A/N: Hello once again! So I was struggling with my sequel idea for "I Swear This Time I Mean It" for the last few weeks, and ultimately I have decided to put it aside for the time being before I can properly do it justice and work out some of the kinks I've encountered. Until then, this is my new story that is not at all related to ISTTIMI, it will eventually take place in Barden after the first two chapters or so. Credit for the idea behind this fic goes to skylightisme- this idea in particular really spoke to me and I couldn't get it out of my mind. I have other prompts that I've received as well as a 3-shot I came up with on my own that I'm trying to work on, which I will *fingers crossed* finish eventually. Anyway, enough of my rambling, I hope you enjoy my new story! Feedback is always appreciated :)

I own nothing, obviously.

She definitely did not want to be there. Beca had told her mother that much when her father had first invited her to his beach house in Florida. Not only did Beca not want to spend an extended amount of time with her father, who she hadn't seen in years, she absolutely hated everything there was about beaches and everything associated with it. There was hardly anything to do at the beach; laying out in the sun was immediately ruled out (Beca would burn as red as a lobster), and she wasn't fond of the idea of swimming in an overcrowded stretch of water with hundreds of people she didn't know at all. Not to mention that sand tended to get everywhere despite her best efforts not to end up with a layer of it caked on the soles of her feet, making her wonder why something hadn't yet been invented to prevent such an atrocity by now. Even if Beca could get past all of this, there was still the stipulation that she would still have to spend an extended amount of time with her father and step-mother, which hardly seemed like a relaxing vacation to her. There was no way she was going to spend a week or so with them the summer before she would begin college; she should be spending the time she had before embarking on the next chapter of her life doing thing she wanted to do… right?

It was her own mother that convinced her otherwise and encouraged her to spend time with her father. He was, after all, the reason she wouldn't have to spend a penny on tuition or room and board for her undergraduate studies at Barden University, the college her father was a literature professor at. It was a good enough deal for her, especially considering that she didn't even want to attend college in the first place, but was later told by both of her parents that not going to college and moving to Los Angeles right after her high school graduation was simply not an option. Spending time with her father was the least Beca could do, her mother had said to her after her initial refusal of the very offer, a spectacle involving Beca's defiant cry of 'No' as she threw her phone across the kitchen counter and almost into the garbage disposal while dramatically pacing the length of the kitchen after seeing the very text her father had sent her. Beca knew her mother was right, and so she begrudgingly packed up a suitcase later that week to take with her to her father's beach house in Clearwater, Florida.

She decided on the plane ride that she was going to keep an open mind about the trip; spending ten days with her dad wasn't going to be the end of the world, tectonic plates weren't going to collide and weather patterns weren't going to alter as a result of their reunion. Beca was going to have to endure living in the same city, the same college campus vicinity rather, for the next four years of her life anyway; she reasoned she might as well begin to get used to the idea of her father regularly being in her life. When she and her father had arrived at the beach house after her plane had landed later that afternoon, despite being jet lagged and cranky from the long flight, Beca found herself feeling happy at the sight of the beach just meters away from her father's house; she could get used to this, she told herself, this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Her tune changed two days later when, after thinking it would be a good idea to bring her laptop onto the beach with her as she sat under the giant umbrella her father and step-mother had provided, a group of children decided the space next to her would be the ideal location to build the perfect sand castle. Beca was just getting into stride as she worked on one of her current mixes, when she felt a stream of sand propelled into her lap. Looking out of the periphery of her sunglasses, she found the source of the disturbance in the fervent digging children a few feet away from her; when her gaze returned to her computer screen, she found the device covered in sand as well. With a humph and a few choice glances at the inconsiderate monsters that she later learned lived in the adjacent beach house, Beca gathered up her things and retreated into the house for the remainder of that afternoon. Days later she would continue to find particles of sand in between the keys of her laptop.

