#it’s the scene in the armchairs where flo’s like ‘you want to kiss her and more significantly. she is CHANGING you’

[francesderwent]

Flo: what exactly is the nature of your relationship with her?

Lockwood: strictly professional, just friends

Flo: so are you colleagues, or are you friends?

Lockwood: we are colleagues with benefits. we're colleagues who benefit from the fact that we're also friends. I’m sorry, Flo, I think I need to go, but, uh, thank you so much, and as always, everything I said is off the record. okay? bye

[becasbelt]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Pitch Perfect (Movies) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell, Beca Mitchell/Jesse Swanson, Stacie Conrad/Aubrey Posen (mentioned), Benji Applebaum/Emily Junk, Bumper Allen/Fat Amy Characters: Emily Junk, Beca Mitchell, Chloe Beale, Benji Applebaum, Jesse Swanson, Fat Amy (Pitch Perfect), Cynthia-Rose Adams, Stacie Conrad Additional Tags: confused emily is my favorite emily, Emily POV Summary:

Emily is smart, so why is it that she can’t seem to figure out the relationships going on in the a cappella world at Barden University?

In which Emily tries to figure out who each of the Bellas are dating.

* * *

Here’s the thing: Emily Junk is smart. She knows she’s smart. Not everyone can go through high school with an almost perfect 4.0 (stupid biology) like Emily did, which she could do because she’s smart. Book-smart, at least. She may still have some work to do in the street smarts category.

Still. SMART.

But if she’s so smart, why is it that she can’t seem to figure out the relationships going on in the a cappella world at Barden University?

There are the obvious ones where she doesn’t even have to know the two people involved to know that they’re an item: the one guy from the Trebles and the one girl from the Harmonics, the two girls from the High Notes, and those two guys from the Harmonics. There are obvious couples at Barden, but Emily isn’t concerned with any of them.

Emily wants to know who the Bellas are dating. She needs to know who her family loves, so she can love them, too… only, in a different way. She doesn’t want to love love who her family loves, because that would be so wrong. She doesn’t want to get in the way of anyone’s relationship.

The only problem is, no one tells her anything. Granted, she doesn’t ask, but still. No one tells her “This is my boyfriend,” or “This is my girlfriend,” or even “This is the person I slept with last night but we’re not going to date or anything because I don’t really like them all that much.”

No one tells her any of that, and it’s driving her crazy.

So Emily makes it her self-appointed secret mission to find out who each of the Bellas are dating.

She finds out that Flo isn’t dating anyone pretty quick. When Emily asks her, casually, totally not suspiciously, one day if she was seeing anyone, Flo’s answer is, “Men are dogs. They will take away all that you have worked hard for and sell you to their worthless brother without batting an eye, forcing you to escape under the cover of night after crushing sleeping pills in their dinner.”

Emily had just stared at her, wide-eyed and scared, and Flo concluded by saying, “So no, I will not willingly give myself up for a man again until he has rightfully earned his way into my presence.”

Emily tries not to have too many conversations with Flo after that.

She assumes Lilly isn’t dating anyone. Emily doesn’t think she’ll ever actually find a way to confirm this assumption, because when Emily asked if she liked anyone, Lilly had whispered something about crystal martini glasses and shampoo bottles and walked away.

Emily tries to avoid Lilly, too.

Jessica and Ashley are probably dating each other. Emily doesn’t know for sure, though, because anytime she tries talking to one or both of them, Fat Amy or Stacie or somebody else starts shouting about something, demanding the attention of the entire room. Emily’s confused about how that happens every time, but Jessica and Ashley don’t seem too surprised.

The two of them cuddle in the armchair during movie nights, and do each other’s hair when they’re hanging out in the living room. Jessica likes to steal Ashley’s high school letterman jacket when it gets chilly outside, and Ashley will always steal food from Jessica’s plate when they all go out to eat together. Emily doesn’t know for sure if they’re dating or not, but she fully supports it if they are.

She finds out about Amy’s… intimate partner in a way that she really wishes she hadn’t. Really, if she could forget it, she would. Unfortunately, it seems that the scene that played out is now burned into her long-term memory.

