The last few hours of the activities fair dragged painfully slow. In the last thirty minutes beca found her passion for talking about the Bellas as well as her voice and will to live had long disappeared. The other Bellas had filtered in throughout the day, but none lasted very long. Chloe, however, was just as bubbly as she had been upon arrival.
Beca stood back, her mouth slightly agape, watching Chloe talk animatedly to a group of three freshmen as if they hadn't been doing this for 6 and a half hours. For the life of her she wasn't sure how Chloe did it every day, or for that matter, why. Beca far preferred ignoring strangers and keeping her head down for minimal conversation opportunities.
The next moment Becs would have given anything to trade places with Chloe. Her ex boyfriend, Jesse Swanson, had just traipsed over to their booth, a big goofy grin, on his goofy face. "Becs! I've been meaning to stop by," his eyes danced happily, he seemed to be in much better spirits than the last time they had seen each other.
Somehow Beca refrained from sighing heavily at the sight of him. He seemed far more enthused to be in her presence than she felt about his. She glanced across the sidewalk at Chloe who was now talking with a junior Beca had seen around campus; she wasn't going to be able to save her anytime soon.
"Hi, Jess," she finally said after what felt like an hour but was really only a few seconds. He seemed to light up at the sound of his name on her lips. "Whatcha up to?" She thought it might be best to feign interest and quickly get the conversation over with.
"Oh, ya know, trying to replace more than 3/4 of my group," he said with another smile. Most of the trebles graduated the year before leaving Jesse with three members, including himself. She looked across the lawn again to see Benji, Jesse's best friend and roommate, performing close up magic for a group of boys who looked as if they were mildly scared of him. If beca had been in Jesse's position she wouldn't have sounded so light about it.
She dug her nails into her palm, she didn't know what else they were supposed to talk about now, but the way Jesse was looking at her she felt like she should be the one supplying the subject matter.
"That's rough," she said, accidentally sounding far more disinterested than she intended. Jesse's face fell slightly, but he tried to push past the comment.
"Yeah…" he dug his hands in his pockets and glanced back at benji, quickly looking away when he saw the boy pull a bird out of his sleeve. "So, Becs, I know things might be a bit weird—," she held her breath, wearily anticipating where this was going. "—would you want to hang out sometime?"
Ah, yes, it was going in the direction she had been afraid of. "Um," she said, buying time and shifting her weight from foot to foot as she dug her nails still deeper into her palms. She was quite certain there would be bloody crescent moons left when she finally let go.
Before she could answer however, she was saved the trouble by Chloe swooping in for a close call. "Jesse! Pleasant surprise," she said, stealing a Look at Beca who mouthed help as Chloe gave him a brief hug.
"Yeah," he said, scratching his head awkwardly. It hadn't taken too long for him to realize that beca would rather jump off a cliff into a pool full of spiders than talk to him, let alone spend time with him. Chloe was smiling brightly; however, so he chose to solely direct his attention to her. "It's good to see you, I was just dropping by."
Beca remained stony faced and silent, she wasn't too certain what she should be saying right now. Luckily chloe read the room and had taken over control of the conversation on her behalf.
"Spying on us won't help you beat us this year, Jess," she joked with a slight laugh. A real smile broke across his face while Beca tried to keep hers at bay. Chloe made every situation easier.
"Couldn't hurt to try…" they grew silent for a second. "Well, I'll get going, it's about time to break everything down. Chlo, Becs," he nodded to each of them in turn and quickly left before either girl had to respond. They watched his retreating back momentarily before turning to face each other.
"God that was awkward," beca groaned with a face palm. "Do you think it's gonna always be like that?" Her voice was muffled behind her hand.
Chloe rolled her eyes heavily, "well, if you continue to make it awkward," she said pointedly. "You looked like a mannequin the whole time." Beca opened her mouth to object, but chloe cut across her. "Don't argue with it, Becs, I'm not saying you did anything wrong…just…it won't get better if you're always like that."
The next 30 minutes of tear down went by much faster than the rest of the day. They were working so quickly they didn't have much more time to chat about how beca couldn't act like a normal human in front of her ex. Which was a relief to her as she was starting to feel embarrassed about the whole thing.
Before Beca knew it they had folded up the table and tablecloth, the remainder of the fliers were stacked neatly on top of them and, after borrowing a chair, the banner that had been such an issue was now folded and piled with the rest of their things. It was over. Her first activities fair was over.
She issued a huge sigh of relief as she stared dreamily at the patch of empty grass that until recently had housed their booth. Her first task as the Bellas captain was complete and she really didn't think it had gone too poorly. Sure the set up could have been smoother, but overall it had been a successful day.
They left the park, Beca with the trophy and banner tucked under her arm and Chloe carrying the table, table cloth and fliers, chatting and laughing happily as they headed for Chloe and Bams' apartment. Beca enjoyed treading the familiar path through the green, slowly darkening campus, on their short journey. As much as she wouldn't want to admit it, Barden had really grown on her in the last few months of her last term and this was solidified on their walk.
By the time they reached the steps to the gothic style apartment building night had almost fallen completely; the steady hum of crickets and the flickering glow of lightning bugs hung heavy on the air. When they were both inside, the entrance door snapped shut behind them muting the continual buzz.
The long hallway to the elevator was dimly lit and the ancient wooden floors creaked under their weight; much like everything else on campus the building was extremely old, but the inside had been mostly brought to the 21st century by way of renovation. Gas lamps had been replaced with electric, a/c hummed happily from the vents, and every door was fitted with an electric lock needing only a tap from a key fob to gain entry.
