The idea started out simple enough. The girls were sitting around the house one particularly sweltering southern day, doing just short of nothing. Well, actually, they were almost all sprawled out in various positions on the living room floor with several window fans on full blast. Jessica and Ashley had fallen into a simultaneous heat induced sleep, so hot that not even their fingertips were touching for once. Chloe wasn't far behind them. Flo was hanging upside down off the back side of the couch, practicing touching her tongue to her nose. Lily was lying on her back, completely stiff but with her eyes wide open. Cynthia-Rose had resorted to sticking her head in the freezer, despite Aubrey’s constant nagging saying that she alone would be paying the electric bill this month if she didn't knock it off. Emily, being the youngest, had been sent to get more ice from down the street. Beca and Amy were lying in the center of the room and their constant groaning and complaints were getting to the better of everyone, though making Aubrey particularly testy. Stacie was seemingly unaffected by the heat, though extraordinarily bored since no one else in the damn house would move. She refused to spend the night like this too. Suddenly, she decided she would take no more, pulled out her phone and did a quick Google search of 'drive-in' movies. Thankfully for her, the one not more than twenty minutes away by foot, and much less than that by car, was open. Not to mention they were playing that new superhero flick she's been dying to see. Stacie was absolutely determined to get the Bellas out of the house and to that movie by sundown. The issue would first be convincing almost all of the Bellas to agree to even get up, and then to employ their efforts to make Beca agree. Though hell, once Chloe's on board, swaying that little issue should be no problem at all.
"Alright ladies. Up, up, up. We're going out."
"Dude, what? It's freaking a thousand degrees out, no." Beca replies near instantaneously.
"Yuh, I'm with short stack 'ere." Amy pipes in. Of course, the two ones complaining for the entirety of the day would be the first two to shoot down her efforts. Unfortunately, Jessica and Ashley follow suit and give agreeing grunts shortly thereafter, followed by a muffled 'oh, hell no' that’s heard from the freezer.
"Seriously, Stace. Even I'm not feeling one of your escapades today." Chloe says airily.
"It's not 'til later, it'll have cooled down by then!" Stacie argues back to no one in particular.
Aubrey grunts reluctantly, "Let’s at least hear her out, ladies."
"You realize you've graduate and you're not our keeper anymore, right?" Beca bites towards Aubrey. Apparently extreme heat rehashes old qualms with no effort at all.
"Well some of you still believe that sugar packed cereal is acceptable for every meal, so looks like I am."
Beca glares and Chloe cuts in, prompting Stacie to continue.
"Drive-in."
Beca scoffs, "You want us to get off the floor and pass through the 7th gate to hell for some lousy fast food? Why didn't you speak up sooner? Can we get Taco Bell though? I'm really craving one of those Quesarito thing-ys."
"Look, we all know you're cinematically dense Bec, but I said drive-in, not drive-thru. I mean the giant movie screen, you know, where you sit in your car?" Stacie replies vaguely miffed.
"On purpose?"
"All in favor of drive-in move at 8 tonight, say 'I'".
No one says ‘I’ so much as they give non-challenging groans. They are going to the drive in.
--
Miraculously, by 730 all Bellas are on board, including Beca. See, once Beca understood that going to a drive-in instead of an actual movie theatre meant she could eat and drink whatever the hell she wanted, or even fall asleep if she didn’t care for the movie, it wasn't terribly difficult to convince her. She had a condition though. So, Chloe was tasked with baking her campus famous cookies and stirring up a batch of jiggle juice, otherwise Beca would refuse to come.
The girls are completely packed into the van and Stacie’s flat bed truck, filled to the brim with pillows, blankets, folding chairs, and snacks galore, just at the entrance of the drive-in when a man with in an electric blue polo waves some sort of light at them, signals them to stop, and approaches the lead car.
“’Evenin’ ladies. Hate to be the messenger, but the lot’s full.”