Emily’s last class of the day (biology, ugh) had gotten cancelled one seemingly innocent Tuesday. With glee, Emily had rushed across campus towards the Bella house to see if any of the Bellas were home already. Chloe had said that she was free to come and go at the house however she pleased, so Emily tended to just head over anytime she didn’t have anywhere else to be. Plus, her roommate, Drusilla (Drusilla?), was weird- like, painted her half of the room black the first day they got there, only sleeps for about two hours a night because she’s up writing poetry all night weird.

So Emily tended to spend less time at her own dorm and more time at the Bella house.

When Emily made it up to the front door, she could already hear noises coming from inside. Loud noises. Excited, Emily figured that there was already a few girls home and pushed the door open. She stepped into the living room, already talking about how her class got cancelled, looked up and-

There on the kitchen table, visible from the living room, lay Fat Amy, in the nude, with Bumper doing something involving whipped cream and oh gosh what was that-

Emily had clamped both her hands over her eyes, spun on her heel, and marched- no, ran- out the door. She didn’t uncover her eyes until she’d made it all the way down the driveway and accidentally bumped into someone walking by. Cheeks burning, Emily had walked back to her dorm, ready to rub her eyeballs with soap if that’s what it took to get that image out of her head.

Emily always texted Chloe or Beca or any of the other Bellas before heading to the Bella house now. Even Drusilla and her poems about the beauty of moths were better than the risk of seeing Fat Amy’s baby shoot for a third time.

So Emily knew about Amy and Bumper, even if she wished she’d found out in literally any other way. She didn’t know how public that information was to the rest of the world, though, so she kept it to herself. She also didn’t think Amy knew she knew, because she seemed pretty occupied when the whole terrible event transpired.

At first, Emily thought Cynthia Rose and Stacie were dating, but a closer look at the pair quickly shut down that theory. It was an easy mistake to make, really. Those two flirted with each other so much that Emily wasn’t sure they had ever had a conversation that wasn’t filled with winks and sexual innuendos.

After one late night conversation with Cynthia Rose, though, Emily learned the truth. All the other Bellas had either gone to bed, were out partying, or locked away studying, but Cynthia Rose had been up watching some TV show Emily didn’t recognize. So, she and Emily started talking and pretty soon Emily was sharing her fears about college and the real world, and Cynthia Rose had turned out to be a really great person to confide in.

Towards the end of their late night therapy session, Cynthia Rose’s phone had lit up with some notification. Emily happened to glance down and she saw that her phone background featured her kissing the cheek of a cute blonde girl.

“Who’s that in your background?” Emily had asked, pointing at the device. Cynthia Rose picked up her phone and looked at the picture, smiling.

“That’s my girl,” she had said fondly, eyes softening and smile widening. “Amber.”

Emily had squealed and immediately launched into question after question about Amber, all of which Cynthia Rose patiently answered with a twinkle in her eye.

When it came to Stacie, Emily was honestly too scared to ask her what her dating life was like. She knew that she slept with many different people on a fairly regular basis (anyone that had ever had a two-minute conversation with Stacie would know that), but she didn’t know if any of them had ever been anything serious, or if Stacie had ever had real feelings for anyone ever. She was nervous to ask Stacie these things herself, because she didn’t know how in depth her answers would be if asked, and Emily had already been scarred enough for one school year (thanks, Amy).

So Emily goes with a safer option: she asks Chloe.

“I’m sure Stacie’s had real relationships before,” Chloe says, sliding a veggie tray across the kitchen island to Emily. It’s a Saturday afternoon. Most of the Bellas are out buying clothes, food for the next week, or doing who-knows-what with who-knows-who. The only people home at the moment are Emily, Chloe, and Beca.

Chloe flits about the kitchen; throwing out old food, wiping down countertops, putting stray dishes in the sink. Beca sits on one of the barstools at the island, laptop in front of her opened up to her mixing program. She’s got her big headphones on, though one of the cups is pushed back to expose one of her ears to the conversation.

