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Beca had said it last time, but this time she means it. She is genuinely going to quit this god awful club. They had been forced to perform for a pack of Frat Boys and of course they were a mess. Minimal memory and negative hours of practice they walked out a heap of embarrassment. Thank god she wasn’t in the front row. It was Aubrey’s fault, who failed to train them or warn them about the copious amounts of cardio so then half of the group could’ve either gotten ready earlier or not tried out entirely.
The gaggle of them all looked like dejected flight attendants, Chloe and Aubrey being the worst. Chloe had loudly proclaimed after their horrible performance that she has vocal nodules and will no longer be holding the hard parts of vocals. Which, didn’t seem like such a big deal, but by the way Chloe’s voice cracked as she spoke it seemed as if the world was ending.
Which maybe it was for her.
Beca grabbed her bag from the side of the wall, her ankles giving out underneath her once again and making her fall against. Not only will she fracture her ankle, the socks riding down below the backing of her heel tells her a blister is forming.
“Next week. Be on time for once!” Aubrey yells, shooing off the rest of the Bella’s.
Beca follows Fat Amy and Stacie out, heels hooked by her fingers and dingy converse on her feet. Not even tied up correctly. Stacie is an absolute giant in heels and at least two of her standing up straight, which should be concerning but it makes it harder to look away. Stacie is one of those people that can leave everyone she walks by awestruck. Beca becoming one of them.
Her staring is cut short when Fat Amy turns back and sees her blatantly staring at the ass walking directly in front of her. She makes a loud unfunny joke about it but Stacy only turns back to beam with pride.
Beca rolls her eyes, turning off the path towards her dorm.
“Hi Beca.” Chloe pops up next to her, a soft smile on her face as she bounces along the path with her.
Beca eyes her, a raise of the eyebrow and almost glare. “Hey Chloe… to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Chloe chuckles, playing with her hands that are held together in front of herself. “Do you remember when we talked about our tattoos and we both have bug tattoos?” Beca nods skeptically. “Well I know of this bug reserve on campus, it’s for research students only but I know a guy who can get us in…Do you wanna go with me?”
Beca's eyes widen slightly, deeply watching for her face to change or for her to call a joke on her words but she continues to stare awaiting an answer. Her smile strained as time passed slowly.
“Are you asking me out Beale?” Beca grins, trying to keep her excitement simmering.
Chloe smiles even wider, gently knocking her shoulder. “Yep, bug date. But you can’t tell anyone this is an enclosed area we're going into.”
Beca lets out a dry laugh. “I don’t really have anyone to tell.”
“Great.” Chloe claps, then winces. “Not great, great but...” She grabs out her phone and hands it to Beca a sheepish smile on her face. “You’re the only phone number I don't have.”
Beca nods, holding back a laugh at the redhead’s nervous gestures. She types it in quickly and hands it back. “Just don’t go around sharing it. I don’t need random people to start popping up.”
Chloe laughs. “Got it. Secrets safe with me.”
Beca gives her a small awkward smile back. She’s quickly approaching her dorm and is trying to think up what to say when they get there but Chloe gets to it first.
“Well I have to run, I'll text you the deets.” She says, waving as she runs off to the other side of the quad. Beca waves back, waiting till she’s out of sight before walking inside.
Chloe sends her a message within the day.
Chloe: “Hello!! It's Chloe from the Barden Bellas.”
Chloe: “Are you free next week, Tuesday around seven?”
Beca bites the inside of her cheek, checking her calendar. She was supposed to work, but she’d convince Jesse to take over that shift.
Beca: “I am.”
Chloe: “yay!!!”
Chloe: “meet you there?”
A link to an unknown address is sent with the message, supposedly a twelve minute walk from her. Chloe isn’t that crazy, and she’s not getting total stranger danger vibes from her.
Beca: “sure”
-
The day of the outing with Chloe she gets scheduled for the afternoon shift after mentioning she couldn’t take the night shift due to an appointment. Since Jesse already called out for it to do the night one she's stuck in that stupid back room. One cd at a time. The clock clicks six-thirty and he still hasn’t arrived. Beca huffs, tapping her converse against the dirty wood floor. For a friendly going out is she supposed to get all done up? Is it an insect conservatory? Is that even a thing?
