Kate Lides

I sing songs like a lot but mostly I write fanfiction! And of course photography

[katelides]

One Shot: Thunder and Lightning

Thunder rattles outside, as Emily tossed and turned trying to sleep. It’s just one of those nights. No sleep, no peace, and a lot of anxiety. The young girl always hated thunderstorms; she could never get some rest when the weather was bad. Unfortunately, this is still the case in her adulthood.

The young girl is having her first sleepover at the Bella’s house, and she already was nervous because of that. She doesn’t want to make a fool of herself.

The loud thunderclaps and bright lightning strikes make her shiver harder than a scared chihuahua. Almost breaking into tears.

BOOM

One more loud crack going through the entire house, making it shake. Emily decides to head down to the kitchen to grab herself a glass of water, or maybe even some milk. That usually calms her down at least a little bit.

The tall girl sneaks past Chloe’s bed and quietly opens the door, praying she doesn’t wake the older girl up. She would not live through the embarrassment of having to explain why she had to sneak out. Of course, she could tell her that she had to go to the bathroom but she’s a horrible liar, and even sleepy, Chloe would know that she’s lying.

Emily tiptoes down the stairs and sneaks her way into the kitchen. When she flips on the light she has to keep herself from screaming.

“What are you doing here?” she whispers louder than she would have wanted.

“I’m just grabbing a snack. What are you doing here?”

Emily stares at the short brunette in front of her. The one person she looks up to the most, the girl that changed the sound of acapella for the Bellas.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, is everything alright?” Beca ask worriedly.

“Yeah, yeah I’m alright, just got thirsty.” Emily stammers, finding her voice getting a bit louder than a whisper.

“Em, you’re extremely pale, are you sure you’re alright? Are you feeling, okay?”

Emily has never seen this side of the older Bella. Beca usually is very distant and didn’t seem like the type of person to get worried about someone else. Not because she doesn’t care about other people but more because she hasn’t really been there a lot lately.

“Do I need to go and wake up Chloe? We can check you for a fever and drive you to the on-campus doctor if you’d like?”

Emily shakes her head. “I’m okay, Beca, I just- Never mind.”

“Don’t you ‘never mind’ me, I can see something’s wrong. I might not be the best with feelings and shit, but I do know people more than one can suspect.”

Beca crosses her arms and raises her brow. She is almost daring the young girl to lie to her again. She can see that something is bothering Emily and she has an inkling as to what it could be but she doesn’t want to make an assumption.

Emily lets out a heavy sigh. “Fine- “

Beca smiles gently as she watches the young girl look for the courage within.

“I uhm, I am scared of the thunder and lightning.”

Emily squeezes her eyes as tightly as she can, waiting for the laughter and the ridicule that usually comes her way. But the ridicule does not come, there is not laughter, it’s just quiet.

Only when Emily opens her eyes, Beca starts speaking.

“I’m scared of the thunder and lightning too.”

“You are?”

“I am.” Beca chuckles. “Do you want to know a secret?”

Emily nods her head curiously.

“Whenever I get scared from the lightning and the thunder I go to the kitchen and drink a glass of milk. Then I go sit in front of the window and watch the lightning and watch the cloud shapes light up. You know, like cloud watching during the day but you only have a few seconds.”

Emily raises her brows in confusion. “But doesn’t it scare you even more when you see the lightning and the thunder? How do you deal with the thunder sounds?”

“Ah, yes, let me show you.”

Beca walks past the young girl and into the living room. She rummages through her bag and pulls out a headset and a phone.

“Put this on and take my iPod. Listen to some music and watch the clouds.”

Emily takes Beca’s headset with shaky hands. No one is ever allowed to touch her headsets or anything that has to do with music.

“A-are you sure?” Emily asks in a shaky voice.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, just go sit in the window and look outside. I’m right here on the couch working on a new mix, so if you get scared or something I’ll be right here.”

“Thank you, Beca, I really appreciate it.”

“Don’t even mention it, kiddo.”

Emily sits in the window while Beca sits on the couch and settles down to work on some new mixes for work.

An hour passes. Beca has almost finished her mix when she feels a tap on her shoulder. Not just any tap, she would recognize the rapid double tap anywhere.

“Hey Chlo.” The brunette whispers while taking off her headset.

“Hey stranger, how are things going?”

“They’re okay. What are you doing up so late though?”

Chloe points at the window. “I woke up and Emily was missing so I decided to go look for her. Turns out she’s passed out in here. What happened?”

“She came down because she’s scared of the storm, and I gave her my headset and iPod to calm her down. I wasn’t expecting her to pass out though.”

Chloe smiles and grabs the blanket that’s on the edge of the couch. “Thank you.”

“Why are you thanking me?” Beca ask as she watches Chloe cover the young girl with the blanket.

“For taking care of her.”

“She’s one of us, isn’t she?”

Chloe rolls her eyes and walks back towards Beca. “Well, miss Mitchel, I never thought you’d be this caring towards another person.”

Beca scoffs. “You know better than anyone else that I care about other people, miss Beale. Especially red heads with an attitude.”

Chloe has to hold in her laughter and leans in closer to the brunette.

“Happy birthday, Chloe.” Beca whispers before closing the gap between their lips and gently kissing her girlfriend.

I DO NOT OWN PITCH PERFECT!!! REVIEWS = HAPPY ME HAPPY ME = QUICKER UPDATES

[katelides]

Here’s a little overview of the chapters of my current running mini fic, I’ll be updating the links as we go!

Chapter list:

Chapter 1: Holiday

Chapter 2: How will I know

Chapter 3: The power of love

Chapter 4: Don’t you want me

Chapter 5: Walking on sunshine

Chapter 6: Eternal flame

Chapter 7: It must have been love

Chapter 8: Faith

Chapter 9: White wedding

Chapter 10: If I could turn back time

[katelides]

Walking on sunshine - Bechloe Mini Fic pt 9

The next morning arrives sooner than anyone would want. Chloe is sleeping on a bench at the airport where she had arrived the night before so she could leave Italy and let her sister finally have the wedding she deserves.

The PA system blasts a new announcement through the speakers; Last call for departure flight 2901 to Atlanta, immediately boarding at Gate 3.; startles Chloe to instantly wake up. The redhead looks over at the screen, still slightly disoriented from her sleep, feeling horrible, knowing she would not be able to make it in time.

Chloe hears a familiar voice and sits up straight to see where it’s coming from. “This plane… Onward… Whoa!” The young woman looks down in defeat when she sees Fat Amy being pushed in her direction by the 3 pilots that were at Maddie’s bachelorette party last night.

“Stop, stop. Doors to manual, emergency.” The blonde shouts and the three men instantly oblige. When Amy gets up one of the pilots tries to stop her. Amy shrugs her shoulders and says: “Ciao, bello.” (Bye, beautiful.) And leaves the three disappointed pilots behind to go check on her friend.

Chloe barely dares to look up, knowing that Fat Amy, as chaotic as she might be, is very loyal to other friends, and will not go down without a fight. The two look at each other for a solid minute, waiting for the other to start the conversation. 

Amy is the first one to break the silence. “You are in love with her.” She says with a heavy sigh, knowing that Chloe would push everything she knows and feels aside to make sure her sister is happy.

When Chloe breaks down in heavy sobs, the blonde let out a sigh. “Oh, C,…” She walks up to her and sits down, the redhead scotching over to give the blonde some more space.

“I've made a… small fortune writing books about love. I feel like I should have some wisdom to impart. All I can think is 50 different ways to say orgasm.” 

Chloe snorts at the funny moment of honesty coming from her friend. Knowing that the blade does not do serious conversations or real emotions.

With a heavy sigh, Amy turns to face her best friend and collects her thoughts, something she has never done before. “Everything I know about real love I’ve learned from you and Maddie. You know, you’ve got me through some really tough times, and I know you two have had it tougher than most. But we’ve always got through it together. We’ve always had each other, haven’t we?”

Chloe nods, looking Fat Aly straight in the eyes. The blonde was right, they had been through a lot together.

“When your mum dies… Maddie told me that what really broke her heart was that your mum would never be on your wedding day.” Amy continues. “You’ve done the hard part now. Don’t you wanna be there for her?”

Chloe thinks about it, sits ups straight, and wipes away her tears. She grabs her bag and puts it around her shoulder. “Well, how long have we got?” She asks with straight determination in her voice.

Fat Amy’s face breaks into a huge smile and looks down at her watch. The face of pure excitement turns to one of horror when she sees what time it is. “Shit!” She gets up and starts running towards the exit, with Chloe right behind her.

The two are running through the airport like two madwomen. Trying to get to a taxi as soon as possible. “Hey, little sister, what have you done?” Amy asks while they keep running, pointing any blame at the young girl.

Meanwhile, Maddie wakes up with a terrible hangover, clutching a picture of Beca in her hands. “Hey, little sister, who’s the only one?” She questions Beca’s picture. When she realises what time it is she jumps up in a panic, knowing she’s late… very late… to her own wedding.

Somewhere up in the dunes, a stripper in police uniform sits up. “Hey, little sister, who’s your superman?” He asks. 

Revealing a second stripper sitting up next to him, covered in kisses who says: “Hey, little sister, who’s the one you want?”

In between the two men, Titziana sits up with a smile almost as big as her face saying: “Hey, little sister, shotgun!” As she says that she pulls the two men into her boozems.

At the same time, Chloe and Amy are in a taxi on their way to the church. “It’s a nice day to start again,” Amy says while trying to zip up Chloe’s bridesmaid's dress. Chloe stares out of the back window, guilt still eating her alive.

At the church, people are slowly walking in, excitedly chatting about. “It’s a nice day for a white wedding.” You hear many whispers, as none know any of the drama that had ensued the previous night and morning.

“It’s a nice day to start again!” Maddie shouts as she burst into Chloe’s room, expecting to find her sister still sleeping, wanting to clear the air between them before the wedding. With a groan the brunette closes the door, not having the time to worry about her sister and needed to get dressed for the wedding. Her wedding.

So she runs to her best friend's room, only to find Fat Amy missing as well. “Hey, little sister… Who is it you’re with?” She asks herself, finding it very strange that both are missing at the same time.

Meanwhile, Beca is taped to a tree, naked for the world to see. “Hey, little sister!” She screams at two passing nuns who see her.

“What’s your vice or wish?” They ask concertedly. Beca just looks around and asks them to untie her so she can make it to her wedding.

