The First Five Times Chapter 2: The Next Time, a pitch perfect fanfic

A/N: No excuse for the lateness of this (well, plenty, but none good). Enjoy and review x

Also, for the song - Beca, Chloe, BOTH

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Chloe had never been one for one-night stands. She believed the act was all about the intent, and the idea that someone's intent to her was temporary and meaningless hurt her more than she could possibly say. While she tried to see the best in people, she still understood that blind trust could get her hurt. However, that didn't make it hurt any less. On the contrary, the feeling of exposing herself in the most intimate way to a near stranger who didn't understand how much it meant, hurt even more. And for some inexplicable reason, when Beca left it hurt even more.

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"BECA! OPEN UP!"

Beca tiredly lifted her head to look at the door, before slumping back on the bed. She supposed that she should have expected this intrusion at some point; she had spent three days barricaded inside her room, living off of potato chips and mixing near constantly. And she couldn't even bring herself to be surprised at who her uninvited guest was. Jesse had been like a faithful, concerned puppy - texting her dozens of times to ask where she was and why she hadn't been to the station. If she'd responded to those texts perhaps he wouldn't be pestering her now, she thought wryly.

She closed her eyes and tried to block out the incessant banging and yelling, but it was no use. The noise permeated her brain with as much ease and disregard as the memories of why she now found herself in her situation.

She hadn't meant to sleep with Chloe. She honestly hadn't. It was unpremeditated, the rash spontaneity she possessed coming out to bite her in the ass. She didn't know why she had lost control so easily. Maybe it was the mix of alcohol and achievement that had been in the air that night, or the red-heads intoxicating perfume, her startlingly blue eyes, those legs, that ass…

Point was, she had tried not to sleep with Chloe. She knew she would only get hurt if she acted on her infatuation (she refused to refer to it as anything else), and she had proved herself right, more so than she had ever imagined. And now she had no choice but to avoid Chloe. Not that it was hard. The redhead herself had made no attempt to contact her, despite being in possession of Beca's phone number, dorm number and room, email and Facebook details (part of Aubrey's contact plan). And Beca couldn't blame her. The night had meant nothing to the ginger anyway and even if it had, waking up alone and abandoned wouldn't exactly warrant the warmest of feelings towards the perpetrator.

She hadn't been entirely alone for the last three days though. Kimmy Jin had made it perfectly clear her being perpetually around was for her (with no regard to Beca's emotional state), and her father had visited every day, increasingly frustrated, trying in vain to get her to go to class. It's not that she didn't want to go to class, per se, more that she didn't want to go anywhere.

It was strange to have even her father checking up on her. She had lived a mostly solitary existence for most of her life - the disruption of her parents divorce and her resulting anti-social behaviour had left her with few friends . Here at Barden, she already had more friends than she'd ever had in high school or earlier. Fat Amy, who had delivered her work for her over the past days, unjudging and unassuming, Cynthia-Rose who had sent her a number of mixed-message texts reminding her of upcoming Bella's rehearsals and Aubrey's suspected homicidal tendencies, and Jesse. Jesse.

Jesse who was like a love-struck teenager, following her around and doting on her, Jesse who was endearingly annoying, Jesse who was giving her a headache from the incessant noise outside her room. Sighing and standing, she walked slowly to the door.

"Alright, I'm coming!" Opening her door, she was greeted first with a blast of painfully bright sunshine, then as her eyes adjusted, a completely unimpressed Jesse. He raised his eyebrows at her, taking in her dishevelled, unkempt appearance.

"First sunlight in days, I'm sure." He cocked his head her, waiting for some kind of response.

"Are you going to invite me in, or…?" Rolling her eyes at him, she stepped aside to let him in, noting his partial shock at the contrast between Kimmy Jin's immaculate side of the room and her "bomb-disaster zone" side.

"Oh, this is bleak." He turned to face Beca who laughed out loud at the disgusted and appalled facial expression. With a jolt, she realised that it was the first time she'd laughed, or even smiled since the Chloe incident. Jesse seemed to pick up on this, his face morphing to concern, and his voice softening.

"Hey, what happened?" He sat slowly down, not taking his eyes off of Beca. She shook her head.

"Nothing, nothing… it's nothing." She smiled, trying to appease him, it looked more like a grimace. Unconvinced, Jesse asked again.

"Tell me, Beca. Please?"

