Age Is Just a Number

Chapter 4: Miss Beale's guide to leading a girl on

It took Beca all the way till the next morning till she texted the number left in her notebook. She had been staring at her phone all morning until she finally sent the simple word 'Chloe?'

"Beca, no phones at the dining table, you know that." John sighed, not even bothering to look up from his newspaper.

"Wait." Beca said, only holding her finger up without looking. The fact was, she was actually still waiting for a reply from the number.

"No." John finally looked up and reached for his daughter's phone, successfully grabbing it out of her grip.

"Hey!" Beca quickly lunged forward, realising that her phone wasn't locked so her dad could easily read her text. Luckily she managed to hit his hand, the device being flung upward before she caught it in mid air.

"Wow you'd do anything for that phone." Katherine spoke up. Family meals weren't always the most quiet or calm.

"It's cause she's texting her girlfriend." Emily teased, smirking down at her history homework she was meant to do last night but obviously didn't.

"Emily shh, you're supposed to be doing your homework that is due for today." Kat looked at her daughter warningly who only rolled her eyes in return.

"I don't have a girlfriend." Beca grumbled, setting her phone down on the table before sitting back with a huff. Just then her phone lit up with a vibration and she almost knocked the entire table over as she jumped forward to pick it up.

"Are you sure about that?" Katherine teased but Beca ignored her, instead unlocking her phone and reading over the message that she had received, her face instantly falling.

[From: Chloe]

This was a huge mistake. I'm sorry.

[Sent at: 07:13]

What? Okay first of it had to be Chloe because if it wasn't they'd text back something like 'Sorry you've got the wrong number' not 'this was a huge mistake. I'm sorry.' What did that even mean? It was a mistake leaving her number?

"Everything okay?" John asked, noticing the change of expression in his daughter's face.

"Yeah, yeah it's fine." Beca lied, sliding her phone into her pocket, choosing not to reply to the obvious rejection after getting lead on.

"What was a huge mistake?" Beca, slightly-okay more than slightly pissed off, went to Chloe's classroom that morning before the bell rang.

"Beca." Chloe sighed.

"Don't bother giving me this 'Aw Beca' shit like you feel sorry for me. You lead me on, why would you do that?" Beca stood there helpless and confused.

"I don't know what I was thinking, honestly. I read the your notes about your song you were writing and saw that it was about me. I thought it was really sweet and everything in my head went to mush. I'm sorry Beca but it was really wrong of me to give you my number. I really like you, trust me if I weren't your teacher I would've been more open about giving us a shot but I just can't." Chloe spoke apologetically but Beca only stood there with her arms folded.

"So that talk we had in the coffee shop was pretty much bullshit too?" Beca spluttered out, hands flying everywhere.

"You asked me if we could be friends and I said yes, that's not changing."

"You know what?" Beca shook her head and walked towards the door. "I'm done with this,I don't know what it is but I'm done." She left the room with a helpless shrug, pretty much on the verge of wanting to punch a wall after Chloe leading her on, getting her hopes up and then totally rejecting her. God dammit why did she have to like this woman so much in the first place?