The Reason Is You

Chapter 3

The next day Olivia woke up to find Josh sitting on the couch in Lisa's living room watching TV.

He looked from his bowl of cereal and swallowed the spoonful he just put in his mouth. "Gabe woke me up this morning and told me I couldn't stay in the apartment since he couldn't find his spare key. He brought me here and told me to wait for you to wake up." Then he grabbed something from his pocket. "And he told me to give you this. It's Lisa's spare key."

Olivia was barely awake, so she gave a slow nod indicating she understood and walked towards the fridge to look for something to eat.

"All Lisa has is cereal. I left a bit of milk in the carton for you. She left some money and asked us to get some groceries. She left a list," Josh hollered from the couch.

Olivia gave a big sigh, grabbed a bowl out of the cupboard, and poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat beside Josh on the couch.

​"They really aren't even trying to be subtle anymore, are they?" Olivia asked.

"Nope," Josh shook his head and got up to put his bowl in the sink. He came back and sat beside Olivia, who was now flipping through the channels looking for something to watch.

"Hey Liv," he spoke.

Olivia made a noise indicating she was listening.

Josh continued, "For what it's worth, I'm glad that you're actually talking to me and not ignoring me... or being a bitch."

Olivia looked at Josh. "Are you calling me a bitch?!"

Josh panicked. "No! No, that's not what I meant! I just meant–"

Olivia smiled. "I'm kidding. Friends can joke, right?"

"Friends?" Josh asked.

She nodded. "Friends." Olivia put her bowl down on the coffee table and shifted herself so she'd be facing Josh. "Look, I know this is really awkward considering how we left things, and I'm not gonna pretend like nothing happened and ignore it," Josh nodded as Olivia continued. "Honestly Josh, I'm not mad at you. At least not right now. I may not know how I'm feeling just yet, but I know I don't hate you. Eventually, you and I are gonna have to talk about what happened, but we don't have to do it now. For now, let's just be normal... or as normal as we can be."

Josh just stared at Olivia and was speechless.

Olivia could tell that it was a lot for him to take so she continued to speak. "You don't have to say anything. Just know that there's no bad blood. I don't mind hanging out with you and when we're both ready, or when the time is right, we can talk. You cool with that?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah. That's cool," Josh said nonchalantly.

"Awesome." Olivia got up and put her bowl in the sink with Josh's. "Let me go take a shower and we can go do some grocery shopping for Lisa."

"Uh. Yeah. Sounds good. I'll be right here," Josh said as he grabbed the remote.

Olivia smiled and walked towards her room as Josh pretended to watch TV, but really just stared at her longingly as she walked away.

​

After picking up a few things at the grocery store, the two were trying to figure out where they wanted to go for lunch.

"Is there anything or anywhere you wanted to go?" Josh asked Olivia as he drove.

Olivia's stomach grumbled. "Anywhere. I'm starving!"

Josh smiled. "Okay, I think I know where to go."

Moments later they were pulling up into the parking lot of Shenanigans.