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There was something so innately cozy about the sight of snow falling outside, especially when you didn’t have to be in said snow. Beca could think of countless winter evenings spent in Seattle, cuddled up under a blanket next to a glowing fire and sipping hot chocolate from an oversized mug, just watching the snow fall outside while her dad played soft Christmas music on their family’s slightly out of tune piano. She remembers viewing the snow lit up against the colors of Christmas lights with a childlike wonder, telling her mom that she wished it could be like this all year round.
Of course, that was before life slapped Beca in the face with a harsh taste of reality, before her parents separated and left Beca feeling alone more often than not during the holidays, her mother preferring to work through them while her father remained absent for years.
But that was all in the past now, something the Bellas had helped her come to understand more and more through all their holidays spent together.
The sight of snow still made Beca feel all fuzzy inside, as cheesy as that sounds. It reminded her of happy times, even if the snow in Atlanta was rare and not nearly as plentiful as it was in Seattle.
It was nice.
The feeling of lips against her bare shoulder was also nice, in a completely different way.
A lazy smile stretches across Beca’s lips as the warm body next to her stirs, a sigh accompanying the movement. Beca tears her eyes away from the window and looks down at her bedmate, who is sleepily blinking up at her with bright blue morning eyes.
“Morning,” Beca says softly, her own eyes flicking across the face of her friend as her heartbeat flutters.
“Morning.” Chloe’s morning voice, Beca has decided, is swiftly becoming one of her favorite things on the planet. Her normally energetic, loud tone is reduced to a slow drawl, the effects of sleep and a full night’s worth of activities making it scratchier than normal. “Have you been up for a while?”
Beca shakes her head a little. “Not long. It’s snowing outside,” she says, gesturing to the window next to her bed, knowing how much Chloe also loves the sight.
“That’s nice,” Chloe hums, but based on the way her kisses resume, this time across Beca’s collarbone and along the length of her neck, it seems as though she has other things on her mind at the moment.
Waking up this way is still somewhat new to Beca.
She and Chloe had begun this… arrangement, about six months ago. Approximately two months after Beca and Jesse broke up. It had started out as a joke, mostly. Just a playful conversation over a bottle of wine about wishing they always had someone around to relieve some tension with that somehow turned into the two of them ripping each other’s clothes off upstairs in Chloe’s room.
Needless to say, Chloe was very good at relieving tension for Beca.
Their one-time half-drunken ordeal turned into a two-time ordeal, then a three-time one that soon became too many to keep track of. They were in agreeance that it was casual, nothing more than having fun with one another until their next relationship prospect came along.
Except, somewhere along the fourth (fifth) time they fell into bed together Beca had already started to realize that she didn’t want another relationship. At least, not with anyone besides Chloe.
Oh, how gifted she was at repressing unwanted feelings, especially when they were towards her best friend.
None of the other Bellas knew of their arrangement, of course. If they knew they would get all weird about it, which in turn would make them feel weird about it.
If Beca didn’t think too hard about the whole situation she might be able to convince herself she’s not in love with Chloe.
So maybe waking up in bed with Chloe, which felt so devastatingly domestic, wasn’t necessarily the best thing for Beca to do to herself, but then again she’s always been prone to self-sabotage.
Beca threads her fingers through red curls, head tilting back to give Chloe more skin to press her lips against. A sigh falls from her lips at the feeling, which changes to a gasp when Chloe pushes herself up and over to straddles Beca’s waist, a pleased grin on her face.
“Good morning,” Chloe says again, sounding more awake now than the first time. Beca forces her eyes not to slip down to where the blankets have fallen around Chloe, revealing all the smooth skin that Beca has come to know quite intimately over the past couple of months.
Beca forces a smirk on her own face and slides her hands up Chloe’s thighs. “I think you said that already.”
Chloe hums and leans in, apparently opting to kiss Beca rather than respond to her snarky comment.
And Beca can’t say that she’s inclined to protest in any way whatsoever.
She moans as Chloe deepens the kiss, hands starting to wander as Beca feels arousal pooling between her legs. Chloe smiles into her next kiss and Beca is thinking of a way to wipe the smug look away when she hears footsteps approaching the stairs to she and Amy’s room.
Beca rips herself away from the kiss and puts a hand against Chloe’s shoulder, pushing her back a little as she listens carefully.
“Wha-” Chloe starts to ask in confusion, but stops when Beca shushes her.
