The redhead woke up, still exhausted but with lots of energy somehow – something only possible with Chloe Beale. She smacked her lips together a few times trying to draw some moisture from her mouth. She knew there were a couple of bottles of water in the hotel room mini-fridge, but she dared not budge from where she lay. She looked down at the person wrapped about her, arms around her waist and legs intertwined with her own like a sailor's knot.
Seeing the tiny brunette sleeping so soundly warmed Chloe's heart, and she dared not wake the smaller woman. The main reason was that she wanted to stay this close to Beca Mitchell as long as possible. Yes, they had awoken many times over the past eight years exactly this way, but this morning was different. So she just relaxed back on the pillow and let her mind float back to the previous evening.
"Chloe, how long are you going to make yourself miserable pining after the hobbit? It's been eight years which is about seven years too long." Aubrey was trying her hardest to be patient with her friend, but time was running out. "Look tonight was the last time for the Bellas to sing together. For all you know, Beca is going to up and move to Los Angeles, abandoning you in New York. And then that leaves you with all of the 'what ifs' running through your mind."
After Beca's performance, the redhead had shared a kiss with Chicago, one of the soldiers detailed to the Bellas during the USO tour. She immediately lamented the brief moment of passion because, well because he wasn't Beca. Chloe had so many conflicting thoughts that her mind was completely jumbled. "Bree what if what I have to tell her ruins our friendship? I'm not sure what I would do if I didn't have Beca in my life at all."
"My daddy always said, 'Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future.' What if she feels the same way?"
Chloe sighed as she got up to get another drink from the bar. Maybe she was thirsty, maybe it was because she had seen Beca on a barstool by herself. "Hey Becs." She motioned to the bartender to bring her another drink.
"Hey Chlo. You sure are looking gloomy tonight. What's on your mind?" Chloe loved how Beca could always read her like a book. "Where's your boy toy?" Well almost always.
"Dance with me?" Without giving Beca a chance to respond, Chloe grasped her hand and pulled her to the dance floor. The pair went through several songs until they were quite sweaty and pretty much exhausted.
"You wore me out Chloe." Beca flashed her sideways grin at her best friend before she got serious again. "But that still doesn't tell me what's wrong."
"Ummm nothing's wrong really, but I think we need to talk. Are you okay with going up to our room?"
Beca paid the tab, and the two friends quietly slipped out so as to not hear the relentless harassment from the other Bellas, particularly Amy.
Chloe couldn't resist leaning down and kissing the top of Beca's head as she brushed the dark brown hair behind Beca's tiny ears. The motion caused Beca to stir slightly, so Chloe tightened her hold around the woman in her arms. Slowly Beca opened her eyes and looked around, studying the room, Chloe, and both of the women's state of undress.
Yawning widely, Beca stretched her body out to work out some of the kinks and blinked her eyes a few times. "Chlo, where are our clothes?"
The redhead giggled as she answered. "Probably on the floor over there, waaaay over there."
"Ummm how did they get over there?"
"I magic-ed them off of us Beca; how do you think?" Chloe could feel Beca's smile against her chest as the woman began to make her way up to Chloe's mouth.
Beca tentatively pressed her lips against Chloe's who immediately kissed her back. Beca re-wrapped her arms around the naked woman beside her as the two women shared soft caresses against each other's lips, neither increasing the intensity to the level they had shared the previous evening. "Mmmm," Beca murmured. "When I woke up this morning, I was afraid to open my eyes."
"Why baby?" Chloe ran her hand down and up Beca's bare back, causing goosebumps to appear.
"Well I had this incredible dream you see."
"Yeah? What was it about?"
"I got to kiss the love of my life, the woman I've been in love with for like forever."
Chloe bent her head down and nipped the side of Beca's jaw. "Oh, I see. That was a hell of a dream. Should I be jealous?"
The brunette chuckled in response.
Beca slid the keycard into the slot of their room, and the door swung open. Both women made their way in, kicked off their shoes and settled on the couch. Beca sat on one end while Chloe lay with her head in Beca's lap. Neither could count how many times they had taken these positions.
Absentmindedly, Beca began twirling pieces of Chloe's hair in her fingers. Chloe swallowed to give her some more time to gather her thoughts and decide on exactly what she wanted to say.
"You know I love you Becs, right?"
"Hmmm huh. I love you, too, Chlo bear. So why don't you tell me what's bothering you?"
"I, well, it's not that simple." The redhead paused. "I, ummm, am IN love with you." Beca didn't speak, and Chloe was trying her best to not freak out. "I know you may be moving across the country, and – well, I don't want you to go without you knowing how I really feel."
