Who We Once Were - A Jolivia Story

Chapter 22

The first episode of season 2 of the show had premiered on Disney Plus on Tuesday, January 15th. That was two days after Josh and Liv's conversation and a week ago today. They were doing one of their first big press events of the season to promote the first two episodes being out. Thankfully, quarantine had been officially lifted which was just a matter of time since cases had been dropping rapidly since the new year. Conventions and large social gatherings had been cleared to run again and most restaurants, stores and malls had reopened. 

Olivia had really missed these kind-of events. Obviously she knew the show had a large fan-base and many supporters but seeing them as numbers on social media felt really different to getting to sit in front of an audience and physically see the impact the show had made. It was gratifying to see the way all her hard work really had paid off. 

The whole main cast was there today but throughout the day they'd been separated on and off, being pulled to different interviews with different people. There were many ones they did as a group, including some games, which were super fun but a vast majority of her interviews had been with Josh alone. If someone had told her that would be the case over a week ago, she probably would've just locked herself in her bedroom, blasting Taylor Swift and crying for a few hours but that wasn't the case anymore. 

Josh and her had fallen into some sort of a familiar pattern with their relationship again, things were getting better and better between them each day and she couldn't be happier about that. There was of course, that constant ever-growing fear that all of that, letting Josh back into her life, had been a mistake. Not to mention the strong feelings she had for him, that were quickly returning. Those scared her most of all. She'd been burned before and she didn't know if she could survive going through anything like that with him again. She did her best to focus on the positives but still, sometimes it was harder to push those dark thoughts away. 

"I'm Olivia Rodrigo." She said smiling and animated.

"And I'm Joshua Bassett." He said echoing her demeanour. 

"And this has been Seventeen's: Name That Tune Challenge" She finished.

"And cut! Amazing job guys, thanks so much for coming out today." The director behind the camera called. 

"Thank you so much for having us." Replied Josh with a smile as they both made their way to shake hands with him. 

"Of course anytime." He said politely as the two waved goodbye. 

"So, we have like half an hour before that full cast Teen Vogue thing because Sof, Dar, Jules and Larry are booked until then." She said as they walked side by side leaving the room.

"Wanna go get something from crafty and hang out in the dressing room until then?" He offered, gesturing over his shoulder in the direction of where the convention room and the craft services table stood down the hall.

"Sounds like a plan." She smiled and nodded as the two walked down the quiet hallway. They made their way there in silence, but unlike the tense silence that had been lingering between them for months, it was a comfortable silence this time. They had both gotten some snacks and fruit on paper plates and made their way to the empty dressing room to sit and eat. He was the first to speak.

"So, how are things going with Ethan?" He asked politely causing Olivia to nearly choke on the strawberry she was chewing. She coughed a little bit and cleared her throat before responding.

"Well uh actually," she started. "Ethan and I broke up, he dumped me." She said clicking her tongue with a sort of sad smile. She swore she could see Josh's fist tense up for a second but maybe it was just her.