"So Where have you been?"
Beca's heart stopped, her eyes snapped open. All thought of her day with bams was pushed from her mind.
There was fat Amy, sprawled out on her bed like a French model; the sun was pouring into the still unpacked, but otherwise empty dorm and blanketing Amy in a heavenly glow.
"What the fuck, Amy," beca hissed, clutching her chest where her heart had restarted and was pounding rapidly against her rib cage. "What are you doing?" She asked in response to Amy's question.
Amy sat up so her legs were dangling off the edge of Beca's bed; she narrowed her eyes at beca. "Why didn't you answer my question?"
"Why does it matter?"
"Why are you answering all my questions with questions?"
Beca who hadn't moved from the doorway, stifled a laugh, "okay fine. I was with—"
"Jesse and you've decided to make it work because maybe breaking up with him was the worst decision of your life?"
Beca scrunched her face up and looked at Amy like she was crazy. "Do you really feel like that?" She asked, sounding slightly hurt.
"Another question," Amy narrowed her eyes even more. "Yes. We all do—"
"What the fuck," Beca repeated as she stared into space, shaking her head at the same time and running a hand through her hair. Everyone had been so supportive when she told them she and Jesse had ended things. "Do you really?"
"Quit stalling, shorty, where were you—"
"I was with Bams—"
"Lesbian!"
Beca rolled her eyes and plopped down in the desk chair covered in clothes at the foot of her bed; Amy didn't usually have any subtlety to her but even this was excessive. Beca propped her feet up, laced her fingers behind her head and glared at Amy pointedly. "I'm not a lesbian—"
"So what have you been doing with Bams for the last…" she looked at an imaginary watch, "97 hours then?"
"Okay, it's been like 18…Amy, not that I'm not always happy to see you, but why are you in my dorm?" Beca decided to ignore the Bams conversation entirely and get to the root of the visit.
Thankfully, Amy went with Beca's subject change without much encouragement.
She sat up straighter, "oh right…so I came by earlier to see if you wanted breakfast…ya know when you were off doing mystery things with Aubrey2.0," they were both silent as they stared at each other, neither wanting to expand on the comment. Amy pursed her lips then plowed on, "and this was taped to the door."
She stuck out a grubby envelope. There were cut out magazine letters pasted to the outside reading: barden Bellas attn: beca Mitchell. It didn't look particularly welcoming.
Beca looked at it uncertainly, it seemed a bit out of the ordinary. Granted she'd never been an a Capella captain before, but she thought Aubrey would have warned her of any slightly concerning rituals she would have to endure. Amy thrust it out again, urging her to take it.
She took it nervously, slid a paper roughly folded into thirds out and slowly unfurled it completely before she began to read in the same pasted letters:
Listen up pitches,
Seriously? You think you can waltz in here and snatch trophies when our ancestors have been hitting those high notes since before you even knew what a cappella was? This season, we're reclaiming what's rightfully ours. Consider your reign over. Get ready to hear what real harmony sounds like because The Siren Syndicate is about to show you how it's done. Consider this your warning: this year youre going to be pitch-slapped!
Prepare to die
Beca reached the end of the page. That seemed a bit excessive. she looked up at Amy, not bothering to hide her disbelief or the laughter threatening to spill out of her. Amy motioned for her to flip the page over.
a valiant a Capella death.
The Siren Syndicate
"I feel like they could have at least fit that all on the front page," she said dryly, tossing the paper down on her bed. "Or sent something that didn't look like a five year old's craft project." She had never even heard of the Siren Syndicate, so they couldn't be that much of a threat then. Nothing to even worry about, right?
Amy who wasn't so sure about that was watching her apprehensively, she nodded to the envelope again. Beca picked it up and saw another smaller paper still inside.
Pool. Tonight. 11:30.
She wanted to roll her eyes again, now this was a bit too dramatic for her, but Amy was looking so serious she couldn't find it in herself to be a smart ass.
Just then Beca's door opened, she looked up expecting to see her roommate only to find Cynthia rose and Stacie clambering into the room laden with snacks. She would have been surprised to see the two of them, but she knew better than to assume Amy had been waiting alone for her.
"Oh good, Becs, you're here finally," Stacie wound her way through boxes and tipped her haul onto Beca's bed; Amy immediately grabbed a package of Oreos and ripped them open ravenously.
"We've been waiting for hours," Cynthia rose groaned, handing Amy a water to wash down her cookies. "Don't you know how to answer the phone? Where you been?"
Great. They were back to this conversation. Beca hadn't even realized she hadn't looked at her phone once since she had been with Bams.
"Ah—" she felt her face grow red.
"Being a lesbian with Bams."
Stacie's eyes grew round and she clapped with excitement, "ooooh good, Becs, so you finally figured it out? And with Aubrey's sister? We've been waiting—"
Beca's jaw dropped indignantly, she spluttered for a moment before she could find words. "Do you guys really just sit around and talk about my sex life all the time?"
"Yes," all three girls chorused.
"And you ALL think I'm gay?"
"Well, that was actually up for debate, we were split 60/40 for awhile, but after last night that scales started tipping more—"
"What the fuck is wrong with you guys," Beca groaned into her hand, biting back the vitriol response on the tip of her tongue. "I'm not gay," she insisted angrily. "And can we stop focusing on that and focus on this instead," she waved the small slip of paper at the other girls who looked slightly taken aback.
She wasn't sure why she was so bothered by their insistence that she was gay, who cared if it was true. Maybe she wanted to come to terms with it herself before she let anyone else try to convince her and her friends' pushy comments were setting her on edge.
They all glanced nervously at each other. Beca was usually pretty dry, but she sounded down right fed up. She had gotten to her feet and seemed to fill the crowded space despite her stature and it took everything for the girls not to cower.
Cynthia rose put on a brave face and spoke first, acting like Beca hadn't just told them off,"Yeah, so we're thinking it's a riff off—"
Beca furrowed her brow, she was unaware you could just challenge someone to a riff off, or that it was even a real thing. she thought it was something barden just did together as an in campus competition.
Amy interrupted, "yeah, or they're going to ambush us and jump us—"
Beca shook her head in amazement, "I feel like that's 97% unlikely…okay, so we got challenged to a riff off…and we haven't sung together in months…we need to call Chloe."
The other girls agreed and Chloe was on the phone within a couple minutes.
"Hello, beautiful girl," her voice sang from the receiver. "You're not still having a gay morning with e are you? She's not back yet" Beca's face flushed maroon, she avoided eye contact with everyone else. She made a mental note to kick Chloe the next time she saw her.
"We weren't having a gay morning," she hissed through her teeth. She couldn't deny the small thought in the back of her head that she really had had a gay little morning with Bams. But This was really becoming a whole thing with the other girls. And it didn't need to.