Finally the bell at the front door chimes and Jesse walks in beaming bright.
“You’re late.” She huffs, setting down the box she was moving from the corner full of cds to organize.
Jesse's smile falters, and he drapes his jacket on a chair. “Only by a little, like a minute?”
Beca rolls her eyes, “I had to go like five minutes ago.”
Jesse raised an eyebrow at her, watching her shove away CDs quickly before taking them out of her hand to set them in slowly. “Hot date?”
Beca bristles, dropping her arms to her side. “I don’t know.”
Jesse laughs, grabbing more cds out of the crate by the brunettes feet. “What do you mean you don’t know? Like you don’t know if it’s a date or if he’s hot?”
“It couldn’t be a date, it’s like an outing with my friend?” Beca grimaces, “She invited me to this thing we both share in common.”
Jesse looks at her puzzled. “She?”
“Yeah she, my friend.”
“So… is she hot?”
Beca gives him a deadpan look, and he raises his arms in defeat. Sighing, she drops off the empty milk crate and grabs a new one to drop at his feet. “I just don’t know if I should get dressed up or not.”
“I say yes, it's always good to be well dressed on the first date.” Jesse says with a smile. “Go all gothy on her.”
“None of this is helpful information because this isn’t a date, and I’m not goth.” She mutters.
Jesse shrugs. “You never know, sounds like one to me.”
“You don’t even know what we’re doing.” Beca retorts and grabs her beg from the hook in the corner, slipping it on her back.
“No but… I just know things.” He says, smirking. Blowing her a kiss in the air that makes her physically gag. She rolls her eyes, the door slipping closed behind her.
“Bye Becaw!”
-
She definitely feels overdressed, the switch out of her jeans for shorts and tights with her converse was definitely a choice she shouldn't have made. Especially with how short they are. But she's standing outside the building she was told to go to, fixing the flannel cuffs around her hands.
“Beca!” Bright red hair is in her face, clouding up her vision as she's pulled into a hug. “You made it!”
Beca smiles uncomfortably, patting her back. “Yeah, I'm here. Is this the correct place?”
Chloe nods, pulling a keycard out of her wallet and tapping it on the door lock. “Theres a small conservatory in the middle of this building, not a lot of insects sadly for us but some butterflies and moths. They just added a few that have broken wings and are on the mend.”
Beca trails not too far behind her eyes growing wide as they hit what she's talking about. “And barden just has this?”
Chloe shrugs, smiling. “This school really has everything but the real stuff. I took a class about moths and butterflies last year, that's how I found out about this and my friend just happens to be studying Lepidopterology to give me his keycard.”
“That’s a real thing?”
Chloe hums, opening the door to the conservatory. She can't imagine the hissy fit her father would've thrown if she was going into studying bugs, probably would've sent him into cardiac arrest. Beca's eyes widen as she sees the rows of flowers covered by bright sunlight. It's smaller than the many she has visited before but a good size for a college who doesn't even advertise this program.
Chloe looks almost anew under the sunlight, smiling and blue eyes shining wide when looking back at her one last time before walking in. Under the light like this all her brain can think about is how pretty she is, and Beca has to force herself to look away, cheeks flushed.
‘You've known her for a month, keep it in your pants Beca.’ She scolds herself, looking around the room for something else to catch her attention. Pink wings fluttering around the plants growing in the corner she holds herself back from skipping over.
“They just got in these really cool pink and yellow moths a few weeks ago, a few have dented weeks so they’re healing up.”
Beca watched pink and yellow wings fly by and land on a leaf. “Woah.” She scoots closer to the plant. “A rosy maple moth.”
Chloe hums curiously.
“They’re rosy maple moths right?”
Chloe pauses to think, biting the side of her cheek. “Yeah I think that's what I was told, very fuzzy if you touch them.” Beca nods, smiling widely as she gently touches the wing, almost squealing with excitement when the wings flick upwards.
Footsteps walk off behind her, and she sticks to the plants till the moth flies away. Chloe sits in the back of the room, leaning down to touch something, and Beca is too nosy to not know what it is. She steps behind her, eyes going wide as she stares at the butterfly that sticks to her finger like a lifeline. Maroon wings with different blackened patterns cascade around the wings like a pillow she would have seen at her rich aunt's house.