She understood and appreciated his concern but there was no way she could tell him. She was still convinced he was in love with her, and she didn't want to lose his friendship completely by revealing what had happened. And, on top of that, she wasn't ready to admit it out loud. Not that she'd had sex with a girl, but that she'd let her stupid infatuation and feelings take over her in a moment of weakness and vulnerability. Remembering her heated words with her father earlier that morning, she made up a lie to satisfy Jesse.

"It's stupid really." She laughed hollowly. "I just had a fight with my dad, it doesn't matter."

"Wanna talk about it?" He seemed genuinely concerned, and this would have been comforting to Beca if she didn't already feel guilty for lying to him. Trying to distract him, she changed track.

"Not really. Hey, did you, uh, want to watch a movie or something?" Jesse wasn't stupid, he'd heard loud and clear her distaste for movies, and he knew about her regular arguments with her father. So her offer told him what he needed to know - something much more significant had happened. Despite his burning urge to find out and comfort her, he took the bait, smiling half-heartedly at her.

"Sure. Do you have any?"

"What kind of person do you think I am?" She laughed, and he had to as well. Albeit temporarily, "his" Beca was back.

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Bellas rehearsals were well under way for the season, and the group could already feel the rising tension between Beca and Chloe. They saw Beca's resistance to Chloe's attempt at instruction (in her defence Chloe was pressed right up against her, and it was making her uncomfortable…. down there), they saw Beca blatantly check out Chloe's ass while they were running up and down the bleachers, they saw each other staring at each other while the other wasn't looking, only to blush furiously and try to cover it up when they were caught. But the two girls hadn't spoken a word to each other since the aca-initiation party, and that was what confused the rest of the Bellas. They all knew that the two girls had had sex - it doesn't take a genius to figure out what happens after two drunk college girls escape from a game of spin the bottle - but the ensuing awkwardness was the kicker. Why couldn't they just get over it? College girls experimented with friends - it was practically a rite of passage - but these two seemed to miss the memo.

On the other hand, Aubrey was not confused. As Chloe's roommate/best friend/pseudo-therapist, she knew all about the cause of Chloe's distress, and it only fuelled her anger towards Beca. The alt girl had annoyed her from the start, with her cocky attitude and terrible fashion sense, but the knowledge that the girl had hurt her friend and refused to own up to it really pushed her over the edge. She was on Beca's back at every rehearsal, criticising her for every minor mistake. She almost felt bad for it, but then she'd she the equal parts hurt and love struck looks her friend was sending the girl and her fuel was renewed. She was over-protective, yes, but she'd seen Chloe get hurt by one too many stupid frat guys that she wasn't going to take that risk again.

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The Bella's first public performance had finally rolled around, and everyone knew that they weren't ready yet. The choreography was off, the timing was off, the singing was off, and the fraternity they were performing at were less than impressed, booting them off the stage before they really had time to get started.

Aubrey was furious. Realistically, she knew they weren't ready, that they hadn't had enough time, but the rash part of her brain was looking for someone to blame. She wanted to build the reputation of the Bellas back up, and to clean her own state, and that mediocre performance wasn't going to do anything for it. Rounding on the person that was closest to her, she started firing off.

"I hope you all feel terrible! I hope you never want to feel that again! You all need to make notes on what you did wrong so that it never happens again. And Chloe, what's wrong with you? Your voice didn't sound Aguilerean at all!" Chloe turned to face her, eyes red rimmed and tears in her eyes, biting her lip to keep them from falling. Aubrey's breath caught in her throat, she hadn't meant that in a spiteful way.

"Chloe, what's wrong?" The ginger girl took a deep breath, turning to face the rest of the group. It was now or never.

"I have nodes." Gasps came from the group, the loudest from Aubrey, who immediately felt the pain of the girl as if it were her own. The only person who looked less than sympathetic was Beca. Aubrey felt anger sweep through her body before Beca spoke.

"What are nodes?" Confusion, then. Minorly less pissed off then before, Aubrey spoke before Chloe had the chance too, willing her to rest her voice whenever possible.

"Vocal nodules. Rubbing of the vocal chords at high rates without proper lubrication causes them to form. They sit on your windpipe and crush your dreams." If Beca was put off by the melodramatic description, she didn't show it, instead concern laced her features.

"Doesn't that hurt?" She looked now to Chloe, making direct contact with her for what felt like years. The rest of the Bellas were not immune to this, eager for the tension between the two girls to disappear. Chloe choked up, and couldn't speak, so sufficed to just nod her head.

