A/N: This idea came out of the fact that Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson is one of the most awesome break-up songs, ever. My personal favorite is These Boots Are Made for Walking by Nancy Sinatra, though... I don't own these songs, and I don't own the aca-awesome characters of the movie Pitch Perfect, either. So, no copyright infringement intended.

"... and that was another class a performance of last year's ICCA winners, the Barden Bellas. What do you think, John?"

"Right you are, Gail. I never thought I'd say this but these girls are doing it like good ol' boys."

"John sometimes you're so wrong, everything else seems right - there is nothing old or boy-ish about the Bellas," Gail disagreed with her co-commentator at the ICCA Regionals 2013.

"You should know. Rumor has it, you had one of them turn you after the finals. The Bellas' very own sapphic soprano Cynthia Rose Delaney perhaps?"

"Oh, John, this is a story I'll never tell and you'll never hear," Gail gave back smiling confidently.

"Not even if I say please?"

"Not even if you write me a check. But now here come the Barden Treblemakers and if we can believe the Trebles' captain, Jesse Swanson, we're in for a surprise tonight..."

The stage had gone completely dark after the Bellas took their seats in the audience. It took the room a while to settle down after the great performance the girls had given but finally the room was so quiet that you could hear the low "zumzumzumzum" from one of the Trebles, the first indication of what was to come. Cynthia Rose leaned forward from her seat and whispered to Beca:

"Since U Been Gone, last year's audition song," as Beca wouldn't have known since she was a little late for it.

More Trebles joined the first with the beats of the song. And then a spot brightened center stage and there stood Jesse:

"Here's the thing we started out friends. It was cool but it was all pretend. Yeah, yeah, since you've been gone," and he lifted his arm on 'you' and pointed straight at Beca. The Bellas captain stared. Was he actually doing this? Here? Tonight?

"You dedicated you took the time. Wasn't long till I called you mine. Yeah, yeah, since you've been gone," and then the lights went on again in a flash, and while Jesse still sang Since U Been Gone, most of the other Trebles started with their rendition of These Boots Are Made For Walking, dancing and stomping in cowboy boots. Only Donald and Unicycle beatboxed for Jesse.

Beca would have been very impressed with the whole set if it wasn't aimed at her directly. The crowd, on the other hand, liked it, loved it, in fact. The audience sprang to its feet, stomping with the boys on the stage, all in dark red cowboy hats, except for Jesse who wore the customary Trebles blazer and sneakers. And he looked at Beca through the whole set, not even his dancing could stop him from directing the song at her. The Bellas around her looked at their captain, Aubrey Posen, two rows behind her friends, looked at Beca as well. But Beca Mitchell remained impassive, staring at the backs of those who had stood up two rows infront.

"Aca-believe it!" Amy huffed next to her.

And it was really hard to believe that Jesse Swanson would do something like this. Beca just couldn't believe it, she sat as if in shock, couldn't say anything, couldn't do anything. And then the performance ended and the Trebles made their way off the stage for the last a capella group of the night, already celebrating their victory - and by the reaction of the audience it was indeed a victory. They were about to take their seats infront of the Bellas - Unicycle making a show of letting Jesse go first since that would put him right infront of Beca. As Jesse reached his seat, he turned, leaned over and said:

"Oh, by the way, it's over."

There had been no need to say it, really, only that he wanted to. Of course, he had waited till this precise moment which was so reminiscent of their getting together at the finals, their first kiss. Beca just looked at him, but then Cynthia Rose jumped up out of her seat.

"I'ma gonna kill him," she groused and tried to get at Jesse but his boys were fending her off and a squabble ensued. Beca finally got up, roused out of her shock by her girls attacking the Trebles. She had to do something.

"Stop it, girls. Damn it, we could get disqualified. Now, sit down." She slipped past Amy, directly infront of Cynthia Rose and looked at her. "Let go of him, Cynthia, it's okay."

