Bechloe Week 2022
Day Six: “Ma’am, this is a Starbucks.”
Despite it being 9pm, the air is mild as the two Bellas wander slowly down the quiet street towards their sorority house. Chloe picks nervously at her cuticles while Beca twists the wire of her beats around her index finger.
Things have felt different between them in recent weeks. Not bad-different. Not weird-different. Just…different.
Like Beca hasn’t been shying away from Chloe’s natural instinct to hold her arm with her hand or nudge her side with her elbow or bop her hip with her own hip. And Chloe hasn’t been afraid to talk frankly to Beca about her experience in the dating scene and how desperately she wants to vary her experiences whilst still in college. Early evening hangouts between them in Chloe’s bedroom have led to late night conversations that somehow cover a wide variety of topics that neither know how they’ve got to.
All of this, and they’ve still only known each other for almost a couple of years. They’ve still only lived together in college for almost a year. Neither knows how they ever lived before meeting one another. Nor can they envision a future without the other in it. Not anymore.
“Ma’am, this is a Starbucks.” Beca says in a high pitched southern drawl, mocking the Starbucks employee who they had witnessed earlier confronting an intoxicated customer near the table they’d been sat at.
The impression causes Chloe to laugh out loud, the redhead throwing her head back as she laughs. And it sweeps a huge smile onto Beca’s face while she keeps her eyes on her best friend. She still hasn’t internally addressed the fact that her heart skips a beat each time she hears Chloe’s laugh. She’s too afraid to. But deep down she knows the answer. The truth.
“I still can’t believe she said that for real!” Chloe bursts, her hand reaching for Beca’s arm as it has done on countless occasions in recent days. Like a magnet. Inexplicably drawn to Beca. And Beca doesn’t mind in the slightest.
“Same.” the brunette replies, reaching into her satchel for her house keys as they approach their front yard. It’s a struggle while she delves, her smile dropping as she concentrates, a light frown appearing. And Chloe simply watches her, her own smile softening as she notes just how beautiful Beca looks, even when the young woman frowns.
“Thank you for rescuing me tonight.” she eventually says calmly while Beca pulls the keys out victoriously. They turn towards one another at their front porch, soft smiles on their faces.
Chloe had sent out an SOS text to Beca a mere twenty minutes into her blind date. He hadn’t been anything like his photo. And Beca, who had promised to hang around nearby, had swept into the café, insisting Chloe needed to come with her immediately (“it’s an emergency!”). Then they’d hidden away in a nearby Starbucks until they felt sure there was no way they’d bump into that guy on their way home.
“Thank you for choosing me to be your rescuer.” Beca replies with an air of equal calmness.
This is nice. Things feel so good between them. Being stood a couple of inches from one another feels so comfortable. And because of that, both Beca and Chloe find their respective gazes drifting down to one another’s lips. After a beat or two, they both slowly inch their faces closer together, coy smiles on their faces.
“I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else.” Chloe’s sentence is mumbled so softly that were anyone else in their vicinity they would’ve struggled to hear. Beca hears it of course, even as her heartbeat pounds in her ears. Her chest rises and falls at the same rate as her best friend’s, just as their noses nudge against one another’s right cheek. And their breath washes over each other’s skin while their eyes flutter closed.
Then, ever-so gently, ever-so slowly, they share a kiss. Their first kiss. Something that has oddly felt like an inevitable thing to do these past few weeks despite them having remained in an exclusively platonic friendship for so long.
A kiss that breaks sharply the moment they hear a key unlocking their front door from the inside. Their hearts hammer against their chests, both praying none of their friends have seen what they were doing. And fortunately they’re in luck.
Stacie doesn’t even wait to greet them. Instead she’s stepping out of the house, shrugging a jacket on and looking as though she’s heading out on a date. She barely appears to have noticed them, throwing a casual “hey guys” in their direction as she strides between them and down the yard.
Beca and Chloe watch her with their mouths hanging open, their hearts racing with nerves. And as soon as the leggy brunette is out of sight, Chloe turns to Beca with a new coy smile.
“Want to come up to my room?”
Beca says nothing. Instead she turns to Chloe, and her own smile beams back at her in response. It’s all the answer Chloe needs…