Once they took the elevator to the 3rd floor and walked down another long hallway they stopped at a door to the left, second from the last on the hall. Beca, leading the way, walked in confidently, but almost took a step back when she took in her surroundings and was punched in the face with the smell of the weed mixed with incense. This place looked, and smelled, nothing like the apartment she knew.
She was about to backtrack and check the number on the door when she felt chloe run into her lightly from behind, "oof, Becs, keep walking, what are you doing?" But Beca remained frozen where she was. There was just so much to take in.
Aubrey's neat, minimalistic decor was gone and had been replaced with what Beca could only describe as organized chaos. It looked like a cross between pottery barn and an oddities shop.
A Quick Look around showed more traces of Chloe scattered throughout the room than had ever been seen before. Much like everything else, Aubrey had been extremely controlling of their living space and Chloe's personality had rarely shown through except in her bedroom.
What shocked Beca more than anything about the apartment's new look was Bams' contribution to interior design.
There was almost no space left on the walls as Bams had covered them in art and shelves housing the strangest assortment of things: different crystals, feathers, various animal bones and skulls. There were jars around the room filled with all types of odd subjects: rusty nails, different colored dirt, a jar of animal teeth and one that suspiciously looked like it contained those from a human.
Art in every style possible hung from the walls: skulls done in dot work, a picture of nuns smoking, paintings of hearts, a portrait of lady Gaga, a print of starry night, and so much more that beca felt she needed to book a ticket to a museum.
The longer Beca examined Bams' possessions the more interested she became in getting to know the person behind the taxidermy. Her personality was shining through and Beca was starting to realize she hadn't ever met someone like Bams before.
Beca wasn't aware of how much time she spent spectating when Chloe finally cleared her throat. She snapped back to and glanced at Chloe who looked slightly annoyed, "sorry," she mumbled before making her way down the short, cramped foyer.
The hallway opened onto an open floor plan, to the left was a small dining room, it housed even more art and odd things, to the right was a square, decent sized kitchen with a bar that separated it from the living room.
A peek in proved that Bams was in fact Aubrey's sister; it was as ridiculously organized and clean, if not more so, than when Aubrey had lived there. Well, there were going to have to be even more similarities between the sisters, she realized.
It didn't take long to locate the women in question: they were in the center of the living room, surrounded by piles of boxes, bags, various pairs of sweatpants and sweatshirts and, to Beca's surprise, clouds of swirling smoke. Both were bent double, laughing so hard red splotches were appearing on their cheeks. Beca couldn't deny the scene before her was quite precious.
Bams straightened first, tears streaming down her face she wiped them away with the hand that was clutching a joint. Gulping for air she caught her breath, then looked at her sister and burst out laughing again.
Beca's eyes involuntarily racked over Bams from head to toe as she took a pull from the joint. She was wearing a white sports bra and black spandex and was far more toned and covered in tattoos than Beca had previously realized. They covered her arms, her legs, most of her stomach, and she could see the edge of something on her back. It took everything for her to peel her eyes away and not let her mouth fall open as she looked at her.
She couldn't decide if she was more shocked by Bams appearance or the fact that her sister was clearly high.
Aubrey finally managed to silence her laughter, straightened up herself, revealing what had been so funny in the first place. What seemed to be Bams' clothes bearing Barden's logo and name were hanging off her and pooling around her ankles. She picked up her arm and the overly long arm of the sweatshirt she was wearing drooped off her hand.
This reignited peels of laughter between the two girls as Beca and Chloe fully entered the living room. Bams caught sight of them out of the corner of her eye, she turned quickly, a massive smile plastered to her face, "Beca Mitchell! You're here!" Their eyes locked and Immediately a dozen butterflies took flight in Beca's stomach, beating their wings hard against her insides.
"Amber Sinclair, you're here!" She joked back, trying to act calmer than she felt. Bams' smile grew somehow wider and she hit the joint again; she let the smoke pour out of her mouth and sucked it up through her nose while she kept her eyes on Beca.
Off to the side Chloe was watching the interaction like a hawk and a small smirk started to appear on her lips. She kicked Beca's foot and nodded to Aubrey who was looking sourly at the short girl.
"Hey, Bree," she said with a weak laugh, "you're also here!" She hoped it was enough to distract from her blatant disregard for the former captain. Aubrey rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of herself, putting her weight on one hip.
"Mhm, nice save."
Bams giggled and rocked on her heels, watching the interaction between her sister and Beca. She held the joint between her lips and started to pick articles of clothing up off the messy floor, laying them over her arm as she went; Aubrey stripped off the clothes that were far too large for her and tossed them to Bams to add to her pile.
"What's with all the stuff?" Beca asked, examining a pair of Barden joggers before handing them to Bams, who was beginning to struggle under the weight of everything and trudged toward her room to drop off the haul.
"Athlete perks," Chloe said, flopping down on the couch and throwing her feet up as she went. Aubrey stared pointedly at her feet. Chloe's face went red and she went to remove them before having a second thought. "You don't live here anymore," she stuck her tongue out and laid back down, her shoed feet still in place.
Aubrey's jaw tightened, but she did some deep breathing to calm herself. After a moment she turned to beca, "Bams perks more like it, they don't do this for everyone," she picked up a shirt Bams had dropped to show Beca. It had Sinclair on the back with the number 14 over it, "I think they were getting ready to name the gym after her when we showed up." She balled the shirt up and threw it through the open door after Bams.