"Or a gay sleepover," Chloe jested.
Beca pulled her lips in, she wanted to yell at Chloe to shut up, but she couldn't do that with the other girls there who were all sniggering together.
"It wasn't a gay sleepover," Beca shot back. She was now downright wishing she could disappear on the spot. The other girls hadn't taken their eyes off her and even though she wasn't looking at them she could feel their eyes burning into her. This was absolutely the worst case she could have made for herself.
"Mhm, okay," Chloe hummed happily.
"Look, Chlo, Stace, Amy and CR are here—"
"Hello, beautiful girls," Chloe's voice sang one more time.
"—yeah, anyway…do you know who the Siren Syndicate is?"
There was a silence on the other side.
"Why?" Chloe sounded far more concerned than Beca.
"We got a message from them…it's sort of lame actually," Beca reached for the letter and scanned it once over, trying to convince herself that Chloe sounded worried for no reason. "They're challenging us to a riff off tonight, said we took what was rightfully theirs—"
"That's impossible," chloe muttered, the disbelief laid heavy on her voice.
"Okay, red, I don't think you're understanding," Amy called out, "they actually sent us a letter," she was yelling like this would clear things up for Chloe. Beca glared at her, Amy caught her eye and shrugged, clearly she thought it had been worth the shot.
"I'm only saying that because the siren syndicate died out like 50 years ago—"
"Well they seem to have resurrected," Beca mumbled, distractedly rereading the note for the fourth time. "Who are they?"
Chloe sighed heavily, like Beca should have already known this. "I forgot you don't know anything about anything—" Beca started to protest, but Chloe cut her off, "—about bardens history." She paused dramatically, but no one seemed too impressed.
They all looked at each other, the acapella community was a little too nerdy for them all sometimes still.
"The sirens were bardens oldest all female group…but they died out when the Bella's became more popular. As far as I knew they didn't exist anymore—"
"The Bella's were ever popular?" Amy asked incredulously, an eyebrow raised. Cynthia rose muffled a laugh. Stacie looked genuinely surprised.
"Yeah, you know, when looking like a flight attendant was actually in fashion," Beca droned with an eye roll. "So what, they're back from the dead to wage their revenge or something?"
"Only one way to find out. Becs, call a meeting we need to game plan."
The rest of the Bella's were called together for a meeting midafternoon at Chle and Bams' apartment, It was the only place large enough to accommodate all eight girls for their private meeting comfortably. But still they were quite crowded together.
Chatter filled the room as the girls discussed their predicament amongst themselves. They were spread out through the apartment which was feeling a lot smaller than usual. some were sprawled on the floor, others curled up in spots on the couch and chair, while the rest found seats at the bar.
After a few minutes where everyone got settled Beca got to her feet and the room fell silent. It was the first time she was really addressing them all as a group since becoming captain and her nerves bubbled a bit under the surface as she stood up. She rung her clammy hands out and reminded herself this was her group of friends first and foremost.
When she spoke it took a moment, like a lawn mower sputtering to life, for her confidence to flow freely. But soon she was talking with passion about her expectations for the year.
"This is just a test, you know," she was waving the piece of paper around, "it's just something to show us exactly what we're capable of." She had decided that even if the sirens weren't a serious threat they should still use this riff off as a scrimmage. Plus it wouldn't hurt to tell some aca-bitches to aca-shove it.
Fat Amy raised her hand, Beca looked at her, almost surprised to be interrupted. "Wasn't that what the ICCAs were—"
"Amy," Beca said slowly, trying to reign in her annoyance, "we're handling the problem at hand right now. These girls clearly don't care that we won—"
"Which is wack as shit who even are they?" Cynthia rose reiterated for the tenth time since they had all gathered together. Despite the many repeats, the other girls grumbled in agreement.
"It doesn't matter who they are," Chloe rose dramatically to her feet, hands on her hips in a power stance, almost like she was rallying a group of soldiers. "It doesn't matter who they are because it matters who we are."
Beca grimaced from her spot on the floor. "Great point, cringey delivery," she drawled, leaning back on her elbows to look around the group. "Chloe's right though," Chloe humphed at her and took her seat again, "if they want to challenge us, we'll show them exactly who they're messing with."
They spent the next few hours together, dueling back and forth in practice riff off rounds, going through scales, and plotting performances.They still sounded a bit rusty when Beca called it quits in the early evening, but she had good faith that they would pull it together when they performed later. Maybe they wouldn't be at the level of their finals winning performance, but even then they were still killer.
"Okay, nerds, we're gonna kick ass tonight I know it, we'll meet outside the pool house at 11:20. No one be late," she said, pointedly looking at Stacie who was picking at one of her nails.
She looked up at the prolonged silence to see Beca and everyone else staring expectantly at her. "Yeah, I'll be there on time," she sounded slightly annoyed. Maybe because she knew it was true or maybe because she thought it wasn't. Fat Amy interjected, ensuring that she would get Stacie there on time.
Beca led the girls in putting their hands together to sing "ahhh" as a way of closing the meeting before everyone filed out and went their separate ways. Chloe and Beca stayed together in the apartment, chatting about what they thought was going to happen.
"It can't be that serious, right? If no one's heard of them for the last 50 years."
Chloe bit her lip, out of everyone she had looked the most nervous, but she was the only one really well versed in acá-legend. She sighed heavily and flopped down on the couch across from Beca. "I don't know, Becs, a Capella is a really proud sport—" Beca couldn't help but laugh at this. "Shut up, you know what I mean," she kicked Beca lightly from across the couch.
"I just think they could really mean business. People have held grudges for years over a Capella. Who's to say these aren't some great great granddaughters of the last sirens."
This was all sounding a bit too dramatic to Beca. She truly really enjoyed being a Bella, but she didn't think she would ever go on a revenge tour over it. Even if they did get beat to a pulp this year.
They were saved continuing their conversation by the front door opening, revealing Bams with her arms loaded with books. She was struggling and Beca immediately popped to her feet and rushed to help her. She could hear Chloe snigger behind her but chose to ignore it.
Despite the weight of the books she struggled under, Bams felt her whole body lighten when she saw Beca coming over to her. She hadn't known she was even there and then there she was nearly running to her side.
"Hi," she said breathlessly, her eyes dancing happily as the shorter girl reached her and started piling books into her own arms.
"Hi," Beca responded softly, she looked down at the books she was taking into her arms: Map of Days, Library of Souls, Only the Strong Survive: Allen Iverson, the Alchemist, Watership Down, and oddly enough How to Produce Music for Dummies.
