"OMG ANNA!" Anna turned around in time to see a wave of blonde hair engulfing her head as a pair of arms crushed tightly around her small frame. She smiled into the shoulder of her assailant and hugged her back with the same enthusiasm.
"I missed you Britt" she smiled as she pulled away from the hug.
"Aww I missed you too Kendrick! I've been looking forward to this all summer!"
"Yeah, me too. I've been so busy its nice to know that I'll get to work with all my friends for the next few months." Anna shuffled her feet and awkwardly looked away. She hadn't been great at keeping in contact with everyone since the last movie. Her star status had solidified and she had become Hollywood's "golden sarcasm girl" over the past few years.
Britt watched Anna's expression and could tell that something was bothering her. But instead of bringing it up she said; "so how's Chris? Are you guys still together?"
Anna looked up with a small smile, "nah.. that was really just for movie PR, I wasn't ever really that into him. How's Tyler?"
Britt bit her lip before she replied, "oh…yeah…he's good I guess."
"I guess?"
"Yeah, he..um..he keeps bringing up having kids.. and..um…I'm not really sure its the right time or .." Britt trailed off as her eyes met Anna's. "besides, I'm never going to be happy with any kid-scenario after reading bechloe babies!" she giggled, "Did you read those ones?"
The two had begun a tradition where once every few months they would send each other snippets of their favorite fan fiction stories involving their characters. It started as a game when they found out about the website and the fandom but had developed into a way for them to keep in contact without having to talk about how much they missed each other.
Anna chuckled, "nah I haven't! you'll have to link it to me. I actually read that really long one, the Stone Hard one. It took me forever but I love that they always make Beca such a Badass DJ, its so flattering."
"yeah it's fine for you!" Britt pushed Anna's shoulder playfully, "they always make Chloe a teacher or a doctor or a surfer or an actress or something else random. I swear its made coming back to acting Chloe so confusing! I don't know where she stands! At least the Beca characters are always consistent!"
"Yeah, I don't really know how to approach this table read" Anna confessed, "It's going to be hard going back to Beca and Jesse. I rewatched the last movie to get my head in the game and I was actually kinda disappointed that Beca and Chloe didn't get together." She laughed awkwardly.
"Oh my god, I know!" Brittany gushed, "we really shouldn't have read so many, it's going to make this so much harder." Just as she looked up at Anna she caught the flicker of Anna's eyes to her mouth.
…so that's still there then Britt thought to herself.
The two smiled at each other as the rest of the crew began to file into the hall.
They were at the first table read for Pitch Perfect 2 and the cast hadn't all been together since the premiere of that last movie. All of them had kept in touch but due to conflicting schedules they hadn't managed to have a reunion with all of them present.
"What's up aca-bitches?!" Rebel yelled through the hall when she arrived flanked by Anna Camp and Alexis Knapp.
"Oh my god, that's such a typical Rebel entrance" Anna laughed.
"Look at Camp's face!" Brittany was holding her sides as her laughter bubbled over. Anna turned to look at the trio that were now walking toward them but her focus was stolen by the giggling girl next to her. The sound of Brittany's laughter caused her to smile brighter than she had in months.
"Oh hey Bechloe" Alexis said as soon as she came within earshot of the two girls. Anna and Britt mirrored each other's eye roll, which caused the other girls to break out into hysterics. Both girls were slightly embarrassed that their on-screen chemistry had resulted in such a large fandom following. Truth be told they didn't really mind but both of them just found it funny that their feelings for each other were so obvious that even fans who never saw them in real life could pick up on it.
As more of the cast began to arrive Anna and Britt stayed close to each other, Anna sometimes brushing her fingertips against the back of Brittany's hand, just to assure herself that she was still there. They stood around chatting idly to the group as everyone discussed the current projects they were working on and what they were expecting from the table read – all of the producers had been fairly conservative in releasing information about the direction of the new movie that none of the cast actually knew the whole storyline.
They knew that the Bellas were once again the central storyline and that Anna Kendrick's character was now the captain of the team. Anna Camp and Brittany's characters were back as post-grad students (because everyone had agreed that the sequel couldn't go on without them). But other than that no one knew where the plot would take them and they were anxious to find out.
None were more interested in the new movie than Anna and Brittany who were anxiously awaiting the romantic storyline. Wondering if their characters would be together this time.
Everyone was ushered from the hall into the next room where the tables had been set up with a script sitting before every seat. Chatter broke out through the room as everyone began locating their seats.
