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Beca was intending on spending the rest of the night in her apartment binge watching her latest series on Netflix with bowls upon bowls of comfort food. Key word here... was . And she has one particular neighbor to blame for this disruption of epic proportions.
It started out with the banging. Which wasn’t too out of the ordinary for her upstairs neighbor. Beca doesn’t know what her neighbor is up to but quite frankly she doesn’t care that much because at least her neighbor puts up with her mixing at all hours of the night no matter how loud she gets. Which is a huge plus in comparison to her previous upstairs neighbor that constantly complained about her and nearly got her thrown out onto the streets. Luckily for her though the neighbor moved out before her final warning and even better than that is whoever moved in after him because there are no complaints from them. So Beca doesn’t complain about the occasional banging from her neighbor because quite frankly who gives a damn.
The banging though eventually progressed to stomping. Beca assumes that her neighbor is doing an awful lot of running around and doing who knows what. But she just deals with all the banging and stomping and the eventual blaring of Christmas music as well. She’s not really much of a Christmas person, yeah some people call her the Grinch let’s just get over it already, but it is a week before Christmas so this music can be the one exception. And if you ever think of calling her out for singing along to some of the songs she’d probably hang you by your ankles off her fire escape in the middle of winter and be warned it is snowing.
It’s when Beca is whisper singing “Here Comes Santa Claus” that there is a loud and horrible crash on her fire escape that causes her to go flying into the air in complete and utter shock. She stands holding a hand to her chest for what seems like forever before she is able to calm her breathing enough to go see what it is that fell onto her fire escape. She’s not sure what she was expecting but it definitely was not a snow covered body wrapped up in a bunch of Christmas lights. Beca screams, of course she screams.
“Are you...are you okay?” Beca yells as she pulls the window up. She examines the redhead that is now brushing snow off her body and attempting to pick herself up.
“Oh, hi,” the girl mumbles. “This is awkward but hey.”
“Hi,” Beca responds with a light chuckle. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. I...slipped,” the girl says with a glance upwards.
“I assume you’re my upstairs neighbor then,” Beca assumes. “I’m Beca.”
“Chloe,” the redhead replies throwing out her hand for a proper greeting. Beca complies easily and may or may not be caught staring at the other girl. “See something you like?”
“No, I wasn’t...I mean yes but that’s not. That’s not what I was doing. Sorry,” Beca stumbles awkwardly. “Um...why are you wrapped up in Christmas lights, dude?”
“Dude? You call a pretty girl dude,” Chloe scoffs.
“Sorry, I call everyone that. Just answer the question,” Beca says with the wave of her hand. Chloe laughs but starts to unravel herself from the lights.
“I was putting up these lights and I guess when I slipped they got a little wrapped up around me,” Chloe giggles.
“You’re seriously putting up Christmas lights now dude? It’s snowing and a week before Christmas,” Beca says raising her voice. Because seriously who the hell puts Christmas lights up on their fire escape in the middle of a snowstorm.
“Yeah, um. I’ve been busy with work and I love love love the holidays but I’ve been busy, ya know? I figured better late than never,” Chloe mutters quickly. Beca stares at her as she goes on and watches her attempts to unravel from the lights. “But it probably wasn’t my smartest move, was it? Now that I think about it. I’m sorry for, like, falling onto your fire escape and bothering you and all.”
“Dude, chill. It’s all good,” Beca says with a light laugh. “Just maybe save yourself some trouble and don’t put the lights up right now.”
“Oh yeah, totes. Good idea,” Chloe decides as she’s eyeing up the stairs to the next floor. “Um, if it’s not too much of a bother could you maybe let me in so I don’t have to walk up these sketchy stairs and possibly slip and die.”
“For sure,” Beca decides throwing her arms open for the girl to feel a little more welcome. Or at least that’s what Beca thinks this motion is supposed to do. “I’d feel pretty awful if that happened so come on in.”