“What?!” Almost everyone in the car yelps, Beca just sort of chuckles and leans her head back.
Stacie and Chloe try to sway the man to let them in anyways, because there has to be a spot somewhere, they even say they’ll come back and walk, but it falls on deaf ears and five minutes later both vehicles are turning around and heading back to the Bella house. Once everyone, sans Beca, has very much moped back into the house, Stacie speaks up.
"Don't fret ladies, Stacie has a plan."
"Why are you referring to yourself in the third person?"
"Because there are so many people living in this house that sometimes the'I' gets lost in it, may as well name myself now before someone asks who 'I' is. Anyways, here's the plan. Beca, I need you to go get Jesse’s projector from him. Jessica and Ashley -"
"Wait," Beca groans loudly, "why do I have to get the projector?"
"Um, because he's your boyfriend?"
"Oh, right. Yeah, that's not a thing anymore."
"What?" The group shouts in unison, suddenly all eyes are on Beca.
Beca’s only looking at Chloe though, because she’s pretty sure Chloe snapped her head in Beca’s direction so quickly that she has whiplash. That or the force of it somehow jumbled her brain because she’s looking at Beca curiously, head cocked, and mouth agape, but no words are coming out of her mouth. It’s like whatever she wants to say is stuck to her tongue.
"What do you mean that's not a thing anymore?" Amy asks for the group.
"I mean that were not together anymore.”
"You broke up?" Chloe all but croaks and Beca begins to feel wildly uncomfortable under the heat of her stare. She feels her own face reddening.
"Yeah, we broke up like two weeks ago ... None of you noticed he wasn't around?" Beca says supposedly to everyone though only actually looking at Chloe.
"To be fair, Beca, it's not like he was here much anyways. Like, hm - observe." Stacie pauses as Emily walks back into the kitchen, every set of eyes flashing to her as Stacie asks her what Beca's boyfriends name is.
"Oh, Jacob?"
The other girls smirk. "Case and point. You can't blame us for not knowing." Stacie declares.
"Whatever, can someone else just please get the projector?"
Beca watches Lily's lips move and her walk out of the house, seemingly without a word. Emily is making a vaguely horrified face before she says, "she's - uh - she's taking care of it."
"Alrighty then ..."
--
Almost exactly one hour later the sun has long left the sky and the girls are slowly making their way out to the back lawn. When Beca finally exits the house with Aubrey, who had been tasked with going down the street and picking up several take-out pizza boxes with Beca (and who hadn’t said much to her, but between hectic phone calls of someone getting stuck in a bear trap or something at her work, kept giving her skeptical looks), she sees what some may refer to as ‘movie magic’.
(Ahem, Jesse’s wet dream.)
Lily had successfully retrieved the projector from the ex-boyfriend, who she claims got away unharmed, though admittedly a little confused. Chloe had tacked up what looked like at least four white sheets on the backside of the Bella house. CR had set up the sound equipment, a multitude of speakers placed strategically throughout the backyard. Amy and Flo had moved Stacie’s truck, as well as two mattresses to the back yard, placed in front of Chloe’s makeshift screen. Jessica and Ashley had set up two kiddy pools, left over from a Bella fundraising session their sophomore year where they offered to groom dogs, cats, or whatever furry creature people brought their way (it was an unusually successful fundraiser). One pool was filled to the brim with ice and cans of alcoholic beverages (thanks to Stacie’s chore), while the other was simply filled with water and Amy, per her request. Emily, Beca could only guess, had been in charge of picking the movies they’d watch, since she has a stack of DVDs in her lap and is smiling like an absolute dork.
“Pizza is here!” Aubrey hollers and everyone jumps up, running towards them, Chloe sauntering over with a stack of paper plates to hand out. The girls don’t really seem to care for plates though, and instead grab entire pizza boxes, stopping off at the adult-beverage pool, and plopping down wherever they want to sit for the movie. This goes on until Beca has only one pizza box left in her hands and Chloe’s standing next to her.
