Love, Beca

11 - Dreaming Of You

There were no unread emails waiting in Beca's inbox when she woke up that morning. She had expected for Red to have replied after she had admitted that she was falling for her, but there was nothing.

Even once she had showered and gotten dressed for the day there was still no email, so she slumped down the stairs, her headphones already cupping her ears. She woke up in a bad mood, or perhaps the lack of email put her in a bad mood, either way she already couldn't wait for the day to be over and as she walked into the kitchen she knew it was going to be one long ass day.

Her Dad was standing in the kitchen with a cloth over his shoulder as he poured coffee into the mugs set out in front of him. There were stacks of pancakes and two bowls of fruit spread out over the table. If someone had taken a picture of the scene from the kitchen, it would have seemed like the perfect family moment, a very put-together functional family, the kind that have every meal together seated around a table, or the type of family that took turns to share stories about their day. But they weren't like that at all, because behind that picture you could see Emily with her face rested on her hand as she scrolled through tumblr with her earphones in, trying to shut out all the shouting and slamming that was happening around her. Katherine and Wren were arguing about something that neither Beca or Emily could decipher, but it was loud and the unnecessary sound of Beca's dad slamming down the utensils every few seconds was adding to that.

Emily looked up as Beca walked in and they shared a look - the kind of look that told Beca that the argument had been going on since they woke up that morning. Beca knew better than to ask why they were arguing, but her first thought was that it was about her. She hated to admit it but she knew she was probably right. Her Dad had been so distant with her lately, and on the rare times he wasn't, he was overprotective or tried to interfere with her life as much as possible. Her father was always mad at her it seemed, so Beca had just accepted that she was probably the cause of the conflict.

Beca could have just left, got in her truck and driven to Stacie's but for some reason she decided to take a seat at the table. She did it for Emily, so she wouldn't have to suffer through the tense argument alone because she knew how it felt to listen to your parents arguing and not being able to do anything about it. Beca wished she had someone with her back when she was younger when her parents were at each others throats all the time.

"Where's the coca puffs?" Beca asked as she pretended that everything going on around her wasn't actually happening. She turned up the volume on her headphones to block out her father's voice.

Emily picked up the cereal box from beside her and handed it to Beca so she could pour her cereal as Emily dug in to her pancake stack.

Her father's voice could still be heard despite the music. "Why aren't you having pancakes?" He asked as he sat down across from her with his own plate of food.

Beca looked up at him as she reached for the milk carton. "I have cereal," she muttered.

He scoffed at her and shook his head, which riled something inside of her. "Well then, I won't bother making an effort next time if you're so ungrateful," he spat.

Beca didn't say anything. She knew it was Kat that made the breakfast, not her dad, but she didn't want to voice her thoughts and give him another reason to turn his frustrations towards her. She dug into her cereal with her favourite spoon. She figured that if she sat down and ate her cereal as quick as possible then she could escape the happy family facade that they'd built on nothing but lies, anger and resentment.

Her phone dinged from her lap, which made her look down, to see a gmail notification on the screen as well as a few messages in the Bellas chat. She dropped her spoon into the bowl and picked up her phone, unlocking it then clicking on the Bellas chat first.