Long way round

chapter 6

1 week after auditions.

"You are all Bellas now." Beca said, finishing the initiation ceremony for their three new members. As the three newest members of the group began to cheer and laugh, Stacie threw the switch to turn on the lights in room as the rest of the group walked around from behind her and the other co-captain to congratulate the newbies. Stacie also walked around after a quick look at Beca, which the shorter woman ignored. After a few minutes the cheering settled down and Beca spoke again, more informally this time, "Welcome to organized nerd singing, ladies. Everyone ready to get their drink on?"

At the rousing chorus of yeses from the group, Beca smiled and turned to head towards the exit. Beca was glad, in a way, that she was in the lead as she really didn't want to be going anyway and this would give her a chance to fake a smile for anyone looking. She knew Jesse would be there with the rest of the Trebles, and that wasn't really something she'd been looking forward to. What with classes having just started up and all the hubbub that goes on at the start of a new school year she had only really seen him three or four times since she had gotten back from Florida with her dad and Sheila. The last time had been the worst, though. It was the morning of auditions, and they had gotten into an argument.

He had shown up at her new dorm unannounced with coffee in hand and an invitation to join him for breakfast. That part wasn't too bad, as there was a nice little café just off campus called Beth's that served a pretty mean omelet. It was what had happened over breakfast that caused the argument. He had asked, as any boyfriend would she suspected, what she had been up to over the last couple weeks. She hadn't really realized it until he asked that the most honest answer would have been "avoiding you". Of course, she knew that wouldn't go down well, so she just made stuff up, talked about how busy things had been with new classes, moving, etc. He hadn't really been happy with the answer, and started asking questions about their relationship, where things were going, what had been up with her lately, basically lots of questions she hadn't wanted to answer. So, she did her usual thing, she attacked him. Thinking back she can't remember what she'd said, but she did remember the look on his face as she got up, omelet half-eaten, and stormed out. She had been planning to meet up with him after auditions to explain, though she didn't really know what she had been planning to say. She just knew she had to fix it before it broke more. Then Chloe had shown up at auditions.

The make-up session after auditions turned more into an inquisition, at least she felt it did. It surprised her, really, to finally see and know about his feelings of jealousy towards the redheaded former Bella. She did manage to keep herself in check however, and reassured him that she hadn't called Chloe and told her to come, one of the other girls must have. She also tried to tell him that she and Chloe were just friends, she thought. Having not seen or spoken to the girl since she had made out with Stacie, not even a text saying she was back in town, that had come from Aubrey thanking her for watching their place, she wasn't sure what her status was with Chloe. Especially considering the way she had run off, not even staying to say hi.

Well, whatever their relationship was, Beca had been realizing over the last two weeks of classes, that she missed having Chloe in her life. Even if they could only be friends, Beca was starting to think it might be tolerable seeing her with Stacie, to have that font of life and happiness bouncing around again. Who knows, maybe now she'd even be less likely to get up into Beca's space than normal? Either way, she was planning to text the redhead the following morning and see if she wanted to meet for coffee, or something.

Without realizing it was happening, thoughts of Chloe had turned the fake smile on the brunette's face into a real one, and so she found herself walking down into the pit around the outdoor theater smiling at the crowd already gathered down there. Pausing partway down she stepped aside to let the Bellas pass her by and said, "Make good choices..."