The neutral expression on Beca's face was non-committal. "How long?" Chloe screwed up her face as she looked up, trying to read Beca.
"Eight years?"
The brunette gave a soft smile. "You say that like it's a question." Both women were quiet. Silence was always comfortable between the pair and somehow, tonight was no different. "Come here Chloe." Beca reached down and pulled her friend up so that she was sitting beside her and turned so that they were face to face. She placed a hand on either side of Chloe's face. "You know we will always be friends, right?" Chloe's heart was beginning to sink. "Nothing will ever separate us." Beca leaned forward, closing the gap between hers and Chloe's face. When she softly caressed Chloe's lips with her own, Chloe melted into the touch. Beca whispered, "Not even this."
After kissing Chloe again, Beca snuggled back into the redhead's arms. "Chlo, why did it take us so long to get here?"
"I was terrified of losing our friendship. I mean, first there was Jesse, and ugh, honestly Beca, I don't know why. But I meant what I said last night. I am irrevocably, undeniably in love with you and have been most of my adult life."
"Who all knows? I mean Bellas-wise. Is this why Fat Amy harasses us about being lesbians all the time?"
"God no! I mean, I love Fat Amy and all, but she's not exactly who I would confide in with something like this even though she is our roommate. No, only Aubrey. She's encouraged me for years to say something to you. Have you told anyone?"
"Honestly Chloe, I don't think I even realized the depth of the emotions I feel for you and was able to put a 'label', if you will, on it until I saw you kissing Chicago. Last night, I was so insanely jealous. As I tried to figure out why, I came to the conclusion that the only reason why I could be envious of the kiss you two shared was because I am in love with you."
"So babe, now what? How are we going to tell all the girls? You know they are going to tease us ruthlessly, worse than they have for the past eight years, especially Fat Amy who is going to have a hay day."
After tossing around a few ideas, the pair came up with one they thought would be stellar.
When Chloe and Beca came down for breakfast, most of the other Bellas were at the buffet. Fat Amy shouted at them, "How did you two disappear last night?" Beca shrugged. Amy said, "lesbihonest" as she grabbed two rolls from the table basket and started to make them hump each other. She laughed so hard at her own joke that she ended up snorting orange juice up her nose and coughing up a storm. The others ignored her antics as usual.
As hard as it was, Beca and Chloe subtly avoided each other during the rest of the day, including lunch, choosing to spend time with different sets of Bellas. When the blonde dingo wrestler announced that they were going to a karaoke bar that evening, they acted semi-excited – about the same as they did for any crazy plan Amy came up with.
Since Chloe and Beca were sharing a room, when they went back up to get ready, they could hardly keep their hands off each other. Beca quickly stripped off Chloe's clothes and whispered, "magic" and giggled as she tossed the redhead on the bed. They had a few hours to occupy themselves before they had to show up downstairs for karaoke, and the pair made excellent use of the time.
"God Beale, why haven't we done this before last night," Beca panted in Chloe's ear as she was two knuckles deep into the woman beneath her.
"Stupidity I guess, Mitchell but don't you dare fucking stop." Chloe began moaning, surprised at how easily Beca's name passed through her lips with a slew of curse words wrapped around it.
Eventually Beca collapsed next to Chloe as she announced that she didn't have energy to go any longer. After a few minutes of rest, Chloe announced it was time for their shower so they could ready to go out. "Ummm no Beale, your shower. THEN my shower. If we shower together, we'll never get out. And if I have to go another day without the Bellas really knowing about us, I think I'll die."
"I know, right? Keeping my hands off you today was so hard." Chloe winked at Beca as she got up and padded to the shower. "By the way, I didn't tell Aubrey. I figure she can find out like the others." She giggled as she turned to go shower off an afternoon of sex and sweat.
"My favorite lesbos." Fat Amy hollered out as Beca and Chloe exited the elevator.
Beca just rolled her eyes at the blonde Australian. "Just friends, Ames, just friends."
Once everyone made their way to the lobby the group split up to take Uber's to the karaoke club. Amy ordered bottle service for everyone, well over-ordered per her usual, as well as a few rounds of shots. "Drinks on the rich dingo wrestler tonight." Fat Amy cackled as she was enjoying the new knowledge of her fat savings account thanks to her deadbeat dad who was now rotting away in a jail cell.
The group commandeered a few of the binders and began to flip through to pick out songs they wanted to sing. Beca made sure that the song she and Chloe wanted was available since newer songs sometimes take a while to make it to the karaoke club circuit. But this was a higher end place and seemed to have a lot of the recent releases.