The footsteps start climbing the steps a moment later, and the two of them spare a second to stare at each other in panic before Beca is moving without thinking, shoving Chloe off her and sending her right to the floor in between the bed and the wall. Chloe falls with a small yelp and Beca winces in regret before dropping a blanket on top of her friend.
Fat Amy appears at the top of the stairs just as Beca gets done tugging her blankets up to her chin, covering her naked body entirely.
“Morning, Shawshank,” Amy greets, rounding the banister and throwing her purse onto her bed.
“Hey, Ames,” Beca says as casually as she can manage, trying her best to act like she wasn’t in a state of sheer panic mere moments ago. “Where’ve you been off to?”
Amy only hums in response as she moves into their closet and Beca rolls her eyes, not surprised that her friend still won’t admit that she’s sleeping with Bumper. She listens as Amy calls out some half-assed explanation from inside the closet, barely paying attention as her anxiety starts building over the fact that Chloe is currently laying under a blanket on the floor two feet away.
After what feels like a lifetime Amy emerges once again, wearing different clothes than she was before. Beca’s relief, however, dies as quickly as it came as she watches Amy settle herself on her bed.
“Are… are you staying in here?” Beca asks, hoping that Amy just felt like laying down for twenty seconds instead of twenty minutes.
“Sure am,” Amy replies, pulling out her phone and scrolling through it. “Takes a lot of rest for a sexy beast like me to look this good.”
Beca stares at the ceiling in disbelief, the sound of some video playing from Amy’s phone making her eye twitch. “Okay, but can you, like, go somewhere else maybe? Somewhere that isn’t here?”
“May I remind you, that this is our room,” Amy points out, a little too condescendingly for Beca’s taste. “I’m invoking the third and staying exactly where I am.”
“Do you even know what the third amendment is?” Beca asks, poking her hand out from the blankets to pinch the bridge of her nose.
Amy only hums again before playing another video from her phone, her laugh sounding throughout the room. Beca sighs and hears a tiny groan from the floor next to her, the realization that they might be stuck here for a while hitting them both.
* * *
“I’m positive that she does it on purpose.”
Chloe looks up as Beca storms into her room, spinning around and shutting the door in a whirl. When Beca turns to face Chloe again she can’t help the huff of indignation that she lets out upon seeing the amused expression on the redhead’s face.
“If this is about the old lady at the grocery store who always takes the last pack of blueberry bagels, I told you that you shouldn’t make eye contact with her. She takes it as a challenge.”
Beca scrunches up her nose in confusion. “What? No, I haven’t seen her in weeks,” she says, shaking her head to get her thoughts back on track. “I’m talking about Amy.”
Chloe hums thoughtfully. “I think you’ll have to be a little more specific there, Bec. Fat Amy does a lot of things.”
An exasperated sigh escapes Beca. “With the whole interrupting thing?” she probes, growing more frustrated the longer it takes Chloe to put the pieces together. “The reason you laid naked on the floor for an hour this morning?”
Recognition lights up Chloe’s face. “Oh, right! That!” The recognition gives way to confusion once again. “Wait, how would she be doing it on purpose? It’s not like she knows about us, right? Besides, it’s not like it’s happened that many times.”
“Oh yeah?” Beca challenges her, moving further into the room until she can settle herself on the end of Chloe’s bed. “What about that time her class just happened to be cancelled and she came home earlier than expected. Or every time she’s shown up in my room unexpectedly after claiming she would be out for the night? Or whenever she shows up to your room to ask some question that she could have texted you? Or that time-”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Chloe cuts her off, visibly thinking as she takes in Beca’s words. “You may have a point, she interrupts us a lot. But also, how do you know she knows about us?”
Beca shrugs her shoulders. “I guess I don’t know for sure, but she definitely makes a lot of jokes about us dating.” Chloe’s eyes snap to her and Beca’s own eyes widen when she realizes what she’s said, a blush heating up her cheeks. “Which we’re not obviously,” she quickly amends, cursing herself for making things awkward. “Either way, I’m tired of her getting in the way, and I think I know how to get her back for it.”
Chloe lifts an eyebrow, intrigued. “And how do you plan to do that?”
“I’m going to catch her with Bumper,” Beca reveals with a confident nod.
Chloe’s nose scrunches up. “Are you sure you want to put yourself through that?”