“Thanks,” Chloe mumbles as she ducks under the window. “This is definitely not how I imagined meeting you would be like but oh well.”
“You’ve imagined meeting me?”
“Maybe once or twice. Or a few times,” Chloe replies honestly. The redhead walks around the apartment slowly taking in all of the vinyl records and posters like she was going to get quizzed and her life depended on knowing every little detail.
“Ah, so you’re the honest type,” Beca observes from where she is standing behind the couch. For some reason watching the redhead examine her apartment is quite entertaining. Something about it felt oddly intimate and she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it.
“Yep. And you’re the reserved type. You like to say that you’re pretty open but in all honesty you’re not. At least not with most people You love music and it’s your sole purpose here or at least that’s what you think. You’re alone a lot but you like it that way. As much as you don’t want to admit it you’d love to have a close friend, maybe a significant other but you don’t get out much. Yeah...and I’ve probably done a fairly good job at scaring you off,” Chloe concludes her rant with a shy glance towards the other girl. Beca isn’t quite sure what to respond so she lets silence fall over them for several moments while she works up a response worth vocalising.
“Wow. How...observant of you. I wouldn’t say scared off exactly,” Beca resolves. Chloe looks back at her and gives her a soft smile.
“Really?”
“Really. I don’t mind,” Beca says before she even fully thinks it through. But honestly she really doesn’t mind because maybe this is just what she needs. Someone to openly call her out. “I wasn’t really expecting all of that but I definitely don’t mind. It’s...refreshing.”
“Good to know that my forwardness is refreshing. That’s usually not the response I get,” Chloe admits shyly.
“Oh. Do you often fall onto people’s fire escapes and convince them to let you inside so you can read them like that?” Beca questions with a chuckle. Chloe, for a moment, takes her seriously but upon realizing it’s sarcasm she joins in on the other girl’s laughter.
“Definitely not. But I can say you are the most attractive out of my other ‘attempts’,” Chloe laughs.
“Oh, really now?”
“Mhm,” Chloe hums in satisfaction.
“Glad to know I’m not the only one to fall for that trick,” Beca laughs.
“Um, I don’t mean to impose or anything. I should probably get going,” Chloe replies with the clap of her hands. She starts to move towards the front door when Beca stops her.
“You’re not,” Beca blurts out. The redhead spins to look at her with a raised eyebrow. “Imposing I mean. I was just watching Netflix...nothing special.”
“Oh,” Chloe mumbles, glancing at the TV instantly confirms that yes she really was watching Netflix. “I see you have a lot of snacks.”
“Yeah. It’s one of my many stay in and binge Netflix nights with mountains of comfort food,” Beca replies, awkwardly rubbing her hand on the back of her neck. “If you don’t have anything better to do right now, aside from like decorating, you can join me.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Chloe smiles. “But I should probably go finish the mess I started for myself.”
“Not in this storm you’re not putting up those lights,” Beca abruptly cuts the redhead off.
“Oh, yeah. Finish everything except for the lights. But I’ll definitely take a rain check, or snow day, on that offer,” Chloe decides with a definitive look on her face. This look, whatever it may be, reassures Beca that the girl really will take her up on the offer one day.
“Okay, sure. Um, have fun with your decorating then and feel free to drop in whenever,” Beca says. Chloe instantly laughs because honestly out of all the things she could have said she went for that phrasing. “Um, that was a bad choice of words but you know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean,” Chloe giggles. “I’m sure I’ll take you up on the offer sometime soon. Very soon.”
“Great.”
“I’ll see you soon, Beca,” Chloe waves as she opens Beca’s front door. “Enjoy your Netflix binge.”
“Thanks. And you enjoy your decorating and Christmas music,” Beca mumbles with an awkward wave.
“Oh, trust me, I will.”
So maybe the night didn’t quite turn out exactly how Beca was planning but despite the minor interruption that made her Netflix time out she wouldn’t have it any other way. Okay, well maybe she would have changed how awkward she was here and there but other than that she wouldn’t have it any other way.