When she had relieved Bams of half the books she glanced her over. Grey Cargo pants, pink checkered vans, black crop top. Her pulse quickened.
"Hi," Bams said again, not taking her eyes off Beca for a moment. Beca lifted the last book she grabbed to Bams who went slightly pink. "I just…ahh, I didn't want us to work on stuff and me look stupid."
Despite bams severe embarrassment Beca's grin grew tenfold. It looked like her cheeks might split if she wasn't careful. "I don't think that could happen," Beca said quietly through her smile. Bams flushed brighter.
"Hi!" Chloe called from the living room. She sounded only slightly annoyed, but more entertained than anything else.
Finally Beca and Bams looked away from each other, Beca noticing the tinge of red that was glowing on Bams' ears. Bams dumped her books on the dining room table, Beca followed suit then trailed after her into the living room
"Hi, princess," Bams said with her arms outstretched to Chloe, a playful smile on her face. Chloe looked at her stonily.
"Can you just love me?" She whined before crawling on top of Chloe to lay entirely on her, her head coming to rest on Chloe's chest, her long legs sticking out about a foot over the armrest.
Chloe heaved a huge sigh and eye roll before wrapping her arms around Bams and squeezing her really hard. Bams let out a rush of air with the squeeze, then slipped off Chloe to lay between her and the back of the couch, her arm and leg still draped over the ginger.
Beca sank down in the chair next to Chloe's end of the couch, she took a long look at the two cuddled girls; it was still hard to imagine this personable, funny, kind human being was related to the women that had terrorized her the year before. She tried not to notice, but the thought of being in Chloe's spot wouldn't leave the back of her brain.
"Whatcha been up to?" Bams asked once she was settled, "you guys look stressed as hell—"
"Siren syndicate…"Chloe said wearily as if this would explain everything. She seemed to be waiting for a response.
Bams, who had propped her head up on her hand, glanced at Beca with her eyebrows raised then gasped dramatically after a brief pause that almost went too long.
Beca stifled a laugh and Chloe, who hadn't noticed their shared glance, looked pleased. "Right?" She said excitedly, grateful that someone finally shared her knowledge.
Bams shot another purposeful look at Beca, "Ah, Chlo, didn't they stop existing forever ago?"
"Wait," Beca' finally looked shocked, "you actually know who they are?" Bams was an endless surprise.
"Dude, you met an acapella legend today—"
"You met Aunt Ronnie?" Chloe's excitement was bubbling over at this news. "Isn't she amazing?" Beca had a lot to take in from the last three sentences, but she was touched by Chloe's use of aunt to describe Bams and Aubrey's mom. Chloe seemed to have forgotten what they were talking about in her excitement. "So you guys did have a gay morning—"
Bams' laugh rang out. She slid on top of Chloe again to straddle her. Beca felt a spot in her stomach lurch forward as she watched the interaction; she quickly glanced away, because she was thinking too much about switching spots with Chloe. The laughter was sparkling in Bams' eyes as she looked down on the girl laying between her thighs. "Every morning with me is a gay morning."
Chloe pursed her lips while Beca pulled them in, Bams had a point. Beca was both horrified and fighting off the urge to laugh at the joke. Thankfully Bams swept the comment under the rug and didn't seem too pressed by what she had said.
"But back to the siren shit." She got off Chloe, nudged her feet up and sat down on the end of the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table as she went. Aubrey would have quaked.
"Oh right," Chloe snapped back to attention and sat up, "we think they're making a comeback—"
"And we're top of the revenge list," Beca finished, pushing the folded up letter towards Bams who quickly looked it over and laughed.
"Oh," she paused, "we're taking this seriously?" She waved the letter around like it was a piece of trash she'd picked up off the ground. Threats from a previously thought to be extinct acapella group couldn't be a major problem for the iccas reigning champs.
Chloe looked at Beca, who realized she needed to act a bit more concerned than she felt. Clearly Chloe thought Bams didn't realize the severity of the situation they were finding themselves in. She needed to show a united front with her co captain.
"Until we know otherwise," Beca shrugged. It was a task to come across genuine as sarcasm was Beca's natural language, but for Chloe's sake she knew she needed to tone it down. Somehow though, with the way Bams was looking at her, a slight smirk curling on her lips, Beca knew she could see her internal struggle.
"So why do I have to wear all black?"
Stacie was grumpily going through her clothes to meet fat Amy's request. She tossed them left and right over her shoulder haphazardly, forming small piles all over the room.
Amy watched silently for a moment as shirt after shirt flew by and collected on the ground. Stacie's dorm was a mess.
And not just a, you moved in yesterday so of course you're still a little messy for the next couple days until you get settled mess. A genuine, bonafide mess.
To her defense, it did look like she had been living there far longer than just 36 hours. This was somehow both horrifying and mind boggling to Amy, who had quickly scanned the room upon entry with her eyes growing rounder and rounder with each discovery.
There was makeup and cuticle care thrown on her desk haphazardly, a thin dusting of some unknown powder coating the surface of the table top. Shoes were thrown in every direction. Besides the newly forming piles, there were clothes everywhere. They were bursting out of the wardrobe, they were piled on Stacie's desk chair and thrown on the other bed in the room.
Someone was very lucky that somehow, Stacie had managed to get a double room all to herself. Earlier in the day Fat Amy thought Stacie had won the lottery, but seeing the ground zero unfolding in her room, Amy realized that someone else had in fact won it instead.
"Ah, recon, duh," Amy finally replied, as if this was the most obvious of answers. "We're not trying to be victims in a surprise attack."
Stacie stopped her ransacking to turn with an eyebrow raised to Amy. She felt like there was slim chance of them becoming victims, it was just acapella after all. And who could really get that upset over some 50 year old beef?
"Why did you have to be the one to volunteer to get me there on time?"
"Because the acá-gods, deemed it so…" she looked over Stacie who had finally located a black beanie, shirt and jeans. "Get changed fast, we're meeting Lilly in 8 minutes," she said, turning around to give Stacie some privacy.
"Get changed fast, we're meeting Lilly in 8 minutes," stacie mocked back as she begrudgingly stripped her clothes off and hastily pulled on her new outfit.
Amy was impressed, six minutes had gone by and the two of them were out the door, walking briskly through the dark, deserted campus in their matching espionage outfits. Lilly would meet them at the pool house and the three of them would draw up a plan to case the area.
When they arrived at the pool it was to find not a soul in sight. Silence was hanging heavy on the air, only broken up by the occasional singing bug or hooting owl. Stacie shivered slightly. It wasn't that it was too cold, but the place was giving her the creeps.