Bams walked back into the room holding the shirt Aubrey had thrown after her and chuckling, "they want me to give stuff out to people, ya know, gain some traction. Here," Her eyes danced happily as she smiled and tossed the shirt to Beca, "for my first fan."
Beca caught it and slung it over her shoulder, "that's bold of you to assume—" she said as she made Chloe move her feet so she could sink onto the couch beside her.
"Not assuming," once again Chloe was watching the two girls like a sports match, her smirk growing more pronounced as time passed. Aubrey, who was choosing to ignore the banter, went to straighten Bams' tower of new shoe boxes: various styles of Pumas in Barden's colors green, white, and black.
Beca huffed with a playful eye roll; Bams grinned toothily at the much shorter girl. "If you two are done," Aubrey drawled from beside the box tower, causing Beca's face to turn magenta, "Bams, go change before the girls get here—" Bams opened her mouth to object but was silenced by a look from her sister.
She got up, grumbling as she went. "Not in charge of me…acting like you live here…" Beca heard her muttering as she disappeared into her room to change. She was honestly surprised the younger sister bent so easily, but Beca supposed after a few years of dealing with Aubrey it might be easier to concede sometimes.
She reappeared seconds later, pulling on a barden basketball crop top. She held her arms out at her sides, showing off her shirt, "happy?" She asked sullenly.
"No one wants to see you half naked—" Beca was suddenly overcome with a coughing fit and didn't hear the rest of what Aubrey and Bams were bickering about. Chloe, who had been watching Beca suspiciously, nudged her gently with her foot; Beca looked up to a subtly raised eyebrow, she chose to turn away rather than acknowledge the look.
"Can I hit that?" Chloe asked suddenly, pointing at Bams, much to Beca's relief. Chloe hummed happily when Bams passed her the joint. "Are you high, Bree?" She let the smoke out of her slowly as she asked the question beca wanted the answer to.
Aubrey glowered in response.
Bams' musical laugh rang out as she took a seat on the floor next to Chloe. "Maybe if she actually smoked she'd lighten up a bit." A shoe box went flying across the room at her, "Jesus," she groaned, having just managed to catch it. "My point is proven."
Before they had much more time to chat there was a knock at the door; Aubrey practically skipped to answer it. It was the first time all the girls would be together since Aubrey's graduation.
"Bellas!" Chloe and Aubrey exclaimed in unison when the front door opened to reveal the seven other members of the a Capella group.
it suddenly became very loud as They all ran together for a chaotic group hug. After a few seconds they fell apart chatting and laughing noisily.
Bams remained in the living room, choosing to give the girls some time to have their moment together. She didn't want to admit it either, but she was a bit nervous to meet the rest of the Bellas as she didn't know too much about them.
She sighed in relief when Stacie led the charge into the living room and smiled happily at the sight of Bams. immediately she started chattering away at her, "Bams! I told my sister she totally freaked out do you think you could sign something for me she'd love me forever ya know just whenever you have time or something." She said all of this very fast in one breath as though if she didn't say it now she never would.
Before Bams could answer Cynthia Rose, looking very impressed with her surroundings, arrived at Stacie's side. "Whoa," her mouth dropped open, "this place looks mad different, Chlo."
There were many oohs and ahhs from the girls as they looked around at all of Bams and Chloe's things. They immediately spread out and were examining art pieces, various dead animals, skulls and every other odd thing Bams had displayed in their house.
The living room was suddenly very crowded, half of the girls had met Bams earlier, but the other half were clamoring around anxiously awaiting being introduced. This was the group she didn't know too much about as Aubrey and Chloe hadn't mentioned them too much. They were all peering at her curiously, clearly collectively taken aback by her appearance.
It's not that she wasn't used to people staring or asking her to sign things, but the way the Bellas were looking at her, like she was a zoo animal, was making her quite uncomfortable. She knew they were just excited to meet her, so She shifted awkwardly on her feet, hoping someone would speak first and save her the trouble of a self introduction.
"Ladies," Aubrey stepped forward proudly, much to Bams' relief. "This is my sister, Bams, she's going to hopefully," she looked at Bams as if to say or else, "be joining the Bellas this year!"
"She looks like a girl I did time with in Montenegro," Lilly Onakuramara, who was known for being a mute and extremely mysterious beatboxer, muttered quietly from Bams left, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin; she hadn't even realized the silent girl was there.
"Never been arrested," Bams responded quickly; her eyes darted over to Beca who had a slight smile on her face as she determinedly stared at a spot on the wall some 8 feet to the right of Bams. Bams could only assume her comment caused Beca to recount her own arrest last year.
"Sorry, I haven't met you guys yet," she said looking at the three people she was entirely unfamiliar with. The first girl was named Denise, the only thing bams knew about her was that she had dated Cynthia Rose previously. Aubrey began to introduce the other two girls.
"This is Jessica—"
The brunette girl looked affronted, "I'm Ashley!"
"Oh…well, that's Jessica then," Aubrey said half heartedly waving to the blonde girl, who looked just as offended as Ashley. Bams could tell the last three members were the least involved with the other girls, it seemed they were quite easy to lose in the background, soon enough she would forget about them too.
It didn't take long after introductions for the room to be filled with talk and laughter; Bams was finding she would have no issues fitting in with the girls as she sidled from small group to small group. Despite being fairly large the living room felt cramped in the best way possible.
