stay (1/1)
Pitchmas 2022
Words: 4543
Notes: Merry Pitchmas @ezappa, I’m your secret santa!
You asked for some triple treble with Beca and Aubrey bonding over loving Chloe, and I hope that’s what I delivered. Happy Holidays, I hope you enjoy this!
Read on AO3
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Beca: 911. Chloe’s crying in the bathroom and won’t come out.
Aubrey: On my way.
Beca was pacing the hallway outside the bathroom when Aubrey arrived. She was tapping the corner of her phone against her chin - a nervous habit she’d picked up as a teen that she’d never grown out of.
“Hey,” Beca said, looking relieved to see her.
“What did you do?” Was Aubrey’s greeting.
“I didn’t do anything!” Beca replied, her relief quickly replaced by defensiveness. “Did you do something?”
“She was fine when I left this morning,” Aubrey said. “And you’re the one who’s been home with her all day.”
Beca frowned, her bottom lip getting caught between her teeth as she resumed pacing, tapping her phone against her chin with a little more force now.
“I’ve been working,” she said. “I haven’t really seen her. I walked past the bathroom on my way to make coffee and I heard her crying in there. She wouldn’t tell me what was wrong.” She ran her free hand through her hair before turning to Aubrey. “I don’t know what I did.”
Aubrey felt herself soften. She hadn’t really thought Beca was to blame, but hearing that her girlfriend had locked herself in the bathroom had caused her to panic. It wasn’t typical Chloe Beale behaviour.
“I’m sure it wasn’t you,” Aubrey said. “I’m sorry I said that.”
Beca nodded and stopped pacing, allowing Aubrey to put an arm around her and squeeze her into a side hug. She pressed her lips against the side of Beca’s head and Beca felt some of the tension leave her shoulders.
“I’m going to see if she’ll let me in,” Aubrey said.
She knocked on the bathroom door.
“Chlo’? It’s Aubrey, can I come in?”
There was a pause followed by the sound of the lock sliding across the door.
Beca tried not to feel hurt as Aubrey opened the bathroom door and closed it behind her.
She left them to it, heading for the kitchen in order to try and make herself feel useful. She started cleaning because that’s what she did when she needed to clear her head.
She was still getting used to this… thing she had with Aubrey and Chloe. She was still trying to shake the feeling that, one day soon, Aubrey and Chloe would realise they were better off just the two of them. She was still waiting to get her heart broken. She was trying to prepare for it as if that would make it hurt less when it finally happened.
And she tried to believe it when her girlfriends told her they loved her, but sometimes she felt like they were all living in some kind of dream. She was worried about what would happen when they woke up.
It had been almost a year now since the three of them had started dating. It had started at a party to celebrate Aubrey’s return to Barden and to christen her new apartment (Chloe’s idea, of course.)
A drunk Aubrey had found an even drunker Beca hiding in her new guest bedroom, trying to act like she hadn’t been crying.
Aubrey joined her on the floor.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” Aubrey asked, sitting beside Beca and staring ahead at the closed door. “Watching her flirt with everything that moves.”
“Yeah,” Beca replied, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “How long?”
“Since freshman year,” Aubrey said. “You?”
“Same,” Beca said.
This wasn’t the first time they’d recognised their own pain reflected back at them, but it was the first time they’d addressed it.
“How screwed are we?” Beca asked.
“We fell in love with our best friend years ago and it never went away,” Aubrey said. “I think we’re pretty much fucked.”
The sound of Aubrey cursing always made Beca laugh, and she let her head drop onto Aubrey’s shoulder.
Beca doesn’t remember who kissed who first, but it seemed like no time at all had passed between this quiet conversation and Aubrey pulling Beca’s shirt over her head.
It might have ended after a heated makeout session.
It might have ended after a drunken one-night stand that they never spoke of again.
It might have been just a one-time thing.
Had Chloe not opened the door to the guest room.
She didn’t say anything at first, she simply looked at them both with something in her eyes that neither of them had seen directed at them before.
She quietly closed the door behind her and leaned against it, observing them both in their half-dressed state. Their lipstick was smeared and their cheeks and chests were flushed, their breathing was laboured and the silence in the room grew heavier.
“Room for one more?” She asked.
Aubrey and Beca looked at each other and an understanding passed between them.
If this was their only chance, they’d take it.
Even if it would hurt more tomorrow.
Even if it would fundamentally change their friendship.
