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Beca doesn’t really get it. The first time it happens she’s entirely sure that she just said something really stupid and that’s why the TA is staring at her so intently for half the class so she just brushes it off. But then it keeps happening.
Beca doesn’t really say much in class too often so the next time that she catches the redhead staring at her she’s entirely too confused by it. Then she wonders that maybe this girl just likes to space out in the general direction of where Beca always sits in the back of the room. But then again she’s the teacher’s assistant and Beca thinks she probably shouldn’t be spacing out while in class.
One week Beca finds the sheer idea of attending class so absolutely unbearable that she just decides not to go at all. And instead to sit in her room working on her mixes for five straight days only leaving to pick up food and go to the bathroom. The time alone was much needed and Beca was happy to be able to get somewhere with a couple of mixes while having a break from her classes. Sure she was just skipping them but she really needed the break. To say that she was surprised to hear a knock at her door around 11 pm on a Friday night was kind of an understatement.
“Hello?” Beca calls hesitantly without getting up from her desk.
“Uh, hi. Is Beca there?” an unfamiliar voice answers gently.
“What?” Beca questions pushing out of her chair making her way towards the door.
“I’m pretty sure she lives here but, uh, sorry if this isn’t the right room.”
“Um, hi,” Beca says throwing the door open to be even more surprised upon seeing the redhead standing in her doorway.
“Hey,” the girl chirps immediately perking up when the door was opened.
“Chloe, right? What are you doing here?” Beca asks entirely too confused at this girl’s presence.
“I, uh, you weren’t in class this week. I was worried, I guess, and wanted to check in with you. That seems weird but, um, yeah, finals are coming up and I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Chloe rambled on shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other.
“I’m fine,” Beca deadpanned. “Anything else?”
“Oh, yeah. These are from class this week. I figured you might want them to prep for the final and all,” Chloe replied awkwardly holding out a small pile of papers towards the younger girl.
“Um, thanks,” Beca said hesitantly taking the papers away from the other girl.
“It’s not a problem. I’ll see you in class next week,” Chloe chirps before spinning around and heading down the hall. Beca watches her as she walks away before slamming the door behind her and throwing the papers onto her desk.
Beca doesn’t really get it. After Chloe brought her those papers she started to notice just how much the redhead stared at her during class. And she doesn’t get it. She really doesn’t. She doesn’t even know this girl and yet she’s constantly caught her blatantly staring at multiple points throughout the class. It wasn’t just a one time thing. It wasn’t even just an every now and then kind of thing. It was an every single class and every couple minutes kind of thing. Almost every time Beca looked up towards where the redhead is she’s staring at her. Half the time when she’s caught she doesn’t even bother to look away and at least pretend not to be looking. And Beca really just doesn’t get it.
It bugs her enough that she’s distracted when taking the final. Distracted to the point that it took her at least twice as long as it should have taken her to finish but she kept catching Chloe watching her. And she decided when she passed the test in to just blatantly ask her.
“So, what’s your deal?” Beca whispered harshly after handing the test over to Chloe.
“What?” Chloe asked clearly confused.
“What’s your deal?” Beca repeated. “You’re always staring at me in class or spacing out or something.”
“Oh, um,” Chloe muttered awkwardly looking around the room in attempts of avoiding meeting Beca’s eyes. “I - promise not to laugh?”
“Okay.”
“I kind of have a crush on you. It’s ridiculous I know but yeah,” Chloe mumbled as she straightened out the stack of tests.
“Oh,” Beca whispered entirely taken aback by the statement.
“Yeah. Sorry, if that’s like weird but yeah,” Chloe added quietly.
“I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t that,” Beca admitted.
“Well let’s just pretend it didn’t happen, okay?” Chloe decides with a sigh.
“No,” Beca interjects quickly. “It’s cool, dude.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’m sorry I’m just not really a people person and I’m awkward so,” Beca mumbles in a way that just emphasizes her awkwardness even more.
“Okay. Well, I think we can work on our awkwardness together,” Chloe says with a small smile. “Give me your phone.”
Beca hands her phone over hesitantly but watches as the redhead only sends a text to what she assumes is her own number. Chloe beams up at her as she passes the phone back to her.
“Text me sometime. I’d love to get to know you,” Chloe smirked.
“Okay. Yeah,” Beca says with a nod.
“Great,” Chloe says with a wink. "Looking forward to it."