Chapter Text
“It’s just annoying, is all,” Beca grumbled, picking at a loose string of her jeans.
The silence crackled over the phone in a way that Beca still wasn’t used to. In the years leading up to graduation, there was a softness in the quiet that stretched between them, and they would spend hours floating within that silence, working inches apart on homework and mixes with only occasional breaks to ask for a new pencil or sigh exasperatedly. Now, though, Beca felt an electricity in their silence, and she chalked it up to the distance that was spread between them like butter on toast.
She was getting used to it - to the weekly Skype dates and the nightly phonecalls - but there was something to Chloe Beale that could only be appreciated in person, and she hated the way she missed it.
Chloe hummed on the other end, and Beca knew she was considering something. She could hear the way Chloe bit the inside of her cheek, and almost felt whatever ridiculous idea she was going to say before she said it.
“What if we indulge them?” Chloe said, her voice tinted with mischief. She had originally called to make sure Beca was packed for the wedding, an added reminder to print out the boarding pass to Maine before actually getting to the airport. And while Chloe was excited - beyond excited, really - to see the girls who kept her paying college tuition for three extra years, Beca seemed hesitant.
“How do you propose we do that?”
“Wellll,” Chloe started, “They always joke about how we’re a thing, so let’s prove them right.”
“What are you even…I…um,” Beca shook her head furiously, not calming at the sound of Chloe’s laugh on the other end of the line.
“Chill, Becs,” Chloe said, “I’m not saying we need to be honest. I’m saying we placed bets in this whole thing too. And I need money for the class hamster I’m thinking about getting, so if we happened to show up to CR’s wedding hand in hand…who would that hurt, exactly?”
“You’re telling me that you want to pretend we’re dating to make a hundred bucks,” Beca deadpanned, but she already heard Chloe’s excited chirp of confirmation, and despite herself, she felt the corners of her mouth lift up. It was unavoidable, really, because once Chloe got excited about something, Beca fell right in line behind her, secretly relishing in the way Chloe looked at her like she was making all of her dreams come true at one.
“Come onnnn,” Chloe sang, “We’re both going solo anyway. It’ll be fun.”
“Fun,” Beca repeated, biting her lip. “Fun’s one word for it.”
“Becs, we’re already, like, married,” Chloe argued, “So what if we add a few public kisses to our act?”
“No, no kisses,” Beca said quickly, holding her hand up although Chloe couldn’t see it. On the other end of the line, there was a squeal.
“That means you agree!” Chloe said excitedly.
“No, that wasn–”
“Nope! You said it. You said you agreed. Okay hold on.”
“Chloe wai–” Before Beca could properly disagree to the whole situation, Chloe was calling her from her computer, the Skype icon ringing annoyingly in lieu of the co-worker Beca was in the middle of mindlessly creeping on on Facebook. “Why are you skyping me?”
“Because,” Chloe said, frustrated, “If we tell Aubrey now, word will spread by tomorrow morning, and that’ll eliminate this whole announcement thing.”
“Chloe, I’m not–”
“Beca,” Chloe said, her voice turning suddenly stern. “Pick up the Skype call.”
So Beca did. Because Chloe had even further mastered her “angry teacher” voice since starting at the private elementary school she was teaching at, and it was enough to bring back terrifying memories of near-detentions for young and rebellious Beca. Within seconds, Chloe’s face, albeit a bit blurred, popped up on the screen.
Her hair was tied back in an easy bun, longer than Beca was used to seeing it, and maybe a shade more blonde, though Beca couldn’t tell with the poor office lighting of the other woman’s apartment. She sat so that her knee rested against the edge of the desk, revealing sweatpants even though she was still wearing the sundress she’d probably worn to work that day. On her knee was a balanced frozen dinner, which just looked like gray slop. It took all of three minutes to process Chloe’s image - it always took that long - before Beca saw herself in the tiny box on the screen and groaned. Quickly, she raised the computer up from her lap to maintain a semi-better angle, though she’d already showered and now leftover eyeliner was smeared over the bags under her eyes. Her hair, for all intents and purposes, should’ve matched Chloe’s. It was, after all, thrown into a bun of equal haphazardness. Yet, somehow, it was more chaotic - a ridiculous bird’s nest of knots she didn’t really want to face yet. She winced into the screen, and Chloe laughed.
“You’re cute, Babes,” Chloe said, wrinkling her nose. When Beca gaped at her, she waved her hand. “I’m only practicing. Relax.”
Beca silently mimicked the other girl, resulting in Chloe’s easy laugh again, which, Beca hadn’t realized she missed until that very moment.
“I’m gonna call Bree no–”
“I’m really excited to see you,” Beca blurted before Chloe could finish. She blushed, then, hoping the light of her loft was poor enough that Chloe couldn’t see her, though she was giving her a confused look. “I mean…sorry…just, like, unrelated from all this. I just, uh, miss you. I wanted to tell you.”
Chloe stopped, closing her mouth and smiling in a way that almost broke Beca’s computer. She tried to bite it down, but that only made the action more adorable. “I am too,” she said softly, nodding. Then, “But save the adorbs for Bree’s eyes, please. We have to be convincing.”