They both nodded, and Beca’s hand stretched out towards Chloe who responded with a grin that made Beca blush. She locked the door before she closed the gap between them.
No more words were spoken, and once it was done they all but passed out on the bed in Aubrey’s guest room. They could hear the party raging on without them, but none of them felt inclined to rejoin it.
In the silence, Beca felt herself starting to spiral.
God, what had they done? What had she done? How could they ever come back from this?
She sat up, her heart beating uncomfortably in her chest.
A hand ran up her back, and Beca turned to see it belonged to Aubrey.
Chloe was already asleep on top of her, her head on her chest, red hair splayed out.
“Stay,” Aubrey said. “Please.”
Beca swallowed and looked at the tears shining in Aubrey’s eyes.
“It wasn’t just Chloe I fell in love with,” Beca said.
“I know,” Aubrey replied. “Me too.”
Beca let out a soft laugh as the tears building in her eyes spilled over and down her cheeks.
“What have we done?”
“I don’t regret it,” Aubrey said, her hand still lightly running up and down Beca’s back. “Do you?”
Beca shook her head.
“So stay,” Aubrey said, coaxing Beca back down onto the bed.
Beca stayed.
And almost 12 months later, here they were.
Beca had unloaded the last of the dishes from the dishwasher when Chloe finally emerged from the bathroom.
She’d been so deep in her thoughts that she jumped when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist.
She didn’t have to look down to know that it was Chloe hugging her. She could tell their hugs apart by now.
“I’m sorry,” Chloe said, her voice muffled by Beca’s back.
“Why are you sorry?” Beca asked.
“For not letting you in,” Chloe said. “For making you think you did something wrong.”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” Beca said. She turned around in Chloe’s arms so she could hug her properly. “Do you wanna tell me what happened?”
“I had a fight with my Mom,” Chloe said, her voice now muffled by Beca’s chest.
“I’m sorry Chlo’,” Beca said. “What kind of fight?”
“She… She told me not to come home for Christmas,” Chloe said.
“What? How come?” Beca asked even though she was sure she knew the answer already.
“Because of us,” Aubrey said, entering the kitchen with a frown on her face.
It was the same reason why Beca wasn’t going home for Christmas. The same reason Aubrey wasn’t.
“Oh,” Beca said. “That sucks, Chloe. I’m sorry.”
Chloe shook her head. “I thought my Mom was better than that. I thought she’d understand.”
Beca held her tighter and pressed a kiss against her head.
Beca and Aubrey hadn’t been surprised by their families’ reactions to them not having one but two girlfriends. They’d both been prepared for the heated conversations and the refusal of acceptance.
Chloe, however, had been confident that her family would be cool with it. They’d never had a problem with her sexuality before, and both Aubrey and Beca had stayed with them previously and had always been welcomed with open arms.
After Beca and Aubrey had told Chloe they wouldn’t be going home for Christmas this year, Chloe insisted they join her.
She had been so sure it would be fine.
“I thought she knew about us?” Beca asked after a few minutes of silence.
“She thought I’d been joking,” Chloe said, her voice strained. She finally ended their hug and grabbed a paper towel to wipe her eyes. “I asked if you could both come for Christmas and she said yes but wanted to know why. I told her about your families not being cool about us, and she… She said she thought it had been a joke. She said she didn’t understand and things got heated. She told me maybe it would be best if I didn’t come home this year.”
“She said you could go on your own,” Aubrey said. “Just not with us.”
“Which I’m obviously not going to do.”
“Chlo’, Christmas is your favourite holiday. If you want to spend it with your family then you can, you know that right?” Beca said, glancing at Aubrey who nodded.
“I don’t want to do that,” Chloe said. “Not now that I know that’s how she feels. And I don’t want to spend it without you both.”
Beca glanced at Aubrey again, who gave her a half-shrug.
“Well, since all our parents suck, I guess we’ll have to do our own Christmas,” Beca said.
Chloe sniffed, the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Yeah?” She asked, looking at Aubrey for confirmation.
“Absolutely,” Aubrey said.
“Can we get a tree?” Chloe asked.
“Yeah,” Beca said. “I figured we’d have gotten one anyway.”
“And Christmas dinner?”
“If Beca promises not to cook,” Aubrey said.
“Rude.”
Chloe laughed and the heavy feeling in her chest started to lift. “Matching Christmas pyjamas?”
“Let’s not get crazy,” Beca said, and Chloe pouted, which caused Beca to roll her eyes and relent. “Fine.”
