The first time Olivia noticed something different, it wasn't big. Just a small fracture in the usual rhythm.
It was two weeks after that golden summer afternoon, and the cast was sitting in the cafeteria between takes. The air smelled faintly of coffee and the slightly burnt toast the studio café always seemed to serve. Joshua usually sat next to her during breaks — their unofficial spot at the corner table — but today, he was across from her, head bent over his phone.
"Who's got you so distracted?" she asked, half-teasing as she bit into an apple.
Joshua glanced up like he'd just been caught. "Oh, uh... just a friend."
The way he said friend was too casual, like a word rehearsed in a mirror.
"Mm." She kept her tone light, but the curiosity gnawed at her.
Lara slid into the seat beside Olivia, chattering about her lines. Olivia forced herself to smile, to nod at the right times, but her gaze kept flicking to Joshua, thumb moving quick over his screen, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
⸻
That night, while scrolling Instagram, Olivia found the name.
It was tucked into the background of someone else's post — a blurry group photo from some industry mixer. Joshua's arm around a girl in a cropped denim jacket, their heads tilted together. Sabrina Carpenter.
Olivia stared at it for longer than she'd admit. Sabrina wasn't a stranger to her — they'd met once at a Disney event. She was older, confident, the kind of girl who seemed to belong everywhere she walked into.
It was nothing. People hung out. People took pictures. Olivia told herself that three times before she finally tossed her phone on the bed.
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A week later, Joshua bailed on their usual Friday night writing session.
"Sorry, Liv, something came up," he said over the phone, voice distant.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, just... plans I can't move."
She tried not to picture who those plans might involve.
Instead, she ended up on her bedroom floor, guitar in her lap, strumming through the half-finished song they'd started together. Without him there, the notes felt emptier somehow, like a conversation missing half its words.
⸻
On Monday, they were back on set. Olivia caught sight of him near the craft table, laughing at something on his phone. When she walked over, his screen tilted away.
"Hey," she said, trying to sound normal.
"Hey," he replied, smile still lingering.
"Good weekend?"
"Yeah. Met up with some friends."
Her stomach tightened. She didn't push, just nodded, grabbing a bottle of water before retreating.
It wasn't a fight. Nothing dramatic. Just a shift — a subtle rearranging of where she fit in his life.
⸻
Later that day, during a break in rehearsal, Lara wandered over again.
"You and Josh okay?" she asked quietly.
Olivia blinked. "Why wouldn't we be?"
"You just... don't seem as glued at the hip as usual."
Olivia forced a laugh. "We're fine. Just busy."
But as she walked back to her spot, she couldn't help noticing how Joshua's chair was now angled toward someone else.
⸻
That night, she sat in bed with her notebook open, pen hovering. She wrote one line before closing it again:
Guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me.
She didn't know why the words came so easily — or why they hurt so much.
YOU ARE READING
Default Title - Write Your Own
Fanfiction📜 Description: In the golden haze of summer, Olivia and Joshua shared inside jokes, late-night drives, and melodies that felt like they belonged to only them. But when Sabrina enters the picture, their unspoken connection begins to unravel. Songs b...