Mike, Benji, and Jesse are running around the town, retracing all of their steps from last night as they have forgotten where they had left Beca and the wedding is about to start.

“Hey, little sister, shotgun…” Jesse groans, knowing he should have payed better attention to his little sister. 

Mikey’s eyes light up as she remembers where they had left the brunette and pulls his friends towards the location.

At the church Doug walks in with his designer sunglasses, smiling at the priest. “It’s a nice day for a…” The priest starts.

“…white wedding.” Doug finishes smugly.

Emily is standing in front of the church, passing nervously as no one had shown up yet. All of her friends are missing. She’s on the phone with someone, trying to figure out what is happening.

Unbeknownst to her, Jesse, Mike, and Benji are still looking for Beca. Beca is running around the town naked, trying to go unnoticed so she can get home and get dressed. Chloe and Fat Amy are still in the taxi on their way to the church. While Maddie is stranded at the side of the road, in her wedding dress, while here taxi driver is changing the spare tire.

“There you guys are!” Emily shouts when she sees her boyfriend, Mike and Jesse arrive at the church. “Where’s Beca? She asks when the brunette is not with them. The boys all shrug, not knowing the answer and all being out of breath.

Meanwhile, Beca had managed to get home and grab her suit and had started to run towards the church, to her wedding. Trying to find a way to explain to her fiancee why she’s late.

As if on queue, both Maddie’s and Chloe’s taxi arrive at the church. The second the car stops, Maddie is rushing out. Fat Amy instantly does the same, knowing that if Chloe gets to her sister first it could end in disaster.

“Where have you been?” Maddie asks, trying not to be angry at the pair.

“It’s all my fault.” Amy starts. “She had to stop me from performing an ill-advised aviation stunt, which is never a good idea after 12 sambas and a minestrone.”

Maddie rolls her eyes with a sigh, knowing that this ridiculous story has to be true… because who else would get into a situation like that? “You look beautiful. Just one sec.” The blonde says and walks away towards their friends, leaving Maddie and Chloe eye to eye.

The two sisters slowly walk up to each other with cautious smiles. Maddie sighing gently. 

“You look beautiful,” Chloe says sincerely, feeling happy that she had decided to come back with Fat Amy for her sister’s wedding. 

Maddie smiles for a brief second to then turn serious almost instantly. “Chloe, am I making a fool of myself again?” She asks, needing to know what her sister thought.

Chloe lets out an amused sigh, knowing she needs to convince her sister that everything will be just fine. “Beca’s not like anyone you’ve ever dated. She’s a keeper. You done good.” 

“Yeah?” The brunette asks just to double-check one last time. When she sees her little sister nod she continues. “And what about you? Are you… really okay with this?” She asks, still unsure after what had happened last night.

Chloe takes a deep breath, knowing that whatever she says next would set everything between them in stone for the rest of their lives. So the redhead decides to make a gesture instead. She takes off her mom’s necklace and puts it around her sister’s neck.

Maddie smiles gently and hands Chloe a small bridesmaids bouquet. “Come one.” She says, motioning towards the church. 

The redhead hesitates for a moment, feeling nervous all of a sudden. “Maddie,” Chloe says loudly but not shouting. 

Maddie stops in her tracks and turns to face her sister again. 

“No matter what, you’ve never given up on love.” Chloe starts with tears in her eyes. “You followed your heart wherever it leads. That’s how I want be.”

Maddie playfully shoves her sister. “Christ, don’t make me cry now!” She says, trying to contain her tears with a sniff. “I know it’s out there for you. You just have to grab it when you see it, okay?” 

Chloe cannot contain her tears and a single big one rolls down her cheek. 

Maddie grunts when she sees Fat Amy walk towards her. “Oh, where’s your dress?” She asks, not wanting to start crying either and rather wants to distract herself with something else.

“Sorry..” The blonde apologises. “Er… it’s not the only thing that’s missing.” She says, trying to find a way to tell the bride that her bride is missing. 

Maddie and Chloe look at each other in confusion, and then back at the blonde. “Er…” Fat Amy continues.

In that moment both Fat Amy and Chloe see Beca running towards the church and slipping in chaotically yet still unnoticed to Maddie. With wide eyes Amy looks at Chloe and continues, trying to find a plausible lie. “ Er.. my thong has gone!” She shouts.

“What?” Maddie questions with a confused smile. “This is news?” She asks with a roll of her eyes. 

“Right. Are we ready?” Amy asks Emily who is still standing infant of the church in pure shock and confusion about the entire ordeal.

Emily puts her thumbs up, to say let's do this before anything else happens.

Inside the church, Mike and Benji try to make Beca look slightly more presentable. “You alright, ragazza (girl). You look a bit perduta (lost).” Mikey asks in concern. 

“No, I’m fine.” She says with determination, almost as if she’s trying to convince herself it’s the truth. “I was just running naked down the street missing my own wedding because some idiot left me duct-taped to a tree with a donkey.” She adds angrily.

“Ah, the donkey!” Mikey says to Benji, in a voice that suggests that they had completely forgotten they had done that to poor Beca, who is not amused.

Emily walks in and signals to the boys that the bride is ready to go.

[katelides]

Walking on sunshine - Bechloe minific SUMMARY

Here’s a little overview of the chapters of my current running mini fic, I’ll be updating the links as we go!

Chapter list:

Chapter 1: Holiday

Chapter 2: How will I know

Chapter 3: The power of love

Chapter 4: Don’t you want me

Chapter 5: Walking on sunshine

Chapter 6: Eternal flame

Chapter 7: It must have been love

Chapter 8: Faith

Chapter 9: White wedding

Chapter 10: If I could turn back time

[katelides]

Walking on sunshine - Bechloe Mini Fic pt 8

I realize I have not posted in a very very long time… and I am sorry… I am posting 2 chapters for this mini fic today and I am working on the next one as we speak! So I am getting back out there!! 

Chapter 8: Faith

Maddie drunkenly stumbles through the back pool yard, knowing that she’ll regret having all those shots the next morning. Opening the outside doors of her bedroom, she almost falls in. Once she can hold herself up by the wall, she pulls off the blonde wig off her head and undresses herself to the semi lingerie she’s wearing underneath her dress.

Somehow managing to bump into the wall for the umpteenth time, Maddie finally finds the light switch and switches on the light. When she looks up, she rolls her eyes upon seeing Doug laying on her bed. “You shouldn’t be here.” She says with a heavy sigh.

“I’m not. You’re dreaming.” Doug answers back in all seriousness. In his hand, he has a controller, and when he pushes the button, the light goes off again.

Getting increasingly annoyed by Doug’s behaviour. Maddie switches the light back on with a huff. “I’m getting married in the morning.” She states matter of factly, with slightly slurred speech. Hoping that the idiot she ones dated finally leaves her life forever.

Doug just plainly looks at the brunette and shrugs his shoulders. “And I couldn’t be happier for you, really.” He says, not even moving an inch.

“Really?” Maddie asks confusedly.

“That’s what I cam to say. You have my blessing.” Seeing a small smile creep up on Maddie’s face, Doug has a little victory party in his head.

“Oh Doug, that’s so sweet,” Maddie says, stumbling towards the bed. Of course, Doug has to ruin the moment by switching off the light again. “Aaah!” The brunette groans. “No,no,no!” Backing away from the bed, she quickly reaches the wall again.”

“What?” Doug muses, this time sitting up. “What, you think I’ve come here for…?” The older man puts his hands up in defence. When he sees Maddie’s conflicted face, he lets out a scoff. Of course, he doesn’t linger on the lack of trust for long. “Although…” He starts, as he walks up to his ex. “… it is your last night as a single woman.”

Doug slowly undoes the buttons from his white shirt. “You could call this…” Emphasising this as he almost rips open his shirt. “my wedding gift to you.”

Maddie is feeling conflicted. “Just get us a toaster!” She manages to say as Doug is about to nibble on her neck. She quickly recomposes her self and slides to the right. “Out!” She almost screams at him.

Feeling extremely confused about the situation, Doug is stunned for a moment and looks around like a lost puppy. Eventually, he walks away from the brunette, straight towards the ukulele hanging on the coat rack. He starts playing, much to the dismay of Maddie, who still isn’t sure what she wants to do at this moment.

Maddie lunges forwards and makes Doug stop playing. “Well, I guess it would be nice if I could touch your body. I know not everybody has got a body like you.” She says as she runs her hands over Doug’s chest. It’s not exactly Beca’s tight muscles but it’s not bad either.

Doug slyly wraps his arms around Maddie, who instantly manages to switch places, to her standing behind him. “But I gotta think twice before I give my heart away.” She manages to push the man on the bed, leading him to believe that he’s in for a night of fun.

Doug pulls Maddie on the bed as well, but she manages to roll away from underneath him, knowing that what is happening at this moment is very wrong. “And I know all the games you play, because I play them too.” She almost whispers. When he leans in to kiss her, she pushes him off the bed. “But I need some time off, from that emotion. Time to pick my heart up from the floor.”

Of course, Doug interprets the inner monologue that Maddie is having to him being her heart as he is currently sitting on the floor. He grabs the brunette’s hand and starts kissing it, but Maddie snatches her arm away from the greying man. And gets up from the bed. Yet seeing him on the floor, she can’t help but feel slightly bad for the man.

“When that love comes down without devotion. Well, it takes a strong man, baby but I’m showing you the door.” Her common sense is finally catching up with her and circles the bed to the other side, hoping that Doug will finally get the hint and leave forever.

“Cause I gotta have faith… “ She mumbles to herself, an idea popping into her head. She runs off towards the window door and tries to get out. Doug is quickly back on his feet, chasing the woman around the pool like an idiot.

“Baby, I know you’re asking me to stay.” He says when he catches up to the brunette at the sunbeds. “Stay, please, please, don’t go away. You say I’m giving you the blues.”

Doug gets wrapped up in the curtains while trying to get to Maddie who because of that gets another opportunity to run away. “Maybe you mean every word you say. Can’t help but think of yesterday and another who tied me down to loverly rules.” Maddie falls backwards on another sun bed, giving the upper hand to Doug once again.

“Before this river becomes an ocean…” Doug says with a smirk and doesn’t give it up when Maddie scoots away. “… before you throw my heart back on the floor.” He continues and manages to pull Maddie onto his lap. “Oh baby, just reconsider your foolish notion.”

Maddie quickly turns her head to the side when Doug leans in to kiss her again. “Well, I need someone to hold me, but I’ll wait for something more.” She tries to get up but doesn’t get far. Doug grabs her by the waist and makes her dance along the side of the pool, in the moonlight.