Emily sits next to Beca, trying to be casual about her curiosity towards Stacie’s love life. “Anybody you know?” She asks Chloe, reaching for a carrot to munch on. “Has she been with anyone since she joined the Bellas?”

Chloe wipes her hands with a dish towel and leans her hip against the edge of the sink, contemplating Emily’s questions. Beca’s eyes dart up to watch Chloe think for a second before focusing back on her computer. “Not that I can recall,” Chloe decides after a moment. “But that’s not to say she’s never been in a real relationship before.”

“Or a secret one,” Beca suddenly interjects, earning herself squinted look from Chloe. Beca holds eye contact with Chloe, seemingly challenging her.

“For the last time, Beca, Stacie was not in a secret relationship with Aubrey,” Chloe says, sounding slightly exasperated. Emily’s head whips around to stare at Chloe with wide eyes. She was not expecting that. “You have no actual evidence to back that claim up.”

Beca narrows her eyes. “Then why did she go easier on Stacie for cardio than the rest of us?”

“Beca, you can’t use that as proof, because Aubrey was easier on everyone compared to you.”

“Aubrey always blushed when Stacie would talk to her.”

“Aubrey is easily flustered when it comes to sex talk because of how she was raised and Stacie always talks about sex.”

“You just don’t want to admit that Aubrey would keep a secret from you.”

“No, it’s just that I know that she wouldn’t.”

Emily’s head switches back and forth between the two captains like she’s watching a tennis match. They debate the issue for a while before dropping it all together, changing conversation topics easily and seeming to forget that Emily is still sitting there.

Emily bites into another carrot. Her questions about Stacie may not be completely answered, but she doesn’t mind because she’s observing something much more complex.

* * *

By far the most confusing relationship on Barden University’s campus was Chloe Beale and Beca Mitchell’s. Because Emily didn’t even know if it was a relationship between Beca and Chloe or Beca and Jesse. Or were Jesse and Benji a thing? They were really close, and seemed to know way too many details about each other’s lives…

Gosh, Emily hoped Jesse and Benji weren’t together. That would make Benji asking Emily out a dozen times really awkward. Plus, she was actually starting to kind of like that sweet magician.

But this wasn’t about Jesse and Benji. This was about Beca and Chloe… and Jesse, maybe. But definitely not Benji.

Moving on.

Emily has thought that Beca and Chloe were together ever since she first saw them interact with each other. It was at the Treble’s party at the beginning of the year, about halfway through the night. Emily had been talking with Jessica and Flo while avoiding accepting any drinks anyone tried to give her because her mom warned her not to take drinks from strangers unless she wanted to wake up in her underwear on the side of some road in Oklahoma 10 hours later.

Anyways.

It had been about halfway through the party when Emily saw Beca and Chloe together. She had met both of them separately earlier in the night but had yet to see them interact. Jessica and Flo’s chatter became white noise to Emily as she focused her attention on the two captains on the other side of the Treble’s pool.

When Chloe spotted Beca, she squealed loud enough to be heard over the sound of the party, making Beca flinch violently and say something that Emily thought was close to, “Jesus, woman. You’ll make me deaf one of these days.”

Nevertheless, Beca had smiled at Chloe and accepted the tight hug that the redhead bestowed upon her. The two stayed wrapped up in each other’s arms longer than was strictly necessary, Emily thought, before Beca turned her head to say something in Chloe’s ear. Chloe started giggling at whatever Beca told her, and pulled away from the hug to place a kiss on Beca’s cheek. Beca had just rolled her eyes with affection and let Chloe lead her by the hand to the dance floor, where the two of them proceeded to spend the rest of the night dancing with each other.

Throughout the entire night Beca only really interacted with Chloe. Her and Jesse did talk here and there, but from what Emily heard from them it was mostly banter and sarcastic comments towards one another. Emily truly thought they were just ‘bros’.

Then Beca kissed Jesse goodnight before leaving to go home and Emily’s world shifted in confusion.

Since that night, Emily hasn’t been able to truly tell who Beca was dating. She had compiled mental lists on evidence for both possible pairings.