The only saving grace Beca had after her that incident rested in the fact her father had kept one of his acoustic guitars in the house. While he only played the instrument every now and then, Beca had fallen in love with the instrument when she was ten, and had taken to it with ease; learning how to play the guitar was one of the first things that led her to her passion for music and the desire to make a living out of it. It became a bit of a habit really; every evening after dinner, Beca would sling the guitar across her back and walk about a mile or so down the beach to a secluded area she had found one of the first days of her trip. Marked by a conglomerate of rocks partitioning the area from the human eye and remainder of the stretch of beach, the area looked as though no one had been there in quite some time, only marked by faint traces of Beca's footprints from the previous evening. After climbing across the large rock formation and making it down in one piece, Beca would enjoy the sight of the setting sun against the never ending ripples of water that would eventually collide with her feet as she stood at the edge of the beach. After pulling herself out of the trance the water would put her in, Beca would retreat further back, planting herself against one of the rock walls and begin to strum her guitar. It was a different tune everyday; sometimes she would play covers of songs, sometimes she would be working on an acoustic arrangement she would later incorporate into a mix of hers. Sometimes even, Beca would sing, careful as to not to draw too much attention to herself to the rest of the outside world. In this place Beca felt at ease, for no one seemed to be aware of it; in this place Beca could lose herself in her own thoughts without the fear that someone was going to intrude.

This was the place Beca came to think about what she was going to have to face in a matter of a few months she knew she would arrive at before she knew it. She thought a lot about starting at Barden, how she was going to have to learn to live with a roommate after being an only child all of her life. She thought about the classes she would take that she had no interest in the slightest in, and the stereotypical caricatures that would predictably be found around the college campus. She knew the college experience depended a lot on what she made of it, but at this point, wasn't very sure how she was going to make it work at all.

"I love everyone in this bar!"

Aubrey surveyed her slightly intoxicated best friend as she took a sip of her own drink. "Chlo, we're outside at a bonfire; this isn't a bar. It's important to me that you know that we're not at a bar."

Chloe giggled as she threw her arms around Aubrey as they stood a distance away from the fire they had recently built. Chloe had come up to visit Aubrey at her beach house for the week, and they decided to throw a party that weekend and invite all of their friends. "Same difference" Chloe shrugged as she detached from the blonde, looking at the other twenty or so people around them, not bothering to kick out the handful of individuals who found their way over to the party sans invitation. They stayed silent for some time, until the redhead became aware of the music playing from the speaker system set up along the patio of the house.

"Let's dance, Bree!" Chloe grabbed her best friend's hand as she led her over to the small group of people that were already dancing with one another. Chloe abruptly stopped in her tracks as she took in the sight of her on-again, off-again boyfriend Tom, dancing a little too closely to another girl than she was comfortable with. Aubrey saw this as well, perhaps a second too late, as she was unable to grab Chloe's arm and stop the redhead from walking up to Tom and slapping him across the face.

"What the hell?" Tom asked wincing, his hand going up to his searing cheek as Chloe looked angrily up at him.

"I brought you here with me; you don't get to dance with some random at my best friend's party!" Chloe seethed, her hands curling up into fists at her side.

"Chill out, it was one dance" the other girl said to Chloe, who clearly regretted uttering the very sentence as Chloe glared towards her.

Aubrey rested a hand on Chloe's shoulder to prevent her from potentially attacking the other girl. "Take a walk sweetheart" Aubrey instructed steadily before the girl walked away from the party, leaving Aubrey, Tom and Chloe standing around one another.

Tom turned to Chloe as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry Chloe. It's hard for me to know whether we're on or off with each other."

"Well how about I make this easy for you- we're off. For good this time."

Tom smirked, this not being the first time he had this conversation with Chloe. "Okay, sure whatever you want Chloe."

"Are you mocking me?" Chloe slurred defensively, one of her hands going up and impacting with Tom's chest.

"Okay, that's enough of that" Aubrey said as she steered Chloe away from Tom before the entire situation escalated further, leading Chloe to one of the tables on her family's patio and handing her a bottle of water from one of the coolers. "Drink up dear" she instructed.

"Bree, I'm fine" Chloe insisted as she took a drink from the water bottle. "I am fully aware of everything I just said to him. I mean it this time too."