They spread out and made themselves comfortable: some in actual seats, lounging on the couch and chair, others sitting cross legged on the ground around the coffee table, and the rest of them finding perches on bar stools and couch armrests.
Bams stretched out on the armrest next to chloe and scanned the room happily, her eyes came to rest on Beca, who still had the shirt Bams had given her draped over her shoulder, sitting on one of the barstools, entranced with a story fat Amy was telling about saving a class of kindergartners from a pack of wild dingos. Amy was known for her outlandish stories, and while no one was ever quite sure if they were real, they were definitely entertaining.
A few seconds went by and Bams kept watch. Amy had finished her story and Beca was gasping for breath between laughing, her face lit up with joy as laughter erupted from her chest. "So yeah, that's why there's a statue of me and my bum," Amy slapped her ass, "in the quaint town of wallabie lagoon."
Beca quieted her sniggering, but she made the mistake of looking at Amy's serious face again and she couldn't contain the next wave of giggles she was overcome with. "Im sorry—" she gasped.
Amy looked at her, a blank, unreadable expression on her face, before slowly and icily saying, "I will let you get eaten by dingos then, Beca." This did nothing but cause Beca to be overcome with another bout of laughter.
"Hey," Bams said lightly, showing up at Beca's elbow. Beca turned quickly with a jump, surprised to find Bams so close beside her. "Sorry," she said with a smile; not saying anything as she slipped the shirt off Beca's shoulder.
"Hey!" Beca said, as she watched Bams lay her shirt out on the bar and reach over the counter for a cup full of pens and markers. She searched around for a sharpie before signing the 14 on the back of the shirt.
Bams capped the marker, put it back, and turned to Stacie, ignoring Beca's indignation. "Stacie," she looked up from the conversation she was having with Chloe." For your sister," she called across the room, tossing the shirt to Stacie. Stacie grinned happily, holding it up to look it over.
"Thanks," she said excitedly, carefully folding the shirt and laying it beside her on the couch. This prompted a side conversation Bams couldn't help but overhear.
Fat Amy looked curiously at Stacie, "Stace, is your sister also a whore?" Bams' eyes widened in shock. She hadn't really been expecting that one, but it didn't seem to take any of the other girls aback.
"She's 16!" Stacie said hotly, no one looked away from her or said anything. After a slight pause she sighed, "yeah," the room erupted with laughter.
Meanwhile Bams and Beca were still joking with each other. "That was mine!" Beca whined, she lowered her eyebrows crossly. Bams chuckled again with another playful smile.
"I thought you weren't a fan?" She asked. Beca blushed profusely. Without warning Amy walked away mumbling something about lesbians. Beca watched her trailing back, the flush growing darker with each passing second.
"I'm not."
Bams leaned in a little bit, the smell of her perfume washed over Beca who gulped. "You can pick your own," she whispered loudly with a smirk.
The rest of the evening passed quicker than it should have. the girls spent the time eating snacks and taking shots, catching up on their summers, talking about the classes they were taking, and what the coming year would look like for the Bellas.
It wasn't until they were getting ready to call it quits that Amy asked Bams the question that had been eating away at her for hours. If she had been someone else, perhaps she would have used some discretion, but she was fat Amy and she didn't have any of that.
"So has Aubrey ever puked on you?"
Everyone held their breath, trying not to retch at the thought of Aubrey's stress vomiting issue and turned to look at the girl in question whose face was contorting with silent anger. Both Bams and Chloe's eyes darted over to her and then to each other; red splotches formed on Aubrey's contorted face. It was a rather sensitive subject for her and this was a one way ticket to a meltdown.
"Ah, no," Bams sounded as if she was lying and everyone in the room was quick to notice. Amy frowned at her, she had expected an easy answer.
"So yes," Amy answered.
Bams felt the blood drain from her face. The last thing she wanted to do was really upset Aubrey; that could lead to week long battle and that sounded like a horrible start to the school year.
Just then Chloe issued a huge yawn, accompanied with an even bigger stretch. "Damn I'm tired," she said offhand. There was a murmur of consensus from the group, all of them silently agreeing to shelve the conversation for a time Aubrey wasn't present.
"Yeah, I'm really tired too," Bams lied, picking up what Chloe was trying to do.
Soon enough the Bellas had trickled out, Aubrey had stomped off with a tight lipped goodnight to Chloe's room, and Chloe followed behind shortly.
This left Bams and Beca alone, sitting on opposite ends of the now silent living room. The air was ringing after the cacophony of the last few hours.
Beca stood up with a stretch just as bams asked, "do you smoke?" Beca raised her eyebrows, "weed," she clarified.
"Oh…yeah," she wasn't sure why she wasn't telling the truth, but Bams seemed to see right through it. A smirk appeared on her face.
"It's okay if you don't," she chuckled as she got to her feet with a stretch of her own. She paused, letting Beca take the time to answer truthfully.
Beca chewed her lip, she hadn't expected to get called out so suddenly. She had hoped her lie was minorly convincing, but that was shot. "Okay, I haven't smoked since I was 16," she said with a sigh.
Bams laughed, shaking her head as she moved around the quiet living room picking up cups, shot glasses and various plates that had been used for snacks. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to, but it's okay, I won't pressure you," she smiled softly, clutching a stack of dishes. Beca grabbed the few remaining things and followed Bams into the kitchen where she started loading the dishwasher.