Relieved that, for now, the emergency seemed to be over, Aubrey kissed both her girlfriends on the cheeks and returned to work.
“Do you have to go back to work?” Chloe asked once Aubrey had left.
Beca checked the time on her phone and then shook her head. “I can call it a day. Do you need to study or anything?”
Chloe thought about the piles of veterinary textbooks piled up on the dining room table before she also shook her head. “I’m not going to be able to concentrate right now anyway. Come watch a movie with me?”
Beca rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. “Sure,” she said. “And since my cooking apparently sucks, we can order pizza for dinner.”
Chloe giggled and pulled Beca into the lounge. “You’re a great cook.”
“Tell that to Aubrey.”
“She just thinks you put too much garlic in everything,” Chloe said as they dropped onto the couch and Chloe searched in the seat cushions for the remote.
“There’s literally no such thing,” Beca said, lifting her arm so Chloe could cuddle into her side. “Do you think she might be a vampire?”
“That would explain why she sleeps upside down like a bat.”
Chloe felt Beca’s laugh vibrate through her chest, and it made her smile. She cuddled her tighter, and Beca responded by kissing the top of her head.
“Can I ask,” Beca said after a while, the movie playing quietly in the background, “why didn’t you tell me what was going on earlier? Why did you let Aubrey in and not me? I’m not mad or anything, I just want to know if it was something I did.”
Chloe didn’t respond immediately, and Beca felt that fear creep into her chest again.
“Aubrey isn’t really a Christmas person,” Chloe said. “At college, she never really went home for it, and when she was in New York she didn’t either. She isn’t big on family gatherings. Well, you met the Posens at her graduation, you know what they’re like.”
Beca could agree with that.
“But you… you seemed really sad when you told me that you weren’t going home for Christmas. And then when I invited you to come to my parents’ place, you looked so happy,” Chloe said. “I didn’t want to disappoint you when I told you that we weren’t going anymore.”
“Chloe,” Beca said softly, the fear quickly being replaced by love and sadness for her girlfriend. Of course Chloe had been more worried about Beca being upset than herself. “I was happy because it meant I could spend Christmas with you and Aubrey. Don’t get me wrong, your parents are great. I mean, they were great, I’m not so sure now. But that wasn’t why I was looking forward to Christmas at their place. I was looking forward to spending it with the two people I love, and who love me back, and we still get to do that. You’re allowed to feel sad that you’re missing Christmas with your family, but I don’t want you to worry about me. And if you change your mind and decide that you do want to spend Christmas with them, without me and Aubrey, then that’s okay too.”
“I love you,” Chloe said, hugging her even tighter.
“I love you too,” Beca said. “We’re gonna have an awesome Christmas together. I promise.”
-
December passed them in a blur of decorating, card-writing, gift-wrapping, and Christmas parties.
Chloe’s Christmas to-do list seemed never-ending, but Beca and Aubrey weren’t about to complain. Not even when Chloe made them all wear matching Christmas sweaters with reindeer antlers so she could take a photo for her “digital Christmas cards”.
“It’s more environmentally friendly!” Chloe insisted.
“And you forgot that it takes more than a week to make and send Christmas cards around the country,” Aubrey added in a low voice.
But they didn’t care. Chloe could have dressed them up as elves and sent them out carol singing and they wouldn’t have complained. Not now that she finally seemed like herself again.
Now that the endless phone calls from her family to get her to change her mind had stopped.
“Unless you’re calling to apologise, I don’t want to hear from you!”
Chloe had snapped during the last phone call with her Mom and had shut herself in the bathroom again.
This time she let Beca in. Let Beca pull her into her chest while she sobbed.
All three of them felt the pain of rejection. Of not being loved and accepted by the people who were supposed to love them the most.
Aubrey dealt with it the way she always had, by pushing it down and trying to ignore it. She’d had decades of practice by this point in her life, and she was good at it.
Beca was similar to Aubrey in that she rarely wore her emotions on her sleeve. If there was something wrong you wouldn’t know it unless you really knew her. Though rather than trying to ignore her feelings, Beca always channelled hers into her music. On bad days she would shut herself away in her small office and work on track after track until Chloe or Aubrey made her stop.
Theo always said this was her best work, and she tried not to hate him for that.
Chloe was the only one out of the three of them who really showed her emotions, and she had been the only one out of the three of them who’d been truly blindsided by her family’s reaction to her new relationship.