She told her friend and the dark-skinned Bella let go of Donald's bolo.

"This ain't right," Cynthia Rose grumbled but sat down. Beca looked back at Jesse who just looked back at her. He didn't smile, he didn't show any kind of emotion and then sat down. The other Trebles followed his example. A tear slipped from Beca's eyes and she brushed it away before she said:

"I need to go to the ladies' room, excuse me," she slipped out of the row and then hurried up the stairs toward the exit. Stacie was the first to get up to follow but finally all the Bellas went after their captain. Amy shared a look with Aubrey who had watched the scene from her own seat, unable to do anything about it. She had been glad when Beca had called the Bellas back - getting into a fight with another a cappella group could indeed get them disqualified from the whole competition - but her insides burned at what Jesse had done.

Beca stood infront of the mirror in the ladies' room, tears running over her cheeks. She looked up as Amy entered and could hear the other Bellas' indignant voices from the hall.

"Hey, Beca," the Tasmanian said in a faux cheerful voice. "How are you?"

Beca looked away from Amy, not wanting the other woman to see her face but at the same time fighting the urge to run to her friend and let her comfort her in a bear hug. She swallowed back a sob.

"The other girls wanted me to say some things: Cynthia Rose said that if you want her to she is going to call some friends - and I think she meant some butch lesbians - and they would give Jesse the kind of bitch-slap that leave mothers not recognizing their child. Stacie offered to pull a John Tucker on him. I didn't know what that means, so Stacie explained that she would seduce Jesse, make him fall in love with her and then break his heart into a million pieces... I'm not sure how that will help you, though..." Beca suppressed a grin at this. Her friends were the best. "Lilly whispered something about where to store dead bodies but I hope she was joking. The others would mainly like to bash some Treble heads in and I'm cool with that. So, just tell us which one it should be," Amy concluded and then turned to leave Beca alone. She knew from experience that Beca wasn't a touchy-feely person, not someone who was comfortable with emotional displays and she wanted to respect that - other than Chloe who by now would have had Beca in a half-Nelson-like hug with no regard of personal space whatever, but that was Chloe and nobody quite knew how to do that but Chloe.

"Amy," Beca said before her friend could leave. The blonde turned. Beca took a deep breath to calm herself and then looked at Amy. "That's very sweet of you guys, even Stacie, but I think... Jesse had his reasons for this."

"You mean he's been brainwashed by Bumper, maybe?" Beca smiled but shook her head.

"I haven't been a very good girlfriend lately," the brunette confessed.

"So? I haven't been a good girlfriend in my whole life but if one of my guys had ever pulled a stunt like that I would have knocked him into the next millenium. His nipples would have burned so badly that he would have tried to bite them off, I swear," Amy protested at Beca's words. "This has nothing to do with you not being a good girlfriend - and I doubt very mucht that it is even true. It has everything to do with him being a jealous arse and an aca-douchebag."

"Why do you say he's jealous?" Beca asked. It was a truth but she didn't know that the Bellas knew about this. Amy blushed a little and grinned uncomfortably.

"Ahhhhhhmmmm, yeah, so... are you coming?" She was obviously not going to answer Beca's question and the brunette found that it wasn't really that important. Maybe one of the Trebles had told her that Jesse wasn't happy about the amount of time she spent with the Bellas.

"Give me a minute?" Amy nodded.

"Sure, we're outside if you need us."

"Oh, and Amy?" The blonde turned once more before leaving the ladies' room. "No pitch- or bitch-slapping of any of the Trebles, okay? I think we'll make second place easy and being thrown out of the competition would suck." Amy nodded before she left Beca alone.

The Bellas captain looked at herself in the mirror. Her nose was red, her eyes swollen, there were tear-streaks all over her cheeks and chin. She felt miserable, hurt, humiliated - which was probably the worst of the three - but there was one tiny corner of her being that actually felt the way Kelly Clarkson had described in her song, a part that breathed easier now that it was over.