“Do you purposefully order the one with pineapple on it because you know no one else will touch it?”
“’Course.” Beca replies before adding, “It’s been affective my entire life until you came along and will eat just about anything put on a pizza. Care to split a pie, Beale?”
“I would be honored Miss Mitchell, newest eligible bachelor in the Bella house.” Beca walks away with the pizza box, leaving Chloe to giggle to herself and follow. “You’re making us sit in the kiddy pool?”
“Um, yeah. It’s still hot as fuck. Amy made a mistake in giving up prime seating. Speaking of which, where is – oh.”
Amy’s voice is suddenly booming through the many speakers CR had set up. “Ladies and gentle… woman. Please rise, and join me – actually don’t join me, this is more of a solo act – in the singing of the Australian national anthem. In history’s page let every stage-”
“Why is she singing the Australian anthem?” Beca mutters.
“Because BEC-A you guys get it every other time. Now shut your trap and respect your elder countries. Advance Australia Fair. In joyful strains then let us sing…”
“We were definitely settled and founded first…” Chloe whispers. Thankfully, it’s over soon enough and the Warner Bro’s theme song is blaring through the speakers instead. Chloe’s suddenly clapping like a seal while Beca is doing everything in her power to keep herself from externally groaning. Because Emily picked ‘A walk to remember’ for their first movie.
Are you kidding me?
By the end of it, Chloe and Beca are more than halfway done with the large container of jiggle juice Chloe had made and Chloe is streaming tears at the movie. Beca, is not. Okay, maybe she has like one or two tears threatening to trickle down her face, making Chloe slightly panic when she sees glassy midnight blue eyes turn her way.
“Oh my god, Becs, is this making you sad about Jesse?”
“What?” Beca asks confused, “Oh! No! God no.”
“So you’re not sad then?”
Beca bites her lip for a second, never taking her eyes off Chloe. “Honestly, Chlo? No. I mean I should be … but I’m not. I hope we’ll still be friends but…”
“You’re not friends now?”
“I mean. It’s not like we’re not friends, but we haven’t talked since the break-up. We left it on good terms, but he said he needed time.”
“Time? Why? Wasn’t it – OH! Was it not mutual? Did you break up with him?”
“We weren’t on the same page.”
“Meaning?”
“He was in love with me. And you know, I love the guy, but … he’s always been more like a brother. I mean we never even … you know.” Beca makes an awkward gesture with her hands.
Chloe whisper yells at this, letting the words, or lack thereof, and gesture sink in. Partially because she cannot believe that they were together for this long and never … ‘sealed the deal’, and then partially because she does not want that thought to even enter her mind. It would make her heart hurt in an uncomfortable way, squeeze it with an unprecedented amount of jealousy. Because Beca Mitchell is not hers, but now … now Beca Mitchell is not anybody’s! Not that she ever belonged to anyone, but, well, whatever. She’s available and Chloe would be lying if she said she wasn’t interested. And by interested she means she’s head over heels in love with her. But again, whatever.
Chloe’s stream of consciousness and Beca’s confused look are interrupted by Stacie. At some point she had gotten up and popped another movie in the player. She was saying something about this one being more lady-centric or something. She asks all parties to please try and keep the talking to a minimum, looking pointedly at redhead and brunette still sat in the kiddy pool.
Chloe tries to press Beca for more information during the second movie, to which she’s paying very little attention and suddenly Beca seems extremely interested in, but each time she opens her mouth to speak Amy throws a mini kit-kat bar at her. Suddenly Beca’s eyes are nearly bulging out of her head at the two women on the screen who are (to her) unexpectedly kissing. Clearly Beca wasn’t paying that much attention to the movie if she’s so utterly shocked at the development of one woman pushing the other onto a bed while they strip their clothes of. Beca stammers something about ‘but-but I thought, wasn’t she – isn’t she getting married to that dude!?’. Chloe can’t help but laugh out loud and proceed to actually be engaged in the movie because she’s seen in half a dozen times and the sex scene isn’t half bad. When she realizes Beca still isn’t watching, seeing as they’ve now finished the entire jug of jiggle juice, Chloe can’t help but rid herself of any shyness towards Beca and leans in to her ear.