"Mhmm" Aubrey replied, unconvinced, "Just like you were aware of when you told Bumper at aca-initiation last year that you would give him a lap dance if the Bellas lost the Riff-Off to the Trebles?"

"Fair point" Chloe said quietly after considering Aubrey's argument. "I do remember you telling him he should have got that in writing if he intended to collect on that though."

"Well I wasn't about to let you do that to yourself" Aubrey reminded her, the memory of how angry Bumper was that night after she had outsmarted him making her smile fondly.

Chloe got up from her chair as she finished the bottle of water. "I think I'm going to go for a walk."

"Are you sure you're okay to do that by yourself? It's getting dark out" Aubrey pointed out.

Chloe nodded. "I'll be fine, I won't be gone long" she assured her best friend before walking down from the patio and leaving the party.

Chloe didn't know how long or how far she had walked down the beach, but before she was even completely aware of it, she found herself perched on top of a large rock formation facing the water. Chloe surveyed the view of the water as the sunset was reflected on its smooth surface, the sight instantly calming her down from the anger that had still stirred inside of her regarding Tom. She knew she had overreacted, but there was no way she was going to admit that to him.

She wasn't sure whether she had been unaware of it until now or if it had just begun, but eventually as Chloe sat atop the rocks she heard the faint strumming of a guitar. Glancing from one side to the other, Chloe eventually spied the source of the melodic tune, a girl sitting maybe fifty or so feet away at the bottom of the adjacent rock wall. The song she was playing on the guitar was familiar to Chloe, but it wasn't until the girl began to sing that full recognition came over her.

"Passed out on the overpass, Sunday best and broken glass…"

Chloe hummed to herself as the girl continued to sing, completely unaware of Chloe's presence (although she would have had to look quite hard to spot the redhead from afar and resting on top of the rocks). This was the song Chloe's high school class had used for their photo montage during their graduation a few years ago; this was the Brand New song that propelled Chloe to listen to the rest of the band's discography, resulting in her desire to kick herself for not listening to the band sooner. Chloe enjoyed all types of music, it didn't matter the genre. The lyrics and meaning of the songs were just as important to Chloe as the beat and melody of it was; this song in particular meant a lot to Chloe, maybe even more now than it did when she was a senior in high school.

"I'm gonna stay eighteen forever, so we can stay like this forever…"

God, eighteen felt like it was yesterday, Chloe thought to herself. She was twenty-one now; although it was only three years difference, eighteen now felt like decades away. She still remembered how she felt the summer before she started at Barden; invincible and as though nothing was going to stop her or bring her down from doing what she wanted to do. Chloe still generally felt the same way about her dreams and aspirations, but the years of college had seasoned her to understand it was a lot more difficult than she had thought it was going to be. To be eighteen again, she reflected; to not worry about surviving in the real world, to be able to do pretty much whatever she wanted to do because she felt like she could and not have to worry about student loans or her car payment… as great as being twenty-one was, eighteen seemed pretty damn good right now when she considered everything she was going to have to do and figure out in the upcoming year of school.

"You're just jealous cause we're young and in love. You're just jealous cause we're young and in love…"

The girl's voice and strum of her guitar soon ended, snapping Chloe out of her thoughts. She looked down at the girl, who was still sitting in the sand as she looked down at her guitar. She couldn't believe the voice this girl had; after the first note she had sung Chloe was completely entranced and consumed by the song, as well as the girl singing it. She wanted to know who this girl was, wanted to know more about her; against all reservations, she almost felt as though she had fallen for this girl. Wait, what? She interrupted her own train of thought. You've never had feelings for girls before, what are you talking about Chloe?

As she walked back to Aubrey's house a few minutes later, she told herself that she would be back the following evening and that she would befriend this girl. They both shared a love for music, Chloe could tell that much; that was as good as a starting point for friendship as any other. Friends, she told herself over and over again, drilling the word incessantly into her mind.

A/N: Song used is Brand New's "Soco Amaretto Lime."