Chloe smiles at Beca easily, as per usual, but the reaction she gets in return is weird, even by Beca's standards.

Instead of a smile, Chloe gets a very flustered Beca ducking and turning her face away from her, her ears going red in her flustered state.

Chloe furrows her brow, confused beyond belief as to the reason behind Beca's actions, but decides perhaps talking about it later would be best since they're about to start practice.

"Alright aca-gals, listen up! We've got a full workout planned today, so I hope you're prepped to stretch it all out before we run through our scales!"

Aubrey, who can't help her need for bossing people around, loves that she still gets to come by to help keep the Bellas in shape. Graduate or not, being a Bella is for life, and she meant it when she said she'd help in any way she can.

Chloe gives her a friendly kiss on her cheek in greeting before skipping off to the front of the lines to lead them through warm ups.

Beca rolls her eyes at her own ridiculous actions earlier, as she bends at the waist and touches her toes, and thinks to herself, 'stop being such a total spaz.'

"Great! Now that you're sufficiently warmed up, let's get going with some cardio! Let's go ladies, lap around the gymnasium, then we'll segue into some knee highs and then lunges! Isn't this exciting?! Look at you girls go!"

Beca snorts, highly amused by the amount of enthusiasm seeping out of Aubrey.

If she's being honest, it's a little disconcerting just how preppy she's being. Beca's only really used to this amount of enthusiasm from a particular redhead; anyone else just garners a very confused look from her.

An hour and a half later has most of the Bellas ready to jump ship; thankfully Chloe gives Aubrey a pointed look that has the blonde nodding in understanding and swiftly saying, "Ladies, you did wonderful today. Okay, so let's cool down now. So let's take a nice slow paced jog around the gym...Atta girls- nice and steady, let's slowly lower your heart rates...Now let's slow down some more and walk around the gym. This was a great workout, I'm so proud of you!." Aubrey smiles delightedly at all of the girls, walking back towards her bag, "I'll see you all this weekend for the BBQ."

She walks out waving at a very flushed looking Chloe, who still manages a large and genuine smile in return, "Bye Bree!"

The rest of the Bellas all sort of just slump down to the ground where they stand, and let out various groans of protest and fatigue.

"I don't know about all of you, but I'm seriously reconsidering taking up horizontal running." Fat Amy says from her propped up position against the bleachers.

Beca laughs breathily as she pushes herself up off the chair she managed to sit in, and walks over to her own things, "I don't know Amy. Aubrey might find a way to turn that into an actual workout."

She catches Chloe's amused eyes and nearly stumbles over her own two feet. It's not her fault that she can barely control herself; Chloe needs to get better control over her Disney princess eyes.

Chloe furrows her brow once again when she sees Beca fumble and then quickly shuffles away from her, rather than go up to her to properly greet her. It's confusing and it hurts in a way Chloe can't really describe.

Beca should feel bad about things but, in all honesty, she isn't aware that she's kind of hurting Chloe's feelings by doing the things she's doing. Beca's more concerned with keeping her mouth shut about the gift she really wants to give to Chloe.

It has to be the right moment, and no way is being all sweaty and gross after running around for nearly two hours part of a recipe for the right moment.

Chloe watches forlornly as Beca all but flies out of the gym, a confused and hurt puppy dog look on her face, not at all liking or understanding why Beca is suddenly being so aloof.

xo

"Look just stop okay? I just had to leave, I can't help that I panicked." Beca says firmly as she throws herself backwards onto her bed.

Jesse rolls his eyes from his place at her desk, "Yeah but you could have been smoother with it."

Beca huffs, "Whatever, I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Jesse just rolls his eyes again, exasperated with the whole ordeal, "Why don't you just talk to me like normal people do? Use your big girl words Beca."

At this, Beca sits up and fixes him with a glare, "I didn't ask for your help. Hell, I didn't even tell you about any of this to begin with. You pried and found out. Forgive me if I'm not really big on the talking thing."

"You're still mad 'bout that? Beca I told you I thought it was for me! And I didn't think you'd mind."

Shrugging, Beca shifts so she's resting her back against the wall, pulling up her knees to her chest, "Whatever Jesse, the point is, I didn't plan on anyone knowing about any of it. You found out. that doesn't automatically make you my confidante...so you can stop coming around and asking and trying to get things out of me and then poke and prod and try and deconstruct the situation all the while telling me what and how I should have handled things."

Jesse nods, head down, "I just assumed..." he trails off and Beca really wants to interject and say something along the lines of 'as you always do' but she's growing up apparently, and realizing she doesn't need to say everything that comes to mind.

"You're right though...so I'm going to go and leave you to...do whatever it is you get up to in your free time. I'll see you around." Jesse slowly gets up and slowly gathers his belongings, and moves towards the door at an even slower pace, causing Beca to roll her eyes.

She knows he's hoping she'll change her mind about letting him leave.

"Jesse." She calls out.

His head lifts and his mood visibly brightens as he already starts to put down his DVD cases, thinking for sure she's about to tell him to stay. She holds his gaze and she says, "Close the door on your way out."

She shuts her eyes as she hears him huff and walk out of her room, slamming the door behind him.

She doesn't hate Jesse. He just doesn't get it.