She didn't take her eyes off Bams, the last thing she had expected from her day was ending it smoking with the girl she had been so worried about meeting. But Aubrey's little sister had been so opposite of what she expected that, after having lived her day, she wasn't surprised to find the two of them alone together.
"I mean…if you want I can hang out while you smoke," she was surprised her voice didn't shake as she felt a wave of nerves wash over her. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous, but her hands were growing clammy as she held onto her stack of glasses. Maybe she just really wanted Bams to accept her offer.
She passed Bams the glasses and immediately curled her hands into anxious balls, "thanks," Bams said brightly as she loaded them. She finished, washing her hands and drying them before she turned back to Beca, "I would love that." Bams could have fist pumped in celebration but instead she motioned for Beca to follow her and made her way through the living room, turning off lights as she went.
Bams pushed open her bedroom door, it creaked heavily, and disappeared into the darkness. Beca slowly shuffled after her, nervous to run into something and embarrass herself. Just as she was beginning to wonder how far she should be walking, Bams snapped on the light; Beca had ended up roughly six inches away from her.
"Sorry," she tilted her head back to look up at bams who was looking down at her giggling slightly. The breath caught in her throat and she took a hasty step back. Bams' eyes flashed in the low glow of the lamp. Beca noticed.
"Whoa," she said, hoping to move past the moment when she finally looked around.
Her eyes grew round; She'd never gone into the room while it was Aubrey's. it made Beca's dorm look like a shack. The room itself was a large rectangle with a relatively long hallway that contained a door Beca assumed was the closet and another that led to a large bathroom.
She wanted to whistle as she continued her observation. If she thought the living room showcased Bams' personality it was nothing compared to her room.
There was so much to look at she didn't know where to start; the room had its own odd assortment of dead things and other Knick knacks, a creepy puppet hung on the wall in the corner over two stacked reptile tanks, the contents of which Beca couldn't see and wasn't sure she was interested in meeting.
There was even more art covering one of the walls, a poster of the New York liberty wnba team, as well as tour posters from twenty one pilots, Meg thee stallion, Rezz and oddly enough, in Beca's opinion, Taylor swift.
Beca stopped to comment, "I very much wouldn't have pegged you as a Taylor swift fan."
"A swiftie," Bams corrected her, she was bent over, fishing something out from under her bed. She straightened up, holding a box covered in stickers "how would you have pegged me then, Beca?"
Becas face flushed, but she decided to keep the joke running, "definitely something harder."
Bams bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing. Beca went back to examining a shelf causally a little smirk in place, glad her joke had landed; she motioned to Bams from head to toe, "you don't really look like you're getting down to "shake it off" in your off time."
"I'll take that as a compliment then," Bams said, plopping down crisscrossed on her pristinely made bed and pulling a rolling tray, a large jar of weed, and a pack of honey dutches out of the box she had brought with her.
Beca watched her tattooed and ring clad hands break a sweet smelling wrap and start to pile weed in it before continuing to peruse the room.
There was a double layered instrument rack on the wall opposite Bams' bed housing a few acoustic and electric guitars, a bass, a violin, a viola, three different sized ukeleles, a tambourine, a flute, a clarinet and a trumpet. Beca looked on with awe at the keyboard sitting next to it that had a collection of drumsticks piled on the back.
"How many instruments do you play?" She asked incredulously, turning around to see Bams licking the blunt closed. Beca didnt know a lot about smoking, but she was still impressed at the speed with which Bams produced the blunt.
She shrugged in response.
"You know that's not a normal person answer, right?" Beca looked at her like she was crazy, she'd never met anyone who had given that response; it made Bams chuckle again.
She shook her head with a smile before putting down the blunt and starting to count on her fingers.
Beca watched in amazement as she counted to ten, started over again, filled her fingers one more time and paused before adding a few more fingers then bit her lip.
"I would say…roughly 23 that I can think of right now, but honestly I can play anything if I see it a couple times."
"Are you a real human?" Beca wondered aloud.
Bams, her hands growing clammy, leaned against her pillows to better view Beca. "Maybe I'm not," she joked, her eyes widened playfully. "Are you ready?" She asked, motioning to the blunt she was spinning in her hand.
"One second; I'm not done," Beca told her, turning back to finish examining the room.
Bams drew a long breath and got to her feet, she liked that beca was so interested in seeing her life. She anxiously looked on as the brunette slowly revolved on the spot looking around herself.
The last thing that caught Beca's attention was a shelf in the corner of the room dedicated to Bams basketball career. She moved closer to pry a bit more, she had to squint to read in the dim light; Bams leaned against the door unsure of her sudden bashfulness as she anxiously rolled the blunt between her long fingers.
She was normally extremely confident and proud of what she had achieved, but something about Beca looking was intimidating her.
Hanging from hooks on the side of the shelf were an array of jerseys, but the three different team USA jerseys with a gold medal accompanying each caught Beca's attention first. Beca lightly touched one of the medals, "you were in the Olympics?"
bams snorted before managing an answer, "you know I'm 20 right?" She was joking but worried she might have offended Beca so she quickly explained.
"I'm not that good," Beca took this as a modest answer, "It's the FIBA world championship. I won gold with under 17 one year and under 19 for two," Beca felt less dumb now and appreciated the explanation.
She glanced up at the shelf again and realized bams was in fact being modest: among a number of other mvp and player of the year trophies, sat two FIBA mvp trophies.
