DISCLAIMER: "Pitch Perfect" and "Pitch Perfect 2" are the property of Golden Circle Films. The author of this fan fiction does not profit, in any way, from the story and that all creative rights to the characters and titles belong to their original creator(s).
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I seriously need to find a cage for my muse, unless I can get her into B&D.
Fighting for Love
Aubrey and Beca stood staring between each other and the gym entrance. Beca felt as if time stopped for several minutes. She shook her head to clear it and bolted after Chloe.
As she ran, she shouted over her shoulder, "Looks like I won!"
Chloe's lungs started to burn as she neared her house. She felt her initial adrenaline begin to ebb and hoped it would get her inside before abandoning her completely. All she could think about was getting far away from Aubrey and Beca, as fast as possible. She rounded the corner, saw her house, and smiled.
"WAIT!"
Chloe grounded to a halt by familiar strong hands. Her shoulders slumped in defeat, "Beca."
"Chloe, why did you run away?"
The redhead was amazed to see Beca not even breathing hard.
"Why? You have the nerve to ask me why?" Chloe's anger flared and surprised Beca.
"Whoa! Calm down Chloe," Beca said, half-jokingly.
"Beca, what was that back at the gym?"
Beca internally debated whether to disclose the truth to Chloe and risk losing her best friend or lie and maintain their apparently dysfunctional status quo.
"No, her friendship means too much to lie," Beca softly mumbled.
"Beca…?"
"Chloe, can we go inside?" Beca pointed to Chloe's house.
The two best friends silently entered Chloe's house and decided to talk in her bedroom. The instant Beca sat down on Chloe's bed; she began rambling, which confirmed her nervousness to Chloe. The redhead sat down on the bed next to Beca, but instead of sitting close as they usually did, Chloe made sure to put a sizeable buffer between them.
"Beca, you're rambling," Chloe stated.
Beca continued to ramble as she stared at Chloe's bedroom carpet.
"Beca?" Chloe softly asked.
Chloe sighed, as Beca showed no signs of stopping.
"Beca!" Chloe stated, loud enough to stop Beca's rambling.
Chloe sighed, happy Beca stopped her nervous rambling, but now frustrated by the brunette's silence. Chloe waited a few minutes for Beca to talk to her, but her best friend remained silent.
"Beca, you wanted to talk, so talk," Chloe evenly stated.
"Chloe, did you know that Aubrey l…l…loves you?" Beca asked.
Chloe nodded and added, "Of course she does. I love her too. We're good friends."
Beca stared at her friend, utterly incredulous at Chloe's naiveté. The cynical brunette shook her head.
"Chloe, Aubrey loves loves you. Like Amy says, "Lez be friends," Beca waggled her eyebrows for effect.
Chloe opened her mouth to tell Beca she was hallucinating, but immediately closed it as realization dawned. Beca watched her best friend mimic a fish out of water for several minutes, until the redhead stopped.
"You okay now?" Beca asked.
Chloe nodded, but Beca could tell her friend's brain was not quite finished processing the information overload, since Chloe was still silent. Once the redhead's brain finished processing, she spoke.
"What about you?" Chloe asked.
"Me? I do NOT love Aubrey," Beca huffed in mock indignation.
Chloe sighed, "Okay," instantly recognizing Beca's usual diversion tactic.
As usual, the disappointed redhead let Beca get away with changing any subject the brunette was not comfortable discussing, because Chloe refused to upset the status quo with her best friend.
"Why do you do that?" Beca asked.
"What?" Chloe asked.
"See? You're doing it again! Chloe, if you need to talk about anything that makes me uncomfortable, you have to take a stand or I will run right over you," Beca firmly stated.
"But…," Chloe trailed off.
"But…what?" Beca asked.
"But…I don't want to lose my best friend," Chloe sniffled.
"Chloe, it's going to take a whole lot more than your feels to get rid of me," Beca joked, knowing she was lying.
Beca gravely underestimated her best friend. Growing up together and eventually falling in love with Beca Mitchell molded Chloe into the "perfect" best friend. The intelligent redhead knew exactly how to manage Beca Mitchell; something even Jesse, Beca's current boyfriend could not fathom.