“I’ve named this one Red, a little on the nose but it’s easy to remember.” Chloe smiles, “There's many that look like this around here, they stick near these leaves.” She points towards the ever growing plant behind them.
“This is so insanely cool Chloe.”
Chloe beams standing up and letting the butterfly fly off. “You’re the only person who appreciates it.”
“Right back at you,” she says then cringes, rubbing her face and clearing her throat. “Do you come in here a lot?”
“When I'm not busy with work, or class, or Bellas. It's more annoying to get the key from my friend because he's never not busy.” She chuckles . “But maybe I can convince him more often if I have someone to go with...” Chloe smiling grows when she faces her, like she needs to convince her to come back.
“I would love to come back.” Beca smiles, and Chloe looks relieved like she would say no.
“Awes.” She says, high pitched through a grin. “Let me show you one more thing before we go.” She grabs her hand pulling her to the other side of the room, finicking with the handle on the door before it slowly opens up letting in cold outside air. Beca shivers at the bitterness, but keeps holding on to the warm hand surrounding her.
“From here you can see all the stars at night,” Chloe leans against the railing putting her hands on top of it, her eyes shimmering with moonlight as she looks up. It's a small balcony, and there are nothing but roofs surrounding the area below them so she looks up. “Do you believe in astrology?”
Beca hums. “Sometimes,”
“Well the stars right above us look like a Pegasus to me. Like the one from geek mythology, it can mean freedom, transformation, and divine power. I don't really pray anymore, but when I see it I just hope it gets me through the year.”
Beca squints, barely seeing a constellation connection in general but doesn't say anything about it. To her Chloe is the sweeter kinder version of who Aubrey thinks she is, she is never snooty or rude and actually cares for the group of freshmen she's been forced to take under her wing. Beca squeezes her hand, a comforting gesture.
Chloe's eyes fall back down towards her, and she smiles. Her eyes crinkled, and her blue eyes swirling with warmth. Beca lets herself get sucked into them by warm welcoming waves, before being quickly pulled away by the current. The warmth of her hand pulled away. “You look a little chilly, do you wanna head back inside?”
Beca can hear her teeth chattering through her head, but she rather sit for a few more moments before letting this moment end. She shakes her head stubbornly. “Nah it's okay, I'm not really that cold.”
Chloe giggles, “Are you sure? I hear your teeth chattering.”
Beca shakes her head, trying to get the goosebumps on her arms to go away. “I’m fine.”
Chloe gives her a pout, shrugging off the puffy jacket she has on a fuzzy turtle neck showing from underneath and handing it to the brunette. “Your lips are a little blue, just wear it for a bit.”
Beca pushes her hand away. “Then you'll be cold, I'm fine really.”
“Beca you're wearing shorts and tights and a tank top.” Chloe pulls her sleeves around her hands, holding it out more towards her.
“I have a flannel too.” She mumbles, hands crossed over her chest like a defiant child.
Chloe rolls her eyes, draping it over her back and buttoning the front button to stay on like a cape. “Dont be stubborn, I can't have you sick. Aubrey would murder me.”
Beca huffs, taking in the scent of Chloe's detergent hitting her as slips on the jacket on her. Chloe leans over the rail, her breath coming out in short clouds of cold air as she looks at the sky.
They head back inside shortly after, and Beca feels as if she is on cloud nine. Her cheeks are warm with blush from Chloe’s slight teasing about how big the jacket is on her. Her nose is cherry red and frozen over from staying outside for so long.
She starts to unbutton it when they walk out the front door of the building but Chloe stops her, holding her wrist. “Just wear it home, the dorms are a little far from here and the Bella's house is around the corner.”
Beca nods, not one to deny the warmth she’s surrounded in. She attempts and fails to figure out how to zip it up enough to cover her face. Cheeks flushing even more when Chloe giggles. Cold fingers run again her cheek as she pulls the extra fabric upwards then holds it pausing. She leans in and presses a warm kiss against her cheek.
Beca feels herself gasp quietly, a small puff of air falling out. Chloe has a small smile on her face and her own cheeks rosy with colour. “Get home safe Beca.”
Beca would reply but Chloe covers her face with the extra fabric and she doesn’t want to mess it up and risk blushing that hard again.
“You too.” She mumbles attempting to smile with her eyes. But Chloe has already walked the other way.