Beca opens her mouth but no words come out, the thought of what she would potentially see if she did catch them never having occurred to her before. “It’s not like- I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily see- I guess I just-” Beca huffs out a frustrated breath. “Look, that’s not important. The important part is that Amy and Bumper are hooking up and don’t want anyone to know about it, and I’m going to catch them.” She stands from the bed, arms crossing determinedly over her chest.
That amused expression is back on Chloe’s face. “Well, I wish you all the luck in your mission, Bec,” she says, head nodding in support. “I believe in you.”
“Thank you,” Beca replies, turning swiftly on her heel to exit the room. She opens the door and begins marching out, but stops herself and turns back around one last time. “By the way, if you do see the old bagel lady at the store, let me know. I really haven’t seen her in a while and I’m starting to wonder if she died.”
That makes Chloe laugh as she assures her she will keep her updated, and the sound follows Beca out of the room with a smile on her face.
* * *
For the next few days Beca keeps her eyes and ears open for any suspicious activity that could possibly involve her roommate. Floor boards creaking? Beca’s there to investigate. Something falls off a shelf in the pantry? You bet your ass Beca will be checking that out.
One instance comes as she’s helping some of the Bellas plan for their upcoming Christmas party- well, maybe helping is a bit of a stretch. She’s sat around the table with them as they discuss various decorations and appetizers that they’ll need to get, not so much paying attention to the conversation at hand as she is focusing on the bowl of grapes in front of her while kicking at Chloe’s feet playfully under the table.
In her defense, Chloe doesn’t seem as invested as she usually is with these types of things, even if she’s putting more effort into pretending she is. Bright blue eyes keep drifting across the table to meet Beca’s insistent gaze. Beca knocks her foot against Chloe’s again, grinning when Chloe does the same in return. Chloe bites her lip to stifle a smile and Beca pops another grape into her mouth.
Ashley is arguing about color choices with Stacie when movement near the front entry hall catches Beca’s eye. Her head swivels in that direction, ears perking up when she hears heavy footfalls against the stairs a moment later. The stark realization occurs to Beca then that she hasn’t seen Amy at all today, and her eyes light up at the possibility that she may be sneaking Bumper upstairs this very second.
Beca pushes her chair away from the table, ready to make up some sort of excuse as to why she has to leave, but the argument has escalated and no one seems to have noticed – or cared – about her movements at all.
Chloe does notice, however, and she shoots a curious glance at Beca as she stands up. Beca holds up a finger, silently communicating that she would be back in a minute before speed walking away from the debating Bellas, one singular goal in mind.
She sprints up the stairs to get to she and Amy’s shared room, suddenly grateful for all the cardio she’s put in for the Bellas for keeping her somewhat in shape. When she reaches the attic she’s only slightly out of breath, swinging around the banister to claim her victory.
“Aha!”
Fat Amy looks calmly up from her magazine from her place lounging on her bed, looking as cool, calm, and collected as Beca as ever seen her.
“Oh hey, Beca,” the Aussie greets with a smile. She gestures towards Beca with the magazine in her hands. “You look even more tired than normal. You okay? I’m not technically allowed to practice medicine in the states anymore, but if you’re dying I can make an acceptation.”
Beca sighs, disappointed at her failure. “No, I’m fine. Promise,” she says, unable to keep her eyes from investigating the room despite the fact that she knows Bumper isn’t there. “Uh, the girls are planning the Christmas party downstairs. They said they want an expert’s opinion on the snacks.”
Amy makes a noise that is both pleased and triumphant. “Of course they do!” She exclaims, setting her reading material aside and rising from the bed. “Those twig bitches wouldn’t know a proper hors d'oeuvre if it slapped them in the cranium.”
She hustles off downstairs, leaving Beca standing alone in defeat. Checking under the bed quickly just to make sure she isn’t missing anything, Beca sighs again and slowly starts to descend back down the stairs.
* * *
A couple days later Beca is walking home from classes with Chloe, both of them rejoicing in the fact that they only had a few short days left until they are done with classes for the semester.
And really it’s unfair just how pretty Chloe is. This isn’t new information to Beca, she’s always known that her best friend had the looks to make just anyone swoon, but right now is one of those moments in which that information is essentially slapping her in the face. The blue of her eyes matches the shade of the sky almost perfectly, and the slight chill in the air makes her cheeks a pleasant pink that Beca is usually only privy to during more intimate activities in the bedroom.
Although maybe thinking about that isn’t really helping her with the whole “suppressing her feelings for her best friend/hookup buddy” thing.