She couldn’t believe this was the tipping point for them - that this had been the hill they had chosen to die on - but she was getting used to that ache in her chest.
Chloe broke up from veterinary school for winter break a few days before Christmas. Beca had finished work officially the day before, but that hadn’t stopped her answering emails and working on some tracks for most of the next day, which is why she was holed up in her office when Chloe got home.
“You’re supposed to be on Christmas vacation,” Chloe said, making Beca jump. Chloe giggled and removed the headphones from around Beca’s neck before climbing into her lap. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Beca said, grinning. “Am I getting my Christmas present early?”
“Well, that depends,” Chloe said, her hands resting on Beca’s shoulders as Beca’s hands began moving up her back. “Have you been naughty or nice this year?”
“Naughty,” Beca said, unhooking Chloe’s bra with one deft hand. “Definitely naughty.”
Before either of them could say another word the intercom for their apartment buzzed.
“Ignore it,” Beca said, trying to pull Chloe into a kiss.
“I can’t,” Chloe said. “I’m still waiting on a bunch of stuff for you and Aubrey to get delivered.”
Chloe pulled away from Beca despite her grumbling that a neighbour could take the packages, and she hurried out of her office and to the intercom on the wall.
“Hello?” She said, pressing down the button.
“Chloe? It’s, um, it’s Mom.”
Chloe froze.
“Can you let me in?”
Chloe jumped when she felt Beca’s hand on her back.
“I can tell her to leave,” Beca said. “If you need me to.”
Chloe swallowed and then shook her head. She pressed the button which unlocked the door to the apartment building.
She tried to re-fasten her bra but her hands started shaking.
“Here,” Beca said, helping her. She pressed a light kiss against her shoulder. “Do you want me to stay?”
“Yeah,” Chloe said, taking her hand and squeezing. “Please.”
The wait for Chloe’s Mom to arrive at their apartment door seemed to go on forever, even though it couldn’t have been more than a minute.
Eventually, there was a tentative knock, and Chloe jumped again.
She hesitated, and then she opened the door.
Julia Beale was standing there, looking smaller than Beca remembered. She had Chloe’s red hair and clear blue eyes that were now shining with tears.
Chloe stepped aside so her Mom could come in.
Chloe was watching her with apprehension, her hand still held tightly in Beca’s.
Julia looked at both of them.
“Where’s Aubrey?” She asked.
Chloe didn’t speak, so Beca answered for her. “She’s at work. She’ll be home soon.”
Julia nodded. “This is a nice place.”
“Mom, why are you here?” Chloe asked.
“I, um, I wanted to say this to all of you, but I suppose you’ll pass the message onto Aubrey for me,” Julia said. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry. For what I said. For how I reacted when you told me about the three of you.”
Chloe didn’t know what to say. It had been what she’d been waiting to hear - what she’d been hoping to hear - and now that she was hearing it, she didn’t know how to react.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” Julia said. “Not right away, anyway. But I wanted to say it. Before Christmas. And not over the phone, but face to face. I’m sorry, Chloe. I’m sorry, Beca.”
Beca nodded but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t her apology to accept, not really.
“So… you accept us? You accept me?” Chloe asked, her voice catching on the second question.
“I’ve always accepted you, Chloe,” Julia said. “This one just caught me by surprise, and I reacted too quickly, and too harshly. But if being with both Beca and Aubrey makes you happy, and if no one is getting hurt, then yes, I can accept this relationship.”
Chloe swallowed and let out a shaky breath, a weight lifting off her shoulders that she thought would be there forever.
“Come give your Mom a hug?”
Chloe squeezed Beca’s hand before letting go, and she quickly crossed the room so her Mom could pull her into a hug.
“My baby,” she said softly. “I’ve missed you.”
“I've missed you too,” Chloe said, her voice breaking as she let the tears that had been building fall.
Beca was beginning to feel like she was intruding, but just as she was about to leave their apartment door opened and Aubrey walked in.
Her briefcase slipped out of her hand with a thud as she spotted Chloe and her Mom, and their hug ended.
“Aubrey,” Julia said, smiling at the sight of her.
“Mrs Beale,” Aubrey replied. She wasn’t smiling, but she wasn’t giving Chloe’s Mom one of her Posen death stares, so both Chloe and Beca took that as a win.
“Why don’t you both go sit down, and I’ll make some coffee?” Beca said. “Aubrey can give me a hand in the kitchen.”
