Leeway // Joe Mazzello

25|| "Roger Taylor"

He was in love with his bass instructor.

Octavia. The very thought of her now made him feel like a teenager with their first crush. It felt so freeing to be able to express such a hard and fast emotion openly. He no longer had to feel like he was keeping a dark secret, especially when everyone was accepting of him. The teasing no longer felt like berates for being so easily fallen but rather uplifts of encouragement disguised as light-hearted shoves to true happiness. Especially whatever Ben was doing.

Sure Octavia was messy. She had trauma and an entire mosoleum of skeletons in her closet, but her past didn't represent her now, especially when she had worked so hard to change. Besides, Octavia was a lot of fun. She knew how to actually let loose and be care-free even with everything people put her through, even what he put her through. Octavia was the girl for him.

But the past was in the past and the future looked as promising as ever.

Joe wasn't one to dwell on the past either, he had been put through his own train of trauma, downs, disappointments, and any other horrible event you could think of. The two weren't so different after all. 

And Joe knew that a force so strong that could uproot, replant, nourish, and blossom his life in such a refreshing way was a force worth keeping-- a force worth reaching out, grabbing, caressing, pulling in, and never letting go of.

Tomorrow was the day, he was setting up everything for the best trip ever.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Today was another day and Octavia was bored. Like out-of-her-mind ear splintering bored. She was getting stockholm syndrome from her fridge, which was basically empty at this point. A day in the life of Octavia looked like waking up late, grazing between her room, the living room, and the kitchen. The kitchen where she would open the fridge every hour and find the exact same foods, or lack thereof. She would hover over her phone waiting for a text or phone call from anyone. And then she would go to bed late, staying up doing god knows what and falling asleep to the false fantasies she would create in her head. But those were just for her.

A change.

She needed a change. Specifically of scenery. She went down the list of people she could call to hang out with but they were either working or black listed. Damn. She really needed a life.

She decided to get out of the house anyway, maybe a nice walk, lunch, a visit to the farmers market and the book store perhaps? That sounded like an ideal day to Octavia if she'd ever had one.

Octavia had read somewhere that in order to feel good you had to look good. Octavia hadn't felt good in awhile. She had one singular moment of clarity when Lucy suggested doing a small photoshoot in which she got her latest Instagram picture, but other than that it's been messy hair and sweatpants galore.

She picked up her phone ready to dial up Amelia to ask her for fashion advice when she realized that they were definitely, fully, and 100% still in a fight. Damn again. No more personal stylist. But no worries, Octavia definitely had it. She had full confidence in herself that she would not leave the house looking like a total and complete mess. First step into the big girl world- no longer relying on others.

After about an hour or so she finally landed on the perfect outfit. She chose a classic demin pair of overalls to go with her white t-shirt and her very favorite pair of red converse that never leave her feet if she's leaving the apartment. She grabbed a tote bag on the way out and headed for whatever she found interesting on her walk.