"Where's Lilly?" She whispered loudly when they reached the side of the abandoned pool house. Amy jumped and spun around hastily, clutching her chest at the same time. Clearly, she was feeling just as on edge as Stacie was. She shrugged, rubbing her chest still as if trying to restart her heart.
Just as they were beginning to think Lilly wasn't going to show up early a long length of rope fell, uncoiling quickly, from the roof of the pool house. The two girls glanced at one another and then up the rope.
Lilly, dressed in all black and a pair of night vision goggles, was propelling herself down the wall toward them.
She dropped the last couple feet, landing with a soft thud in front of the two awestruck women.
"Woah," Stacie said.
Straightening her clothes, Lilly whispered something the others couldn't hear at first. When there was no reaction to her she spoke a bit louder, but just barely. Stacie and Amy leaned in, each straining to understand.
Lilly sighed before speaking up once again, "I caught one of the sirens. She's tied up in the pool house."
The silence that followed was palpable. Now that they were quiet they could hear a muffled scream coming from inside the building. Stacie's jaw dropped, Amy appeared unphased.
When she was finally able to find words Stacie managed to get out, "Why—why did you tie her up?"
Lilly shrugged. She wasn't revealing her secrets.
Stacie took a small step back, looking wearily at Lilly, like her fate might be the same as the unknown captive if she wasn't careful.
"Good job," Amy said, nodding her head as if this was her plan the whole time. She and Lilly traded a well choreographed handshake while Stacie took yet another worried step away. "Any other sign of the enemy?" She looked up at the roof Lilly had just vacated. The silent girl shook her head.
"We should interrogate the captive," Amy decided after yet another thick silence. Stacie looked like she was close to fainting, she was blinking quickly and wobbling slightly on the spot.
"We should let her go," she insisted. The other girls looked at her with disappointment. "Why did you have to involve me in this?" She groaned.
"Involve you in what?"
All three girls jumped and spun on the spot.
Beca, Chloe and Bams were looking curiously at the group who suddenly looked very guilty. "Involve you in what?" Beca repeated, one eyebrow raising slowly as she waited for an answer.
"Lilly kidnapped one of the sirens and has her tied up in the pool house," Stacie said quickly, she sighed heavily. The relief of outing the situation melted the weight off her shoulders.
The newcomers eyes grew wide, and just as Stacie had, they all took a small step away from the silent girl. Lilly seemed entirely unbothered by the reaction.
Amy slapped Stacie upside the head, "Jesus, stace, any other secrets you're dying to get out—"
"What? Were you just gonna leave her in there—" She jabbed her finger at the pool house "—for the rest of the night?" She crossed her arms angrily as her annoyance flared.
Another scream came from inside.
The entire group froze; Chloe Bams and beca traded horrified looks before immediately skirting around the edge of the building to its front door closely followed by Stacie Lilly and fat Amy, who was protesting their interference.
The pool house was a small building, newer than most others on the campus. a few windows were scattered here and there, but mostly it was row after row of unyielding new age brick.
One of the wide, white double doors was cracked open. Beca wrenched it the rest of the way, the small amount of light that emanated from the outside security lamp unsuccessfully fought its way into the otherwise dark room. She squinted as it swung the rest of the way and thumped off the wall, it was extremely hard to see into the pitch black.
This was the sort of thing Beca had come to fear from Lilly. She made a mental note to talk to her about not chloroforming any of the new girls when it came time for hood night then took a deep breath and steeled herself for what she would find inside the pool house.
Beca searched around on the wall for the light switch, a few seconds later the lights came flickering on. Everyone but Lilly stuck their heads into the room curiously. It wasn't every day you saw someone bound and gagged inside your college campus pool house anyway.
"Jesus Christ, Lilly."
"Oh my god."
"This is bad."
"How long has she been here?"
"Good job, lill!"
"Amy!"
"I mean…bad job, lill?"
There was a girl with long black hair sitting tied to a chair facing the doors, her mouth was gagged, arms and legs bound, eyes were wide and rolling when the lights came on. She looked beyond frightened as the group of shocked girls approached her and started screaming that muffled scream again as they got closer.
"We're sorry!" Beca said rather louder than she would have normally to be heard over the scream, but she wasn't too familiar with how to act in hostage situations. "We didn't mean for this to happen, we're not gonna hurt you," she said as she got to the girl's side with her hands raised. The girl was staring at her, she looked like she was silently saying her goodbyes.
Beca reached up and ungagged her mouth with a shaking hand. Getting charged with kidnap was infinitely more terrifying to Beca than a half threat from an extinct acapella group.
"What the FUCK is wrong with you guys?" The girl yelled as soon as her mouth was free. "Let me out of here!" She started squirming fruitlessly in the chair, trying to will her arms and legs out of their tethers.
"When we're done with the interrogation," Amy interjected, arms crossed, legs spread, looking either very intimidating or very ridiculous depending on where you were sitting. The girl's mouth dropped open as she tried to find the words to object to getting interrogated.
"There's not going to be an interrogation," Chloe challenged, stepping forward toward the girl who flinched again. "We are so sorry about this," she laughed awkwardly like this sort of mix up happens every day.
"Sorry? I'm fucking tied up in the goddamn pool house in the middle of the night by some freaks I don't even know!"
Chloe straightened up, "well you don't have to be rude," she said annoyed, crossing her arms in front of herself. It seemed she had suddenly made the choice to not untie the girl.
The girls eyes grew wider. "Let me the fuck go!"
"What's going on?"
The rest of the Bella's had arrived and were all crowded around the pool house now to see what was going on. In near perfect unison they all gasped. It was safe to say the scene before them was the last they had expected to find.
"Lilly," Stacie, Chloe and Beca responded immediately. There was a collective "ohh" of understanding. No one was shocked by this.
The girl stared open mouthed at all of them. Looking at each of them in turn, trying to figure out which one of them would release her. She was coming up entirely short. She took a deep calming breath and asked again in a much steadier voice, "who are you guys and why are you—"
"Wait…you don't know who we are?" Beca's face went from extremely concerned to extremely confused and concerned. The girl shook her head vigorously. "You're—you're not a siren?" She felt rooted to the spot. As tied up and bound as the girl in front of her. Lilly had not kidnapped a siren, but a random stranger. This was worse than she thought.
"What the fuck is a siren?" The calm seemed to be wearing off her again as her frustration grew, she started to pull at her bound wrists once again. "I literally was walking home from the library—"
"School hasn't started yet—," Amy had an eyebrow raised accusingly.
Bams was behind her and buried her head in her hands. She could tell, like most of the others by now, this the wrong girl, but Amy seemed to point blank refuse to believe it. Well, at this rate at least she could say her school year would most definitely be interesting.
Between basketball and the Bella's she could tell she was in for a wild ride.