“What’s the matter, Becs? Been too long since someone’s pushed you back and helped you come undone?” Beca feels her cheeks flush immediately. Followed by her neck and chest. Chloe’s voice, whispering right in her ear, is rocketing heat through her. “Can’t handle the heat?” And Beca definitely can’t handle the heat. It feels like her nerve ends are on fire. The hairs on her arms are prickling up and making her uncomfortable. She blames it on the 102 degree day.
“Um actually. I am cold. And I am going to get out of the pool and change. Into something warmer. Like right now.” She stands up from the pool, shorts and tank top drenched in water and nearly sprints into the house.
--
Beca’s literally panting when Chloe makes her way up to the attic.
“And here I thought you hated cardio.”
“Dude!” Beca yelps, attempting to cover herself with her wet tank top. “What is with you invading my space when I am nude?”
“Oh calm down, Beca. It’s not like I’ve never seen it before.” She winks and Beca’s cheeks flush again.
“Exactly my point. Turn around.”
Chloe instead walks out of the room and down to her own. Beca, now fully clothed makes the same trek, knocking on the door twice.
“Come in.”
“Are you coming back out – holy! You said come in!” Beca throws a hand over her eyes.
“You know I’m comfortable with all of this, Bec. Like what you see?”
“Cover your junk!”
“Nah, I think you deserve a free show. All that time with Jesse and no sex?”
“That was by choice!” Beca squeaks, she sneaks a peak through her fingers after some rustling on Chloe’s end. “Oh thank god. Thank you.” Chloe’s quiet, but smiles back. “So did you want to go back outside?”
“Not really, I know how it ends and I know you aren’t truly invested. Plus, we have some girl talk to engage in.”
For what feels like the millionth time that day, Beca groans. Chloe pats the bed and Beca can’t do much but oblige. They spend a long while saying nothing. Chloe’s studying Beca’s face and Beca’s allowing it, though feeling mildly uncomfortable from the heat of the red heads stare, again.
“You promise you’re okay?” Chloe finally says.
“Chlo, I promise.” She sticks out her pinky and wraps it around the redheads. “Why are you so hung-up on thinking I’m not?”
“I don’t know, Bec. I just.” She sighs, “You don’t really let people in a lot, only people who are really special to you … and I guess, I just…” She stops to take what can only be interpreted by Beca as a steadying breath. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
And suddenly Beca understands why Chloe not only wanted to talk, but still wants to talk. Initially, of course, the concern was that Beca was not okay, because Beca tends to bottle up the things that really bother her until something shakes her up and she just totally explodes. Beca may have grown up emotionally quite a bit in the past few years with Chloe and the other girls barreling through her walls, but she still has her moments of recluse. Which, Chloe could understand this being one of them… if she wasn’t okay… if her heart was somehow broken. But it’s not, Beca is fine. And Beca realizes that is the source of Chloe wanting to talk now, why she’s pushing the envelope to make sure Beca is okay. Because if she really is fine, then why did she still not tell her?
“I wanted to, Chlo. God, I even tried but …”
“But what, Becs?”
Beca wants to claim she has no explanation for not telling Chloe. She wants to tell her she really doesn’t know what stopped her every single time she went to knock on her door, because she’s been trying the tell herself it was not that, trying to convince herself of some other explanation since it happened. But as she’s looking at the woman lying next to her, whose forget-me-not eyes seem suddenly glossy, she knows that’s exactly what it was.
“I was scared… I am scared.” She whispers as an afterthought.
Chloe’s first thought is to react by saying ‘me too’, but she knows better than to jump to conclusions. She needs to push Beca just a little bit further to get a real read on the situation before forming an appropriate reaction. The tears making their way down her cheeks are making that a little bit harder.