"What about this," she pointed to a McDonald's all American jersey, "did you just see who could eat the most McDonald's at a time?" She knew this would make Bams laugh and wasn't disappointed.
Bams gasped through her laughter, clutching a stitch in her side before explaining the top 24 high school senior boys and girls in the nation were selected to play in a game. Beca noticed yet another trophy bearing the engraving "FIBA 2022 world championship most outstanding player." "Sorry, I don't know a lot about sports," she mumbled, making bams grin; there was something refreshing about Beca's lack of sports knowledge.
"That's okay; I don't know a lot about collegiate a Capella," Beca's nerves eased and she returned Bams' smile before turning back to the shelf again.
There were team pictures from each state championship she had won in high school, a basketball covered in autographs, multiple pairs of autographed shoes and pictures of her with various players, some beca recognized from the liberty poster, but most of them she was unfamiliar with.
Her mouth dropped slightly as she took in every accolade, it was a bit intimidating she thought to herself. she couldn't believe Aubrey had kept so much about her sister a secret. She turned to face Bams, flabbergasted, "Aubrey never told us all this," she motioned to the collection.
Worry had begun to creep into Beca's stomach; she wasn't sure she felt comfortable with Bams taking away from her basketball career for the sake of the Bellas. Yes, she would most likely be a great addition, but she also seemed to have a much bigger purpose in life than collegiate a cappella.
Bams' jaw tightened at the Aubrey comment, but she bit back the nasty reply resting on the tip of her tongue.
"Come on," Bams motioned with her head and Beca, fully satisfied with her tour, obediently followed to the living room and out onto the dark balcony without another word about her sister.
It had cooled down significantly from the heat of the day, but the night was still warm. The familiar sound of crickets and other night time critters living in the trees filled the air; Bams sighed happily as she leaned against the banister looking up at the scattering of stars and the moon.
"I'm such a 'look at the moon' ass bitch," she informed Beca who chortled.
"Dude, look at her," she motioned to the sky. Beca had to admit the full moon beaming down on them was beautiful, it was just nothing she had ever spent copious amounts of time paying attention to.
A comfortable silence fell between them.
Bams sparked a lighter; the flame threw her face into light as she went slightly cross eyed to ignite the end. It only took the few seconds her face had glowed orange for the image to burn itself into Beca's brain. She looked away quickly, choosing to seem far more interested in the night sky than she was.
The smell of weed washed over them as clouds of bluish, grey smoke swirled around in intricate patterns. Bams took a long pull on the blunt, closing her eyes as she filled her lungs with the smoke. She looked peaceful to beca, like she'd been waiting all day for this moment.
Then a thought occurred to her when Bams began letting the smoke pour out of her nose that made her blood run cold.
"Won't you get in trouble?"
"With who?" Bams asked, she blew a set of smoke rings out into the still night air. They watched the rings disappear into the dark before Beca turned back to her, her mouth still agape.
"With…" she paused and looked around to check no one was listening anywhere before whispering, "the basketball people."
Bams' laugh rang out into the deserted quad below them, even in the dark beca could see how wide the grin was. "God you're hilarious," she managed to choke out after forcing away the laughter. "The ncaa doesn't care anymore, they got rid of the ban this year…so lemme tell you the last two years were," she whistled a long note before hitting the blunt again.
Conversation came to them easily, flowing as steadily as the blunt burning in Bams' grasp. Both girls were equally interested in getting to know each other. Beca to see how this girl could possibly be related to Aubrey and bams to see just who had been terrorizing her sister the previous year.
Beca didn't waste time with her questions and quickly learned that Bams and Aubrey's mom, Veronica "Ronnie" Montgomery, had married Aubrey's dad, Alexander, when she was 20. Aubrey's dad, Bams informed her, was a career military man and the military always came first. This made a lot of sense as to why Aubrey so violently wanted success; maybe then her dad would finally pay attention to her.
The couple were married for 4 years before they divorced shortly after Aubrey turned one when their mom decided she couldn't continue living and raising a baby with such a cold hardass. It was an amicable divorce, and raising Aubrey between them proved to be easier than raising her together. Beca found herself listening with rapt attention, clinging to every word Bams shared with her.
Bams' parents, it turned out, had never been married; but instead were life long best friends that decided to give it a shot. Bams' dad, Heath "sinner" Sinclair, was a pretty well known tattoo artist in Georgia; this explained Bams being 65% ink. He was an extremely tattooed, large, muscled man intimidatingly standing at 6'7" who had a much softer soul than most would assume.
While he had been a great dad to both bams and Aubrey from the get go, her parents quickly realized they were better off as friends and separated when Bams was 6 months old. Bams said it was alright though, they really were great parents and she'd never hurt knowing they weren't together.
The blunt had long gone out and Before beca knew it she was opening up about her own parents messy divorce in ways her therapist had begged her to do with her. Bams was a fantastic audience; she never took her eyes off Beca as she listened intently, adding comments where they were welcome and staying silent in those moments Beca just needed to take a breath.
Beca's parents were both good to her, her dad, Bill, a little pushy, her mom, Scarlett, a little scatterbrained, but neither of them were good to each other. To the current day, It had been nearly 15 years of a raucous relationship.
It felt good to share what had plagued her for all those years; she had never really talked about any of it at all. Other than making snide side comments about how horrible her step 'monster' Sheila was to her dad she had mostly stayed silent on her feelings.