The girl let out an annoyed sigh, "have you never read a book before? Ya know, just to read—"
"Suspicious—"
"Amy shut up," Beca groaned, this was starting to get out of hand. Taking the sirens seriously was one thing, but to kidnap someone was something Beca couldn't defend so easily. Finally regaining movement in her feet, Beca stepped forward again. Once again the girl flinched. "I'm sorry," Beca mumbled as she moved to untie the girl, "it really was a misunderstanding."
"So you were planning on kidnapping someone else then?" The girl asked flatly. Clearly she was not happy with Beca's apology. "What's a siren?" She repeated as Beca untied one of her legs. Beca had decided it would be safest to leave the girls hands for last in case she lashed out.
"We weren't trying to kidnap anyone!" Chloe said defensively. She hadn't moved from her spot either and seemed to be more annoyed at this girl for her questions than to pity her for her predicament.
"Could have fooled me," Beca snorted a laugh as the girl snapped back and Chloe looked even more hurt. This was rapidly becoming a night not a single one of the Bella's would ever forget. And most likely their victim as well.
"The sirens are another acapella group—"
"Acapella. I am tied to a chair—"
"Half tied," Stacie interjected positively. Beca had gotten both of the girls legs untied much to Lilly's silent disappointment.
The girl rolled her eyes as Beca began to work at the rope binding her left hand. "Okay, half tied, to a chair because of…acapella? You guys are freaks—" she moaned. It sounded like the fear they might kill her had returned full force. Kidnapping over acapella sounded too far fetched for her to believe.
"Well, we're a very accomplished group and someone is trying to come for us," Chloe raised her chin importantly. Beca wasn't sure whether she had thought that would help make the girl believe them more or if she just felt the need to let her know they were good at singing.
"Yeah congrats," the girl was looking at her now untied wrist, twisting it around as she tried to regain feeling. Beca tried to make quick work of the other, but Lilly's knot tying skills seemed to rival those of a seasoned ship captain.
The next few minutes passed in relative silence. Lilly stood moodily in the corner while The Bellas had all grouped off and were whispering hurriedly in a small huddle. Bams stood chewing at her nails behind Beca while she finished the last few knots.
The Bellas were a lot different than she had expected. She really couldn't have guessed this morning that this is how her evening would be winding down.
Beca finally finished and checked her watch 11:28. They only had a few minutes until the real sirens showed up. The girl hastily stood to her feet, a bit more wobbly than if she hadn't spent the last thirty minutes tired to a straight backed wooden chair.
"I'm getting the fuck out of here," she crossed the room and scooped her bag up off the floor, avoiding eye contact with all of the other girls. Bams felt bad for her, she looked close to tears.
"Wait!" Chloe said as the girl made her way back across the room to the door that was wide open. To Beca's surprise the girl slowly turned on her heel, curiosity was getting the better of her. "We were wondering if you can sing? Would you wanna aud—"
The girl turned sharply and stalked out into the night without another word.
The silence that followed was thick. A million thoughts were flying through Beca's furious brain. First: Chloe was bold. Second: Lilly and Amy were bold. She was torn between wanting to yell at Amy and Lilly and wanting to get down to the pool to get ready for the riff off. After a long silence with much thinking Beca finally spoke in a cool, even voice.
"Did—did you really need to ask her to audition?" Beca groaned, "Let's just go get ready," she glanced at Lilly and Amy, "we'll discuss this tomorrow."
They had never seen beca so angry before. No one spoke, but bams could have sworn she heard every girl in the room take a deep gulp. Usually she remained calm and collected, but a kidnapping hadn't been in the plans for today at all and she was beside herself.
Their feet slapped loudly on the bone dry pool as they trudged their way down to the deep end. Their quiet voices were magnified and echoed off the walls creating an invisible cacophonous storm. Despite Beca's anger the girls were already loosening up again and laughter was bouncing back at them from every corner of the pool.
The air was getting colder as the night went on and they pulled sweaters and jackets closer to themselves the deeper into the pool they walked. Bams shivered.
She was only there for moral support, but she was excited to see her first riff off. Despite having grown up with an aca-legend and an Aca-crazy sister she had never gotten to actually see any acapella live. It wasn't something the family did together as a major bonding experience, just a weird cult thing they had all done in college for the last three generations.
The pool was entirely empty, the sirens hadn't arrived yet, but even then no noise of arrival could have been heard over the high lip of the pool. Bams let her eyes scale the walls to the top and she shivered again. This time not from the cold, but from the sick feeling in her stomach she got when she thought about standing on the edge.
Beca noticed. "Cold?" She asked, but she had followed bams gaze up to the edge of the pool. Bams shook her head with a small smile, she liked beca checking on her. Beca's face softened, "is Amber Sinclair scared of heights?" Her voice was full of laughter, but extremely kind at the same time.
Bams shoved her lightly and Beca's smile grew wider. The spot where Bams had made contact grew warmer and warmer, like she still had her hand on her arm. Beca cleared her throat and tried to come across like she'd felt nothing.
"Okay," Beca called to all the girls to gather them around, her voice rang out in the quiet that fell suddenly, "maybe we should get in another practice round before they—"
"That won't be necessary."
Everyone's heads snapped up to the edge of the pool this time. Sitting with her legs hanging over the edge was a girl with a light brown pixie cut and a look of pure loathing on her face. All of the Bella's were silent, but Bams accidentally gasped when she saw who had spoken.
Everyone turned to look at her, all except Chloe who had also recognized the girl. Bams really wished they weren't staring. She could see Beca out of the corner of her eye, carefully studying her response to the unknown arrival.
The girl's eyes immediately went to Bams and a nasty smirk appeared on her mouth. "Amber Sinclair." She laughed slightly, a higher, colder laugh than Beca had expected, "god this is so much more fun now that you're here."
The Bella's all turned to look at her curiously again. She felt her face grow red, but she also felt her temper rising. Just laying eyes on the girl above her was enough to make her blood boil.
"Who is that?" Beca whispered to her left, but Bams, in her anger, couldn't find her voice to answer.
Instead Chloe spoke, her arms crossed defiantly, she seemed down right pissed off to see the girl, "what are you doing here, Sienna?" She took a slight step to the left and slipped her hand into Bams with a small squeeze.
Siennas eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked down on Chloe, evil amusement played across her face, "oh, Chloe, didn't see you there…hard to find you without Aubrey's shadow to look for." Her eyes flickered to Bams and Chloe's clasped hands, "oh right but the baby Bams is here for you to live in the background of now—" she said in a mock baby voice.