Anna was seated between Skylar and Brittany (something that definitely hadn't gone unnoticed by the rest of the cast). Rebel drew a heart with the word 'Jeca' in it and a heart with 'Bechloe' in it and placed them between the respective pairings before announcing that; "some hearts are gunna break today guys!"
Collective laughter bubbled up as Anna K shouted; "not mine though!"
Brittany laughed along with the crowd and placed her hand on Anna's thigh under the table, giving her a gentle squeeze. She had no intention of making this easy for the tiny brunette.
Anna squeaked as she felt the pressure on her thigh, she quickly turned it into a cough as Skylar turned to look at her curiously.
Everyone hushed down as Elizabeth Banks confidently strode into the room and stood in the middle of all the tables.
"Hello everyone and welcome to the official table read for Pitch Perfect 2!" Applause followed this announcement and she waited until it died down to continue. "Ok so due to the amazing success of the last movie, which we are still so thrilled about, we've decided that the sequel has a lot of room to change things up. We know we have a very loyal fan base and the last thing we want to do is make an identical movie with new songs in it. So we've decided to change things up for the Bellas this time around. Especially for the new Bella captain, miss Beca Mitchell."
Everyone's eyes flicked to Anna and she replied with a nod toward Elizabeth. She tried her best to look as composed as possible but inside her heart was beating faster and faster. It didn't help that Brittany's hand had glided a little bit further up her thigh.
Elizabeth winked at Anna before continuing; "so I want to hear you guys experience the new story with your characters so we'll jump straight into the table read so you can feel it along with them."
The rest of the cast began shuffling paper and opening their scripts – thankfully they were so loud that they didn't hear Anna gasp as Brittany stroked her finger along the zipper of Anna's jeans.
Brittany stood outside the rehearsal room waiting for Anna. She paced up and down the hall and ran her fingers through her hair smiling to herself. She had tweeted a teaser at the table read and included a photo of her name card next to Anna's and her phone had been going crazy ever since. It seemed as though all the Bechloe and Sendrick fans were more than happy with her tease. She smiled to herself as she thought of how insane they would get after seeing the sequel, she herself still couldn't believe the story that she had just read through.
The new movie was going to be a massive success, she knew that much.
Just as her phone announced another retweet, Anna exited the room and looked around the hall. Brittany waved at her as their eyes met and Anna strode toward her as she slung her bag over her shoulder. Without speaking both girls strode towards the exit and Brittany walked out first as Anna held the door for her. They jumped straight into a cab together and stared straight ahead as they sped off toward the hotel that everyone was booked into.
Anna was the first to break the silence.
"You know we can't go back to how things were during the last movie don't you?" She still stared straight ahead.
Brittany looked down at her hands and whispered; "I know…"
"We said that it would hurt our careers"
"I know.."
"We said that if we wanted to stay in this industry that we couldn't be together"
"I know"
"They said it would jeopardize the authenticity of the movie's storyline if we were together in real life."
"I know…"
"But after that table read…"
"I know!"
Anna turned and faced Brittany, with a huge grin across her face, "and Elizabeth just told me that it would help publicity if we were seen together a few times before the new movie came out, you know to get the buzz going and…"
Brittany cut her off by kissing her. She tried to put every pent up feeling into that kiss. Her hands moved up into Anna's hair and she felt Anna's body scoot closer to hers as she wrapped her arms around the blonde and pulled her body toward her. The kiss became more and more passionate as each girl pushed themselves closer together.
Anna pulled back first, panting slightly, "and…Tyler?"
Brittany kissed her again before pulling away and panting; "we've…been…broken up for…ages. We just couldn't tell the press yet."
Anna smiled and launched herself on top of Brittany who sunk down into the back of the cab and allowed Anna to take control of their make-out session.
A few minutes later they arrived at the hotel and after being rudely interrupted by the driver they got out of the cab hand in hand. As they made their way across the lobby a voice called out behind them; "Anna! Brittany!"
They spun around and were greeted with 3 or 4 photographers who all snapped away at the pair who were holding hands, had messy hair and swollen lips. Anna, the queen of awkward situations help up a hand to wave in greeting and said; "Sorry guys, you've caught us at a bad time...we were just... rehearsing for the Pitch Perfect sequel"
As they got into the elevator Brittany pulled Anna into a hug and whispered; "well, that statement will make a whole lot more sense when the movie actually comes out."