In the blink of an eye.

No more lies

After a check-up at Dr. Lowe's office, Chloe found herself at the mall. She was supposed to meet Beca for a shopping trip. Since she had an hour left, the redhead decided to get a coffee while waiting for Beca. With a coffee in her hand, Chloe sat down in one of the comfy armchairs of the shop. She pulled out her phone and looked at 3 messages from Aubrey. She didn't answer. Instead, she let Beca know that she would be waiting for her at the coffee shop and stowed her phone in her back pocket again. For about fifteen minutes, the redhead just indulged in watching people passing the store or ordering coffee, when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. It was a message from Beca. While reading, Chloe took the last sips from her coffee.

Beca {11:18am}: Hey, Chlo! I won't make it. I have a situation to deal with at home. I'm so sorry!

Beca cancelling on her made Chloe think about their kiss again. They hadn't seen each other since, and now it felt weird that Beca seemingly didn't want to see her.

Meanwhile Beca had a different problem. "Jesse?! What are you doing here?", the brunette whispered while stepping out and closing the front door behind her.

"Can I come in? I need to talk to you." He pressed, not wasting any time. He was picking the skin of his fingers. Something he only did when he was nervous. It was a bad habit that had followed him since high school.

Beca thought about it. "I don't think that's a good idea- my parents.", she answered and nodded her head back in the direction of the house. Beca wasn't too happy about Jesse wanting to talk, remembering how their talk had gone last time they had seen each other.

"Right.", Jesse sighed. "Listen, Bec-", he started, but interrupted himself with a deep breath, "I thought about you a lot since we saw each other last time." He hadn't called her 'Bec' in nine years, but it felt so natural. "I thought we shou-"

Right when he wanted to go on, they heard some noise from the inside of the house, "I need to go." Jesse jogged down the driveway and left a confused Beca behind. "Who was that?" Her mom sternly asked.

Beca was so confused that she needed a moment before she could answer, "That was Jesse."

"Jesse Swanson?", her mom asked incredulously. Beca just nodded, still processing their weird encounter. Beca went back into the house and her mom followed closely, mumbling underneath her breath, "He wasn't supposed to come back." It was quiet, but loud enough for Beca to hear.

"What did you say?" Beca asked and spun around to face her mom.

"Oh, nothing." Her mom waved it off, but Beca didn't plan on giving in that easily. "Don't lie to me, Mom! I know it wasn't nothing."

Beca's mom walked past her into the big living and dining area, where her father was sitting on one of the bar stools working on his laptop. "We should talk about this with your father." Beca's dad looked up from his laptop and shut it when he noticed his wife's look. "Jesse Swanson just showed up at our door.", she filled him in. Beca watched as his eyes widened in shock and then narrowed. "He had to mess everything up.", he commented while shaking his head.

"You know I can hear you, right?! What did he mess up? Tell me!" Beca loudly demanded.

"Honey,", her mom started, "it's not something you should worry about." Beca pushed her mother's hand from her shoulder. She was fuming and her dad could tell.

"Enough with the lies.", her dad intervened. "Beca we made a horrible mistake nine years ago."

"What did you do?" Beca calmly asked. It was the calm before the storm. She was always calmest right before things escalated.

"We're the reason he left." Her dad explained. Beca tried to process what she had just heard. "We made him leave. He wasn't supposed to contact you again, but that didn't work out."