“Actually, I can’t stay long,” Julia said. “I have to catch my flight back home in a few hours.”
Chloe’s face fell, and the disappointment hit her hard in the stomach.
“You have to leave already?”
“I didn’t know if you’d even want to see me,” Julia said. “I only booked one night in a hotel, and I was too nervous to come over last night.”
“Oh,” Chloe said, feeling weird at the thought that her Mom had been in Barden last night and all of today, but had waited until the last minute to come and see her.
“I’m sorry,” Julia said. “I should have come as soon as I’d landed, but I chickened out.”
“It’s okay,” Chloe said. “I’m glad you came over. I’m glad I got to see you even if it was only for a little while.”
Julia smiled, and Beca had to look away.
She could hear the heartbreak in Chloe’s voice, and she couldn’t understand how Julia didn’t.
Aubrey heard it too, and her hand found Beca’s quickly.
“Before I go,” Julia said. “I wanted to ask if you’d come home for Christmas? I, um, I booked an extra return ticket. No pressure, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get a refund,” she added with a nervous laugh.
Chloe looked over at Beca and Aubrey, and Beca gave her what she hoped was a supportive smile.
“Beca and Aubrey too?”
Julia’s face fell.
“Well, the ticket wasn’t cheap, so I only got-”
“They can get their own tickets,” Chloe said, cutting her off. “But does the invitation extend to my girlfriends?”
Julia swallowed. “I… I don’t think it’s a good idea this year. You know what your grandparents are like…. Maybe this year, you could just come home by yourself?”
Aubrey squeezed Beca’s hand, and Beca squeezed it back.
Neither of them were expecting an invite, but they both felt something like disappointment settle in their chests. They were both already quietly mourning the Christmas they’d planned together.
Beca thought about the collection of gifts under their tree, and how Chloe had been poking and prodding at them for a week now.
Aubrey thought about all the food they had bought only a few days ago. About all the recipes she’d collected over the last few weeks so that she’d be prepared to make the best Christmas dinner she could. She’d even been excited to fight with Beca in the kitchen.
They both waited for Chloe to look at them again. For her to ask if they would be okay with her going home. They hoped their voices would be steady. Supportive. They hoped their voices wouldn’t betray them.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Chloe said. “I’m not leaving them behind.”
“Chloe,” Aubrey said, softly. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I know,” Chloe said, turning to look at them. “I told you, I don’t want to spend Christmas without you. Without either of you.”
“Chloe,” Julia said, “it’s Christmas. You should spend it with your family.”
“That’s what I am doing,” Chloe said. “Beca and Aubrey are my family too. They’re the ones who have stuck by me, who cheered me up when I was down, and who held me when I cried. I love them, and they love me, and they are the ones I want to wake up next to on Christmas morning.” She gave her Mom a hug. “Thank you for coming all this way, and thank you for apologising. I’ll come home for a visit in January, and maybe we can talk more then?”
Julia looked disappointed, but she knew there was no talking Chloe out of this.
“Okay. Call me on Christmas morning?” She asked.
“Of course,” Chloe said.
Julia hugged her again, relieved to have her daughter back in her life, even if she wouldn’t get her at Christmas.
“Love you, sweetheart,” she said.
“Love you too, Mom,” Chloe replied.
Chloe was quiet after her Mom left.
She was curled up on the sofa, a movie playing quietly in the background.
“Her flight doesn’t leave for another hour,” Beca said, taking a seat beside her on the sofa. “If you left now, you might make it.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Chloe said. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No,” Beca said. “Of course not. But… you’re sad, Chlo’.”
“A little,” Chloe said. “But I’d have been even sadder if I was sitting on that plane right now without you and Aubrey with me. When I think about leaving here without you both, about leaving you and our little Christmas we had planned behind, it makes me want to cry.”
Beca smiled and leaned over to press a kiss on her head. Chloe adjusted her position so her head was in Beca’s lap.
Aubrey joined them on the sofa, and Chloe lifted her legs so they went across Aubrey’s thighs.
“I’m glad you stayed,” Aubrey said.
“Me too,” Beca said.
“I would never have left you guys,” Chloe said. “You know that, right?”
Beca and Aubrey shared a glance.
Sometimes it was like they could read each other’s mind.
“We hoped,” Aubrey said. “But we didn’t know.”
Chloe frowned, and Beca began running her hand through Chloe’s hair.