Beca is mentally debating with herself about whether or not reaching over and lacing her fingers with Chloe’s can be considered platonic in any way when her eyes zero in on something in the distance, near the Treble’s house. She sees a flash of blond and pink disappear into the bushes and suddenly Beca feels adrenaline course through her veins.
“Hang on, just one second,” Beca tells Chloe, never taking her eyes off her target. She thinks she might hear some sort of hum or sigh in response, but she’s not paying enough attention to really know.
Beca speeds up her pace, crouching down slightly in an effort to be stealthier. She reaches the hedge separating the Bellas’ house from the Trebles’ and only hesitates for a moment before pushing her way through to the other side.
Amy awaits on the other side, all decked out in her bright pink bathing suit, much to Beca’s confusion.
“Amy?” she calls out, and the woman in question turns around with wide eyes, looking startled. “What are you doing? It’s like, forty degrees right now.”
“Uh, well, you see, I-” Amy struggles with her words for a minute, seeming flustered, and Beca feels a sense of victory wash over her.
Beca walks further into the backyard, looking around for where Bumper is surely hiding. “Are you meeting somewhere here? Why are you in the Treble’s yard?”
“Alright, you caught me!” Amy bursts out, arms extending out on either side of herself in anguish. Beca smiles, and is about to ask her where Bumper is when Amy continues. “I always sneak into the Treble’s yard to use their hot tub, every Tuesday at three o’clock.”
Beca’s face scrunches up. “What?” she asks, absolutely confused. “I thought-”
“No one was supposed to know!” Amy continues to lament, walking towards Beca and placing her hands on her shoulders. Beca is shocked to see that she looks dangerously close to tears. “The Trebles are always at practice right now, no one’s ever seen me here.” She pulls Beca into a tight hug, much to Beca’s dismay. “Please don’t tell anyone, Beca. I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone knowing my dirty secret.”
Beca’s arms remain pinned by her side due to Amy’s embrace, but she tips her head back in frustration. “I don’t- listen, dude, I really don’t care. And I won’t tell anyone.”
Amy immediately releases her, and Beca lets out a sigh of relief. “You’re the greatest, Cap!” She says happily, patting her once on the arm in what Beca supposes is supposed to be friendly but verges on painful instead. “And hey, if you ever wanted to join me, I would be honored to include you in Hot Tub Tuesdays.”
“No, that’s really alright,” Beca sighs, rubbing her arm where Amy hit her. “Wouldn’t want to encroach on your… personal time, or anything.”
Amy wipes at her forehead. “Phew, thank goodness. I only offered to be nice.” She turns around and starts making her way over to the hot tub. “You’re the greatest, Beca! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with some hot chlorine.”
Beca wrinkles her nose in disgust and dejectedly makes her way back to the hedge, pushing her way through them with a sore arm and yet another failure.
* * *
It’s two days before the Bellas’ Christmas party – or “extravaganza” as Stacie likes to call it – and Beca and Chloe are busying themselves with making last minute tweaks to the playlist that the girls had all put together for it.
And it’s not a bad playlist, Beca thinks. It’s just that music is the only thing she’s ever interested in at any given social event, so she wanted it to be good enough to make her not want to bash her head into a wall every thirty minutes.
Beca sits propped up against Chloe’s pillows, laptop resting atop her things as she looks through all the songs selected so far. Chloe lays in the space next to her, absentmindedly scrolling through her phone and offering input every so often when the need arises.
It feels so domestic that Beca could just throw up.
“Why do we have like twelve different versions of ‘Santa Baby’ on here?” Beca questions, nose scrunching up as she peruses all the artists displayed before her. “And why do we have Michael Buble’s version? That’s literally the worst one. Who approved this?”
Chloe hums and lets her phone fall down to rest against her chest. “I believe you are the one who is currently approving it, since you’re so picky about playlists.”
Beca scoffs as she goes to delete about half the versions of the song on the list, starting with Michael Buble’s. “You can’t make me feel bad about that. If I wasn’t so picky, every playlist the Bellas put together would just be hours upon hours of Kesha.”
A giggle falls musically from Chloe’s lips and the sounds makes Beca’s quirk up into a small smile. “But you like Kesha, don’t you, Bec?”
