Poison And Wine (BeChloe)

Chapter 1: Into The Wild

I hate Phil (my father). I hate my mom. I hate the stepmonster. I hate Barden. I hate everyone else and everything else. That's it.

The worst part of my life has officially started. I don't want to enroll here in Barden University. I don't want to be anywhere near Phil. But my mom insisted. She truly believes that with him around I could finally find a reason to mend the broken bond between us. I mean, how could I? He left us. He left us to be with another woman. All those times that I forced myself to believe he was spending all his time running the hospital, it turned out he was rather smitten by a certain Philosophy professor. And he chose her over my mom. He chose her over me. That is not something one can easily forgive and forget.

Fortunately for mom, she was able to move on and I think she has never been so happy with just me and her in the picture. When I was young I would often ask her how she does it and she would simply joke that husbands are replaceable. Unfortunately for me though, fathers are not, even if I want to.

So when Phil offered a room for me to stay in his house I packed my stuff and went straight to the university dormitory.

"Seriously, Beca," he deliberately pulls his hands out of his pockets and rests them upon his hips to assert his parental authority which I chose to brush off. "You don't need to stay here. There's plenty of room in the house."

"I'm good here, Phil."

Even with that parental authority constantly bugging me, I still refuse to call him 'dad' and I know that irritates him. To add more fuel to the fire, I absentmindedly scan through my playlist, putting on my headphones as a signal of disinterest towards the ongoing conversation.

"Stop acting like a child, will you?" Phil hisses at me, and I ignore him.

"Do you even like it here?" I saw him sneaked out a quick glance at my crazy Korean roommate, Kimmy Jin, who shot him a glare while doing whatever she was doing.

I flash my best sarcastic smile.

"Come on, Beca."

His voice almost pleading, I like that, but still I give him no further response. A few more minutes and my father finally shook his head, raising his hands in complete surrender.

"Okay," he says. "If this is what you really want then so be it. But I don't want you locking yourself here for the rest of the semester. Go out and participate."

I roll my eyes, "Sure."

When he walked out of the door thirteen years ago, I made sure he would lose his rights to have a say in whatever I do in my life, and that includes my decisions on how to live my college experience.

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"I'm going to the activities fair," Kimmy Jim announces.

I took this opportunity to run away from Phil, brisk walking towards the door, trailing behind my roommate.

"Yeah, me too. I'm going to the activities fair with my super good friend Kimmy Jin."

With that, I closed the door behind me leaving my father on his own. I ignored the fact that Kimmy Jin threw a death glare at me. I ignored the fact that my father called out my name probably to delay my departure. It was no big of a deal, but I like the idea of leaving him when he wants me to stay. I want him to feel even in the slightest manner the way I felt when I was practically begging him not to go thirteen years ago.

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"Now what?" I mutter to myself. Of course, Kimmy Jin will never let me tag along with her friends. I shrug at the idea of it. I find myself looking around for something interesting but to no avail, until I find this big fat blondie doing some kind of weird mermaid dancing on the ground. I let myself chuckle at the sight of it. More crazy people in Barden. Good.