“The people who are meant to love us haven’t always done the best job,” Beca said. “So now we’re prepared for disappointment. We’ve learned not to get our hopes up so we don’t get hurt.”
“And it’s not that we think you’d hurt us,” Aubrey added. “It’s just that, for us, keeping your expectations low is the best way to protect yourself.”
Chloe shook her head. “It’s no wonder you guys hated each other when you first met. You’re so damn similar.”
“It’s also probably why we both fell in love with little miss sunshine as soon as she batted her eyelashes,” Beca said, causing Chloe to laugh and whack her playfully on the leg.
A comfortable silence fell, and Beca felt herself begin to relax.
Chloe wasn’t going to change her mind and leave.
She and Aubrey weren’t going to realise they were better off without her.
She wasn’t going to be left on her own with only the memory of the love they made her feel.
“I’m really glad you stayed,” Beca said, smiling as Aubrey put a hand on her thigh, reading her mind as always.
“I was always going to stay. I am always going to stay,” Chloe said.
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Triple Treble High school AU??
Read on AO3 | Request prompts here
The darkroom wasn’t originally in the blueprints for the high school. It was a small space that was wedged between the back stairwell, something that still smelled so thickly of drain cleaner, and sawdust, that the developer only added a twinge of vinegar to the mix.
Beca had pestered and persisted until the school board agreed to convert the unused storage area into a place for the yearbook committee to soak and hang their film. It could fit about four people at a time and left her blinking away the red light when the bell rang, load and enough to vibrate the whole room.
She leaned against the table that woodshop had constructed, mindful of the surface that could splinter at any moment. She was putting the finishing touches on her book report for Mr. White’s third-period English. She was cutting it close, but the photos from the pep rally the day before still had a good three minutes left of the egg timer.
She twisted the dial and listened to the satisfying click that accompanied it.
Beca had learned a long time ago that it was better to be unseen than seen by the whole world. There were no standards that way, if this batch of photos didn't turn out, or darken fully, that would be okay- because it wasn’t like they had noticed her, other than the small flashes of light, or the click of her Nikon.
She scribbled the finishing touches on her interesting take of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and shoved the crinkled lined paper into her backpack. She hadn’t put much thought into it- having read the novel more than once and never finding it as moving as it was intended to be.
The timer sounded off and her heart caught in her throat. It always did, even though she was the one that set it. She knew it was going to hiss eventually, and her hands moved before her mind could catch up. She peered over the edge of the basin at the photo that developed fully.
Chloe Beale beamed charismatically, her arm around Kaylee Eli, brow glistening with sweat. The logo of the cowboy shining under the lights. Beca was a damn good shot, but Chloe was an even better model. She stared right into the lens like she actually saw Beca- she noticed and posed and smiled with the same type of vigor as always.
The second warning bell sounded off and Beca fished the photo from the solution with her tongs. She shook it once, then twice, before clipping it on the line. She shouldered her bag and then emerged into the hallway, breathing in to clear out the sharp acidic scent from her lungs.
She nearly collided with a warm body, also trying their hardest to get through the hallways and into homeroom in time for the third and final bell to sound. Her sneakers squeaked against the floor, and her shoulder did make contact with something soft, and hot, and she stumbled with an apology before even realizing who it was.
Posters, and buttons scattered across the floor with a deafening clatter, and a pile of books were soon to follow. They were obnoxiously red, white, and blue. And Beca was on her knees, very suddenly, scrambling to pile them into a stack that they had once been.
“I’m so sorry,” She said, her own backpack forgotten.
“Were you in a supply closet?”
Beca glanced up, meeting hard and ripe green. The girl in front of her was a mass of blonde hair and lip gloss. She shoved her bangs back and gave Beca an inquisitive look. The posters were stacked now, and the two raised to a standing position.
“No, I mean, yes.” Beca frowned “It’s not a supply closet anymore, though. It’s a dark room. For photography.”
The girl studied her. She looked vaguely familiar. Those posters did too- Aubrey Posen for Student President. She realized she was still gripping them, reading them. She flushed and handed them over.
“I’m afraid I’ve made you miss the final bell.” She said.
“Don’t worry about it. Have a fantastic day.” Beca replied, even if she didn’t’ mean it. She grabbed her bag from the floor and maneuvered her way around the girl and walked off towards her first class- one that she wouldn't be paying much attention to.