Beca and Jesse: Emily has seen them kiss a total of four times. They held hands at the weird basement riff-off thing. Jesse always calls Beca “my girl” and will sometimes swat her butt when she walks away from him. Beca goes out with Jesse a lot, at least according to Chloe (“Where’s Beca?” “I don’t know,” Chloe grumbles. “Probably out with Jesse.”).

Beca and Chloe: Always touching in some way; heads on shoulders, feet on laps, hand in hand. Beca likes to play with Chloe’s fingers whenever she’s bored, like during movie nights. Chloe likes to kiss Beca’s forehead and cheeks, especially when Beca’s grumpy. They fall asleep cuddled up on the couch late at night when Emily’s doing homework in the kitchen. Beca steals glances at Chloe all the time. They always know what the other one is going to say before they say it.

All this is just based on Emily’s personal observations, of course. Nothing that she’s noticed is hard, condemning evidence one way or another.

After months of careful observations and deliberating, Emily still has yet to come to a solid conclusion. She decides to enlist in some outside help, but she’ll have to be real sly about it.

“Who’s Beca dating?” The question bursts from Emily’s mouth before she’s had time to figure out a clever way to ask it.

Darn it.

Benji looks up from his noodles, surprised. When he asked Emily if she wanted to go get Chinese earlier that night, surely he had not been expecting to talk about Beca’s dating life.

(It wasn’t a date. Emily still wasn’t really ready to jump into anything; she was only 18, after all. This was just… getting dinner with a friend. And that friend just happened to be paying for both of them. And none of their other friends were with them. It wasn’t a date.)

“What do you mean?” Benji asks, swallowing his food and scrunching up his eyebrows.

Emily pokes at her own food with her fork (she never could figure out how to use chopsticks). “It’s just… Beca seems really close with… specific people…. And she’s not super open about her life with me, because I don’t think she likes me very much, and she probably thinks that I’d tell everyone her secrets- even though I totally wouldn’t- and I just want to know who she’s dating because there’s a couple people that she could be with and it’s killing me that I don’t know an-“

“Whoa, breathe, Emily,” Benji interrupts her, looking slightly apologetic for doing so. Emily smiles at him sheepishly. “First of all, Beca doesn’t hate you. If she hated you, you would know, trust me.” He chuckles, and then continues. “And to answer your question: Beca’s dating Jesse.”

Emily’s eyes widen in excitement. “Really? FINALLY some answers!” Benji looks a bit shocked by her outburst, but doesn’t say anything. Emily sits there basking in her triumph for a second, and then fully registers Benji’s answer. She deflates a little. “Oh, then that means…”

Benji looks at her curiously. “You… okay?” He asks, head dipping a little to try to catch her eyes.

Emily shakes her head a little. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” She says, not so convincingly, she’s afraid. She smiles at Benji instead. “Thanks.”

Benji’s eyes soften at her smile, and he just shrugs a little before going back to his noodles.

That night, Emily lays awake pondering her new knowledge. Beca was dating Jesse, not Chloe. Emily’s shocked, honestly. Sure, she’d had evidence for whoever Beca was with, but deep down she’d always thought it was Chloe.

Emily huffs and rolls to her other side. If Beca and Chloe weren’t dating, then what were they?

The question weighs heavily on her mind until she sees Beca and Chloe next, a couple days later. Emily watches the two captains at rehearsal very closely. Watches the way Beca will look up from her computer every so often and just look at Chloe with a small smile on her face. Watches the way Chloe’s eyes crinkle at the corners when Beca calls her “Chlo” and how she blushes slightly when Beca compliments her. Understanding starts to dawn in Emily’s mind.

Later that evening when all the Bellas pile into the TV room for a movie night, Emily’s understanding starts to really take shape. As she watches Chloe pull Beca down into the spot next to her, blanket falling over both their laps, and Beca smile shyly at Chloe as she plays with her fingers, Emily knows for sure what they are.

Beca and Chloe are just two dummies who don’t know how in love with each other they are. They don’t know yet, but they will someday. Emily’s sure of it.

Emily smiles and turns her attention away from the two fools in love and towards the movie, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth. She can’t wait until they figure it out.

See? Smart.