The new couple decided to act like they had one of their usual spats and refused to sit together. Chloe trounced over to a chair next to Aubrey and plopped down with her arms crossed, pouting and refusing to tell Aubrey what was wrong. Beca moved to a chair between Fat Amy and C.R. "Lovers spat?" The large blonde was harassing Beca relentlessly. Beca furrowed her eyebrows and just reached for the tequila bottle to pour herself an extra-large shot.
One by one, group by group, the Bellas got up to sing their selected songs. When the announcer called out, "Next up Beca and Chloe," all their friends cheered as Beca just gave a grumble as she got up on the stage. She leaned over to the announcer and whispered in his ear like she was making a song change. By this time, an uninterested Chloe had joined her on stage.
The music started and Beca began to croon.
Ooh ooh, ooh ooh/Ooh ooh, ooh ooh
Chloe's face lit up at the cute intro as she winked and pointed at Beca who continued singing.
You say you love me, I say you crazy/We're nothing more than friends/You're not my lover, more like a brother/I known you since we were like ten, yeah
Beca waggled her finger at the redhead, and the happy look on Chloe's face dropped. Aubrey's heart was starting to break for her best pal as she was sure Chloe was going to cry.
Don't mess it up, talking that shit/Only gonna push me away, that's it/When you say you love me, that make me crazy/Here we go again/Don't go look at me with that look in your eye
Beca turned her back to Chloe as she danced, emphasizing the lyrics with her hands and body movement.
You really ain't going away without a fight/You can't be reasoned with, I'm done being polite
She turned back to face Chloe to sing the next part, counting off with her fingers.
I've told you one, two, three, four, five, six thousand times/Haven't I made it obvious?/Haven't I made it clear?/Want me to spell it out for you?/F-R-I-E-N-D-S
Chloe's eyes were shimmering as she snatched the mic from Beca to take over singing but altered the lyrics some.
Have you got no shame?/You talking insane/Turning up at my door/It's two in the morning, the rain is pouring/Haven't we been here before?/Don't mess it up, talking that shit/Only gonna push YOU away? that's it/Have you got no shame? YOU the one talking insane
…
So you can't even look me in the eye/No I really ain't going away without a fight/You can't be reasoned with, I'm done being polite/I've told you one, two, three, four, five, six thousand times/Haven't I made it obvious? Haven't I made it clear?
Beca grabbed the mic back and set her jaw firmly as she sang. The Bellas were in shock at song choice and how Beca was finally drawing the line with Chloe, apparently putting her squarely in the friend-zone.
Want me to spell it out for you?/F-R-I-E-N-D-S/Haven't I made it obvious?/Haven't I made it clear?
Want me to spell it out for you? F-R-I-E-N-D-S/That's how you fucking spell "friends"/F-R-I-E-N-D-S/Get that shit inside your head/No, no, yeah, uh, ah/F-R-I-E-N-D-S/We're just friends
Beca kept singing her heart out while Chloe searched around the room with watery eyes. She spotted a preppy college age boy sitting close to the stage. She sat down on the edge of the stage and motioned him to come towards her. When he was just within reach, she reached forward to grab him. She pulled him against her and leaned in like she was going to kiss him but stopped short and shoved him to arms length while still holding his shirt. The Bellas were completely confused at everything going on.
Haven't I made it obvious?/Haven't I made it clear?/Want me to spell it out for you? (Yo)/F-R-I-EN-D-S (I said F-R-I-E-N-D-S)
As the song faded out and the few final words were being crooned, Beca went over to Chloe sat on the stage with her new friend and pried his arms from her waist and kicked him back to his cheering friends. She extended a hand to Chloe and pulled her back to her feet and into a warm embrace. She then said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "Beale, you will always be my friend. But I suppose since this has been going on for eight years… we can try NOT being nothing more."
She held Chloe's face in her hands and gave her a deep, passionate kiss that had everyone in the club on their feet and cheering. Everyone but the Bellas who were all sitting at their table in shock as the new couple trotted off the stage, hand in hand. Finally, Fat Amy broke the silence as she stood up and shouted, "Whoomp, there it is."
A/N: I had a few hours of driving ahead of me today when this song came on the radio. I immediately thought it was worthy of a Bechloe one-shot. I know I took some creative liberties with the song as I'm not talented enough to describe the YouTube dancing! I hope you enjoyed it. Yes
Thanks to Dude (Guest) for the small alteration at the end
Marshmello & Anne-Marie: FRIENDS, *OFFICIAL FRIENDZONE ANTHEM*