She shifts her eyes over to see the teasing look on Chloe’s face, knowing for a fact that the redhead has caught her mid-Kesha jam out on multiple occasions. They lock eyes for a minute, waging a silent war between themselves before Beca shifts her eyes back towards her computer screen.
“Kesha’s fine, but I’d rather not listen to her for three hours while some drunk dude in a Santa hat tries to dance up on me,” Beca says, forcing her voice to remain in a neutral tone.
“Ew,” is Chloe’s response, and it makes Beca laugh and nod her head in agreement. “You know,” Chloe says a moment later, slowly sitting up and turning her body to face Beca more. The laptop is liberated from Beca’s lap a second later, and Beca is about to complain when she sees the look in Chloe’s eyes, the words dying on her tongue before they’ve even taken shape. “I really think I should be the only one who gets to dance up on you like that.”
Beca gulps as Chloe replaces the space her computer had occupied, sliding onto her lap with ease. Beca’s hands fall naturally to her hips, gripping in preparation for whatever Chloe has up her sleeve.
Spoiler alert: Beca is never ready when it comes to Chloe.
“Maybe I could even wear a Santa hat,” Chloe muses before leaning in close to continue in a low voice. “The Santa hat and not much else.” She nips at Beca’s ear and Beca shudders at the mental image that comes to mind.
And really Beca has absolutely no idea what she’s supposed to say in response to something like that, her brain freezing like a worthless, slow computer. “Only if you promise that you don’t dance to Michael Buble’s version,” is eventually what comes out of Beca’s mouth, and suddenly Beca wishes she could go die in a hole somewhere.
Except her dumb comment makes Chloe laugh probably harder than it should, all pretenses of her playing seductress vanishing on the spot, and suddenly they’re kissing, both of them smiling into the kiss as Beca holds onto Chloe just a little bit tighter.
And it’s moments like this that are simultaneously the best and worst moments that Beca shares with Chloe. Because sure, she absolutely loves their passionate nights together- nights where few words are spoken between them and where their bodies move as one until they’re gasping in ecstasy.
She really loves those nights.
But there is also something so incredibly divine about moments like the one they are having now, where it’s all dumb jokes and smiling kisses, comfortable familiarity and the reminder that Chloe was one of her favorite people in the world even before things got sexual between them. Chloe Beale is, without a doubt, Beca’s best friend, and she’s never had more fun with anyone else than she does with her- in or out of the bedroom.
These moments are also the ones that end up hurting later, though. The ones that make Beca’s chest ache when she’s laying all alone late at night as she remembers Chloe’s laugh, Chloe’s smile, the way Chloe looks at Beca like she put the stars in the sky and longing for something more between them, because Beca just knows that they would be so damn good together. She knows because they already are.
It’s too bad that Beca is a fucking coward and will never have the courage to tell Chloe as much.
Then again, all that bad stuff is a problem for future Beca. Current Beca just gets to sit back and enjoy.
And enjoy she does.
Beca slips her hands beneath the hem of Chloe’s shirt as the kiss depends, grinning a little when she feels Chloe shiver against the cool fingers against her skin. Chloe retaliates by biting down lightly on Beca’s bottom lip, and Beca gasps at the sensation as Chloe hips start to rock in a subtle grind. Beca’s gasp turns into a groan and she slides her hands down to Chloe’s ass to encourage the movement, their kiss never breaking for a second.
Chloe’s shirt is shortly peeled up and over her head, flung somewhere that is of no importance to Beca at the moment. Her hands return to the smooth expanse of Chloe’s back and she breaks the kiss to begin peppering kisses along Chloe’s collarbones and chest.
Chloe leans her head back and sighs, her own hands coming up to tangle in Beca’s hair. Beca nips lightly at a jutting collarbone and revels in the small noise of surprise she gets in response. The next second Chloe’s hands are moving to grip the bottom of Beca’s shirt, preparing to pull it off and-
Hushed voices from the hallway reach Beca amidst the haze of arousal she’s found herself in. She pauses in her actions, ears straining. Chloe’s hands also pause from lifting up Beca’s shirt, seeming unsure as to why Beca has suddenly stopped.
“What is it?” Chloe asks in a breathless voice, confusions laced in her tone. Beca is about to reply when she hears the voices again, and this time she could swear she could pick up Amy’s accent.
Her lips curve into a smirk and she pulls back to look at Chloe. “Amy,” she says, gesturing to the door with her head. “Let me up, I know that’s them this time.”