“Of what?”
“How you’d react. What it would mean.”
Okay … maybe this is the right time? Maybe? Chloe’s really not sure what that means, she knows what she wants it to mean, but Beca isn’t exactly being explicit with her words.
“And how am I doing?”
“Well you’re crying, so that’s confusing.”
Chloe lets out a soft laugh, “You are too, Becs.” Beca hadn’t registered until Chloe had said this, but she’s right. Beca, too, is undeniably crying. Chloe wipes a tear from the brunette’s cheek with the pad of her thumb. “Crying is kind of my thing, get your own.”
Beca laughs and more tears roll down her cheeks. There’s a brief moment of silence where Chloe must regain her confidence.
“You’re being kind of vague, Beca, so I’m just going to ask.” Beca nods in understanding. “What do you mean you didn’t know what it would mean?”
“Do you really not know or are you fishing, Beale?” Chloe gives a nervous sort of smile. ‘That’s what I thought. Okay, you know what, just give me two seconds. You know I’m not good with words and I don’t have time to make a mix so…” Chloe remains silent, giving Beca the time she needs to sort out her thoughts, carefully articulate her words. “I was scared that telling you would change something between it us … I thought that it would mean that ... that our relationship would change. I’m scared because you’re my best friend, and I … God, this is so hard, I don’t even know what I’m saying right now. I was scared because … Jesus Christ. Okay. I was scared because I want you to do what Janie told Landon not to.”
“You mean Jamie?”
“I am trying to make a point here, Chlo!” She shuts her mouth and waits, every gear shifting in her mind, spinning faster than they ever have before. “Okay, well I guess that’s actually all I had to say. So, uh, yeah.”
“I just want to be clear here, Becs. You’re talking about when Jamie tells Landon he has to promise not to fall in love with her. Right?”
Beca’s jaw tightens, her mouth gone completely dry, and she tries to nod.
“And you want me to do the opposite of that. You want me to fall in love with you?”
Beca tries to nod again, but she’s pretty sure she just blinks instead. It feels like there’s a heavy weight sitting in the pit of her stomach. Either way, Chloe gets the message.
“Well I can’t do that.” Beca feels that weight drop, and she feels like any second she’ll suffocate because she knows she isn’t breathing. “Because I can’t do what’s already been done.”
“Wait, what?” Beca spits out. Chloe’s grinning like a maniac. “You’re an asshole, you know that?” She playfully bats at Chloe’s arm. “That wasn’t cool, Beale.”
Chloe’s still just smiling, boring her eyes into Beca without a word. Because any second it’s going to register in her mind, she’s going to actually realize what Chloe had just said – admitted – to her. Then she sees it, the dawning on her face. The way her eyes shift and her jaw drops ever so slightly.
“Well are you going to kiss me or what, Beca?”
The brunette pauses for a second, visibly thinking quite hard. “I might kiss you.”
Chloe laughs out loud. “Are you seriously doing this right now, are you seriously founding our relationship on cheesy movie references?”
“Just say your damn line, Beale!”
“I might be bad at it.” Chloe says, trying to bite back laughter, it bubbles out anyways though, because this is just absurd and so out of character for Beca that she cannot wrap her head around it. Also, when the hell did she start paying enough attention to the movie to accurately recite lines?
“Fuck it.” Beca mutters before leaning in. She moves to snake a hand around Chloe’s neck, accidentally pulling at her hair and eliciting an ‘ow’ and a small chuckle from the redhead before finally capturing her lips with her own.
An explosion of color and noise bursts behind her eyelids, because after years of pining for the ‘alt-girl’ turned ‘a capella nerd’ and for a brief and terrifying moment there turned ‘cliché movie geek’, she’s finally kissing the Beca Mitchell she knows and loves.
Curse words, fumbling hands, and fireworks.