“You gotta have faith.” He whispers in her ear.

The words make Maddie’s blood run cold. The nerve on this guy. She manages to take a step and kick him right in the back of his knee which makes him lose balance for a brief moment. Yet Doug doesn’t seem tased and twirls her back into his arms. At this moment, Maddie tries to use her speed as leverage and pushes Doug away, to only seconds later jump back into his arms.

Doug holds the brunette tight and carries her back to the room where he throws her on the bed. He sees the woman look at a picture of her fiancee but to his delightful surprise, she pulls the picture down, not being able to look at it as she is about to cheat on the young girl with him. He knows he has won.

Yet Maddie isn’t so keen on losing yet, she grabs a scarf that she had forgotten on the bed before heading out last night. Doug’s face instantly lights up as he loves it when they role-play. Something Maddie had definitely not forgotten.

The brunette makes the man stand up and leads him outside. She traces his body with her hands as he is trying to steal a kiss from her. Maddie does not relent though and keeps ignoring it. When she’s standing right in front of him, she gently blows into his ear and then ducks so she can crawl between his legs so he can be behind him. Once she’s completely sure that he is unaware of everything, she pushes the man in the pool and runs inside, slamming the wooden window shut. She lets out a heavy, relieved sigh when her back hits the window. It’s finally over. She thinks to herself.

When Maddie doesn’t hear anything for a suspicious amount of time, her curiosity does get the better of her. She turns around and opens up the window again, ready to shout at her ex. Yet when she does open the window she does not see him until she looks down.

A soaked Doug is kneeling in front of her, holding out a ring box with a gorgeous ring sticking out from it. Maddie is taken completely of guard. The one thing she always wanted was for Doug to propose, but why did he have to do so the day before her wedding to Beca.

[katelides]

Walking on sunshine - Bechloe Mini Fic pt 7

I realize I have not posted in a very very long time... and I am sorry... I am posting 2 chapters for this mini fic today and I am working on the next one as we speak! So I am getting back out there!!

Chapter 7: It must have been love

The girls are all getting dressed with an 80s playlist blaring in the background, getting them all in the mood. Leave it to Maddie to decide that a themed hen night is what she wants. Everyone is dressing up in vintage clothes, and tuning their hair and makeup into the selected time.

They are all having a ton of fun, messing with each other while helping simultaneously. All the girls have their own costume they are picking. Or a certain style. Aubrey and Stacy had decided to take on a prep school look with Sperry Top-Siders, to show off intelligence yet still looking sexy as hell.

Fat Amy, Maddie and Chloe had each decided on a specific outfit that resembles Cindy Lauper in some way.  Maddie even going as far as putting on a blonde wig. This only because when they were younger, they were obsessed with her hit song ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’. A motto at least 2 have lived by since.  Chloe just loved the song but couldn’t decide whether this was something she wanted to be remembered by for the rest of her life, and still isn’t.

Titziana, who is joining the gang, is sporting pooled up cringed hair. Wearing a black dress and a jean jacket on top. Showing off just enough cleavage to attract the other gender for sure. Emily, on the other hand, is wearing high-waisted jeans and a Coca Cola crop top sweater, and having her hair curled perfectly.

The girls all make it to the club around 10 PM and instantly pull each other towards the bar to take some shots. Maddie is the first one to semi reluctantly pour one down while the rest cheers her on. Shortly after the other girls, minus Emily, since she’s pretending to be pregnant for Maddie, and can’t drink.

The DJ watches the girls go loose and spots their outfits and instantly turns up the volume and blasting Fat Amy, Chloe and Maddie’s all-time favourite through the speakers. The girls go wild and head over to the dance floor, to dance until their hearts are beating like crazy. Flirting and just being free from everything. The wedding, lies, and everything that is attached to what has occurred in the past few days.

At the club, Fat Amy and Aubrey had prepared a little surprise for everyone. They had hired some strippers. Both male a female, to spice up the evening. Maddie is really put on the spot but loves every second of it. How could she not? She has two sexy firemen grinding in her lap while three real-life pilots are already being pulled aside by Back at the club, Chloe is watching her sister getting handsy with the strippers, laughing her heart out, trying to remember everything for the following day. But deep inside she knows that she should not be here, not at the club, nor in Puglia and especially not at the wedding tomorrow. She can’t do it to herself, nor to her sister. She can’t keep pretending that everything is fine when it’s not.

Chloe manages to sneak out of the club, to grab some fresh air and think things over. She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she would have made an irrational decision without really thinking about it. She needs to put all her feelings into a neat line. Not just for her own sake.

Meanwhile, Beca, Jesse, Mike and Benji are having a blast, walking around town in their own 80s themed costumes. Beca having chosen a simple outfit, black jeans with a white shirt, topping it off with an army band jacket. Jesse is covering his musical movie tracks and wearing a white shirt with a leather jacket and high jeans with aviator sunglasses. Mikey is keeping it cool with his hair smoothly gelled backwards and a white button-up shirt. Benji is casually wearing a coloured polo shirt tucked into his jeans.

The four of them are cruising around town, from bar to bar. Enjoying Beca’s last night as a free woman together. Eventually, they stumble into a strip club, well slightly pulling Beca towards one, not giving her a chance to change her mind or even protest.

Beca is pushed into a chair, handed over another drink and gets a brunette shoved into her lap. If it wasn’t for her wedding the following day and her still raging feelings for her fiancee’s sister. She would be at least enjoying it. Right now though, she can’t seem to let go and just sits there with a forced smile, waiting for everything to be over. The night, and especially the wedding.

She quickly excuses herself from her chair and tells her brother that she needs some air after all the alcohol she has consumed. She heads out and sits down at the edge of a fountain, just taking her time to think. Her mind keeps playing back the memories of 3 years ago, and the memories of earlier that day. Could Chloes really not feel anything for her? Did she ever, really?

Beca has been sitting outside for about 30 minutes when Jesse stumbles towards her in a slightly inebriated state. Knowing that his little sister needs some guidance or at least support. He remembers how heartbroken she was when Chloe left and how Beca had not dated for over a year after that. He was there, every night when she cried, or more to say she pretended not to cry but he knew better.

“Hey, you all right?” Jesse asks, his voice filled with concern, and slightly slurred speech.

Beca rolls her eyes and watches her brother sit down. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She says once she knows the almost drunken mess next to her is ok. The brunette looks away, her mind yet again consumed by a bright flash of red.

“What’s up Becs?” Jesse asks. Not actually receiving more than a hum from his little sister as an answer.

It takes Beca a second to really clear her thoughts before she speaks up. “Just can’t wait for the wedding to be over.” She says with a sigh. “Just wanna be married already.” That was no lie. Once the wedding is over, she can be happy with Maddie. Maybe even manage to not see Chloe ever again.

Jesse grunts at his sisters' words. “You got a whole lifetime of that, sorellina (little sister).

Rolling her eyes, Beca mumbles a quick. “I know.”

“Enjoy your last night of liberty.” Jesse gently punches Beca on her should and tries to urge her to get up. “Come on!” Falling into an uncomfortable silence, seeing his sister really grind her thoughts together about the only person she has really loved, he takes a deep breath and frowns at the following words he says. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“About what?” Beca asks, not really feeling in the mood. Nor wanting to make her brother uncomfortable.

“Look,” Jesse starts, not wanting to give up just yet. “is this about Chloe?” He asks, even though he clearly knows the answer to that question. “I’ve got to ask…” He adds when Beca looks away with an eye roll. “… have you still got feelings for her?”

Beca scoffs at the insinuation. “No, that would be really stupid. No.” She says defensively.

Clearing his throat, Jesse asks: “Are you sure?” Needing to know. He doesn’t want to see Beca, nor Maddie, hell not even Chloe hurt by this entire ordeal. When Beca doesn’t immediately say anything, Jesse just stares at her until she looks back at him.

Finally, Beca manages to breathe out a gentle “Yeah.”

“Allora…” (So…), Jesse draws out, falling into a giggle when he sees Beca’s smile coming back slowly. “Can we duct-tape you to a pole now, please?”

Beca mentally facepalms herself when she remembers her predicament. Yet it was a tradition in the family. Whoever gets married, will get duct-taped or bound to a pole. She rolls her eyes and whispers “In a minute.” Jesse takes this as a win and heads back inside to get Benji and Mike.

A few blocks away, Chloe walks out of the club into the night. Her mind filled with all and nothing at the same time. Yet one thing, one name keeps bouncing around without ever leaving Beca.

The redhead walks further away from the entrance and hides behind a corner. Tears are threatening to spill from her eyes. She starts to remember all the moments between her and Beca, how they talked even without speaking. “Lay a whisper, on my pillow. Leave the winter, on the ground.” The words all pour out of her in a rush. Remembering how she felt when Beca wasn’t there. “I wake up lonely, the stare of silence, in the bedroom, all around.”

A bad habit she had picked up over the years, yet one that could always soothe her nerves. Talking to herself when she’s alone. Pretending to be speaking to the brunette that holds her heart. “Touch me now, I close my eyes. And dream away.”

She pushes herself off the wall and starts walking to who knows where not caring about anything at that moment. “It must have been love,” Chloe quietly admits to herself, not ever having voiced the thought after having left Puglia 3 years ago. They had told each other as much, but they were young. They didn’t know what the word meant at the time. “But it’s over now.” She says almost melancholically.

“It must have been good, but I lost it somehow.” Think about the words she’s saying, the redhead becomes more confident and starts to really understand her feelings. “It must have been love, but it’s over now. From the moment we touched, till the time it ran out.”

On the other side of the small town square, Beca is still sitting at the edge of the fountain. Her mind running a million miles an hour. Trying to sort out what she and Chloe are, or better were. “Make-believing, we’re together. That I’m sheltered by your heart.” The brunette feels cheated. Hardly processing the fact that Chloe never loved her. “But in and outside I turned to water, like a teardrop in your palm.”

The brunette’s heart feels heavy. She hasn’t wrapped her head around meeting Maddie. Proposing to her so soon after they met, even though it did feel right at the time. Losing the love of her life… NO, she has met the love of her life. Maddie is supposed to be the love of her life. “And it’s a hard winter’s day, I dream away.” Shaking her head, Beca gets up and decides to walk around for a bit. Feeling a need to stretch her legs.

