds herself trying to climb Stacie because the leggy brunette is really tall and she's obnoxiously holding the envelope high up out of reach like Beca's some child who's being punished by keeping their favorite toy out of reach. When the short captain starts to actually make some progress, Fat Amy sighs and gets up from her seat, pulling Beca off and putting her in a headlock.
After the initial five seconds of struggling, the brunette simply goes limp in Amy's grip, effectively admitting defeat.
Beca just drops her head into her hands, sinking so low into the couch in the hopes of becoming part of the upholstery as the envelope is passed down amongst the Bellas before settling into Chloe's hands, the ginger lifting one impeccable eyebrow as she opens it up.
Clearing her throat, the redhead starts reading aloud, "You only turn 21 once. Meet us at The Dungeon. We'll jam so hard it'll melt your face off."
Beca is pretty certain her face is already melting off. It feels too hot; surely it's on fire?
It doesn't help that Chloe sounds endlessly amused when she asks her if there's something Beca would like to share with the girls.
She barely peaks one eye from behind her fingers and regrets it immediately because Chloe's looking at her in that way that makes her heart race.
Beca's still not sure what that means. She doesn't dwell on it, not when Chloe's got that tiny smile playing at the corner of her lips that makes Beca wonder if they taste like peaches from the lip balm the ginger likes to use all the time.
Her brain short circuits after having that thought because she's definitely not supposed to think that about her best friend.
Right?
She figures the best way to distract her mind from those embarrassing thoughts is by launching into a different kind of embarrassing. So the DJ takes a deep breath and lifts her head, starting her story with resignation.
"I was kinda sorta maybe in a band when I was in high school."
The Bellas smirk, all of them raising perfectly-shaped brows at her in one super creepy synchronized motion – all except for Cynthia Rose who let out a snort, asking Beca how she passed the height limit required.
Beca threw her a sarcastic smile and the finger before continuing.
"I played the drums. We weren't all that bad, if I do say so myself. We just never took it seriously enough. We mostly fooled around in my garage," Beca allows herself a smirk before finishing the thought, "mostly because it would piss my parents off. My dad hated the band so much, it was ridiculous. He didn't even live there anymore because of the divorce.
In reality though, we were just a bunch of misfits that liked being disappointments by pulling ridiculous pranks like taking apart the drama teacher's car and reassembling it in the auditorium, or gluing the principal's furniture to the ceiling of his office, and getting absolutely shitfaceed while we did it."
Chloe's voice brings Beca back to the here and now, her vision tunneling on the redhead and her amused half smile as the surrounding Bellas unintentionally become white noise (unfortunately not before Stacie gets the chance to ask if drummers really do do it harder. She chooses with all her might to ignore Stacie, especially when Chloe looks at her with a secretive, almost expectant smirk.)
Yup. Beca's definitely got some stuff to work out about herself. Just as soon as her stomach stops doing backflips and cartwheels.
"What were you called?"
"Like you can't guess it, Chlo."
"I wanna hear you say it."
Beca swears this girl will be the end of her. So she swallows her pride, and pushes the words out through clenched jaws.
"The Flaming Headphones."
The Bellas burst into laughter.
Beca eventually cracks a smile herself.
Flo, who is kind of like a louder version of Lilly in the sense that she's always catching the Bellas off guard with what she has to share, speaks up next.
"One time, a gang kidnapped me and forced me to get a tattoo on my ass as part of the initiation."
The girls stare for a minute before starting to move along, pausing when Beca snorts and puts her left hand out, with her wrist facing up.
"Yeah, we did the matching tattoos thing too. The rest of the band got the elaborate and ridiculous design on that envelope while I chose to keep it simple. I wanted to piss my parents off, not get a permanent regret."
Looking around, Beca's surprised because the girls look… touched. Then she realizes that while she's known them for over two years now, she's never so willingly shared so much of her past. Beca makes a mental note to let her Bella family in more often. Chloe's soft smile and the proud look in her eyes only reinforces the idea.
Soon enough, the group disperses and the girls go about their other tasks, and Beca feels relieved because her impromptu walk down memory lane caused her friends to forget planning her birthday, so she's sure she's gotten out of it.
She hasn't because that weekend she walks back into the house and is jumped by the Bellas and just about anyone who is still on campus yelling an eerily-harmonized "surprise!" while images of headphones and fire decorate everything – a certain redhead standing in the lead with a naughty smirk on her face.