Beca had just finished the story about how she was forced to be a bridesmaid in Sheila and Bill's wedding when she was ten when a thought occurred to her.
"I just remembered, Chloe said your mom and Aubrey's dad—"
Bams smiled, she knew the question was about the second divorce, "yeah," she couldn't help but laugh. It rang out into the night and echoed in the distance before dying off slowly. "Isn't that one of the most ridiculous things you've ever—"
Suddenly they heard a window get thrown open to their left; Aubrey's voice floated out into the night. "Would you two shut up?" She barked before slamming it shut; the two girls burst out laughing. They hadn't realized how loud they had gotten.
"Come on," bams opened the door for beca and bowed her through it, Beca fought back the small smile threatening to appear as she walked in. The living room was pitch black, beca couldn't see two inches in front of her if she tried. Suddenly she felt Bams' hand slip into her own as she guided her to the middle of the dark room where she dropped it as quickly as she had grabbed it.
"Do you wanna stay a bit longer?" Bams whispered in the dark, she wasn't quite ready for their conversation to end. Beca could still feel the warmth where Bams' hand had held hers, and thought quickly about what she should do.
She should go home, but the temptation to stay and keep talking was high.
"Yeah," she heard herself whisper before she had thought anymore about her options.
She couldn't see her besides a dark outline, but she could hear Bams smiling when she spoke, "awesome," and she turned to march toward her room. a large rectangular patch briefly glowed in orange when the door was opened, dim light spilled out into the living room, its weak rays fruitlessly trying to cut into the heavy dark.
Beca followed her without hesitation. When she walked in Bams was already flitting around the room gathering supplies: a thin blue box, a few white pillar candles, a stack of vinyls and her weed box. Beca, leaned against the door frame watching, amazed she was able to carry it all at once.
When she was satisfied with her haul she dropped heavily onto the fluffy white rug, depositing her clutch in front of herself as she crisscrossed her legs. She seemed to be in her own world, utterly unconcerned as she set about lighting candles, placing them each carefully on the hardwood around the rug. Then she lit incense and stuck the end into one of the candles.
The smoke swirled up around the burning end, snaking its way towards the ceiling. The warm scent of frankincense and other unknown spices spread slowly across the room while Bams got to her knees to grab her record player, setting it up quickly before dropping the needle down on the first album she had grabbed.
Flip by glass animals warbled out of the speaker, weak at first, nearly drowned out by the crackly feedback. Slowly but surely as the record player warmed up the song played clearer and clearer until you couldn't hear the crackle at all; Bams was happily humming along to the music as she once again began the process of rolling a blunt.
Only when she had split the wrap did she look up and realize Beca was not with her. "What are you doing, weirdo?" She asked after locating Beca hovering by the door. She didn't look away as she started to roll the blunt, rolling it between the tips of her fingers first before tucking one side under the other and beginning to lick it shut.
Beca felt her face grow warm at the question, "ah, um, I don't know," she confessed, closing the door behind her and moving into the room to plop down next to Bams in the center of her candle circle. "You're not…like gonna sacrifice me are you?" She looked wearily at the closest candle as if it might suddenly start moving around like a fire headed snake.
Bams turned slowly, a gleam from the lamp in her eye, and said slowly but quietly, "ah, she's a quick one this one," she announced to the room at large with a wicked laugh. Beca's eyes widened; Aubrey's sister couldn't be this crazy—"dude, I'm fucking with you," bams said in her normal voice a smile back in place. "You are sil-ly," she added with a shake of her head.
Beca continued to stare at her flabbergasted. This girl was weird. And she told her as much.
"And why do you say that?" Bams asked, feigning innocent curiosity.
In way of answer Beca glanced around the room, her eyes falling on each skull or taxidermied animal that surrounded them.
Bams bit her lip with a smile, "okay…I see what you're saying."
With the blunt now lit, ambience set, and snacks grabbed bams laid down on the floor with her knees up, smoking like a chimney, beca sitting beside her hugging her own legs to her chest, watching the other girl.
Even with as much as they had already talked it wasn't difficult to grab a subject and take off with it. They talked about their plans for after college (Beca explaining her desire to be in LA producing music, and Bams her path to the wnba), their plans for during college (many Bella and basketball victories and records), their relationship horror stories (Beca finally spilled the beans on Jesse; Bams was a very understanding audience. Bams hunting at a long term relationship that had ended badly), Bams' Aubrey horror stories (she really had been thrown up on a fair few times, but Bams insisted if Beca had met Aubrey's dad she would understand why), childhood trauma, Bams' basketball career and when they had exhausted all of the basics they moved on to any possible story they could recount.
Hours went by, how many they weren't sure, but Bams had smoked three more blunts in the time they spent talking. Beca had watched, amazed, every time Bams finished a blunt and immediately rolled another one. Despite the windows being thrown wide, the air in Bams' room was cloudy with incense and weed and beca even felt a bit high. It turned out she didn't mind it too much.
They were towards the end of a story about the time beca had to pee in a Starbucks cup in the back seat of her friends car as they were speeding down the highway. bamss eyes were feeling heavy from the weed and the need for sleep, but she wanted to stay up longer to keep talking to beca about nothing and everything. She giggled at the end of the story and felt her exhausted eyes blink slower and slower.
"Hey, Bams," Beca was gently shaking her awake, she had fallen asleep on the floor flat on her back, her mouth open ever so slightly. Her eyes opened as slowly as they had closed a few moments before.
