Who We Once Were - A Jolivia Story

Chapter 11

Just over a month had passed since Olivia's conversation with Josh. They agreed to be professional and that's all he wanted with her, so she avoided him like the plague. Of course she did her job, didn't let anything between them affect her acting but the press events and countless interviews as of late had been much harder on her. She was so used to being the bubbly and upbeat Olivia but everything that happened with Josh since quarantine had really taken it's toll on her. Her friends and cast mates had noticed something happened between them, after all it was quite obvious, but no one made any comments, at least not to her. Josh and her had gone from sticking to each other like glue, to never being in the same room if it wasn't for work purposes, in less than a year.

It was December 21, meaning tomorrow would be Josh's birthday, not that she planned on sending him a birthday message or anything but she couldn't just turn off the part of her brain that knew everything about him, even if her heart had tried time and time again. That night after their talk, she broke down to her mom and told her everything later followed by her coming clean to Maddie. It had been a hard and long couple hours but after telling her everything, she felt like a small bit of the weight that had built up on her chest was lifted. Seeing him everyday, see how happy and okay he was without her, it still hurt like hell. She wasn't sure if that feeling was ever going to completely fade but she'd found a way to get by and she'd continue to get by as long she had to. Those were her final thoughts as she drifted to sleep late that night. 

-

They were working on episode 5 at the moment, more specifically a big song and dance number for the episode. It was a group piece so they'd already recorded everyone's vocals down at the studio but they were still working on the learning the dance choreography itself. So they were down at a dance studio they had rented out for a few days with most of the cast and dancers. Olivia pulled into the parking lot and handed her mom the keys, she still hadn't gotten her full permit, before giving her a hug and wishing her a good day. She hopped out the car with her phone and her bag and headed towards the studio entrance. 

"Olivia!" Their head choreographer, Dylan, had called out as she entered the room and dropped her bag in the corner. 

"Hey Dyl!" She said with a smile on her face.

"Great, now we're just waiting for Joshua, Julia and Frankie. You can just start stretching hun, we're gonna begin soon." He said returning a warm smile of his own as she nodded back towards him. She was about to make her way over to chat and warm up with Sofia and Matt who were currently waving her over when her phone started to go off. She held up a finger to them, as if to say one minute, and excused herself from the room to take the call. 

"Hey dad, I'm at work right now what's up?" She said over the phone while she stood by the studio door.

"Hey hun, sorry totally forgot you were starting early today. Have the best day sweetheart and call me when you get home." His voice came through sweetly. 

"Thanks dad, I will. Bye love you." She smiled to herself.

"You too hun." He said wishing her goodbye. She slipped her phone back into her pocket and was about to turn back and head into the studio when some noise caught her attention. She heard two car doors slam shut and figured it was most likely Julia or Frankie arriving so she started walking towards the exit to main doors to go meet them. When her head peaked around the corner she saw them, not Frankie, not Julia, Josh and a girl getting out of his car, Josh and a blonde headed girl. The two both wore bright smiles and she could hear their cheerful laughs through the glass doors.

"Happy birthday Joshy." She heard the blonde girl, Sabrina, call out as she pulled him into a tight hug and then pulled away planting a quick kiss on his cheek. "Now go kill it in there!" She said giggling. Objectively speaking Olivia knew she shouldn't be watching this, she should run far away all the way back to the studio instead of torturing herself with the scene in front of her. 

"Thanks Sab, I'll see you after work?" He asked with his hands planted on her shoulders. 

"Ya for sure, dinner tonight?" She asked and he nodded back with a big cheesy smile that used to be reserved for her. She got back in the car and pulled away while Josh turned around and began walking towards the very doors she was standing behind. Olivia quickly turned around and made her way back into the studio, joining Matt and Sofia stretching and making small talk. Less then a minute later Josh walked through the door and the room erupted into cheers.

"There's the birthday boy!" Called Matt from right next to her.

"Happy birthday!" She heard from various people all around her. All she could do was stare at the floor and will herself to smile, or at least not look too crushed. The rest of the day went smoothly as they celebrated with a surprise cake after at lunch even if no one noticed Olivia standing off to the side and not speaking. Rehearsal had gone well overall and they were all on their separate way's home by 5 pm. She called her dad and had a nice dinner with her mom while her dad ate with them over FaceTime. 

Later that night she sat alone in her room and scrolled through old snapchat memories on her phone, while she tried not to feel too broken. She scrolled far enough back that she found some old pictures of her and Ethan, her ex and her old cast mate from her last show. Maybe she was feeling sad or maybe just nostalgic but before she knew it, she was dialling his old number in her phone and waiting for the ringing to stop.

"Olivia?" She heard his voice over the phone, a little deeper than she remembered it.

"Hey E, can you talk?" She said back with a small smile on her face, her first genuine smile in a long time.

A/N - Haha hope you enjoyed this chapter, as always please comment and vote to let me know what you think! Also I did the time jump to Josh's birthday because I wanted to show Sabrina and him a bit, but the storyline is not going to follow our current timeline, it's gonna move faster into 2021 and stuff just an fyi. Last thing, we're almost at 1k reads and I just wanted to genuinely thank you so much, ILY ALL!!! (Oh and Josh's Heaven is You OMGGG SO GOOD!!!)