Chloe sighs heavily and looks up to the moon as she walks towards the fountain where Beca had been just moments ago. “It must have been love, but it’s over now. It was all that I wanted, now I’m living without.”

Beca doesn’t notice the equally distraught Chloe as she walks away in the exposit direction. “It must have been love, but it’ over now. It’s where the water flows. It’s where the wind blows…” She doesn’t get too far, as Mike grabs her and throws her over his shoulder. Laughing the night away together with Benji and Jesse.

Chloe hears the laughter and sees the four. She quickly hides behind a wall and peeks to see what’s going on. They don’t seem to notice her, being too drunk and busy, trying to keep Beca on Mikey’s shoulder.

Having just seen the brunette, even from a distance. Chloe knows what she has to do, there is no way she could stay here. She had to go, as far away as possible. No time for goodbyes. No time for explanation, I’m sorry’s’ or feelings. With a steady pace Chloe walks further away from the party, from her sister and Beca Mitchel.

She makes it home around 30 minutes later after hailing a cab. She rushed to her room and quickly packs her suitcase. The only thing she leaves out is her bride’s maid dress. She leaves it on the bed, needing to really let go of her past that will become the future in a few hours time.

While packing her bag with her favourite book she brought over to read in her spare time, she finds an old picture of her and Beca being as happy as they ever had seemed to be. Sighing heavily, she shoves the picture together with the book in her bag and heads out to where the cab is still waiting for her, to take her to the airport.

In the car, she can’t help but look back at the picture that once used to bring her joy. She ponders about how she could talk to her sister about this later on. If her sister would ever talk to her again that is.

Finally deciding it’s time to fully let go, Chloe lets the old picture fly out of the moving cab as she sheds a single tear. Goodbye Beca. Goodby Puglia. Good luck Maddie.

[katelides]

Good Or Bad Luck Chapter 44

Good Or Bad Luck: Chapter 44

Beca feels her blood pumping through her entire body while running through the hospital, in search of her best friend. She finally finds her outside in the garden, crying on a little bench.  She makes her way towards the tall brunette and gently sits down next to her. Patiently waiting for her best friend to open up about what had just happened inside.

The two girls sit in silence for about 20 minutes, until Stacie finally speaks up.

“She broke up with me.” Is the only thing she says, before breaking out in sobs once again. Beca rubs her face with her left hand, trying to hold in a heavy sigh. She has no idea what’s going with these two but she knows that deep down neither wants to be apart from the other.

“And will you let this happen?” Beca finally asks, determined to make her best friend really think about the situation. “I uh I don’t know.” Stacie quietly admits. “I mean, it's not that I want to let her go. She just needs some time, right?” Stacie says as if she’s trying to convince herself that it might just be that. Time.

“I guess.” Beca shrugs her shoulders. I mean she did just hear that the implant might not exactly work according to plan. It’s not something we couldn’t have anticipated, but to her, this entire implant thing to actually work was/is really important. You have to give her a moment to process all this information.”

“I get that Beca, but she can’t break up with me every time it gets tough, she has to talk to me about her feelings. And if she can’t do that… I think us breaking up might be for the best.” Stacie gets up from the bench and starts walking away. Beca tries to stop her and manages to slow her best friend down. “You can’t just give up, Stacie. Please don’t make any rash decisions.”

“Just leave me alone for now Becs.” Beca doesn’t relent though and keeps trying to push her best friend towards the hospital. “I know you Beca, and I know you’ll try to change my mind about this. I just need some time to think about everything, I know I might be reacting rash at the moment, so yes, I will think about everything that happened, before giving up on love. But I need time.” This time Stacie doesn’t give Beca a chance to stop her and walks away towards her car.

Beca groans loudly, trying very hard not curse through gritted teeth. She had never seen so much pain and suffering in her best friends’ eyes and she doesn’t know how to fix it. “How do I fucking fix this!” She shouts while kicking a little stone out of the way. She sits back down on the bench they were just on, resting her elbows on her knees, and hiding her face in her hands.

-,-,-,-,-

Emily and Benji are sitting on the floor by the door of Aubrey’s room. Neither has been inside to see Aubrey yet, but they know that now may not be the perfect time to go inside. So they just wait. Either for Beca and Stacie to come back, or Chloe to walk out.

They have been sitting there for about half an hour when the door finally opens. Chloe walks out and sees the two teenagers sit on the floor. Instead of telling them to get up, she sits down next to them with a heavy sigh. “So…” Chloe says, not really looking at the kids. “Aubrey is doing fine. She uh, she and Stacie are… pfffft I have no idea what they are right now, but I hope they figure it out soon.” The redhead pauses for a brief second to collect her thoughts. “Anyway, how about we go and have some lunch and I’ll call Beca to join us?"

“Sounds like a great idea,” Benji says with a reassuring smile. He’s the first one up his feet and helps his girlfriend and Chloe up on theirs. “Come on, I know a nice little pizzeria not far from here.” The girls look at each other as if they’re considering the option. They both shrug their shoulders and wordlessly agree to have pizza. “Sounds good to me.” Emily finally says, grabbing her boyfriend’s hand and guiding him towards the elevator. Chloe following them with a distant smile.

The three make their way outside and start to head towards the parking lot. Chloe is not really looking where she’s going and doesn’t notice the teens stopping abruptly. This makes her walk into them.

“What in the w-? Why did you guys stop?” She asks confusedly. “I uh, I don’t think Beca’s talk with Stacie went very well,” Benji says awkwardly. Chloe raises her brow and peers past the couple and sees Beca sitting on a bench with her head in her hands.

Of course, the redhead doesn’t hesitate and walks straight towards her girlfriend. “Beca?” She almost whispers. The brunette slowly lifts her head when she hears her name. When she sees Chloe, she lets out a heavy sigh and gets up.

“How is Aubrey doing?” She asks, not really feeling up to discussing her thoughts and emotions. “Beca, I know what you’re doing. What happened?” Chloe asks, slightly pushing her luck. The brunette stays quiet for a minute, thinking things over.

Chloe can see her overthinking everything. “Stacie is angry and hurt. She has had enough of Aubrey pushing her away when it gets tough.” Beca finally manages to explain. “She said she needs time, but I’m not sure what her decision will be.”

Chloe lets out a heavy sigh, knowing exactly what the brunette means. “We have to let them figure this out on their own. I know it’s tough but we can’t push them into something neither is ready for.” Beca says as he finally looks up at her girlfriend. “How long does Aubrey have to stay at the hospital?” Beca asks.

“I’m not sure, but I heard May tell her that she has to stay for at least a week for some extra tests,” Chloe says, trying to think back to the actual conversation. “Alright, the two of them have a week to figure things out,” Beca says with determination. “If we don’t get any news by then, I’ll try and talk to Stacie and you’ll do the same with Aubrey.”

Chloe agrees with her girlfriend but doesn’t like the fact that she has to wait for a week until she can beat some sense into her best friend. “Until then, I want all of us to not bring up the other while being with one of them. We’ll keep visiting Aubrey and I’ll arrange a girl’s night out with Stacie to keep things light and fun for both of them. Any questions?” She asks her girlfriend and the two teenagers behind her

When none of them has anything to say, Beca claps her hands and ushers them all towards the car so they can all finally go get something to eat. Chloe can see that Beca is suffering in silence and that she’s keeping a lot of emotions inside.

“Hey, Chlo?” The redhead stops herself from getting in the car when Beca’s voice reaches her. “Thank you, for just being here and not pushing me to open up. I will talk at some point but I need to process everything before I can do that.”

“I understand Beca, and whatever time you need, I’ll wait.” Beca smiles at the answer and leans in to kiss Chloe on her cheek. Both just loving the feeling of having the other close.

-,-,-,-,-

Stacie walks into her apartment, throwing her keys on the Stacie walks into her apartment, throwing her keys into the little bowl next to the door. Her mind is racing a thousand miles an hour, trying to think about what had occurred only a few hours ago. How could Aubrey ever think that she would love her any less if she was stuck in that stupid wheelchair. Had she ever given her that feeling? Did she ever do something that would evoke that thought?

Stacie has no idea what to do in her own apartment. Half of the things in there are Aubrey’s, and she can’t just throw them out or store them somewhere. But she can’t stay here either. So the brunette runs up the stairs to her bedroom and collects a duffel-bag with clothes.

Once she has enough things that would last her at least two weeks, she heads out the door while making a phone call to a nearby hotel. Whatever would happen next, would rely on every decision she makes next.

The walk to the nearest hotel was shorter than Stacie expected. Luckily the Valentino Hotel had a room available for her. The four-star hotel is owned by Stacie’s uncle jack and he would always give her room, no questions asked.

“Ah, Stace, I’m so happy to see you again! It has been a while!” The loud voice of uncle Jack caries through the main lobby and Stacie chuckles at the surprised face her aunt pulls when she sees her niece. “Hi uncle Jack, hi aunt Sabrina.” The brunette walks up to her family with extended arms and receives a tight hug in return.

Sabrina looks her niece up and down with a skeptical look. “I’m not going to pry, but I know your happy face, and this…” the older woman points at Stacie’s face. “Is not it. When you’re ready you can come and talk to me.”

“Thank you, aunt Brina, I’ll definitely keep that in mind,” Stacie says with a gentle smile. Of course, uncle Jack does not like to be left out and pulls the not so little girl into a tight hug. “Whoa! Easy there uncle Jack, I’d like to keep my ribs of you don’t mind.”

“Alright pickle, no need to worry. How about we get you settled in and you tell us about your life over dinner?” Jack suggests with a beaming smile. It doesn’t take more than that to convince Stacie.

-,-,-,-,-

Aubrey blankly stares at the white ceiling as her mind is working overtime, trying to understand her own thoughts and feelings. She never meant to hurt Stacie, and she feels like a jerk for doing so anyway.

She has always been the black sheep in the family, the huge bother, no matter what she did. A straight-A student but that one A- makes her still less than her B average brother. Win 4 academic decathlons in a row and still made to feel stupid because she didn’t understand one sports reference.

Her brother having a cold, and her entire family rushing around him to make sure he’s ok. While once she broke her leg in the middle of winter she had to struggle with her crutches to get to school. Her parent would actually scoff at her if she even dared to ask them something. Thank god her brother was not like them.

That’s why she doesn’t want Stacie and her to be together at this particular time. Stacie will soon enough understand that living with a handicapped person will be to much for her and leave her anyway. Why wait for that to happen when you can speed up the process.

Maybe I should just let fate take its course… Aubrey thinks to herself. Why not be happy for as long as it lasts?