"Hm?" She mumbled sleepily, her eyes closed again, Beca laughed under her breath at the sleeping girl who was looking harder and harder to wake up. Beca grabbed her shoulders and tried to haul her up to a sitting position, but she was pure dead weight and it took a few tries. Finally she got her to sit up, her head rolling around slightly; this jarred her from her sleep.
"Fuck," she jumped, then looked wildly up at Beca, the sleepy look quickly leaving her face. "Sorry," she gasped, clutching her chest out of fright. Beca offered her her hands to stand up but Bams shook her head with a laugh, "theres no way you're helping me up."
Beca's brow furrowed; she was NOT weak. From the look on her face Bams knew what she was thinking, "oh step off it," she joked as she got to her feet, "not hating, but like, you're like what 5'2"?" Beca nodded, "I'm 6'3 and 175 pounds, I'll let you try next time." She winked at Beca and then went into her closet without an explanation, leaving Beca wowed at her height.
"I should probably get going," Beca called out as she waited for Bams to reappear. "My roommates gonna kill me if I wake her up—"
Bams showed up at the closet door, changed into pajamas and clutching a pair of shorts, a shirt, and a towel. "Wanna just stay the night?" She extended the clothes out to Beca slightly. Beca thought about it for a moment.
"Are you sure? I don't mind going home, it's not that long of a walk, really. And I've got pepper spray…and a rape whistle…" she trailed off as Bams stared at her blankly. "That would be great," she said for the second time that day, accepting the pajamas as she walked by to change in the bathroom.
bams went back towards her bed, near giddy with excitement over their sleepover. She really hadn't wanted to say goodnight. "See you soon, there's an extra toothbrush in the cabinet" she said sweetly with a smile, falling backwards onto her bed at the same time as Beca snapped the bathroom door shut.
Beca came out of the bathroom five minutes later, changed and slightly swamped in Bams' clothes. She could smell weed burning and saw the haze making its way down the hall. She laughed to herself. Bams was something else.
Once down the hall she spotted Bams leaned against her pillows with her knees up, a book propped open on her legs, a lit blunt in her left hand and a pair of glasses perched on her nose. She glanced up when Beca walked in, a smile immediately appeared on her face. She carefully marked her page and shut her book, patting the bed next to her as Beca drew closer.
Beca sat down awkwardly, not sure if she should make herself comfortable or just perch until she went to sleep on the couch.
She settled on half leaning half sitting; which she realized too late looked infinitely more awkward.
Bams observed her through her glasses, "you could like…relax, you know, put your feet up."
Beca blushed, "I just…I don't want to intrude—"
"Ma'am I just asked you to get in my bed," they didn't know it, but both of their stomachs did backflips at the same time.
"True," Beca agreed before pulling her legs up to join the rest of her. "Whatcha reading?"
Bams lifted up the book and showed Beca the cover: flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. There was a mouse with a flower on the cover; Beca was unfamiliar with it. Bams gave a brief synopsis then told beca she should most definitely read it.
"Ah, it does sound interesting…but I don't really read in my down time—"
"Then I'll have to read it to you someday," Bams said, her eyes sparkling happily. Beca knew she was being serious and couldn't resist a smile. Bams excused herself to brush her teeth and reappeared a few minutes later, "Okay, missy," she said with a stretch, "bedtime."
Beca rose to her feet and started to walk to the door while saying goodnight.
"Where are you going?"
Beca turned around to see Bams wiggling her way under her comforter before pulling it up to just below her eyes. "Ah, I—I, I was gonna go sleep on the couch—"
"Just sleep in here," Bams insisted, "I don't bite…much," she winked and Beca blushed, thankfully, without Bams noticing.
Beca sighed, walked over to the other side of the bed and pulled back the covers to get under them, she'd really put up a fight; Bams watched her with the comforter still pulled up around her until Beca was settled.
She rolled over to turn the light off. "Good night, Beca Mitchell," Bams' voice said through the darkness.
"Good Night, Amber Sinclair," beca mumbled back.
The two of them fell silent. Beca could hear Bams' breathing slowing down with each passing minute. Her mind however was racing like mad. This was a wild end to her day. She was in Aubrey's sister's bed, wrapped in her comforter that smelled so strongly of her, with her falling asleep beside her. She hadn't expected meeting Aubrey's sister to end up like this.
She was trying to float off into a sleep that hopefully would take her mind off bams, but just as she was drifting off she woke herself back up. Bams' breathing was slow and steady. "Bams," beca whispered into the dark. There was no answer. "Hey, Bams," she rolled over and put her hand on Bams' shoulder to shake her slightly.
Bams rolled over and woke with a start, "fuck…god Beca you have to stop doing that," she said with a little sleepy chuckle. After a second she propped herself up on her elbow, squinting through the dark to see Beca and asked, sounding much more alert, "are you okay?"
"What's in the tanks?" Beca asked, sounding extremely concerned.
There was an extended silence.
"Did you really wake me up to ask what was in the tanks."
"Clearly."
"Snakes."
"Jesus—"
"Go to sleep, Beca," Bams said, rolling her eyes and flopping down onto her pillow dramatically, facing Beca who hadn't moved.
Finally Beca relaxed, this time facing Bams who was still watching her in the dark. "Hehe," Bams said, wiggling back into the covers even more. Beca's heart skipped a beat; she was so cute. "Beca Mitchell's in my bed," she informed her.
Beca blushed in the dark before cuddling her face into the pillow and passing out immediately.