Chloe laughs, though it sounds much different from how she was laughing earlier. More bitter. She releases Beca’s shirt and brings her hands towards herself, folding her arms across her stomach. “Just like you’ve known every time before this?”
Beca’s eyebrows draw together at the bite in Chloe’s voice. “I mean, I always thought I was right before, but now I’m positive it’s-”
“What’s the point?” Chloe exclaims, cutting Beca off mid-sentence. Beca’s mouth snaps shut in shock and she watches as Chloe slides off her lap, standing from the bed to go retrieve her shirt.
“Excuse me?” Beca finally says once she’s found the ability to speak again. Chloe bends down to pick up her shirt and spins around to face Beca, eyebrow raised challengingly.
“Why are you so obsessed with catching them?” Chloe asks, pulling her shirt over her head as she speaks. “Why does it even matter to you?”
“Aren’t you tired of Amy interrupting us? Don’t you want to get back at her?” Beca replies, agitation starting to creep into her mind.
“Amy isn’t even the one interrupting us anymore!” Chloe all but shouts, sounding completely exasperated. She gestures to Beca, holding her hands out in her direction. “It’s you! You’re the one interrupting all our moments together lately, Beca!”
“I am not!” Beca immediately defends herself, not actually thinking through her words. “I’m just trying to keep our secret exactly that: a secret.”
Chloe laughs that same humorless laugh again. “Yeah, because it would be absolutely devastating if anyone knew about us, right?”
Beca recoils, not knowing where that came from. “You wanted this. You agreed that this is how things should be,” she responds carefully, watching as Chloe rests her hand on her hips and turns her attention to the floor.
“Maybe I did, but at least I’m not the one going out of my way to make sure that no one finds out as if I’m ashamed or something.”
Beca shakes her head. “Jesus Christ, dude, that’s not it at all.”
“Well that’s what it feels like, Beca,” Chloe snaps, looking at Beca once more. They stare at each other for a moment that is both entirely too long and entirely too short, the atmosphere thick with a tension that shoots anger all through Beca’s body.
“I’m out of here,” Beca decides, swiftly pushing up off the bed and breezing past Chloe. She thinks she hears Chloe say something as she leaves, maybe a “good idea” or something similar, but her ears are buzzing too much to actually know.
Beca flings open the door and walks out, pulling it shut behind her. She takes a moment to even out her breathing, hand still clutched to the doorknob as she leans back against it.
No Amy in sight, she observes somewhat absentmindedly, though this time she has a feeling much worse than disappointment eating away at her mind.
* * *
The Bellas’ Christmas party is always one of the most anticipated events around Barden during the holiday season.
Absolutely no expenses are spared in preparation for the night; a good portion of the Bellas’ annual budget (which is admittedly not all that much) goes toward making it perfect. The decorations, food, booze, and whatever else the girls deem necessary for the occasion are of the highest quality, which makes the last party of the semester fun for all in attendance.
And while Beca really isn’t the party type or one for socializing all that much, even she can admit that something about the atmosphere that the Bellas are able to create is downright heartwarming. Seeing friends and strangers alike all laughing and having a good time, the stress of classes over for the time being and the chance to finally let loose? Beca would have to be a complete Scrooge to not enjoy the sight at least a little bit.
Still, Beca prefers to enjoy the sight from the edges of the action mostly, which is exactly where she resides now. She’s somehow found herself lurking in the corner of their decked out living room with Emily of all people, the excitable freshman looking excited at everything going on around her, but still nervous enough to not want to be in the thick of things quite yet.
Beca is more than happy to hang out with the girl, of course. More than once she’s found herself laughing harder than expected at some odd story or cheesy joke, and while Beca could blame that on the slight buzz from the obligatory eggnog she’s been sipping on for most of the night, she thinks it’s probably more likely just Emily’s natural charm and warm personality.
She reminds Beca a lot of Chloe, actually. Although Beca can’t imagine that Chloe ever had the kind of awkward nervousness that simply radiates around Emily at any given moment, that same optimism and enthusiasm towards life that permeates everything that Chloe does is there with the younger brunette.
The thought makes her smile, then frown as she takes another sip of her eggnog.
Beca hadn’t spoken to Chloe in about two days, since their fight, which usually isn’t a big deal to Beca. Admittedly there are many people in her life with whom she frequently doesn’t speak to on a daily basis. Hell, even when she was dating Jesse they would sometimes go days without so much as a text shared between them.