"Then why do you still do it?" Chloe cleared her throat to speak this time.

"Because I love to sing." That was all the answer she gave. Sensing her wish to move on from the subject, Aubrey hastily moved to outlining the Bellas new and intensive practice session, to the groans and sighs of the girls. She would speak to Chloe later.

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The next time Beca saw Chloe was the next day, which was a lot (okay not that much) sooner than she expected or anticipated. In fairness, she was on her way to go find the ginger girl, so she should have been prepared for the way that her breath caught and she lost the capacity for English upon laying eyes on Chloe.

She was just leaving the station when it happened. Jesse had been bugging her about how her mood had been lately, and Luke had gotten so annoyed by the constant "toddler-behaviour", as he called it, that he'd told them to shut up and work or go home. Jesse had stayed. She'd left. Sure she wouldn't get paid for that move, but she figured Jesse was right and that she needed to sort herself out, talk to Chloe about it. It was such a spontaneous decision that she really didn't have time to prepare herself for what happened next.

Swinging the door of the station open and stepping out, she literally collided with a person and they went tumbling down to the ground in a mess of limbs. Muttering hasty apologies and starting to push herself up and off of the other person, she looked down at the person below her, shock and recognition stunning her into place for a second before memories of the last time they were in this position flooded her brain and she hastily stood up. Avoiding Chloe's eyes, she sheepishly offered a hand to the other girl, who was equally stunned by the situation she found herself in. Taking it, and lifting herself up, a pseudo-awkward silence fell between the two, before being interrupted by the two attempting to speak at once.

"I cam-"

"Sorry-"

"You go-"

"You firs-"

"Stop. You go first." Chloe smiled invitingly at Beca.

Beca took a deep breath before speaking again. "Look… I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For everything. I shouldn't have left, I shouldn't have avoided you, it was immature of me and I'm really sorry. There." Smiling at her, Chloe replied.

"It's ok. It's not your fault. I made you uncomfortable, I understand that. I should have spoken to you, instead of making it awkward between us. I jeopardised our chance at friendship, and I really regret that. I guess I just had a lot going on in my life."

Beca smiled sadly. At least she knew now that Chloe didn't return her feelings, however terrible that made her feel. "You sure did. Umm.. how's your throat?"

"It's fine thank you for asking. I'm really sorry, again. Friends?" Chloe smiled hopefully at the shorter girl. Why it meant so much to her she didn't understand, but she really needed Beca's friendship.

"You sure it won't be awkward." Beca teased, albeit half-heartedly.

"We won't let it be."

"Then, sure." Silence feel between the two girls, neither sure what to say next. Beca finally spoke again.

"Is that all you came here for?" Suddenly remembering her other reason for visiting, Chloe smiled.

"No. As you may or may not be aware of, today is Aubrey's birthday. And we - the Bellas -" she added at Beca's confused facial expression. "are taking her out to celebrate and loosen up."

Beca smirked. "Aubrey? Loosen up? I think you're talking about someone else."

Chloe smacked Beca playfully. "Oh, shush, you. We're going to that bar, Sapphire's. I'll send you the address. 9 o'clock. Be there. I know she'll appreciate it."

Beca rolled her eyes at the ginger girl. "I don't think Aubrey appreciates anything I do. And Chloe?"

"Yes?"

"I'm nineteen." She said like it was the plainest thing in the world. Chloe looked at her confused, so she elaborated. "I'm not exactly legal…"

Eyes widening, Chloe composed her face into Beca's trademark smirk.

"What, and you don't have a fake ID?"

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It was a karaoke bar. Of course. Why Beca was surprised, she'd never know. And like any karaoke bar, the quality of performance was well, well below par. The highlight of Beca's alcohol fuelled night was Amy's fully choreographed, fully rapped performance of Salt 'n' Pepa's "Shoop". Everything else was , well, abysmal.

Standing solitary by the bar, Beca looked out across the crowd, searching for familiar faces. She spotted Cynthia-Rose shameless grinding on a very drunk Stacie while another very drunk patron attempted to sing Snoop Dogg's "Wet". The sight was somewhat humorous, somewhat disturbing, and Beca quickly averted her eyes. A relatively reserved (but completely loose by her own standard) Aubrey was dancing with some guy who was lecherously running his eyes (and hands) down her body. Everyone else seemed to be having a good, comparatively PG-13 time, sitting or dancing in groups around the room. The only person she couldn't spot was Chloe.