"Hey! Chloe doesn't live—"
The girl barked out a laugh, her cold eyes boring into Beca. The rest of the girls were watching the interaction, heads going back and forth like an intense tennis match. None of them seemed to want to interrupt for fear Sienna would roast them next.
"Chloe Beale," she stared down t as she prepared to serve her next insult, "is perpetually fourth to Aubrey Posen. She's lived her entire life trailing after her like a lost puppy," Sienna was relishing each taunt she spat out. Chloe's back was stiffening with each one. "And don't get it twisted," she glanced at Beca, "without Aubrey she'll be nothing but a leech to that one." She nodded at Bams whose jaw was clenched angrily.
"Stop talking, Sienna," she growled, her hand tightening on Chloe's. There was an edge to her voice Beca had yet to hear; she couldn't deny it was a little concerning.
The cold high laugh rang out into the night again, "very bold of you to demand from down there." She whistled and suddenly the entire edge of the deep end was surrounded by a large group of girls. at least twice as many of them. They were way outnumbered.
All of the Bella's glanced wearily at each other. Amy mouthed "I told you so," to Beca when the girl they had let go earlier walked up to stand beside Sienna looking angrier than she had previously.
"So you can sing!" Chloe whined at the girl who had been tied up. The girl rolled her eyes and remained silent.
"I guess we should get to the point of why I brought you here," Sienna sighed, as if this was all really a major task that was boring her. Beca, who had been so distracted with the drama triangle going on between Bams, Chloe and Sienna, nearly forgot they had come to the pool in the middle of the night for a reason.
Sienna straightened up, like she was about to give some inspiring dictators speech. This wasn't entirely off. "For fifty years the daughters of the siren syndicate have waited for the opportunity to make our move to reclaim our rightful spot—"
"What stopped you?" Beca asked curiously, clearly not caring that Sienna was in the beginning statements of a well rehearsed speech. Sienna stared blankly down at her, taken aback by being interrupted. The other sirens looked just as shocked. "I mean," she glanced around at all of her girls and saw the ghost of a smile on Bams' face, it gave her some encouragement, "fifty years is a long time to sit around waiting for the Bella's to suck even more. So you guys must have been pretty terrible all this time."
All the Bella's laughed, their captain had a point. The Bella's hadn't really been much to compete with ever, so the sirens must have fallen much shorter than that. Bams' face split into a full smile, while Sienna looked like she had just eaten something extremely sour.
"We were waiting for the right time—"
"Ohhhh," Beca nodded understandingly. "I get it, you needed us to clear the way for you because you never would have been good enough to do anything but follow in our footsteps."
Siennas jaw dropped, many of the girls up top shifted uncomfortably, presumably they hadn't viewed their campaign from this angle. The Bella's all oooooohed at the same time, momentum felt like it was shifting their way. Sienna was thinking quickly.
"We were just waiting to have someone worth destroying. Proper revenge. The type your grandkids will think about and the ones after that—"
"Damn you guys have been that bitter all these years?" Bams asked. she didn't bother to remove the laughter from her voice. "Like your mom didn't have anything better to do than talk mad shit about fifty year old drama she wasn't even involved in?"
Bams could tell Sienna was growing frustrated; she had hit a nerve. Her hand kept clenching and unclenching at her side as the conversation progressed. Her original speech had now become so sidetracked she wasn't sure how to steer it back in the right direction. All the other sirens were staring at her, expectantly waiting for their leader to speak.
She bit her lip, hard. "Don't talk about my mother, Bams, I swear to god—"
Bams smiled sweetly up at her, "oh I wouldn't want to do anything to remind you your mom couldn't stand you so much she left—"
"Shut up," Sienna hissed. Chloe tugged on Bams' hand as if to tell her that was enough. Bams wanted to roll her eyes and take another jab, but she respected Chloe too much to ignore her. She fell silent, but it had nothing to do with wanting to ease up on the other girl.
"Okay, can we stop with all the drama and get to your point," Beca drawled. She was cold and wanted this to be over sooner rather than later; especially as it appeared they might not be getting around to singing at all.
Siennas jaw set and she glared off into the night briefly. This was not going entirely the way she planned. "Fine. Long story short. We're gonna destroy you guys this year. In every way that we can. After this year no one is going to even bother remembering the barden Bella's except to laugh."
The sirens all cheered together like a crowd of Spartans preparing for battle. The Bella's looked at each other, eyebrows raised, not believing a word of what had just been told to them. They didn't have much time to come up with a response when Sienna yelled, "NOW!"
There was the sound of heavy plastic scraping on concrete, every last siren had turned to grab a paint bucket that had been previously hidden from view by the edge of the pool. Without waiting for another cue every single girl swung their bucket back in unison and tossed its thick, brown, gelatinous contents onto the cornered Bella's below.
All they could do was wait.
Beca watched in slow motion as a massive wave of brown formed over them all. The sirens were hidden from view, the night sky disappeared, even the noises that had accompanied the night silenced. And then it fell and all the noise of the night came flooding back into her ears.
The Bella's were screaming. The sirens were laughing. Beca heard w let out a frustrated groan and Chloe squeaked slightly. Someone fell to the ground and the sirens laughter rang out again. Beca scooped handfuls of the sticky muck out of her eyes just in time to look up and see Sienna taking a picture of them.
"Say cheese, Bellas, I wanna hang this on my wall," she cackled from behind her phone. She doubled over with laughter after she'd snapped her shot and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "I think our work is done here ladies," she announced to her group with a dusting of her hands and a wide smile.
The girls laughed together again and looked down one last time on the Bellas who were struggling magnificently: Amy was the one who had fallen and was now rolling around in the buckets contents as she tried to right herself, Cynthia rose was yelling about her hair, Lilly seemed to actually be enjoying herself while Stacie seemed close to tears. Bams was standing, jaw set, arms crossed, dripping and glaring at the retreating sirens, plotting exactly how she was going to get back at them.
It was silent for a moment after the sirens departed. None of the Bella's seemed to want to talk; they were so busy dealing with being soaked in mystery liquid. Bams turned away from the edge of the pool to reconvene with the girls when she heard Sienna speak behind her again and spun around, slipping slightly in the mess.
"Oh right, Bams, Nef sends her love."
She disappeared again with a smirk.
This time Bams let out a growl and swung her right arm back far, Beca could see this wasn't going to end well for someone and most likely the wall wasn't going to be the one walking away with a broken hand.
"Amber!"
It was the first time Beca had heard Chloe use Bams' real name. She rushed forward and hung onto Bams' arm to stop her from swinging.
Bams seemed to barely notice Chloe clinging on, but it was just enough to slow her down. She was breathing heavily, wiping her face with one hand while Chloe desperately gripped onto the other. "Amber," she said again more gently this time now that the imminent danger of a broken fist had passed.
