You Remember Me, Right?

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 

Beca just wanted to go home. She wanted to throw all her belongings into a bag and hop on the next bus back to New York. He father was the one who persuaded her mom to suggest Beca moved in with him. He had hardly seen his daughter during her formative teen years, getting slightly surprised when she arrived during one visit with an ear spike and dark eyeliner circling her eyes. Maybe it was because Shelia just found out that should could never have children of her own or maybe it was because he knew that once Beca went off to college or LA (or wherever) he would hardly ever see her, but he just really wanted his little girl back with him for a little bit.

 

He knew Beca had protested; he heard her yells in the background when he was talking to her mother on the phone. She was sure she could just move in with Luke’s family or even just stay in the city by herself while her mother took that job offer in London. Beca’s mom, well known writer, loved her daughter but the job was a once in a lifetime opportunity. With a permanent position as a professor at King’s College London, Cathy Mitchell had jumped at the chance, believing fully that Beca would love to live in London. There were so many pubs and underground clubs that she would be able to establish herself in.

 

At first, her mom suggested that she just pack her bags and they would move together to a studio in London, but Beca didn’t want to leave Luke. He was her best friend, her only friend. When Cathy Mitchell finally accepted that her daughter didn’t want to move to London, she started brainstorming for another option. She was never really into the whole idea of Beca moving in with Jesse’s family. They were all so very nice, but their apartment was too cramped already; there was no room for them, let alone adding an angsty teenage girl to the mix.

 

When her ex-husband suggested Beca move in with him, it sounded like the perfect option for Cathy. He would get to see his daughter and she would be able to take the job in London. The only problem was her daughter's resistance; not even packing her bags until a day before she was moving. Everyday, Cathy could hear Beca’s whines, telling her that she was never leaving the city. Soon, the cries got less and less, and almost stopped altogether when Luke’s parents decided to move to Atlanta as well. Their rent was outweighing both salaries Luke’s parents were earning and at this rate, they would never come up with the money to send Luke off to college.

 

The last day she was in New York, Beca dragged Luke along to take her one last time to do a tour of the city, watching the crowds of people walking down the sideways. In New York, you could be entertained by just sitting on your front steps, looking out on the nearby street. You would probably see a handful of businessmen, carrying briefcases and wearing suits (even in the summer). She would laugh when they would start talking on their bluetooth headsets, making other people look at them funny for a second. You could spot the tourists immediately. They always looked the same, sporting ‘I love NY’ t-shirts and dragging around their 1.5 children around behind them. Then there was always at least one crazy person in the mix. It might be the guy who grew his hair out long, wearing long folds of fabric, claiming to be Jesus. Maybe it was the guy wearing nothing but tighty whities in the middle of the winter, trying to get people to pay to take a picture with him. Beca would admit, sometimes the crazy person was her. She would walk down the street, blasting music with her ear spike and a hoodie, pretending that no one else existed as she pushed through the mobs of people.

 

She and Luke, on the last day before her dad was set to pick her up, ran through the streets hand in hand, laughing and generally annoying all the people around them. They went to 5th Avenue, walking nonchalantly into one of the most extravagant clothing stores. Putting on a fashion show of dresses with more plumage than a bird, she strutted down the aisle, almost falling in the stilettos she was wearing. Luke couldn’t keep from laughing, taking pictures of her poses. Before they got kicked out of the store (when the two of them were together, that happened surprisingly frequently), Beca pulled the last dress over her head, tossing it to the dressing room chair before grabbing Luke’s hand and running out onto the street.

 

…..

Now, Beca just wanted to be back in the city, HER city. They were like kindred spirits, always beating as one. Beca knew all the ins and outs of the boroughs, weaving around the people blocking her way. She could feel the pulse of the city, almost like it had a heartbeat. Her music would blast from her headphones, mimicking the commotion happening on the streets. She loved the quaint, little coffee shop she always stopped at before heading to school. She loved the smell of the food trucks that she passed almost daily. She missed how she learned how to mix and how to edit and how to find joy through music during her school day. Half her classes were academic while half were based on her chosen program, obviously it had been music. Most of all, she missed the freedom she had to walk down the street without having to worry about anything.

 

In New York, she didn’t have to come home to her dad asking her where she was, telling her she needed to call him every hour. Beca didn’t have to spend all day, everyday taking classes that bored the hell of her. And to top it off, she didn’t have to deal with any of this drama that seemed to be ever present in Atlanta. She never really had to try to make friends in New York; she had Luke and that was all she needed. But here, in Atlanta, people wanted to get to know her again. They didn’t see her as the antisocial girl she was in New York, blocking out everyone around her with just the tap of the play button. She actually had expectations of her and frankly, she wasn’t sure if she really liked them.

 

Sure, she liked spending time with Jesse and she hoped she and Chloe would become close again. She liked how her room here was pretty much the size of her whole studio apartment with her mom back in New York. On the other hand, Beca just wasn’t used to trying. She was never expected to try in school; her mom knew that she never wanted to be a scientist or win the Nobel Peace Prize. Luke was always her friend regardless of all the times she tried to push him away. Everything in New York had been effortless, but maybe it was time for a change.

She could deal with the drama between her and Aubrey. I mean, it was a decade ago, don’t you think they both would’ve grown up a little bit? Yes, Aubrey was mean to her when she was younger, but maybe she has changed. Maybe Jesse knew that already, dating her because he knew she was truly different from who she had been when they were younger. There was one thing for sure though; if she was ever going to make friends and regain her friendships with Chloe and Jesse, she had to at least try to accept that people were able to work on their flaws through the years. With the prospect of talking to Jesse tomorrow running through her mind, even though she would never admit she was wrong to his face, Beca collapsed on her bed, drifting off in a manner of minutes.