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This was not how Beca expected her Summer Break to go.
She knew Chloe would convince her to attend a party, get drunk, maybe even have them end up in college security guard timeout.
She wasn’t expecting Jesse, of all people, to require her to bail him out of jail. Even less so was she expecting to see Chloe there – also to bail someone out. Apparently Aubrey and Jesse had gotten into some sort of shenanigans. There was something about a garden gnome that, truthfully, Beca hadn't really been following when they were told the story.
It wasn’t even clear if they were involved together or if they’d somehow ended up in the same nonsense separately. Whatever, she was just glad that Chloe was here, too. She might talk a big game, but Beca’s never actually been arrested and having someone… well, not a real adult, but Chloe around could only help.
Chloe reached over and took Beca’s hand reassuringly. “It’ll be fine, Becs, Aubrey gave me the just-in-case-of-jail plan years ago,” Chloe smiles warmly. “We got this.”
The police officer returned, glanced down at the held hands, and then set the folder down on the desk between them. “First offences, bail is set at $1,000,” the officer said blandly, obviously bored.
Beca balked. “A thousand?” she shrieked.
“Each,” the officer – Appleton according to the patch on his uniform – clarified.
She was gonna pass out. She doesn’t have a thousand dollars just lying around!
Chloe wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay,” Chloe said calmly, pulling Beca into her side. She turned back to the officer. “Cash fine?”
“Yeah.”
Beca whipped her head down to look at where Chloe was unsnapping her purse. “Chlo!”
Startled, Chloe paused, her hand around a bundle of cash. “What?”
Beca stared obviously at the stack of bills. “What are you doing with that much cash on you?”
Chloe looked at her with confusion. “Paying bail?”
“But – how –”
Chloe took her arm away from Beca to count the fairly crisp hundreds. “Like I said, Aubrey’s had a plan for this. This is money very specifically for bail.”
“There, two thousand for both of them, please,” Chloe said, pushing a small stack across the desk.
“Wait here,” the officer nodded.
“Wait, Chlo, I don’t have a thousand dollars to pay you for Jesse,” Beca said, panicking.
Chloe just shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll get Jesse to pay me back.” She glanced around the room before her eyes landed back on Beca. “So what were you doing before you got the call?”
“Nothing exciting,” Beca said. “Mixing, you know how it is.”
Lighting up, Chloe asked, “Can I listen?”
“Oh,” Beca said, scrambling. “It’s not done yet, so…”
Chloe raised an eyebrow. “That’s never stopped me before.”
Which… fuck, was true. “I guess,” Beca said, unable to find an excuse. She fidgeted with her headphones around her neck when Appleton came back inside.
“They’ll meet you in the waiting area,” he said, gesturing them out. Beca bolted up from her chair, happy to escape. Chloe followed her calmly, sliding her hand into Beca’s. Beca hoped they were less clammy than she feared.
“By the way,” he called after them. They both stopped. Beca’s heart raced. She was pretty sure she hadn’t broken the law in the fifteen minutes they’d been there. Warily, she turned to meet his eyes with Chloe.
“You two are cute,” he said, short-circuiting something in Beca’s brain. “Try to keep them out of trouble, alright? No more throwing garden gnomes at each other.”
All hope of Beca finding something to respond to that was lost when Chloe leaned in and left a lingering kiss on her cheek. “We’ll do our best!”
They were barely a step away from the office before Beca hissed under her breath, “What are you doing? He thinks we’re together!”
Chloe shrugged, completely unbothered. “We are,” she said simply.
Beca felt like steam was pouring from her ears. “No, we’re not!”
Threading their fingers together and squeezing, Chloe said, “Yeah, we are. You just haven’t accepted it yet.”
Speechless, pulse racing, all Beca can do is follow Chloe into the waiting area and let herself be tugged down into one of the chairs beside her.
“It’s okay,” Chloe added after a couple of minutes. “I can wait.” Beca felt like she was going to combust – not spontaneously, no. Death by Chloe Beale, of course.
Beca had never been so glad to see Aubrey and Jesse.