Her shoulders slumped and she wiped hastily at her eyes again, dropping her swinging hand to her side. Beca could have sworn she saw her shoulders shaking. She didn't know who Sienna was, she didn't know who Nef was, she was realizing she didn't know a lot about who Bams was at all really yet either, but seeing the girl upset woke up something protective in Beca.
Getting out of the pool was a blur for bams. Her thoughts were flying so quickly. The goo it turns out after Lilly swallowed a mouthful was gallons and gallons of hershey's chocolate sauce. There were worse things to be covered in definitely, but Amy was having a hard time convincing everyone of that. Many of them seemed to think the attack could have been postponed or put off entirely if it hadn't been for the earlier kidnapping.
The girls had to stumble and slide their way up to the shallow end leaving a long, wide trail of chocolate where they clambered out of the pool with drips of brown trailing down their foreheads into their eyes and down their cheeks.
Luckily the showers outside of the pool house were working and the Bella's were able to rinse off outside in the cool night air. brown splats splashed across the concrete and swirled down the drains like muddy water. After a good ten minutes they were mostly clean, the water had returned to a nearly clear state, but most importantly they were too exhausted and annoyed to continue scrubbing themselves outdoors.
No one spoke much. everyone was giving Bams a wide berth as well, worried she might suddenly swing on them. She stuck to herself in the corner, viciously trying to remove syrup from her ears and her scalp.
The arrival of Sienna had been a shock, but nowhere near as shocking as the message she had delivered. Just the thought of it made Bams' blood begin to boil and churn in her veins as her temper rose quickly, making her head spin and her hands shake. She knew the girls would want an explanation soon, but She didn't know what to say yet.
This might all be my fault? It didn't feel like a great way to get accepted into their group. So instead she vigorously scrubbed behind her ears and remained silent, a scowl stuck on her face.
Beca wearily watched Bams who had her back to her, wondering what was going on in the girl's clearly busy mind. She didn't know her that well yet, but even she could tell from the way Bams had fallen mute that something was seriously wrong. Chloe kept shooting worried looks over at her while she freed her own hair from chocolate.
"Is she okay?" Beca mouthed to Chloe who ever so slightly shook her head and shrugged. Even Chloe, who knew Bams better than anyone, was at a loss for what was going on. She knew the sudden appearance of Sienna wouldn't be received well; Sienna Miller had ruthlessly bullied Bams since they were in elementary school, but she hadn't expected this reaction.
The girls left the pool as a group, shivering in their wet clothes. Bams trudged along silently a few feet behind everyone else. She felt like the life had been tapped out of her, like her mouth couldn't open if she tried. Nef sends her love ringing in her ears. Nef sends her love.
Bams stomach dropped, she was walking along barely noticing where she was going. Only the chatter from the other girls plotting their revenge kept her on the right course. She could feel eyes on her, she didn't know who's, but she kept her head down anyway, as her teeth chattered slightly.
Slowly their numbers dwindled as they passed various dorms. Each time Bams mumbled a polite goodbye then immediately looked to the ground again.
Beca chewed her lip as she watched her struggle through their walk home. Chloe had whispered for Beca to come back with them, maybe hanging out would cheer Bams up.
The three girls walked the last couple minutes in silence; Chloe and Beca kept communicating with quick glances and worried looks, Bams with her shoulders slumped and a dark cloud wafting behind her.
"I'm gonna go shower," she said hoarsely when they arrived in the dark apartment. She forced a smile but didn't wait for the other two to respond before she disappeared behind her bedroom door. It closed with a snap and Chloe sighed heavily.
"I don't know what's wrong with her," she admitted to Beca who hadn't looked away from the door. "Come on I'll get you clothes," she nodded to her room and Beca followed behind her.
On the other side of the door Bams collapsed backwards onto her bed without turning on the light or taking off her wet clothes. She stared at the dark ceiling while silent tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes and down into her hair.
She hadn't really let herself cry about anything that had happened to her in the last few months, but this had pushed her over the edge. She had come to Barden to get further away from it and now she was face to face with it again.
When her breath started to go ragged she grabbed a pillow and clung tight to it, pressing it over her mouth to stifle the sobs. She hadn't told anyone what went down, instead she'd let it secretly eat away at her and now she had no one to turn to. Now it would be even harder to talk about.
She eventually found her way into the shower; the stream of scalding hot water relaxed her muscles while her heart rate slowed. Years worth of memories flashed through her mind: Nefs face swam by, freshman year of high school, prom senior year, confetti floating around at their last Big East conference win, Nef smiling at her while she lifted the MVP trophy over her head, lips locked one last time. she forced herself to see, to remember, to hurt. Maybe exposure therapy would be enough to pull her out of her funk.
An hour and a half later, only when her fingers and toes were prunes, the water ran cold, and she could cry no more tears, she dressed grabbed her glasses and went back out into the living room fully expecting it to be empty.
But Beca, freshly showered and changed, was curled up on the couch fast asleep with the kitchen light washing over the room. Bams' heart fluttered in her chest. She was peaceful, breathing slowly, her head angled oddly, she looked like she had fallen asleep waiting up for Bams.
Finally, Bams cracked a smile then shook her head at herself, it was hard not to smile seeing beca there.
She crept into the kitchen, grabbed two glasses of water then noticed a note Chloe had left for her:
I love you madly. We'll talk in the morning.
Thanks for being you, pretty girl.
Love chlo
She smiled again, a bit more sadly than before, swiped the note off the counter, flipped the light switch then made her way back to Beca through the dark living room.
"Becs," she transferred the glasses to one arm and shook Beca's shoulder slightly. Beca took a sharp breath then sat up quickly, rubbing her eyes, trying to assess Bams' face through the dark. "Hey, you," Bams said lightly, "you staying the night?" She made the question sound normal, but it took everything to remove the overexcitement from her voice.
"Mm," Beca responded groggily. Bams' face split into another glowing smile, this one much more genuine than the last. "Happy to see you smiling," she said as Bams pulled her to her feet and led her by the hand to her room. It was true, not seeing a
Bams smile for the last two hours had hurt a bit more than she thought it would. "Thanks," she grabbed the water Bams offered her and gulped it down.
The trace of a smile never left Bams face as she sat down at her desk, propped her feet up on her bed and pulled a rolling tray towards herself before setting to work rolling a blunt. She finally dropped her gaze from Beca when it became impossible to continue on without looking.
Beca sat down heavily on the edge of the bed and took her turn to watch Bams for a long time, like she was considering very many things. She wasn't quite sure what to say or how to say it. She was just really grateful that Bams didn't seem to want her to leave.