[katelides]

Good Or Bad Luck: Chapter 43

The group meets Stacie in the waiting room. The tall brunette lets out a relieved breath when she sees her best friend walking up to her. “Thank god you’re here.” She rushes out while wrapping the other brunette in a tight hug. “I don’t know what to do, or think…” Stacie whispers.

“Whoa, Stace, take a deep breath and let’s sit down, ok?” Beca leads her best friend towards some chairs in the room and makes her sit down. “When you feel up to it, start from the beginning, and tell me what’s going on.” Stacie takes a deep breath and tries to listen to her best friend but her fears keep taking over. What if the surgery went really bad and Aubrey is dead?

Beca notices the expressions on her best friend’s face change from bad to worse so she steps in. “Ok, Stace, Aubrey will be fine. I just need to know what has been said before, I know that you love her and that right now you’re scared, but she’s strong, and May would never let anything happen to her.”

Stacie manages to take a deep breath and looks up into her best friends eyes. “May came out after the surgery and it looked like something was wrong. She walked straight past me and when I tried to talk to her she just blew me off… I don’t know what to think… I’m scared Beca, I’m really scared.”

Beca tries to think of the right words to say but nothing seems to be right enough. She doesn’t really get much time because Chloe is rapidly tapping her on her shoulder, so she turns around and sees her girlfriend staring off in the distance, not stopping her tapping. This, of course, catches Stacie’s attention, so she looks back towards the place the redhead is looking and sees May standing at the desk, signing some papers.

Beca doesn’t get a chance to fully apprehend what's happening but before she knows it, she’s left sitting on the floor while her friends run off, and bombard their friend and doctor with millions of questions. The brunette gets up from the floor with help from Benji and Emily, and they make their way up to the three.

She can hear bits and pieces from the questions but doesn’t really catch a whole sentence.

“Stacie, Chloe…” Hearing Beca’s authoritative voice, the two stop talking instantly and awkwardly take a step back, quietly apologizing to May. “It’s alright girls. I understand. I shouldn’t have blown you off before either, I’m sorry.” May sighs slightly before taking a deep breath. “Anyway, I have news about Aubrey. She did great during the surgery, she’s back in her room and should be waking up soon.”

The news instantly puts a smile on Stacie’s face. “When can we see her?” Chloe asks, just as impatient as her best friend’s girlfriend. “You can go up to her room now, she’ll be glad to see you when you wake up,” May says when she steps aside to give her friends a free passage to the hospital rooms.

Beca hesitates slightly and lets her friends go first before turning back to May. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really know you that well. But I do know Stacie, and if something is wrong and you’re not telling us, she’ll be devastated.” The brunette says calmly.

“I understand, but there is no need to worry. I blew Stacie off by accident before. There was something that had to be checked with our department in New York, and I was in a hurry. I promise you that the surgery went fine, now we just need to pray that the implant worked.” May explains.

Beca nods her head with a not so convincing smile but lets it go for now. “Why don’t you go see Aubrey as well? I’ll join you girls in a bit, I want to freshen up a bit first.” Beca agrees with the doctor and leaves in the same direction as her best friend and girlfriend went not too long ago.

-,-,-,-,-

It has been three hours since Aubrey was brought into her room. Beca had sent the ‘kids’ to the cafeteria and told them to hang out there for a while, and that she would come and get them when Aubrey would wake up.

Stacie has been alternating between pacing and sitting by the blonde’s side, gently squeezing her hand. Beca, on the other hand, was sitting in a corner, watching her best friend worry and her girlfriend trying to figure out what to say.

It’s almost four hours later when the first signs of Aubrey waking up are happening. Chloe and Stacie are instantly standing by her side, encouraging the blonde to wake up. Beca watches the two women for a moment and then decides to go get May.

It doesn’t take her long as she finds the doctor already walking up towards the room. “Hey Beca, how’s everyone doing?” She asks with a smile. “Everyone is fine, Aubrey is waking up as we speak, I think Stacie is helping her through it.”

May smiles warmly and looks over Beca’s shoulder at the door. “You should go in there, I’m going to warn the kids that she’s waking up,” Beca says with a smile of her own, before walking away towards the stairs that would lead her to Emily and Benji.

Beca finds the two love birds almost instantly somewhere in the back of the cafeteria, holding hands and quietly talking to each other. She makes her way towards them and clears her throat when she reaches the table. “Aubrey is waking up.” She says slightly louder than a whisper. “How is she?” Benji asks. “Not sure yet, we’ll find out once she’s fully awake.”

“Can we go see her?” Emily asks carefully. “Sure, but we need to make sure we don’t overwhelm her while we are in there.” The teenagers quickly agree and then get up to follow Beca up to Aubrey’s room.

When the three are about to reach the room, Stacie almost storms out with a huff, Chloe following her soon after with a worried expression. Beca doesn’t hesitate and straight out walks up to them. “What happened?” She asks Chloe. “Aubrey kicked us out of the room. That’s what happened.” Stacie answers instead, with a sour look on her face.

Looking at Chloe for something more of an explanation, but no luck. “Alright, Stace, maybe she just needed to talk to May for a moment.” Beca tries to calm down her best friend but to no avail. “What can be so difficult that I would not be able to understand it, huh? I bet something happened during the surgery and they’re just not telling us.” Stacie spits back angrily.

Beca wants to jump in and try to convince her best friend that it isn’t true but gets beaten to it by May. “The surgery went just fine, Stacie. It’s the implant that worries her, she’s worried about what would happen if it doesn’t work.” The raven-haired woman quickly explains. “I told her that with or without the implant she would most likely walk again. The implant should, in the best case scenario, stimulate her muscles to help her regain her mobility faster. This implant is still in its beginning stages so we’re not even sure if it will actually work.”

Stacie takes in a deep breath, trying to figure out what she could say to Aubrey when she goes back inside. Yet nothing seems to sound right in her head. “I uh I need to talk to her. To tell her everything will be alright.” The tallest brunette doesn’t even seem to acknowledge her friends around her. She walks around them, straight into the room.

Aubrey looks up from her phone when Stacie enters. The blonde slouches back into her pillow, not really feeling up to having a confrontation about her feelings. Stacie instantly notices the movement and the facial expression on her girlfriend’s face and lets out a heavy sigh. “Bree, can we please talk?”

Stacie takes a hesitant step closer to the bed but stops when she doesn’t get an answer. “Please, we need to be able to talk about this.” The brunette's voice is on the brink of being desperate. “There is nothing to say. I might walk again. I might never walk again. We knew that before the surgery, so nothing has changed.” Aubrey says, in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

“Give it some time Bree. You will start physiotherapy again and maybe the implant will start wo-“ Stacie gets cut off by a heavy sigh. “I’m not sure if…” Stacie notices a tear rolling down her girlfriend’s cheek. She instantly rushes to the blonde’s side and grabs her hand. “Babe, I promise that no matter, whatever happens, I’ll always be by your side. We will make it through.”

“N-no, y-you can’t promise that,” Aubrey says, trying to hold in her tears. “What? Of course, I can. I love you Aubrey, and I will never leave you.” Aubrey can hear the sincerity in Stacie's voice, but something still doesn’t let her believe it. “I appreciate it Stacie but…” After taking a deep breath she continues. “ I think that maybe it’s best for us to take some time apart, and figure out what we need… Whom we need.”

Stacie lets go of Aubrey’s hand in shock. “Wait, a-are yo-, are you breaking up with me?” She asks, her knees trembling as she takes a step backward. “I don’t know what we’re doing Stacie, I can’t give you the life you deserve and I’d rather figure things out on my own, instead of stringing you along in false hope.”

The last words broke something in Stacie, nothing in the world could have ever hurt her more than this moment. She just stares at the blonde, not knowing what to say. It takes her a few minutes to figure out what she could say but it feels like hours. “If that’s what you want then fine, but I am not giving up on us. I’ll give you your space but I will never give up on our love.”

Not really giving Aubrey another chance to say something about it, Stacie leaves the room where she’s met with five worried faces. “I uh, I need to go.” She quickly mutters before rushing off and disappearing down the stairs. Beca and Chloe share a look and know what they have to do.

Chloe rushes into her best friend’s hospital room, while Beca runs towards the direction her best friend went to. The brunette comes back a few minutes later when she realizes she left Benji and Emily by the door. “Sorry, I got worried and forgot that-“ Benji cuts her off with a laugh. “Don’t worry, we’ll wait here for Chloe, now go after Stacie, she needs you.” Beca doesn’t need to be told twice and rushes down the stairs.

-,-,-,-,-,-

Chloe stares at her best friend, not sure whether she should be angry with her, or try and comfort hurt. The redhead is extremely confused about everything as she watches her friend cry her eyes out. “Can you tell me what happened?” She asks gently. Aubrey nods her head as she tries to wipe away her tears.

The redhead slowly makes way towards the bed and sits down next to her. “Bree, I know you love her and that’s why I need to know what just happened in here.” The slight pressure Chloe puts on her friend, helps her open up.

“I uh, I think I just broke up with her.” Aubrey manages to choke out with great difficulty. “What?!” Chloe all but shouts. “What do you mean? You mean the world to her. Why would you do that? Did she say something? Or-“

“Chloe!”

The redhead instantly stops talking and looks down at her feet in embarrassment. “Sorry, I got carried away.” She meekly apologizes. “Don’t worry about it Chlo. I get it. But there is no way I’m changing my mind.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Chloe takes her best friend’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “I get that you’re scared about what will happen but you also need to understand that Stacie worries about you too. She loves you so very much, and I haven’t seen anyone make you this happy, ever.”

Aubrey knows her best friend is right, but yet she still has a very bad feeling about this surgery. “I do understand Chlo. That’s why I need to take a step back and figure things out on my own. I don’t want to put this pressure on her. I need her to find happiness with someone who can take her on those long walks she loves. The adventures she has been dreaming about. And she can’ t do that with a significant other in a wheelchair. We haven’t had sex since the accident, and we both know how she is, I can’t keep denying this for her.”

Chloe listens intently to her best friends words and gently shakes her head. “She would give up sex if it meant being with you, I just hope that you’ll be able to see it eventually,” Chloe says after a few minutes.

The girls stay quiet. Each thinking of different things. Aubrey about how she would get her stuff out of Stacie’s apartment. While Chloe is hoping that Beca’s conversation with Stacie has a better outcome than this one.

I DO NOT OWN PITCH PERFECT!