Surely anyone could see that their relationship was always doomed, just from that piece of information alone, but that is neither here nor there.
But with Chloe, Beca finds it hard to recall any times since their friendship began in which they went more than a day without talking to each other. Yes, living together made it easier to see each other on the daily, but even when they were separated for holidays or summer vacations they always seemed to find some reason to text, to call, to facetime. It simply wasn’t in their nature to not talk to each other.
Needless to say, these two days had felt very long for Beca.
She needed more eggnog.
“Hey, I’m gonna go get another drink, you think you’ll be okay for a minute?” Beca speaks loudly over the music to be heard, gesturing to the kitchen. Emily nods her head happily, and Beca is strangely relieved to see Cynthia-Rose find her way over to the freshman as she walks away.
Squeezing her way past dancing couples and a cappella nerds chugging eggnog, Beca makes it to the kitchen. Upon entry, however, she sees a flash of familiar red hair and panics slightly, spinning around on the spot and praying to the Christmas gods that Chloe hadn’t seen her.
“Beca.”
Well, Beca never believed in Christmas gods anyways.
She spins slowly back around until she’s facing Chloe, who is standing in the entryway to the kitchen with an expression that seems almost timid on her face.
Beca spares a brief moment to tell her mind to calm the fuck down before speaking. “Oh, hey dude. Didn’t see you there.”
Crushed it.
The look on Chloe’s face tells Beca that she doesn’t believe her one bit, but luckily she chooses not to comment on it. “Look, I just wanted to apologize for the other day. I was just being dumb, and I shouldn’t have blown up at you like that.”
Beca is shaking her head before Chloe’s even finished speaking, wanting to reassure her that no, she was just as much of an ass as anybody that day, but before she gets the chance to articulate that thought a voice cutting through the crowd behind her stalls all coherent thoughts in her head.
“Oooh look! Two Bellas under a mistletoe!”
Beca spins around to find the source of the callout, immediately spotting Flo, Lilly, Jessica, and Ashley all together near one side of the room, mischievous grins on their faces, and spares a moment to shoot a glare in their direction before shifting that same glare to the archway above her head, where there is, in fact, a mistletoe hanging oh-so innocently. She pivots back around to look wide-eyed at Chloe, the sounds of party-goers encouraging the two of them to lock lips already starting up.
“I, uh, I didn’t-” Beca stammers, at a loss for words. Her fight or flight instincts start to kick in, her mind immediately coming up with several escape routes away from this situation.
Chloe opens her mouth to say something, but in that moment Beca hears something crash near the front door. She turns around again, looking in that direction, and suddenly comes to the realization that she hasn’t seen Amy or Bumper for hours.
Her mind grasps onto that fact like a lifeline just as another noise comes from the same location. A wicked smirk makes its way onto Beca’s lips as she zeroes in her target.
“Gotcha,” she says, right before pushing her way through the crowd of college kids gawking at her, ignoring them in favor of reaching her destination.
“Beca, wait!” she hears Chloe say behind her, hot on her heels. Beca reaches the front entry hall and looks around before locking eyes on the shut door to the closet by their stairs. She moves quickly towards it, placing her hand on the doorknob before throwing it open to finally reveal-
“What?”
The shocked exclamation that flies from Beca’s mouth is nothing compared to the surprise evident on the two figure’s faces in the closet as their passionate lip-lock is suddenly interrupted.
Chloe comes up beside Beca to get a peek inside and immediately gasps. “Aubrey?”
“Uh,” Aubrey splutters, looking between the two of them before pushing a lipstick-stained, messy-haired Stacie as far away from her as the small closet will allow. “I can explain?”
“What the fuck,” Beca mutters in absolute disbelief, stepping away from the closet.
“So this is, like, a thing?” Chloe asks, sounding just as bewildered as Beca feels. “How did I not know about this?”
“We, um, kind of wanted it to stay a secret for a little bit,” Aubrey explains, taking the time to straighten out her clothes and run her fingers through her hair. “Until we found our footing with things.”
Chloe gasps again, this time sounding more excited than confused. She claps her hands together and rests them under her chin. “So you’re dating?”
Stacie and Aubrey smile shyly at one another, affection obvious in their eyes. “Yeah, we are,” Stacie says, leaning over to place a sweet kiss on Aubrey’s lips.
Chloe coos and even Beca can’t find it in herself to be upset by the turn of events, instead only feeling happiness for her friends.