Aubrey glared down at her posters. The word Fantastic was outlined in blue and slanted in a way that screamed desperately. She swallowed back the suddenly queasy feeling in her stomach and pulled her shoulders back. It didn’t’ matter if the candy-cane stripes and the blue lettering were tacky. It would win her the vote.
She felt disheveled, the pink late slip in her pocket burned like dry ice. She hated breaking the rules, and even this, even having the permission to skip the first half of the morning to work on her campaign, made her feel like some kind of common criminal.
Aubrey walked all the way to the gym.
She was meant to set up the ballot tables for the three lunch periods. She hadn’t thought that many people would skip out on the greasy scent of fried chicken and the brothy greens that were slopped next to them to vote for student council. Not many people cared about the election, and sometimes Aubrey questioned her own dedication to the cause of no cause at all.
The gym always smelled thickly of sweat and floor wax. It’s bright lights seemed to be the only thing in the school that ran on an automatic timer. The last moments of morning cheer practice had just concluded, and Aubrey waited dutifully by the double doors for the girls to clear out.
Most of them- she knew cordially. She was nod at them and say hello, and even give them a button to strap to their bags. So they smiled kindly as they exited past her, and wished her luck on today's vote. She figured she needed it.
“Are you nervous?”
“Huh?” Aubrey had started to study the sound system in the corner, but her focus was suddenly on the one remaining cheerleader in the gym. Her voice echoed, and her smile radiated. “Oh, uh, no my opposing candidate is a gerbil so.”
“he’s got a solid campaign.” She replied, walking across the seal in the center of the floor. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re going to do great. You’ve got my vote.”
Aubrey hadn’t been this close to Chloe Beale. Not in school- they usually avoided one another after Bumper’s Halloween party, two semesters ago. She didn’t remember, much- the fowl taste of beer, the flashing lights, a kid in a skeleton mask, and Chloe Beale’s lips on hers. Cherry, and tart with alcohol.
Her cheeks reddened at the thought, all-encompassing. “Right, I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to tell me that.”
“Oh?”
Chloe took a few steps backward before turning completely and walking towards the double doors. Aubrey struggled to avert her eyes, knew that she had to, but couldn’t find a way to do it. Chloe could feel them on her- swinging her hips intentionally.
She found herself letting out a trembled breath once she exited into the hallway. Her arms were burning, and so were her cheeks. Aubrey M. Posen had always been intimidating; in her fancy blazers and thick reading glasses. Her lips tingled, and she pressed two fingers against them to quell the sensation. The girl probably didn't even remember her on Halloween night, that stupid skeleton kid, drenched in fake blood, and the flashing lights that spurred her drunken stupor.
Chloe pressed her back against the painted brick wall and let the coolness drip through her sweaty t-shirt. She hadn’t slept well the night before, and practice before the day had even begun made her bones ache and her stomach turn.
She was going to be late for class, she knew that before they had even finished listening to coach Morris reminding them (for the third time that morning) about the pep rally on Friday. She peeled herself from the wall, blinking away the light from the trophy cases, before slinking into the locker room. It was empty now, the remaining scent of body spray and lotion clouding her lungs.
Chloe quickly changed and pulled her bag over her shoulder. She didn’t’ have a pink slip, not as she should, but figured that Mrs. Gordon would excuse her this once. She would slide into first-period Chemistry and try her best not to disturb the room more than she had to.
“Miss Beale,” She felt her heart seize, Mrs. Gordon’s eyes on her, lifting from the workbook that she was struggling to flip through. The rest of the room had taken to staring at her too, roaming eyes and giddy for a distraction, no matter how small. “Take the nearest seat.”
It would certainly be easier than working her way around the room, through the bags and the lab stools. She glanced sparingly at the empty seat closest to her. Beca Mitchell lifted both of her eyebrows and shifted the camera bag to the floor, allowing her to take a seat.
“Flip to page seventeen, The building of Electron’s and Neutrons”
Chloe reached for her bag, but before she could Beca shifted the textbook towards the middle of them, letting her scan her eyes over the annotated version of the paragraphs. She had never expected Beca Mitchell, resident outcast and photographer, to go through the nightly reading and actually absorb it.
She smelled thickly of cloves and chemicals. It was earthy but comforting. It almost relaxed Chloe from the morning, brought her down to a familiar buzz after sharing a conversation with Aubrey in the gym. She blinked through her lack of focus and tried to concentrate on something other than how close the alt girl was, and how their knees almost met under the lab table.
Beca reached up and turned the page, Chloe realized she hadn’t read a single line.
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