"I don't love love Aubrey. Even if I did, I would never do that to Stacie," Chloe admitted.
"What does Stacie have to do with this?" Beca asked.
"She's been in love with Aubrey since…forever," Chloe smiled.
"Stacie "I'll do anyone it takes" Conrad?" Beca incredulously asked.
"One in the same," Chloe laughed.
Beca paused and tried picturing uptight Aubrey with free-spirited Stacie. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not do it. She shook her head and started laughing with Chloe. The two best friends ended up in a laughing fit and spent the night plotting how to get Aubrey and Stacie together.
The next morning, as they have done since they were children, the two best friends walked to school together. As they approached the front gate of the school, Amy intercepted them.
"Beca, if there is a back gate to this place, you should use it. When I got here this morning, everyone…and I mean students and faculty…has been looking for you. I don't know what you did, but whatever it is, it's as serious as a heart attack."
Beca considered going home and calling in sick to school, but she knew her dad would have a fit. She looked at Chloe, who looked more worried than she was.
"Beca, you'd better go home," Chloe said.
"I can't. My dad will have me pulled off patrols until I'm old enough to join AARP," Beca stated.
"Beca, you'd better figure it out soon, because my "Aubrey-sense" is making my skin crawl," Amy twitched.
"Your what?" Beca asked.
A heartbeat later, all three of their "Aubrey-senses" went off the charts when one voice cut through all the street noise.
"BECA MITCHELL!"
"SHIT!" Beca uttered and took off running in the direction she came.
Beca finally stopped running midway between the school and her home. She did not hear, see, or sense Aubrey, so she figured Chloe stopped the rabid blonde at the front gate. Beca debated going home and accepting her punishment or staying out until time for patrols. She groaned and leaned against a fence to think. After checking the time, she decided to suck it up and face her dad before it got too late. She sighed, pushed herself off the fence, and headed home. Two steps into her "walk of shame," Beca's mobile phone vibrated.
"Hey," Beca answered after she saw who was calling.
"Go to my house and see my dad," Chloe instructed, "After a lot of pleading, he agreed to be your cover story."
"Thanks Chlo, I owe you one," Beca promised and ended the call.
Beca checked the area around Chloe's house for signs of her dad. When she deemed the area clear, she knocked on the Beale's front door.
"Beca, come in," Mr. Beale smiled and quickly ushered Beca inside.
"Thanks Mr. Beale," Beca smiled.
"Don't thank me just yet," Mr. Beale stated and led Beca to his study, now the video command center for their patrols.
"Have a seat," Mr. Beale said as he pulled out the chair facing a wall of video monitors.
Beca dropped her backpack on the floor and sat in the chair.
"You're going to monitor the video surveillance today," Mr. Beale announced.
Beca groaned as Mr. Beale proceeded to show her how to operate the complicated machine. After an hour of supervision, Mr. Beale felt comfortable enough to leave Beca alone. One hour later, Beca was bored stiff. She already played with all the video features Mr. Beale showed her and ones she discovered herself. As she was about to reach in her backpack and pull out her ever-present headphones, she heard Mr. Beale clear his throat.
"Beca, you can't listen to music while you're on video surveillance. I need you to be alert."
"Yes Mr. Beale," Beca sighed and pulled her hand out of her backpack.
Five mind-numbing hours later, Beca was ready to take whatever punishment her dad gave her, until she heard the sound of rustling coming from one of the speakers. She looked at the monitor.
"Look at this," a tall dark-haired young man said to someone off-camera, as he pointed at the video camera.
He was facing away from the camera, so Beca could not see his face, which caused her to wonder if some students were skipping classes.
"A video camera," he laughed.
"Really?" asked his companion off-camera.
The tall young man turned and looked directly in the camera. Bright blue-gray eyes stared directly back at Beca, causing her to jolt back in her chair, "Helloooo stupid humans," he laughed.
As Mr. Beale instructed, Beca hit the "record" button.
"Pieter, get away from that thing!" a female voice reprimanded.
Beca heard a distinctive sigh and found herself mesmerized by the brightest light blue eyes she ever saw.
"You do not know how to play with your food Kommissar," Pieter chided.