“Uh-oh.”
And that happiness turns to absolute elation in the next moment when Beca looks up to see Amy and Bumper frozen on their way down the stairs, hand-in-hand, Bumper’s shirt on inside out and Amy’s favorite pink Santa hat placed atop his head.
Beca points a finger at Amy and Amy immediately starts shaking her head.
“I knew it!” Beca shouts, the sense of victory coursing through her making her sound a little delirious. “I knew you were hooking up with Bumper!”
“Yeah, well you’re in love with Chloe!” Amy retaliates, pointing an accusatory finger of her own at Beca.
Beca’s feeling of triumph is replaced by panic, red hot, and she quickly looks over at Chloe, who has her mouth hung open as she watches the scene unfolding in front of her. Beca looks back and forth between Amy and Chloe for a moment, trying to decide who she should address before finally landing on Amy, who is still standing frozen in place as if that will make her disappear.
“I am not,” Beca tries to claim, but it sounds unconvincing even to her own ears.
Amy rolls her eyes and plops down on the step below her, apparently accepting her fate. “Please, you’ve got bigger puppy dog eyes for that gingersnap than a dingo in heat. You’re not fooling anyone, Shawshank.”
Beca’s mouth snaps shut at that, her panic now transforming into something close to horror. Was she really that obvious?
“Is she right?”
Chloe’s timid question snaps Beca out of her daze, and she turns to face the redhead fully. Somehow some of Beca’s own fear seems to be reflected on Chloe’s face, a certain kind of unsureness evident in her words.
“Is she right?” Chloe repeats, eyes never straying from Beca’s. “Because if she is, now would be a good time to tell you I love you, too. But if she’s wrong then I won’t bring it up.”
A collected gasp behind her makes Beca suddenly aware that they have a small audience of party guests witnessing all the drama happening at the moment, and suddenly Beca feels that same feeling of wanting to escape form earlier.
Except, Chloe is looking at her with those familiar blue eyes, so full of hope of fear, and that is all Beca needs to ground herself. Everything else falls away. No spectators, no Amy or Bumper, no Aubrey and Stacie. Just the girl she love standing before her.
Chloe’s words finally register in Beca’s mind, settling all the way down until they land like a blanket over her heart.
Chloe loves her.
And Chloe is standing there, waiting for Beca to say she loves her too.
Beca swallows her nerves. “She’s not wrong.” Another collected gasp makes Beca’s face scrunch up in frustration. She pivots around to face the crowd behind her. “Can you guys get lost? Go sing along to Mariah Carey or something.”
There are displeased murmurs as the crowd disperses, the sound of the party resuming soon thereafter. Beca turns back around to face Chloe, who looks decidedly more amused than a few moments prior.
“Like I was saying,” Beca continues, a smile sliding easily onto her lips at the look on Chloe’s face. “She’s not wrong.” She steps forward and takes both of Chloe’s hands between her own. “I love you, Chlo.”
The smile that breaks out on Chloe’s face threatens to split it right in half, and since Beca is so incredibly, deliriously happy, she decides to swoop right in and kiss that very smile that she loves so much. She vaguely registers Stacie cooing and Aubrey saying something along the lines of “well it’s about time,” but none of that matters to Beca because Chloe loves her too.
“Amy, I love you. I want to be with you,” Bumper says when Beca and Chloe pull away, hands naturally twining together. “What do you say?”
Amy laughs so hard that she almost tumbles down the stairs. “That’s a good one, really. Best joke I’ve heard in ages,” she says, wiping a tear from her eye. “Maybe you should consider a career in comedy.”
Bumper smiles, but his eyes look dead inside as he watches Amy start making her way down the stairs. “Yep! That’s me, the funny guy.” His voice cracks and he clears it, following after Amy. “I love jokes!”
And since Beca doesn’t really know how to react to the whole situation, she simply looks at Chloe and laughs, because really what else was there to do?
It’s a little while later when Chloe pulls Beca along with her until they’re standing under the very same mistletoe they had found themselves under earlier, only this time Beca has no qualms about pulling Chloe in close to her and resting their foreheads together.
“Merry Christmas, Chlo,” she whispers, smiling into their kiss when Chloe whispers the same words back to her.
Outside a gentle snowfall begins, snowflakes drifting past the window in a way that would make Beca feel all fuzzy inside. Except, she supposes that now she has something else that gives her that same feeling, too. One that will stick around all year long.