The redhead had danced with a whole bunch of people over the night, moving away to snag a new partner whenever things got less than friendly. Beca, on the other hand, had been a wallflower all night, refusing all offers to dance and keeping a watchful eye on the Bellas.

Turning back to the bar, she ordered herself another drink, her who-knows-which-number of the night. She wasn't a usually a heavy drinker, but watching Chloe all night had put her on edge. The bartender returned with her drink, warning her helpfully to slow down, being a small person her ability to hold alcohol would likely be compromised very soon.

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she turned to see a bright-eyed, red-faced Chloe looking at her expectantly. She looked at her confusedly until Chloe shouted over the music.

"I SAID, 'COME SING WITH ME'!" Blanching, Beca shook her head no, taking a large gulp of her drink and revelling in the burn as it travelled down her throat.

"NUH-UH. NO WAY."

"PLEEEEAAAAAASSSSE?" Chloe pouted adorably, activating full strength puppy eyes. Beca could feel her resolve crumbling even as she tried to look away from Chloe. Looking woefully at her drink, she reluctantly threw it down her throat in one and turned back to the redhead.

"FINE. BUT JUST ONE SONG." Chloe face lit up like Christmas, taking Bella's hand and dragging her away to the stage where another wannabe crooner was finishing up her painfully flat rendition of "Hopelessly Devoted to You". Chloe helped her up on the stage as the assistant handed them mics, wishing them luck and requesting them to be kinder than previous participants.

"Do you wanna pick the song?" Chloe asked her.

"No, you can." Beca offered. Chloe's eyes lit up, and she smirked, going over to the machine to pick a song. Beca paled, suddenly afraid of what she had been tricked into. However, she laughed as the opening notes from "Titanium" filtered through the speakers. Chloe smiled innocently at Beca as she took the first verse. The crowd below immediately went nuts as Chloe's voice, a pleasant change from the tone deaf racket that had come before, hit the first lyrics.

"You shout it out, but I can't hear a word you say...

I'm talking loud, not saying much..."

Chloe walked slowly over to Beca as she sang, serenading her with a decidedly non-romantic song.

"I'm criticized, but all your bullets ricochet...

Shoot me down, but I get up..."

Smirking, Beca decided to turn the tables on Chloe, and as she approached the chorus quickly brainstormed. As she hit the chorus, Beca came in as well, shocking the audience as well as Chloe as she wove another song in around the song.

"I'm bullet proof, nothing to lose (Baby, you light up my world like nobody else)

Fire away, fire away (The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed)

Ricochet, you take your aim (But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell)

Fire away, fire away (You don't know, you don't know you're beautiful)

You shoot me down, but I won't fall (If only you saw what I could see)

I am titanium (You'd understand why I want you so desperately)

Shoot me down, but I won't fall (Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe)

I am titanium (You don't know, you don't know you're beautiful)

The crowd roared as the two girls reached the end of the chorus egging them on. Chlow looked impressed at Beca and gestured for her to take the next verse. Smiling, Beca jumped in with yet another song while Titanium pulsed in the background.

"Jumped to my hoopty hoopty hoop,

I own that

And I ain't paid my rent this month,

I owe that.

But fuck who you want, and fuck who you like

Dance hall life there's no end in sight (Twinkle twinkle little star)

Now errybody let me hear you say Ray, Ray, Ray

And spend all your money cuz today pay day

And if you a G, you a G, G, G,

My name is Onika, you can call me Nicki."

There wasn't a single person in the club who wasn't up an dancing at this point, and the two girls fed off their collective energy as they jumped into the second chorus.

"I'm bullet proof, nothing to lose (Baby, you light up my world like nobody else)

Fire away, fire away (The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed)

Ricochet, you take your aim (But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell)

Fire away, fire away (You don't know, you don't know you're beautiful)

You shoot me down, but I won't fall (If only you saw what I could see)

I am titanium (You'd understand why I want you so desperately)

Shoot me down, but I won't fall (Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe)

I am titanium (You don't know, you don't know you're beautiful)"

For the first time in the song, they sang together, in harmony, on the bridge. They were now standing close together and facing each other, driven by the energy and movement of their performance. Beca could feel her feelings and attraction coming to the surface as she raked her eyes over the redheads body, feeling their chemistry in the air.

"Stone hard, machine gun,

fired at the ones who run.

Stone hard as bulletproof glass!"

Reaching the last chorus, Beca boldy took hold of Chloe's hand as she faced the audience, belting like her life depended on it.