REVIEWS = HAPPY ME

HAPPY ME = QUICKER UPDATES

[katelides]

Walking on sunshine - Bechloe Mini Fic pt 6

Chapter 6: Eternal Flame

The scooter ride towards the mystery destination was peaceful and calming. Neither girl had felt so at ease since their summer days 3 years ago. The cool breeze off the summer wind, blowing through their hair, looking out at the last rays of sunshine peaking through the clouds. It’s as if no time had passed at all.

Beca stops the scooter next to a pathway that leads up to some dunes. It all looked too familiar to the redhead, but she can’t put her finger on it. It was only when they were almost at the top that she realized where they were. This was the very beach they had met, the beach where they said ‘I love you for the first time, and where they said goodbye.

A single tear finds its way down Chloe’s cheek as a smile washes over her face. Beca pretends not to see it, but she knows how the redhead feels because she feels the same way. She used to come here every day just so she could think about Chloe. Up to this day, Beca goes there to get away from everything, it’s her happy place, Chloe made it her happy place.

The girls share a content yet knowing look right before running off towards the water. Chloe is the first to reach the water and runs it head first, causing her to fall into the cold water. Beca chuckles at the redhead but follows, more smoothly though. She splashes the redhead with water dives and swims a tad deeper into the ocean. They just have fun, forgetting about everything, even if it’s just for a brief moment.

Chloe decides to dive in as well, just because she can. When she comes up from the water to take a breath, it gets knocked out of her once again with the sight that she is being treated with. Beca is in the process of removing her shirt and her flawless figure and strong abs shimmer in the setting sunlight. The redhead quickly turns around, not knowing if she could actually hold her raging feeling in check if she kept staring.

She gets a pleasant surprise, though, when Beca suddenly swims up beside her underwater and appears in front of her. Her hair soaked and dripping while it just hangs, clinging to the brunette’s face. It looks funny, so Chloe starts laughing. Beca internally cheers at this victory, remembering how much Chloe laughed that one forgotten summer when she couldn’t see because of her hair.

The two of them chase each other around in the water, dunking the other at every chance they get. The laugh like they have never laughed before because right now they don’t have to pretend that they don’t know each other. They can finally be themselves, and it’s the greatest feeling in the world.

-,-,-,-,-

Meanwhile Maddie walks around in the city, questioning her decision to meet up with Doug. Even though she keeps telling herself that her love for him is over, something inside her keeps pulling her back to him. It’s hard to walk away from a 5 year relationship, even one as toxic as Doug.

The brunette slowly makes her way towards the address that Doug text her a few hours ago. It was a pretty weird place to meet up, it is away from all the restaurants and there are barely any people living around it. But who is she to doubt Doug’s decisions.

It’s only when she enters through the gate, that it all seems to make sense. Gentle harp music is being played by an actual harpist who is sitting next to a table for 2, with Doug already sitting at it, in the middle of the ancient ruins. Doug never did something small, it’s not his style.

“Low key, huh?” Maddie muses as she makes her way down the steps of the amphitheatre. “You deserve a decent send off.” Doug says casually, only getting up from his seat when Maddie is almost at the bottom of the stairs, meeting her so he can take her to her seat. “You look stunning.” He says as he reaches out his hand with a coy smile. “Well, I’m in love.” Maddie throws back without missing a beat.

“But then you always look stunning.” Doug almost whispers, leading Maddie to her chair. He pulls it out as a real gentleman and pushes it back in when Maddie has sat down. “Huh, my favourite.” Maddie mutters when Doug shows her the expensive Champaign bottle and pours her a flute.

Doug fills one up for himself and lifts his glass. “To a new beginning.” He says. “To that I can drink too.” Maddie answers and then proceeds to take a he sip of the champaign, still having a bad gut feeling about the entire ordeal.

“Remember the first time we had a bottle of it?” Doug asks, trying to caress Maddie but stops when she pulls away. “We stayed up all night. Watched the sun come up. You said you could listen to my voice forever.” Maddie rolls her eyes at the memory. “No, I probably said it felt like I had been listening to your voice forever. And if I remember rightly, you only ever talked about yourself.”

Doug smirks down at the brunette. “No, I don’t believe that’s true, my baby kitten. I’m sure you talked about me too.” Maddie lets out a heavy sigh at the cocky nature of her ex. “Oh god, what am I doing here?” She asks, knowing there is an arterial motive behind the romantic dinner. “Right,” Dough sighs heavily. “come home.”

“No, here. I’m getting married in the morning.” Maddie says strong headed, trying to make the simple fact clear to her ex. “Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself.” Doug shoots back matter of factly. “No, I’m trying to get it into your thick head.”

“Fine… Fine, you want to get back at me, I understand. But don’t mess up things for yourself and that poor girl in the process. Maddie is slowly starting to lose her patience with the older man but holds herself tight. “Doug, believe it or not, but not everything is about you.” Doug lets out an incredulous breath. “Puh-lease… you’re only doing this to punish me.”

Maddie rolls her eyes and balls her fists underneath the table. “No, I came here to find myself.” The brunette takes a hesitant break before continuing. “And I did…. In Beca.” Doug leans forward, resting his elbows on the table, making sure he has eye contact with Maddie. “And, I,” He starts. “Would like to find myself… in you.”

A groan escapes the brunette as she’s lost for words. “Come on, Mads, 5 minutes you’ve known this girl, 5 minutes.” Maddie shakes her head. “5 weeks.” She corrects him swiftly. “And she has gotten to know me better than you have in 5 years. Do you want to know why?” She asks rhetorically. “You didn’t let her do that thing I wanted to do, did you?”

Leave it to Doug to make everything sexual. “Ooooh, you filthy little squirrel.” The man adds once the initial reaction is a heavy sigh. “She listens to me.” Maddie defends herself. “I listen to you.” Doug counters just as quickly. “Oh please, you don’t le-“

“I love listening to you.” The greying man interrupts loudly, making Maddie sit back in her seat with another heavy sigh. “I love listening to…” Doug stands up slowly, and makes his way towards the brunette. “those three little sighs you make in your sleep.” Kneeling down in front of her he continues. "That crazy singing of yours in the shower.” Slowly leaning towards Maddie, whispering. “ That noise you made that night at the George Stays.” Maddie’s lip slightly curls up at the memory. “I think all of Paris heard that.”

“It was, a… wonderful night, and this is… wonderful.” The brunette sighs deeply. “This stuff you’re wonderful at, the chase, its the follow through that lets you down. I wanted more, Doug. I wanted marriage.” Finally having thrown the truth into Doug’s face, Maddie feels slightly relieved.

Of course Doug manages to ruin even that slight moment of hope for the brunette. “We were perfect as we were. Why spoil it?” Maddie gives up and rolls her eyes. “No, do you know what’s perfect? We never have to have this conversation again because I found true happiness.” Doug shakes his head in amusement. “That kid will never be man enough for you.”

“Beca is young, yeah, and she’s a woman, but she’s a grown up. You are not young, but you’re a child.” Doug just scrunches up his nose with a smile. “Thank you.” Maddie throws her hands up. “That wasn’t a - wha- argh… You don’t even want to grow up.”

Maddie gets up from her chair and is now standing at eye level with Doug. “The thing about Peter Pan…” Once again she gets interrupted by the infuriating man. “He could fly.” He says, as if he is speaking to a five year old. “He ends up alone.” Maddie says with a sigh.

Not giving Doug any opportunity to say anything else, Maddie walks away. Knowing where she belongs, and it definitely was not here with the millionaire.

-,-,-,-,-

Back at the beach, Chloe is peacefully watching the sunset, walking around in the water. This had been by far one of the most strange, maddening, yet amazing days of her life. And being here, with Beca, was just so surreal.

The redhead walks back to the towels on the beach, where Beca is laying peacefully. “It’s beautifu-“ Chloe stops talking when she sees Beca gently sleeping. Looking even more beautiful with the setting light that grazes over her. Chloe starts singing softly to the brunette.

“Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling. Do you feel my heart beating, do you understand? Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming?” Chloe stands up and walks away from the brunette, not wanting to disturb her peaceful sleep nor wanting to burst into tear. “Is this burning an eternal flame.”

The redhead walks back to the water, looking back at the sleeping brunette. Memories rushing back is at the speed of light. I believe, this was meant to be, darling. I watch you when you are sleeping. You belong with me. Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming. Is this burning an eternal flame?”

Chloe is so lost into her song that she doesn’t notice Beca waking up. “Say my name. The sun shines through the rain, a whole life so lonely, then you come and ease the pain.” The brunette watches and listens to the girl she fell in love with years ago. The girl she never fell out of love with. “I don’t wanna lose this feeling.”

Beca gets up from her towel and slowly makes her way towards the redhead. Once she’s close enough, she takes  Chloe’s hands and gently pulls her closer. Their eyes lock and the world around them disappears. They lean in closer, and closer.

Their lips almost meet, but Chloe can’t do that to her sister. She breaks free from the magical spell around her and runs. She runs up the dunes, as far away from Beca as she possibly can. The brunette, once she wakes up from her daze, follows the love of her life, trying to catch up with her.

Chloe dashes into the house and runs straight to her room, closing the door behind her, hoping that no one was home to see her like this. Scared, confused, angry… The redhead sits down on her bed, trying to catch her breath and to sort out her thoughts.

She doesn’t really get a chance, as Beca bursts into her room. The brunette stares at Chloe, wide eyes, out of breath, with a shimmer of hope in her eyes. “I need to know.” She says. Chloe stand up from the bed and rushes past Beca into the other room. “You can’t be here.”

“Something happened back there.” Beca says, not giving up, not again. “No…” Chloe says head strong. “Tell the truth.” Beca almost shouts as she grabs the redhead’s wrist to pull her back so they can face each other. “The truth about what?” Maddie asks as she walks in after her rendez-vous with Doug.

Suddenly the lights jump up and a group of Maddie and Beca’s friends jump out yelling surprise, catching everyone of guard. The group immediately stop their celebrating once they feel the tension in the room.

Beca walks forward, trying to think of n explanation to give to her soon to be wife. Though she doesn’t have to do that. “Oh my god, it’s her… She was the girl… She’s the ex?” Maddie questions, trying to comprehend what’s going on.

“Mads I’m so sorry it’s all my fault.” Chloe starts. “Yeah b-but I-I can explain…” Beca interrupts, trying to be helpful but gets shot down almost instantly by Chloe. “Please, I can do this… She was the girl. A girl… and I didn’t want to tell you because it was nothing. And then you kept going on at me about how I never let anyone in, and I started thinking… did I make a terrible mistake? Then we were on the beach covered in tomatoes, and there was this sunset…” Maddie takes a step back, terrified of what is coming next. If her sister still loved Beca, she would take a step aside for her. It’s the least she could ever do for her baby sister.

“Then suddenly it was three years ago, and I looked at her…” Chloe looks at Beca, their eyes meeting. “… into her eyes, and I knew…” Chloe freezes, knowing that if she tells the truth she will ruin her sisters wedding but if she doesn’t she’ll never be able to voice her thought ever again. The choice was clear.

“…I don’t feel anything for her.” The pain in her heart would go away, yet the look on Beca’s face, the look of betrayal and hurt would always be there, engraved in her mind. “I never did.” The redhead continues, more trying to convince herself of that fact.

“She has been desperate to tell you because she doesn’t want to keep secrets from you, but I didn’t want you to know because… I didn’t want to spoil everything. Well, you always make such a huge drama out of everything.” Maddie lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in and rolls her eyes because she knows her sister is right. “Which is why you two are so perfect together.” Chloe looks at her sister and Beca while they are looking at each other. “But now I’m the one who has ended up making a huge drama out of nothing. I know have been a really shit, and I’m so so sorry.”

Maddie stays quiet for moment, trying to process everything. “Is this true?” She asks Beca, needing to hear it from her fiancé. Beca thinks about what she should answer. “Yes” She answers truthfully. “And do you still have feelings for her?” Beca loved Chloe but she loves Maddie, and they have made a commitment to each other, one she would never break. No matter how much it hurt. “No, I feel absolutely nothing for her.”

Chloe can feel her heart shatter but it’s for the best. Her sister finally found someone that makes her happy, and that should make her happy. She hears her sister sigh and apologises again. Maddie doesn’t get a chance to react as Fat Amy clears her throat.

“Hen night? As in, I don’t want to see you again until the church in the morning.” Beca nods and takes a step back, then walking around the Australian to kiss Maddie on her cheek. No one dares to say anything as the brunette walks away and out of the house, to prepare for her night out with her brother, Mikey and Benji.

Once Beca has left, Chloe is the first to break the silence. “I-I should probably just go.” Making Fat Amy sigh. “Yeah…” Maddie says, no remorse evident in her voice. Chloe knew this reaction would be expected, but it still hurt. No one dares to say anything to stop it though.

“Well what are you waiting for? It’s my hen party already, you look like shit, go get changed already.” A huge weight is lifted from the room. And Chloe lets out a relieved breath but still something gnaws at her. “Are you sure you still want me there?” She asks, just to be sure. “Don’t be stupid C, we all make mistakes.”

“Oh yes, and tonight I am planning to make a whole lot more.” Fat Amy says with a devious grin, Maddie joining in instantaneously.  

[bottomkirk-deactivated20170508]

disney: mulan live action movie

me:

disney:

me:

[sodomymcscurvylegs]

[alma-ren]

The change from Li Shang is concerning, and not only because it’s erasing a very distinctly bisexual character. Forget sexuality: even if you prefer a more platonic interpretation (which I don’t), Li Shang clearly respects, admires, and likes Mulan as Ping and as a person. He loves her as a friend long before he loves her as a woman, girlfriend, or wife. The entire point of the movie is that Li Shang loves Mulan as a person (platonically, romantically, either way), not just as a potential mate. The entire point of the entire ending is that people do not award women the same respect offered to men. (Mushu: “Huh? You’re a girl now, remember?”) The entire point of the finale is that Shang and Ping’s friends do give Mulan the same respect as a woman, because her gender doesn’t matter: she is still the same person with the same good strategic sense, and they’ll trust her whether she’s wearing armor or a dress.

If this “Chen Honghui” hates Mulan/Ping until he finds out that she is a woman, that isn’t just erasing Shang’s bisexuality: it’s also sexualizing Mulan and stripping her of all her agency and accomplishment. In this version, Mulan isn’t worthy of respect as a person. She is only worth admiring as a woman. He can’t like her as a warrior, as a strategist, as a friend, as a person; he can only like her as a woman. Let me rephrase this: Instead of giving Mulan a chance to earn the same respect Chen offers to all his other warriors, he’s only going to appreciate her once he sees her as a woman. As an “approved” sexual object. ONLY THEN is it worth noticing her or granting her basic human decency and respect. “Something like love,” as the description tells us, clearly has nothing to do with any of her personality and everything to do with genitalia. Even if he was completely and entirely straight, we should see that he’s at least befriending Mulan/Ping before the Gender Reveal. Straight guys can still recognize another man’s good qualities and appreciate them for what they are. If Ping isn’t even a friend before “he” becomes Mulan, then this isn’t “something like love;” it’s just lust and objectification, pure and simple. The “rivalry” is also bullshit. The fact that “rivalry” can change so quickly into “something like love” means only that for Chen, a set of imaginary genitalia is all it takes to completely shift his perspective on someone from “worthy of competition” to “worthy of sex.” What, so he’s just going to abandon the rivalry now that she’s a woman? Oh - because she’s only a woman. He doesn’t have to compete with her anymore, because that’s not what you do with women. A rivalry would imply that she’s still a man, and at least he can view a rival as a decent warrior; but now, she can be comfortably reduced to Sex Appeal.

Also… what about that personality? “Cocky?” A “mean, bullying streak”? Thinks of Mulan as “his chief rival?” Are you going to strip the male lead of EVERY shred of decency? Li Shang isn’t a bully: he is a soldier who pushes his men (and woman) to excel, because this is wartime and that’s the only way to survive. He genuinely cares about them and shows real pride when they show signs of improvement. He doesn’t see them as rivals; he sees them as friends for whom he is responsible. Sure, he doesn’t like Ping at first, but that’s got nothing to do with gender and more to do with the fact that Ping’s initial behavior is so inflammatory. (Dodges commander’s questions; starts fights in the rice line; holds the other soldiers back in training; cheats on assignments, even if that’s the result of Mushu’s intervention). Once Ping proves himself as a person and as a warrior, Shang doesn’t hesitate to reward Ping with all the admiration Ping deserves. 

Disney is so concerned about removing every hint of bisexuality from its movies, it’s also utterly destroyed any decency they could have in a heterosexual romance. In their attempts to make everything nice and straight and cisgendered, they’re bending their characters WAY out of whack. 

They’re taking Mulan - originally a woman who denies gender boundaries to prove that gender doesn’t matter to personal worth - and they’re turning her into a person who can’t earn respect,honor, or even the admiration of her fellow soldiers until she puts on a dress and can be seen, not as a warrior or as a person but as an object of desire. 

And they’re taking Shang - originally a man who cares about his fellow soldiers and who respects Mulan regardless of her gender presentation - and turned him into a cocky asshole who only cares about himself and is only able to appreciate Mulan when she is female, and even then, only because he’d like to have some sex.

[simplyem-24]

What the fuck Disney. What. The. Fuck

[em-2-24]

Reblogging this here as well because this pisses me off.

[twodotsknowwhy]

All of this, but also, let’s stop teaching young girls that it’s ok to be with boys who are assholes to you?

[babylonsabby]

When the animated film is more progressive than the live action.

[katelides]

Never hit reblog so fast... they’re destroying (mine atleast) an altime favorite movie!

[belovas-vest]

MERRY PITCHMAS ! @katelides

Winter vacation seemed hopeless with Beca’s parents fighting more and more everyday. When her girlfriend, Chloe, invites her on a family vacation to a winter cabin, things turn for the better. 

read the fic below or on ao3! 

Keep reading

[katelides]

@jesseswanson thank you very much for the amazing story, I really enjoyed reading ! Have a Merry Pitchmas yourself, and keep on writing!! 🥰🥳😍

[katelides]

Pitchmas One Shot

Merry Pitchmas y’all! It has been quite the while since I have written anything good, I hope in the new year this changes hehe but right now this special One Shot is for @redlance  , hope you like it!

Lots of love,

Your Pitchmas Elf!

Christmas… for Beca, it is the most horrible time of the year. Ever since her parents divorced, she spent it locked up in her room, trying to avoid her drunk mother and refused to go down to her father and his new wife.

At least this year she could get out of spending it with anyone. She had told everyone she was spending it with her parents and to her parents, she said the same thing. Last year she had done the same thing, and it was the best Christmas she had in years.

The Bellas house would be empty for a week, starting today. And her parents thought she was spending it with the other.

The brunette stretches her back and thinks about how she managed to convince the girls not to decorate the damn house, she is still baffled but feels so good about it. All the traditions and crazy rules? Like why the hell should you kiss someone underneath a bit of plant? It makes no sense!

Chloe had left that morning for Tampa, to celebrate Christmas with her family. Knowing how much Chloe loves her family, and Christmas it surprised the brunette how late the redhead left. Christmas is in 2 days.

Beca slowly makes her way down to the kitchen after having spent 6 hours up in her attic room that she started to share with Fat Amy at the beginning of the year. But even she in her little glory had to eat at some point. She hadn’t been down since she waved goodbye to Chloe before the redhead left for the airport at 3 PM.

Pulling the fridge open, Beca takes the milk carton out but almost drops it when she hears the front door slam shut with force. Footsteps can be heard going up the stairs and soon after a second door slams shut.

Beca, still frozen to the spot, slowly starts moving. She leaves the milk carton on the kitchen table and pokes her head out the door, into the hallway and raises a brow when she sees a bright pink suitcase covered with an animal sticker near the door.

“Chloe?” Beca mutters to herself in confusion. Why would the redhead be back, and why would she be mad? The brunette thinks to herself while daring to step further down the hallway. She had 2 choices, she could sneak out the house and pretend she didn’t know about Chloe being back. Or go up and see what’s wrong with her friend.

God knows why she decided to go up and see what’s wrong with Chloe. She takes a deep breath and wants to knock on the door but decides against it when she hears a soft sniffle from the other side.

“Chloe? A-are you ok?” Beca asks as she walks into the room. She watches the redhead almost fall out of bed in surprise, quickly trying to wipe her tears away. “Wh-what are you doing here?” Chloe asks in a hoarse voice. “Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to your moms?”

Letting out a heavy breath, Beca decides against lying to her fellow Bella and starts her story with a shrug. “I lied about that… I mean us girls made a promise that if anyone would stay behind, everyone would. I just didn’t want to ruin all of  your Christmases because I hate it.”

Rolling her eyes at Chloe’s shocked expression, Beca continues. “I told my mom I would spend Christmas with my dad and I told you and my dad that I would spend Christmas with my mom.” The brunette hears Chloe mutter something under her breath with a frown. “Anyway, I thought you were supposed to be in Tampa by now?”

“Why do you care? You only care about yourself!” Neither girl knows where that outburst came from, but it does surprise them both. “Whoa, no need to be crabby, I was just asking.” Chloe scoffs, her tears long forgotten. “No seriously Beca, why do you care that all of my flights have been canceled because of some freak snowstorm that happens once in 50 years? Why do you care that I haven’t seen my entire family at the same time, in 3 years? You don’t because you only care about yourself!”

Beca’s shoulders slump, and she takes a tentative step back. “I’m sorry you’ll miss Christmas with your family, Chloe, and I’m sorry I lied to you about where I was going to spend Christmas, but I don’t have to take your shit right now because you’re upset. I’m just gonna go and do my thing and stay out of your way.” The brunette doesn’t give Chloe an opportunity to say anything more and walks out of the room.

Chloe groans as the realization at what she just said hit her square in her face. Her day was already terrible, and Christmas is only 2 days away and no way to save it. She knows she’s going to cry for the coming week, and try to contact her family. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, as long as she stayed in her room and avoided Beca.

Suddenly she hears the front door close, and that sound just burst her dams. She cries for hours to come and slowly falls asleep, not to wake up until the early afternoon of the next day.

Chloe slowly opens her eyes and tries to force herself out of bed. Her mind is numb when she checks her messages. She finds 3 texts, and 9 missed phone calls from her family.

[To Chloe] 11:37 PM [From MOM]

Hi sweetie, just checking up you. We’re all very sad that you couldn’t make it, our connection at home is very bad because of the storm so I’m not sure we’ll be able to call you on Christmas but we’ll try! Love you, mom!

[To Chloe] 12:52 AM [From Brother Mike]

Hey kiddo, mom is basically trying to check all flights to get you out here but the storm is not letting up anytime soon, I tried calling you but you must have fallen asleep. Love you baby sis!

[To Chloe] 7:04 AM [From MOM]

Sweety when you read this please give us a call or text, we’re worried about you. Hopefully you found someone to spend Christmas with! Love you!

Chloe wipes a stray tear away. She decides to grab something to eat before facing her family after going awol for 16 hours. She does send out a quick text to her mom, telling her that she’s alive and that she would call her later.

The second she opens her bedroom door and the smell of freshly baked cookies and something else she can’t really place yet hit her. It confuses her immensely, but her curiosity takes the better part of her, so she heads down to explore.

She finds the living room door closed, so she decides to check out the kitchen first because the smell is becoming stronger and she’s starving because of it. She slowly pries open the door of the kitchen and is pleasantly surprised, yet shocked at what she sees before her.

Beca is pulling out a tray of fresh baked cookies out of the oven. The brunette quickly replaces it with a new batch gently swaying to the beat of her ongoing playlist that is quietly playing from her phone, to then continue to make pancakes and bacon on the side.

Chloe has no idea how to process all of this, so she just stands in the doorway and watches the brunette do her thing in the kitchen. Thinking about it, Chloe realizes that she has never seen Beca do anything in the kitchen, ever.

The redhead doesn’t notice that she’s staring until she gets pulled out of her thoughts by Beca’s voice calling her name. “Chloe?” Beca looks at the redhead with a raised brow. “Huh? What? Did you say something?” Chloe stands up straight but slumps almost instantly in embarrassment because she was caught staring. “I said good afternoon.”

Beca scratches the back of her neck with a sigh. “I uh, I have a surprise for you, it’s uh it’s in the living room.” Chloe hesitates but seeing Beca’s nervous smile makes her heart flutter. She has never seen this side of her. Honestly, she had imagined this side of the brunette, but the reality is so much better.

“But why?” Chloe questions in honest confusion. “I mean, I shouted at you for no reason because I was frustrated and now you surprise me? Why?” Beca chuckles lightly. “Let me show you the surprise before I explain everything, I think it will be easier.”

“S-sure, I’ll just uh,” Chloe points at the connecting door towards the living room and slowly takes a few tentative steps forward. She stops right in front of the door and looks back at Beca in assurance. When Beca nods, she finally dares to open the door.

Chloe gasps when she sees what’s on the other side, and clasps her hands in front of her mouth. “So, for that explanation, you are waiting for.” Beca steps into the room next to the redhead. “After you yelled at me, I went out for a walk. I called your mom and asked her to help me try to make this Christmas special for you, even though your not with your family.”

Beca smiles as she looks over the excessive Christmas decorations she had put up in the middle of the night. “This… this is… I-I” Chloe has no idea how to react to the Christmas miracle presented before her. It looked amazing.

The garlands are hanging all around the mirror and the paintings, there’s a little 3 foot (1meter) fully decorated Christmas tree in far the corner of the room. Christmas lights that are somehow almost magically hanging from the ceiling. Candles are burning low on the little table in front of the TV where a Christmas Harmony is queued up.

“Becs, this is… how did you…?” Chloe tries to choke back her tears but fails. “I uh I called your mom and asked her how I could make you, you know, feel better? She told me about your Christmas traditions and which movie you guys were supposed to watch it this year so I kind of tried to find everything. I uh I hope you like it?”

Chloe slowly turns to face the brunette next to her, only to find her already looking at her. “Beca, this is the greatest thing anyone has ever done for me.” The redhead awkwardly opens her arms, pushing her luck with trying to get a hug from Beca. Surprisingly the brunette accepts the hug with a shrug.

“If you want we can get the last batch of cookies out, finish the eggnog and start watching the Christmas movie?” Beca suggests with a smile. “That sounds like a great idea,” Chloe says when they break the hug. “Let us get those cookies.”

Beca lets go of Chloe and heads down to the oven and takes out the tray. She puts it on the island to let them cool down. “I do want to apologize once again for lying about how I was going to spend Christmas. Beca says with a frown. “That’s alright, I guess I was more upset abou-“

Chloe freezes in her words when she almost slips up on her true feelings. “What? What were you upset about Chlo?” Beca makes her way to the fridge and takes out the eggnog, and serves them in 2 Santa mugs. When she turns around to hand one to Chloe, she finds her with a certain look on her face that she can’t place.

Beca places the mugs down on the counter and leans against it. “Come on Beale, I’ve got all the time in the world, now spill.” Chloe lets out a heavy breath. “Well uh, when you told us about you going to your mom and Stacie mentioned something about your ex? Well uh, I might have been a bit jealous.”

Beca nods her head and thinks about an appropriate answer. “You mean the ex that cheated on me but somehow managed to sway my mom, who still tries to set us up again? Yeah, that’s a hard pass.” The brunette smirks at Chloe. “But there’s no need to worry about that, I only have my sights set on one person, and I hope she likes me too?”

The brunette’s eyes flicker up to the door post and gulps loudly. The motion catches Chloe’s attention, so she looks up, her heart stopping for a brief second when she sees the mistletoe hanging above her head. She looks back at Beca with a grin. “What, are you going to break tradition here Bec? You’re the one who put it up. And maybe my Christmas wish will come true.”

Beca lets out a laugh. “I guess you’re right, and I wouldn’t want you to miss out on your Christmas wish.” The brunette says with a smirk of her own. She slowly makes her way towards Chloe, and stops right in front of her, glancing down at the plump lips that she had been dreaming of kissing since the day they had met.

Chloe’s eyes widen, she had never expected her crush to actually feel the same way, nor that she would actually think the brunette would be standing in front of her, and about to kiss her.

Beca takes one step closer and hovers her lips over Chloe’s. Both girls hold their breath and press their lips against each other. Their arms snake around the other, pressing closer, deepening the kiss with each passing second, surprised at how much they needed this.

Chloe is the one to break the kiss and tries to catch her breath.  “M-merry Ch-Christmas Beca.”

“Merry *breathes in air* Christmas Chloe.”

The two girls smile softly at one another and decide right there that this definitely would be the best Christmas ever. Especially since they would be able to enjoy their quiet time together for the next week. And much more…

[ruinedchildhood]

[Retweet]

[katelides]

hey hey it’s your secret santa! i was wondering since it’s around the holidays if you’d like to see anything holiday related for this au as well as any tropes?

HEYOOO Secret Sant!!! I’m soooooo sorry for the late answer 😭😭😭 It has been a crazy week and haven’t had time to really go through Tumblr 🙁🙁🙁 Can you please forgive me 🥺🥺 And about your question... surprise me 🤓🤓 I love me self a good surprise 🥰🥰🥰

[katelides]

secret santa here: awesome! i do edits mostly. anything you’d like to see (angst, fluff, some kind of au)?

Hmmmm lately I’ve been really stuck on HSAU for some reason but honestly I’m not picky, you can choose anything you want hehe surprise me 🙈🙈🥰🥰

[katelides]

hey. this is your secret santa for merry pitchmas. hope you’re havin a swell day! i’d like to know what your favorite ship in the fandom is :)

Hiiii this is exciting!!! My favorite is Bechloe 🥰🥰🥰 thank you for writing me 🙈🙈🙈

[kerplunk]

Handwriting Asks

Send me a number and I’ll handwrite the answer for you!

1. write your URL

2. write the URL of the person who sent the ask

3. write your blog title

4. write the blog title of the person who sent the ask

5. your name

6. your birthday

7. where you live right now

8. where you were born

9. today’s date

10. current time

11. relationship status

12. the first 5 words that come to your mind

13. your number of followers

14. the number of blogs you’re following

15. the URLs of your tumblr crushes

16. draw your tumblr activity graph :)

17. describe the latest post on your dashboard

18. favorite band(s), musician(s)

19. favorite song(s)

20. favorite lyric(s)

21. favorite album(s)

22. favorite color(s)

23. celebrity crushes

24. favorite food

25. favorite beverage

26. favorite TV show(s)

27. favorite movie(s)

28. favorite actors or actresses

29. describe what you’re wearing right now

30. write something for the person who sent the ask

31. ships?

32. favorite season(s)

33. favorite ice cream flavor(s)

34. a place you wanna go on holiday

35. favorite number

36. favorite meme(s)

37. favorite animal(s)

38. favorite quote(s)

39. a random fact about yourself

40. write your name with your non-dominant hand

41. handwrite a message to your followers

42. something of your choice (specify in ask)