"Are you okay?" She asked gently after a couple minutes of comfortable silence. Bams offered a different, weak smile as she licked part of the blunt closed. "You're not."
Bams shrugged and shook her head at the same time. She didn't think she was quite ready to talk about this. Especially not with Beca who gave her butterflies every time they talked about something extremely personal.
"Is it about Sienna?"
Another sad smile. "No, no, I don't care about her. She's always been a flaming cunt—" bams face went red, "sorry that was rude."
Beca laughed and pulled her feet up onto the bed to get comfortable, "I imagine she deserved it…okay… well…if you wanna talk about what's going on I'm here for you."
The smile seemed to grow even sadder, "thank you. You're so sweet, but i don't think I can," Bams answered honestly. She looked dejectedly at the blunt in her hand, "Not yet anyway," she glanced up to read Beca's reaction.
She was nodding understandingly, not giving away the fact that she desperately wanted to know but didn't want to pry. "Thank you," she nearly whispered with the blunt in the corner of her mouth.
She lit the blunt. Her eyebrows knit together as smoke swirled around her. she sat quietly studying Beca who was returning the favor, unblinkingly staring at the girl she was trying to decode. A small smile started to grow the longer Beca stared at her.
"Can I help you Beca Mitchell?"
Beca flushed, "ah, well I was just trying to figure you out," she heard herself say. She wanted to slap herself on the forehead, but Bams smiled anyway and she gained the courage to keep talking. "Well, you just, you wear your emotions on your sleeve, but you're also hard to read."
Bams puffed on her blunt for a second then let out a long stream of smoke before she spoke. "Wear them on my sleeve, eh?"
Once again Beca felt her face flush, "um, I, uh—"
She stopped trying to talk when she noticed Bams chuckling. She held the blunt out, offering it to Beca who considered it for nearly 20 seconds before she said no. Bams shrugged and hit it again before casually saying "I have borderline personality disorder so that is entirely true."
Beca immediately looked embarrassed and immediately spluttered an apology. Suddenly the near fight with the wall earlier made sense, Beca's heart ached for Bams, she didn't know a lot, but she knew that was a heavy thing to carry.
Bams shook her head with another smile, "it's okay, I usually tell people when they get close with me anyway," all the blood rushed from Beca's head. "And you seem to be doing that," Bams finished with another drag from her blunt. Her eyes seemed to sparkle as they looked over Beca, like some of the life that had drained out of them a few hours ago was slowly coming back.
Beca didn't seem to know where to look, so she studied her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
"You can ask me questions if you'd like," Bams said. "I know it sounds like a lot…but yeah…sorry it doesn't have to be weird now" she trailed off awkwardly; it always made her nervous to tell people, and she really didn't want to scare Beca away with the truth.
Beca looked up quickly, the last thing she wanted was Bams to be uncomfortable. "No, no, it's not awkward I promise," Bams looked like she didn't believe her. "I promise. I just don't know a lot about it, but I promise I'll ask you questions if I need to. Thank you for telling me," she said earnestly.
"I like you, Becs," Bams said simply between puffs again, she leaned back in her chair and was peering at Beca through her glasses and clouds of smoke. Beca's heart somersaulted in her chest.
"I like you," she mumbled back, feeling slightly nervous and embarrassed. She wasn't sure why. She hadn't ever felt these kinds of nerves around someone before, especially not a girl, and she didn't know what to do with it.
Bams smiled brightly again, her white teeth gleaming through the smoke. "Aubrey said you would."
Her hands suddenly became way less interesting than this bit of information. "Oh…she did?" She tried to sound calm, but her voice wavered slightly as she spoke.
Between a sip of water and another drag from the blunt Bams nodded. Aubrey hadn't outright said those words exactly, but it was close enough. Bams explained how Aubrey would call and vent about every last Bella thing under the sun the previous semester, but mostly it was about Beca. A small smirk of pride appeared on Beca's face, Bams felt her affection for the younger girl double in size.
She loved her sister, but Aubrey had always been a pain in the ass and her strife with Beca the previous year had been amusing more than anything. She put on a high pitched voice, "she's just like you, you two would probably be obsessed with each other—"
"She wasn't wrong."
Bams fully stopped speaking to smile at beca. "You're special."
"You are."
"Hm, maybe I am obsessed with you."
"You definitely are."
"You're the one sleeping in my bed again," Bams responded with a shrug and what she hoped was the most nonchalant face she could muster. She took a long drag of the remaining blunt, pulling on it until it nearly reached the end and became too hot to hold.
"Ill just go sleep with Chloe then," Beca snapped jokingly; she pretended to get up but Bams whined and she plopped back fine on the bed. Beca distracted herself by picking at her nails while Bams slid into bed beside her and switched the light off. Bams situated her pillows and flopped down heavily, staring up at Beca expectantly through the dark.
After a moment Beca glanced away from her nails to lay down facing Bams who had her arm tucked under her head. "You know if you get tired of me you can tell me to go?" She said wearily. She wasn't sure if Bams' comment had been a positive one or if she was annoyed.
"Why would I want you to go?" She asked quietly like this was quite ridiculous. She blinked slowly, Beca could see her exhaustion growing by the second. There was something so precious about how sleepily Bams was looking at her.
"You tired, miss thing?"
"You didn't answer my question."
Beca forced a smile, "maybe I'm just worried you might."
"No you're too special," Bams said again with a sigh and her eyes closed. It was almost like she felt Beca watching her, her eyes cracked open again with a sleepy smile. "What are you thinking about?"
Becs sighed, she wanted to reach out and tuck the hair behind Bams' ear and lay her hand on her face but instead she searched around to say what was on her mind.
"I'm just worried about you—"
"Becs, I'm not getting tired of you I promise—"
"It's not that," Beca whispered into the darkness. She really didn't want to pry but she couldn't get Bams' face out of her mind. "I just…you almost punched a wall earlier and I—I always want to be able to help you."
Bams could have cried, no one had ever been that sweet to her after seeing a near meltdown. "You're so perfect…" she sighed. She paused for a moment. "Sienna mentioned my ex," she finally said plainly. Almost like she didn't want to, but almost like she didn't care. "And that did not end well…so it sort of put me on edge."
Now Beca knew who Nef was.
She could see why what Sienna said was so upsetting to Bams now. Granted, she didn't know what had happened, but if someone had said something to her like that she probably would have been upset too. "I'm sorry that happened…we can talk about it when you're ready."
"Thanks, Becs, I appreciate you."
Beca watched as sleep slowly overtook the older girl. It started with a little twitch in her arm, then a leg kicked out a bit, and then little muscles all over Bams twitched briefly as she sank into slumber. Beca watched with a smile stuck on her face. Bams was something special.