Beca doesn't take too kindly to having her privacy invaded. She hates the feeling of not having control over certain aspects of her life. Like when and if she wants to let someone in on her thoughts and feelings. She dislikes it very much when people assume things and then get bent out of shape when she tells them otherwise.

When Beca had walked into the station a week ago to see Jesse excitedly waving around a USB stick, she didn't think anything of it, until she recognized the USB.

It was the special one. It was hers.

And it, in no way, was meant to be seen by Jesse.

"Where the hell did you get that?"

Jesse immediately stopped his rather excited and uncalled for dancing, to give her a large grin, "I found it over there by your stack of CDs, I figured you wanted to limit the awkward interactions by leaving it out for me to find. I haven't listened to any of the songs yet, but the track list makes me very-"

She cuts him off by storming up to him and grabbing the little piece of plastic out of his hands, "This isn't for you." She's kind of growling, and really she's just glad she isn't yelling, even though she really wants to.

Jesse grins at her teasingly, "Right, of course. Sorry if I ruined your plans on the big reveal then…you can hand it back to me now."

She backs off, her anger and frustration building, "No, Jesse. I'm serious. This isn't for you." She reiterates, pausing before continuing, "You weren't even supposed to find out about this. It's personal."

Jesse's brow furrows in confusion, "But…you left it right there, where I could find it…"

Beca doesn't know how she's not yelling right now even though she really feels like she should be, but she's glad she's managing to keep her cool.

"That's my workstation. I work there. Sometimes I leave stuff there. I do plan on coming back after coffee runs, you know? Like any person who works? I'm pretty sure my headphones are still right where I left them, right?" Her tone is icy, and there's no hint of it being a joke to her.

Jesse nods his head slowly, "Yeah of course your headphones are still at your station. I wouldn't touch those, I don't have a death wish."

Beca nods slowly, pocketing the USB and folding her arms across her chest, "Right. So why would you assume it's okay to pick up something else that is obviously not yours and go about thinking it's for you?"

Jesse shrugs his shoulders, "Who else would it be for? It's obviously not filled with mixes for Luke to play on the radio, otherwise you'd have left it in your designated in-tray."

Beca lets out a frustrated groan, "Dude, there are other people in my life that don't work here with me."

It's then that Jesse seems to register that Beca is being very serious about the USB not being for him.

"Oh…you mean. You really did mean it wasn't for me." He looks stricken, but Beca can't feel bad. He should be thanking his lucky stars she didn't start yelling because she really wants to still.

"If it was supposed to be for you, don't you think I'd have done a better job at keeping it from you until I wanted to give it to you?" Beca asks seriously, her tone still kind of biting, and arms still folded.

Jesse nods slightly, eyes downcast before lifting them up to meet Beca's, "Probably, but I just…I was pretty excited thinking you made this for me. It's-it looks pretty sweet."

Beca scowls as she unfolds her arms finally and walks away, back to her station and starts stacking more CDs, making sure to grab her coffee cup on her way.

She isn't going to have this conversation with Jesse.

"Who is it for then, if not for me?" Jesse asks a little while later, having made his way back over.

Beca glares at him, "You seriously have to take about a thousand steps back away from my personal life right now. I didn't let you in. You didn't give me the opportunity to even open up to you. You don't get to demand I tell you now."

"Just…I know okay? It was a dick move on my part, and I'm sorry that I picked it up and thought it was for me. Can you please just let me know who is going to be getting it?"

She huffs but says nothing.

"Okay well…can I guess? I think I could probably guess." Jesse says rather cockily.

Beca shrugs, "You can do whatever the hell you want to do Jesse. I'm still pretty pissed right now."

Jesse nods, "Yes, yes…You probably should be, but that's fine, you'll forgive me at some point, I'm that loveable."

Beca's face remains stoic, not at all amused and Jesse quickly continues, "So okay…is it for that guy in your history class? The really tall one with the great hair, George."

Beca ignore him as he continues to list an alarmingly large number of guys she isn't even aware exist, let alone know their names.

He gets antsy nearing the hour mark and frustratingly says, "What the hell Beca, it's like it isn't even for a guy!"

She snorts and continues to ignore him in favor of actually working, but apparently that gives him a clue.

His eyes widen and his jaw drops a little, "Wait…it isn't for a guy? Beca…this is like pretty heavy on the love songs."

He says it slowly, like he's breaking the news to a child and really can he be any more insulting? Beca raises an eyebrow and finally says as calmly as she can, "Yes Jesse. I'm actually very aware of the contents of my USB."

He shakes his head, "Yeah, but like…do you know what someone can think after receiving this as a gift? Like, it's basically a mix-tape."

"Yeah…that's the point." She says bluntly, before turning back to her job, getting sick of the conversation already.

"…Are you…you want whoever it's for, to get the wrong idea? Why would you-"

"Oh my God, Jesse! No! I don't want them getting the wrong idea, I want them to get the idea because the idea would be the right one. I'm trying to tell them what I can't say properly on my own. Now, can you shut up and just leave me the hell alone about this? You've got work to do Swanson."

A/N: alright, so this is just the first chapter to this story that's somehow wedged itself into the recesses of my mind...lucky for you, I plan on dislodging it and posting it for all of you to enjoy. Comment, like, review, pm me your thoughts, just hit me up with the feedback (: